A mature woman with gray hair sitting on a white step against a plain light gray background, wearing a black outfit and gold sneakers, looking at the camera with a slight smile.
A mature woman with gray hair sitting on a white step against a plain light gray background, wearing a black outfit and gold sneakers, looking at the camera with a slight smile.

Producing Team

Malina Mannarino

A woman with curly dark hair wearing a black dress and black wedge sandals sitting on white steps against a plain grey background.
A woman with curly dark hair wearing a black dress and black wedge sandals sitting on white steps against a plain grey background.

Claudia Godi

A young man sitting on a white step, wearing a black sweater, dark jeans, and black shoes, with a neutral expression and looking at the camera against a plain white background.
A young man sitting on a white step, wearing a black sweater, dark jeans, and black shoes, with a neutral expression and looking at the camera against a plain white background.

Jason Beckmann

We are producing The Fundamentalist because we believe theater can create something increasingly rare: a space where people confront difficult questions together.

At its heart, Juha Jokela's play is about accountability—how we reckon with the consequences of our beliefs, our actions, and the stories we tell ourselves about who we are. Rather than offering easy answers or clear heroes and villains, The Fundamentalist invites audiences to examine certainty, responsibility, and the possibility of understanding those with whom we profoundly disagree.

Your support helps bring this urgent contemporary work to the stage with the artistic rigor, intimacy, and honesty it deserves.

Why This Play

Creative Team

  • On Broadway, John originated the roles of Governor Slaton in Parade directed by Hal Prince, Chief Minister Zoser in Elton John’s Aida, and Professor Bhaer opposite Sutton Foster in Little Women. He can be heard on all three cast albums. Also on Broadway – Man and Boy opposite Frank Langella, Our Country’s Good and Accomplice.

    He also created the role of Special Agent Milton in Red Dead Redemption 2. Favorite gigs in a 40-year-career: John Adams in Frank Galati’s 1776, Polonius in Hamlet, Aguecheek in Twelfth Night, Wizard in John Doyle’s August Rush, Gloucester in Richard III, Beauregard in Mame with Michelle Lee, Peter Pan with Kathy Rigby, Foxfire with James Whitmore. He’s done Romeo and Juliet three times (Mercutio, Tybalt & directed it), and Midsummer Night’s Dream four times (Lysander twice, Peter Quince and directed it). John’s directing credits include the acclaimed premiere of Burning Blue at the Theater Royal Haymarket on London’s West End (2 Olivier Award nominations, Evening Standard nominations). He directed (and designed the set & sound for) subsequent Burning Blue productions in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and has directed professionally around the country and in various universities.

    He’s taught Shakespeare, directing, acting, Meisner, diction, voice & movement at Queens College, Bard College, Norwalk Conservatory & Western Ct. State University, where he’s currently an adjunct faculty member.

  • Born in Florence, Italy, Ms. Godi is currently based in New York City. Claudia is grateful for the guidance of her mentor, Mr. Robert X. Modica, whose teachings continue to inspire and inform her work.

    CURRENTLY PERFORMING – Heidi — The Fundamentalist by Juha Jokela, directed by Jason Beckmann, opposite John Hickok

    SELECTED THEATER CREDITS Doomsday Scrolling, Anomalous Co., Here Art Center, NYC, Miracle of the Danube, by M. Anderson, directed by Jason Beckmann, produced by Putnam Theater Alliance, Love Letters, by A.R. Gurney, opposite Richard Fiske, Ink & Steel, 9 Freedoms Productions, The Players Club (NYC) and JCTC (NJ), Trojan Women, by Euripides, directed by Olga Levina, JCTC, Felony Friday, opposite John Amos (Good Times, Roots), Prey, opposite Sean Patrick Reilly (Billion, Sleeper, Bull), Loves of Picasso, written and directed by Terry D’Alfonso, produced by Pat Flicker Addis and Georganne Aldrich, Always Never There, co-produced and acted in the play by Jason Beckman, The Players Club (NYC), The Business of Love – Affare d’Amore, co-wrote and performed in this bilingual romantic comedy with Scott Decker TRAINING

    Studied Acting with Mr. Robert X. Modica, Carnegie Hall Studios – Studio 809

  • As a director Jason Beckmann’s most recent credits include directing and producing Expressions of Regret by Christine Toy Johnson and Miracle on the Danube by Maxwell Anderson as a part of The Freedom Project for the Putnam Theater Alliance. He has also directed ne works such as Zoo Animals by Jack Fuhrmann at the New York Theater Festival, Breaking and Entering (Won Best Play and Best Director) and How We Met (Won Best Play)by Ellie Martino at the Aery 20/20 festival. He also has directed classics such as Love Letters by A.R Gurney at The Jersey City Theater Center and Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov at Nuance Theater. He has workshopped Talk to Me Like the Rain by Tennessee Williams at the Tank. He received his BFA in Theater Arts at University of the Arts and spent a semester at the Moscow Art Theater. He has been a resident artist at the National Theater at the Eugene O’Neill Theater center and Dragon’s Egg where he workshopped The Seagull. He is also a company member of The Scandinavian American Theater Company since 2017 satcnyc.org 

  • is is a seasoned professional in the dramatic arts, specializing in coaching for adults and children, and voiceovers. With over three decades of experience, she has played a key role in Italian, Spanish, and English language education across a variety of fields, with an emphasis on opera and musicals. She also has an extensive background in press, journalism, and communications. Malina has also worked with the National Theater Press Office in Rome, Turin, and Bolzano, Italy.She attended the Catholic University, Communications and Dramatic Arts in Washington D.C. and the National Academy of Dramatic Art Silvio D’Amico in Rome, Italy.

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Interested in joining the team? Reach out at thefundamentalistnyc@gmail.com