Cast & Crew

Cast

Veronica del Cerro (Clio, the Greek muse of history)

Veronica holds a degree in Psychology and Theatre Arts from Virginia Tech and an MA in Theatre from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. She has appeared in theatrical performances in the U.S., Mexico, UK, Sweden, Denmark and Greece. She has also appeared in films, television programs and commercials. In a previous role, DCTheatreScene.com referred to her as “the powerfully stoic Veronica del Cerro” which is also an apt description of her performance as Clio, the Greek muse of history. Veronica is also a writer, producer, director and teacher.

Wes Johnson (Bishop Demetrios Chrysostomos)

Wes is an Emmy Award-winning actor and writer whose credits include lead film roles in “A Dirty Shame,” and “The Pitch,” as well as featured roles in “The Invasion,” “Head of State,” “Hearts in Atlantis,” and “The Yard.” His television appearances include guest star on “Veep,” “The Wire,” and “Homicide,” as well as appearances on “An Evening to Remember,” “Crabs,” “Unsolved Mysteries,” “Phineas and Ferb” and others. He has provided voice acting for “Star Trek: Legacy,” “Oblivion,” the “Wolfman Jack Show,” video games, TV and radio commercials and programs. He is also the P.A. announcer for the National Hockey League’s Washington Capitals.

Andor Timar (Mayor Loukas Karrer)

Andor’s international career spans film, television and theatre. Trained at the University of Film and Drama in Budapest and the Paolo Grassi Academy in Milan, he has performed in classical and contemporary roles across Europe and the U.S. Stage credits include "Rosenkranz and Guildenstern are Dead," "The Miser," "Hamlet" and "Magic Glue." He is also a multimedia producer, having worked on award-winning documentaries, commercials and educational programming. Andor is the President of MUS-E Hungary, a non-for-profit Art at School association, affiliated with the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation in Brussels with the aim of supporting disadvantaged children through the arts. He is fluent in English, Italian and Hungarian and is also an accomplished stunt performer and percussionist.

Arjay Jones (Commander Alfredo Lutt)

Arjay is an experienced actor who has portrayed a diverse range of characters, from working class citizens to military commanders. In addition to his theater work, he has appeared in films and on major television networks, including HBO, AMC, CW and others. He is also a writer, director and producer whose latest film, "Self Tape," was selected for screening at seven film festivals in 2024, winning two honorable mention awards and reaching the Semi-Finals at Top Shorts, one of the world's top online film festivals. Arjay is also an accomplished professional musician (guitar, bass, drums and piano) and the author of three books.

Ginger Bognar (Princess Alice, who became Sister Alice)

Ginger is a Hungarian-born internationally acclaimed actress whose theatrical career includes performances in more than seventy plays -- by Shakespeare, Chekhov, Bulgakov, Brecht, Tennessee Williams, Ken Kesey, Friedrich Schiller, John Osborne, Peter Weiss, David Seidler and others. She has also appeared in fourteen films, including “Strike Back,” “Opium: Diary of a Madwoman,” “Hotel Margaret,” and “Godmother.” Her talent has been recognized with numerous awards including the Lajos Őze Award, the Actress of the Season Award (Kecskemét), the Jászai Mari Award (a prestigious Hungarian state award for the performing arts), and she was a leading actress in the film, “The Notebook,” which was short-listed for an Oscar.

Ron Litman (Rabbi Moses Ganis)

A professional actor for over forty years, Ron returned to DC after fifteen years in New York and fifteen in Los Angeles. He wrote and performed the critically acclaimed "DC Trash" at the Capital Fringe Festival, 2012, and the "Intersections Festival” at the Atlas Theater, followed by "Fish Outta Water" at the Capital Fringe Festival, 2013, "Waiting For Armageddon" at the Capital Fringe Festival, 2014, and "Crazy In America" in 2015. More recently, he performed with SCENA Theater in "1984," "Julius Caesar," "The Night Alive," "Shining City" and the world premiere of "Guilt."

Vivian Allvin (Presbytera Katina)

Vivian performed her one-woman show 'Ulysses in Babel' at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and London in the Summer of 2024. She grew up in Italy, where she started performing at a young age in street theatre (Mercantia) and the English Theatre of Rome. In the Washington, DC area, she has performed at various theatres, including ExPats Theatre, GALA Hispanic Theatre, Theater J, NextStop Theatre, Baltimore Theatre Exchange, the Kennedy Center, alongside Film/TV, commercial and voice over work. Offstage, she works as a linguist and continues to study flamenco and tango. Vivian holds an MA in Classical Acting from the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art.

Emily Gilson (Sarika Fortis)

Emily is a classically trained actor and vocalist, teacher and voiceover artist. She has originated multiple new works with several of DC's emerging playwrights. She was published in Samuel French's Off-Off Broadway Festival Plays, 43rd Series in August 2019 and was a founding collaborator with Tradition Be Damned (TBD) Immersive, DC's first company dedicated entirely to immersive work. Since 2021, she has been studying classical and contemporary musical theatre voice with Dan Thaler of Matt Farnsworth Vocal Studio in New York City. In 2022, she was cast by Tony-winning director and playwright George C. Wolfe in her first feature film role in RUSTIN released on Netflix in November 2023.

Keegan Cassady (Lieutenant Paoul Berens)

Keegan is a film and stage actor, teacher, director, producer, playwright and corporate marketing consultant. He has performed in film and theatrical productions with the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Annapolis Shakespeare Company, Maryland Renaissance Festival, Washington Revels, American Century Theater, GSP Productions, K McCall Productions and others. Keegan holds a BA in Theater from William & Mary University and MBA from George Mason University.

Jakab Szasz (Orphan Boy)

Jakab Szász was born in 2013 in Hungary and currently lives in Potomac, Maryland. He loves soccer, piano, magic, reading, but most of all, theatre. In 2023, he performed in the Alliance New Music Theatre's Washington, DC production of Ukrainian writers' plays. Jakab’s next acting role will be in “An Enemy of the People” by Henrik Ibsen to be performed at Theater J in Washington, DC in the fall of 2025.

Eitan Amster and Farah Gittens (Student Narrators)

Eitan is an aspiring actor and playwright, currently pursuing a degree in Theatre at the University of Maryland. His love for theatre and performance began in 6th grade when he took his first theatre class. Recently, he joined UMD's improv troupe Erasable Inc as a full-time member and is excited to continue exploring improv-comedy along with his traditional studies.

Farah has been interested in theater since she was five years old. She has worked on numerous schools plays and was an active member of her school’s “No Place For Hate” club. Currently, she is working towards becoming a part of the student government. Additionally, she is a national delegate for the “Girl Scouts of the Nation’s Capital.” 

Crew

Deno Seder, Writer/Director

As a first generation Greek-American, Deno Seder has a special interest in Greek art, history and philosophy. While working with his wife, art director Anita Semjen, on a Holocaust-related exhibition at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, he learned about the “Righteous Among the Nations” from Greece and was inspired to write Miracle at Zakynthos, The Only Greek Jewish Community Saved In Its Entirety From Annihilation. Subsequently, he wrote the stage play, 72 HOURS, based on the book.

Miracle at Zakynthos has been optioned for development as a motion picture and 72 HOURS was honored as one of the top ten historical stage plays of 2023 by ScreenCraft, a national competition. Seder has written and produced films and videos on art, politics, current affairs and issues of public interest. His work has been selected for screening at the Paris Art Film Biennale, Berlin Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, Taipei Film Festival and others. He has won Gold Medals at the Chicago International Film Festival, Best of Show at the Houston WorldFest Film Festival, Clio, Telly and Addy Awards. He is the author of five books and is president of Deno Seder Productions and VP/Creative Director of Cultural Exchange Foundation.

Anita Semjen, Executive Producer

Anita Semjen has produced films, videos and international art exhibitions. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Cultural Exchange Foundation, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit organization. Her exhibitions have been held in New York, Washington, Boston, Budapest, Jerusalem, Berlin and Tokyo. Semjen served as Director of Public Relations for the Hungarian National Film Studios, Senior Research Associate at the Mass Communications Research Center in Budapest, post graduate fellow at the London School of Economics and spent sixteen years as a practicing psychologist in her native Hungary. Earlier in her career, she appeared as a principal actress in four feature films.

For a Holocaust-related exhibition at Yad Vashem, “Victims and Perpetrators,” she was honored in the U.S. Congressional Record for her “diligent efforts in reminding us of the grievous memories of the past and of the lessons history teaches us in the interminable fight against cruelty and oppression.”

Semjen has designed, edited and published four nonfiction books and holds advanced degrees in psychology and art management from Hungarian universities.

Richard Chisolm, Director of Photography

  

Richard Chisolm began his career teaching film courses at Johns Hopkins University. As a
cinematographer and director of photography, he has worked on a variety of projects including feature films, TV series, commercials, corporate and educational videos. Most of his experience continues to be in the realm of documentaries and actuality-style drama, much of it shot hand-held, which is a particular specialty of his. Chisolm won an Emmy Award for a National Geographic documentary about two photographers who travel the country taking pictures of endangered animal and plant species. Other works have been honored with two Peabody Awards, two Columbia Journalism DuPont Awards, and numerous film festival screenings.

Jeorge Seder, Editor

Jeorge Seder is a Clio Award-winning producer, director and editor with years of experience working on films, videos, TV commercials and social media content for national and international clients. His work for Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden won national awards for creativity. He has produced and edited art films, biographical documentaries, advocacy videos and experimental films.

Seder designed and edited a nonfiction book with Deno Seder featuring over one hundred photos from films and videos he helped produce and direct.

He is also an accomplished musician and has composed musical scores for films, videos and TV commercials. He attended Parsons School of Design and the School of Visual Arts in New York, and earned a BFA in photography from the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C.

 

Michael Willis, Associate Producer

Michael Willis is a Helen Hayes Award-winning theater, television and movie actor. He is also a writer and drama critic.

Credits include working as a company member at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC, movie roles in Pushing Tin, Men in Black, Elliot Fauman, Ph.D., Major League II, Someone Else's America, films by Barry Levinson and John Waters, recurring roles on Homicide: Life on the Street, several episodes of Law & Order, HBO’s The Wire and others. Michael is a member of SAG/AFTRA, Actors’ Equity Association and is president of Trice Talent Services.

Michael has worked with Deno Seder on many projects, including an anti-David Duke television campaign that won a Clio Award, the Oscar of television advertising. More importantly, Michael’s talents helped defeat Duke in his quest for a seat in the United States Senate.

Deborah Thomas, Set Designer

Deborah Thomas has worked in the Washington, DC area for theater companies and on film and TV projects.

Her work for Mosaic Theater includes Private, Mary Seacole, Birds of North America, Eureka Day and Milk Like Sugar. Her work for Studio Theater includes Terminus, John Proctor is The Villain, Pass Over, Fun Home, Love-Valor-Compassion, Sylvia, Suburbia, Slavs!. At Theater J, her projects include The Tale of The Allergist’s Wife and Freud’s Last Session.

HTV/film work includes: original set design for Discovery Channel’s Puppy Bowl, sculptor and sculpture consultant for 2011-2013 seasons of TLC’s reality show DC Cupcake, Washington bureau set design for TV Tokyo, Natty G pilot set design for National Geographic, production design for PBS American Experience Dolly Madison, art direction for PBS American Experience Alexander Hamilton, and set and props design for Discovery Channel’s Moments in Time: Jamestown, Against All Odds.