About the Company
Aporia Repertory Company is a NY based theatre company committed to exploring, performing and producing the theatre of ideas. After working together on a production of Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing at Columbia University, Sarah Wansley, Liz Grefrath and Alec Turnbull founded Aporia to bridge the gap between college and professional theatre. In the fall of 2007, we developed an ensemble of young artists dedicated to making theatre through a collaborative scholarly and artistic process and debuted with a production of Stoppard’s The Real Inspector Hound at Columbia University. Through participation in the Cherry Lane Late Nite series, Aporia was able to broaden its horizons beyond the campus environment, performing a double bill of Sartre’s No Exit and David Ives’ Variations on the Death of Trotsky, at the historic Cherry Lane Theatre in November 2007. In the spring of 2008 we returned to the university theatre scene, performing our most ambitious project yet, Harold Pinter’s Moonlight to rave reviews by the Columbia community. This summer, we are developing a new play, written by Darragh Martin, which will be performed in both the DC and NY Fringe Festivals. In addition to culminating a year’s worth of work together, we hope these productions will lead to new opportunities for Aporia both in NY and regional theatre. Thanks to the generous support from our Friends of Aporia and the Columbia Arts Initiative we have created a dynamic, supportive theatrical community and we are excited to watch it grow as we do.
Company Members
SARAH WANSLEY is the founding Artistic Director of Aporia Repertory Company. She has directed No Exit at the Cherry Lane Theatre and Moonlight, The Real Thing, and The Real Inspector Hound at Columbia University with Aporia and is currently directing the DC production of The Disappearance of Jonah. Other professional credits include Assistant Director of the Writer/Director Forum at the Looking Glass Theatre and Assistant Stage Manger of Lascivious Something at the Cherry Lane Theatre. Sarah graduated summa cum laude from Columbia University and will be working as a Directing Intern at the McCarter Theatre for the 2008-2009 season.
LIZ GREFRATH is the Founding Producer of Aporia Repertory Company, which debuted with performances of John Paul Sartre's No Exit and David Ives's Variations on the Death of Trostky at the Cherry Lane Theatre in November 2007. Her student production credits include Harold Pinter’s Moonlight, Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing and The Real Inspector Hound, and Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs, as well as copious amounts of stage-management and props design. She graduated from Columbia University with degrees in History and English & Comparative Literature and is currently working at the Columbia University Oral History Research Office, the Alliance for the Arts and the Public Theater.
ALEC TURNBULL is the founding Managing Director of Aporia Repertory Company. He worked with Sarah Wansley and Liz Grefrath on Sartre's No Exit, Ives' Death of Trotsky, Harold Pinter’s Moonlight, Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing and his The Real Inspector Hound. He graduated from Columbia University with a degree in History and promptly left to travel around the world. He returned to New York and Aporia in November, 2008.
THOMAS ANAWALT is an undergraduate at Columbia University. At the University he’s played roles in As You Like It, Moonlight, Trees Like Nails, Into the Woods, Cowboys and Indians, The 113th Annual Varsity Show, Merrily We Roll Along, Everything Different, The 112th Annual Varsity Show, and You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. In Los Angeles he studied with A Noise Within Theatre and played the role of Fleance in Macbeth. At the age of 8 he played C.S. Lewis’ stepson in Occidental College Summer Theater’s production of Shadowlands. Thomas is a graduate of South Coast Repertory’s Professional Acting Intensive Program.
PATRICK BARRETT, a native of Falls Church, Virginia is currently in his third year at Columbia University where he is a History major. Previous roles include Emcee in Cabaret (2005), Henry in The Real Thing (2006), Hal in Proof at Barnard College’s Minor Latham Playhouse (2007), and Garcin in No Exit at the Cherry Lane Theatre (2007).
LYDIA BRUNNER, a current senior at Columbia College, recently appeared as Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Looking Glass Theatre. Other work includes Agamemnon, Macbeth, The Real Thing, Pound, The Real Inspector Hound, and The Thing About Robocop. She assistant directed Twelfth Night for Juilliard drama faculty, Becky Guy and Ralph Zito. She will direct The Last Days of Judas Iscariot this fall.
DAVID GERSON grew up in Washington DC and received his BA in English Literature from Columbia University. He has trained as an actor in Washington DC at the Shakespeare Theater Young Actor's Training Program, and Studio Theater Acting Conservatory. He has also studied at the Ivana Chubbuck studios in LA, the Meisner Technique with William Esper in New York, and he attended The British American Drama Academy in London. David's film and television credits include the leading role in the short film Junior, PBS and Verizon projects, and leads in various Columbia graduate student films. His stage acting credits include the role of Sir Willful Witwoud in The Way of the World (Oval Theatre, London), leading roles in Pound (Miller Theater, New York), The Marriage of Figaro (Columbia University), Voices of Vesuvius: Summer of 79 AD (Smithsonian Institute Theater, D.C.), and the role of young Bertram in All's Well That Ends Well (The Shakespeare Theatre, D.C.). In 2007, he co-produced and directed the US Premiere of Mick Gordon and AC Grayling's 'theatre essay' entitled On Religion. With actor and filmmaker Prince Sirak Sabahat, he co-founded Exodus Films, a film company committed to effecting social change - www.exodus-films.com.
JACOB GREEN is a senior at Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary where he is majoring in Music and Modern Jewish Studies. Favorite roles include Max in The Real Thing and Edmund in King Lear. Film: The Believer. This Philadelphia native loves a good cheesesteak!
MAURA MCNAMARA will be a sophomore at Columbia University this fall. She has been performing since age six, beginning in her hometown of Portland, Oregon. Past productions there include Dancing at Lughnasa (Chrissie), Dracula (Mina Harker), and As You Like It (Celia). Most recently in New York she has trained at T. Schreiber Studio, and performed in The Maginot Line (Rachel) with Park Noise Theater and Moonlight (Bel) with Aporia Theater Company at Columbia. She is thrilled to be joining the 2008 DC Fringe Festival.
BIRDY SAHAGIAN is a student at Barnard College. The DC production of The Disappeance of Jonah is her first show in which she is not acting. However, she is playing Amy in the New York Fringe production of the same show. Her favorite roles include Applegate in Damn Yankees, Estelle in No Exit at the Cherry Lane Theater, and Bridget in Pinter's Moonlight. While she looks forward to being on stage again, she loves being so involed behind the scenes.
COURTNEY SODERBERG is a founding Aporia Repertory Company member and recent graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University. Credits with Aporia include No Exit (Inez), The Real Inspector Hound (Mrs. Drudge), and The Disappearance of Jonah (Ann). She spent her freshman year in the theatre department at Northwestern University, and has been an active member in the Columbia University theatre scene for the past 3 years. This coming fall, she will be pursuing a Ph. D in social psychology at the University of California, Davis.