Anthony P. Pennino has written a number of works including: Italian-American Cantos; Children's Crusader: A Parable of the Progressive Era; Call It Peace; Story of an Unknown Man; and, most recently, The Devil and Tom Walker (librettist, conceived by Yvonne Conybeare, music and lyrics by Rob Kendt). Three of his plays have been published: Story of an Unknown Man, "Howard Hopped the A-Train", and "Forgeries of Jealousy". He has written for both theatrainplays and The 24-Hour Plays. His work has been seen across the United States as well as in Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Spain. He was recently named a Fulbright Scholar by the United States State Department for which he will be teaching Drama in Istanbul, Turkey. He also holds a 2005 Fellowship from the New Jersey Council for the Arts. Pennino teaches literature at Stevens Institute of Technology. He holds a Ph.D. in Drama from the University of London and an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Columbia University.

Gabriel Vaughan (Toby M) has been acting in New York City and regionally for over 15 years. New York City theater credits include: Ross, House of Desires and The Shoemaker’s Holiday with The Storm Theatre, Members of the Tribe for Act Out Productions (OOBR Award), King John and Have You Met My Brother for Doppelgang Productions, Present Tense at EST, The Winter’s Tale with Theater 1010, The Master of Prayer for The LITE Theater Co. and The Man Who Buried His Dogs in the Front Yard with the Turnip Theater Festival. Regional theater credits include: Hamlet (Hamlet) with The American Stage Theatre Company, King John, A Tanglewood Tale and Much Ado About Nothing with Shakespeare & Company, Romeo & Juliet with Princeton Rep, Hamlet Comedy of Errors and Charlotte's Web with the Maine Shakespeare Festival (where he met Erik Gratton in 2001), A Christmas Carol and The Prince and the Pauper with The Hampstead Players tour, Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth and The Tempest with The Hampshire Shakespeare Company. Film credits include: Chasing Butterflies (lead) with Ma & Pa Pictures and Vanguard Cinema, Master of the Kennel (lead) with Agent 26 Pictures, Us Poets (lead) with Blind Mice Films, Zephyr (lead) with BMB Productions, Mona Lisa Smile (Dancer) with Sony Pictures and The Day I Learned to See (lead) with Robb Productions. Television and print work include T-Mobile, Colgate Total, Ruby Tuesdays, Microsoft and World Heart Day. Industrials include United Bank of Scotland, Global Lead and NYSE. Gabriel has a degree in theater from Sarah Lawrence College and has studied with BADA in London.

Michael Poignand (Toby 3) is LUCKY to be in such good company. Pleasing projects from Poignand's non-producing past include: Brad in Orange Flower Water (Theatre 54/InProximty Theatre Company), Tartuffe in Tartuffe (Theatre Row), Ross in Macbeth (Hipgnosis Theatre Company), Arrogant Mic in both Murder Most Naked and Pretençión with Pinchbottom Burlesque (Bleeker Street Theatre and Performance Space 122 respectively), Steve in Air Guitar: The Musical (Gideon Productions) and Don Juan in Don Juan in Chicago by David Ives (Theatre 54/Personal Space Theatrics). Most recently Poignand was seen in Scooby-Doosical by Stephen Wargo and Keith Varney during Tax Deductible Theatre's DARE PROJECT and in Columbia University's production of The Would-Be Room by Jennifer Lane. He's currently working on Puppet Love for the Turnip Festival and a concert benefit for Hospice called Closer to Fine. In June he'll be seen playing Captain Mike in David Lindsay Abaire's Wonder of the World at the Shell Theatre. In addition to his acting credits and the work you can see here, Poignand has served as producer on over a dozen stage plays, two feature-length films, two one-act festivals and a musical!

Erik Gratton (Toby D) has made his living on the stage for 10 years. He has performed in 5 countries and throughout the Eastern United States. His favorite experiences include 5 years of work with rotating repertory companies. He's especially proud of the day he played Wilbur the Pig in the afternoon followed by Hamlet that same evening for The Maine Shakespeare Festival (where he first worked with Gabriel Vaughan). New York City credits include AS YOU LIKE IT (Rosalind), DON JUAN IN CHICAGO (Leporello), SCAPIN (Sylvestre), CYMBELINE (Cloten), and THE DEVIL AND TOM WALKER (Tom Walker) directed by Yvonne Connybeare. Other favorite credits include playing Benedick in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, David O. Selznick in MOONLIGHT AND MAGNOLIAS, and Jack Keegan in WHIFFLEBALL: THE MOVIE.

Yvonne Conybeare is a resident director at the Metropolitan Playhouse, where she most recently conceived and directed the original musical The Devil and Tom Walker, penned by Anthony P. Pennino and starring Erik Gratton as Tom Walker. She has directed for the Gallery Players where she directed A Lie of the Mind (coincidentally, Gabriel Vaughan was originally cast as the lead in this production but had a scheduling conflict). The Misanthrope and Holiday, and the Abingdon Theater Company where she directed Elvis and Juliet starring Fred Willard and David Rasche.

She has led the Metropolitan Playhouse's revivals of The Truth, Inheritors, Missouri Legend, The Devil's Disciple, The City, The Show-Off as well as many works in the East Village Chronicles new play series. She founded an improvisational theater company in Dresden, Germany, and for six years helped manage New York's Freestyle Repertory. She's also worked extensively with playwright Staci Swedeen, directing ten of her one act plays and two full length works in various New York venues, and will direct Ms. Swedeen's play Pardon Me for Living at the Hudson Stage this fall. Ms. Conybeare is currently an assistant professor of theater at Fairfield University. She holds an MFA in directing from Brooklyn College and is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and the League of Independent Theaters.

Lucky Productions was founded in the summer of 2008, but that was only when we decided on what to call ourselves. It actually all started coming together quite a while before when Anthony P. Pennino's play, Toby, got into the hands of director Yvonne Connybeare and actors Erik Gratton and Gabriel Vaughan for a reading held at Endeavor Studios in February 2006.

For his company, Cagey Productions, David recently wrote and directed The Blue Puppies Cycle at The Chocolate Factory, The Curse of the Smart Kid at HERE Arts Center and Angry Rants of the Disenchanted Foreigners at Brooklyn Arts Exchange.  Recently directed Floydada by Barry Rowell for Peculiar Works Project .  Also for PWP directed a protest rally turned riot and a segment of Kenneth Brown’s The Brig on the streets of Greenwich Village for The West Village Fragments and Theatre Genesis’ The Hawk for The East Village Fragments as part of their OBIE-winning OFFStage.  Also for Cagey: Wuthering High at the 14th Street Y Theater; Cracked and The Last Menagerie at HERE.  David and Cagey received a 2007/08 BAX Space Grant and are currently developing a terrific Nancy Drew based project for 2009/10.  David is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and attended Wadham College at Oxford University.

DAVID VINING - director