WALDEN

Amy Berryman is a writer, actor, and teaching artist originally from Seattle by way of West Texas. Her play Walden had its world premiere on London’s West End in 2021, directed by Ian Rickson and produced by Sonia Friedman at the Harold Pinter Theatre. Walden then had its US premiere at Theaterworks Hartford directed by Mei Ann Teo (NY Times Critic's Pick). Other plays include Alien Girls (O’Neill Finalist 2024, Center Theatre Group Writers’ Workshop Commission), God’s Flesh (MTC/Sloan Commission), The New Galileos (O’Neill Finalist 2019), Three Year Summer, The Whole of You, and Epiphany, or What Would You? (Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries Finalist). She is adapting Ben Shattuck’s book Six Walks… into a song cycle with Sam Amidon for Little Island’s 2025 summer season. Amy has a television project in development at Warner Bros and was recently awarded a MacDowell Fellowship. amy-berryman.com

Whitney White returns to Second Stage Theater where she directed Our Dear Dead Drug Lord (New York Times Critic’s Pick) in a co-production with WP Theatre. Whitney is an Obie and Lily Award winning, as well as a Tony Award nominated director, writer and musician. She was a staff writer on Boots Riley’s I’m a Virgo and is a believer of multi-disciplinary work and collaborative processes. Recent directing: Jaja’s African Hair Braiding (Broadway), Jordans (The Public Theatre), The Secret Life of Bees (The Almeida, UK), Soft (New York Times Critic’s Pick, MCC), On Sugarland (New York Theatre Workshop), What to Send Up When it Goes Down (New York Times Critic’s Pick), The Amen Corner (Shakespeare Theatre DC), An Iliad (Long Wharf), Canyon (LA Times Critic’s Choice, IAMA), Jump (National New Play Network Rolling World Premier, PlayMakers Rep), The Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington (Steppenwolf Theatre). Original works include: Semblance (NYTW), Definition (Bushwick Starr), and Macbeth in Stride for which she won an Elliot Norton Award for Best Musical Performance (American Repertory Theatre, Under the Radar Festival at The Public Theatre). Her four-part cycle deconstructing Shakespeare’s women is currently in development with American Repertory Theater (Boston, MA) and the Royal Shakespeare Company (UK).  Whitney has developed work with: Sundance, The Roundabout, New York Theatre Workshop, The Vineyard, The New Group, Page 73, Playwrights Realm, Juilliard, Trinity Rep, NYU TISCH, Luna Stage, SUNY Purchase, Princeton University, Atlantic Theater Company Acting School, The Drama League, South Oxford, Jack, The Tank, New York Musical Festival, The Lark, and others. She also has been an Associate to: Sam Gold (Othello, New York Theatre Workshop), Daniel Sullivan (If I Forget, Roundabout), and Anne Kauffman (Marvin’s Room, Broadway). Whitney is a part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, is a recent recipient of the Susan Stroman Directing Award, Herb Alpert Award and the Jerome Fellowship. She is an Artistic Associate at The Roundabout and an associate Artistic Director at Shakespeare DC. Past residencies and fellowships: Colt Coeur, The Drama League, the Roundabout and the 2050 Fellowship at the New York Theatre Workshop. MFA Acting: Brown University/Trinity Rep, BA: Northwestern University. Whitney will direct the upcoming Broadway production of The Last Five Years featuring Nick Jonas and Adrienne Warren.