Phoenix Festival DIGITAL Playbill 2024 (2) - Flipbook - Page 32
WHO’S WHO: THE ARTISTS
KAREN CASE COOK (Resident Artist , Virginia Woolf) (she/her)
Karen Case Cook is both an actor and director. She is honored to
portray Virginia Woolf alongside Elise Stone as Vita Sackville-West with
Craig Smith as director. Karen has known both Craig and Elise since
1986 when we performed at the Jean Cocteau Rep in New York City.
Really? Truly? Yes! Karen also appeared in Phoenix Theatre Ensemble’s
2004 Inaugural Production of Kafka’s The Trial as The Laundress. Acting
Favorites: Dr. Vivian Bearing (Wit/NJ Theatre Best Actress Nomination), Sister Aloysius
(Doubt), Emilia (Othello), Lyubov Ranevskaya (The Cherry Orchard), among others. Directing Highlights: Crime and Punishment (Phoenix Theatre Ensemble Off-Broadway and
2023 Phoenix Festival: Live Arts in Nyack), The Skin of Our Teeth (2022 Phoenix Festival:
Live Arts in Nyack), Don Juan in Hell (Winner Best Revival and Best Director Nominee New
York Innovative Theatre Awards, Phoenix Theatre Ensemble NYC), Medea and The Furies
(Phoenix Theatre Ensemble NYC), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Peking University, Beijing),
The Guardsman (East Lynne Theater Company), The Twentieth-Century Way (Philadelphia
Premiere/Global Equality Forum), Dad Doesn’t Dance (Edinburgh Fringe) and for Stella Adler/
NYU As You Like It, The Hot L Baltimore and A Winter’s Tale. Karen is a member of Actors
Equity Association, SAG-AFTRA and the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.
CRAIG SMITH (Resident Artist/Director) (he/him)
Craig Smith was an ensemble member of New York’s prestigious Jean
Cocteau Repertory where he made his artistic home for more than
three decades, appearing in over 200 productions from Stoppard
to Shakespeare and Sophocles to Williams. In 2004, Craig and four
colleagues founded Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, an Off-Broadway
award-winning artist-directed ensemble, presenting three to six productions of new and classical works annually. The Ensemble also produces an award-winning
arts-in-education program for NYC public schools, and a new-works program, as well as a
variety of NYC community activities. The New York Times has described Craig as “one of our
most consistently 昀椀ne actors” and Playgoer.com said he is “a downtown legend.” He is the
recipient of the President of the Borough of Manhattan’s Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Arts and Community Service.
