Vladimir

NORBERT LEO BUTZ (Sema) is a two-time Tony Award winner for Best Actor in a Musical and is one of only nine actors ever to have won the award twice as lead actor. He first won for his work in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and won again for his work in Catch Me If You Can. He was additionally nominated for Tonys for his work in Thou Shalt Not and My Fair Lady. The star of 11 Broadway shows, he is also a five-time Drama Desk nominee and two-time winner, amongst other stage accolades. On television, Butz most recently starred on FX’s “Justified” reboot and has previously starred on Hulu’s “The Girl from Plainville,” David Zabel and Ridley Scott’s “Mercy Street” on PBS, “Bloodline” on Netflix, as Paddy Chayefsky in “Fosse/Verdon” for F/X, and “Debris” for NBC. He will next be seen on Ryan Murphy’s “American Sports Story.” Films include the recent Exorcist: Believer for Universal; Sean Penn’s Flag Day; Peter Hedges’ Dan in Real Life; Sony’s Higher Ground opposite and directed by Vera Farmiga; Craig Zisk's The English Teacher; Better Living Through Chemistry opposite Sam Rockwell; 2020 Sundance pic Luce, directed by Julius Onah; and the recent indie comedy, Give or Take. He will next be seen in the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown for Searchlight. He received a BFA and Honorary Doctorate from Webster University and an MFA from Alabama Shakespeare Theatre.

FRANCESCA FARIDANY (Raya). Broadway: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Macbeth, Man and Boy, The 39 Steps, The Homecoming. London/Stratford: The Empress (RSC). Off-Broadway: The Miser (MIP), The Half-life of Marie Curie, This Day Forward, The NY Idea, Orlando, The Stronger. Regional highlights: Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Carmel Bach Festival), Helen Hayes Best Actress Award for Strange Interlude (Shakespeare Theatre, DC), Julia in Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance (McCarter), title role in her own adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s Fräulein Else (Sundance Theater Lab, Berkeley Rep., La Jolla, Long Wharf, McCarter Theaters), Narrator in the Sitwell/Walton Façade (Caramoor Music Festival), Cassandra in Agamemnon (Getty Villa), As You Like It (Shakespeare Theatre), and many productions with director Stephen Wadsworth, including As You Like It, The Oresteia, Don Juan, Design for Living, An Ideal Husband, Changes of Heart, The Game of Love and Chance. Film: She Came To Me, False Positive, Black Panther, Love After Love, The Audition, Closing Night, Conceiving Ada. TV: “Girls on the Bus,” “The Blacklist,” “Hunters,” “Bull,” “Manifest,” “FBI,” “Homeland,” “Law & Order,” “True Crime: The Menendez Murders,” “Falling Water,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “E.R.,” “Deadline.” Training: The Drama Centre, London.

ERIK JENSEN (Andrei) is an actor, writer, and director. TV acting credits include ABC's “For Life” and over 100 other film/TV shows including his role as NY Yankee Thurman Munson in “The Bronx is Burning” opposite John Turturro. Theater: The Collaboration (Broadway, MTC) Disgraced (Lincoln Center), The Good Negro (Public Theater), Corpus Christi and Y2K (MTC), and as Lester Bangs in the critically acclaimed How To Be A Rock Critic (CTG, Steppenwolf, The Public), which he wrote with wife Jessica Blank. With Jess, Erik also wrote The Exonerated (Outer Critics Circle, Lortel, Drama Desk Awards), Aftermath (NYTW, two Drama League nominations), The Line (The Public) and Coal Country (The Public, Cherry Lane/Audible, Lortel nomination for Outstanding Play, two Drama Desk nominations) with music by Steve Earle. The duo has written TV for Fox, 20th TV, Gaumont, Levinson/Fontana, David Simon/Blown Deadline and Ed Burns. Their first feature as writer/directors, Almost Home, was released by Vertical. Their second, Brooklyn, Minnesota (starring Amy Madigan) will have its major festival premiere this fall.

OLIVIA DEREN NIKKANEN (Galina) is thrilled to be back with MTC. A born and raised New Yorker, she is most known for her role as Gwen in Netflix’s hit show, “The Society,”  as well as Young Alex on The CW’s “Supergirl.” She was last with MTC in the Broadway company of Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes. Her most recent short, Tea, was an official selection in competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. She can next be seen in Max’s upcoming movie, Sweethearts, slated for later this year.

JONATHAN WALKER (Jim). Jonathan Walker’s Broadway credits include The Assembled Parties (MTC, Dir. Lynne Meadow), Twentieth Century (Dir. Walter Bobbie), After the Fall (Dir. Michael Mayer), Rocky (Dir. Alex Timbers). Numerous Off-Broadway credits include world premieres of plays by Richard Greenberg, Donald Margulies, Lorena Gale, Doug Wright, Wendy McCloud, James Lapine, Thulani Davis, Martin Sherman, Peter Parnell, and Charles Busch. Theaters include MCC, The Public Theater, Shakespeare in the Park, Playwrights Horizons, Primary Stages, Roundabout, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Cherry Lane, Soho Playhouse, The New Group. Regional theaters include The Guthrie, Berkeley Repertory, Yale Repertory, Dorset Playhouse, Westport Playhouse, La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe, The Sharon Playhouse, Geva Theater. TV credits include “Bull,” “The Blacklist,” “The Endgame,” “Bluebloods,” “Madam Secretary,” “Quantico,” “Daredevil” (recurring), “Person of Interest,” “Elementary,” “The Good Wife,” “Zero Hour” (recurring), “The Carrie Diaries” (recurring), “The Big C,” “Sex and the City,” “Chapelle’s Show,” lots of “Law And Order” and the upcoming Ryan Murphy mini-series, “Gladiator.” Films include The Chaperone, Bridge of Spies, It Had to be You, Man on a Ledge, Michael Clayton, People I Know, Heights, Far From Heaven.