The Icing on the Cake
Winner of the 2010 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Featured Actor (Amir Darvish) and nominated for Outstanding Costume Design (Brooke Berry and Mark Mears), Cake Productions was founded in the summer of 2009 by Francesca Day Larson and Marta Kuersten. Shortly after the company’s inception, Brooke Berry and Sarah Brill were recruited to complete the team. The inaugural production of Modern Dance for Beginners by Sarah Phelps was performed at The Cherry Lane Studio Theatre in New York City, followed by a Holiday Fundraiser and the continuing 2010 Reading Series. In May 2010, Cake presented Psych by Evan Smith in the East Village, and capped off the year with their production of Speaking in Tongues, which ran at New York Theatre Workshop’s 4th Street Theatre. In addition to creating high-quality theatre in 2011, Cake has expanded its focus to include Educational Outreach.
Cake’s Mission
Cake Productions, an all-female company, produces off-off-Broadway pieces that are culturally significant to modern, urban audiences. Cake Productions is geared towards commercially appealing, thought-provoking, edgy plays. In addition to creating opportunities for women as performers, administrators and designers, Cake focuses heavily on production values and presents their work in welcoming, accessible downtown venues.
Francesca Day
Co-Founder, Co-Executive Producer
Creative Director
Along with Marta Kuersten, Francesca Day founded Cake Productions in the spring of 2009, in order to produce the New York premiere of Modern Dance for Beginners. After the success of their inaugural production, they committed to Cake for the long term, striving to produce fresh, new work that appeals to a large audience.
Francesca has performed in England, New York, and Regionally. Favorite roles include: Lorraine in Modern Dance For Beginners at the Cherry Lane Studio; Sunny in Psych at The Paradise Factory Theater (both with Cake Productions); Touchstone in As You Like It at the RSC’s Dell Theatre in Stratford; Mrs. Martin in Baby Boom at the George Street Playhouse; as well as numerous other Classical roles including: Portia in Julius Caesar, Katharina in Taming of the Shrew, Ariel in The Tempest, and Titania/Hippolyta in Midsummer Night’s Dream. Francesca has also written and directed theatre productions both at Rutgers University and at the 78th Street Theater Lab in New York. Francesca has her BFA in Acting from Rutgers University, where she also completed a conservatory program at Shakespeare’s Globe. She received her MA in Classical Acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.
Marta Kuersten
Co-Founder, Co-Executive Producer, Director of Development
Marta Kuersten originally hails from Chicago, and is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied with the Atlantic Theater Company Acting School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. She has appeared in New York with theatre companies such as Milk Can, Inverse, RoundTable, (re:)Directions, and others. Favorite productions include Comedy of Errors with Lake George Theatre Lab and Really Rosie with Atlantic Theater for Kids.
In 2009 she co-founded Cake Productions with Francesca Day, with the goal of bringing high-quality, accessible theatre to off-off-Broadway venues. She went on to star in Cake’s first show, Modern Dance for Beginners by Sarah Phelps, which had its New York premiere at the Cherry Lane Studio Theatre in July 2009. She made her directorial debut with Cake’s next full-length production, Psych by Evan Smith, at the Paradise Factory Theatre in May 2010. She currently appears in monthly hosted segments for the Epix channel on Dish Network. She is filled with gratitude and admiration for her three fellow Cake Productions members, and excited to see where future endeavors take them. Love always to NW.
Brooke Berry
Associate Producer, Marketing Director
A native of Colorado, Brooke obtained her BA in Musical Theatre from the University of Northern Colorado and then trekked across the country to become a resident of Manhattan. She has spent many years traveling the country and the world performing – favorite roles include: Sarah in Sarah, Plain and Tall, Irene in Crazy for You and The Baker’s Wife in Into the Woods.
She joined the Cake Productions team during the premiere performance of Modern Dance for Beginners. She then went on to perform in Cake’s 2010 Reading Series production of A Boy Called Newfoundland, as well as the sophomore Mainstage venture, Psych – the production during which she also received a 2010 New York Innovative Theatre Awards Nomination for Outstanding Costume Design. Most recently, she was seen in the role of Valerie in Cake’s November, 2010 production of Speaking in Tongues. Brooke has also ventured into several other aspects of theatre, including Company Management with Jean Ann Ryan Productions, Casting with Dave Clemmons Casting and Production Assisting/Stage Management with Troika Entertainment. Brooke is infinitely proud of the accomplishments of Cake Productions and her amazing associates within the company’s short existence. Proud Equity member.
Sarah Brill
Associate Producer, General Manager
Sarah hails from Minnesota where she began studying and performing theatre at Minneapolis’ Stages Theatre Company and the Tony Award winning Children’s Theatre Company. Sarah received her BFA in theatre from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. While there she studied at David Mamet’s Atlantic Theatre Company Acting School, Stonestreet Studio for Film and Television, Tisch’s own Classical Studio and in Dublin, Ireland through a partnership with Trinity College.
Upon graduation Sarah received the drama department’s award for Outstanding Classical Actress. Since then she has been performing in New York and around the country, including two national children’s theatre tours, on the mainstage at Atlantic Theatre Company (in Strega Nona), and in many downtown Off-Off theatre houses. She joined Cake’s staff after appearing in their inaugural production of Modern Dance for Beginners, and has since performed with Cake in the reading A Boy Called Newfoundland and in the mainstage production Psych. Sarah draws on her experience interning in Company Management at the prestigious Guthrie Theatre to perform her role as Cake’s General Manager.