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Working On A Special Day
Meet the Artists
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Ana Graham (Director, Actor, Translator and Costume designer) born in Mexico City, where she studied drama at the Núcleo de Estudios Teatrales. She is Artistic Producer and Founder of the Mexico-based Por Piedad Teatro where she has developed most of her work. She is also a member of the adviser committee for the US/MEXICO exchange program at The Lark and has been a recipient of Mexico’s National Fund for Culture and Arts performers grant. In 2012 Graham was appointed Mexico’s Art, Culture and Tourism Ambassador by former President Felipe Calderón. Aiming to expand the activities of her theatre company and to open international opportunities for Mexican theatre artists, she moved to New York in 2009. She splits her time producing work in Mexico City and New York City. Ana and collaborator Antonio Vega partnered with The Play Company to present Ettore Scola’s Working On a Special Day in New York at 59E59 (2013) and The Duchamp Syndrome at The Flea (2015). In 2018 she was a resident artist at Berkeley Repertory Ground Floor program. In Mexico she recently directed Samuel Beckett’s El Final (The End), Maria Milisavljevic’s Abismo (Abyss) and co-directed with Antonio Vega El Ensayo (10 Out of 12) by Anne Washburn and Winter Solstice by Roland Schimmelpfennig. As an actor she has performed in more than twenty plays, including Woody Allen’s Interiors and Terror by Ferdinand Von Schirach. In 2005 she received an Ariel nomination as Best Actress for her role in the movie Mezcal directed by Ignacio Ortiz. She is currently collaborating with New York playwright Andy Bragen on the development of a new play called Summit and rehearsing William Shakespeare’s Anthony and Cleopatra where she has been cast as Anthony on an all-women Mexican production.
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Antonio Vega (Author, Director, Actor, Set Designer) is a theatre artist born in Guadalajara where he graduated from ETX Jalisco School of Theater. He continued his training in Mexico, London and NYC. In 2013 Vega and collaborator Ana Graham partnered with PlayCo to present Ettore Scola’s Working On a Special Day. In 2015 he created, co-directed and starred in The Duchamp Syndrome. His most recent collaboration with PlayCo was Django in Pain which he wrote and directed.
Danya Taymor (Director, Translator) Directing: I Hate Fucking Mexicans (co-translator), The Honest Whore; You, Me and the Devil (playwright); Closer, The Shape of Things, and Stop Kiss. Awards/fellowships: Van Lier Directing Fellowship; Gates Foundation Grant; Sudler Prize; Benenson Award; and Jody McAuliffe Award for Excellence in Directing. She is developing a play about Juarez, Mexico that will premiere next year at The Flea Theater, where she is a Resident Director.
Gabriel Pascal (Set and Lighting Designer) has worked for over two decades as set designer, lighting designer and executive producer. Throughout his career he has worked with leading Mexican directors. He is currently president of Mexico’s Academy of Dramatic Arts, in addition to being editor and cofounder of Teatro El Milagro.
Rodrigo Espinosa (Sound Designer) is an actor and musician, and graduated from La casa de Teatro, where he has served on the facult. Among his sound designs are Someone Will Come by Jon Fosse, The Scarecrow by Maribel Carrasco, Siberia, The Fools, and several other works by David Olguín. Amarillo by Jorge Vargas, The Clean House by Sarah Ruhl and Salvation by Neil Labute, Julius Design by Kara Lee Corthon.
William Neal (Sound Designer) PlayCo: Working On a Special Day, Invasion! and Edgewise. Other NYC: Little Prince (New Victory); Good Mother, Russian Transport, Burning, Blood from a Stone (New Group); Eyes of Babylon (59E59). William has worked on 25+ regional productions and is the Sound Engineer for the long-running Off-Broadway production, STOMP.
Inspired by Ettore Scola’s Oscar-nominated story from stage and screen, two actors explore the life-changing encounter between an overworked housewife and a mysterious bachelor on May 8, 1938 – the day Rome celebrates Hitler’s visit to Mussolini’s Italy.
Using only simple props they create a bittersweet human drama that unfolds within the charged political landscape of rising fascism.
“Ana Graham and Antonio Vega are so engaging…fast pace, crack timing and almost whimsical inventiveness! Voila!”
–The New York Times
Related Productions
Based on
“Una Giornata Particolare” by Ettore Scola, Ruggero Maccari and adapted by Gigliola Fantoni
Translated by
Danya Taymor, Ana Graham and Antonio Vega
Original Staging Concept by
Laura Almela and Daniel Giménez Cacho
Directed and Performed by
Ana Graham and Antonio Vega
Set and Lighting Design
Gabriel Pascal
Costume Design
Ana Graham
Sound Design
Rodrigo Espinosa
Sound Adaptation
William Neal
Venue
59E59 Theaters 59 East 59th Street New York, NY