Uptown One Train Theater

Ben is interested in the intersection of public space, urbanism, and the arts. Outside of his producorial work with Uptown One, his career working to transform open space across the city is rooted in his commitment to world-building, communal play, and spatial equity. Performing since he was 8 years old, some of Ben's favorite credits include Mastiff (The Moors), Mercutio (Romeo and Juliet), and The Dentist (Little Shop of Horrors). Ben graduated from Brown University with a degree in History and has training in The Meisner Technique, Shakespeare, and musical comedy.

Lydia is a writer, performer, and sometimes director born, raised, and based in New York City. Her original plays include Rocks and Geodes (The Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research), Scorpions Don't Bite (Providence Fringe Festival), RUFUS (Brown University), and The IKEA Play (The National Theater Institute). She's developed work with Invulnerable Nothings, The Connecticut Theater Exchange, and Brown/Trinity's Writing is Live. Her thesis film, This Was Really Great, was an NYCIFF official selection. In all of her work, she draws on her background in sketch comedy and clown.

Elena Messinger is a director, producer, and writer based in Brooklyn, NY. Select credits include: nesting (director/writer, Write Club's Play Fest); Subway Series (producer, Uptown One Train); Watch Party (director/writer, The Tank's Trashfest); Jen Silverman's The Moors (producer, Uptown One Train); Climate Controlled Facility with Elevator Access and Other Amenities (director/writer, The Tank); Liza Birkenmeier's Dr. Ride's American Beach House (director, Columbia University Players); Ivanov (Assistant Director, dir: Laura Strausfeld); Table for Two (writer/director, Late Nite Theater); Fame (Producer, Columbia Musical Theatre Society). Elena is the assistant to the creative producer Pomegranate Arts and, previously, has interned or worked for the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Clubbed Thumb, and the Redwing Blackbird Theatre. Elena is currently a member of MCC Theater’s ’25–26 AMBIES cohort.

Annie is a completely-not-recent-anymore graduate of Brown University. Her one-act play The Ghost of Bob Dylan Shows One of Us Greatness was a finalist in the 2025 Soho Playhouse Lighthouse Series. (That means it did not win.) She was the associate producer for the Episodic Theatre Project Season 2. At Brown, Annie co-wrote and directed Hint: The Parody of the Play of the Movie of the Board Game and was a member of the theater producing board Something on the Green. This past spring she worked with Uptown One Train on The Moors, and she must have missed her stop or something because she is still on the train.