Joshua Grenrock/Catherine Schreiber (Writers)

Joshua and Catherine met when they starred together in Sleeping Giants at the Front Row Theatre in LA. Catherine graduated from Yale University, B.A. in English, Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa; Joshua from the Juilliard School of Drama. They have been writing together ever since. Together and separately, they have completed over twelve feature scripts and many TV treatments. Their scripts have been optioned/developed by Freddie Fields, Ian Sanders, Hunt Lowry at Disney, David Ladd,  Avenue Pictures, Kate Hudson's Cosmic Entertainment, among others. They had a series in development with Steve Cannell at CBS. Catherine wrote several produced Divorce Courts and had features in development with Thom Mount and Rastar. She was a co-creator of the Stalin mini-series developed at CBS.  Financing is now being completed for Catherine and Joshua’s family feature, Hoppily Ever After. 

Finalists in the Chesterfield Writer’s Competition for Hoppily Ever After and DNA Dad. Semi Finalists in the 2007 American Screenwriters Association Competition and second round in the 2007 Slamdance Writers Competition for Desperate Writers, the film version. 

Catherine and Joshua are both happily married (but not to one another). And both are blessed with two wonderful children.

AND both are thrilled to have such a superb director as the incomparable Kay Cole and such a talented cast as the Desperate Writers family to make their words come alive.

Kay Cole (Director) As a director, her credits include: The Dining Room, The Flunky, Desperate Writers, American Tales, No Strings, The World Goes ‘Round, Mommy Mommy! BARK! Nuncrackers, Judy’s Scary Little Christmas, A Year with Frog and Toad,  A Chorus Line,  I’m Getting My Act Together,  Robber Bridegroom, Grass Harp,  She’s A Handful,  Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Sing,  Country, Wild Women Blues, Sony Pictures Broadway. Her inventive choreography and staging credits include: It’s the Housewives, Great Expectations, Assassins, Pirates Of Penzance,  Cabaret, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, South Pacific, Triumph of Love, I Do I Do, Actor, Lawyer, Indian Chief, Dancing at Lughnasa,  Take Me Along, The Baker’s Wife,  Chang and Eng.  Pasadena Playhouse: Under One Umbrella, 110 in the Shade, Do I Hear A Waltz.  Hollywood Bowl: Sound of Music, Bernsteins’ Mass,  Mame,  My Fair Lady, Music Man, Camelot.  Reprise! Broadway: Three Penny Opera,  Fiorello, City of Angels,  Company, On The 20^th Century, Follies,  Sweeney Todd,  Most Happy Fella.  Geffen Playhouse: Atlanta, Paint Your Wagon, Six Dances in Six Weeks. Hudson Theatre: Grave White Way.  Kirk Douglas Theatre: Gaytino, Dogeaters. Falcon Theatre: Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks. Antaeus Theatre: Tonight at 8:30.  Playwrights Arena: The Next Step, Songs For A New World.  Shakespeare LA: As You Like It,  Comedy of Errors. Broadway: Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks (Belasco Theatre,). London West End: The Fantasticks , Snoopy, Blockheads.  She recently moved into film and television, directing Country Rules, THQ, Waiting in Line, and choreographing  Guidepost Junction, Ella,  Jekyll and Disney’s Santa Clause 3, Awakening of Spring. She also teaches Acting for Film and Television at Emerson College LA Annex and UCLA’s Musical Theatre Conservatory. She is the proud recipient of the 2006 Playwrights Arena Award for her outstanding contribution to Los Angeles Theatre.

Jennifer Powdermaker – (Stage Manager) Jennifer is pleased to rejoin Desperate Writers for its second production as Stage Manager and lighting operator. Hailing from Philadelphia she gained her first experience in theater at her high school summer stage program.

After pursuing her craft at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, N.Y.C. and working in regional theater, she made the transition to LA where she has worked at such venues as the Ford Amphitheater, the LA Convention Center and the Edgemar Center for the Arts.

Jennifer would like to extend her heartfelt thanks to the Producers & Director of Desperate Writers for this wonderful opportunity, to the staff of the Edgemar Center for being such supportive hosts during this production and to our wonderful cast & crew for their hard work and dedication.

Michael Lamont (Photography, Videography) Michael has had a diversified career, starting as a child actor in New York. After eighteen years, eleven Broadway productions, and two years with Sanford Meisner in his intensive Professional Actors Class, he relocated to Los Angeles. After numerous roles in episodic television, he discovered a new passion. He had always been fascinated with photography, but when a friend asked him to shoot his headshots, his world changed. He was able to draw on all his experience, particularly his work with Sandford Meisner, in drawing out and directing the emotional life of the shoot. He was suddenly being recommended by agents and casting directors. While in a shoot, his agent called and he heard himself say “ I can’t talk to you now, I’m shooting”. He knew his journey had changed. He remembered Sandy saying, “ You can only commit to one passion at a time”. Photography became his only passion.

    Starting with headshots, he expanded into shooting theatre production. In 1989 he was sponsored by Universal Studios to join I.A.T.S.E. Local 600, International Cinematographers Guild. In 1997, he again expanded his talent and vision, shooting his first feature film. As Director of Photography he has shot features, shorts, and pilots.

     From his No Ho studio, he continues to shoot headshots, celebrity portraits, CD covers, posters, marketing, publicity,

and production video. His clients have included The Geffen Playhouse, Reprise, McCoy Rigby Entertainment, The Getty Villa, Colony Theatre, East West Players, No Ho Arts Center, Salem K Theatre Co. Havok Theatre Co., Cornerstone Theater,  and GMC/LA.

     “Every shoot is like an improv, it has it’s own life. In the end, it is always about the specific emotional life, natural behavior, working moment to moment, and being well lit. Combining these elements with the artistry and experience of the photographer to create and capture the moment”.     www.michaellamont.com

François-Pierre Couture (Set and Lighting Design) Mr. Couture moved from Montréal to Los Angeles to study theatre at UCLA. After successfully completing his masters degree in scenic and lighting design in 2006, he joined The Actors’ Gang Theatre and designed the scenery and lighting for the critically acclaimed production of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost. This past year, François-Pierre was nominated for an Ovation Award for his scenic design of A Picasso at the Geffen Playhouse and received a Garland Award for the scenery of The Quality of Life, at the Geffen Playhouse. Other productions he has designed include: scenery for Beethoven as I knew Him at the San Diego Old Globe Theatre and the Geffen playhouse; scenery for The Taming of the Shrew for Shakespeare festival LA; scenery and lighting for KLÜB and Gulliver’s Travels, at the Actors Gang Theatre; lighting for Evel Knievel the Rock Opera at the Bootleg Theatre; scenery and lighting for Melancholia at the Los Angeles Theatre Center.

Mike Shear (Sound Design)

Mike Shear is a producer/engineer for SST and Lexicon Devil Records. He graduated from the Hartt School at the University of Hartford. Mike made the transition from performer to tech during his high school years when he started to work on setting up nightclubs instead of performing as a guitarist in the New England Area. During college, he worked for the Iron Horse Entertainment Group, a company that operates several venues in western Massachusetts.  He then transitioned from working mostly nightclub gigs into the much more civilized world of theater. He has been working on productions at Edgemar since 2004.