The Last Seder
Based on her hit play and written by Jennifer Maisel and directed by Arlene Nelson, The Last Seder follows The Price daughters as they return to their Long Island childhood home for what their mother, Lily, secretly knows will be their last Passover Seder—the house is sold, their father’s Alzheimer’s is accelerating, and Lily is planning the next chapter of her life. Over one hilarious, heartbreaking, and all too real night, everything they’ve never admitted finally comes out — and a family discovers that saying goodbye to everything at once might be the only way to finally tell the truth about themselves. With its great blend of humor and emotion, The Last Seder has the potential to become a beloved holiday classic. It offers a timeless exploration of love, loss, and generational renewal-universal truths that bind us all, told through a nuanced portrayal of a Jewish family.
Written by Jennifer Maisel
Directed by Arlene Nelson
Produced by Rosalind Productions
Creative Team
ARLENE NELSON (Director)
Director and Emmy-nominated cinematographer Arlene Nelson’s (ASC, DGA) body of work includes the HBO Original series Angel City, chronicling the inaugural season of Angel City FC, founded by Natalie Portman, Eva Longoria, Mia Hamm, Becky G, and Serena Williams. She directed the Apple TV+ Gutsy episode “Mothers and Daughters” with Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, and co-directed A&E’s Secrets of Playboy, winner of the Critics Choice Real TV Award for Best Crime/Justice Show. Nelson series-directed and served as lead cinematographer on Ava DuVernay’s Home Sweet Home. Nelson made her HBO directorial debut with the award-winning trilogy Naked States (Discovery Award for Best Documentary, AFI Film Festival), Naked World, and Positively Naked. As a cinematographer, she has collaborated with major studios and iconic directors including Christopher Guest, and Academy Award winners Agnes Varda, Louie Psihoyos, Paola Di Florio, and Morgan Neville. Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Cinematography for Nevilles Troubadours featuring Carole King and James Taylor. She collaborated on episodes with Neville of the influential series Ugly Delicious with David Chang. arlenenelsondirects.com
JENNIFER MAISEL
(Written by, based on her original play)
Jennifer Maisel is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter whose work has been produced
nationally and internationally. Film: Lost Boy (starring Virginia Madsen and Sosie Bacon), The Assault, To Have and To Hold, and Tempting Fate. She has developed pilots and films with Lucky Monkey Productions, Bunim-Murry, Super-Deluxe, Hallmark, Lifetime, Ineffable, Stun Media, Momentum TV ,
Mar Vista and Disney, among others. Her plays include Provenance, Eight Nights, Out of Orbit, There of Here, Yellow Wallpaper, 2.0-2020 and @thespeedofJake and have been workshopped and honored by Sundance, the Ojai Playwrights Conference, The Kennedy Center, the Ovation Awards, Jewish Plays Project, the Asolo Theatre, the Woodward/Newman and PENWest Literary Awards. The Last Seder, now being developed as a feature film with Rosalind Productions, had a critically acclaimed Off-Broadway run (Rosalind Productions) with productions around the world. (Published by Dramatists Play Service). jennifermaisel.com
MATHILDE DRATWA
(Additional Material by)
Mathilde Dratwa has developed feature films and TV projects for Netflix, FX, Chernin Entertainment, Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap, Endeavor, Cate Blanchett’s Dirty Films, Red Wagon, Condé Nast, Picturestart, Sony/TriStar, and Wiip. Her work has attracted attachments from Natasha Lyonne, Margo
Martindale, and Julianne Nicholson. She also writes as part of a team with director Gillian Robespierre. In theater, Mathilde’s plays include Esther Perel Ruined My Life (IAMA Theatre Company), Dirty Laundry (WP Theater, Audible; Henley Rose Award, Kernodle Award), Milk & Gall (Theatre503, London), and A Play about David Mamet Writing a Play about Harvey Weinstein. Her work has been developed or presented by Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, Ojai Playwrights Conference, the Playwrights’ Center, Roundabout Theatre Company, Rattlestick, Berkshire Theatre Group, American Players Theatre, LAByrinth Theater Company, Cape Cod Theatre Project, The Old Globe and the Young Vic. IMDB
Cast
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Photo credit: Peter Konerko
THORA BIRCH
Thora has had roles in many beloved films including Paradise, Patriot Games, Hocus Pocus, Monkey Trouble, Now and Then, and Alaska. She played Jane Burnham in American Beauty, earning a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She followed this with what's widely considered one of her signature performances: starring as Enid Coleslaw in the cult favorite Ghost World (2001), which brought her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. Other notable film credits from the 2000s include Dungeons & Dragons, The Hole, Silver City, and Dark Corners. After producing and starring in 2012's Petunia, she stepped back from acting before returning in 2016, going on to appear in independent films such as The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019) and The Chronology of Water (2025). On television, she earned an Emmy nomination for playing the title role in Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story, and later took on the recurring part of Gamma/Mary on The Walking Dead from 2019 to 2020.
Photo credit: Steppenwolf Theatre
JEFF PERRY
Jeffrey Perry is an American Drama Desk Award-winning actor who has worked in film, television, and theater. He's known for his roles as Cyrus Beene on Scandal (2012–2018) and Meredith Grey's father on Grey's Anatomy (2006–present). He's also appeared in Nash Bridges, My So-Called Life, Prison Break, The West Wing, Lost, and Chicago Hope. Perry has also had roles in the films Wild Things (1998), The Grifters (1990), and The Human Stain (2003). Jeff is a co-founder of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and has acted and directed in over 40 Steppenwolf productions. Regional: No Man’s Land, Seagull, Streamers, Time of Your Life, Anna Christie, A Steady Rain. International: The Grapes of Wrath, August: Osage County. Television: Nash Bridges, Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, $1, Dirty John, Inventing Anna, Alaska Daily. Upcoming: Co-Producer The Steppenwolf Theatre Documentary.
Photo credit: Dirty Sugar Photography
ABIGAIL ROSE SOLOMON
Abigail Rose Solomon most recently worked with Jennifer Lopez on the Netflix thriller The Last Mrs. Parrish, directed by Oscar winner Robert Zemeckis. Recent films: Mouse, in theaters nationwide this fall; Lilly, on Netflix, as "Senator Lisa Murkowski"; documentary None of This Matters, in a master acting class with Emmy Award winner, Joan Darling; Pointing Fingers, in post-production. Her work also includes the film Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and television: Sex & the City, Law & Order, NYPD Blue, Three Women, Odd Mom Out, Days of Our Lives. She has shared stage and screen with Angelina Jolie, Mahershala Ali, Sarah Jessica Parker, David Hyde Pierce, Patricia Clarkson and Sophie Okonedo, among others. A longtime theatre artist, she has worked with Manhattan Theatre Club, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, California Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare & Co, and many others.
BRIANA VENSKUS
Briana Venskus has built an extensive filmography spanning major television franchises, streaming dramas, and feature films. Over her decade-plus career, she has secured prominent recurring roles across competitive sci-fi and comic book universes, most notably starring as Agent Piper in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Susan Vasquez in DC's Supergirl, and Beatrice in The Walking Dead. Beyond her signature action and genre television roles, Venskus has consistently worked in both prominent network procedurals and modern streaming dramedies, building up a long list of episodic appearances and multi-episode arcs.
GRIFF FURST
Griff Furst has appeared in over 60 films and dozens of television projects. On the big screen, Furst is known for his roles in major Hollywood movies like The Founder, The Magnificent Seven, Terminator Genisys, Focus, Now You See Me, I Love You Phillip Morris, and 57 Seconds. His prominent television credits include playing the original Lucas Hood on Cinemax's Banshee, Burkhardt on Discovery's Manhunt: Unabomber, and Anthony Cook on NCIS: Origins.
Photo credit: Kelsey Hale
BARBARA HERSHEY
Barbara Hershey has collaborated with some of the world’s most renowned directors, including Martin Scorsese in The Last Temptation of Christ as “Mary Magdalene,” Darren Aronofsky, for which she received a BAFTA nomination for her portrayal of “Erica Sayers / The Queen” in Black Swan, and Jane Campion, for which her performance as “Madame Serena” in The Portrait of a Lady was nominated for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. Barbara can currently be seen in Zak Penn’s Sci-Fi series, Beacon 23, and JT Mollner’s Miramax feature, Strange Darling alongside Kyle Gallner, Ed Begley Jr., and Willa Fitzgerald. She also starred in the psychological thriller The Manor for Amazon Studios in 2021. Prior to this, Barbara starred as “Lorraine Lambert” in James Wan’s Insidious franchise for Universal Pictures. On the small screen, Barbara portrayed southern matriarch “Byrd” in the gothic mystery series Paradise Lost opposite Nick Nolte, and led the cast of Glen Mazzara’s supernatural series Damien for A&E as “Ann Rutledge.” Hershey became the first actress to win consecutive “Best Actress” awards at the Cannes Film Festival for an unprecedented two years in a row, winning for her performances in the feature films Shy People and A World Apart. Shortly after, Hershey won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie " for her highly lauded performance as “Candy” in A Killing in a Small Town for CBS.
Photo credit: Anthony Rhoades
ALYSIA REINER
SAG award winning Alysia Reiner is best known as Fig on 7 seasons of Orange Is the New Black, she also originated Agent Sadie Deever in the 2023 Emmy & Critics Choice Award–winning Ms. Marvel. She starred for 5 seasons as Sunny on Better Things, 2 seasons as Kiki on The Deuce, and 2 seasons as Kathryn in Shining Vale with Courteney Cox -both on HBO, and now recurs in seasons 2 & 3 on Netflix’s hit political thriller The Diplomat. Recent films include The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed (Cannes, 2025 Spirit award nominee), Our Bodies and Other Shames, and Transcendent. Other career highlights include Oscar-winning Sideways, an Emmy-winning episode of Broad City, going head to head with Viola Davis on How To Get Away with Murder, and many many more. IMDB
Photo credit: Ellen Lee
MORGAN SAYLOR
A veteran of stage and screen, Morgan Saylor's film credits include Funny Birds opposite Andrea Riseborough and Catherine Deneuve, executive produced by Martin Scorsese; Margaret Betts’ Novitiate opposite Melissa Leo; Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy's critically acclaimed Tribeca hit Blow the Man Down, Rob Reiner’s Being Charlie, Niki Caro’s McFarland USA for Disney; Paul Weitz’s The Vampire Assistant and Killer Films/Elizabeth Wood’s White Girl, which premiered at Sundance and turned out to be a breakout role. Before all of this, she made her stage debut in 2015 opposite Cherry Jones and Zoe Kazan in the Manhattan Theater Club production When We Were Young and Unafraid and starred as Dana Brody on Showtime's critically acclaimed series Homeland. Most recently, she wrapped production on the Blacklist script thriller Three People in the Wood.
DAMON J. GILLESPIE
Damon J. Gillespie is an actor and singer based in NY. His TV Credits include Tiny Pretty Things, Rise, The Society, Empire and Compliance. Theatre credits include: Dear Evan Hansen (Arena Stage), Cyrano (Goodspeed), The Music Man (Lead/Kennedy Center). Aladdin (Broadway), Newsies (Broadway).
KRISTIAN BRUUN
Kristian Bruun is a Canadian - Finnish actor. He is best known for his roles in Orphan Black, Murdoch Mysteries, The Recruit, The Girl Who Escaped: The Kara Robinson Story and The Rookie.
JOSEPH KAMAL
Joseph Kamal is known for Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again, The Flight Attendant and Call of Duty: Black Ops III.
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