Out of Control

ACTORS & WRITERS

Jenny Allen is a writer and performer. Her works include the fable collection The Long Chalkboard, and most recently, Would Everybody Please Stop?, a finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. She wrote and starred in the award-winning one-woman show I Got Sick Then I Got Better, which was produced by the New York Theatre Workshop in 2009, and performs stand-up in New York City. Allen’s writing has been featured in numerous publications, including The New Yorker, Vogue, The New York Times, Esquire, New York, Good Housekeeping, and Huffington Post, as well as the anthologies Disquiet, Please! and In The Fullness of Time: 32 Women on Life After 50.

Dmitry Biriukov (1979–2016), prose writer and essayist, was born in 1979 in Novosibirsk, Russia, where he worked as a journalist. He graduated from Novosibirsk University and later took a postgraduate course at the Institute of Philosophy and Law. He also studied at the Literary Institute in Moscow. Biriukov published stories and essays in literary journals in Siberia and in Moscow, and received Russia’s Debut Prize for his short stories in 2005.

Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) is regarded as both the greatest Russian storyteller and the father of modern drama. He wrote hundreds of short stories and several plays, including his masterpieces The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard. His works in both mediums have proved massively influential to modernist and realist movements in literature, and he is the namesake for the dramatic principle of “Chekhov’s gun.” Trained as a physician, Chekhov’s interest in social welfare led him to write the non-fiction volume Sakhalin Island, detailing conditions at a Russian penal colony, and he was well-known for his philanthropy, often treating the sick for no charge. Chekhov was awarded the Pushkin Prize in 1888 and remains one of the most iconic voices in literature.

Peter Constantine is a literary translator and editor whose translations include The Essential Writings of Rousseau, The Essential Writings of Machiavelli, and works by Tolstoy, Gogol, and Voltaire. A Guggenheim Fellow, he was awarded the PEN Translation Prize for Six Early Stories by Thomas Mann, and the National Translation Award for The Undiscovered Chekhov. Constantine has been a fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at The New York Public Library and a Berlin Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. He is currently Director of the Program in Literary Translation at the University of Connecticut and publisher of World Poetry Books.

Jane Curtin has appeared on Broadway in Noises Off, Candida, and Our Town. Her off-Broadway work includes Love Letters and the musical revue Pretzels, which she co-wrote. She starred in the television series 3rd Rock from the Sun and won back-to-back Emmy Awards for her role on Kate & Allie. She is an original cast member of Saturday Night Live and also starred in the television film series The Librarian and its spin-off, The Librarians. Her film credits include Coneheads; Antz; I Love You, Man; I Don’t Know How She Does It; The Heat; The Spy Who Dumped Me; Can You Ever Forgive Me?; and Ode to Joy. She starred on the television series Unforgettable and has had guest appearances on The Good Wife, 48 Hours ’til Monday, The Good Fight, Broad City, and most recently, United We Fall and Godmothered. Curtin will appear in the forthcoming films Welcome to Pine Grove!, Never Too Late, and Queen Bees.

Mike Doyle has appeared on screen in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Green Lantern, A Gifted Man, Jersey Boys, The Invitation, Conviction, Odd Mom Out, The Accidental Wolf, The Romanoffs, New Amsterdam, City on a Hill, and Narcos: Mexico. His stage credits include The New Century at Lincoln Center and Betrayed with the Culture Project. Doyle wrote and directed the feature film Almost Love starring Kate Walsh, Patricia Clarkson, and Scott Evans. He is currently working on his next film, Passing Through.

Cynthia Nixon made her film debut in Little Darlings at 12 years old and her Broadway debut at 14 in The Philadelphia Story. Since then she’s appeared in more than 40 plays, scores of films and television shows, and received 2 Emmys, 2 Tonys, and a Grammy Award. She is best known for her role as Miranda on HBO’s Sex and the City. In 2017, Nixon alternated the roles of Regina and Birdie with Laura Linney in Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes on Broadway, winning her 2nd Tony Award. She also appeared on numerous "best actress of 2018" lists for her portrayal of American poet Emily Dickinson in Terrence Davies' much-lauded film A Quiet Passion. Also in 2018 she ran for Governor of New York state. Currently, she can be seen in Ryan Murphy’s new Netflix series Ratched opposite Sarah Paulson and will star in Julian Fellowes’ The Gilded Age. Nixon spends a good portion of her off-time fighting for funding for New York public schools, abortion rights, and LGBT equality. She and her wife, Christine, have 3 children: Sam, Charlie, and Max.

Sam Underwood’s television credits include recurring roles on Showtime’s Dexter and Homeland, Fox’s The Following, Power on STARZ, AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead, the film adaptation of the musical Hello Again, and most recently as Adam Carrington on the reboot of Dynasty and the film The Drummer. He is the founder and artistic director of New York’s Fundamental Theater Project, with which he produced and starred in One Day When We Were Young by Nick Payne with Valorie Curry at the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. His New York theater credits include Candida at The Irish Repertory Theatre, The Picture of Dorian Gray at The Pershing Square Signature Theatre, and Equus at John Drew Theater at Guild Hall. Underwood is Creative Director of Initiative Productions, with which he has produced and starred in the short film Ophelia and his one-man show, Losing Days.

CREDITS

Translation of “Hello?” © Dimitry Biryukov. By arrangement with the author. Translation © 2011 by Arch Tait. All rights reserved.

“How to Tie-Dye” by Jenny Allen, from Would Everybody Please Stop? (Sarah Crichton Books, 2017). Copyright © 2017 by Jenny Allen. Used by permission of Abrams Artists Agency.

“From the Diary of a Hot-Tempered Man” by Anton Chekhov. Translated for this event by, and used by permission of Peter Constantine.