Phoenix Festival DIGITAL Playbill 2024 (2) - Flipbook - Page 21
WHO’S WHO: THE ARTISTS
JESSICA CRANDALL (Resident Artist) (she/her)
Jessica is a singer and actress based in NYC, and is proud to be a Resident Artist of Phoenix Theatre Ensemble! Her singing has been called
“exquisite” and “extraordinary” (Inside Press), her acting “radiant” and
“luminous” (theaterscene). Jessica was nominated for an Innovative
Theatre Award (Outstanding Featured Actress) for her performance
as Cassandra in Agamemnon at La MaMa. Her CD with Ellen, “I So
Liked Spring: Jessica Crandall Sings Music by Ellen Mandel,” can be found on Amazon,
Spotify, and YouTube. In addition to the many concerts Jessica and Ellen have performed
together in NYC and beyond, Jessica has sung jazz in Bryant Park with pianist Joel Forrester, improvised musical versions of Shakespeare’s sonnets at West Park Presbyterian with
composer Carman Moore, and premiered a new song cycle based on Khalil Gibran’s book
The Madman with composer Alex Wakim. Projects with Phoenix include playing Miss Prism
in The Importance of Being Earnest and the Fortune Teller in The Skin of Our Teeth, and
starring in The Domino Heart, which received an extended run. She recently played Alma
in the Tennessee Williams play Summer and Smoke for VOICETheatre. Other favorite roles
include Rose of Sharon in The Grapes of Wrath at Trinity Rep; Antigone in Burial at Thebes at
La MaMa; and Isabella in Measure for Measure at the Warehouse Theatre in SC, where she
was a company member for two years. Jessica was nominated for an Innovative Theatre
Award (Outstanding Featured Actress) for playing Cassandra in Agamemnon at La MaMa,
and has an MFA in acting from Brown/Trinity Rep.
ELLEN MANDEL (Resident Artist)(she/her)
Ellen Mandel, composer, has written many songs to texts by E.E.
Cummings, Seamus Heaney, WB Yeats, Thomas Hardy, Charlotte
Mew, and others. Her most recent project is a cycle of fourteen songs
inspired by Edward Hopper paintings. Mandel’s songs have been
performed in many concerts in New York City including Tribeca New
Music Festival, St. Mark’s Church, Klavierhaus, Cornelia Street Cafe,
and the Century Center; the Sirena Poetry Festival(PA), the In-Series (Wash DC); Florio
Street Concerts and SF Conservatory (CA), the New Gallery Concerts in Boston; and in
concerts and recitals all over the USA. Also at the Kilkenny Arts Festival (Ireland), and in
concerts in Scotland, England, Italy, and Germany. New York Times raves: “Mandel’s songs
are ardent and spiky...refreshingly organic.” Ms. Mandel has written music for over ninety
plays. As resident composer of the Phoenix Theatre Ensemble she composed music for the
Phoenix Festivals of 2022 (Importance of Being Earnest, Skin of Our Teeth, and Harmfulness
of Tobacco) and 2023 (Crime and Punishment). Scenie Award: music for Top Girls, Antaeus
