Phoenix Festival DIGITAL Playbill 2024 (2) - Flipbook - Page 15
LEO LION (John) (they/he/she)
Leo is a director, teaching artist, and producer from Brooklyn, and
the founding Artistic Director of The Firebird Project. Leo also serves
as the Associate Artistic Director of Phoenix Theatre Ensemble and
heads their PlayCoop New Works Incubator, a home for new storytelling forms like ARG and RPG. Recent directing credits include
Rossum's Universal Robots and The Snow Queen with Firebird, Wind
in the Willows and Scandalton: LIVE with Phoenix. As a teaching artist, Leo leads workshops
in improv, playwriting, and RPG storytelling. As a genderqueer 昀椀rst-gen immigrant, Leo
seeks to create work that explores nebulous identities, placelessness, and unconventional
methods of meaning-making. | leolion.com /
@whosleolion.
JUSTIN PELOFSKY (Band)
Justin is a musician/actor currently based in New York. He is a recent graduate of Oberlin
College, where performed in a number of productions including two directed by Zoe Senese-Grossberg: At the End of the World and Hamlet. Most recently, he portrayed "Simon"
in a staged reading of Senese-Grossberg's Lay the Bent to the Bonny Broom. Along with
Wyatt Camery and Juli Worth, he played on, recorded, and produced an eponymous debut
album for their indie folk/bluegrass band Hotspur Johnny, which has been featured on two
of Spotify’s curated editorial playlists and received thousands of listens. He is currently
working on a new musical project showcasing a collection of instrumental tunes for guitar,
mandolin, and lap steel and can be found performing the material around the city.
BENNY RENDELL (Harry)(he/him)
Benny has performed in many shows with Firebird, including Romeo
in their national award-winning Romeo + Juliet. He has trained at Lee
Strasberg, H.B Studio, and the Shakespeare company New Genesis Productions, where he played roles such as Hamlet, Brutus, and
Benedick. Benny co-teaches Firebird’s teen 昀椀lmmaking classes and is
currently studying Filmmaking and Cinema Studies at Tisch NYU.
NICK ROBLEE-STRAUSS (Production Manager)
Nick is a multidisciplinary artist from rural western Massachusetts. His work has shown at
440 Gallery and Thomas van Dyke, in Brooklyn NY as well as the Granoff Center, List Art
Center, Joukowsky Institute, and Salon 149, in Providence, RI. He holds a BA in Modern Culture & Media from Brown University where he was a Royce Fellow, received Region 1 Mark of
Excellence Award for In-Depth Reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists for
his work at the College Hill Independent and his screenplay Poached won the Brown Motion
Pictures competition.
