The Spooky One-Act Play Festival Cast

Emily Bystrak is thrilled to be in the live theatrical production of the Spooky One Act Play Festival! While no stranger to Spooky One Acts, this is her first time appearing in the stage performance. Last year she played Wendy in Severance for the Spooky One Act Film Festival, and the year before that GBP performed her spooky play submission, The Importance of Filing. This year Emily also starred as Morticia Maxwell in Out of the Box, GBP's submission for the 48 Hour Film Festival. She delivered the required line of dialogue, which was nominated for Best Use of Line.

Ashton DeCaro is a 23 year old recent graduate of Niagara University's theatre program. By day, he is a grocery store manager who suffers for the people. By night, he makes others suffer under the guise of such monsters as Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors (puppeteer), Trolls and Yetis in On The Verge: The Geography of Yearning, and a first time murderer in The Jolly Murderer.

Audrey Grout, of Rochester, NY, has a theatre BFA and English BA with minors in asl and design and production from Niagara University. Notable roles include: She Kills Monsters (Angus), Much Ado About Nothing (Dogberry), Firebugs (Babette), some girls (sam), and nurt and tya in 2018 and 2019. She also specializes in costume and prop construction. Her professional credits include costume designing at aquinas institute (Shrek, Into the woods) as well as cosplaying professionally as sewextra cosplay. She has performed with Green Buffalo Productions during their Quarantine Quarters reading, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and with Method Machine in Grimm’s Mad Tales.

Juli Grygier is an actress, artist and certified Halloween freak from Buffalo, NY! Bad Karma is the first short play that she has submitted to Green Buffalo, but she has had the opportunity to work with GBP as an actress on multiple projects throughout the past two years. Juli took a several year hiatus from theater to pursue a graduate degree in Higher Ed Administration and currently works at an education technology company in Buffalo, where she also does voice over work. Previous favorite roles include: Jazz in Liquidation, Cassie in Neil Simon's Rumors, Dora Strang in Equus, and performing in several 48 & 24 hour local film competitions. Juli also runs a small illustration business; find her on instagram @JuliaStradaArt

Sarah Hill is an Indigenous performer who lives in Buffalo, New York. She is thrilled and grateful to be doing another spooky show with Green Buffalo Productions! Sarah joined GBP in 2019 in the 48 Hour Film Project and was featured in two films for their 2020 Spooky One Act Film Festival! Her recent credits include: Angela in Keep A Little Soul by Madison Sedlor that debuted Off-Off Broadway in August of 2019, Ado Annie in Oklahoma! with Lake Plains Players, Mary Hatch/Bailey in the Radio Play: It's A Wonderful Life with the Carriage House Players, and I'll Drink to That with Inclusive Theater of WNY. She'd like to thank her family and friends for their constant support. She'd also like to thank GBP for creating the opportunity to make art during such uncertain times. Special thanks to Madison Sedlor and Lance Anderson for their encouragement and support. HI MOM

Kaylie Horowitz (She/They) is a professional actor and voice actor hailing from central Florida. She holds a BFA in Performance from Auburn University and is currently pursuing her Masters in Theatre Performance at The University at Buffalo. Previous credits include Antigone, Nell Gwyn (PLAYHOUSE CREATURES), and Veranda (CROSSING THE BAY). She hopes to one day work full time as an actor and teacher, but for now she is thankful for the opportunities to continue to develop her skills and push herself further in storytelling and character creation. In her spare time, Kaylie enjoys video games, TTRPG campaigns, and spamming the group chat with memes.

Luis Maisonet is making his Green Buffalo Productions debut in Karma and Anniversary. This is Luis first debut after a 3-year hiatus from Theatre. Favorite roles include Abraham in Number the Stars, Sam in How the Grinch Stole Christmas. He is vocally trained and enjoys musical theatre and any music scene. He is a member and student of the Community Music School Glee Club and Starring Buffalo Chorus. He is also a graduate of Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts with a degree in theatre. When not on a stage he enjoys exploring every social event in Buffalo. Thank you to Green Buffalo Productions and puppy Leo for being supportive. Instagram: @StevenDevitoo

Maryna Seufert is an actor, artist, and writer based in Buffalo, NY. She is just coming back to the arts after a long break for college and is eager to make her debut in our Spooky One Act plays! Maryna will be playing Violet Bick in an upcoming production of “It’s A Wonderful Life” with Springville Center for the Arts in December.

Sarah Henderson is a Writer Director and Actress that has been working with Green Buffalo Productions for about 3 years now. She's been in plays such as Dracula and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and a film called The Wilderness Night. She is currently directing a short film she wrote called Look Up and has written a short film for last year's Spooky Short Films called Homeless Haunters Anonymous, and several plays for GBP's Quarantine Quarters. She started with GBP as an actor in a Spooky Play called When the Skeletons in Your Closet Choke on Candy Corn and is super excited to be directing Bad Karma and Anniversary for this year's Spooky One Act Plays!

Mariangela Mercurio is an performer and director from Buffalo, NY. She graduated from Niagara University in 2019 with BFA in Theatre Performance and Marketing Management. She is also a Musical Theatre teacher for Elements Dance center in Hamburg, NY. She is directing two plays for Spooky One Acts, “Victoria” and “All Lives Lead to Death”. She was last seen singing in “Singing in the Streets”, a cabaret put on by Green Buffalo Productions. Previous Directing credits include “How to Hunt a Wampsnackle” (Windows Theatre) , “A Very Cancelled Christmas” (No Regrets Theatre Company), “The Prisoner” - A Study on Brecht and Stanislavski (Niagara University Independent Study), “You Have Arrived” (Niagara University Short Play Festival), and assistant directed/dramaturg “The Wolves” ( Niagara University Theatre). She also stage managed “Catch 22” with Subversive Theatre. She is very excited to be working with Green Buffalo again, and hopes to continue learning, growing and making new discoveries. Thank you to my mom, my friends new and old for all the support and love, and especially my cast and Maddy Sedlor for giving me opportunies to make new connections and stretch my creativity.

Kayla Victoria Reumann is a Buffalo director and actress who recently graduated from Niagara University with a B.F.A. degree in Theatre Performance and Spanish. Kayla has been very active over quarantine, working with a myriad of companies and branching out into voice acting, playwriting, and podcasting in addition to acting and directing. Kayla is passionate about theater and directing all things comedy because she believes theater should make people forget their troubles while seated in the audience, laughing uproariously. Some of her favorite past work includes directing SYLVIA by A.R. Gurney and GREEN DATING by Chantal Bilodeau (NU Theater) and performing throughout England in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM. Kayla could not be more excited to be working with GBP on this project.

Bella Poynton is a playwright, director, and theatre scholar from Buffalo, NY. Her plays have been produced and developed nationwide in Buffalo, New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Oklahoma City, Boston, Omaha, and Pittsburgh just to name a few. Recently, her short play The Offer was published in The Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2019 (Smith & Krauss) and her play Eleven Thing that Almost Happened to Rick and Hannah… appeared in The Best American Short Plays 2018-2019 (Applause Publishing). Poynton is a co-editor of Interventions at Contemporary Theatre Review and serves as the Graduate Liaison for the Mid America Theatre Festival’s Playwriting Symposium. This past year, her play Medusa Undone was produced at 3rd Act Theatre Company in Oklahoma City OK, and her play The Mighty Maisie was chosen as the full-length selection for Region 2 at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival #53. MFA, Iowa Playwrights Workshop; PhD(c) SUNY Buffalo.

Justin Pope is an actor and a playwright from Tonawanda, NY, who has his BFA in Theatre Performance with a focus in Playwriting from Niagara University. He’s devoted to his passions of playwriting, acting, and playing video games! Some of his acting credits include Potato People in School Daze (Papa Potato), Is He Dead? (Leroux), Legally Blonde (Callahan), Unearthed (Klaude), and The Love Astronaut (Humph) as well as a season of touring with NURT doing children’s theatre across WNY. As for the field of playwriting, Justin has a wide repertoire of short plays he’s written, along with work on monologues and full lengths. He aims to bring more elements of science fiction and absurdity to modern theatre. Many of his short plays were produced online with Green Buffalo Production’s Quarantine Quarters and 2018 Emerald Terrace, and some pieces have been produced in a few other parts of the country (including places like Chicago!) You can catch him acting in Something Wicked, coming soon to Buffalo in 2021 with the Compass Performing Arts Center! For any kind of inquiries at all, including fulfilling any curiosities on finding out about his long list of strange short plays (which are always available for reading!), you can gleefully contact him at [email protected]. Reach out and just say hi if you want!

j. Snodgrass lives in Buffalo with his wife and their four children. He has really enjoyed working with GBP in the last couple years, including the 2019 one-act series In Crazy Love. He is the author of Thirteenth Moon: A Star*Lite Fantasy and Not I: A Backstage Travesty in Verse, and other things at j-snodgrass.com

Madison Sedlor is proud to present GBP's the fourth annual Spooky One Act Play Festival LIVE this year and better than ever! Past Producer Credits Include: 2018 Emerald Terrace, Liquidation, Once We Were Lost (48 Hour Film Festival) In Crazy Love, You & Me and three other Spooky One Act Festivals/Films (GBP) Madison is a local actor, producer, and playwright who is proud to call Buffalo her home. Her play, Keep a Little Soul was produced Off-Off Broadway at the New Thrills One Act Festival In the summer of 2019 and continues to be produced around the country. We’re so glad Buffalo theatre is back and thriving and welcome all GBP cast and crew members -- new and old -- back to the stage where we belong! We started up four years ago with our first Spooky Show and it is only fitting that our grand re-opening starts right back here! Sending a ton of love to Mom, Dad, and John for their continuous love and support. #spookylives

Ellen C. Scherer is a writer, director, and co-founder of Green Buffalo Productions (GBP), based in Buffalo, NY. Recent publications include Vulnerably Confident, I Got Nothing (Too Well Away). A Year of Fruit (Spirited Muse Press), I'll Drink to That (The Literatus), and RCVI: Gun Violence (Rosen Publishing). Other writing credits include 2020 Was My Year (A Moment of Your Time), When the Party's Over (Cone Man Running), I Was Here (Equity Library Theatre, Open Space Arts, Inclusive Theatre of WNY), I've Got Your Back (GBP), Scary Monsters (GBP, Inclusive Theatre of WNY) Ellen has directed and produced several pieces for GBP over the past 3 years and has recently added to her bag of tricks as a film editor for the company’s Spooky Film Festival. Twitter: ellen_gbp IG: green_bflo

Zack Hatrick is a writer/director/editor from Buffalo NY. Zack loves working with Green Buffalo Productions and bringing the stories of local writers to life, previously directing for the Spooky Film Festival, writing for Quarantine Quarters, and currently hosts the podcast Celluloid Stage with Ellen Scherer and is acting as the director of photography on Look Up!

Leyla Gentil is a graduate from SUNY Purchase with a double major in Theatre & Performance and Arts Management. She has been passionate about theatre since her very first performance in La Tosca when she was 10 years old. Since then, she has acted, directed, written and produced for the stage. Her credits in directing include Twelfth Night; or What You Will, The Conduct of Life, Alice (an immersive piece based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), and 4 short plays for Green Buffalo Productions' yearly Spooky One Acts. During New York’s state-wide lockdown, Leyla was one of the moderators for the Quarantine Quarters and started a podcast about growing up as a Third Culture Kid called Passport Necessary.