The Board of Directors
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The Board of Directors •
Board of Directors Episode 36: Krish Natarajan
Krish Natarajan is a theatre practitioner who wears many hats (except a fedora). A performer, writer, and director, he is the artistic director of Patch and Punnet and Strawberries Inc., helming immersive works that redefine what it means to “go to the theatre.” These include Saving Sensoria and Sky’s the Limit with KidsSTOP Singapore, Escaped the Art with National Gallery Singapore, Elemental Tours with Singapore Art Museum, Sis Where’s My Car with The Peranakan Museum, and the sold-out The Secret Life of Haw Par Villa. He is the creator, writer, and director of the Crack the Case series with Sightlines Co, an immersive mix of theatre and escape rooms. He also wrote and directed the 25th Anniversary ChildAid Concert.
As a director, his credits include I’MPerfect: The musical, There’s a Dinosaur in the Concert Hall (March on), Makan Culture (SIFA), and An Interrogation (Sightlines). As an actor, his credits include Secondary: The Musical and Brown Boys Don’t Tell Jokes (Checkpoint Theatre), Pillowman (Sightlines), Shakespeare in the Park: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Singapore Repertory Theatre), and National Day Charade, Pulau Ujong and Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Wild Rice), amongst many others.
Board of Directors Episode 35: Rachel Chavkin
Rachel Chavkin received the 2019 Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Director of a Musical for Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown. She is a director, writer, and dramaturg, as well as the founding Artistic Director of the Brooklyn-based ensemble the TEAM (theteamplays.org), an internationally renowned experimental company whose consensus-driven collaborative process was the subject of the documentary The TEAM Makes a Play (directed by Emmy winner Paulette Douglas). Additional selected: Dave Malloy's Natasha, Pierre, & The Great Comet of 1812 (Broadway featuring Denée Benton & Josh Groban); Carson Kreitzer and Matt Gould’s Lempicka (Williamstown); Caryl Churchill's Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (New York Theatre Workshop), Marco Ramirez’s The Royale (Old Globe, Lincoln Center); Bess Wohl’s Small Mouth Sounds (Ars Nova, Off-Broadway, National Tour); Sarah Gancher’s I’ll Get You Back Again (Round House); and multiple collaborations with Taylor Mac, including The Lily's Revenge, Act 2 (HERE). In addition to her awards for Hadestown, Chavkin is a recipient of a Tony Award nomination for Best Direction of a Musical, three Obie Awards, a Drama Desk Award, multiple Lortel Award nominations, two Doris Duke Impact Award nominations, and the 2017 Smithsonian Award for Ingenuity along with Dave Malloy. Her first film, Remind Me, was an official selection of the Venice and Beverly Hills Film Festivals. Upcoming: feature film Shrew's Nest (Paramount). Proud NYTW Usual Suspect and SDC member.
Board of Directors Episode 34: Shayok Misha Chowdhury
Shayok Misha Chowdhury is a many-tentacled writer and director, born in India, based in Brooklyn. He recently received an Obie Award for directing the world premiere of his playwriting debut, Public Obscenities, at Soho Rep, a co-production with the National Asian American Theatre Company. The “extraordinary bilingual drama” was a New York Times Critic's Pick and hailed as a “literary marvel” and “complexly layered masterwork” by The New Yorker. The play had encore runs at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and Theatre for a New Audience. Misha is also the recipient of a Princess Grace Award, the Mark O’Donnell Prize, Drama Desk and Drama League nominations, and a Jonathan Larson Grant for his body of work writing musicals with composer Laura Grill Jaye. The duo’s most recent collaboration, How the White Girl Got Her Spots and Other 90s Trivia, was awarded the 2022 Relentless Award. Misha collaborated on the Grammy-winning album Calling All Dawns. Other favorite collaborations: Brother, Brother (New York Theatre Workshop) with Aleshea Harris; SPEECH (Philly Fringe) with Lightning Rod Special; MukhAgni (Under the Radar @ The Public Theater) with Kameron Neal. Misha is currently working on commissions from Playwrights Horizons and the Manhattan Theatre Club. As a Resident Artist @ HERE Arts Center, he is developing Rheology, a collaboration with his physicist mother, which was awarded an inaugural Sundance Asian American Fellowship. The piece will premiere at The Bushwick Starr in 2025, a co-production with HERE and Ma-Yi Theater Company.
Misha is the creator of VICHITRA, a series of sound-driven, cinematic experiments, including Englandbashi (Ann Arbor Film Festival); The Other Other (Ars Nova); An Anthology of Queer Dreams (Audio Unbound Award finalist); and In Order to Become (The Bushwick Starr). Misha is also an alumnus of New York Theatre Workshop’s 2050 Fellowship, The Public Theater’s Devised Theater Working Group, Ars Nova’s Makers Lab, New York Stage and Film Nexus, the Sundance Art of Practice Fellowship, BRIClab, Drama League’s Next Stage Residency, and Soho Rep’s Project Number One and Writer Director Lab.
A NYSCA/NYFA, Fulbright, and Kundiman fellow in poetry, Misha has been published in The Cincinnati Review, TriQuarterly, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Portland Review, Asian American Literary Review, Lantern Review, and elsewhere. Residencies: Macdowell, Hermitage Artist Retreat, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Ucross, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Mercury Store.
Misha received his Bachelor’s in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity under the mentorship of Maestra Cherríe Moraga at Stanford University, his Master of Fine Arts in Directing Theater at Columbia University under Anne Bogart, Brian Kulick, and Greg Mosher, and studied Lecoq-based physical theater at the London International School of Performing Arts. He has taught and directed at Stanford, Brown, NYU, CalArts, Fordham, Syracuse, UArts, Hunter College, CMU, and Williams.
Board of Directors Episode 33: Lili-Anne Brown
Lili-Anne Brown, a Chicago South Side native, works as a director, actor, and educator, and has performed in, directed, and produced many award-winning shows in Chicago and nationally. Directing credits include: The Nacirema Society…, School Girls, or The African Mean Girls Play and the world premieres of Ike Holter’s I Hate It Here and Lottery Day (Goodman Theatre); Two Trains Running (The Acting Company, National Tour); The Hot Wing King (Writer’s Theatre); Dreamgirls (McCarter Theater and Goodspeed Musicals); FELA! (Olney Theatre), Joe Turner's Come and Gone (Huntington Theatre), Ain’t No Mo’ (Woolly Mammoth and Baltimore CenterStage), Waitress, Rent, and The Color Purple (The Muny), Once on This Island (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Acoustic Rooster...(Kennedy Center and National Tour), Put Your House in Order (La Jolla Playhouse), Cullud Wattah (Victory Gardens). She is the former Artistic Director of Bailiwick Chicago, where she focused programming on Chicago-premiere musicals and new play development with resident playwrights. During her tenure, she directed Dessa Rose (Jeff Award), Passing Strange (BTA Award), See What I Wanna See (Steppenwolf Theatre Garage Rep), and the world premiere of Princess Mary Demands Your Attention by Aaron Holland, and produced many other award-winning shows. Other directing credits include The Color Purple (Drury Lane Theatre), P.Y.G. or the Mis-Edumacation of Dorian Belle (Jackalope Theatre), The Total Bent (Haven Theatre w/About Face), Caroline, or Change (Firebrand Theatre w/TimeLine), Tilikum by Kristiana Colon (world premiere, Sideshow Theatre), Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (American Blues Theatre), Hairspray (Skylight Music Theatre), The Wolf at the End of the Block (16th Street Theatre), Marie Christine (Boho Theatre), Peter and the Starcatcher (Metropolis Performing Arts), The Wiz (Kokandy Productions), Xanadu (American Theatre Company), Jabari Dreams of Freedom by Nambi E. Kelley (world premiere, Chicago Children’s Theatre), American Idiot (Northwestern University); and Little Shop of Horrors, Unnecessary Farce, Cabaret, Sweet Charity, and The 25th…Spelling Bee, among others, at Timber Lake Playhouse, where she was an Artistic Associate. She has received 2 Helen Hayes Awards, 5 Jeff Awards, 2 BTA awards, and one African American Arts Alliance Award for excellence in directing. Lili-Anne is an inaugural recipient of the Walder Foundation’s Platform Award (2024), a 2021 recipient of the 3Arts Award for Theatre and the 2023 Zelda Fichandler Award Finalist. She is a member of SDC, AEA, SAG-AFTRA, and a graduate of Northwestern University.
Long ago in another life:
Lili-Anne supplemented her Chicago acting career as a talent agent by day for five years, also serving as the Casting Director at Bohemian Theatre Ensemble (where she was a founding company member) and Bailiwick Chicago, and providing freelance casting for several other theatres.
Onstage, favorite roles include originating the role of Tia in the world premiere of hit play A Twist of Water by Caitlin Parrish, with Route 66 Theatre Co, which she reprised in its successful Off-Broadway run; and Joanne in RENT at American Theatre Company, directed by David Cromer. She has also performed at Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Victory Gardens Theatre, Writers’ Theatre, Next Theatre, Ravinia Festival, ShawChicago, Drury Lane Oakbrook & Water Tower, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Theatre at the Center, Peninsula Players, and many more. She is a local cabaret artist and former member of Chicago Cabaret Professionals; her solo shows Brown & Blue and Same Fool Twice ran successfully at Davenport’s Cabaret. She has performed extensively with The Second City, appearing in Chicago Live! at the Chicago Theater, understudying the etc. Stage, touring for BizCo (corporate education and entertainment) and performing in the shows The Second City Guide to the Opera at Lyric Opera; A Girl's Guide to Washington Politics at Woolly Mammoth Theatre; and Charmed and Dangerous at CenterStage Theater. She is the creator and co-author of Blacktacular!, a musical sketch comedy. Television credits include ABC’s Betrayal, USA's Sirens, and A&E Network's The Beast with Patrick Swayze, as Demarca, “the gangsta queen of the South Side”. It was all a blast.
Board of Directors Episode 32: Chris Mirto
Christopher Mirto is a director, teacher, sometimes producer, and sometimes actor. Starting out as an actor, training at Stella Adler Studio of Acting while a student at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Mirto found directing through a series of extraordinary events. He went to Yale School of Drama, where he earned a master’s degree in directing, studying with Liz Diamond, Tina Landau, David Chambers, and Robert Woodruff.
Specializing in contemporary and new opera, he created Oberlin Conservatory’s first New Opera Commissioning Program. Mirto’s career highlights include performing in two of Richard Foreman’s plays at the Ontological-Hysteric Theatre in New York City, playing Christina Crawford opposite Joey Arias in Christmas with the Crawfords, and directing a revival of Dionysus in 69 at the Performing Garage. He also adapted and directed a 99-minute Hamlet, co-wrote Three Sisters, or The Dormouse’s Tale with Brian Valencia, and is part of the writing team (with Evan Mack and Josh McGuire) of The World Still Needs You, Boris Yeltsin!
He is a frequent director with the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra in Connecticut and with Opera-Tunity, an organization that creates operas based on myths from underrepresented cultures, performed by professional musicians and singers for elementary school students. He has directed operas at Opera Columbus, Manhattan School of Music, Curtis Institute, and with the Longfellow Chorus in Portland, Maine.
Currently he is the Producing Director of Kentucky Opera in Louisville, Kentucky. He has been on the faculty at Oberlin Conservatory, Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, and Philadelphia’s University of the Arts. He spent a year as the artistic directing apprentice at Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C. He is also the Vice President of the Board of Outsider Opera in Ashland, Oregon.
Mirto is interested in investigating the intersection of opera and theater and the marriage of precision and immediacy. His teaching and directing work examine the role of opera in the 21st century and how contemporary audiences connect to and contextualize it.
Board of Directors Episode 31: Rayann Condy
Rayann Condy is a qualified and accredited Intimacy Coordinator (IDC, USA), Director, Casting Director, and Producer with over 25 years’ experience in theatre and media production, and holds an MA in Culture and Communication (Malmö University, SWEDEN), researching representations of sex on television. Rayann also trained as an Actor and is a seasoned Lecturer (LASALLE College of Arts, SINGAPORE).
Rayann’s nuanced background makes her uniquely positioned to support the diverse pressures and complexity on set. In her own words, she understands “the creative process of an actor, the priorities and frustrations of a director, and the budget challenges and practicalities of a producer, and how to support casting directors right from the point of audition.”
Recognising the global need for safety, inclusivity and wellness for cast and crew, Rayann’s mission is to pioneer intimacy and consent practices in Singapore and Southeast Asia, encouraging consent and wellbeing protocols to become standard practice.
Rayann believes that intimacy coordination is essential to every production and will become an industry standard in Asia. She is proud to be one of Southeast Asia’s early adopters and the first qualified Intimacy Coordinator in Singapore.
Rayann’s passion for driving progressive change inspired her to develop a suite of immersive training programs, designed to bring consent awareness, diversity, inclusion, accountability, and trauma-informed working to the forefront of productions and organisational culture.
Rayann’s most recent Intimacy Coordination projects include How I Learned to Drive (Esplanade Production); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Pangdemonium; The Last Bout (currently on Ch 5); Emmy-nominated web series People Like Us (Season 3); Stranger Eyes by Siew Hua Yeo, Venice Film Festival 2024 (Italy) Main Competition, Singapore International Film Festival 2024 Opening Film.
When Rayann isn’t on set or spreading the intimacy coordination and wellness gospel, she lectures at LASALLE College of the Arts and volunteers with the women’s advocacy group AWARE, and is a lead trainer of their Sexual Assault First Responder Program.
Board of Directors Episode 30: Onur Karaoğlu
Onur Hamilton Karaoğlu is an artist working across performance, moving image, installation, and theater. His practice investigates erased histories, queer grief, and the relationship between memory, place, and archival absence.
Karaoğlu’s work has been presented internationally since 2010 by institutions and festivals including Wiener Festwochen, Volksbühne Berlin, Dancing on the Edge, Sharjah Biennial, Protocinema.
Karaoğlu holds a BA in Sociology from Boğaziçi University and an MFA in Theatre Directing from Columbia University in New York. He is a recipient of the 2025-26 Weltoffenes Berlin Fellowship supported by the Berlin Senate and nGbK. He previously served as the director of Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence, co-founded the independent performance platform KÖŞE, and has taught performance at Boğaziçi University and Koç University.
Board of Directors Episode 29: Brett Ashley Robinson
BRETT ASHLEY ROBINSON is a Barrymore and Golden Tassel Jawn nominated theatre maker in Philadelphia. She has worked with New York Theatre Workshop, The Public, The Wilma, Lightning Rod Special, Pig Iron Theater Company, Ars Nova Ant Fest,The Arden Theatre Company, InterAct Theatre Company, The Flea Theatre, Theatre Horizon, Geva Theatre, and Actors Theatre of Louisville. She is a company member of Applied Mechanics and a member of the HotHouse–the Wilma Theater resident company.
Board of Directors Episode 28: Tlaloc Rivas
Tlaloc Rivas (he/him/él) makes theatre where rigorous craft meets urgent questions - bridging classical forms and contemporary voices, institutional spaces and community practice, pedagogical inquiry and professional artistry.
His foundation was built at El Teatro Campesino, where he trained in the physical theatre traditions that emerged from the fields of California's farmworker movement. That early formation, rooted in ensemble creation, cultural specificity, and theatre as a catalyst, continues to inform how he approaches text, collaborators, and audiences.
Currently, Tlaloc holds faculty appointments at two leading research institutions: as Associate Professor in Residence in Theatre Studies at the University of Connecticut and as Lecturer in Acting at Yale University's David Geffen School of Drama and the Department of Theatre & Performance Studies. As resident director at Connecticut Repertory Theatre, he maintains an active directing practice while mentoring the next generation of theatre artists.
He was the inaugural Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, where he taught its first-ever Latinx theatre course and developed the plays DIVISADERO and THE REVOLUTION OF EVEYLN SERRANO.
A co-founder of the Latinx Theatre Commons, Tlaloc has devoted over twenty years to expanding the ecology of American theatre - building infrastructure, amplifying underrepresented narratives, and fostering sustainable careers for artists historically excluded from institutional spaces. His directing has been recognized through the Sir John Gielgud Fellowship in Classical Directing and the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Directors.
He has been a Usual Suspect with New York Theater Workshop since 2001 and has served a 5-year term on the board of the New Harmony Project.
Tlaloc's methodology draws from extensive training: the Suzuki Method and Viewpoints (SITI Company), devised performance (Mabou Mines Resident Artist Program), playwriting (Maria Irene Fornes Institute, La MaMa Umbria International), community-based practice (Cornerstone Theatre), and artistic leadership (NALAC Leadership Institute). His ongoing engagement with anti-racism frameworks through Equity Quotient and artEquity informs both his
creative process and institutional work.
He holds an M.F.A. in Directing from the University of Washington School of Drama and a B.A. with high honors from UC Santa Cruz, where he received the UC Regents Presidential Award, Chancellor's Honors, and Dean of the Arts Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research. He is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and the Dramatists Guild.
M.F.A. Professional Directors Training Program
University of Washington School of Drama
B.A. Theatre Performance (with Honors)
Stevenson College, University of California, Santa Cruz
Board of Directors Episode 27: Benita de Wit
Benita de Wit (they/them) is an Australian director based in New York. Recently, they were a Mercury Store lead artist and directed Life Sucks by Aaron Posner at Oklahoma City Rep.
Benita is an SDC Member, a Barbara Whitman Award 2024 Finalist, and a New Georges-affiliated artist. They have developed new work at Clubbed Thumb, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Mercury Store, Powerhouse Theatre, Gingold Theatrical Group, Exquisite Corpse Company, Dartmouth College, and Playwrights Horizons Theater School. Benita has an MFA in Directing from Columbia University and is on the faculty at Circle in the Square Theatre School.
As an Associate Director, their credits include Jamie Lloyd’s Sunset Blvd starring Nicole Scherzinger (Broadway), SIX The Musical (Broadway), Black Swan (A.R.T), Bat Out of Hell (US & UK Tours), and Straight Line Crazy (The Shed) starring Ralph Fiennes as Robert Moses.
Directing credits include Creature/Comfort (Exponential Festival), The Shark Is Broken (Weathervane Theatre), Small Mouth Sounds (Circle in the Square Theatre School), The Moors (Theatre Row), Tartuffe (Pace University), Slaughterhouse (Belvoir St Theatre), Razorhurst (Hayes Theatre Co), and Salty (Access Theatre).
Board of Directors Episode 26: Saheem Ali
Saheem is a proud immigrant from Kenya, currently serving as the Associate Artistic Director/ Resident Director of New York’s Public Theater. He is a Tony Award nominee for Buena Vista Social Club and Fat Ham, the latter of which also earned the Joe A. Callaway Award, Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel nominations. His Shakespeare in the Park productions of Romeo & Juliet, Twelfth Night and Merry Wives were recorded for PBS Great Performances, and were the subject of the HBO documentary Reopening Night. Other productions include Goddess, Good Bones, Fires in the Mirror (Signature Theatre), The Rolling Stone (Lincoln Center Theater), Passage (Soho Rep) and Sugar in Our Wounds (MTC). He is the recipient of an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Directing, a Sir John Gielgud SDCF Fellow and a Shubert Fellow. MFA: Columbia University
Board of Directors Episode 25: Nambi E. Kelley
Nambi E. Kelley is an award-winning actor, playwright, and television writer-producer whose work bridges history, politics, and intimate human storytelling. As an actor, she has performed regionally, internationally, and on television, including productions playing opposite greats such as Phylicia Rashad and Alfre Woodard, multiple productions at Goodman Theatre and Steppenwolf Theatre Company, with select television appearances on Chicago Med, Elementary, Person of Interest, Madam Secretary, Chicago P.D., and Chicago Justice. Recent stage credits include Goodman Theatre's critically acclaimed Joe Turner's Come & Gone, MacArthur Genius Dominique Morisseau’s Pipeline, and off-Broadway in Jeff Sweet’s Kunstler. Nambi has been nominated for multiple acting awards, including Chicago's prestigious Jeff Award and multiple Broadway World Awards, winning a Black Theatre Alliance Award for Best Lead Actor for her role in Coffee Will Make You Black (City Lit Theatre). As a writer, Kelley has written and produced for television on shows such as Peacock's Bel-Air and Apple's Lady in the Lake, earning a Black Reel Award nomination for her work on the latter. She also served as a writer on Lena Waithe's The Chi and Fox's Our Kind of People. Her acclaimed stage adaptation of Native Son received productions nationwide, including at Yale Repertory Theatre and in New York with The Acting Company, earning an AUDELCO Award for Best Production and a Drama League nomination for Best Revival. Personally selected by Toni Morrison to adapt Jazz, Kelley continues to develop bold new theatrical work, including Broadway-aimed projects with Tony Award winners Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Ken Davenport, and Grammy Award-winning DJ duo Future Cut with Emily Phillips. Most recently, Kelley developed a television project with political icon Stacey Abrams and is currently developing a project with Grammy Award-winning rapper Nas and Oscar and MacArthur Genius Award winner Tarell Alvin McCraney for Lionsgate and Disney Entertainment Television’s Onyx Collective/Hulu (TBA). As a producer, in addition to television work, Kelley founded First Woman LLC, a family-centered production company creating work across film, television, and theatre. First Woman produced the internationally award-winning film adaptation of Jabari Dreams of Freedom, which also toured nationally as a play after premiering at New Victory Theater in New York City. The company has produced 4 national tours and is currently in pre-production for its upcoming 2026–27 touring season, including a run at the world-famous Apollo Theatre in New York (TBA). Kelley holds a B.F.A. from The Theatre School at DePaul University and an M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College.
Board of Directors Episode 24: Copeland Woodruff
Copeland Woodruff is currently the director of opera studies at Lawrence University, Conservatory of Music. He has been on the directing and production staffs of the New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Yale Opera, Atlantic Coast Opera Festival (NJ), and Opera North (Philadelphia and New Hampshire). Mr. Woodruff has been on the faculties of the The Juilliard School, Oberlin Conservatory, Academy of Vocal Arts, Temple University, University of Memphis, Universität Bamberg, the Harrower Opera Workshop, Red River Lyric Opera, La musica lirica (Italy) and Festival of International Opera of the Americas (Brazil).
Mr. Woodruff is highly sought after as a teacher of the singing actor, and has directed more than 100 productions, including the 2013 world premiere of Raise the Red Lantern at the Tianqiao Theatre in Beijing, China. Since 2006, his productions have earned seventeen National Opera Association Best Opera Production Awards (including nine first-place awards) and nine awards in The American Prize (including two first-place awards), among other recognition. He is the first recipient of the Charles Nelson Reilly Prize in Directing from The American Prize (2018). He was recently recognized as an Honored Artist of the American Prize (2023), which is awarded to those who have proven themselves to be of "sustained excellence" over a number of seasons as laureates of The American Prize competitions.
He has enjoyed an extended relationship with Boston Conservatory’s Ensemble-in-Residence, Guerilla Opera. In addition to having served on their advisory board, he has directed three productions for the company, one of which (Rojahn’s Heart of a Dog) earned Second Prize in the American Prize for Opera Performance competition, professional division. Heart of a Dog was a favorite at the Opera America convention in May 2011 and its sold-out, two-week run in Boston garnered such reviews as: “…a brilliant stroke of staging” and “…stunning” (Boston Musical Intelligencer); “brilliantly physicalized in this extraordinarily well-acted production” and “a prime and rare example of opera properly compounded with theater” (Boston Lowbrow).
Mr. Woodruff is a proud member of the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) and Actors' Equity Association (AEA).
Education
Master of Science, Stage Direction in Opera, Indiana University, 1995
Master of Music, Vocal Performance, University of South Carolina, 1989
Bachelor of Music, Vocal Performance, University of South Carolina, 1986
Board of Directors August Meet-up
Join Us The Third Weekend of Each Month for The Board of Directors Monthly Meet-up
The Board of Directors is a community of Theatre Makers who come together to share stories, provide mentorship, and be generally available for each other, taking place on Zoom, the third weekend of each month. For more details about times, please see below.
What is it? This monthly gathering invites directors and other theatre makers to come together, share experiences, and seek advice in a supportive community. There is often an isolating nature to directing, and this new space aims to foster connection and collaboration. Participants can come and go as they please. If you cannot attend the entire session, you are welcome to arrive late or leave early. The Board of Directors is an opportunity to set aside time each month to be alongside members of the Directing community worldwide.
Board of Directors Founder and Host Adam Marple will moderate the discussion. All questions about the craft of Directing and Making Theatre are welcome and can be asked of Adam or put to the group as a whole.
All Times for the Saturday 15/Sunday 16 Session (1 hour 30 min)
San Francisco, USA Sat, Aug 15, 2026 at 7:00 am PDT
Mexico City, Mexico Sat, Aug 15, 2026 at 8:00 am CST
New York, USA Sat, Aug 15, 2026 at 10:00 am EDT
London, UK. Sat, Aug 15, 2026 at 3:00 pm BST
Cairo, Egypt Sat, Aug 15, 2026 at 5:00 pm EEST
Mumbai, India Sat, Aug 15, 2026 at 7:30 pm IST
Singapore. Sat, Aug 15, 2026 at 10:00 pm SGT
Sydney, Australia Sun, Aug 16, 2026 at 12:00 midn AEST
Board of Directors Episode 23: Natalie Hennedige
Natalie Hennedige is the founder and Artistic Director of Cake, a performance company now in its fourteenth year of presenting progressive new works at the intersection of performance and a variety of other disciplines. As a performance director and writer, she is known for her singular artistic language and creative vision exploring contemporary issues through highly constructed, heightened worlds with collaborators from diverse artistic disciplines and cultural backgrounds. At Cake, she created the Decimal Points series and Running with Strippers platform, an exploratory space driven by engagement and dialogue with other artists. A performance-based experience set in unusual public spaces, this engagement is an exploration into new forms of cultural production. Her work has been presented in national and international venues. She is a recipient of the National Arts Council Young Artist Award (2007) and JCCI Singapore Foundation Culture Award (2010).
Natalie Hennedige is on a leave of absence as she is currently serving as the Festival Director for the Singapore International Festival of Arts (2022 - 2024).
Board of Directors Episode 22: Simón Adinia Hanukai
Simón Adinia Hanukai is a theater maker, director, and educator. Originally from Baku, Azerbaijan, he spent the early years of his career in Oakland, California, where he was a founding member of headRush Crew and the Co-Artistic Director of the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company. Working with both companies for six years, he was instrumental in creating original full-length dance theater pieces, which toured nationally and were seen by over 25,000 people per year. Highlights include sharing the stage with Desmond Tutu, Angela Davis, Alice Walker, Neil Young, Alfre Woodard, and Martin Sheen.
Since leaving the Bay Area, Simón has created work and taught throughout the U.S., the Middle East, Europe, and India. His directing credits include JUPITER (a play about power) (La MaMa E.T.C., NY), SPACES: Oakland (Oakland City Hall), DATAPRINT Multimedia Installation & Performance (The Tech Museum of Innovation, San Jose, CA & Cubbon Park Metro Station, Bangalore, India), SPACES: Saint-Denis (Market Hall and Cathedral of Saint-Denis), The Shared Prince (Cabaret Sauvage, Paris), Rest Upon The Wind (Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, NY), The Golden Drum Year (University Settlement, NY), Les Alibis (Junevents Festival, Atelier De Paris – Carolyn Carlson, France), Decline & Fall or; A Guide to How the End Begins for Those Too Big To Fail (Tricklock Performance Lab, New Mexico), The Fall (Flamboyán, NY), Flying Ace and The Storm of the Century (Odin Teatret, Denmark), One Heart for Two (Winkel & Balktick, NY), Phaedra's Cabaret (Flux Industries, NY).
Simón is an honored recipient of the Dean’s Fellowship from Columbia University and the Emerging Artists Fellowship from New York Theatre Workshop. Artist Residencies include: NACL Deep Space Residency; Odin Theater, Denmark; E|MERGE Interdisciplinary Artist Residency; Catwalk Art Residency; Sally and Don Lucas Arts Program at the Montalvo Arts Center; CHIMÈRES Interdisciplinary Residency, Ministry of Culture, France.
Simón is a Theatre Professor at Sciences Po Paris. He holds a Master’s degree in Education from the University of San Francisco’s Center for Teaching Excellence and Social Justice and an MFA in Theater Directing from Columbia University.
Board of Directors July Meet-up
Join Us The Third Weekend of Each Month for The Board of Directors Monthly Meet-up
The Board of Directors is a community of Theatre Makers who come together to share stories, provide mentorship, and be generally available for each other, taking place on Zoom, the third weekend of each month. For more details about times, please see below.
What is it? This monthly gathering invites directors and other theatre makers to come together, share experiences, and seek advice in a supportive community. There is often an isolating nature to directing, and this new space aims to foster connection and collaboration. Participants can come and go as they please. If you cannot attend the entire session, you are welcome to arrive late or leave early. The Board of Directors is an opportunity to set aside time each month to be alongside members of the Directing community worldwide.
Board of Directors Founder and Host Adam Marple will moderate the discussion. All questions about the craft of Directing and Making Theatre are welcome and can be asked of Adam or put to the group as a whole.
All Times for the Saturday 18/Sunday 19 Session (1 hour 30 min)
San Francisco, USA Sat, Jul 18, 2026 at 7:00 am PDT
Mexico City, Mexico Sat, Jul 18, 2026 at 8:00 am CST
New York, USA Sat, Jul 18, 2026 at 10:00 am EDT
London, UK. Sat, Jul 18, 2026 at 3:00 pm BST
Cairo, Egypt Sat, Jul 18, 2026 at 5:00 pm EEST
Mumbai, India Sat, Jul 18, 2026 at 7:30 pm IST
Singapore Sat, Jul 18, 2026 at 10:00 pm SGT
Sydney, Australia Sun, Jul 19, 2026 at 12:00 midn AEST
Board of Directors Episode 21: Aya Ogawa
Aya Ogawa is a multi-award-winning Brooklyn-based playwright, director, performer, and translator whose work reflects an international viewpoint and utilizes the stage as a space for exploring cultural identity and the immigrant experience. Cumulatively, all aspects of their artistic practice synthesize their work as an artistic and cultural ambassador, building bridges across cultures to create meaningful exchange amongst artists, theaters, and audiences both in the U.S. and in Asia. They challenge traditional notions of the American aesthetic and identity by creating performances infused with a multiplicity of perspectives and languages, and by incorporating influences from outside the U.S. – of style, form, and content. As a theater-maker, they frequently use a collaborative creative process with performers and designers and push the form with an eye not only on spoken text, but physicality, musicality, and interactivity.
As a playwright/director in New York City, Ogawa’s 2003 A GIRL OF 16 (Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center) was hailed by The New York Times for its “stunning visual sense.” Their 2008 OPH3LIA (HERE) was called “riotously alive…great theater” by The New York Times. Their ARTIFACT was featured in CUNY’s 2007 Prelude Festival and the 2009 Performance Mix Festival (Joyce Soho). They were commissioned by The Foundry Theatre to create a work in collaboration with Adhikaar, a human rights organization serving the US Nepali community. The resulting piece, JOURNEY TO THE OCEAN, was presented by The Rubin Museum in 2011. Their play LUDIC PROXY, commissioned by The Play Company, explored humankind’s relationship to technology (from nuclear power to VR and video games) through the events of Chernobyl, Fukushima, and into the future. Its 2015 premiere at WalkerSpace was described as “beautifully conceived” by the NYTimes. They were a playwright in residence at The New Museum for X:ID a research-driven pop-up repertory theater designed to examine the shifting ethical boundaries surrounding intercultural cross-play on contemporary American stages. They wrote, directed, and performed in the 6-person cast for their Obie Award-winning play THE NOSEBLEED (Under the Radar Festival 2019; Japan Society & Chocolate Factory Theatre 2021; Lincoln Center Theatre LCT3 2022; Woolly Mammoth Theater 2023). Their latest creation, MEAT SUIT, premiered with Second Stage in February 2026.
As a director, they directed Haruna Lee’s Obie Award-winning play SUICIDE FOREST in its world premiere production at The Bushwick Starr in 2019 and its off-Broadway remount with Ma-Yi in 2020. 9000 Paper Balloons (co-created by Spencer Lott and Maiko Kikuchi) was released as a puppet performance film by HERE in November 2021 and ran at Japan Society in October 2022. In December 2024, they directed Dan Fishback’s Dan Fishback is Alive, Unwell and Living in His Apartment at Joe’s Pub. Upcoming work includes Jared Mezzocchi’s one-person play 73 Seconds, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig’s historical epic The Unsinkable, and Haruna Lee’s 49 Days.
As a translator, they have been commissioned to translate numerous Japanese plays into English that have been produced in the U.S. and London, including over a dozen plays by Toshiki Okada, writer/director of chelfitsch theater company. Time Out called their rendition of Okada’s ENJOY (Play Company at 59E59, 2010; published by Samuel French) an “effortless, idiomatic translation”; The Village Voice hailed their translation of Okada’s FIVE DAYS IN MARCH (Witness Relocation at LaMama, 2010) as “a miracle of transposed idiom.” Their translation of Okada’s ZERO COST HOUSE was presented at Philly Live Arts 2012, Under the Radar Festival 2013, and Yokohama, Japan. From 2014-2024, they served on the selection committee for the Japan Playwrights Association’s publication series ENGEKI: Japanese Theatre in the New Millennium.
Aya has performed nationally and internationally. They originated and performed numerous roles with the International WOW Company, including JR Oppenheimer in The Bomb and the title role in Alice’s Evidence. Time Out NY hailed their performance as Chomsky in The Loneliness of Noam Chomsky by the Butane Group. International credits include their role in the world premiere of the award-winning Emperor and Kiss with Rinko-Gun Company, Tokyo; they were selected as part of the artist team representing the U.S. at the International Theater Institute’s 2006 Congress in Manila and 2008 Congress in Madrid for which they co-created and performed in the resulting collaborative pieces; and the European premiere of Young Jean Lee’s Songs of the Dragon Flying to Heaven at the Vienna Festival. More recently, they performed in the first season of Shaina Feinberg’s web series Dinette and in their own play The Nosebleed.
They are the recipient of the 2025 Doris Duke Artist Award, 2023 Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting; 2023 OBIE Award for the conception, writing and direction of The Nosebleed; 2023 Grants to Artists from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts; The 2023-24 Playwrights’ Center’s McKnight National Residency and Commission; MacDowell Fellow; The 2022-23 Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity at Lincoln Center Theater; MAP Fund grants; 2015 President’s Award for Performing Arts, WorkSpace grant and three Swing Space grants from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council; an Artistic Fellowship at New York Theater Workshop (where they are now a Usual Suspect); the Van Lier Fellowship and 2017-2026 Resident Playwright at New Dramatists; a HERE Artist Residency; Artist in Residence 2017-2019, 2017 Parent Artist Space Grantee and Space Grantee at Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX); support from NYSCA and the Urban Artist Initiative, and The Women's Film, TV and Theatre Fund by the City of New York Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME). Aya served on the Obie Award committee for two seasons, 2023-2025, and they’re glad to have their evenings back. They have been a guest artist/lecturer at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, UT Austin, Brown University, Mount Holyoke College, University of Maryland, University of Pittsburgh, New York University, University of Puget Sound, and Stony Brook University, as well as a mentor at The Orchard Project and Clubbed Thumb.
Board of Directors Episode 20: Robby Lutfy
Robby Lutfy (he/him) Sometimes an actor. Sometimes a producer. Mostly a director. Always an artist. He directs theatre at places like Cygnet Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, The John F Kennedy Center, and Burning Coal, etc. He was awarded the 2019 Craig Noel Award for Director of the Year. He was the 2012-2013 William R. Kenan, Jr. Directing Fellow at The John F. Kennedy Center as well as the 2014-2015 National New Play Network Producer-in-Residence at Marin Theatre.
He directed 20 shows and produced 39 others at Cygnet Theatre, where he was the Associate Artistic Director for seven seasons. At Cygnet, he was the head of new play development, where he commissioned 20 plays by writers including Miranda Rose Hall, Herbert Siguenza, Nathan Alan Davis, and Leah Nanako Winkler. This past year, he directed Dunsinane by David Greig at Marin Theatre Company, Witch by Jen Silverman at Charlotte Conservatory Theatre, God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza at Backyard Renaissance, and the world premieres of Sharon by Keiko Green and The Little Fellow by Kate Hamill at Cygnet. He acted in August: Osage County with Backyard Renaissance.
He has taught classes at San Diego State University, Grossmont College, UNCSA, and UCSD. Robby is a graduate of the directing program under Gerald Freedman at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. His work, Jean F: ritualizing a stranger, was exhibited at Goodyear Arts this summer, where he was an artist in residence. Up next: a residency with Arts on Site and The Rensing Center. Currently producing the 25th National Showcase of New Plays with NNPN @robby_the_artist
Board of Directors June Meet-up
Join Us The Third Weekend of Each Month for The Board of Directors Monthly Meet-up
The Board of Directors is a community of Theatre Makers who come together to share stories, provide mentorship, and be generally available for each other, taking place on Zoom, the third weekend of each month. For more details about times, please see below.
What is it? This monthly gathering invites directors and other theatre makers to come together, share experiences, and seek advice in a supportive community. There is often an isolating nature to directing, and this new space aims to foster connection and collaboration. Participants can come and go as they please. If you cannot attend the entire session, you are welcome to arrive late or leave early. The Board of Directors is an opportunity to set aside time each month to be alongside members of the Directing community worldwide.
Board of Directors Founder and Host Adam Marple will moderate the discussion. All questions about the craft of Directing and Making Theatre are welcome and can be asked of Adam or put to the group as a whole.
All Times for the Saturday 20/Sunday 21 Session (1 hour 30 min)
San Francisco, USA Sat, Jun 20, 2026 at 7:00 am PDT
Mexico City, Mexico Sat, Jun 20, 2026 at 8:00 am CST
New York, USA Sat, Jun 20, 2026 at 10:00 am EDT
London, UK. Sat, Jun 20, 2026 at 3:00 pm BST
Cairo, Egypt Sat, Jun 20, 2026 at 5:00 pm EEST
Mumbai, India Sat, Jun 20, 2026 at 7:30 pm IST
Singapore Sat, Jun 20, 2026 at 10:00 pm SGT
Sydney, Australia Sun, Jun 21, 2026 at 12:00 midn AEST