About Us

We perform the internet.

MISSION: Lively Productions presents new work for the stage by emerging artists, and seeks to create innovative theatrical opportunities in a world increasingly defined by real time interactions and new technologies. Through the cultivation of new work and exploration of projects based on current events, trends and new media, we endeavor to expand the definition of performance today.

BLAMMO.

Lively Productions was founded in 2007 and became a registered 501(c)3 organization in June 2011. For general inquiries, please email info@livelyproductions.org.

*Our flagship project is Blogologues.*

OUR TEAM:

Allison Goldberg & Jen Jamula, co-creative directors

Allison Goldberg and Jen Jamula are co-creators of the live comedy show Blogologues and have been Co-Creative Directors of Lively Productions since August of 2010. Allison and Jen co-conceived, produced and performed in Blogologues beginning in May 2011, and were subsequently asked to take part in a six month developmental residency at Under St. Mark’s, during which time they created and performed in new versions of Blogologues every month. Blogologues has been featured in The Huffington Post, The Observer, Crushable, Metro New York, Backstage and more, and the concept has been extended to podcasts and webisodes. Last March, they were invited by CNN contributor and media maven Rachel Sklar to host and perform in a women & comedy event at South by Southwest in Austin, TX.  In addition to their stage endeavors, the duo also launched and ran the video blog whyareyouonmytrain.com from 2010-2011, where they interviewed strangers on the New York City subway. The vlog was featured in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Refinery29 on NY1 and more, and has been called “genius” and a “gem”, while Jen and Allison were praised for “their unique eye for interesting characters.” Allison and Jen both graduated from Yale and have been members of Actors’ Equity Association since 2006.

For information on public speaking classes led by Alli & Jen, please click here. You can also email Allison or Jen.

Casey Malone, production manager 

Casey is a NYC-based Production and Stage Manager, seamstress, and a Teaching Artist with Brooklyn Theatre Arts High School and Fordham School of the Arts. She received her BA in Theatre and Human Development with a focus in Social Justice from Eckerd College in 2011. Current NYC projects: IMCD Lighting, Inc. and Pinkalicious with Vital Theatre Company. She enjoys frolicking through parks, hanging out with her one-eyed pirate kitty, listening to NPR and working with the creative minds behind Lively Productions. For more information email casey@livelyproductions.org.

 

Andrew Ash, storyboard slayer, adorable

Andrew Ash is so happy to be a part of Lively Productions! New York: Lively Productions (Blogologues, The Rivals), Inwood Shakespeare Festival (Othello), TheatreWorks USA (Max & Ruby), Queens Players (A Midsummer Night’s Dream). Regional: Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park (A Christmas Carol, The Nina Variations, The Foreigner), Hangar Theatre (What Happened to Bill Viola?, Bluebeard, Two Donuts, The Wedding Reception). Film: The Cigar Collector, 101 Ways to Kill Yourself. Education: Yale University, Upright Citizens Brigade. Proud member of AEA.

Dave Thomas Brown, multimedia mastermind

Dave suffers from full blown Peter Pan syndrome and has absolutely no interest in a cure. Recent credits include: Avenue Zoo (The Bronx Zoo), These Seven Sicknesses (The Flea Theatre), Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged (Royal Pretenders), and multiple Blogologues productions. He does voice over work for early education software programs and animated film. He is a proud graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts, as well as a company member of The Flea Theatre and Ensemble Studio Theatre. Dave has also acted as projection designer for multiple iterations of Blogologues.

Matthew Cox, the original imaginator

Matthew Cox is a 2011 graduate of Tarleton State University where he received a BFA in Theatre. He is an actor, improviser, writer and musician. Recent acting credits/favorite roles includes several productions of Blogologues with Lively Productions; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Panch); The Servant of Two Masters (Smeraldina); Picasso at the Lapin Agile (Einstein); Woman in Mind (Bill Windsor); Godspell (Jesus); and Fuddy Meers (Limping Man.) He was also a head writer/featured performer for the weekly comedy group Improv at Tarleton from 2007-2011. More recently, he completed the 2011 Summer Conservatory at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, and is currently attending classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade training center. He also once ended Communism during a high profile  boxing match with Ivan Drago in Russia. He dedicates this to Adrian.

Alek Deva, development consultant

Alek is ecstatic to join the Lively Productions team! He received a degree in English with a focus in Poetry Writing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and worked nearly full time as the Master Electrician and in-house Lighting Designer at the University’s world-class Memorial Hall. He then decided to make the transition to the other side of the curtain. Alek studied for a year at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in its Performing Arts Management MFA program, during which time he produced a world premiere percussion and piano performance featuring award-winning percussionist Scott O’Toole and composer/pianist Alicia Willard. During the summer of 2012, he worked at the Weston Playhouse Theatre Company as their Marketing Associate, where he developed a dynamic and successful marketing campaign for world premiere musical Pregnancy Pact (by Gordon Leary and Julia Meinwald). In addition to his work as a development and marketing consultant for companies around New York City, Alek is Development Associate at the Drama Desk and Obie Award-winning Flea Theater. In his free time, Alek enjoys playing and composing music, studying Ancient Greek, and making terrible puns.

Wendy Joy, social mediatrix, ball of sunshine

Wendy Joy is a ball of sunshine and laughter and…yep, you guessed it JOY! At least, according to her mother. She is originally from Florida: the sunshine state (coincidence? we think not.) She studied acting and all aspects of the theatre at The University of South Florida and holds a BA in Theatre. She performs with Artistic New Directions improv team: Yes& and with Sunday Night Improv. You better have seen her in at least 1 of the 4 Blogologues she has performed in (Are You There God? It’s Me, Blogologues, Blood is Thicker than Blogologues, Blogologues: Younger Than Springtime, and Blogologues Technoganza.) That’s right, the really short one with fun short hair! She is excited and ready for all the upcoming crazy-awesome-delicious things coming forth from Lively Productions.

Adam Levinthal, car guy, randy Santa

Recent NYC credits: The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Sonnet Rep), Goodbadugly (Manhattan Rep) and Blogologues at the St. Marks Theater. A graduate of the class of 2011 from the University of the North Carolina School of the Arts, favorite roles at school include Sydney Black (Light Up The Sky) and Ben Hubbard (The Little Foxes). Adam starred in various student films at UNCSA favorites include 8 ½ inches and Vollies. Adam made his professional debut at the age of 16 in a joint production of Lost In Yonkers with the Walnut Street Theater and the Coconut Grove Playhouse.

Jackie Robinson, first African-American Major League baseball player

Jackie Renee’ Robinson (yes) is originally from the lovely town of Gulf Breeze, FL.  She recently graduated from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts with a BFA in Acting this past May.  Her most recent roles have been: various roles in Almost, Maine, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, and Princess Puffer in The Mystery of Edwin Drood.  Jackie also appeared in Blogologues Spooky Election Special: Boo-Rack Zombama Vs. Sexy Nurse Romney this past October, and is crazy excited to be a new memeber of the Lively Productions team!

 

Elaine White, webisoder 

Elaine has worked as a camera man, production assistant, director, editor, and other various production roles for everything from weddings to music videos to documentaries. An ongoing student of comedy, she is proud of her background with Cows Come Home sketch comedy troupe, Mixed Signals improv toupe, and now, at last, the Lively Productions Blogologues webisodes. She graduated in 2012 from The College of New Jersey with a degree in Radio TV & Film and a minor in Theater.

Lisa Siciliano, co-founder

Lisa Siciliano, co-founder, is an actress, director, writer, producer, and educator. For Lively Productions, Lisa has directed Everaftering by Greg Edwards and starred in Apples also by Greg. She has produced Everaftering and Other Tales, The Panda is Not My Friend cabaret, Paper Dolls by Patrick Huguenin, winner of the 2008 New York International Fringe Festival award for Outstanding Ensemble, Episcus and Edendus, and Apples.  Since moving to the Windy City in the fall of 2008, Lisa has taught with Lifeline Theatre, American Theatre Company, ARCC Ballet, Emerald City Theatre, Lasalle Language Academy, the Swedish American Museum, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and with the Columbia College Summer Arts Camp.  Currently, Lisa is the Education Manager at Emerald City Theatre. In Chicago, she has served as the executive director of the State Theatre while directing a devised production based on Virginia Woolf’s life and fiction novels for the company, A Crowded House.  She recently directed Laura Nessler’s Etiquette for a Golden Age for the City Lit Adaptation Festival.  Lisa graduated cum laude and with distinction in the theatre studies major from Yale University in 2005 and is currently a graduate student at Northwestern pursuing her master’s of science in education.  Learn more at www.lisasiciliano.com.

Interns:

Charlotte Kaufman, upstart

Charlotte is a rising senior at the Lycée Français de New York. She is an avid theater-goer and is the co-director of the Student Run English Theater group at her school. She co-wrote the most recent English Theater performance titled “Fakers”. She has been doing a lot of creative research for Lively Productions and is working hard to increase the organization’s media presence. She is thrilled to be a part of this exciting phase of the organization and to be working with such a creative group of people!

 

Past Members:

Greg Edwards, playwright, comrade

Back when we did “real” plays, Greg was our man. He’s still our man, only now in the form of ridiculous parodies such as “Blogologues Killed The Video Star.” 

Greg Edwards is a Manhattan-based lyricist and librettist, essayist, playwright, and adventure game designer. His plays, musicals, and songs have been performed across the country, including at a White House dinner for the President and fifty governors; and he placed second for the 2010 Fred Ebb Award for Musical Theatre Songwriting. Representative musicals include The Rivals (BMI, Lively Productions), “Taking the Plunge” (New York Musical Theatre Festival, Sam French Festival Finalist, Lively Productions), “Episcus and Edendus” (BMI, Lively Productions), and several songs with Marvin Hamlisch (White House, Mr. Hamlisch’s Holiday Tour). His plays include A Crowded House (State Theatre of Chicago), “Diplomatic Relations” (Lively Productions), “Everaftering” (Lively Productions), and “Home-Cooked: A Cautionary Tale” (Jimmy’s No. 43). His computer game Jessica Plunkenstein and the Dusseldorf Conspiracy was published internationally and received acclaim from such arbiters of adventure gamely taste as the New York Times and PC Gamer UK. His Roman-themed game The Judgment of Quintus is currently in development. Greg graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University with a B.S. in Theater Studies and Computer Science. He’s now a member of the Dramatists Guild and the advanced BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Writing Workshop.

Consider stalking him at www.greged.com or contacting him at Greg@livelyproductions.org.

Jessica Schnall, cat lady, third wheel

Jessica Schnall, a writer, newspaper copy editor and life partner to cats Teva and Isabel, feels intimidated about having her anemic bio listed here, because she’s in the company of accomplished theater types who have lots of achievements to denote between parentheses. As she’s never been published anywhere worth mentioning, and she’ll probably never pursue a career onstage thanks to her stoic disposition, she will repurpose parentheses to overshare. (She’s seen Elton John in concert more than 30 times.) (Her mom has accused her of having a “Julie Andrews fetish,” which she took as a compliment.) (Apparently, she has a thing for British geriatrics.) Genetically inherited indifference be damned, Jessica couldn’t be happier that, through interweb magic, ladies who ‘logue Allison Goldberg and Jen Jamula stumbled upon her blog, Alone … With Cats, performed her posts in several Blogologues shows and then invited her on board. It wasn’t the sort of love she had been searching for online, but it is really, really awesome. (Suck it, internet dating.)

Past Interns: