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Look What Crashed Through the Portal and Ended Up in Brooklyn

Written by José Rivera

Directed by José Rivera and Sara Koviak

Synopsis

On a warm summer night, two refugees from another dimension end up in Brooklyn after passing through a portal created by a lunar eclipse. While on earth, as they keep a look-out for potential assassins, the Dimensionals (both named Charlie) observe the humans, dance, argue, philosophize, and reminisce about their lost world.

Bios

James B Kennedy (Dimensional-1) is a Brooklyn based actor artist, who has spent over 25 years working in NYC, & throughout the United States.  Selected theatre credits include the world premiere’s of Jose Rivera’s “Lovesong(Imperfect)” at 14th St Y, & Erik Ehn’s “The Weak & The Strong” at LaMama.  James is thrilled to be here working with Jose & Sara once again.  Huge thanks to them, & to everyone here at The Chain. 

Sara Koviaj (Dimensional- 2) created the role of Stacy in Your Name Means Dream, the role written for her by José Rivera  -- “Every theatregoer has a little list: Dame Julie singing "I could have danced all night"; Dame Angela as Mrs. Lovett; Suzanne Farrell in Diamonds; John Raitt as Billy Bigelow; Jennifer Holliday telling us she is not going. From start to finish, Koviak's performance as Stacy joins this list of uniquely unforgettable original portrayals”. -- Broadway World 2025.   Productions include: Contemporary American Theater Festival (World Premiere), TheaterWorks Hartford, New Jersey Rep, Theater J (also Choreographer for all); workshops at CATF, Sundance, New York Theatre Workshop, Rattlestick, and Goodman (opposite 2-time Tony nominee Amy Morton).  Other credits: Rivera’s The Hours Are Feminine (World Premiere Off-Broadway), Theatre For One (Signature); Paula Vogel’s Bard At The Gate (McCarter); Red Bull; Rivera’s Lovesong (Imperfect); The Actors Studio with Chazz Palminteri; HBO's "The Undoing” with Nicole Kidman, and director/choreographer of countless films, dance films, concert dance, plays, musicals.  As a classical dancer: world premieres at The Metropolitan Opera with directors Bart Sher, Mary Zimmerman, and Robert LePage, Peter And The Wolf and Cinderella at Lincoln Center, and aerial soloist in Nat'l Tour of Pippin with Steven Schwartz.  Lifelong arts educator of students worldwide including HB Studio, NYCDA, NYFA, Boston Conservatory, Brown, Duke, DePauw, Northwestern, Tokyo U, Phillips Exeter Academy. www.SaraKoviak.com

José Rivera (writer/director)
José Rivera’s Obie Award-winning plays Marisol and References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot, were produced by The Public Theatre, NY.  Other plays include Cloud Tectonics, Sueño, Sonnets for an Old Century, Boleros for the Disenchanted, Massacre (Sing to Your Children), Brainpeople, Adoration of the Old Woman, Lovesong (Imperfect), The Hours are Feminine, A Lunar Rhapsody, and Your Name Means Dream (written for long-time artistic partner, Sara Koviak). The screenplay for Rivera’s first produced movie, “The Motorcycle Diaries” was nominated for 2005 Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar – making him the first Puerto Rican writer so honored.  Rivera is a recipient of a Fulbright Arts Fellowship, a Whiting Foundation Award, a McKnight Fellowship, a 2005 Impact Award, a Norman Lear Award, and was a playwright-in-residence at the Royal Court Theatre, London.   Most recently, Rivera was head writer and executive producer of the Netflix series “One Hundred Years of Solitude”(winner Best Series, 2025 Premios Platino, Spain), which the London Telegraph called “a spellbinding adaptation of an unfilmable novel.”

Rite of Passage

Written by Dacyl Acevedo

Directed by Gama Valle

Synopsis

A girl, first generation child of immigrants learns about her grandmother, Julia's childhood in rural Dominican Republic. At 15, Julia is being forced into an arranged marriage, so she runs away into the jungle with her pet monkey, Lolo. She finds a new home and a new family for one magical night before her father finds her and brings her home. She's fitted into her wedding dress and says goodbye to Lolo and her home.

Bios

Laura Riveros-Sefair (they/them, elle en Español) is a multi-hyphenated theatre artist and educator based in Brooklyn, New York. Born in Colombia to a Lebanese family, Laura has performing, directing, and line production credits with companies big and small in both Colombia and the US. They work as a teaching artist in the North Brooklyn public school system. Laura has also worked in audiobook narration projects with the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled of the Library of Congress, as well Spanish voice over cartoons like Little Robots, the animated movie The Princess and The Pea, and the singing voices for the Latin American version of Sesame Street. More information: www.laurariveros-sefair.com

Maria Isabella Rojas is a Queens-based producer, writer, and performer with a focus on new theatrical works. Graduate of University of San Francisco with a BA in Performing Arts and Social Justice. She is currently the Co-founder and Artistic Director of The Company We Keep Theatre Productions, where she has starred in and produced Nick Payne’s Off-Off Broadway Production of Constellations. She has performed in and developed work at Atlantic Theater, New Dramatists, Latinx Playwright Circle, Peculiar Works and Playful Substance.

YADIRA CORREA is very excited to be working on this new play, as it is one of my favorite things to do as an actor.  I have worked in Chicago, New York and Regional theatre’s big and small.  Proud member of the Actors Center in NYC.

Spencer Bellamy is a Cleveland born actor based in New York City. He graduated from Pace University in May 2025 with a BFA in Acting for Film, Television, Voiceover, and Commercials, with additional training at the SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Theatre Arts. His work includes Dacyl Acevedo’s Lia Del Mar, which debuted at Columbia University, and the original play Le Blanc, debuting at The Tank Theatre in Hell’s Kitchen. Spencer has also appeared in numerous short films, experimental projects, and music videos throughout New York and is excited to see what the future holds.

Leah Levine is an artist and teacher whose work spans experimental puppetry and fine art, as well as design and fabrication for film and theater. She is currently a recipient of the Henson Workshop grant to develop her show Facing the Other and is showing her piece I  Would Never Brag at Frisson Gallery, in Chelsea, NY. Leah graduated from Wesleyan University with a BA in psychology and fine art and resides in Brooklyn, NY. 

Gama Valle (él/him) is a Puerto Rican writer, casting director and theatre director. He holds an M.F.A in Directing from The New School (New York City) and a B.A. in Drama from University of Puerto Rico (Río Piedras). Gama is a proud member of New Light Theater Project and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. To learn more about Gama, please visit gamavalle.com

Dacyl Acevedo is a New York based playwright and actor; Dominican American, first-generation child of working-class immigrants, raised in Hialeah, FL. She worked as an actor for over 20 years in New York, in regional theaters, TV and Film. Her play, Lia Del Mar was a finalist in Premiere Stages Play Festival 2025. Her short play, Token, was featured in the International Human Rights Art Festival 2025, in NY and the Grupo de Teatro Sinergia, Frida Kahlo Theater’s 10-minute play festival in LA. She was a member of the River Writer’s Unit and Dramatic Question Theatre's 2024 Playtime program and is a graduate of SUNY Purchase College and Columbia University’s Theatre MFA Playwriting program. This play is dedicated to my abuela, Julia.

Valeria Aviña is a New York–based Mexican actor and film director working across film, television, and theater. Their work is rooted in bold visual storytelling and deeply embodied, character-driven performances. Valeria is a Telly Award winner and a LATA Award winner, with additional honors including a TALIA Award win. They are also a New York Emmy nominee and a HOLA Awards nominee. As a queer, non-binary immigrant artist, Valeria creates work that centers identity, resilience, and human connection while challenging dominant narratives.

Sarah Daniel (She/her) is a third-year MFA Stage Management student. Recent credits: Columbia University: Small Tragedy, Lia Del Mar; On Secrets, Passion Play, Scrubland, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire; The Tank: Astronauts Wanted; Idaho Shakespeare Festival: Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Keegan Theater: Apropos of Nothing, Shakespeare in Love,  Marjorie is Dead; Passionate about all things outdoors, she is working on creating greener industry practices.

THE AXION

Written by Kelley T. Johnson

Directed by Perryn Pomatto

Synopsis

The year is 2050. Cancer has ravaged an entire generation of women. Weaponizing the crisis, an authoritarian regime has driven medical research underground and deployed female conscripts–the Axions–to compel compliance with a “natural living” directive. As an illegal cure surfaces for infants, new parents are desperate to smuggle their daughters for treatment. When death is patriotic and medical intervention is treasonous, THE AXION imagines how quickly public health can become a tool of oppression.

Bios

Kelley T. Johnson (Playwright) has studied playwriting with Perryn Pomatto at Howard Meyer's Acting Program for the past four years. She has published family stories, opinion essays, and satirical commentary. She works as a computer/electrical engineer and writer in the technology sector.

Perryn Pomatto (Director) This is Perryn’s fifth production at The Chain between both the Summer and Winter Festivals. His most recent Chain production, The Future is Female by Helene Galek (Summer Festival 2025), was the highest selling play in the entire festival. He has also helmed multiple productions for The Players Theatre’s Boo and Luv Festivals including Matthew J. Kaplan’s This Is What Dr. Shapiro Was Talking About and David Adam Gill’s Wee Annie’s Hold. As a company member, Perryn has also directed multiple productions for New Ambassadors Theatre Company’s festivals Heartbroke and Blurring Boundaries. Perryn was the founder and Artistic Director of the online sketch comedy group The Grease Monkeys featured on egarage.tv. He teaches playwriting for Axial Theatre Company. Congratulations, Kelley! So proud of you. www.perrynpomatto.com 

Olivia Rose Pickard (Valentina) is a New York City based actress with experience across stage and screen. With a foundation shaped by studies at The Juilliard School and the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, she has developed a versatile craft that thrives in new and original writing. She’s thrilled to join the One-Act Festival at the Chain Theatre. Although this is her first time performing at this venue, it is not her first one-act festival. Most recently, she appeared in the Boo Festival at The Players Theatre as Stella in Wee Annie’s Hold. Recent film credits include Grand Gestures and Liv-e (award-winning).

Quentin Lee Moore (Rowan) Quentin is incredibly honored to be performing in this incredible production with this incredible team. His performance credits include: Seagull True Story: (Marylebone Theatre [London] & LaMama Theater), Do You Roll Over in the Night (Linda Gross Theater), Stepping Through Blood (New Perspectives Theater), Black, White and Blue (Tada! Youth Theater). Television: Law & Order Organized Crime (NBC). Born and raised in Chesapeake, VA. He would like to thank his family, friends, and representation at WEG Talent Management in NYC, for their support.

Jenny D. Green* (Daelyth) is a Brit-born Actor & Producing Artist seen in a variety of guises off-Broadway, most notably in Susan B (Joan Kane/Theatre for the New City), Sitting Duck (Lisa Milinazzo), The Report (Alan Muroka) and Dick Whittington: an Xmas Panto for NYC (Jenny Lee Mitchell), as well as readings for Origin Theatre Company and a tribute to comedian Victoria Wood, directed by George Heslin. Also an award-winning costume designer, former BBC-journalist and creator of her own production company, The OPTimistiks, which has produced a coupla cheeky parodies for t'interwebs, most relevantly, The Handyman's Tool. Thanks to Perryn and Team Axion. Nolite te bastardes carborundorum!

Danielle Allen (The Axion she/her) is a Brooklyn-based actor and writer who is thrilled to perform at the Chain for the first time. National tour: Fiddler on the Roof(dir. Bartlett Sher). NYC: The Tank, New York Theatre Festival, First Kiss Theatre, Roaring Epiphany Production Company, and more. Her one-woman play Lunaticuswas recently developed with Raquel Almazan at Dramatic Question Theater and is aiming for production in 2026. BroadwayWorld Award nominee in 2025 for interACT Theatre Productions of The Wolves. BA from Wagner College. Thanks, Aunt Cathy! www.danielleallenactor.com