ARTISTS & Dramaturgs
Adrian Centeno
Adrian Centeno is a freelance dramaturg, theatre lecturer, and arts education programmer from Los Angeles. As a dramaturg, he’s worked with San Diego Rep, Childsplay Theatre Co., ETC Santa Barbara, Jewel Theatre Company, and Company of Angels among others. As an arts educator, he’s worked with UCLA, USC, UC Riverside, CSU Long Beach, and the Los Angeles Unified School District. He is a former NEA panelist and previously served as literary manager of Playwrights’ Arena.
Anita Hollander
Anita Hollander’s performed throughout Europe, Asia & America, at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, London’s West End, NY Shakespeare Festival, Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, and The White House. A Helen Hayes Award nominee, she’s won BackStage Bistro Award and United Solo Audience Award for her original solo musical, Still Standing, recently presented in South Korea. Her new show, Spectacular Falls, recently premiered Off-Broadway. (CDs on iTunes) Theatre: The Artificial Jungle (Nominee: Best Revival Off-Broadway Theatre Alliance), Ragtime, Fiddler, CATS (Grizabella),TV: FBI: Most Wanted, BBC’s From The Edge. Film: Handsome Harry, Musical Chairs. SAG-AFTRA National Chair, Performers With Disabilities. www.anitahollander.com
Anne-Charlotte Hanes Harvey
Born in Sweden, educated in Sweden and the U.S. Translator/dramaturg for production of plays by Ibsen, Strindberg, and progressive TYA authors. Emphasis on ensemble processing of platform translation, from educational and community theatre to regional theatre and Broadway. Playwright and translator of books on pioneering Swedish puppet and marionette theatre. Have also documented, presented, and recorded the music and theatre of Scandinavian America, emphasizing the role of performance in ethnicization and assimilation.
Armando Huipe
Armando Huipe is the producer of the Latinx Theatre Commons, serving as their primary project manager and facilitator. Recently, they have served as Managing Director of Yale Cabaret, Chair of Diversty & Inclusion for the Graduate & Professional Student Senate at Yale University, and the Student Advisory Committee on Diversity & Inclusion to the Vice President and Secretary of Student Life at Yale. They also spent a semester as the Yale Management Fellow at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, CA. Prior to Yale, they served as Administrative Coordinator at REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney | CalArts Theatre) and Development Associate for the Latino Theater Company in Los Angeles, CA. Armando was a co-founder of the Latinx Theater Alliance/Los Angeles where they worked on the Writers Circle, Playwrights Nest Festival, and annual regional convenings. Other companies they have worked with include: Center Theatre Group, LA Phil/Hollywood Bowl, and United States Artists. They received their BA in English Literature from UCLA and their MFA in Theater Management from Yale School of Drama.
Baba Israel and Grace Galu
Grace Galu is a vocalist, actor, and composer who combines the sounds of her Irish and Congolese heritage with a soulful and gritty twist. Grace received a scholarship in composition from Third Street Music Settlement where she studied guitar and arrangement under Liam Wood and Jeff Peretz. Her composition, “Ordinary Sentiment” was featured in the Ed Burns film, Purple Violets and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. She now works with Trusty Sidekick Theater devising new works and has been cast as the lead in their production, The Gospel Electric, commissioned by the Park Ave Armory. She is a core member of the band Soul Inscribed. Soul Inscribed has recently been signed to the music label, Tokyo Dawn and is set to release their EP, Tune UP. With Soul Inscribed, Grace is also an artist in residence at HERE and recently completed a developmental performance in collaboration with Nia Witherspoon. Grace is a teaching artist working with City Lore, Arts Horizons, and with Open Thought Productions. She leads workshops in music, songwriting, poetry, and performance.
BABA ISRAEL is an artist, educator and consultant raised in New York by parents who were core members of the Living Theatre. He was the Artistic Director of Contact Theatre in Manchester. He was a resident artist at BRIC creating his last multimedia performance The Spinning Wheel in collaboration with London based company Unfinished Business. He is a core member of Hip Hop/Soul project Soul Inscribed who recently completed the American Music Abroad program. He holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College and is the Co-Artistic Director of the Performance Project based at the University Settlement. He is a proud member of HERE’s HARP program. Cannabis! A Theatrical Concert is a multimedia performance exploring the history of cannabis using music, theater and spoken word. The team includes Baba Israel as writer, performer, and co-director, Grace Galu as composer/performer; and dramaturg/co-director Talvin Wilks in collaboration with Soul Inscribed. Based on Martin A. Lee’s book Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana - Medical, Recreational, and Scientific, this theatrical concert weaves the histories of icons such as Louis Armstrong and Bob Marley and grassroots activists Dennis Perron and Brownie Mary with personal narrative. Join us for a time-traveling tale of jubilation, injustice, and transformation.
Beatrice (Bea) Basso
Bea moves fluidly between dramaturging, performing, directing and curating. She has collaborated with writers and choreographers at Long Wharf Theatre, A.C.T., and as a freelancer. Her original pieces with Valentina Emeri and Affinity Project have been presented at YBCA and other Bay Area spaces. Bea has directed at Wagner New Play Festival and Diversionary Theatre, and curated Práctica, a multidisciplinary platform across the Tijuana/San Diego border. She is adjunct professor at UCSD.
Daphnie Sicre
Dr. Daphnie Sicre is an assistant professor of Theatre at Loyola Marymount University, where she teaches directing, solo performance, Latinx theatre and theatre for social change. Engaging in anti-racist and cultural competent theatre practices, Daphnie facilitates Theatre of the Oppressed workshops remixed with Hip Hop Pedagogy to teach about equity, diversity and inclusion in theatre. When she is not a dramaturg, or teaching, or conducting workshops, you can find her directing.
Deitrah J. Taylor
Deitrah J. Taylor (History/Public History M.A. Georgia College 2009, Dramaturg) is a story seeker, teller, and keeper, writer, educator, change agent, and time traveler. Deitrah is a native central Georgian raised partially on the coast of Georgia. “I believe everyday people have real power to make a difference. History is active and applied in many facets: religion, parenting, self -care etc. A clear understanding and application of history, is needed to solve today’s problems.”
Yvonne Montoya
Yvonne Montoya is a mother, dancemaker, bi-national artist, thought leader, writer, speaker, and the founding director of Safos Dance Theatre. Based in Tucson, A.Z. and originally from Albuquerque, N.M., her work is grounded in and inspired by the landscapes, languages, cultures, and aesthetics of the U.S. Southwest. Montoya is a process-based dancemaker who creates low-tech, site-specific and site-adaptive pieces for nontraditional dance spaces. In addition to being the founding director, Montoya is the lead choreographer for Safos Dance Theatre; under her direction, the company won the Tucson Pima Arts Council’s Lumie Award for Emerging Organization (2015).
Montoya is a 2019-2020 Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Fellow, a member of the 2019-2020 Dance/USA Fellowships to Artists pilot program, and a recipient of the 2019 National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) POD grant. From 2017-2018 Montoya was a Post-Graduate Fellow in Dance at Arizona State University, where she founded and organized the inaugural Dance in the Desert: A Gathering of Latinx Dancemakers.
Gavin Witt
Gavin spent 17 seasons as Director of Dramaturgy and Associate Artistic Director at Baltimore Center Stage—having previously served in similar positions in Chicago at Court and Northlight Theatres. As well as the production and developmental dramaturgy, creative producing, and strategic planning entailed in these positions, he’s also directed readings, workshops, and mainstage productions in Baltimore and around the country. Other work includes faculty at University of Chicago, DePaul, Johns Hopkins, and now Towson University; Ambassador-at-Large for NNPN; and the LMDA Board of Directors.
Gayle Fekete
Gayle Fekete is the instigator of feketePROJECTS, a collective performance platform with numerous L.A. experimenters and risk takers. feketePROJECTS is invested in movement centered performance practice and installation that investigate, witness, challenge. Gayle has been widely associated and connected to the L. A. arts community, but more recently in NYC. She is in partnership with Urban Bush Women NYC. She is faculty at CSU Pomona Theatre and New dance, and adjunct faculty at The New School. Fekete is affiliated with CSU Summer Arts Dance. She is a creative consultant/dramaturge for performance practices, and independent freelance movement-maker who performs with FEK-MAC, Mechanism Dance Theatre, Fools Fury Theatre, and The Market Gallery Studio in L.A.
Jenny McAllister
Jenny McAllister is the Artistic Director of SF based 13th Floor, "theater that won't hold still." Our fantastical stories tumble off the stage to inhabit any environment from swimming pools to bars, ballrooms, and Victorian mansions. Our original theatrical experiences range from the humorous sci fi antics of Space Pilots in Spaaace! to the darker adventures of An Assemblage of Monsters; we have also crafted custom characters and stories for private and public events such as Mad Kingdom, Take 3 Presents, and Infinite 8. Come with us and we promise we’ll take you where you’ve never been before.
Jerry Soto
Jerry Soto started his theatre career at the University of Puerto Rico and has trained with the prestigious theatre groups Malayerba (Ecuador) and Yuyachkani (Perú). Acting credits include Teatro Círculo (NYC), GALA Hispanic Theatre (DC), Acción Sur (Spain), and Spanish Repertory Theatre (NYC), where he won an ACE Award (Best Supporting Actor/En el nombre de Salomé). He made his directorial debut with The Waters of Friendship at LATEA in the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center (NYC) and is an announcer for WWE’s weekly Latin American TV shows.
Michelle Haner
Passionate about the connections between art, education and social change, Michelle is an artist, educator and theater maker who has worked extensively in the United States and overseas. She leads Blue Monkey Works with Steve Morgan Haskell. She studied politial science at Harvard University (B.A), then theater at the University of Paris (M.A), UCLA (M.F.A.) and L’Ecole Jacques LeCoq. She is also the Artistic Director of the theater program at the French-American International School of San Francisco and has also been a long-time member of foolsFURY, EST-LA and the Classical Theater Lab. More about her work at: www.michellehaner.com. For the art share, she is joined by Steve Morgan Haskell (www.stevemorganhaskell.com).
Julius Rea
Rea is a playwright, curator and performer. In addition to writing as a freelance journalist, he obtained a degree in Philosophy at San Francisco State University. He is a part of Crowded Fire Theatre’s 2020-21 Resilience and Development Lab, leading up to a new play production in their 2021 Rough Reading Series. Rea has performed with Ragged Wing, Left Edge Theatre, and Benicia Old Town Theatre Group; he received a 2019 Arty award for his portrayal of Chris in Lynn Nottage’s Sweat. He has worked with the Playwrights Foundation, Greenhouse Theatre Festival, Nomadic Press, Golden Thread, Adelines Lab, and Playground.
Lacresha Berry
Better known as Berry, Lacresha Berry is a singer/songwriter, actress, poet, educator, and writer from Queens by way of Lexington, Kentucky. She received her BA in Theatre from the University of Kentucky where she honed her playwriting skills and went on to produce three one woman shows since 2002. Her last one woman show, "Browngirl. Bluegrass." documented her life as a brown girl coming of age in the bluegrass state of Kentucky. She's performed all over the country with the show as well as singing and hosting with The Inspired Word weekly series. Her newest work, TUBMAN, a reimagining of Harriet Tubman’s life as a young girl in Harlem, debuted to packed audiences in her hometown of Lexington, Ky, and NYC, with additional performances in San Diego California, New Bedford Massachusetts, and Tubman's birthplace in Cambridge, MD. When she's not performing, she's teaching spoken word to middle and high school students in the Bronx and leading Black Gotham tours in lower Manhattan. She is currently writing her young adult debut novel, "Seeing Janelle".
Marisa Ramos
Marisa is a director, videographer, and designer. While studying at the University of Iowa she focused on new work development. She has a broad scope of experience in production design and development. She has directed or assistant directed with companies such as The Bay Area Women Theatre Festival, FaultLine Theatre, and Quantum Dragon Theater. She has also created videos for Oakland Art Murmur, Shotgun Studios, FaultLine Theatre, A.C.T., and Z Space.
Pratik Motwani
Originally from Mumbai, India, Pratik Motwani is an Actor/ Writer/ Director/ Theatre Maker/ Theatre Educator with a specialization in eastern and western forms of mask performance technique and devised physical theatre. As a self producing actor/creator Pratik likes to collaborate with other artists and cross- sector partners in an ensemble-based process to create, produce, and tour original works of devised physical theatre. His work contemplates themes of identity and inclusion, death and transformation, illusion and duality and includes aspects of Commedia Dell’arte, mask performance, heightened physical movement and clown. As an actor Pratik has lent his voice to actor Dev Patel in the Indian version of the Oscar winning film Slumdog Millionaire; played leading roles in the Dell’Arte Company’s productions of The State of Jefferson (2017), The Big Thirst (2016), Comedy of Errors (2014) and premiered the title role as Ruzante (Arlechino) in a Commedia Dell’Arte adaptation of Ruzante Returns From The War .
Pratik has performed and taught in Canada, France, Egypt, Jordan, and India; has been an invited guest teacher/respondent/judge at Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festivals. He has been a guest teacher at Pennsylvania State University, University of California – Berkeley, and Virginia Tech University. Pratik holds an MFA in ensemble based physical theatre from Dell’Arte International in Blue Lake, CA where he currently works as a resident artist.
Ross Beschler
Ross Beschler is a Philadelphia-based performer on the forefront of ensemble-driven, physically dynamic, fully-embodied theatre. A core member of the Wilma Theatre’s Hothouse ensemble, he trains with the company on an ongoing basis, and has performed in 15 mainstage shows, including the world premiere of Kate Tarker’s Dionysus was Such a Nice Man, the US premiere of Tom Stoppard’s The Hard Problem, and an adaptation of Etel Adnan’s epic poem There. Ross teaches Hothouse techniques at the Wilma Summer Studio, and through international workshops, most recently at Divadlo Archa in Prague. Ross is also a member of Die-Cast Philadelphia, which creates site-specific, ensemble-generated pieces, including several digital pieces that are available online. Ross has taught movement and acting at the Ira Brind School of Theatre at the University of the Arts, Temple University, and Rowan University. www.rossbeschler.com
Ryan Hill
Ryan is a multidisciplinary theater artist and educator from Northern Wisconsin, now based in Oakland, California. He has spent over 20 years experimenting and playing with movement-based storytelling, specializing in ensemble collaboration and mask performance. A graduate of Hamline University and Fulbright Scholar, he has built new work in Berlin, New York, the Twin Cities and around the Bay Area.
Timiki Salinas
The Bellwether Project is a company of young theatre artists who are passionate about telling inclusive stories through the exploration of new forms. The company first united with the producing collaborators of Timiki Salinas, Aubyn Heglie, Jack Dentinger, Megan Forster and Nikki LoPinto produce a show at Carnegie Mellon University's 2015 Playground festival. Since then the company has expanded to include of diverse ensemble, and produced pieces at Carnegie Mellon's Playground and Dance/Light festivals, CollaborAction Studios in Chicago, IL and in New York City at Ars Nova’s ANT FEST, Project Y’s Women in Theater Festival, and for FringeCLUB at Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe. They are currently in development for season 2 of their webseries, (in)alienable. The mission of The Bellwether Theatre Project is to create a culture of understanding and empathy for its community through personal, intersectional storytelling.
Zac Jaffee
Zac Jaffee is a New York-based actor and writer with on-screen work including supporting roles in Hustlers, starring Constance Wu and Jennifer Lopez; Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; NBC's Law and Order: SVU, and The Mysteries of Laura with Debra Messing; and Netflix's Friends from College. He has written and performed two New York Innovative Theater Award nominated solo shows, “Heroes and Other Strangers” and "I Don't Know Shit About Cars" which have played in NYC and nationally. He has written a dozen short plays and frequently collaborates with Amios Theatre Company in New York as a performer, writer, and director. Regional acting credits include Magic Theatre, B Street Theater, Marin Theater Company, and Z Space, among others. Zac has also toured internationally with Word for Word Performing Arts Company.
Zac is a former member of foolsFURY Theater. He trained as an actor and teacher at The Barrow Group under Seth Barrish and Lee Brock and is a member of SAG-AFTRA and AEA.
Zahydé Pietri
Zahydé Pietri is a Puerto Rican actress, prop stylist and artist living in New York City. She has a BA in Drama from the University of Puerto Rico and has trained with Deborah Hunt in Puerto Rico and with the prestigious theatre companies Malayerba in Quito, Ecuador and Yuyachkani in Lima, Perú. She's been onstage in Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Perú and NYC. She's particularly proud of her work with the Improv Group IMPROpio in Puerto Rico, the sculpture and photography collaboration "Fresh Faces" with photographer Emily Dryden and the work she did with the Puerto Rican Children's Theatre Group Desiderátum, where she got to collaborate with other artists in the creation and performance of larger than life masks and puppets. Favorite roles in NYC include Who in "Among Who, Whom and Ever" at LATEA, many roles for Writopia Worldwide Plays Festival and the title role in the upcoming short film "Adriana".
DRAMATURGS
Jihya Kim
Jihye is a freelance dramaturg and a deviser based in Seoul and LA. Her dramaturgy credits include Jaerin Son’s devised piece This is NOT Shakespeare at Arko Art Center, Sujung Kim’s ensemble-creation Gongjoos: Publicly Owned Bodies, Egalia’s Daughters: A Satire of the Sexes with The New World Theatre Company, Jiyoung One’s site-specific immersive piece In and Out of the One: The Origin Story at Doosan Art Center, Jeein Song’s site-specific installation Let’s Talk About it Tomorrow at Seoul Street Art Center.
Kieran Beccia
Kieran is a Bay Area director, producer, and dramaturg focused on devised performance and development of new work. Recent favorite directing credits include Sarafael (The Forum/Ubuntu Theater Project), An Invitation Out (Quantum Dragon Theater), Where the Boys Are (FaultLine Theater), and Pains of Youth (independently produced). They have assistant-directed at many theatres throughout the Bay Area and currently serve as the Associate Literary Manager for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. They are a TITAN Award winner, a two-time CA$H Grant recipient, a company member at the Oakland Theater Project, and a founding member of The Forum.
Liam Rees
Liam was trainee dramaturg at BRONKS Theatre for Young Audiences in Brussels where he also assisted the likes of Ontroerend Goed and Milo Rau. He is currently a reader for the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh and is working on a version of Hamlet for young people for the National Theatre of Scotland.
Liana S. Irvine
Liana (she/her) thrives by working with others on new play development and reimagining traditional pieces. She joins "BUILD from Here" as the contemporary, cinematic Hedda Gabler's dramaturg/assistant director and Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists's Administrative Associate. In her COVID-19 free time, she cares for her plants/animals/family, reads BIPOC playwrights, and hikes at sunrise. As a dramaturg, she aims to uplift female-identifying voices, explore the intersectionality of racial identities, and promote ecological compassion.
Linda Lombardi
Linda Lombardi is a director and dramaturg attracted to work that shifts our perspective and broadens our understanding of the world—epic stories told in intimate ways that capture the resiliency of the human spirit, the extraordinary events of an ordinary life, the poetry of everyday language. An artist/activist, she explores the intersection of dramaturgy and community engagement, and acts as a bridge between the work and the public. She is a regular nominator for The Kilroy List and an Artistic Council Member for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference.
Lucy Powis
Lucy Powis is a dramaturg, producer, and arts administrator. She is a Literary Coordinator at A3 Artists Agency and previously worked in the artistic departments of Roundabout, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Freelance credits include projects with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, NYTW, The Tank, HERE, Ars Nova’s ANT Fest, and LPAC’S Rough Draft Festival. Upcoming: producer for the 2020 PRELUDE Festival. MFA Dramaturgy: Columbia University. www.lucypowis.com.
Merlin Simard
Merlin Simard (they/them/iel/elle) is a Franco-Ontarian, queer, trans-feminine performer, playwright, dramaturg, and filmmaker originally from Tiohtiá:ke (Montréal) now based in Tkarón:to (Toronto). Select theatre performance credits: E-TRANSFERS (Buddies In Bad Times/BCurrent/NTS), Curious Voyage (Talk is Free Theatre/DLT), The Flick (Crow's Theatre/Outside The March), Tape Escape (Outside The March), FEAR OF MEN ((Staged Reading) Assembly Theatre) and Gruesome Playground Injuries (Playground Productions) TV/Film: Grand Army (Netflix), This Life (CBC) Playwriting: FEAR OF MEN (in development at Theatre Passe-Muraille), E-TRANSFERS and ZADDY ISSUES (In development at Ergo Arts Theatre). Merlin currently holds the position of Dramaturgy Intern at Theatre Passe-Muraille.
Dr. Sarah Sigal
Originally from Chicago and based in London, Sarah Sigal is a writer, dramaturg and director working in devised work, site-specific and interactive theatre, cabaret, opera and new writing. Sarah is also a freelance lecturer and the author of Writing in Collaborative Theatre-Making (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). She is a Dramaturgs’ Network Advisory Board member and has recently completed a3 LABA Fellowship at the 14th St Y (NYC). Her opera The Agency will premiere at the Têt à Têt Festival on September 14th.
Ellen Morgan Peltz
Ellen Morgan Peltz is a writer and dramaturg specializing in plays that deal with complex ideas and issues of faith. She is currently the Literary Director of Theater J in Washington, D.C. Recent projects include production dramaturgy for Alix Sobel’s Sheltered and Anna Ziegler’s The Wanderers. Ellen received a BA in English from Wheaton College and an MA in Journalism from Indiana University. She lives with her husband and four children outside of Washington, DC.
Tabitha Chester, PhD
Tabitha Chester, PhD is a Performance Studies scholar specializing in gender, sexuality, and religion in the Black diaspora. Over the last 10 years, Tabitha has taught in Black Studies, Women and Gender Studies, and Theatre departments at the university level. As an artist, dramaturg, and organizer, Tabitha centers storytelling as a way to understand difference, promote empathy, and create change.
Vidhu Singh
Throughout her career to date, Vidhu’s fluency in a variety of cultural and aesthetic forms, her dramaturgy, her scholarship and her pioneering efforts to promote South Asian theater have made her contribution to the American theater truly unique. Cal Shakes recognized this uniqueness by honoring Vidhu with the 2020 Luminary Award in Dramaturgy for her work on Madhuri Shekar's House of Joy.
Zachariah Ezer
Zachariah Ezer is a theatermaker whose work animates theoretical quandaries through dramaturgical forms. He currently works as the Dramaturg-in-Residence for the Workshop Theater and as the project dramaturg for The National Black Theatre's IAMSOUL Directing Residency. He has previously done dramaturgical work for Awoye Timpo and Merde.