Rebecca Blumhagen (Katia) MRT:  Debut. Regional: Our Town, Arden Theatre; Romeo and Juliet, Love’s Labours Lost, Virginia Shakespeare Festival; Smart Cookie, Alliance Theatre. TV/Film: The Girls Guide to Depravity (starring); Body of Proof, Underground; Lefty Loosey Righty Tighty; Adam Underground. Director: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Our Town (adaptation), St. Margaret’s English Medium School, Kisongo, Tanzania; The Sky is so far from the Land, (documentary, film). Other: Currently resides in New York, NY, where she studies with Michael Howard. She is thrilled to be joining the Merrimack Repertory Theater for this production of “ Memory House”!

Susan Pellegrino (Maggie) MRT: Debut. Broadway:  Equus, Prelude to a Kiss, Imaginary Friends, Present Laughter, The Kentucky Cycle, Two Shakespearean Actors. Off Broadway:  Septimus, Clarissa Ripetime Theatre Co.  Distracted, The Paris Letter,  Roundabout Theatre. Outward Bound, Pullman Car Hiawatha, Keen Co. One Shoe Off, Second Stage at the Public, Marvin’s Room, Minetta Lane. Regional: Doubt,  Virginia Stage Company, A Christmas Carol, Learned Ladies, McCarter Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Hartford Stage, Huntington Theatre, St. Louis Reparatory Theatre, Portland Stage, The American Conservatory Theatre (Five seasons—Dramalogue Award for Absurd Person Singular). Tours: Rumors, 84 Charring Cross Road.  Film/TV: Michael Clayton, The Wendigo, Notes for my Daughter (ABC) MAC, The Becky Bell Story (HBO) Pan Am (CBS) Law and Order, Law and Order SVU, Law and Order Trial By Jury(NBC) Hack (CBS) One Life To Live, As The World Turns. Education: City College and San Francisco Stage College, The American Conservatory Theatre Training Program.

Kathleen Tolan worked for years as an actor. Her plays include A Weekend Near Madison, Kate's Diary, Approximating Mother, A Girl's Life and The Wax. They have been produced in regional theatres (including Trinity Repertory Theatre and the Actors Theatre of Louisville), in New York (including Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theatre and the Women's Project) and in Europe. She has received various commissions and awards. Her translation ofMarivaux's False Servant was recently produced by the Classic Stage Company. She is the recipient of the 2005 McKnight National Residency and Commission. She is a member of the Writers Guild, the Dramatists Guild and PEN. She teaches playwriting at SUNY Purchase. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Melia Bensussen (Director) MRT: Two Jews Walk into a War…, The Blonde, The Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead, Aunt Dan & Lemon, Something in the Air. Boston: Merchant of Venice, Taming of the Shrew, Actors Shakespeare Project; Not Enough Air, the Nora Theatre Company; Luck of the Irish, Circle Mirror Transformation, Huntington Theatre Company. Off-Broadway: Numerous productions at Primary Stages, Playwrights Horizons, Bay Street (Sag Harbor), Women’s Project, Manhattan Class Company, New York Shakespeare Festival, among others. Regional: Baltimore CENTERSTAGE, La Jolla Playhouse, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, People’s Light and Theatre Company (Barrymore nomination for Best Director), Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Denver Center Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Actors Theatre of Louisville (Humana Festival), San Jose Repertory Theatre, Berkshire Theatre Festival, New York Stage and Film, and numerous summers at the O’Neill Theatre Conference. International: Festival Internacional de Teatro, Havana, Cuba; American delegate to Czechoslovakia. Other: She is the recipient of an OBIE for Best Direction and a Princess Grace Foundation Directing grant, as well as their Statuette Award. Her edition of the Langston Hughes translation of Garcia Lorca’s Blood Wedding is in its eighth printing by Theatre Communications Group. Ms. Bensussen is featured in Women Directors Speak by Rebecca Daniels, and Women Direct Shakespeare by Nancy Taylor. Chair of the Performing Arts Department at Emerson College, Boston.

Judy Gailen (Scene/Costume Designer) MRT: Two Jews Walk into a War…, The Exceptionals, The Blonde, The Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead, Something in the Air, The Drawer Boy. Off-Broadway: Primary Stages. Regional: Most recently designed the set and costumes for Two Jews Walk into a War… (Geva Theatre) and God of Carnage (Asolo Repertory Theatre), and the set for Ten Blocks on the Camino Real (Beau Jest Moving Theater); Other projects include sets (and sometimes costumes) for Bowdoin College (where she is currently Adjunct Lecturer in Design), Music Academy of the West, Islesford Theater Project, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, City Theatre of Pittsburgh, La Jolla Playhouse, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Long Wharf Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company, The Curtis Opera Theatre, Portland Stage, Yale Repertory Theatre, George Street Playhouse, Florida Stage, Triad Stage, Anchorage Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Opera Omaha, Perseverance Theatre, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Skylight Opera, Virginia Stage Company as well as Off-Off Broadway. Awards: Imaginary Invalid (2009 Best Set Design from Sarasota Magazine) and 2003 Maine Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship for artistic excellence. Other: She also directed The Stooge: A Troubled Clown for Troubled Times and The Dark Clown, written and performed by Michael Lane Trautman.

Brian J. Lilanthal  (Lighting Design) MRT: Persian Quarter, A Picasso,  Black Pearl Sings, Tranced, A View of the Harbor, The Four of Us, Aunt Dan + Lemon, Squeeze Box, Sanders Family Christmas. Off-Broadway: Cherry Lane, La Mama ETC, Sanford Reisner Theatre. Regional: Over 200 productions at: Actors Theatre of Louisville, Cleveland Playhouse, Arden Theatre, South Coast Rep, Arizona Theatre Co, Pasadena Playhouse, Milwaukee Rep, Capital Rep, Trinity Rep, Pig Iron Theatre.  Opera: Long Beach Opera, Bard Summerscape, Portland Opera Repertory Theatre. Education: MFA California Institute of the Arts, BFA Emerson College. Other: Currently Teaching Lighting Design at Tufts University.

Seághan McKay (Projection Design) MRT:  Debut. Regional: Gershwin Spectacular: Promenade, The Boston Pops, Educating Rita, The Huntington Theatre Company, Next To Normal, Nine, Striking 12, [title of show], Jerry Springer:The Opera, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Big River, The Lyric Stage Company of Boston, Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, Light Up The Sky, Emerson Stage, Rent, The Boston Conservatory, Beyond The Boundaries, Hecuba, As You Like It, Brandeis Theatre Company, The Threepenny Opera,  Boston College, Godspell, Gordon College, The Flying Duchman , the Boston Lyric  Opera (upcoming), On The Town, Lyric Stage (upcoming). Film/TV: Becoming Helen Keller (PBS) (Assistant). Other: Production Manager for Coriolanus, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company. Member of United Scenic Artists, IATSE Local USA 829. Lighting & Audio-Visual Director and Lecturer at Brandeis University Department of Theatre Arts.

MEMORY HOUSE SHOW PHOTOS
Susan Pellegrino and Rebecca Blumhagen. Photos by Meghan Moore.