For the Zombie Opera & Undead Arts

Catriona takes pride in executing her wild vision each year for the Zombie Opera. Working alongside her partners, Katy Gardiner and Molly Dunn, she directs and produces the annual large-scale event, leading the charge on everything from raising funds through grants and sponsors, hiring the performers, creatives and technical crews, and most critically, ensuring that the audience have an unforgettable night.

As the co-founder of Undead Arts she continues to spearhead fundraising, both through grants and corporate sponsorships, while devising and implementing year-long programming that serves the community of Jersey City.

More About Catriona

Catriona Rubenis-Stevens is a multi-award-winning film and theater director and producer and was part of the team that went to the 93rd Academy Awards with the Oscar nominated live action short; Feeling Through.

Born and raised in a small town in the UK, she moved to NYC in her early 20s to study at the prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts and then later earned her bachelor’s in music at NJCU.

She has directed several award-winning short films for the Easterseals’ Disability Film Challenge, including the highly decorated Andy & Kaliope and the very successful short documentary How Much Am I Worth? that have both screened across America, and were both picked up by streaming platforms. Her film e.ro.sion, noun screened at over 20 festivals worldwide and went on to receive numerous wins and nominations including Best Director, Best Female Filmmaker and Best Film.

Over the years, Catriona has managed to build a reputation for authentic storytelling, carefully blending her exploration of the human condition and her passion for social awareness. Her style leans toward magic realism and comedy, and her journey into motherhood has further influenced her empathetic nature, sarcastic dry humor and her approach to her work!

Notable producing credits include the BBC’s Houdini’s Diaries for the History Channel, Daymond John’s Money Map, the MSNBC docuseries Model America and A&E Network’s Greatest of all Time with Laila Ali. Feature films include Lost Cos, Indigo, Americano, which made its debut at TIFF, and Regarding Us which made its world premiere at the Chinese Theater in LA and has since been acquired for English speaking territories by Gravitas Ventures.  

She is also an established theater director in New York and New Jersey, directing shows including The Wizard of Oz, Cats, Oklahoma!, Anything Goes, Hairspray, The Lion King, Oliver,Into The Woods, Gruesome Playground Injuries, Spring Awakening and the World-premiere of Allerleirauh at Alvin Ailey.

For the Zombie Opera & Undead Arts

Molly is the co-creator of Zombie Opera and co-founder of Undead Arts. What began as a stoop concert series on Cat’s block during COVID has since grown into the largest annual Halloween event in Jersey City.  As the lead curator of repertoire, Molly oversees all musical programming and coordination for Undead Arts. Most importantly, she rises from the grave every Halloween to sing the highest notes possible as a Zombie Opera Singer.

More About Molly

Outside of Undead Arts, Molly is known as an international opera singer, theatrical producer, and educator. She spent the greater part of the 2022-2023 season singing Violetta in La Traviata at the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona. She also performed Violetta in La Traviata with MidAtlantic Symphony Orchestra at South Orange Performing Arts Center and Mimì in La Bohème with Light Opera of New Jersey under the baton of Jason Tramm. In the 2021 season, Ms. Dunn made her debut as La Contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro with the International Summer Opera Festival of Morelia, Mexico under the baton of Maestro Jorge Parodi. She was a Finalist and Special Award Winner in the 2017 Lotte Lenya Competition for crossover musical theatre/opera singers. She is a winner of the 2019 Vienna Summer Music Festival Competition and made her international debut as Suor Angelica in Suor Angelica at the Wiener Kammeroper in Vienna, Austria under the baton of Maestro Keith Chambers. In 2024 she was honored to be a Semi-Finalist in the Elizabeth Connell Prize in London for dramatic voices. 

Molly is the creator of LUX Performing Arts, a theatre home for young artists, dedicated to helping emerging talent develop their craft, confidence, and passion for the stage. Her students have appeared on Broadway, in international K-pop groups, on Netflix, in TV/Film, and of course in many community and school theatre productions across NJ and NYC. 

For the Zombie Opera & Undead Arts

In late 2023, Katy was invited by Catriona to join the Zombie Opera team as the set and costume designer for the 2024 show and “make it look like a spaceship crashed into the gazebo.” One 9ft-by-20ft plywood flying saucer, 7 sewn costumes, 100 handcrafted props and a glowing photo booth later, that challenge was fulfilled.

After a very successful performance, Katy joined Catriona and Molly in founding a dedicated nonprofit organization for the yearly show and now serves as COO of the newly-formed Undead Arts.

More About Katy

Katy Gardiner is a Jersey City-based semi-serial entrepreneur and the founder of Curiographer. Since 2013, she has been designing and hand-crafting home goods, decor and accessories to the delight of thousands of customers, oftentimes working with materials found or salvaged in the area.

A creator by nature and nurture, Katy has both started and joined a number of other projects through the years, lending her design skills to friends and endeavors in need.

But it was in 2020 that Katy put her making skills to their first best and proudest use. On April 1, she became one of five founding members of Jersey City Rapid Maker Response Group, a network of, at its peak, over fifty volunteers, who came together first to 3D print and later, through a massive fundraising effort, to mass-produce over 250,000 face shields for donation to hospitals, schools and the overall Covid frontline in and around Jersey City and across the United States.

A graduate of Stevens Institute of Technology and proud New Jersey native, Katy has found her creative hub and home in Jersey City, where she has lived with her husband and son for over seven years.