Linda Kuriloff (Writer & Performer)

Studied acting at the Yale School of Drama, where she got her MFA and Howard University and where she received her BFA.  Further training came from classes with Folger Shakespeare Theater, Circle In the Square, American Conservatory Theatre, and the Actors Center.  Acting for television training came from Upright Citizens Brigade, Chicago City Limits, Joanna Beckson, Acting for Commercials (DC), and Paul Cook’s TV Actors Studio (Chgo).   

 

Ms. Kuriloff worked in such theatres as the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, New York Shakespeare Festival, New Victory Theatre, Crossroads, Theatre for a New Audience, Ubu Repertory, Kennedy Center, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Long Wharf, the Yale Repertory, Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Asolo Center for the Performing Arts, and Chicago Theatre Company.   

To her television credits, she played a recurring role in a short-lived pilot called “3 lbs,” starring Stanley Tucci.  She also played various characters on daytime serials, “One Life to Live,” “All My Children” and “Loving.”  Her film credits include “Down to Earth” with Chris Rock, “Everyone Says I Love You” written and directed by Woody Allen, and “Angie” directed by Martha Coolidge.   Currently, Linda's day job is as a Work Readiness Instructor in the Bronx, but for several years prior, she trained urban youth in leadership skills, acting and writing. 

 

Linda also served as Director of Programs, Teacher, and Curriculum Development Specialist of the Education & Industry Partnership whose mission was to empower youth from at-risk communities to bridge the transition from school to the work world through exposure to life skills training and professional role models.  Further, she taught acting for television, with an emphasis on commercials at John Robert Powers Acting School (Long Island) and continues to book private session clients at her own Next Stage Studio. 

Geoffrey Owens (Director)

Since graduating from Yale University in 1983, Geoffrey Owens has worked as an actor, director and teacher in theater, television and film.  Mr. Owens recently appeared in productions of Race at the Goodman Theatre (Chicago), Opus at Two River Theatre, Timon of Athens at the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival and Julius Caesar (as ‘Casca’) at the Shakespeare Theater Company (Washington D.C.). He has done roles -- including Romeo, Richard the Third, Othello and Puck -- at numerous theaters (including the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Long Wharf Theater, the Hartford Stage Company and the Williamstown Theater Festival), with directors such as Joseph Papp, A.J. Antoon, James Lapine, Brian Kulick, Mark Lamos, Joe Dowling, Derek Anson Jones and Estelle Parsons. He also played ‘Tigellinus’ in Oscar Wilde’s Salome, with Al Pacino.

 

On film, he has appeared in Wilde Salome (directed by Al Pacino), Stonebrook (with Seth Green), The Paper (directed by Ron Howard), Play the Game (with Andy Griffith), and Dreams. 

 

His television credits include The Cosby Show and Built to Last, as well as appearances on Without a Trace, Boston Legal, Medium, Journeyman, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Las Vegas, The Wedding Bells, Law and Order, Law and Order S.V.U., The Guiding Light, That’s So Raven, The Secret Life of the American Teenager and Flash Forward. 

 

As a director, Owens has staged productions of King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, Richard III, As You Like It, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Tartuffe, as well as one-act plays by Chekhov, Overruled by Shaw, Mamet’s American Buffalo, Athol Fugard’s Statements Made After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act and William Mastrosimone’s Tamer of Horses.

 

In Los Angeles, he directed Macbeth for the Circus Theatricals Theatre Company and co-directed (with Lee M. Cohn) the popular show Inside Private Lives. He recently directed a 21-member cast in Irwin Shaw’s Bury the Dead at the HB Playwrights Foundation.

 

As a teacher, he has worked at the Herbert Berghof (HB) Studio, Yale University, the Gene Frankel Studio, and the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training.  Mr. Owens is the founder and artistic director of The Brooklyn Shakespeare Company and is the recipient of the BACA Brooklyn Bridge Award and the Danny Kaye Award.
He studied acting with Uta Hagen, Nikos Psacharapoulos and Austin Pendleton.

 

Antoine J. Thrower (Production Stage Manager)

has enjoyed working in theatre for the last 17 years, working in almost every capacity. He has Stage Managed, Acted, Produced, and Designed lights to name a few. He has also worked with many theatre companies including The Negro Ensemble Company, New Federal Theatre, Richard Allen Center for Culture and Art, and many others.  Most recently he has appreciated working behind the scenes as a Lighting Technician and Programmer at Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Trinity Broadcasting Network, and The French Institute. He is also part of a trio that created a non-for-profit company, Art Defined Productions, which is a theatre company that is run by artists to produce all levels of art, including Poetry, Dance, Musical Theatre, and everything in between. He is happy and proud to be a part of this production as he continues his creative journey.

 

Candace Lunn (Stage Manager) is a writer/stage manager based in NYC and thrilled to work on Linda Means to Wait.  She was most recently SM for Nora Cole's Voices of the Spirit in My Soul at USI - Evansville and GEVA Theater in Rochester and Dr. May Edward Chinn at the NC Black Repertory.  She was SM for RACCA's entry in the Public Theater’s 365 Days/365 Plays Festival, the Pearl Cleage Convergence, for which she also assisted with dramaturgy; Collaborationtown’s Townville at La Mama and Lyle Cogen’s Sticks and Stones at Tilles Center for the Performing Arts. Candace was a quarterfinalist for the WB’s 2005 Sitcom Writers Workshop, directed a reading of her play, Showtime, Or How I learned to Love the 1-2 Punch at Theater for the New City and currently house manages at Playwrights Horizons.

 

Petol Weekes (Authorized Company Representative)

is incredibly honored to be a part of "Linda Means to Wait." Petol is an actress, theatre and film producer. Her most recent performance credits include supporting roles in SAG short films "Loaded" and "Courage" and onstage in the Infinite Variety Production's (IVP) presentation of Shirley Lauro's play "A Piece Of My Heart."  She also was a Line Producer for the award winning short film "Metal Gear."  She will next be seen in the stage production "How We Are Connected" with the New International Center for Diverse Artists (NICODA) and "Eclipsed" with Infinite Variety Productions (IVP) where she is also the co-producer.  For more of her credits please check out her website at www.petolweekes.com.

JuLondre Brown (Marketing)

JuLondre Karlveon Brown is proud of his name – even though the first tends to make things awkward, the middle is unique (to say the least), and he doesn’t really know the origin of the last. JuLondre has strong (albeit ever-changing) beliefs, and feels intensely, which is sometimes shocking, aggravating, debilitating, and arguably dangerous – but also wonderful, fortifying, and always welcome. 

He is committed to a life of transformative creativity; using his experiences or lack thereof, nurtured imagination, and the stirrings of his soul (among other things) to make the world better through (critical) investigation, challenge, revelation, and (deeper) understanding. JuLondre strongly values and believes in the diversity and interconnectedness of both the African Diaspora from which he came and the larger global melting pot. As an artist, activist and scholar, he is working in multiple mediums to bring about positive social and personal change.  As he continues to grow, JuLondre sees life as a blessed struggle; indeed, he is ever-thankful for the myriad giants who have so often and magnanimously offered their shoulders for him to stand on, and their hands to protect and stoke his flame. 

JuLondre was born and raised in Flint, Michigan, and earned his B.A. in Anthropology from Yale University in 2010. At Yale he served two terms as artistic director of Heritage Theatre Ensemble, was awarded the Paul H. and Brigitte P. Fry Cup for Artistic Achievement by Ezra Stiles College, and was also awarded two Excellence in Artistry Awards by the Afro-American Cultural Center. JuLondre apprenticed at Yale Repertory Theatre and completed the Directing Internship at Williamstown Theatre Festival. He is based in New York City.