The Lehman Trilogy

Troy Blendell (Henry Lehman) is thrilled to be making his ETC debut. He has appeared extensively on LA stages with the Echo Theater Company (FUGUE, GOD’S EAR, FOUND DOG…) Theatre of NOTE (FRAZZLED, RISE, TITUS, SHAKE, etc.), and Sacred Fools (CHRISTMAS PRESENT, PEER GYNT). Recent Television includes roles in LAW AND ORDER, BOSCH LEGACY, SNOWFALL,THE POLITICIAN, MONSTER: THE JEFFREY DAHMER STORY, WINNING TIME, NCIS etc. Film appearances include GRAPEFRUIT, COLLATERAL (Michael Mann), and THE ISLAND (Michael Bay). Originally from Seattle, Troy has been in Southern California for 29 years, the last three in Los Olivos.

Chris Butler (Emanuel Lehman) Chris has appeared in numerous films and television shows, including all seven seasons of CBS’s, “The Good Wife” and its spin off, “The Good Fight” and recurring roles on “Designated Survivor,” “Women of the Movement,” “Animal Kingdom,” “True Blood,” “Rizzoli & Isles,” “Major Crimes,” “24,” “Smith,” “Two Guys and a Girl” and “The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder.” Chris’ other credits include “Rescue Dawn,” “Play Dead,” “Scandal,” “Modern Family,” “Longmire,” “NCIS,” “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “Shameless,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Criminal Minds,” “True Detective,” “Superstore,” “iCarly” and a series regular on TNT’s “King and Maxwell.”

On the stage, Chris made his broadway debut as Noah in the Tony® nominated 110 in the Shade starring Audra McDonald. He won LA Ovation, NAACP and Garland Awards for his work in Yellowman at The Fountain Theater and Stick Fly at the Matrix Theater. Other theater credits include Prospero in The Tempest (Shakespeare Center LA), Othello in Othello, Macduff in Macbeth, Walter Lee in A Raisin in the Sun, Lymon in The Piano Lesson (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Biff in Death of a Salesman (South Coast Repertory); McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and the one person show Twilight-Los Angeles: 1992 (Rubicon Theatre Company).

Chris is the Senior Artistic Fellow for The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles. He holds an M.F.A. in Theater from UC San Diego and B.A. in Dramatic Arts from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Leo Marks (Mayer Lehman) is delighted to make his ETC debut. Recent credits include Jessica Kubzansky’s Measure Still For Measure at Boston Court, where he’s also played Shylock in Everything That Never Happened and Lewis Carroll in The Missing Pages of Lewis Carroll; and If I Forget at The Fountain, directed by Jason Alexander.

He’s appeared at Geffen Playhouse, Cleveland Playhouse, Berkeley Rep, Seattle Rep, the Old Globe, D.C.’s Shakespeare Theater, South Coast Rep, North Coast Rep, The Kirk Douglas, Actors Theater of Louisville, Pasadena Playhouse, Ahmanson Theatre, The Intiman, PICT, Playwright’s Arena, Alley Theatre, and Playwrights Horizons, and in the inaugural productions of the Kirk Douglas Theatre and ACT’s Strand Theater.

He was a founding member of New York’s Elevator Repair Service, and is a proud member of Antaeus theatre company in LA, where he’s appeared in The Hothouse, Three Days in the Country, and Wedding Band.

Favorite roles include Hamlet in Jessica Kubzansky’s acclaimed production, and all of Bedford Falls (plus a few angels) in a one-man “It’s a Wonderful Life,” with Rogue Machine.

Leo is an Obie-award winner, for Heather Woodbury’s Tale of 2Cities: An American Joyride on Multiple Tracks. He’s received best acting nominations from the LA Drama Critics Circle, Stage Raw, and the LA Ovations. And with a crack team of co-conspirators, Leo is a recipient of the 2023 LA Drama Critics Gordon Davidson Award for distinguished contribution to the Los Angeles theatrical community, as well as the 2023 Stage Raw “Queen of the Angels” Award, for his co-leadership of a coalition whose efforts led to the passage of California state law SB1116, the Performing Arts Equitable Payroll Fund.

Watch for him as “Red” in Academy Award nominee Pedro Kos’ feature film The Line, currently in post-production.

Oánh Nguyễn (Director) has been serving as Chance Theater’s founding Artistic Director since 1999. Oánh is a recipient of TCG’s New Generations Grant and the TCG Nathan Cummings Young Leaders of Color Fellowship. He was awarded the Outstanding Artist Award by Arts Orange County, profiled in Orange County Register’s “Most Influential People” series and OC Weekly’s People Issue, inducted into Anaheim High School’s Hall of Fame and was a commencement speaker for Chapman University College of Performing Arts. Oánh was Producing Associate at South Coast Repertory where he initiated and programmed the first three seasons of alternative offerings under the banner of StudioSCR. He also served on the advisory board of the Anaheim High School Performing Arts Conservatory, the board of Network of Ensemble Theatres, LA’s 99-seat Transitional Committee, and OC Theatre Guild, as well as panels and committees for Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, Alternative Theatre Los Angeles, National Endowment for the Arts and Theatre Communications Group. His directing credits include productions at Chance Theater, East West Players, the J. Paul Getty Museum, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, South Coast Repertory, Aurora Theatre Company, Oregon Contemporary Theatre, Chapman University, UC Riverside, Azusa Pacific University, AMDA, CSU Fullerton, and served as the Associate Director for the international tour of David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish (Berkeley Repertory, South Coast Repertory, Hong Kong Arts Festival). His selected film credits include Two Brothers, Rush Hour 3, and Lonely Boy (Best First Feature Grand Jury Prize at the 2013 Louisiana International Film Festival and Audience Award Winner at the 2013 BolderLife Festival).

Fred Kinney (Scenic Designer) This is Fred’s twelfth production at ETC, previously he designed Seared, Sleuth, It’s a Wonderful Life, the Radio Play, The City of Conversation, Amadeus, Looped, The 39 Steps, Loot, In the Continuum and Old Wicked Songs. Other credits include Sight Unseen, Ordinary Days, A Wrinkle in Time, Sunlight, Emperor’s New Clothes and A Year with Frog & Toad (South Coast Repertory).  Peter Pan and Wendy (Prince Music Theater); Intimate Apparel (San Diego Repertory Theatre); End Game & Taming of the Screw (Cutting Ball Theatre, San Francisco); A Picasso (Pittsburgh City Theatre); Serious Money (Yale Repertory Theatre); The Grouch (The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey); Cats Talk Back, Suburban Stories (NYC Fringe Festival); The Good Daughter, The Adjustment, Color of Flesh, Winterizing a Summer House (New Jersey Repertory Company); Anna Christie, Tennessee Playboy, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Tartuffe, Angel Street, Sleuth, Proof, Noises Off, Steel Magnolias, On Golden Pond & Bus Stop (Triad Stage, North Carolina). Mr. Kinney has also worked on television productions such as Dave Chappelle’s Equanimity & The Bird Revelation, Larry the Cable Guy’s Christmas Special and Jeopardy!. He is recipient of the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Designers and holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.

JAMES ARD (Sound Designer) is a designer, composer, and noisemaker with a focus on new works, live experiences, and immersive stage productions. Recent theatrical Sound Design credits include Mrs. Christie, Queen (TheatreWorks Silicon Valley), Our Country (Octopus Theatricals / Under The Radar Festival / The Public Theater / Broad Stage / Edinburgh Fringe / Sibiu International Theatre Festival), Manahatta, This Much I Know, Exit Strategy, Colonialism is Terrible but PhỞ is Delicious, Dry Powder, The Royale, Actually (Aurora Theatre Company), This Is Who I Am (Playco / Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company / Guthrie Theater / Oregon Shakespeare Festival / American Repertory Theater), 9 Parts of Desire (Portland Center Stage), Phantasmagoria, Utopia, Free For All, La Ronde (Cutting Ball Theater), Wolf Play, A Small Fire, Kings (Shotgun Players), Our Town (Center Repertory Company), Chinglish, Indecent (San Francisco Playhouse), Time of Change (Joe Goode Performance Group). Ard has worked with students at American Conservatory Theater, Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and the Atlantic Theatre Company. Ard is a Resident Artist with Golden Thread Productions and Crowded Fire Theater.

ANDREW SCHMEDAKE he/him/his (Lighting Designer) is an award-winning lighting designer and technical director for the arts and live entertainment. Recent credits include designs for The Wallis Annenberg, A Noise Within, Center Theatre Group, South Coast Repertory, Boston Court Theatre and Rubicon Theatre Company. He is the proud recipient of the LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award, LA Drama Critics Circle Award and the NAACP Theatre Award. He holds an M.F.A. from Carnegie Mellon University. www.schmedakelightingdesign.com

NICHOLAS SANTIAGO (Projection Designer) has worked for numerous universities and theatre companies around Los Angeles including the Pasadena Playhouse (Ham), Skylight Theatre (Church & State, Obama Ology), Rogue Machine (A Permanent Image), USC (Trojan Women, On the Town), The Chance Theatre (Big Fish, American Idiot), The Road Theatre (Nowhere on the Border, A Delicate Ship), LA LGBT Center (The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life Revisited, Menstruation), and the Fountain Theatre (Arrival & Departure, The Cost of Living). He has received numerous awards including a LA Drama Critic’s Circle award for his work on Rogue Machine’s A Permanent Image, an Ovation Award win for his work on The Fountain Theatre’s production of The Cost of Living, and an OCTG and Stage Raw Award for his production of American Idiot at The Chance Theatre. www.nsantiagodesign.com

ADRIANA LÁMBARRI (Costume Design) is delighted to be making her Ensemble Theatre Company debut with The Lehman Trilogy. This is her third collaboration with director Oánh Nguyên. Adriana began her career in fashion design, working for 10 years in the industry both in the States and internationally. Before long, fate intervened and she found herself designing costumes for the indie film Absentia, directed by horror filmmaker Mike Flanagan, to help out a friend, who was both acting in and producing the feature. The process was a baptism by fire but helping tell stories through costume design proved to be irresistible and she hasn’t looked back since. Based out of Southern California, her experience in costume design now spans both theater and film. Her theater credits include work at South Coast Repertory, Chance Theater, Center Theatre Group, The Los Angeles Theatre, La Mirada Theatre, Antaeus Theatre Company, Guthrie Theater, Cincinnati Playhouse, and Pasadena Playhouse to name a few. She was thrilled to be honored with the 2023 OC Theatre Guild’s award for Best Costume Design for her work in Molly Smith Metzler’s play Cry It Out, directed by Elina de Santos at the Chance Theater. Adriana has had the unique opportunity to design costumes for the NFL Hall of Fame’s current immersive exhibit Game For Life, in Canton, Ohio which features a holographic Joe Namath. Her last feature film, King Knight, stars Matthew Gray Gubler, better known from his work in the original television series Criminal Minds. Additionally, she occasionally works as a costume illustrator. Clients include Disney, Marvel Studios, Guthrie Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, the Cleveland Opera and Utah Shakespeare Festival. She is a proud member of USA 829. Check out her out at www.adrianalambarri.com, @adriana.lambarri_costumedesign.

JENNA SCORDINO (Props Designer) is free-lance props designer and artisan based in Orange County, California. She is thrilled to be back for her 4th show with Ensemble Theatre Company, her previous credits being Ring of Fire, Thanksgiving Play, and Seared. Jenna was previously the Interim Props Supervisor at South Coast Repertory Theatre, where she worked on shows such as A Christmas Carol and Million Dollar Quartet.