Crew

TheWestBeginsAtFifthAvenue_CreativeTeamAndJackOBrien
On the set in Red Hook with actor Jack O’Brien and the creative team. (Photo: Wyatt Rawson)

Cast credits and bios can be found here.

Co-Director and Co-Writer Kryssa Schemmerling has written and directed two award-winning dramatic shorts, “The First Seven Years,” starring Israel Horovitz and Carol Kane, screened nationally on PBS. The other, “Gold Mountain” a Student Academy Award, among other awards and screened at festivals internationally. Recently, Kryssa directed and produced her first documentary, Our Hawaii, which was awarded a New York State Council on the Arts grant and screened at several festivals. Several of Kryssa’s feature-length dramatic screenplays have been optioned by independent producers. Kryssa holds an MFA in film from Columbia University and teaches screenwriting at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Co-Director and Co-Writer Donald Gray is a graduate of the American Film Institute’s Community Film Workshop in Chicago, the award-winning Edit Center in New York City, and the directing program at the Acting Studio, Inc. In theater for over a decade, he has staged works by the likes of Caryl Churchill, Jean-Claude van Itallie, and Richard Foreman for the Chelsea Repertory Company Lab, Todo con Nada, and Brava Company, among others. Donald performed at the Magnet Theater in New York City as a member of the longform improv group Your Code Name Is Jonah and studied for several years with Tony-award-winning director Vivian Matalon.

Producer Claire Beckman is co-founder and board chair of Brooklyn-based Brave New World Repertory Theatre where she served as Producing Artistic Director from 2003-2012. BNW Directing/Producing credits include Street SceneThe Long Christmas DinnerAs You Like itThe CrucibleThe TempestThe Member of the WeddingOn The WaterfrontFahrenheit 451Crossing Brooklyn Ferry (Adapter/Director,) and To Kill a Mockingbird(director/Jean Louise). Claire was awarded The Crystal Prism (Yugoslav Academy Award) for Best Actress in Bolje od Bekstva (1993), other film acting credits include the The WormholeRevolution #9PollockFalloutThe Door in the Floor starring Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger and The Thing About My Folks starring Peter Falk and Paul Reiser. Television acting credits include Law & OrderLaw & Order: Criminal IntentAll My Children (as Silver Kane) and As the World Turns (as Sabrina Hughes.) She has performed at The Public, WPA, Naked Angels, Drama Dept, Lincoln Center, Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, Philadelphia Drama Guild, Spoleto Festival, Geva, Capital Rep, Syracuse Stage, Shakespeare on the Sound, Meadowbrook and Asolo, among other theaters and festivals.

Director of Photography Ben Wolf has concentrated on narrative films after winning a Student Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his first movie, “Gold Mountain.” Pictures such as “Lustre” (director Art Jones), “The Young Girl and the Monsoon” (James Ryan), and “Windows” (Shoja Azari) have garnered acclaim at numerous festivals including Locarno, Venice, Tribeca, and Bermuda. Ben filmed artist Shirin Neshat’s commission for cellist Maya Beiser’s Almost Human tour, which premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York City. He also worked with Ms. Neshat in Laos for her project Games of Desire. Location work has taken Ben from the deserts of Xinjiang to the hill stations of India and the streets of Prishtina. Having worked his way through the sixteen US towns named Amsterdam for the upcoming 5-hour European TV film Amsterdam Stories USA, Ben’s commitment to visual character studies continues with his latest feature The One (Caytha Jentis) and Found In Time (Arthur Vincie).

Editor Sharon Hughes is a New York-based television and film editor. She began her career working as an assistant editor on documentaries, including Ellen Kuras’ Oscar-nominated Nerakhoon (The Betrayal) and the theatrically-released Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis. Sharon later moved to television editing for various series on Discovery, A&E, The Sundance Channel, National Geographic and others. Some of her broadcast credits include Rise: Rebuilding Ground Zero, executive-produced by Steven Spielberg; The First 48Doomsday PreppersIron MenDog the Bounty HunterGunslingers; and others. Sharon studied editing under Emir Lewis and Affonso Goncalves (Beasts of the The Southern WildTrue Detective) at New York’s The Edit Center, where she also received additional editor credits on the feature films Swimmers and A-List. She studied English and French literature at Boston University.

Composer Michael Rose’s works have been performed by eighth blackbird, Richmond County Orchestra, Momenta String Quartet, American Opera Projects, percussionist Nathan Davis and pianist Beth Levin, among many others. Arranging credits include work with Angelique Kidjo and for the Ensemble Youkali. He is currently working on a Rilke Songbook commissioned by Brooklyn Art Song Society, to be premiered May 17, 2014. Also in progress are an opera based on the classic Japanese film Ugetsu, works for Gagaku ensemble (traditional Japanese instruments), and a piano piece based on Carnatic (South Indian) drumming. He has received numerous awards, including a Fulbright in 2006-2007 to study music and theater at the Kerala Kalamandalam in India, and residencies at Djerassi, Centrum, and Yaddo. With fellow members of the composers’ group South Oxford Six, he has three times been an instructor at the week-long “Summer in Sombor” composition workshops held in Serbia. He performs frequently as a piano soloist, vocal accompanist, and chamber musician. Michael teaches at Bronx Community College and the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, and is a staff accompanist at New York University. He received his B.A. and B.M. from Oberlin, with further study at Juilliard and with Seymour Bernstein, Peter Susser, and John Eaton. He is founder and organizer of the Brooklyn New Music Collective concert series, now in its 11th season.

Sound Designer Eve Cuyen is an editor, sound designer, and composer. She has worked on many feature films and documentaries in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Her resume includes feature films, shorts, documentaries and live Off-Broadway performances. She did editing and sound design on the following films: Our HawaiiDark AngelGotham CarriageI Think I’m HitlerThe Last Butcher of Little ItalyStrokesHave You Seen…No One Sleeps in the CityAvatarsChasing the DevilAnd Then Came LoveTwisted FortuneKali MaThe Piano TunerBlack WatersZheng He, a documentary for History International; and The Sublet, a feature comedy recently screened at The Quad Cinema in New York City.

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