A City Doesn’t Talk

Lillian Meredith
Director

Lillian Meredith was born and bred on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and now resides in Queens with her husband and two children. As a director, performer, and writer, her work has been seen around the city and across the country, including Boise Contemporary Theater, ANT Fest at Ars Nova, IRT, Soho Rep, Clubbed Thumb, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Columbia University, FURY Factory of Ensemble Theater, and Dixon Place, among many others. She is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, and the Clubbed Thumb Early Career Directors Fellowship. Proud alumna: Vassar College (BA), Brooklyn College (MFA), National Theater Institute. She is the founding Artistic Direction of The Motor Company. www.lillianmeredith.com

Jack Towhey Calk
Playwright

Jack Towhey Calk is a playwright interested in the ways we consciously shape ourselves and our worlds to suit one another. He returns to The Motor Company for his first full-length commission in A City Doesn’t Talk. His prior work with TMC: Aliens Have Been Spotted in Astoria Park!,  And That is Enough (For Hell Gate), and The Time I Had With You. His work has been produced or developed at The Tank, Asolo Rep, Hudson Theatre Works, St. Lou Fringe, First Run Theatre, and Pendant Productions. As a director, with Stray Lungs: all ten episodes of the musical radio drama Hearthbound: An Untelling of the Odyssey. As a voice actor, with Dead Signals: Archive 81 (Static Man), Conversations with Ghosts (Motorman). With Pendant Productions: Archer & Armstrong (Ivar), Active Radioactive Radio (Johnny Franks). As consultant: A Case for the Existence of God (Signature Theatre Company). MFA: Columbia University School of the Arts. BA: Saint Louis University. 

Cast

Jaz Astwood
Corri

Lauren Dortch-Crozier Jade

Lauren Dortch-Crozier is a Brooklyn-based actor, singer, creator & self proclaimed coffee addict. Her credits include Off-Broadway and World Premiere theatre roles, various national commercial & voice-over credits, & the co-writer/producer of It's Fine: A Series on Amazon Prime. When offstage, she can most likely be found on a soccer pitch or searching for fellow beautifully chaotic souls to collaborate & create with. Many thanks to the Lillian, Jack, and Motor Company team for bringing this show to life, and much love to her tribe for their support along the way. 

Kyle McClellan
Reilly

Kyle McClellan (he/him) is an actor, writer & filmmaker from Doylestown, PA. Theatre: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (Center City Stage/Walnut Street Theatre), Austin (Red Light Theatrical), Amrikayee (reading - Rattlestick Theater), and Resident Company Member at Bucks County Playhouse & Music Theatre Wichita. Film: InkShop, Channel 9, and Aqueduct. Training: BFA Musical Theatre, University of Michigan ('17); MFA Acting, Columbia University (’23). All of my Love & Thanks to M, D, T, and Z, always.

Adam Patterson
Len

Adam Patterson is a multidisciplinary theatre artist. NY Theatre: CasablancaBox (HERE), The Pill (La MaMa), Reid Farrington’s Christmas Carol (ArtHouse), Island (NYSX), The Live Ones (Motor Company), Midsummer Night’s Dream (New Place), Nothing Human (FringeNYC).  Regional:  Grand Horizons (Peterborough Players), Three Man Tempest & To Kill a Mockingbird (Burning Coal), As You Like It & Hamlet (Plimoth Players), Charlotte’s Web (Hangar Theatre).  Film: Gigglebutt (SXSW), Mendacity (Foxxy Films).  BFA: Emerson College.  Adam-Patterson.com.  @adpat

Andrew Porter
Andre + Original Music

Andrew Porter (He/Him) is excited to be sharing his acting debut as ANDRE in The Motor Company's "A City Doesn't Talk". The Brooklyn native is a graduate from the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, where he studied music composition and music for theatre under his mentor Polina Nazakinskaya. He has since music directed, composed, and sound designed for numerous productions across the city, including writing his own musical titled Aruba (2022) which premiered with the New Music Theatre Project. Other credits include, A Cat, A Man, A Laundromat (2018), The Moors (2020), the devised play @muse_me (2021), The Glass Menagerie (2021), and Intimate Apparel (2024).

Production

Michael Costgliola
Sound Design

Michael Costagliola is a Brooklyn-based sound designer and composer. His work has been heard in NY in productions by The Public, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, La MaMa, The Shed, Rattlestick, Little Island, INTAR, Ars Nova, and Page 73 among others, as well as regionally at the Guthrie, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Alliance Theatre, Two River Theater, Geffen Playhouse, Yale Rep, St. Louis Rep, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and at various other theaters across the U.S. and abroad. AB in Music from Brown University, MFA in Sound Design from Yale School of Drama. michaelcostagliola.com

Olivia Vaughn Hern
Set & Lighting Design

Olivia Vaughn Hern is a NYC-based theatrical and film designer, working in costume, scenic and puppetry design. Her work is inspired by the handmade and the fantastical. Off Broadway: Dad Don't Read This (Greenwich House Theater), Taming of the Shrew (Small Boat @ La Mama). I Don't Trust Adults (Soho Playhouse). Other: Time Passes (Exponential Festival & The Goat Exchange), We Do the Same Thing Every Week (Attractive Nuisance), Deadclass, OH (The Goat Exchange), FIELD and PLAZA by Andrew Schnieder (Lincoln Center), I Wanttt a Unicorne Frapppe!!! (The Tank) The Trouble With Dead Boyfriends (Black Watch Theater), The Whole Sky All Diamonds (Immersive show, World Premiere), oliviavhern.com

Jarielle Jeffrey
Stage Manager

Jarielle is an enthusiastic maker of theater, film, television and new media. With The Motor Company, she's made theater in a laundromat, a garden, and now the subway! Grateful for the opportunity to bring theater to the public in all capacities. She's a graduate of Fordham University. Shoutout to my ancestors, my tribe, and the most high!

Caitlin Wells
Costume Design

Caitlin’s work has been seen on The High Line for West Side Fest, El Barrio Artspace PS109, BRIC, Littlefield, PBS North Carolina, The Battery, Hudson River Park, The Fruit, and NPR, and her theater company Delta Boys produced Southeastern regional premieres for 10 years. She's acted under T. Ryder Smith, Christopher McElroen, and Em Cole; performed at Yale, Lincoln Center, The Brick, INTAR, and The New Ohio; interned with The Wooster Group; and taught across the United States, Spain, and China. She currently works as The Motor Company managing director, an artistic director with Brooklyn's DreamStreet Theatre Company, and a producer with Locus29. She’s been awarded residencies with Drop Forge & Tool, The Tank, Turkey Land Cove Foundation, and Spark Box Studio, as well as grants for the development of new work from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Manbites Dog Theater Fund, and City Artist Corps. She seeks out original work that centers equity, the unpredictable, rigorous physicality, exposed plumbing, risk-taking, and raucous play. www.caitlinjwells.com

Zara Zeidman
Assistant Director

Zara Zeidman is a Brooklyn-based director and multi-disciplinary artist. She received her BFA in Acting at Brooklyn College where she founded a theater club, devised original works, and discovered her passion for directing. Previous directing credits include Michael Haggerty’s Where Were You (Jack, the Brick Aux) and Game Creek (The Tank).