FALINE ENGLAND Faline has taught and coached at Diana Castle’s The Imagined Life in Los Angeles since 2009. Off-Broadway Theater Row: It Ends With Guinea Pigs by Diana Gitelman (Best One-Woman Show, United Solo Festival). She also coached and mentored actress Mary Jane Wells for her one woman show Heroine with development supported by Festival Theatres Edinburgh followed by its UK premiere at Assembly festival at Edinburgh Fringe where it won the prestigious Made in Scotland Award. Heroine’s North American premiere at The
Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. was a part of their prestigious “World Series” showcase. Through The Imagined Life Studio, Faline’s coaching clients have appeared in hundreds of television shows and feature films including “Blink Twice”, “Oppenheimer”, “Dear White People”, “Killing it”, “American Horror Story”, “9-1-1”, and “Bel-Air” among others. As an actress Faline appeared on the London boards at the Arcola Theatre in the world premiere queer version of Simon Stephens’ Heisenberg opposite two-time Olivier winner Jenny Galloway
for which she received an Off West End Offie Award Performance Nomination. Other stage credits include: The Realistic Joneses with Gare St. Lazare Ireland at the Dublin Theatre Festival (nomination Best Ensemble: The Irish Times Theatre Awards); co-productions of The Realistic Joneses and Heisenberg at the Rubicon Theatre/Laguna Playhouse (Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Nomination Lead Performer); as well as The Rubicon’s Gulf View Drive (L.A. Ovation Award for Best Play in a Large Theatre and Ovation Award Nomination for Best Supporting Actress), Crimes of the Heart, Turn of the Screw, (L.A. Ovation Nomination for Best Play in a Large Theatre), and All My Sons (Ovation
Award Nomination for Best Supporting Actress). Most recently, she was last seen in North Coast Reps.’ world premiere production of Joanna McClelland Glass’ Louisa Gillis. Other west coast productions include Chicago, The Rover, Three Sisters, Playboy of the Western World, The Changeling, Heartbreak House, The Tempest, All in the Timing at Western Stage, Santa Barbara Dance Theatre’s Finnegan’s Wake, Julius Caesar and Twelfth Night with Shakespeare Center L.A., Carry the World: Women and Peace with Creative Visions, and Purge! with James Donlon & Co. She also co-wrote, produced, directed and starred in the two-person show Flayjennnie Eroticus: A Documentary (Central Coast Independent Theatre Award). Among her many film and television credits are “9-1-1,” “Station 19,” “Criminal Minds,” and “C.S.I.”.
She currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband actor David Meunier.
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It Ends With Guinea Pigs is a dynamic solo show written and performed by Diana Gitelman, directed by Faline England. What begins as the reluctant adoption of two male guinea pigs unexpectedly becomes a portal into generational trauma, cultural identity, marriage dynamics, motherhood exhaustion, hamster-related murder guilt, and an eventual emotional awakening.
We journey from non–self-care Soviet Jewish roots to pigs, lice, and healing through pig poop. The guinea pigs—objectively useless—become absurd spirit guides, opening the door to unprocessed grief tied to Frisky and “Babushka” (Grandma). Along the way, they help forge new boundaries and rebuild self-worth, culminating in a love of self, life, and, oddly… these pigs.
"Happily, however, Diana Gitelman’s one-woman show is a triumph, notable for both its pointed wit and surprising emotional depth.
Under the assured direction of Faline England, the tone of the show gradually shifts, as the amusing anecdotes make way for astute observations about grieving and death. As Gitelman shows us with humor and humility, important insights can pop up when we least expect them.”
Tom Jacobs - Veteran California Arts Writer
"Faline England's direction amplifies the work. The movement is precise and expressive.
It suggests that theatre can still surprise us, still reshape how we see ourselves as lovers and dreamers.”
Matthew D. Foster
All About SOLO
"Playwright-performer Diana Gitelman takes the audience on a path that begins with a minor parenting problem, the care and feeding of two high‑maintenance guinea pigs, and then winds its way through grief, ancestral trauma, and transformation."
Read The Full BroadwayWorld Review HERE
"It Ends With Guinea Pigs” closed the United Solo Festival with force and unusual charm. Diana Gitelman delivers a performance that moves through hope, love, defeat, and perseverance with a confidence that makes even the strangest material feel inevitable."
Read The Full All About SOLO Review HERE
