Cast Bios
FARAH BALA* (Immigration Officer/Mehreen) Originally from Bombay, India, Bala is an actor, producer & coach based in New York. She received a Barrymore Award Nomination for Outstanding Leading Actress (alongside theatre veteran Anna Deavere Smith). MFA Theater: Sarah Lawrence College; 2-year recipient of the Fezana Performing Arts Award. Select Off Broadway Theatre: Tales From The Tunnel; In The Book Of; one-woman show- To The Death of My Own Family, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Sylvia in Two Gentlemen of Verona. Select Film & TV: Entre Nos, The War Within, Karma, Confessions and Holi, Broad City. New play developmental at The Actors Studio, Labyrinth, Women’s Project, Red Bull, Rising Circle, The Lark, Ma Yi, among others. Profiled in Umbrage Edition’s award winning book, Green Card Stories – one of 50 profiles of recent immigrant stories from around the world. Upcoming: The Rug Dealer at Women’s Project. www.farahbala.com
SUSANNA FLORENCE (Allisyn Davis) is thrilled to be returning to Pioneer Theater Company, after Fiddler on the Roof, and the last Play-By-Play reading, March Tale. She holds an MFA from The National Theater Conservatory. Her recent local credits include Dolly in One Man, Two Guvnors at Pioneer Theatre Company; Heather in the world premiere of Pilot Program at Plan-B Theatre Company where she will be appearing in the upcoming production of Kingdom of Heaven. As a company member of the Davis Shakespeare Festival in Davis, CA she has played Edwin Drood in The Mystery Of Edwin Drood, Olivia in Twelfth Night, Beatrice in Much Ado, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth and Ilona Ritter in She Loves Me. Love to GK, Van, Josie, Coco and Augie.
BIJAN HOSSEINI (Abbas, Raja Mahmood) is thrilled to be a part of this reading and would like to thank the cast, crew and everyone at Pioneer Theatre Company for having me. Bijan was last seen in Babcock Theatre as Lt. Charles in The Adding Machine. He has also worked at SLAC, Plan-B, PYGmalion, Sting & Honey and Salt City Radio Players, among several others. Bijan has a bachelors degree in Mass Communication from the University of Utah, a 2nd degree blackbelt in Muso-Kai under Grandmaster Shihan Arakaki, and makes a living as a therapist at Yugen Massage. Bijan is represented by TMG. He can be seen later this summer playing both Tithonos and Odin in The Sting & Honey Theatre Company’s production of Sleeping Beauty’s Dream.
TITO LIVAS* (Muzaffar Khan, Mohammed Ijaaz) is very excited to make his Pioneer debut with such an important piece of work. A recent transplant to SLC, Tito has previously worked as a principal singer/dancer for Holland America, Walt Disney World, and Princess Cruises and Resorts. He also toured the nation several times working for the National Theatre for Children and TheatreWorks USA. He also worked in New York City at The Public Theatre workshopping the Off-Broadway show Here Lies Love with Alex Timbers and David Byrne. Locally he’s been lucky enough to be cast in productions with Plan-B and Salt Lake Acting Company. And this summer you can see him in SLAC’s Saturday’s Voyeur! When not performing on stage, he does as much film and television as he can. Most recently, he was cast in Hallmark’s 12 Gifts, and also worked on Stephen Segal’s upcoming feature Code of Honor and Robert Duvall’s Wild Horses.
SHANE MOZZAFFARI (Shahreyer Zasar) Living in the relatively homogeneous Salt Lake community, Shane has been uniquely positioned over the last four years to work on six video/film projects for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He last appeared on stage at Salt Lake Acting Company in The Persian Quarter as Rumi. Shane’s theatre studies began in the actor training program at the University of Utah. He loves the creative process of developing new and original plays. He has worked at Sundance Playwrights Lab and more recently read the part of Peter in David Kranes’ The Last Word and Amir in Elaine Jarvik’s Two Stories. For Shane, Honor Killing is a timely script that holds up a mirror to human values and helps us reflect on our own Western perspectives. .
NICOLE MARCKS* (BBC Reporter, Melissa Davis) is a Juilliard graduate and has performed in New York, Los Angeles and regionally for over 15 years at theaters including Indiana Repertory Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Portland Center Stage, Actor’s Gang and the Ahmanson Theatre. She’s acted in such plays as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Tempest, The Cherry Orchard and Sir Peter Hall’s Romeo & Juliet. She’s also appeared onscreen in the award winning independent movie 29th & Gay, on TV for NBC in Crossing Jordan and American Dreams, and can be seen in the upcoming Steven Soderbergh HBO show, Mosaic. Nicole found her true calling as a performer through improvisation having studied at The Groundlings and Bang Comedy Theatre in L.A. She played with various groups including Totally Looped, Those Meddling Kids and The Truth. Currently she lives in Park City with her husband, fellow improviser Tom Shannon. Nicole improvises regularly with SLC favorites Laughing Stock and is a founding member of Park City’s homegrown troupes, Hot Toddy and The Not PC Players. She and Tom have an applied improv business, Triple I Creative, a full service improv corporate training and performance company.
PAUL KIERNAN* (Edward Evans) is a proud member of Actor’s Equity Association. He has worked at regional theaters across the country. Some of his favorite roles include Cyrano in Cyrano at the Hanger Theater, Juror #10 in Twelve Angry Men, Pioneer Theatre Company, Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew, Tennessee Shakespeare, Dr. Brown in Skin in Flames, Salt Lake Acting Company, Falstaff in Merry Wives, Arkansas Shakespeare, Stephano in Tempest, St. Louis Shakespeare and Reverend Parris in the Crucible, Pioneer Theatre Company. Film and Television include; The HBO series From the Earth to the Moon, Luck of the Irish, Go Figure, The Cell 2 and Ice Spiders. As a writer he worked for Disney for ten years and his plays have been produced in New York, Florida, Boston and Michigan. He holds an MFA from Brandeis University in Boston.
JOHN SKELLEY* (Ben Adams) recently performed the role of Gerald Croft in PTC’s production An Inspector Calls. Off-Broadway: The Changeling (Red Bull Theater), Desire (59E59/The Acting Company), Hamlet (as Hamlet), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Comedy of Errors, Romeo and Juliet (The Acting Company). Guthrie Theater: Long Day’s Journey into Night, Tales from Hollywood, Roman Holiday, Hay Fever, Charley’s Aunt, Macbeth, A Christmas Carol, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, A View from the Bridge, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Jane Eyre. Other Regional: Desire (NY Stage and Film); And A Nightingale Sang (Westport Country Playhouse); Tribes (Florida Repertory Theatre); True West (Torch Theater). TV: Elementary Film: Into Temptation. B.F.A., University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater. www.johnskelley.com