People
Guest Artists
Each year the Department of Theatre and Dance invites several guest artists to campus. Some are visiting alumni who share their expertise as members of the Alumni Speakers Bureau. Others are invited academicians and theatre/dance professionals. For more information about Department activities, consult our Calendar of Events and Special Events Archives.
Bryant Alexander
September 9, 2010
Symposium on E. Patrick Johnson's performance of Sweet Tea
Bryant Alexander is a Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at California State University Los Angeles and serves as Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Letters. His scholarship is interdisciplinary, contributing to the fields of communication and cultural studies, gender and queer studies, African American Studies, performance and pedagogical studies. He served as the Supervisor of Graduate Teaching Associates and the Director of the Basic Communication Course, Acting Chair of the Department of Liberal Studies. His first book, Performance Theories in Education: Power, Pedagogy, and the Politics of Identity (Lawrence Erlbaum Press) was co-edited with education scholars Gary Anderson and Bernardo Gallegos. His second book, Performing Black Masculinity: Race, Culture, and Queer Identity (Alta Mira Press) won the 2007 Best Book Award from the National Communication Association Ethnography Division. He received the 2008 Master Teacher Award from the Western States Communication Association.
Marc Masterson
October 1, 2010
Guest Respondent for Yours
Marc Masterson has served for over ten seasons as Artistic Director for Actor's Theatre of Louisville. Under his leadership Actor's Theatre has produced more than 200 plays, expanded and deepened arts education programs and spearheaded community-based projects, including commissions and site-specific productions of regional stories and artists. Mr. Masterson is an award-winning director. World premieres directed in the Humana Festival include Wild Blessings: A Celebration of Wendell Berry (co-adapted with Adrien-Alice Hansel), The Unseen, Natural Selection, The Shaker Chair, After Ashley, Tallgrass Gothic, The Second Death of Priscilla, Limonade Tous les Jours and Wonderful World. Of the more than 100 plays premiered during his tenure, 96% have moved on to subsequent productions around the country. Mr. Masterson earned his M.F.A. from University of Pittsburgh and a B.F.A. from Carnegie Mellon University. He currently serves on the Executive Committee of Theatre Communications Group and served as Producing Director of City Theatre in Pittsburgh for 20 years. He was founder and chairman of the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Alliance and has served as a panel member for the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts and other national foundations. Mr. Masterson won the Man of the Year Vectors Award in 1998 and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pittsburgh New Works Festival.
Polly Carl
October 8, 2010
Guest Respondent for Rivers of January
Polly Carl is the Director of Artistic Development for Steppenwolf Theatre Company and one of the nation's foremost experts in the field of new play development. Dr. Carl has served as strategic and artistic head at the Playwrights' Center — the last seven as Artistic Director. At the center, Dr. Carl programmed the Ruth Easton Lab, a year-round laboratory that supports the development of new plays by emerging and advanced playwrights from around the country. She also served as the Lab's lead dramaturg and has worked to build an international exchange program with the Tokyo International Festival. She has taken special interest in the use of technology to make new plays and living playwrights more accessible to the field. Dr. Carl has sat on numerous boards, panels and committees including the Steinberg Advisory Committee, the Mimi, the NEA Theater panel, the MAP Fund panel, and the board of Ten Thousand Things Theatre. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society with an emphasis on performance theory from the University of Minnesota.
Julie Marie Myatt
October 8, 2010
Seminar for Playwrights
Julie Marie Myatt is resident playwright at Cornerstone Theatre, Los Angles. Her play, The Happy Ones recently premiered at South Coast Repertory while her play, Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter has been playing at small theatres across the country after premiering at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Boats on a River premiered at the Guthrie Theater, was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and was recorded for the LA Theatre Works radio play series, “The Play's The Thing.” Her work has been developed or seen at The Guthrie Theatre, the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Seattle Rep, Cherry Lane, A.S.K. Theatre Projects, LAByrinth Theater Company, signature Theatre in Arlington and Denver Center Theatre, among others. She received a Walt Disney Studios Screenwriting Fellowship, a Jerome Fellowship at the Playwrights' Center, and a McKnight Advancement Grant. She is currently working on commissions for ACT Seattle, Roundabout Theatre, and Yale Repertory. She is a resident member of New Dramatists.
Michael Arthur
October 9, 2010
Performed The Barber and the Farmer, Panelist for The Fantasticks
Michael Arthur (Ph.D. 1999) is the official Archival Artist for Joe's Pub at the Public Theater in New York City. He specializes in drawing the rehearsals of dance and theatre, capturing the creative process in pen and ink. Mr. Arthur has worked with American Ballet Theatre, The Martha Graham Dance Company, The Paul Taylor Dance Company, The Parsons Dance Company, The Buglisi/Foreman Dance Company, The Tribeca Theatre Festival and the Drama Dept. On Broadway, his drawings have chronicled the rehearsal processes of Follies, Pacific Overtures, 45 Seconds From Broadway, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and La Cage Aux Folles. A limited edition book of his Martha Graham Company drawings was created in 2005. Other limited edition books of his drawings have been created for the Board of Directors for American Ballet Theatre and the Trustees of the Juilliard School of the Arts. Mr. Arthur received his Ph.D. in Theatre History and Criticism from The University of Texas in Austin, where he was the research assistant to Oscar G. Brockett. As “Toxey Goodwater,” Mr. Arthur also performs with the indie folk-rock art collective, Balthrop, Alabama drawing as they play live in concert.
Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt
October 16, 2010
Keynote Speakers, The Fantasticks
Tom Jones (B.F.A., 1949; M.F.A., 1951) and Harvey Schmidt (B.F.A. Art, 1952) both University of Texas alums, wrote The Fantasticks for a summer theatre at Barnard College and opened it in New York in 1960. The original show ran continuously for 42 years making it the longest running musical in the history of the world and a much beloved staple of American musical theatre. For Broadway, Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt have also written 110 in The Shade, a musical version of N. Richard Nash's tender Southwest romance, The Rainmaker, as well as I Do! I Do!, adapted from Jan de Hartog's long-run comedy smash, The Fourposter. For several years Jones and Schmidt worked privately at Portfolio, their theatre workshop, concentrating on small-scale musicals in new and often un-tried forms. The most notable of these efforts were Celebration, which moved to Broadway, and Philemon, which won an Outer Critics Circle Award. Along the way they contributed incidental music and lyrics to the off-Broadway play, Colette. Later, their full-scale musical based on the same subject toured the western states with Diana Rigg. In the 1997-98 season, Jones and Schmidt appeared off-Broadway in The Show Goes On, a revue based on their theatre songs. Mirette, their musical based on the award-winning children's book, was presented at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut in 1998, and at present they are working on a new western musical entitled Roadside. In addition to an Obie Award and the 1992 Special Tony for The Fantasticks, Jones and Schmidt are the recipients of the prestigious ASCAP-Richard Rodgers Award. In 1999 they were inducted into the Broadway Hall of Fame at the Gershwin Theatre, and their “stars” were added to the Off- Broadway Walk of Fame outside the Lucille Lortel theatre.
Denny Berry
October 16, 2010
Guest Panelist, “Broadway and Beyond”
Denny Berry (B.F.A. Drama, 1973) has been associate choreographer, production dance supervisor, and the original Broadway Dance Captain of The Phantom of the Opera. She has also been responsible for casting, coaching, and setting 12 other worldwide productions of PHANTOM. Other Broadway credits include Jesus Christ Superstar. She wrote, directed and choreographed A Soul Wailing in Darkness based on the Nobel Laureat Kenzaburo Oe's A Personal Matter. She has created work in both the musical theater and Ballet genres from Vienna, Austria to Austin, Texas, including A Christmas Carol (Kevin Moriarty/Trinity Rep), Street Scene (Francesca Zambello/Houston Grand Opera),
Jean Cheever
October 16, 2010
Guest Panelist, “Broadway and Beyond”
Jean Cheever (MBA Business Administration, 1987) is the lead producer, with Tom Polum, of the multi award winning musical comedy The Toxic Avenger. The Off-Broadway production won the 2009 Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical and an additional 18 award nominations. The Toxic Avenger has been presented internationally in Toronto, South Korea, Calgary, and Melbourne and is being readied for a Broadway premiere in early 2012. Jean's other musical pieces in development include Heloise and Abelard, Mambo Italiano, Dead & Breakfast, Zombie Honeymoon and H.P. Lovecraft's The Music of Erich Zann. Past theatrical credits include Broadway's Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and All Shook Up. She is also a co-producer of Last Call, a musical documentary film, and served as a juror for the 2006 Avignon Film Festival. Ms. Cheever is a former executive with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and is a Certified Public Accountant. She has an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin and BBA from Southern Methodist University.
Brian Danner
October 16, 2010
Guest Panelist, “Lessons Learned: The Business of the Biz”
Brian Danner (B.F.A. Acting, 1996) is the Director of Stage at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts Hollywood. He is the proud owner of Sword Fights, Inc and Best. Party. Ever. and the creator of Full Contact Shakespeare and The Fight Before Christmas. Danner's swordfight choreography and training is seen in Master and Commander, I Love You, Man, Prince Caspian, Old School, The Princess Diaries II, and Your Highness. His television works include the Emmy-award-winning Modern Family, Gilmore Girls, The Bachelorette, Deadliest Warrior, Kevin Garnett's Adidas campaign and Madonna's Die Another Day music video. Danner played “Leonidas” in the History Channel's Last Stand of the 300, and has choreographed hundreds of fights for History's Bible Battles, Battles BC, and The Art of War. Brian is the resident fight choreographer for the Furious Theatre, directing violence for the Los Angeles premiers of boom, The Pain and the Itch, and Hunter Gatherers and the world premiers of Canned Peaches in Syrup, and The Fair Maid of the West Parts I and II, winning the LA Weekly award for best fight choreography for Fair Maid and the Banshee Theatre's production of Henry IV, Pt 1.
Jolynn Hoffman Free
October 16, 2010
Guest Panelist, “The Big Picture: Careers Beyond the Theatre”
Jolynn Hoffman Free's (M.F.A. Drama, 1973) is a Registered Investment Advisor, Accredited Investment Fiduciary, Senior Vice President, and Member of the Consulting Group and the President's Council with RBC Wealth Management in Austin. Jolynn holds a B.F.A. in Drama Education and M.F.A. in Children's Theatre, Creative Drama, and Teacher Training from The University of Texas at Austin. Jolynn's community involvement has encompassed service on numerous boards, foundations, and capital campaign committees including Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Huntington Gallery, Conspirare, Pathfinders, and All Saints' Church. She has served as founder and chair of the RBC Association of Women Brokers, and chaired the American Institute for Learning, the Music Umbrella, the Seton Forum, SafePlace Foundation, the Quin Foundation of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, and the Foundation for Religious Studies at the University of Texas. Currently, Jolynn is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for Expanding Horizons, the Board of Visitors of the McDonald Observatory, as well as a member and advisor to many more organizational and community boards.
Eric Glenn
October 16, 2010
Guest Panelist, “The Big Picture: Careers Beyond the Theatre”
Eric Glenn (B.A. Theatre Studies, 1995) is a veteran of the Texas Legislative and regulatory process. In 2003, Mr. Glenn formed TxLobbyAssist, Inc., a legislative and public affairs consulting group. Previously he was the Regional Legislative Manager for Humana. Glenn served as the Government Affairs Manager/Lobbyist for the Texas Association of Business, as well as director of Governmental Relations for the Texas Workforce Commission and as Legislative Director and Chief Committee Clerk to state Rep. Ron Wilson (D – Houston). During his 13 years working in the Texas House of Representatives, he was instrumental in the passage of landmark legislation, including the Texas Lottery, Concealed Carry of Weapons, and recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday as a state holiday. Mr. Glenn has also been a professional actor having appeared in numerous television and feature films and as a Series Regular on NBC's 13 East.
Kim Peter Kovac
October 16, 2010
Guest Panelist, “Making it Happen: The Impact of New York”
Kim Peter Kovac (M.F.A. Directing, 1975) is Producing Director of Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences, which commissions, produces, tours, and presents performances for young people and families. Mr. Kovac's work at the Center has included producing over fifty new plays, operas and dances for young audiences. He has also served as co-founding director of New Visions/New Voices, which has assisted in the development of 80 new plays from 51 US and 7 international companies. NV/NV has been honored for outstanding service to the field by both the American Alliance for Theater in Education (AATE) and the Children's Theater Foundation. He has been a State Department/Arts America Fellow to Jordan, done keynotes/workshops in Cork, Ireland and Japan, spoken at symposia in across the globe, and taught a graduate seminar at the University of Central Florida. Mr. Kovac is currently vice president of ASSITEJ, the international association of theaters for children and young people; on the board and past president of Theater for Young Audiences/USA; and on the board of IPAY, International Performing Arts for Youth. He and co-designer Deirdre Kelly Lavrakas received the 1994 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for Kiss of the Spider Woman, at GALA Hispanic Theatre in Washington, DC. In 2008, both IPAY and AATE honored him for lifetime achievement/distinguished service to the field.
Carson Kreitzer
October 16, 2010
Guest Panelist, “Making it Happen: The Impact of New York”
Carson Kreitzer (M.F.A. Writing, 2006) is a resident playwright at New Dramatists, an associated artist with Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, and the Fire Department, and a member of The Workhaus Collective, The Playwrights' Center and the Dramatists Guild. Her play, The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer won the Lois and Richard Rosenthal New Play Prize, the American Theatre Critics' Steinberg Citation, the Barrie Stavis Award, and is published by Dramatic Publishing as well as in Smith and Kraus' New Playwrights: Best Plays of 2004. SELF DEFENSE or death of some salesmen has been produced across the country, is published by Playscripts and in Smith and Kraus' Women Playwrights: Best Plays of 2002. Other work includes 1:23, Flesh and the Desert, The Slow Drag (New York and London), Freakshow, Slither, Dead Wait, and Take My Breath Away, featured in BAM's 1997 Next Wave Festival. Grants: NYFA, NYSCA, NEA, TCG, Jerome and McKnight Foundations, Loewe Award in Music-Theatre. Commissions: Guthrie Theater, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and Next Theatre. Ms. Kreitzer received a B.A. from Yale University and an M.F.A. from the Michener Center for Writers at UT Austin. She recently finished a year as the first Playwrights Of New York (PONY) Fellow at the Lark Play Development Center, and is currently the recipient of a McKnight Advancement Grant in Minneapolis.
Todd Lowe
October 16, 2010
Guest Panelist, “Lessons Learned: The Business of the Biz”
Todd Lowe (B.F.A. Acting, 1999) is a Los Angles-based actor seen most recently as “Zach Van Gerbig” on Gilmore Girls, and “Terry Bellefleur” on HBO's True Blood. He earned his Equity Card at South Coast Repertory, and developed characters in world premiere works by playwrights Amy Freed, Tom Donaghy, and Donald Marguilies. He is the proud recipient of a 1994 B. Iden Payne Award for his performance in The Three Cuckolds and is a singer and guitarist for Pillbilly Knights, a country-rock band based in Los Angeles.
Bruce McGill
October 16, 2010
Guest Panelist, “Lessons Learned: The Business of the Biz”
Since driving his motorcycle up the Delta House stairs as “D-Day” in National Lampoon's Animal House, Bruce McGill (BA Drama, 1973) has been a constant and memorable screen presence. He was most recently seen in Law Abiding Citizen, Oliver Stone's W, and Sony Picture's Obsessed. He is currently working on Rizzoli & Isles, a new television series for TNT and has appeared in more than 100 movies to date, including Vantage Point, Runaway Jury, Matchstick Men, The Legend of Bagger Vance, My Cousin Vinny, The Sum of All Fears, The Last Boy Scout, Silkwood, and Exit Wounds. Mr. McGill has starred in HBO's Live From Baghdad, as well as Path to War and 61 and as “Jack Dalton” on MacGuyver. Originally from San Antonio, Texas he began a long association with the New York Shakespeare Festival after first relocating to New York, appearing in Hamlet, Henry V, and playing Iago in Othello for the NYSF's Shakespeare in the Park series. He also starred on Broadway in My One and Only with Tommy Tune and Twiggy.
Kitty McNamee
October 16, 2010
Guest Panelist, “Making it Happen: The Impact of New York”
Kitty McNamee (B.F.A. Dance, 1986) is the artistic director of Hysterica Dance Co. Los Angeles. Ms. McNamee has been creating in both the theatrical and commercial arenas having recently choreographed an episode of 90210 and co-directed a music video for the band Hecuba. Her choreography has been seen on The L Word, videos for the Mexican pop band kinky, industrials for SONY and on Anytime With Bob Kushell. Recent work includes La Traviata for LA Opera, Man Of La Mancha for Reprise! and Wing on Wing and crust for Hysterica. Other choreography credits include La Rondine at LA Opera, Symphonie Fantastique and Wing on Wing for LA Philharmonic, Margaret Cho's Sensuous Woman. Her choreography has also been seen in the Ovation Awards, DanceBreak, Sondheim's 75th at the Hollywood Bowl and Romeo et Juliette at LA Opera. Hysterica Dance Co. has performed nationally at the Joyce Soho (dancenow/NYC), the Manhattan School of Music, d.u.m.b.o. dance festival NY, WHITE WAVE Performance Space NY, and at Helm's Fine Arts Center in Austin, TX as well as extensively in California. Learn more at http://kittymcnamee.com
Robert Schenkkan
October 16, 2010
Guest Panelist, “Making it Happen: The Impact of New York”
Robert Schenkkan (B.A. Drama, 1975) Robert Schenkkan is an award winning playwright and screenwriter. His play, The Kentucky Cycle, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and his work on the HBO miniseries The Pacific has garnered two Emmy nominations and a Writers Guild of America Award. He has written and published nine full-length plays and is currently commissioned to write American Dreams for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Docent for director Warner Shook, Mel's Hole for SCRT, and adapting the Newberry Award winning novel, A Single Shard, for the Seattle Children's Theatre. He is also at work on a rock musical, a musical adaptation of his own play, Miss Hollywood, and is collaborating on A Night at the Alhambra Café with director, Megs Booker.
Other awards include: Tony nomination, Outer Critics Circle nomination, an LA Critics Best Play Award, the Julie Harris/Beverly Hills Theatre Guild Award, the PEN WEST Award. He has received grants from New York CAPS, Vogelstein Foundation, Arthur Foundation, and the Fund for New American Plays.
Mr. Shenkkan is the co-author of the film, The Quiet American. He is currently adapting Anabasis as a feature film for SONY. Television credits include The Andromeda Strain (A&E), Crazy Horse (TNT), and Spartacus (USA). Mr. Schenkkan received an M.F.A. in Theatre Arts from Cornell University. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, PEN America, the Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Friar Society, and is an alumnus of New Dramatists.
Charlie Pollock
October 16, 2010
Guest Panelist, “Broadway and Beyond”
Charlie Pollock (B.A. Drama, 1995) originated the role of “Dwayne Rhodes” in 9 to 5 and played “Bobby Strong” in Urinetown, on Broadway. He starred as “Paul Bertolet” in Carnival, At The Paper Mill Playhouse and played “Dwayne” in 9 to 5 at the Ahmanson Theatre in L.A. Some of his off- Broadway credits include I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, The Original company of Jonathan Larson's Tick, Tick…Boom!, The Last Starfighter (world premiere), “Ken Star” in Monica the Musical!, Loot, Lola, Opus Profundum and Cock and Bull Story (NY premier). Nationally Mr. Pollock has appeared as “Steve Jobs” in Nerds! The Musical, “Jerry Lukowski” in The Full Monty, “Judas” in Jesus Christ Superstar, “Jesus” in Godspell, “Tommy” in The Who's Tommy and “Eddie” in King of the Moon. He worked with Stephen King and John Mellencamp on their new musical The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County. He also recently played “Mr. Ed” in the new musical UP Here! for The Roundabout Theatre Company. His TV/Film credits include the recurring role of “Bud Mcgann” on “As the World Turns”, “Walking Charley”, “Law and Order”, and “The Guiding Light”.
Dana Younger
October 16, 2010
Guest Panelist, “The Big Picture: Careers Beyond the Theatre”
Dana Younger (B.A. Drama, 1995) developed a fascination with the art of sculpture, mold-making and casting while pursuing in B.A. in Theatre at UT. This fascination turned into Blue Genie Art Industries, an art fabrication business now in its 10th year. With an eye toward the use of technology in creative fabrication, Blue Genie has created major projects both locally and nationally. An additional spin-off business, the Blue Genie Art Bazaar play host to 130 artists every year. In addition to his work with Blue Genie, Dana manages the Exhibit Shop for Texas Parks and Wildlife. After receiving his B.A. in Theater Mr. Younger continued performing and directing for some winning a B.Iden Payne Award for Best Director for his collaboration with Refraction Arts.
Mary Coleman
October 21, 2010
Lecture: “Storytelling at Pixar Animation Studios”
Mary Coleman is the Senior Development Executive at Pixar Animation Studios. She was recruited from San Francisco's Magic Theater where she served as Associate Artistic Director. At the Magic, Ms. Coleman worked to develop world premieres of new plays in a method that translated well to Pixar's style of creating new stories. As Development Executive, Coleman works as a dramaturg, partnering with Pixar's directors to shape their stories from initial concept through final draft. She helps them articulate their vision, matches them with writers, provides research to deepen the story world, and gives feedback on treatments, outlines, and scripts. She has taught acting and dramatic literature at San Francisco State University, Sonoma State, Mills College, and Harvard, and has guest lectured at many other colleges and universities. Ms. Coleman has a B.A. in Literature from Amherst College, an M.F.A. in Theatre from the University of California, San Diego, and studied Dramaturgy at the American Repertory Theater, Harvard.
Keven Quillon
November 2, 2010
Master class: Choreography from Shrek the Musical
Keven was a member of the Original Broadway company and is currently performing the first national tour of Shrek: the Musical. He is a graduate of James Madison University, with a B.A. in English and Theater. Other Broadway credits include Grease and Leap of Faith. National touring credits include Sweet Charity, Saturday Night Fever, and White Christmas. Regionally he has worked at Sacramento Music Circus, Heritage Rep., and The Main Street Theater among others. He's also performed for The Tony Awards, The Today Show, and The Macy's Day Parade. He has taught master classes at Broadway Dance Center, The Pulse, Camp Broadway, Broadway Classroom, and at many high schools and universities across the country.
Meryl Streep
November 5, 2010
A Conversation with Meryl Streep
Routinely hailed as the greatest actress of her generation, Meryl Streep has portrayed an astonishing array of characters in a career that has cut its own unique path from the theater through television and film. Ms. Streep has earned 16 Academy Award nominations, winning Oscars for her roles in Kramer vs. Kramer and Julie and Julia. She has received 25 Golden Globe nominations as well, more than any other actor in the history of either award. Ms. Streep, graduated cum laude from Vassar College, and received her M.F.A. with honors from Yale University in 1975. In 1976, she received a Tony nomination for her work in Tennessee Williams's A Memory of Two Mondays/27 Wagons Full of Cotton. Impossible to pigeonhole, Ms. Streep has portrayed characters of all ethnic backgrounds, temperaments, sexual orientations and genders during her diverse and prolific career. Her work has also earned her two Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Cannes Film Festival award and five Grammy Award nominations among many others. She was awarded the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.
Maria Goyanes
November 19th, 2010
Guest Respondent for Fight
Maria is currently the Public Theater's Associate Producer. Previously she served as the Director of Special Projects, where she worked on the development and cultivation of new plays and initiatives that supported the work of a wide range of artists. She helped launch the theater's successful Public LAB, working with Adrienne Kennedy, the Civilians, Naomi Wallace, Suzan- Lori Parks, Roger Guenveur Smith, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and helped develop The Good Negro by Tracey Scott Wilson and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson by Alex Timbers and Michael Friedman which transferred to The Public's mainstage after successful runs in Public LAB. She spearheaded the Suzan-Lori Parks' yearlong “365 Days/365 Plays” festival for New York City, working with 70 theater companies and over a thousand artists. She is also the Executive Producer of the OBIE Award-winning 13P (13 Playwrights, Inc.), a 13 play project founded with a collective of writers that includes Sarah Ruhl, Young Jean Lee, Anne Washburn, Lucy Thurber, and Sheila Callaghan. She is the recipient of the Josephine Abady Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women and was previously the Associate Producer at Trinity Repertory Company under Oskar Eustis.
Jonathan Rand
December 2, 2010
Guest Respondent for Emergency Prom
Jonathan Rand serves as the Board President and Co-Founder of Playscripts, Inc., an innovative publishing and licensing house for new plays and musicals, representing over 1,600 works by over 750 authors worldwide. As a playwright, his own plays are among the most popular in the country, having been produced by over 4,800 theaters in all 50 states and in 37 countries. Mr. Rand holds a Bachelor's Degree in Theatre Arts from the University of Pennsylvania. His work has been published by Random House, Dramatics magazine, Playscripts, and Smith & Kraus.
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