HANDS OF HARDOUIN

Thomas Humes (Henri) has appeared in over 30 New York Productions, the most
recent being in "Any Friend of Percy D'Angelino" at the West Bank. Thomas just returned from L.A. where he appeared in Painted Ladies at the Tamarind theatre. He will be seen in the soon to be released films "Smart Money" and "Tainted". Tom is very glad to be working again with Aboutface.

Fred Baker (Jean Marie) is delighted to join Aboutface for the nonverbal 'Jean Marie', a welcome jaw rest after ten weeks on tour as the loquatious lowlife Roy Cohn in Angels in America. Baker began as a teenager on Broadway in the early 50's comedy "Bernardine", did a stint in Korea as an army medic, returned to the main stream in a string of Broadway plays including "Hotel Paradiso", "The Country Wife", "Rashomon", "Silent Night Lonely Night", "Critics Choice", "Little Glass Clock" and many National & regional tours. His film and TV credits include featured roles in more than 30 films and guest star chores on ""LA Law"", ""Moonlighting"" and many others going back to early live TV.

Peter Giles (Etienne) has appeared this year on Broadway in "The Father" (Roundabout) with Frank Langella; Off Broadway in The Barron Group's production of
"Good" (one dream) directed by Seth Barrish and in "Adonis" (Synchronicity Space). Regionally, he appeared in "On Borrowed Time" (Centennial Theatre Festival) and in the TV pilot ""Dear Diary"" (Dreamworks SKG) with Bebe Neuwirth. Peter is a graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse.

Florencia Lozano's (Rose) regional theatre credits include "Maria" in Yerma at Arena Stage, "Antigone" in Antigone at the Rounhouse Theatre, and "Ophelia" in Hamlet at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. She played "Suzanne" in Marriage of Figaro (dir. Livieu Ciulei), "Erica" in Suburbia (dir. Ckris Grabowski), "Lily" in Ah, Wilderness (dir. Mark Brokaw),"Mother" in Blodd Wedding and"Woman" in Talk
to Me Like the Rain (dir. Ronvan Lieu) all at NYU, MFA '96.

Nicolette Nicola (Playwright) is a graduate of Bennington College iwith an MFA in Poetry. The Hands of Hardouin is her 3rd project with Aboutface Theatre; her other grand guignol plays include Poisoned and Three Masks. She wishes to thank the members of Aboutface Theatre Co. and Forward March Productions for their constant support of her work.

Mario Levasseur (Director) is a graduate from Boston University with an MFA in Directing. Since moving to New York, he has worked with Amy Pivar Dances and
directed Audience for the Actor's Corner Co. This is his second season
with the Aboutface Theatre Co. and Forward March Productions and he
wishes to thank them for the opportunities and the support they given him
in the last year.

EMPATHY

Debra Niewald (Janet) is wickedly delighted to be back with Aboutface after making her Grand Guignol debut last year as the Mom in David Macdonalds Mom? She appeared in the Boston premiere of Donald Margulies Sight Unseen as Patricia and has performed regionally and off-Broadway in such roles as Dana Sue Kaye in Imagining Brad, Sylvia in The Women, Lenny in Crimes of the Heart, Lemon in Aunt Dan and Lemon, Regan in King Lear, and Desdemona in Othello Film credits include Home Defense, The Wedding, and Carlitos Way. She has also appeared on television in Law & Order and Guiding Light. Debra is originally from Kansas City.

Nelson Avidon (Bill) was recently seen at Sychronicity Theatre Group in Cerceau. He
has also been seen in many shows at the T. Schreiber Studio, including Michael Weller's Ghost on Fire He was in Progress at the Hudson Guild, Mailman at Manhattan Punch Line, In His Own Image at Ensemble Studio Theatre, and Hot l Baltimore at New York Rep. Nelson has also played roles on "TRIBECA", All My Children", "Loving" and "Another World", and can be seen as the lead in the films "Skeleton" and in "And The View Is To Die For". Nelson also wrote the full length plays A Pretty Girl, and My Father's Place, the short play Hot Date, and the screenplay "Professor Smith", (written for Tom Hanks).

Stina Nielsen (Susan) last played Nina to Lynne Redgrave's Arkadina in Tennessee
Williams' adaptation of The Seagull , The Notebook of Trigorin, at the Cincinatti Playhouse in the Park. At Arena Stage, she played Vera in A Month in the Country, Nausicca and Melantho in Derek Walcott's adaptation of The Odyssey, Beth in Dirty Work, and Fiona in Babes in Boyland. While at the Washington Stage Guild she played Silvia in The Game of Love and Chance, Hypatia in Misalliance, and Claire in Aristocrats. Her TV credits include Another World and All My Children.

Austin Flint (Playwright) is happy to have written for Aboutface since 1988. His
plays Prison Light, just war, and many one-acts were developed and produced by the company. In 1994, Aboutface presented the world premiere of The Othello of Sand Alley by the Finnish poet and playwright Eeva-Liisa Manner (translated by Austin and his wife Aili).Austin teaches creative writing at Columbia University, and is currently working on a
play about the 18th Century American clergyman Jonathan Edwards.

SOLOMON BREAKS

Laura Koffman (Bella Roth) can be seen on ABC's One Life to Live where she plays
"Cassie Carpenter". Last summer she was able to study with
Shakespeare & Company in Lennox, Mass to continue her training.
Charles Tuthill (Jonathon Roth) appeared Off Broadway as Jeffrey in Paul Rudnick's
Jeffrey, and in the Manhattan Theatre Club's production of Richard
Greenberg's Night and Her Stars. Regionally, Charles has worked at a
variety of theatres, most recently as Charles Condomine in Blithe Spirit,
and as Oliver in As You Like It at the Great Lakes theatre Festival, and
Gerry in Dancing at Luhgnasa and Andrew in I Hate Hamlet at the
Peterborough Players. Other Theatre appearances include Repertory
Theatre of St. Louis, Arena Stage, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Trinity
Repertory, The Hangar Theatre and Portland Stage.

Dawn Williams (Director) is excited to be working with Aboutface again after directing
Runner and Three Masks for last year’s Grand Guignol IV. Recently, she
worked with Sensible Afgangihets Theatre Ensemble in Hartford, CT, and
directed and adapted Marivaux’ Harlequin Polished by Love here in NY.
She has worked at the NJ Shakespeare festival, the Williamstown, and the
McCarter Theatre.

GARDENS OF TORTURE

Allison Jones (Claire) is a co-founder and Managing Director of the Aboutface Theatre
Company, and a Producer for Forward March Productions. Since 1985 she
has appeared in over 30 new plays developed and produced by Aboutface.
She is delighted to be returning for her fifth consecutive Grand Guignol,
and hopes that this time she survives. Allison is a graduate of Boston
University, School of Fine Arts.

Mary McGuinness (Tran Le) Mary can currently be seen on TV in commercials for Dime Bank (directed by the Cohen brothers), MCI, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and The
New York Times. She has done CD-roms for Stable Films and IBM, and is
currently in "Cybersagas" - a soap pilot for the internet.
Mary has a degree in classical voice from the Manhattan School of Music
and also studied at the the Oberlin Conservatory for two years. She has
performed in recitals and operas in Chautauqua, Tanglewood (also with
Bobby McFerrin) Zaragosa, Spain, and Paris. She was a soloist with the
New Jersey Symphony - as well as singing back-up for Simply Red. She has
performed roles as diverse as Solveig in Peer Gynt, Donna in Hurly Burly,
Maria in West Side Story. and Mabel in Pirates of Penzance. This is
Mary's first New York Theatre production.

Johnny Tran (Dang Gia Chau) is very pleased to be working with the wonderful people
at the Aboutface Theatre Company for the first time. He is originally
from Vietnam and also speaks fluent Chinese. He just finished an
independent feature film called Arresting Gena playing the role of a gang
leader named "Sneaky". The movie will be released in the spring of '97.
Johnny also models for print ads and comercials and keeps an active voice
over career. He loves to play the bad guy, it's more fun.

Tanya Clarke (Annie) This summer, Tanya performed the role of Susy in Wait Until Dark and Elvira in Blithe Spirit at the Heritage Rep. Theatre in Virginia.
She is frequently involved in projects at the Ensemble Studio Theatre and
is currently in her second year at the William Esper Studios. Other
favorite roles include Toinette in The Imaginary Invalid, Hermia in
Midsummer Night's Dream, and Florina in Mad Forest.

Arthur T. Acuna (Nguyen Khan &Nguyen Si Te) ("For my Father...") Arthur, an immigrant from the Philippines, has trained and worked in both film and theatre in the U.S. for the past 3 1/2 years. Most recently he was a principal player (Pharmacist) on NBC's "Law & Order".

PRODUCTION STAFF
Rocco van Loenen (Special Effects Design and Technical Director) graduated in 1993 as a director from Eindhoven Theatre School in the Netherlands. In school he became interrested in developing horror effects for the stage and wrote his thesis on the subject. Before moving to New York in '95 he directed productions like: "Oleanna", "The Visit", "Pygmalion". Currently he's working as a stagemanager/technician on productions at La Mama E.T.C. and is glad he can be a part of this project.