The Old Globe
and
University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program
Faculty
Staff
Guest Artists
Jesse Perez
Program Director, Craig Noel Distinguished Professor,
Senior Artistic Staff at The Old Globe
Jesse Perez is an actor, director, and choreographer -movement director who is currently the Program Director of The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program and Senior Artistic Staff at The Old Globe Theatre. His choreography/movement credits include The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare & Company), Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare on the Sound), Steel Magnolias (Trinity Repertory Company), The Luckiest (La Jolla Playhouse), The Great Leap (Atlantic Theater Company), and Jedermann (Salzburg Festival). He has served as company choreographer for The Lake Lucille Chekhov Project since 2003. Perez has also been a guest artist and faculty member at his Alma Mater: The Juilliard School, where he has choreographed, directed, and taught for the last 12 years. As an actor, he recently appeared in the Globe’s "Romeo and Juliet" directed by Barry Edelstein, "El Borracho" by Tony Meneses directed by Edward Torres, and "The Taming of the Shrew" directed by Shana Cooper. His Off Broadway credits include Party People (The Public Theater), The Father and A Doll’s House (Theatre for a New Audience), Informed Consent (Primary Stages), Triple Happiness (Second Stage Theater), Barrio Grrrl! (Summer Play Festival), Recent Tragic Events (Playwrights Horizons), In the Penal Colony (Classic Stage Company), Up Against the Wind (New York Theatre Workshop). His opera credits include Lucia di Lammermoor at The Metropolitan Opera, and his regional credits include La Jolla Playhouse, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Yale Repertory Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre Company, McCarter Theatre Center, and Goodman Theatre. He was also seen internationally with the Venice Biennale and Salzburg Festival. His television and film credits include “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “The Job,” “Life on Mars,” American Splendor, and Adopt a Highway.
Staff
Nate Parde
Production Manager
and Technical Director
Nicole Ries
MFA Program Coordinator
Nicole has collaborated with Moxie Theatre, San Diego Repertory Theatre, Cygnet Theatre Company, Diversionary Theatre, Broadway/San Diego, PlayOn Shakespeare, The Old Globe Theatre, and Starlight Musical Theatre. Ries holds a B.A. in Theatre Arts with an emphasis in Arts Management from San Diego State University. Nicole has many years of experience in production management, producing small to large scale events and productions for companies and theatres, stage management for collegiate and professional theatres, social media relations, and theatre administration.
Nate is a lighting designer, technical director, and teacher living in San Diego, CA. He has designed lighting for theatres such as The Old Globe, Lamb’s Players Theatre and New Village Arts in San Diego and was Lighting Director for The Old Globe from 2008-2011. Nate currently teaches technical theatre at the University of San Diego.
Dana McNeal
Dept. of Theatre Executive Assistant
Dana is the Executive Assistant for the Departments of both Music and Theatre. She is a 2008 graduate of the the University of San Diego, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts, with a minor in Communication Studies. While attending USD, she participated in numerous theatre productions as an actor, director, and costume technician/associate designer. Additionally, she was a member of USD's MEChA chapter, worked in Copley Library, and was a member of USD's cheerleading team. Since graduating, Dana has worked at multiple theatres across San Diego including The Old Globe, Cygnet Theatre, and Lamb's Players Theatre. She was most recently the Patron Services Manager at the San Diego Junior Theatre. She comes with extensive experience in management, leadership, and customer service as she had a very successful career in retail management as the Store Manager at Anthropologie. During her time at Anthropologie, she served at 6 different locations across San Diego and Hawaii, helped open the Waikiki location, and mentored and developed teams ranging from 12-65 people under her leadership. She is currently working toward her Master in Arts in Leadership Studies at the University of San Diego.
Faculty
Ray Chambers
Head of Acting, Associate Professor
Ray Chambers has worked as an actor and director with numerous regional theaters across the country since first training with The Old Globe in the mid-‘80s. For nearly two decades as an Associate Artist with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Chambers has worked as an actor, director, writer, instructor and served as Director of the Master of Fine Arts/Professional Actor Training Program at ASF from 2001 to 2009. His regional acting credits include title roles in Hamlet, The Count of Monte Cristo, Richard III, Coriolanus, King John, Henry V and Tartuffe and leading roles in Julius Caesar, The Winter's Tale, The Rivals, Henry IV, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Great Expectations, The Importance of Being Earnest and Saint Joan, among many others. His credits at The Old Globe include Life of Riley, Macbeth, Hamlet, Love’s Labors Lost, The Comedy of Errors, Antony and Cleopatra, The School for Scandal and Coriolanus. He is Head of Acting in the Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program. Ray Chambers has worked as an actor and director in regional theaters across the country and is two plays shy of acting in all of Shakespeare’s plays. He was with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival for two decades and currently is Head of Acting in the Old Globe and USD Shiley Graduate Theatre program. raychambers@sandiego.edu
Jesse Perez
Movement and Acting Professor
Jesse Perez is an actor, director, and choreographer -movement director who is currently the Program Director of The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program and Senior Artistic Staff at The Old Globe Theatre. His choreography/movement credits include The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare & Company), Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare on the Sound), Steel Magnolias (Trinity Repertory Company), The Luckiest (La Jolla Playhouse), The Great Leap (Atlantic Theater Company), and Jedermann (Salzburg Festival). He has served as company choreographer for The Lake Lucille Chekhov Project since 2003. Perez has also been a guest artist and faculty member at his Alma Mater: The Juilliard School, where he has choreographed, directed, and taught for the last 12 years. As an actor, he recently appeared in the Globe’s "Romeo and Juliet" directed by Barry Edelstein, "El Borracho" by Tony Meneses directed by Edward Torres, and "The Taming of the Shrew" directed by Shana Cooper. His Off Broadway credits include Party People (The Public Theater), The Father and A Doll’s House (Theatre for a New Audience), Informed Consent (Primary Stages), Triple Happiness (Second Stage Theater), Barrio Grrrl! (Summer Play Festival), Recent Tragic Events (Playwrights Horizons), In the Penal Colony (Classic Stage Company), Up Against the Wind (New York Theatre Workshop). His opera credits include Lucia di Lammermoor at The Metropolitan Opera, and his regional credits include La Jolla Playhouse, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Yale Repertory Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre Company, McCarter Theatre Center, and Goodman Theatre. He was also seen internationally with the Venice Biennale and Salzburg Festival. His television and film credits include “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “The Job,” “Life on Mars,” American Splendor, and Adopt a Highway.
Emmelyn Thayer
Voice and Speech Professor
Emmelyn Thayer is a theatre professor, voice and dialect coach, stage director and music director who has worked with thousands of students from all over the world. As an actor, she has worked with Tony Award-winning directors and is a recipient of the Craig Noel MFA Fellowship and the Horrigan Award for Theatre. As a voice and dialect coach, she has worked with numerous theatres and educational institutions including The Old Globe, Cygnet Theatre, San Diego Junior Theatre, Carlsbad Playreaders, San Dieguito Academy, The Bishop’s School, San Diego Mesa College, the USD Department of Theatre, and The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program. Her directing and music directing credits include Shakespeare productions, musicals, bilingual plays, experimental theatre, and new works by professional and student playwrights. Currently, Emmelyn teaches Voice and Speech for the University of San Diego, and Voice, Speech, Dialects, and Singing for The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program. She also serves as a Respondent for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival and performs regionally as a solo and chamber violinist. As a member of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association, Emmelyn presented her paper Phonetics as a Pathway to Empathy: Inclusive IPA Training in the American Theatre Classroom at the international VASTA Conference in 2022.
Sonia Desai
Text and Context Faculty
Sonia Desai, PhD, is a professional dramaturg, Old Globe Theatre Literary Associate, director, and professor. She has worked with multiple theatre companies in the Southern California area including the La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego Repertory Theatre, and Company of Angels. She has taught at Loyola Marymount University and CSU San Marcos.
Danielle Mages Amato
Text and Context Faculty
Danielle Mages Amato currently works as the Director of New Plays and Dramaturgy at The Old Globe in San Diego. When she's not collaborating with playwrights on new work or researching obscure facts about theatre history, she writes YA novels about the places where the past and the present collide. Her novel THE HIDDEN MEMORY OF OBJECTS is available with Balzer+Bray/HarperCollins. She is a member of SCBWI, and is represented by Lana Popovic of Chalberg & Sussman. She is a past president of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas and has served on their Board of Directors. Danielle spent four years as the dramaturg and literary manager of The Studio Theatre in Washington, DC. She holds an MFA in Dramaturgy and a PhD in Drama and Theatre from the University of California-San Diego.
Eileen Troberman
Movement Faculty
- Alexander Technique
Eileen Troberman is a teaching member of the American Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique and Alexander Technique International beginning her study of the Technique in 1978. In 1982, she graduated the 3-year full-time Alexander Technique Teacher-Training program under directors Frank Ottiwell and Giora Pinkas becoming a certified teacher. Also, in 1978 Eileen began many years of study with Marjorie Barstow (1899-1995), the first teacher to graduate F.M. Alexander's 1st teacher-training course. Marjorie was the first teacher F.M. Alexander certified to teach his technique and she was known for developing a unique and practical approach in teaching the Alexander Technique to performers. Eileen apprenticed with Marjorie for over 15 years. She is one of only a few Alexander teachers to have both been trained by Marjorie Barstow and also traditionally trained and certified. Eileen has also studied with other master Alexander teachers from Alexander's first teacher training course and combines all the branches of Alexander teaching styles, and more, in her work with actors. Eileen has a particular interest in functional anatomy and the mind/body interface of intention and movement. She is a certified practitioner of the Feldenkrais method, completing her 4-year Feldenkrais practitioner training in 2002. Eileen is twice certified in the Art of Breathing by Jessica Wolf, combining the breathwork of F.M. Alexander and Carl Stough. Eileen has taught Alexander Technique for the Cirque Du Soleil “O” show and presented at the Freedom to Act Conference in New York, as well as having taught numerous other workshops and classes for performers throughout the world. She also teaches in the UCSD MFA Graduate Acting program and maintains a busy private practice in Encinitas.
Gerhard Gessner
Movement Faculty - Yoga
Gerhard has been teaching yoga for over 18 years. He is trained in a variety of different styles of Hatha Yoga, including Ashtanga, Iyengar, Bikram Ananda and Contact Yoga. His non-dogmatic approach to yoga is eclectic and combines elements of all the styles he has studied, tailored to the needs of his students. Gerhard is owner and Director of Prana Yoga Center in La Jolla, California.
Ka'imi Kuoha
Movement Faculty
Ka'imi Kuoha, martial artist, fight choreographer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. She started her career as an actress and martial artist in 1986, and have since discovered her passion for teaching, entrepreneurship, & wellness. She is passionate about empowering women through self-defense and internal power. "Because of my diverse background and meeting people from all walks of life, I have a passion to learn from others. I believe the best way to develop an understanding for the art of learning, is to study and practice until you reach a very high level in a skill, and then practice again! It’s not just learned by reading, but applying every single day." Co-authored two books with her father titled "Chinese Kara-Ho Kempo: Fundamental Practice and Techniques" and "Chinese Kara-Ho Kempo: Secrets of KI and Internal Power". 6th degree black belt in Chinese Kara-ho Kempo Karate. Ka'imi teaches Conditioning and Stage Combat.
Brandon Mendez Homer
Acting I
Brandon is a former banker turned multi-hyphenate artist; actor, writer, director, teacher; awarded the Juilliard Career Advancement Fellowship which “recognizes an artist with tremendous talent, innovation, entrepreneurial mindset and potential to make a significant impact on the performing arts.” Drawing on multi-ethnic roots within the Black diaspora, he is the creator of Mirthamerica, an epic historical fantasy IP built on blockchain technology; integrates NFTs, DAOs, audio, digital, theatrical and comic-book-driven storytelling (9/10 Premise, Blacklist Evaluation). Faculty: IDSA LA; teaches movement through the “Homer Pedagogy,” researched and developed at Juilliard, hedge funds, tech companies, law offices, and high schools around the world. The Good Fight (Paramount+), Blue Bloods (CBS), Uncle Vanya (Pasadena Playhouse), Wolf Play (critically acclaimed sold-out Soho Rep production), On That Day in Amsterdam (Ted Snowdon/Primary Stages), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare on the Sound). Workshops: The Public Theater Emerging Writers Group, Roundabout Theatre Company, Almeida Theatre UK. Juilliard: Othello(Producer/Director/Adaption). Short: Souvenir Drunk (Producer). The Juilliard School, Michael Chekhov Actors Studio Boston. @zhomerbrand
Guest Artists
Guest Artists of the MFA Program are Industry Professionals and Educators from across the country that visit with the MFA Actors for an extended time and are invited back each year as budget allows.
Dave Anzuelo
Guest Artist
Dave Anzuelo is the founder of UnkleDave’s Fight-House: a twotime Drama Desk nominated team of fight directors. Broadway: Girl From The North Country (Belasco); The Great Society (Vivian Beaumont); Escape to Margaritaville (Marquis); Tuck Everlasting (Broadhurst); An American In Paris (Palace); Disgraced (Lyceum). Off-Broadway: What To Send Up When It Goes Down (Playwrights Horizons); Last Of The Love Letters (Atlantic); Halfway Bitches Go Straight To Heaven (Atlantic); Oedipus El Rey (Public). National Tours: An American In Paris; Escape To Margaritaville. Film: Con Dios; Poor Behavior; Emoticon.
J. Ed Araiza
Guest Artist
J.Ed Araiza has a long and varied history working on multicultural, cross-disciplinary projects as a writer, director and performer. He holds a B.A. in theater from Texas A&I University in Kingsville, Texas and studied journalism at San Antonio College. Early in his career, Araiza was a member of El Teatro de La Esperanza Company and worked at both the Los Angeles Actors Theatre and the Los Angeles Theatre Center. Araiza is a principal actor and original member of the SITI Company, founded by Tadashi Suzuki and Anne Bogart. SITI Company is one of the most important experimental theater ensembles in the world. He is a proponent of Suzuki and Viewpoints training and for more than 20 years has performed in productions in major national and international venues. These include the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; the Olympic Arts Festival in Atlanta; the Brooklyn Academy of Music; Actors Theatre of Louisville; Los Angeles Theater Center; Minneapolis’ Walker Art Center; Harvard University’s American Repertory Theater; Scotland’s Edinburgh Festival; Germany’s Biennale Bonn festival; Japan’s Toga Festival; Ireland’s Dublin Theatre Festival; and Festival Le Standard Ideal, MC 93 Bobigny, in Paris. As a playwright with seven original full-length plays produced, Araiza is a member of The Dramatist Guild, Austin Script Works and NoPE (No Passport Required). He has directed sections of 365 Days/365 Plays at the New York Public Theatre; Voluspa for the National Theatre of Iceland; Savitri, Dancing in the Forest of Death for the META Theatre Festival in Delhi (nominated for best production and best director) and MEDEAstories, his original adaptation of the Euripides, with an international cast for the SITI Studio Theatre in New York. He has also written One Fine Day and Miss Julia, a powerplay. Araiza has been a guest teacher at many universities including The Julliard School, Yale School of Drama, SUNY Purchase, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Columbia University, New York University, Stanford University, National Theater Institute, Harvard University, University of Chicago, Pomona College, Vassar College and the University of Denver. He was artist in residence/guest faculty for three semesters over three years at St. Edward’s University in Austin Texas; and artist-in-residence/Coastal Studies Chair at Bowdoin College in Maine. He was also guest lecturer in acting and performance at Ontario’s University of Windsor. Other international workshops he has led include those at the Singapore International Theatre Festival; South Korea’s Seoul Factory Theatre; the Norwegian Theatre Academy; the Icelandic Academy of the Arts; Festival Iberoamericano in Bogota, Columbia; and, most recently, a month-long residency at TEAK the Finnish Theatre Academy.
Christopher Bayes
Guest Artist
Christopher Bayes began his theater career with the internationally acclaimed Theatre de la Jeune Lune where he worked for five years as an actor, director, composer, designer, and artistic associate. In 1989 he joined the acting company of the Guthrie Theater where he appeared in over twenty productions. His roles included Caliban in The Tempest, Edgar in King Lear, The Herald in Marat/Sade and Harlequin in Triumph of Love. In 1993, commissioned by the Guthrie Theater, he produced his one-man show This Ridiculous Dreaming based on Heinrich Boll’s novel The Clown. In New York, he has directed Red Noses by Peter Barnes, Fourby Feydeau, The Bourgeois Gentleman, The Moliere One Acts, and The Love of Three Oranges by Carlo Gozzi at the Juilliard School; The Imaginary Invalid by Moliere, The New Place by Carlo Goldoni, We Won’t Pay… by Dario Fo, and his new adaptation of Moliere’s The Reluctant Doctor of Love for New York University’s Graduate Acting Program; The Raven by Carlo Gozzi at NYU’s Experimental Theater Wing; Ubu Roi at both NYU’s Experimental Theater Wing and Fordham University; and Timeslips at HERE. Additionally, he has staged several original works including Wreckage at P.S. 122, The Big Day (a clown show) and The Fiasco Bro. Circus at the Juilliard School, Zibaldoné at HERE and the Present Company Theatorium, The Fools/Los Locos Del Pueblo at Touchstone Theater, Necromance, A Night of Conjuration at Dixon Place, Clowns at the New York International Clown Festival and The Public Theater, and Even Maybe Tammy at The Flea. Outside of New York, his directing credits include a co-production of Scapin at the Intiman Theatre in Seattle and Court Theatre in Chicago, Comedy of Errors at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Len Jenkin’s new adaptation of The Birdsat Yale Repertory Theatre, Endgame at Court Theatre, and The Moliere Impromptu at Trinity Repertory Company. He was part of the creative team for the Broadway and touring productions of THE 39 STEPS, for which he created additional movement and served as Movement Director. Most recently he created original movement for John Guare’s newest work Three Kinds of Exile at Atlantic Theater Company. He directed Servant of Two Masters at Yale Repertory Theatre (which has been remounted at the Shakespeare Theatre Company, the Guthrie Theater, ArtsEmerson, and Seattle Repertory Theatre) and A Doctor in Spite of Himself at the Intiman Theatre (which was remounted at Yale Repertory Theatre and Berkeley Repertory Theatre). He has received numerous awards and grants including a Jerome Foundation Travel/Study Grant, a General Mills Foundation Artist Assistance Grant, and both a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship Grant and a Career Opportunity Grant. He is a 1999/2000 Fox Fellow. He has taught classes and workshops internationally at Cirque Du Soleil, Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Big Apple Circus, Vassar College, Stella Adler Conservatory, Bard College, Fordham University, University of Texas Graduate Acting and Directing Programs, National Shakespeare Conservatory, University of Minnesota Graduate Acting Program, the Guthrie Theater, Iowa State University and Theatre de la Jeune Lune. He has served on the faculty of the Juilliard Drama School, the Actor’s Center (founding faculty and master teacher of physical comedy/clown), David Geffen School of Drama, the Public Theater’s Shakespeare Lab, the Academy of Classical Acting at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC, and New York University’s Graduate Acting Program and Tisch School of the Arts. His most recent position was that of Clinical Professor of Theater, Speech and Dance at Brown University and Director of Movement and Physical Theater at the Brown/Trinity Consortium in Providence, RI. In 2006, however, he threw caution to the wind, packed up his family and all of his nonsense and headed back to New York City. He is currently a Professor Adjunct and Head of Physical Acting at David Geffen School of Drama.
Stephen Buescher
Guest Artist/Guest Director
Stephen Buescher is an actor, director, and teaching artist who has designed and led movement training curriculum for various master’s programs including Brown University/Trinity Repertory Consortium and the American Conservatory Theater. He has also taught physical theater in the master’s programs at the Yale School of Drama, University of Missouri Kansas City, and the University of Connecticut. He has choreographed Hamlet, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Orphan of Zhao, Stuck Elevator, Monstress, Let There Be Love, and Underneath the Lintel at the American Conservatory Theater; The Imaginary Invalid at the Old Globe Theater (Fiasco); A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Private Lives at Long Wharf Theater; A Christmas Carol at Trinity Repertory Company; Love’s Labour’s Lost at Shakespeare Santa Cruz; Blues for an Alabama Sky at the Lorraine Hansberry Theater; and Black Maria at The Providence Black Repertory Theater. He has directed numerous productions in the MFA Conservatory including The Bacchae Communion Rite, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Galileo, The House of Bernarda Alba (Moscow Art Theater), Hotel Paradiso, Black Orpheus, and Crazy for the Country. Professor Buescher has been a long time company member with Dell’ Arte International where he has performed both nationally and internationally. International Festivals include the International Small Scene Theater Festival (Croatia), The Festival of New Adaptations (Hungary), and The Festival International de Teatro Caribe (Colombia). He has also performed with the National Theater of Greece, Oktana Dance, and Tanz Theater Heidelberg. Nationally he has performed with Dell’ Arte International, American Conservatory Theater, Smith Wymore Disappearing Acts, Scott Wells and Dancers, Shotgun Players, and Deborah Slater Dance. He is a first round recipient of TCG’s New Generations Grant, a member of SDC, and the Network of Ensemble Theaters. Professor Buescher is a graduate of the Dell’ Arte International School of Physical Theater and California Institute of the Arts.
Jimonn Cole
Guest Director
Jimonn Cole is a native of Virginia Beach, Virginia. He received his BFA from Juilliard in 1997 and received the John Houseman Award in his senior year. Since graduating, Cole has worked professionally under the direction of Joe Mantello, Phylicia Rashad, Oliver Butler, Doug Hughes, Michael Kahn, JoAnne Akalaitis, Garland Wright, Sir Peter Hall, Walter Dallas, Darko Tresnjak, Liesl Tommy, Bob Balaban, Tina Landau, Roger Rees, and Alex Timbers, among others. His Broadway and off-Broadway credits include Hillary and Clinton, black odyssey, Peter and The Starcatcher, Our Lady of 121st Street, Iphigenia 2.0, X or Betty Shabazz vs. the Nation, Public Enemy, The Conscientious Objector, Museum, Pullman Car Hiawatha, and The Last Black Cowboy (which he wrote and starred in, and which was selected for the New York International Fringe Festival). His regional credits include work with Yale Rep, the Old Globe, Crossroads Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Arena Stage, New Jersey Shakespeare Theatre, the Shakespeare Theatre DC, and The Ahmanson. His television credits include Blue Bloods, The Blacklist, God Friended Me, Madam Secretary, and The Equalizer. In 2020, after having spent a year shadowing his mentor Richard Feldman at Juilliard, Cole was named the Drama Division’s inaugural teaching fellow. In that role, he studied under senior members of the acting faculty, observing classes at all levels of training and assisting on projects. Jimonn, as Associate Faculty at Juilliard, teaches Approaching the Play, Project Director, and Acting for Dancers.
Nathan Crocker
Guest Artist
Nathan C. Crocker is a professional actor, teacher and coach based in the New York City area. Originally from Winston-Salem, NC, he holds an MFA in Acting from the University of California, Irvine; and a BFA in Theatre Performance from UNC-Greensboro. Nathan is the Speech professor for Mason Gross School for the Arts BFA/MFA Acting Conservatory program at Rutgers University. He has taught Vocal Production for the Atlantic Theatre Company/NYU BFA acting program, and voice and speech for the American Musical and Dramatic Academy and New York Film Academy. Voice, speech and dialect coaching credits: (pre-Broadway) Ain’t Too Proud; (Regional) Othello and Henry VI Part 1 at Utah Shakespeare Festival, Detroit ’67 at Chautauqua Theatre Company, Too Heavy For Your Pocket at Roundabout Theatre Company, Passion Play at Santa Rosa Summer Rep Theatre Festival; (Educational) The Laramie Project, Parade, Blues for Mr Charlie at Marymount Manhattan College. He taught voice/speech /accents, acting, and musical theatre singing as a graduate assistant at UC Irvine, as well as served as Artistic Associate and voice/dialect coach for Santa Rosa Summer Rep Theatre in CA. Directing credits include A Raisin In The Sun at Santa Rosa Summer Rep. Acting credits include Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Angels In America, The Piano Lesson, Company, and Othello, Taming of The Shrew, working at such companies as the American Shakespeare Center, NC Stage Company, North Carolina Shakespeare Festival, Georgia Shakespeare Festival, Theatreworks USA, and Santa Rosa Summer Rep. Nathan is a Certified Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice® Voicework, and a Certified Teacher of Knight-Thompson Speechwork.
Migdalia Cruz
Guest Artist
Migdalia Cruz is an award-winning multi-platform playwright, translator, librettist and lyricist who has written more than sixty plays, operas, screenplays, and musicals. Her work has been produced across the U.S. and abroad at various venues including: Mabou Mines, Classic Stage Company, Playwrights Horizons, INTAR, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Monarch Theater, En-Garde Arts, HOME, Shaliko Company, New York Shakespeare Festival’s Festival Latino, Theatre For The New City, and the W.O.W. Cafe (New York); Ateneo Puertorriqueño (PR); National Theater of Greece(Athens); Foro Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (Mexico City); Old Red Lion (London, England); Vancouver Players (Vancouver, B.C.); Latino Chicago Theater Company (Chicago); Houston Grand Opera (Houston); American Repertory Theatre (Cambridge); Cleveland Public Theatre (Cleveland); Frank Theatre (Minneapolis); Théâtre d’aujourd hui (Montreal); American Music Theatre Festival (Philadelphia); Intersection for the Arts/LATA (San Francisco); and Cornerstone Theater Company (Los Angeles), among others. She has been nurtured by Maria Irene Fornés’ Playwrights’ Laboratory at INTAR; Royal Court Theatre/New Dramatists Exchange ’94 (London); Steppenwolf Theatre’s New PlaysLab (Chicago); Bay Area Playwrights’ Festival ’94, Festival Latino’93 at Teatro Mision (San Francisco); the Sundance Institute; Midwest PlayLabs; Mark Taper Forum’s New Play Festival; Omaha Magic Theatre; “Songs from Coconut Hill” Theater Festival ’05; South Coast Rep’s HPP ’04, and was writer-in-residence at Latino Chicago Theater Company from 1991-98. Her plays include: Salt, Fur, Miriam’s Flowers, Lucy Loves Me, Dreams of Home, Telling Tales, ¡CHE-CHE-CHE!, Latins In La-La Land, Cigarettes and Moby-Dick, Lolita de Lares, Yellow Eyes, and Running For Blood: No. 3 (a radio play). She wrote book and lyrics for the musicals Rushing Waters, Welcome Back To Salamanca and When Galaxy Six and The Bronx Collide; the libretto for an opera, Street Sense; and lyrics and monologues for Frida: The Story of Frida Kahlo. Her plays and monologues are published by Edinburgh University Press, ACMRS Press, Manchester University Press, TripwireHarlot Press, NoPassport Press, Theatre Communications Group, U. of Arizona Press, Routledge Press, Penguin Books, Arte Publico Press, Applause Books, Smith & Kraus Publishers, SIU Press, and Third Woman Press. She taught playwriting at Princeton University, U.of Iowa/Playwrights’ Workshop, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and at Amherst College, and guest lectured at Yale University, Wesleyan University, Mount Holyoke College, and Columbia University. She co-taught with John Jesurun, for the Monarch Theater @LaMama (NY) in 2010. She was a co-facilitator for Rising Circle’s 2014 INKtank for emerging writers of color. In October 2021, she taught her fourth Fornés Playwriting Workshop with Anne Garcia-Romero & she also led the 2018 LaMaMa/Umbria Playwrights’ Retreat in Spoleto, Italy. She received commissions from Clubbed Thumb, Mabou Mines, NYSF’s Public Theater, Crossroads Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Latino Chicago Theater Company, Arena Stage, The Homebound Project, Planet Connections, WNYC-radio, Ballet Hispanico, DUO, and INTAR. Migdalia was awarded the 2013 Helen Merrill Distinguished Playwright Award (NYCommTrust), and is a 1996 recipient of the Kennedy Center’s Fund for New American Plays award for Another Part Of The House. Her play, The Have-little was the runner-up for the 1991 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and SALT was a 1997 runner-up. She participated in Obsidian Theatre of Toronto’s International Playwrights Festival in 2009, won a 2016 NYFA grant, 2005 Massachusetts Cultural Council grant, and a 1994 Connecticut Commission on The Arts grant for playwriting. At Classic Stage Company, she was a 1994 PEW/TCG National Artist in Residence. Migdalia was a 1997-98 Sackler Fellow at Connecticut Rep/UConn, a 1991 & 1995 NEA Playwriting Fellow, a 1988 McKnight Fellow, and received her MFA degree from Columbia University. She was nurtured by María Irene Fornés @ INTAR, the Lark–translating four plays for the LARK’s Mexico/U.S. Word Exchange, 2008-2013, and Sundance. She is the 2019-2021 co-chair of the DGF Playwriting Fellows with Lucy Thurber, a mentor to the NYC Latinx Playwrights Circle; and received a commission from Clubbed Thumb via NYSCA to write Fish Tank, and INTAR to write Lives of the New Kind of Saints with composer, Cristian Amigo. She is an alumna of New Dramatists and was born and raised in the Bronx.
Barry Edelstein
Guest Artist -
Old Globe Artistic Director
Barry Edelstein is the Artistic Director of the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. Known for his productions of Shakespeare, he has directed nearly half the canon. For the Public Theater, he staged Julius Caesar starring Jeffrey Wright at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park and The Merchant of Venice, featuring Ron Leibman's OBIE Award-winning portrayal of Shylock. At the Williamstown Theatre Festival, he directed As You Like It starring Gwyneth Paltrow. From 1998-2003 he was Artistic Director of Classic Stage Company, where he directed Richard III starring John Turturro and Julianna Margulies and The Winter's Tale starring David Strathairn as well as the world premiere of Steve Martin's The Underpants, which he commissioned; Ben Jonson's The Alchemist starring Dan Castellanetta; and Molière's The Misanthrope, starring Uma Thurman in her stage debut and Roger Rees; and Ferdinand Bruckner's Race in his own adaptation. He also produced an additional twelve productions at Classic Stage Company, featuring artists such as Turturro, Tony Shalhoub, Christopher Lloyd, Bill Irwin, Mira Sorvino, Amy Irving, Michael Greif, JoAnne Akalaitis, Philip Glass, Anne Bogart's SITI Company, Big Dance Theatre and others. Other New York credits include Arthur Miller's All My Sons (Williamstown, then New York's Roundabout Theatre which won the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Revival); and Steve Martin's Wasp and Other Plays (The Public). He has directed many contemporary and classic plays at leading regional theaters. Edelstein has written about Shakespeare in particular and the theater in general for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, and American Theater. His book Thinking Shakespeare (called by New York Magazine "a must-read for actors") was published by Spark Publishers in 2007, and his book Bardisms: Shakespeare for All Occasions, was published by Harper Perennial in 2008.
Logan Marshall-Green
Guest Artist
Logan Marshall-Green did his undergraduate studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he also wrote for the school newspaper, The Daily Beacon, as an entertainment writer covering the bar, music, and theater scene. He attended the National Theater Institute in Waterford, Connecticut, and then went on to earn his Master's in Fine Arts from New York University's Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts. Marshall-Green appeared in both Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2003 and Law & Order in 2004, before landing recurring roles on Fox's The O.C. and 24. Marshall-Green received a Drama Desk Award for his performance in Neil LaBute's play The Distance from Here in 2004. In 2005 he performed in three separate productions: in June he played an anthropomorphic shark in Adam Bock's Swimming in the Shallows; in August he appeared as Bo Decker in a production of William Inge's classic Bus Stop; and in December he was Beethoven in the Peanuts spoof Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead (for which he received a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Featured Actor nomination). He played the villainous Edmund in the Public Theater production of King Lear starring Kevin Kline in the title role and directed by James Lapine. For his performance in King Lear and Pig Farm,[7] he was nominated for a Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance. In 2005, Marshall-Green appeared in the film Alchemy. That same year he also appeared in the Miramax film The Great Raid. Marshall-Green portrayed Tyler Fog in the 2007 ABC series Traveler. He appeared as Paco in the 2007 film Across the Universe. He featured as Dean Bendis, an undercover police officer, in a black ops group of the LAPD headed by Dylan McDermott in the TNT series Dark Blue. He played a young rookie cop the 2010 criminal drama Brooklyn's Finest directed by Antoine Fuqua, and had a lead role in the horror film Devil. He appeared in the 2012 Ridley Scott film Prometheus as Holloway, a crew member aboard Prometheus.He also portrayed Will in Karyn Kusama's 2015 horror-thriller The Invitation. In 2018, Marshall-Green starred as the lead in Leigh Whannell and Blumhouse's science fiction cyberpunk film Upgrade. Marshall-Green made his directorial debut with the drama film Adopt a Highway, which was released in March 2019. The film starred Ethan Hawke and Betty Gabriel, and was produced by Jason Blum through Blumhouse Productions. The actor appeared in an episode of When They See Us,and starred in the video game Telling Lies, which was released in August 2019.
Jenn Harris
Guest Artist
Jenn Harris is an award-winning writer/director, actor, producer. Her series NEW YORK IS DEAD premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, won Best Comedy at the New York Television Festival and Jenn won Best Actress at SeriesFest Denver. Her short film "Island Queen", starring Rachel Dratch and Jesse Tyler Ferguson, played several prestigious festivals in 2020 including The San Francisco Film Festival and Inside Out Toronto. Jenn has freelanced with Conde Nast Entertainment, created content for VR with Double Eye Studios where they won the Lion at the 2020 Venice Film Festival for Best VR Immersive User Experience with “Finding Pandora X”, and wrote the comedy “My Name is Karen!” for Theaterworks Hartford. Her downtown parody group QWAN had SWAN! as a critics’ pick in the New York Times and Time Out NY and was also deemed “Lowbrow/Brilliant” in New York Magazine’s “Approval Matrix”. As an actor in New York, Jenn is known for originating the role of Clarice Starling in "Silence! The Musical" and she won a Lortel and Theatre World award for her performance in "Modern Orthodox". Some film and television credits include: "High Maintenance", "Search Party", "30 Rock", "Gayby" (SXSW 2012), "Difficult People", "Younger", "Bored to Death", "Fits and Starts"(SXSW 2017), "Modern Persuasion"(Cannes Virtual Market 2020) and "American Reject".
Bill Irwin
Guest Artist
William Mills Irwin (born April 11, 1950) is an American actor, clown,and comedian. He began as a vaudeville-style stage performer and has been noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. He has made a number of appearances on film and television, and he won a Tony Award for his role in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? on Broadway. He is also known as Mr. Noodle on the Sesame Street segment Elmo's World, has appeared in the Sesame Street film short Does Air Move Things?, regularly appeared as a therapist on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and had a recurring role as "The Dick & Jane Killer" on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. From 2017 to 2019, he appeared as Cary Loudermilk on the FX television series Legion.
Sean San José
Guest Artist
Sean San José is a Bay Area theatre maker, performer, director and producer, making change and amplifying theatrical innovation for the last 25 years. His long history with Magic is fundamentally tied to his history with theatre writ large. Over the years, Sean has had the honor of working at Magic under Mame Hunt’s leadership and more recently under Loretta Greco’s direction in new works by Luis Alfaro, Jessica Hagedorn, Octavio Solis, and many more. Sean is a Co-Founder and the current Program Director of the new performances group Campo Santo, a group that has developed, produced, and premiered nearly 100 new works for and by People of Color since 1996. One of these works, Nogales, by Richard Montoya was a co-production and collaboration with Magic Theatre, launching Magic’s 50th Anniversary Season in 2016. Sean San José is a guest lecturer and guest director at University of California Berkeley, sat on the Theatre Communications Group board of directors, and was a member of the Zellerbach Family Foundation review panel. He is a recipient of multiple MAP fund awards, and was commissioned in the inaugural round of writers for Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Play On! to create a translation of William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus. This June, Sean is excited to begin his post as Magic Theatre’s new Artistic Director. Social media: camposantosf.
Ellen Lauren
Guest Artist
Ellen Lauren is a founding member was a co-artistic director of the SITI Company. She has also served as the steward for all SITI’s training programs in New York City, nationally and internationally, and designed and administered SITI’s four 9-month Conservatory programs. She produced both “Transformation through Training: 2017 International Symposium on SCOT and the Suzuki Training for Actors” at Skidmore College, as well as the Suzuki Company’s renowned Trojan Women for its historic last U.S. performances.Ms Lauren is an associate artist with the Suzuki Company of Toga (SCOT) under the direction of Tadashi Suzuki since 1996 and a founding member of the International Consortium on Suzuki Training for Actors. She has taught for SCOT around the world and helped revive and conducted the Summer Toga Training program from 2004-2010. Her SCOT performing credits include Electra (Clytemnestra), Dionysus (Agave), King Lear (Goneril), Oedipus (Jocasta), and Waiting for Romeo (Juliet). Venues include the Beijing National Theatre in Tiananmen Square, The Great Wall Theatre Gu Bei China, Kitchijoji Theater Tokyo, Moscow Art Theatre, Teatro Olympico in Vicenza, Asti Festival Italy, Toga International Festival, Alexandrinsky Theatre St Petersburg Russia, The Royal Shakespeare Company, Theatre Olympics in Athens and Delphi, the Olympic Arts Festival in Shizuoka Japan, Buenos Aires Festival, Sao Paulo Brazil, The Carnuntum Festival in Vienna, Bogotá Festival, Harbor Front Festival Toronto, Istanbul Festival, Festival Mundial Chile, Singapore Festival, Montpellier France, and the Hong Kong Festival. Ms. Lauren has taught at and for hundreds of universities, colleges, art centers and companies over the last 40 years. Some representative guest faculty positions include TEAC Helsinki Finland, RSC, Moscow Art Theatre, Toga international Art Park, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Verticó Company Madrid, Teatro de la Abadía Madrid, Sfumato Theatre Bulgaria, Iceland Academy, Casa Teatro de Bogotá, Ladder Arts Company in Budapest, Maastricht Academy Holland, Beijing Academy, Attivo Teatro Milan, UCLA MFA TFT graduate program, Columbia University, Fordham University, ART at Harvard, Yale, UW in Seattle, Carnegie Mellon University, Dartmouth College, Ohio State University, Western Michigan University, and Windsor College to list a few. She has also helped teach workshops for R.Evolucíon Latina Company, and Outside In in Los Angeles, CA, specifically focused on sharing the language of Suzuki Training and Viewpoints to BIPoC communities and Artists of the Global Majority. She has been a faculty member at The Juilliard School of Drama at Lincoln Center for over 20 years.
Taibi Magar
Guest Artist Director
Taibi Magar is an Egyptian-American director based in New York, and a graduate of the Brown/Trinity MFA program. Most recently she directed a new musical We Live in Cairo (A.R.T.). Other NY credits: Blue Ridge starring Marin Ireland and The Great Leap starring BD Wong (Atlantic Theatre Company); Is God Is (Soho Rep, 2018 Obie Award;) Master (The Foundry, NYT Critics Pick); Underground Railroad Game (Ars Nova, NYT Critics Pick). Regional: A.R.T., Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Alley Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, and Seattle Repertory Theatre, among others. International: Hamburg Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Malthouse Theatre (Melbourne), and Soho Theatre (London). Other: She is the recipient of a Stephen Sondheim Fellowship, Oregon Shakespeare Festival Fellowship, Public Theater Shakespeare Fellowship, and TFANA Actors and Director Project Fellowship. Taibi is an alumni of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab and a NYTW Usual Suspect. Drama Desk Awards - 2022 - Outstanding Director of a Play Taibi Magar, Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992
Rocío Mendez
Guest Artist
Rocío Mendez is an Award Winning Actor, Fight and Intimacy director and a proud New Yorker committed to building confidence in brown and black girls through storytelling. Rocío has done multiple independent films showcasing their talents in martial arts and comedy. Rocío has worked with a range of theaters nationally including Atlantic Theater Company, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and Classical Theater of Harlem, among the many. Rocío has been nominated for multiple awards for their work in Fight Choreography and Movement. Rocío is a team member of UNKLE DAVE’S FIGHT HOUSE - a collective of fight/intimacy/movement directors serving theater, film and educational institutions.
Matt M. Morrow
Guest Artist Director
(He, Her, They).Center Rep Theatre Artistic Director. Under their leadership the Diversionary Theatre, has been nominated for 29 San Diego Critics Circle Awards, winning two Outstanding New Play Awards in 2017 and 2019. Alongside Diversionary’s Board of Trustees, Matt led the Securing Our Future campaign, a $2.5 million renovation project for the theatre’s home in University Heights, slated to reopen early Fall 2021. Notable productions Matt has directed and/or produced with Diversionary include the 20th Anniversary production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Winner, 2019 Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical, SDCC Award), Miranda Rose Hall’s The Hour of Great Mercy (Winner, 2019 Best New Play, SDCC Award), the World Premiere of Gordon Leary and Julia Meinwald’s musical The Loneliest Girl in the World, Georgette Kelly’s Ballast (Winner, 2017 Best New Play, SDCC Award), Justin Huertas’ Lizard Boy The Musical (Winner, Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical). Matt was honored with the inaugural Larry T. Baza Arts & Culture Award from San Diego Pride, and was a Creative Catalyst Fellow with The San Diego Foundation and La Jolla Playhouse. He has developed new work with The Sundance Theatre Institute, The Old Globe, The Banff Centre, Center Theatre Group, American Conservatory Theater, Lincoln Center, PlayPenn, and Page 73 Productions in residence at the Yale School of Drama. Matt served as The John Wells Professor of Directing at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama (Graduate & Undergraduate Directing programs), and is a member of the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab. Matt is currently adjunct Professor of Directing at UCSD’s Graduate Directing program. He holds a BFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University. www.mattmmorrow.com
Orlando Pabotoy
Guest Artist
Orlando Pabotoy is Head of The Physical Acting Intensive Lab at the New Studio on Broadway in NYU Tisch School of the Arts' Department of Drama. Pabotoy is an Obie Award-winning New York City-based artist. Recent works include directing Everybody by Brandon Jacob Jenkins (Playmakers Rep.) and The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Arts Center, NYU-Abu Dhabi) in fall of 2019. His recent work in devising and creation of new works included: writing/performing SESAR, commissioned by the Ma-Yi Theater Company and directed by Richard Feldman. He was collaborator in The Object Lesson (NYTW, BAM, various international festivals) Home (BAM, various international festivals). He was also the Movement Designer for Henry VI (NAATCO) and Marisol (Trinity Rep). As a playwright: That Beautiful Laugh and an adaptation of Goldoni’s The World In the Moon. His professional works in performance, direction, and movement design have been seen in (selected venues): NAATCO, Ma-Yi Theater, the Public Theater, NYTW, Yale Rep., Met Opera, Kirk Douglas, the Guthrie Theater, American Airlines Theater, TFANA, the Lake Lucille Project, Salzburg Festival (Austria). Pabotoy has worked for the following networks / studios: Comedy Central, WB, NBC, ABC. Awards: Obie (2003), TCG Fox Fellow. Pabotoy is a graduate of the Juilliard School. In one project he’s developing now, Pabotoy is both the performer and director: it’s a one-man reduction of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. He’s set the entire piece in a bathroom during the Philippine Revolution, which began in 1896, and the setting is based on his past. Born to a Philippine father and American mother, Pabotoy grew up in the province of Bohol. When he was 15, he saw Christopher Plummer do a speech from Julius Caesar. “I didn’t totally understand the language but it conjured up a lot of emotions, and I wondered why it hit me in such a strong way” he said. “So I picked up Julius Caesar and I went to the bathroom and recited the same speech.” Years later, he won a Fox Resident Actor Fellowship for Extraordinary Potential to develop the project with New York City’s Ma Yi Theater Company. He’ll meld Visayan (a Philippine language) words and songs into Shakespeare’s text and work with faculty member Richard Feldman to incorporate classical theatrical conventions, commedia dell’arte, and masks into the piece. (In 2007, Pabotoy co-founded the Clown School in Los Angeles, which is still running today, after becoming interesting in clowning at Juilliard. And, no, he doesn’t mean circus clown. The definition of a clown goes deeper than that, he said. “It means getting to a place where you are most vulnerable.”)
PlayOn Shakespeare
Guest Artist Company
Play On Shakespeare is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the understanding of Shakespeare’s plays in performance for theatre professionals, students, teachers, and audiences by engaging with contemporary translations and adaptations. In the fall of 2015, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival announced a new commissioning program called Play on! 36 playwrights translate Shakespeare. The project was simple yet enthusiastically ambitious in its original conception: to commission 36 playwrights (with one lucky playwright taking on all three Henry VIs) to translate 39 plays attributed to Shakespeare (including Two Noble Kinsmen and Edward III) into contemporary, modern English over the course of three years. The majority of the commissions would be awarded to women and BIPOC playwrights. In its three-year tenure at OSF, Play On! worked with nearly 1,000 actors, directors, stage managers and producers on nearly 80 readings, workshops, productions and demonstrations in 19 different cities, collaborating with 24 different theatres and academic institutions around the world. At the end of Play On!’s three-year tenure at OSF, energized by its overwhelming scope and success, the project’s producing team secured funding to form their own, new not-for-profit company. On January 1, 2019, they established Play On Shakespeare and their first endeavor saw them producing the Play On Festival – a series of staged readings of all 39 commissioned translations in an action-packed 33 days. The festival engaged hundreds of artists and was produced in partnership with Classic Stage Company and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. We view these translated texts as complementary, as companion pieces for Shakespeare’s original texts, not as replacements. Even when the translations get performed on their own, we expect and hope that they will inspire audience members to return to Shakespeare’s original texts, ideally with much greater understanding and enjoyment. website: https://playonshakespeare.org/artist_category/staff/
Jesca Prudencio
Guest Artist Director
Jesca Prudencio is a director, choreographer, and community based artist. She is dedicated to developing new theatrical works that humanize issues and explore the tension between cultures. She focuses on new plays, musicals, film, and dance theater in New York, regionally, and internationally. Jesca has developed new work at The Kennedy Center, La Jolla Playhouse, East West Players, The Lark, NAMT, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Space on Ryder Farm, La MaMa, Clubbed Thumb, Joe's Pub, and The Movement Theatre Company. She is the recipient of the TS Eliot US/UK Exchange at the Old Vic, The Drama League Fall Fellowship, and the 2018 Artist-In-Residency at the Performance Project at University Settlement in Manhattan. Jesca is the inaugural recipient of The Julie Taymor World Theater Fellowship which supported her travels through Thailand, Japan, and The Philippines throughout 2017 as she researched and trained in traditional and contemporary forms of theater in each country. She was recently named a 2021 Woman To Watch on Broadway by the Broadway Women's Fund. She founded her company People Of Interest in 2014 to focus on new theatrical events that address community specific issues. Their 2019 production A&Q: a documentary theater performance shed light on people who are directly affected by the war on drugs in the Philippines, and their 2018 piece Nohing used dozens of stories and portraits of women and femme-identifying individuals around sexual assault in public spaces. Most recently, they presented PDA as part of the 2019 La Jolla Playhouse Without Walls Festival, exploring the relationships of three real couples and how they love out loud. As an educator, she has taught workshops at numerous universities and institutions across the U.S. and Asia. Jesca was the form Education Director at Ping Chong + Company, where she worked as a writer, director, and associate on a dozen interdisciplinary and documentary theater projects across the U.S., including Oregon Shakespeare Festival, BAM, and The Smithsonian. Jesca is currently on faculty as Head of Directing at San Diego State University. She holds a BFA in Drama from NYU Tisch, and an MFA in Directing from UC San Diego. When she's not making theater, she's probably training in Muay Thai Kickboxing or cooking up a big Filipino meal.
Amrita Ramandan
Guest Artist
Amrita Ramanan is a multidisciplinary artistic leader who holds the values of anti-racism, anti- colonialism, equity, access, diversity, and inclusion at the core of her practice. She formerly was the Director of Literary Development and Dramaturgy at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and wholistically supported new play commissioning and development for the Festival. She served as the production dramaturg for OSF’s productions of Cambodian Rock Band, Snow in Midsummer, Oklahoma!, As You Like It, Macbeth, Alice in Wonderland, Henry V, and Henry IV Parts 1 & 2; produced and curated the Black Swan Lab for New Play Development; and created the first-ever OSF Writer’s Group. Prior to OSF, Amrita was the Literary Manager/Artistic Associate at Arena Stage, where she dramaturged Arena’s productions of Mary T. & Lizzy K., Trouble in Mind, Ruined, and Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies; served as the line producer for Lisa Kron and Charles Randolph-Wright’s playwright residencies; and produced Arena Stage’s New Play Reading Series. For three years, Amrita was the Associate Producer and Resident Dramaturg at Double Edge Theatre and supported the development of Double Edge’s site-specific performances Sharazad, A Tale of Love and Magic and Once a Blue Moon. As a project-based dramaturg, Amrita’s credits include Sitayana by Lavina Jadhwani (East West Players, EnActe Arts, and Hypokrit Theatre Company) and BULL: a love story by Nancy García Loza (Paramount Theatre). Amrita received a BFA in Dramaturgy and Theater History from the University of Arizona. She is a board member for the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americans and the Network of Ensemble Theaters. She considers herself a professional advocate for artists, and a lifelong lover of the arts. She is currently the new Director of New Work Development at the Public Theatre in NYC.
Madeline Sayet
Guest Artist
Raised on traditional Mohegan stories and Shakespeare, Madeline Sayet is a director whose work is shaped by the idea of Story Medicine - the belief that every story we put into this world has the power to do real world harm or healing. What story do you wish you had heard growing up? How can theatre be used to transcend the world we are in and build a better future? For her work as a stage director of new plays, classics, and opera - Madeline has been named a FORBES 30 UNDER 30 in Hollywood & Entertainment, a TED FELLOW, a MIT MEDIA LAB DIRECTORS FELLOW, NCAIED NATIVE AMERICAN 40 UNDER 40, a recipient of THE WHITE HOUSE CHAMPION OF CHANGE AWARD from President Obama, the NATIONAL DIRECTORS FELLOWSHIP, and a National Arts Strategies' CREATIVE COMMUNITY FELLOW. Madeline is an Assistant Professor in the English Dept at Arizona State University, and Executive Director of the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program (YIPAP). Her directing work has been praised by the Wall Street Journal as "enchanting," and the New York Times admired the "transparent and almost weightless" fluidity of the worlds she builds. Her work promoting Native voices onstage has been featured in NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, GOOD Magazine, and MENTAL FLOSS. Her solo performance piece Where We Belong recently premiered at SHAKESPEARE'S GLOBE and RichMix in London where it received 5 STARS from The Upcoming and was called "A spiritual journey-Sayet performs with humbling passion." Another review noted,"Not only is Sayet joyfully emotional, real, and incredibly funny, she is a euphoric storyteller, with an important story." Where We Belong is currently playing in Chicago at The Goodman Theatre where it received 4 out of 4 stars from the Chicago Tribune.
Dawn M. Simmons
Guest Artist Director
Dawn M. Simmons is the Executive Director of Stage Source, an arts service organization focusing on work force development and sector improvement in theatre across New England. Dawn is originally from Buffalo, NY, where she received a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Buffalo. She went on to study playwriting at Boston University. She has since gone on to direct for regional theatres such as The Front Porch Arts Collective, WAM Theatre, The Nora Theatre, Greater Boston Stage Company, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Bad Habit Productions, Fresh Ink Theatre and Lyric Stage Company. Dawn is the co-founder and artistic director of the Front Porch Arts Collective, a black theater company committed to advancing racial equity in Boston through theatre. She also founded New Exhibition Room in 2008 to produce provocative, political, and affordable theater events. Before taking on the role of Executive Director of Stage Source, Dawn served on the Board of Directors and as the Director of Programs for nine years. More recently, she served as the Director of Performing Arts at the Boston Center for the Arts.
Delicia Turner Sonnenberg
Guest Artist Director
Delicia Turner Sonnenberg (she/her) is a San Diego-based director, artistic leader, teacher, and mother. She is a founder and the former Artistic Director of MOXIE Theatre, which she helmed for twelve acclaimed seasons. During that time she received the Des McAnuff New Visions Award for “Risk Taking Leadership and Body of Work,” as well as “2015 Director of the Year” from the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle. In addition to MOXIE, Delicia has directed plays for the Old Globe Theatre, San Diego REP, La Jolla Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival, Cygnet Theatre, New Village Arts, and Diversionary Theatre, among others. Delicia has had the pleasure of directing productions and mentoring students at the Old Globe, the University of San Diego’s Shiley Graduate Theatre Program, Sonoma State University, University of Redlands, San Diego State, UC San Diego, and Palomar College. Delicia has directed countless workshops and staged readings of new plays for National New Play Network, Old Globe, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, San Diego REP, and Arena Stage. Delicia was twice a recipient of the Van Lier Directing Fellowship through Second Stage Theatre in New York, and is an alumna of the New York Drama League’s Directors Program, as well as Theatre Communication Group’s New Generations Program. She has received NAACP Theatre awards and nominations for direction, a Women's International Center Living Legacy Award, awards for “Outstanding Direction of a Play” and “Outstanding Dramatic Production” from the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle, as well as KPBS “Patte” Theatre awards for the same. Currently, she is a Resident Artist at the Old Globe and serves on the board of La Jolla Playhouse.
Tiffany Rachelle Stewart
Guest Artist
Tiffany Rachelle Stewart is a multi-disciplinary artist. Director, Educator, and Choreographer. Currently, teaching at NYU Tisch. Theatre credits include: Conference of the Birds, The Folger Theatre; The African Company Presents Richard III and Loves Labours Lost, The Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Blood Dazzler, Harlem Stages; A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Lyceum Theatre; Obama Drama, The 45th Street Theatre. Television: All My Children, Royal Pains. Tiffany recently starred in the short film Hotel Pennsylvania, which screened at the Cannes International Film Festival, the European Independent Film Festival, and the NY Shorts Festival. Tiffany is also an avid dancer and choreographer. Most recently Tiffany choreographed the world premier musical The Unfortunates at The Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Tiffany received her M.F.A. in Acting from the Yale School of Drama in 2007.
Enrique Toral
Guest Artist
A passionate and much sought-after voice teacher, ENRIQUE TORAL currently holds voice studios in San Diego, Los Angeles and New York City and devotes himself completely to sharing his expertise and commitment for easy, healthy and beautiful singing. He is also currently on the faculty of The Old Globe & University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theater Program. Previously, Mr. Toral has been a faculty member as a Master Voice Instructor with Opera NEO Summer Festival & Workshop, a training program for aspiring opera singers in San Diego, CA. He joined the faculty of OperaWorks in 2016 as part of the Winter Intensive Program. Upon moving to San Diego, CA from New York City in 2005, he was appointed Studio Artist Teacher at San Diego State University's School of Music and Dance where he taught from 2006-2014 and for the prestigious MFA program in the School of Theater, Television and Film from 2008-2012. His students attend prestigious music schools including Eastman School of Music, Northwestern University, New England Conservatory, Indiana University, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, University of Michigan to name a few, and they have gone on to successful solo and stage careers. His musical theater students have appeared on Broadway, in national and international tours, Off- Broadway, as well as regional theaters like the Old Globe Theater and La Jolla Playhouse and in concert with the San Diego Symphony's Summer Pops Concerts. Opera singers appear with major companies throughout the country and abroad, including the Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Atlanta Opera, Cincinnati Opera, New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Vancouver Opera, Opera de Bellas Artes, San Diego Opera, Carnegie Hall, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Central City Opera, Florentine Opera, Sarasota Opera, Tulsa Opera, Utah Festival Opera and Aspen Music Festival and with major symphonies including Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the San Diego Symphony. His students have won numerous awards in competitions including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the George London Foundation, the Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition, the Musical Merit Foundation, Hawk Vocal Awards and the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus Competition. Mr. Toral frequently presents masterclasses and his "Master Singer Workshop" around the country and in Mexico and has served on juries for numerous competitions including the Schmidt Vocal Competition, National Association of Teachers of Singing, Music Teachers’ Association of California, Miss California, Texas Stars Music International Competition, and Miss California Volunteer, to name a few. He currently sits on the executive board of The Hawk Vocal Awards and has previously served on the board of the Music Scholarship Council and the National Association of Teachers of Singing – San Diego Chapter where he served as President of the Executive Board from 2009-2011. In addition to his skills as a voice teacher, Mr. Toral has also worked as the Director of Artists Programs for Opera Company of Brooklyn from 2001-2006 and was Music Director and Vocal Coach of Lyric Opera of San Diego's Summer Academy. He is also a compelling stage director having directed productions of Die Zauberflöte, Roméo et Juliette, La Rondine, Die Entführung aus dem Serail and a double bill of Pasatieri's Signor Deluso and La Divina for Opera Company of Brooklyn. In the west coast he has directed Point Loma Opera Theater's production of The Merry Widow and Le nozze di Figaro for Opera NEO.
Edward Torres
Guest Artist
Edward Torres is a theater artist, television actor and professor. His theatrical work has appeared at The Public Theater, Steppenwolf Theatre, The National Theatre, The Old Globe, the Goodman Theatre and the Geffen Playhouse. Edward is an Assistant Professor of Theater at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, where he directed Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman, Jose Rivera's Marisol, and is currently directing Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. On television, he has appeared in Luke Cage, The Deuce, The Romanoffs, Gotham, The Get Down and The Following. A Chicago native, he co-founded the Teatro Vista theatre in 1990, where he would direct the world premiere of The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (named Best Play of 2009 by The Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and Time Out Chicago). Chad Deity was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and earned Edward the Joseph Jefferson Awards for Best Production – Play and Best Director – Play. He directed subsequent productions to critical acclaim at Off Broadway’s Second Stage Theatre (2011 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, Obie Award for Best New American Play) and at the Geffen Playhouse. Edward Torres performed in the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize Winner Bruce Norris' play Downstate, a co-production between Steppenwolf in Chicago and the National Theatre of Great Britain, in Fall 2018 and Spring 2019. His recent directing credits include the world premiere musical La Canción (Repertorio Español, Latin ACE Award for Best Musical, Artistas de Teatro Independiente Award for Best Director), Macbeth (The Public Theater’s Mobile Shakespeare Unit), Mosque Alert (Silk Road Rising), White Tie Ball by Martín Zimmerman (Teatro Vista), and The Happiest Song Plays Last by Quiara Alegría Hudes (Goodman Theatre).
James Vásquez
Guest Artist Faculty
On Camera and Showcase
Pedro James Vásquez is a Resident Artist of The Old Globe Theatre, where he directed Hair, the West Coast premiere of Tiny Beautiful Things, the world premiere of American Mariachi, Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Rich Girl, and Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show. Vásquez received the Craig Noel Award for Outstanding Direction of a Musical in 2018 for In the Heights (Moonlight Stage Productions) and in 2010 for Sweeney Todd (Cygnet Theatre Company). His other recent directing/choreography credits include In the Heights (Dallas Theater Center), American Mariachi (Denver Center for the Performing Arts Theatre Company), Dr. Seuss's The Lorax (as associate director; Children's Theatre Company), The Addams Family and Chicago (Moonlight Stage Productions), West Side Story and Cats (San Diego Musical Theatre), the West Coast premiere of [title of show], Pippin, and Next Fall (Diversionary Theatre), and Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Pageant (Cygnet Theatre Company), as well as developmental workshops at the La Jolla Playhouse and Goodspeed Musicals. Vásquez is an amateur gardener, lover of dogs, and graduate of The Juilliard School.
Sam White
Guest Artist Director
Shakespeare in Detroit was founded by Sam White, an artist, activist and entrepreneur born-n-raised in the city of Detroit. She has won several awards during her tenure at the helm of the organization, including an honor from Detroit Mayor Duggan for Excellence in Theatre in 2014, Crain’s Detroit Business' 40 Under 40 also in 2014, the Breakthrough Award from the National Association of Women Business Owners in 2015, Michigan Chronicle’s 40 Under 40 in 2015 and PEPSI’s Black History Now recognition in 2016. She was also recognized by Complex magazine as one of the “10-Forward-Thinking Entrepreneurs in Detroit.” She continues to also be a highly sought after speaker in North America having taught an exciting meditation-based Shakespeare workshop at the University of Waterloo in 2016 during the PLAY Symposium in Stratford, ON along with two TEDx talks – TEDx Chatham Kent(2016) and TEDx Detroit (2014). In 2019, she was inducted into the Mumford Hall of Fame with the Innovator Award as a Detroit Public Schools alum and she was also recognized as a Michiganian of the Year c/o The Detroit News. White's credits also include the prestigious 2017 Paul Nicholson Arts Management Fellowship at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She is also a member of the 2017 Cohort for ArtEquity in Los Angeles, CA. In addition, White served as the Assistant Director for Antoni Cimolino's 2018 production of The Tempest at the Stratford Festival (Canada). She was also a part of the inaugural 2019 cohort for Classical Directing Fellows at The Old Globe in San Diego, CA. White served as the director of 2019's Twelfth Night at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, UT and completed the Director's Intensive at Yale University during its Summer Session that same year. White directed A Midsummer Night's Dream for the The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program in 2020, released on YouTube in February 2021. You can view it HERE. She also directed the 2021 production of Romeo and Juliet for the University of Michigan's University Productions, via the School of Music, Theater & Dance. Our multi-passionate leader also conceived the curriculum for our ongoing summer youth conservatory and directed Romeo & Juliet for the training program in 2021.
Whitney White
Guest Artist
Whitney White is an Obie Award and Lilly Award winning director, actor, and musician based in Brooklyn, New York. She is the current recipient of the Susan Stroman Directing award, an Artistic Associate at the Roundabout, and a part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. Her original musical Definition was part of the 2019 Sundance Theatre Lab 2016 ANT Fest, and her five-part musical exploration of Shakespeare’s Women and ambition; Reach for It is currently under commission with the American Repertory Theater in Boston. She has developed work with: The New York Times, Ars Nova, The Drama League, Roundabout, New York Theatre Workshop, 59E59, The Lark, The Movement, Jack, Bard College, NYU Tisch, Juilliard, Princeton, SUNY Purchase, South Oxford, Luna Stage and more. Whitney is a believer in collaborative processes and new forms. Her musical discipline is rooted in indie-soul, and rock. She is passionate about black stories, reconstructing classics, stories for and about women, genre-defying multimedia work and film. Past fellowships include: New York Theatre Workshop 2050 Fellowship, Ars Nova’s Makers Lab, Colt Coeur and the Drama League. MFA Acting: Brown University/Trinity Rep, BA Political Science, Certificate in Musical Theatre: Northwestern University.
Karen Zacarías
Guest Artist
Karen Zacarías award-winning plays include the sold-out/extended comedy THE BOOK CLUB PLAY, the sold-out world premiere drama JUST LIKE US (adapted from the book by Helen Thorpe) at Denver Theater Center, the Steinberg –citation award play LEGACY OF LIGHT , the Francesca Primus Award winning play MARIELA IN THE DESERT, the Helen Hayes Award winning play THE SINS OF SOR JUANA , the adaptation of Julia Alvarez’s HOW THE GARCIA GIRLS LOST THEIR ACCENTS. Karen also has a piece in the Arena Stage premiere of OUR WAR. Her TYA musicals with composer Debbie Wicks la Puma include JANE OF THE JUNGLE, EINSTEIN IS A DUMMY, LOOKING FOR ROBERTO CLEMENTE, CINDERELLA EATS RICE AND BEANS, FERDINAND THE BULL, and FRIDA LIBRE. Her musical CHASING GEORGE WASHINGTON premiered at The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and went on a National Tour. Her script was then adapted into a book by Scholastic with a foreword by First Lady Michelle Obama. Karen is currently working on the adaptation of Edith Wharton’s THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, a drama for Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and a Brazilian themed Oliver Twist musical: OLIVERIO: A BRAZILIAN TWIST ON DICKENS for the Kennedy Center. Her libretto of THE SUN ALSO RISES for the Washington Ballet received accolades in the New York Times and she is currently writing the libretto for THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW with Washington Ballet artistic Director Septime Webre. She is proud to be currently commissioned to write new plays for Arena Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse, Ford’s Theater, Adventure Theater, and First Stage. Her plays have been produced at The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Arena Stage, The Goodman Theater, Round House Theater, The Denver Center, Alliance Theater, Imagination Stage, GALA Hispanic Theater, Berkshire Theater Festival, South Coast Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Cleveland Playhouse, San Jose Repertory Theater, GEVA Theater, Horizon’s Theater, People’s Light and Theater, Walnut Street Theater, Arden Theater, Milagro Theater, Teatro Vista, Aurora Theater, and many more. Her awards include: New Voices Award, 2010 Steinberg Citation-Best New Play, Paul Aneillo Award, National Francesca Primus Prize, New Voices Award, National Latino Play Award, Finalist Susan Blackburn, Helen Hayes for Outstanding New Play. Karen is the first playwright-in-residence at Arena Stage in Washington, DC and has taught playwriting at Georgetown University. She is the founder of Young Playwrights’ Theater, an award-winning theater company that teaches playwriting in local public schools in Washington, DC. YPT won the 2010 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award from the White House as one of the most innovative arts programs in the nation. The YPT curriculum is currently being used in public schools in DC, VA, MD, New Orleans, Detroit, and Texas and is published on Amazon as “WRITE TO DREAM.” Karen is represented by the Graham Agency and published by Dramatic Publishing. Karen is fluent in English and Spanish and highly proficient in Danish and French. She has BA with distinction from Stanford University and a Masters in Creative Writing from Boston University. Born in Mexico, Karen now lives in Washington D.C. with her husband and three children.