The Maenads closed in mid-October, but I’ve had a difficult time writing about it. My first run of a full-length play in New York since before the pandemic, a story close to my heart, and a collaboration with so many newfound friends — it’s the kind of project that renews your connection to the things you love about making theatre.

In April, I ran into my fellow Columbia alum Stephen Foglia at the theatre (the extraordinary London production of The Cherry Orchard that played at St. Ann’s Warehouse, possibly my favorite thing I saw in 2025!) and he mentioned in passing that a play of his was getting an off-off-Broadway production in the fall, and that he thought I’d be good for one of the roles. It’s always nice to hear that sort of thing, but knowing how quickly things can change in our industry, I figured it was best not to get my hopes up. When Steve reached out towards the end of summer with the audition info for the lead role of Stewart, I was very intrigued by the sides, and when I received a callback and had the opportunity to read the full play, I was stunned by it. The Maenads is transgressive but open-hearted, a deep exploration of male loneliness that makes no excuses and pulls no punches but has a kind of earnestness that can be rare these days. I felt that feeling every actor knows: I didn’t want to risk getting my heart broken, but now I really, really wanted the role.

Fortunately, I was offered the part and jumped right into the process. It was a unique first-day dynamic: the other four actors had all been involved with the play in previous staged readings, so despite playing the nominal leader of the group, and the character through whom the others are connected, I was the new kid on the block. (It felt a little like transferring to a new school and walking into my first class.) Lucky for me, the other four actors were generous and welcoming, and Steve and our director Phillip Christian Smith created a positive rehearsal space in which I felt I could take the required of the piece.

Braiding each other’s hair. (L-R: Charles Manning, DJ Davis, me, Alex Stene, and Thaddeus Daniels.

The Maenads is a short but intense play: five men go on a mountaintop camping retreat to roleplay as Maenads, the violent, ecstatic women worshippers of the Greek god Dionysus. When one of the members of the group spikes their wine with psilocybin, the party gets out of hand and the men confront both uncomfortable truths within themselves and the hostile environment of the mountaintop as the lines between reality and imagination blur. I played Stewart, an emotionally closed-off academic (and expert on the Greek myths of the Maenads) who organized the trip (no pun intended) but struggles to face the things it forces him to acknowledge about himself. Rehearsals were intensely physical: the play required not only choreography and stage combat, but also onstage intimacy and states of undress. We were incredibly lucky to work with Matthew Mastromatteo, an intimacy coordinator and choreographer whose work brought some of the play’s most challenging sequences to life in a beautiful way. I learned so much from working with them.

In addition to the physical challenges of the performance, I also got the opportunity to challenge myself musically. The play begins with the sound of an actual Maenad chant, and when I learned that no music had been found for it yet, I offered to write it. The creative team (especially our sound designer, the brilliant Eamon Goodman) were helpful and encouraging as I wrote several drafts of a demo, using my knowledge of ancient Greek drama (my character and I have a few interests in common…) and a very helpful Greek translation of Steven’s words. When it came time to record it, we had a somewhat predictable problem: with a cast of five men, we had no femme performers on hand to voice our Maenads. I reached out to some of my brilliant and multi-talented students at Hofstra who are active in on-campus a capella groups, and they graciously offered their voices to the project. Go listen to their work on the Music page of this site!

Uncle Phil (Thaddeus Daniels) lights the fire.

Our design team turned the main stage at The Tank into our mountaintop clearing with only a few short days of tech, and I have never seen that space so transformed. Our one-month run as part of The Tank’s Core Production Series was a test of stamina — doing the show after a full day of teaching required a lot of electrolytes — but I went home every night exhausted in that deeply satisfying way that comes with challenging yourself at the thing you love the most.

While my body may have been ready for closing, my heart was not. I’m still processing the joy of working on The Maenads all these months later. I sincerely hope that the piece has a future somewhere, and that this was not the last time I’ll get to play Stewart, but the first. This project taught me so much about myself, my process, and where I can keep growing and evolving as an actor. Thanks, Dionysus!

"Tell us about the Maenads..."