meet the cast
TARA HOLT
Ballers
Sandrene St. Jean
Born Sandrene Rothstein to wealthy parents, she was the star of every high school musical in her hometown of Fargo, and she gave herself the stage name “St. Jean” when she moved to New York to become a star. Free-spirited, magnetic, and warm, she also has the raw talent to succeed, but the struggling artist’s life has been a lot to handle. In recent years Sandrene has cleaved onto her fiancé and artistic partner Tucker, taking on some of his more pretentious qualities. What she needs now is to summon the courage to embrace opportunities and forge her own path.
Tucker Charlemagne
Brash and Confident yet utterly insecure, charismatic but domineering, a man of vision as well as crippling fear, Tucker is the living embodiment of the pretentious New York alternative theater scene. With his Einsteinian hair and Hermes scarves juxtaposed against his permanently black attire, he presents himself as a theatrical genius who will reshape the art form as we know it, but in his heart of hearts he knows that his personality is an act. He is utterly dependent on the validation and support of others. His muse is his fiancé, Sandrene, and when the two are exiled from New York they venture to distant Fargo, North Dakota, where he seeks to imprint his ideas on the unsuspecting locals who are just trying to put on a fun play. He wants to be a figure in artistic history, but he needs to learn to trust others and become a part of a community that appreciates him for who he is, not what he projects himself to be.
STEPHEN FRIEDRICH
Vice
CHRISTOPHER LLYOD
Back To The Future
Buford Slezinger
A prototypical New York acting guru, the kind who boasts about their primary or secondary connection to the Group Theater, and can charge $200 for a thirty-minute monologue coaching session. As head of the vaunted Artist’s Atelier acting studio in New York, He is brash, harsh, and doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to criticizing his students’ work. Wheelchair bound and managing a decades-long battle with gout, Buford is Tucker’s mentor, and sees in him an heir to the avant-garde tradition that he established.
RICHARD KIND
Argo, Red Oaks
Morten Mortensen
Affable and disarming at first glance with his roly-poly grandpa figure and soft face, Morten is actually an ultra-competitive performer and theatre creator, embittered by a society that seems to value thespian pursuits less and less. He was Sandrene’s drama teacher in high school (before the program was cut) and thinks her relationship with Tucker is a waste of her time and talent. He will stop at nothing to ensure that his locally renowned theatre company, The Red River Players, succeed in winning residency at the Fargo theatre.
JOEY LAUREN ADAMS
CHASING AMY
Deirdra Rothstein
Bright, glamorous, and a little loopy, Deirdra is Sandrene’s mother and loves that she gets to go to New York to see her daughters shows (and go shopping). She has a big heart, and is the first to tell Sandrene of the Fargo theater competition.
ANDY BUCKLEY
The Office
Bob Rothstein
Sandrene’s father, he is a retired millionaire hedge fund manager whose mid-life crisis manifested in moving to Fargo and buying an enormous luxury ranch. He wears a cowboy hat now, and is supportive of his daughter’s artistic pursuits, but is skeptical of Tucker and his domineering attitude. He is the financial muscle behind Tucker and Sandrene’s pursuits, as is tradition in the theater.
JOE ADLER
The Maze Runner
Yorick Gundarsen
The bartender at the Sons of Norway, Yorick has embraced his Scandinavian heritage with gusto: he truly believes he is the reincarnation of a famous Viking, but explorations of his pillaging past often butt up against the norms of civilized society. He brews homemade Aquavit (nordic moonshine) in the storeroom of the Sons of Norway, a space which eventually becomes the Tankhouse theater. Has a bit of a misguided thing for Leah.
NADIA ALEXander
The Sinner
Leah Rogers
Leah is bold, brash, defiant, and unapologetic about her militant feminist ideology, and takes any opportunity she can to shout it from the rooftops. She views the Tankhouse as an opportunity to improve her image in the eyes of her parole officer, and can usually be found arm-wrestling, arguing, or out-drinking Yorick