Laugh It Up, Stare It Down

Alan Hruska (Playwright) is the author of several plays, including The Man on Her Mind (Charing Cross Theatre, London, 2013) and New House under Construction (59E59, New York, 2008-09, which he also directed), and Ring Twice for Miranda (soon to be a film directed by Bruce Guthrie).  He is a filmmaker who has written and directed or co-directed four films: Nola (2003), The Warrior Class (2006), Reunion (2009), and The Man on Her Mind (2014).  As a novelist, his books include Borrowed Time (Doubleday 1985), Wrong Man Running (Severn House and Thomas & Mercer 2011), and Pardon the Ravens (Prospect Park Books 2015). In 2005 he made his New York debut as a stage director with an acclaimed production of Waiting for Godot at Theatre at St. Clements.  Among his other professional accomplishments, Hruska was for many years a successful trial lawyer and partner at a distinguished New York-based international law firm, where he is still senior counsel, and was a co-founder of the New York book publishing company, Soho Press, of which he is still Chairman. Hruska is a director of the Lark Play Development Center in New York and a member of the Actors Studio, Playwrights and Directors Unit.

Chris Eigeman (Director) made his debut as a filmmaker with Turn The River (2007), which he wrote and directed. Starring Famke Janssen and Rip Torn, the film premiered at the Museum of Modern Art and was enthusiastically received by critics and audiences. He is in pre-production for his second film, Trinity, which he wrote and will direct, to be filmed starting in November 2015 and released in 2016. As an actor, Eigeman has been seen in the films Metropolitan, Barcelona and The Last Days of Disco.  He starred opposite Ian Holm and Famke Janssen in the New York romantic comedy The Treatment. Eigeman has also worked with Wayne Wang in Maid in Manhattan starring Jennifer Lopez, as well as with John Frankenheimer in the HBO feature Path To War.  Other films include The Perfect You, The Next Big Thing, Kicking and Screaming, and Mr. Jealousy.  Eigeman’s television work includes Peter Mehlman’s sit-com It’s Like…You Know, Malcolm in The Middle, and Gilmore Girls.  His stage work includes the Off-Broadway productions of John Kolvenbach’s dark comedy The Gravity of Means and Wendy MacLeod’s The House of Yes.