Pease donate to Spanky's fund and help bring her to life! gofund.me/7797e6ec
About the Show For a few years now, I've been slowly working on a one woman show, "All She Cares About is the Yankees," by John Ford Noonan. I first discovered my dream role, like so many have, sitting at the tables in the back of The Drama Book Shop. I used an excerpt as an audition monologue, when I was asked to find a "piece that speaks to your soul and can make you fall flat on your face." The play is about an agoraphobic woman who attempts time and time again to make it out of her apartment, acting out scenarios to inch closer and closer to her door with the help of her half life size Yankee dolls that populate her West Village home. When I fell in love with this character, I could never have guessed how the whole world would come to know what it feels like to be so stuck... so trapped and isolated in fear and desperation. Spanky knows deep down that the only way out is through, and if she can find a way - then we all can too! We premiered a run of "All She Cares About is the Yankees" in Deer Isle, Maine over the summer of 2022, at The Reach Performing Arts Center. And we will continue this journey with additional venues to come!
Jonathan Libman, Director
Jonathan Libman is a multi ethnic writer and director born and raised in New York City. He went through the public school system and is best described as a byproduct of 9th Avenue. He developed and directed the critically acclaimed Off-Broadway show THE MUSHROOM CURE written and performed by Adam Strauss. (Cherry Lane Theater) named A Critics’ Pick by Time Out New York and hailed by The New York Times as “mining a great deal of laughter from disabling pain” THE MUSHROOM CURE ran Off-Broadway at Theatre 80 for over a year before going to Chicago, where the Chicago Tribune praised it as “arrestingly honest and howlingly funny,” awarding it 3.5 (out of 4) stars. As a member of the Actor's Studio Playwrights/Directors Unit led by Lyle Kessler, Jonathan specializes in new work that includes directing Chazz Palminteri(A Bronx Tale), NEA recipient David Libman, and Dramatist Guild Fellow Nicole Pandolfo, Christina Masciotti (2016 Guggenheim Fellow), and Dennis Russo (Mid Atlantic Fellow & Lifetime Actors Studio Member) among talented others. SDC Union member, Dramatists Guild, NYU Tisch School of the Arts Graduate, www.jonathandlibman.com
Amelia Huckel-Bauer, Producer and Maureen "Spanky" Oberfeld Amelia is an NYC based actor and teaching artist. She has a BFA in Acting from Tisch, NYU, where she studied primarily at the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute, where she currently teaches Method Acting. While at Tisch, she also studied with Stonestreet Film and TV Studio, Viewpoints with Mary Overlie, Clowning with Christopher Bayes and spent a semester in Dublin. She also has an MA in Educational Theater from Steinhardt, NYU. Amelia works as an actor and Education Director with Red Monkey Theatre Group in the Bronx, where her roles on the stage have included Hunter in Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, Silvia in Two Gentlemen of Verona; Chick in Crimes of the Heart. She is a company member with Emit Theatre, bringing immersive Shakespeare to NYC public schools, roles ranging from Gertrude in Hamlet, to Malvolio in Twelfth Night. Other theater credits include, Sally in Tally’s Follywith Bagaduce Theater, Beatrice in Measure for Measureat America Theater of Actors and she originated the role of Flannery in Mrs. Schrodinger’s Cat at NYC Fringe Festival. She lives in the Bronx with her husband and two young children.
Tatyana Kot, Co-Producer/Choreographer
Tatyana Kot was born in the Soviet Union, where she trained in classical ballet and received an MA in History and Archeology. She worked with people with disabilities for 15 years in Kentucky and NYC, and is a breast cancer survivor and advocate. Tatyana was awarded Best Actress at Planet Connections Theater Festivity, Midtown International Theater Festival and First Prize at Secondo Theater Festival (Zurich, Switzerland). She is a company member of Blessed Unrest (physical theater): Snow Queen (2017), Doruntine (Zurich-2016, NYC -2015), Bodies: Anatomies of Being (2015-2016), Christmas Carol (2013), Eurydice's Dream (2013). And a company member of Nylon Fusion Theater Co.: Marina/MataHari (2013), Snowfall in Berlin(2014)The Chaplin Plays(2016-2019), Tales with Teeth(2019), and she recently choreographed John P. Shanley's new play, Candlelight(2021). VR immersive documentary about her life with cancer NORMAL DAY was internationally released in 2018.
Jason Weiner, Sound Design and Various Voices Jason Weiner graduated with a BA in Theatre (concentrations in Acting and Directing) from Marymount Manhattan College. Previous sound design credits include Vivien by Percy Granger and Sympathetic Magic by Langford Wilson. Voiceover work includes the Shark Danger animated pilot, Romeo and Juliet and a MidSIMmer Night’s Dream for Tier5 Productions. He owes it all to the love and support of V and Rach.
Additional Actors:
Aurea Tomeski - is a New York based actor and teaching artist, with a B.S. in Pre-Med/Psychology (NYU) and an M.F.A. in Acting (New School). She has performed on stages all over New York City, as well as regionally, and she has appeared in numerous national commercials, web-series, and independent films. You can also hear her work as a voiceover artist on many narrative podcasts and commercially as the voice of MetLife Dental! Since 2015, Aurea has toured all over the United States performing a one-woman version of Lois Lowry’s classic young adult novel, The Giver, and in conjunction, has led numerous workshops centered around solo-storytelling and empowerment through personal narrative. She has done extensive work in underserved communities, including correctional facilities and juvenile detention centers, in partnership with Literature to Life and Freedom Reads. In 2020, Aurea completed a theatrical co-adaptation of the acclaimed autobiography The Latehomecomer, which is currently touring across the United States. Aurea is the Associate Artistic Producer of Writopia Lab’s Worldwide Plays Festival. You can follow Aurea across all social media platforms @TheAureaT, or check out www.aureatomeski.com for more info.
A first step in this long process, was a short film of a section of this piece, shot in 2020. Directed by Kirsten Russell