THE WAITRESS by Ainslie Caswell

THE WAITRESS by Ainslie Caswell

Get exactly what you ordered… and so much more.

Tuesday, July 19th at 9pm

Wednesday, July 20th at 9pm

For tickets go to https://www.therianttheatre.com/item.php?id=271

At the Theatre at St. Clement’s, 423 West 46^th Street, NYC
The Riant Theatre’s Strawberry One-Act Festival

THE WAITRESS By Ainslie Caswell; Program Info, Creative Team & Actors Bios

THE WAITRESS Written by Ainslie Caswell
Directed by Laurence C. Schwartz
Time:  The present.                            Place: A small restaurant in a city.

Characters in order of appearance

Katrina                                                                  Christina Cappelli
The Waitress                                                               Melissa Hicks
Joe                                                                                Daniel Martin
Intellectual                                                                         Ran Levy
Dark Woman                                                           Samantha Levitt
Homeless Woman                                                      Kaili Y. Turner
Dark Man                                                                Zachary Gamble

Who’s Who
Christina Cappelli (Katrina) is thrilled to be a part of The Waitress at The Strawberry One Act Festival. Recently, she starred in Memento’s new music video, as well as two independent features which will be released in 2017. Christina is a recent graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts. When she’s not acting you can find her drinking coffee out of a mug larger than her face, attempting to find smooth surfaces to skateboard on in the city, or home binge watching a DC Comics series in fuzzy socks!

Melissa Hicks (The Waitress) received her BA in Drama from The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. Some of her favorite past roles include Rhonda in Almost, Maine, Melissa in In the Boom Boom Room, and the god Enki in Gilgamesh: Who Saw the Deep. She would like to thank her friends and family for all their love and support. A special thanks to her teacher, Steve, for all his encouragement.

Daniel Martin (Joe) is an NYC native, and very excited to be making his theatre debut in The Waitress. A relative newcomer, over the past year Daniel has held supporting roles in the Cannes entry The Darkest Black and the in post-production Addicts Abused. Daniel loves to write, draw and read as much as possible in his spare time, and has been an avid cinephile since the age of 12. When asked to provide a favorite quote, without hesitation he states, "Living truthfully under imaginary circumstances." 

Ran Levy (Intellectual) is a graduate of the Lee Strasberg Institute based in NYC. Theater: We Won’t Pay; Boy Gets Girl; Three Sisters; Removal; Private Lives; Other Desert Cities. TV: Gotham, Madam Secretary; Limitless. Commercials: Optimum; The Lift; Jersey Mike Subs. Ran serves as artistic associate for Brooklyn Repertory Theater, and worked alongside terror survivors while volunteering at a suicide call center. Ran is thrilled to be part of this production and would like to thank all who is involved! You can find him at www.ranmlevy.com.

Samantha Levitt (Dark Woman) is an NYC based actor seen most recently in Whitman's Words at The Roebuck Theater; Sleepover Stories at New Brooklyn Theatre, and The Darfur Compromised at The Cherry Lane Theatre. She played Queen Maria-Therese in the NYC premiere of Lynn Nottage's Las Meninas at The Irondale Ensemble Project. Film: Have You Seen Pantopon Rose? for ISCP, and Penguin: Bird of Prey. TV: Netflix's The Get Down (dir. Baz Luhrmann); NBC's The Mysteries of Laura. Sam currently serves as Associate Artistic Director of New Brooklyn Theatre. www.samanthalevitt.org


Kaili Y. Turner (Homeless Woman) was born in Boston, MA and is a proud Nipmuc Native American. She has a BA in Theater from the University of MA, then went on to receive her masters in Acting at the Actors Studio Drama School. She is one of the Co-Founders of Colors of Community. Kaili was recently cast in Flip-In, which will be part of the Downtown Urban Theater Festival. She will also be doing her one-woman show, Broken, as part of the United Solo festival this coming fall. www.KailiTurner.com

Zachary Gamble (Dark Man) received his BFA from Southern Methodist University.  Once, he spent one hundred dollars to frame a twenty five dollar poster, so that college degree is pretty much meaningless.  He's excited to be working on a new play in the Strawberry One Act Festival.  He has heretofore never heard of SOAF, so please take his thrilled attitude with a grain of salt.  Theatre credits include Macbeth, Seascape with Shark and Dancer, Midsummer Night’s Dream.  He hails from Austin and now resides in Brooklyn off the Q train.

Laurence C. Schwartz (Director) last directed Perception of Color at The American Theatre of Actors, where he is Director-In- Residence. Also at ATA: Strangers, Spoiling for Justice, Tea in a Tempest. SOAF: The Prophet (Finalist), Across, Paula’s Visitor, Across, Plastic Couch, A Little Zetz, With the Assistance of Queen Anne, 9/11/02. Playwright: Artaud for Awhile (Wings Theatre), (SOAF) Standing on Ceremony (Finalist), Vengeance Once-Removed, No Applause Please, Introductions. (Theatre-Vision/78th St Theatre Lab) A Question of Ethics, Hot Dogs and Cracker Jacks. (Theatre Row/Love Creek Prodns) A First Family. MA Theatre/CUNY.


Ainslie Caswell (Playwright) is a fledgling writer and playwright, and first-time SOAF participant. The Waitress was first presented as a staged reading at Festival51 in Rhode Island. Her full-length play, Little Sister, was a finalist in Project Playwright, presented by Brooklyn-based Sanguine Theatre Company. Ainslie can be found on Medium, writing essays for various publications. In addition to scripts for the stage, she is currently completing a book documenting the year of her life spent as an exotic dancer in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Find her at www.ainsliecaswell.com.


THE WAITRESS By Ainslie Caswell
Get exactly what you ordered and so much more.

Sunday, July 17th at 9pm
Tuesday, July 19th at 9pm
Wednesday, July 20th at 9pm

For tickets go to https://www.therianttheatre.com/item.php?id=252

At the Theatre at St. Clement’s, 423 West 46^th Street, NYC
The Riant Theatre’s Strawberry One-Act Festival

Sharp Turns in Life-THE WAITRESS by Ainslie Caswell

By Gini Chang

Gini Chang

Recently, I went to visit my old high school. It had been a few years and I wanted to reconnect with the teachers who inspired me.  I was confiding in one particular teacher, who I'd known for all four years of my high school career and was extremely close to, about how uncertain I was feeling about my future. We were chatting about college life and I shared with her the anxieties about my major, the plans that I’ve made, and the ever-looming possibilities of failure that all artists worry about. I was assuming that she had experienced something similar in her own college days and might have had some words of wisdom to impart upon me, to reassure me. Instead, the teacher I’d known since freshman year leaned closer and confessed to me in a conspiratorial whisper that she was considering quitting her job-if not next year, then the year after. 

This news surprised me because I’m the kind of person who sees high school as a constant. In my mind, I could go back in 10 years and still expect my old teachers to be teaching in the same classrooms where I once sat. It never occurred to me that they would ever leave. She admitted that it wasn’t to retire; she’d only been teaching for a little over 20 years and was nowhere near retirement. No, what she had decided was that her career as a teacher was over and that she was ready, at this point of her life, to start something new. And she laughed and smiled at me before saying, “I’m also like you, a rising college junior, still figuring out where I’m going.”

Ainslie Caswell’s play, The Waitress, is about the simple and mundane everyday life in a very special café that will serve its customers whatever they want. Whatever drink, whatever dish, anything you want will be served and will always satisfy. This unique setting, however, isn’t even the most interesting part of the play. Watching the characters realize that they have more power than they ever expected to have and observing their struggle when making decisions is what makes this play potent. 

Waitress: You have the power. What you do with that power is up to you.

Caswell uses seemingly ordinary places and people, but creates extraordinary moments that remind us that anything can happen. Sometimes we suffer tunnel vision and forget that our position in life is our very own creation, that we can recreate a new position just as easily. This feeling of uncertainty while on your path in life is actually shared by everyone else around you, even if it may seem like someone is rooted and stable. Caswell understands that everyone’s path in life is constantly shifting and uncertain. The Waitress is an inspiration, reminding the audience that we have the power to choose whatever we want in our lives. 


Have your own anxieties about the future? Thinking about a career change? What sorts of new things do you feel empowered to try? Comment below or tweet us @RiantTheatre and don’t forget to come experience Ainslie Caswell’s The Waitress for yourself at the Strawberry One Act Festival on Sunday, July 17^th at 9pm; Tuesday, July 19^{th at} at 9pm; and Wednesday, July 20^th at 9pm at St. Clements Theatre: 423 West 46^th St, NYC between 9^th and 10^th Ave.