The Board of Directors
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The Board of Directors •
Board of Directors Episode 31: 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 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 September 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 19/Sunday 20 Session (1 hour 30 min)
San Francisco, USA Sat, 19 Sep 2026 at 07:00 PDT
Mexico City, Mexico Sat, 19 Sep 2026 at 08:00 CST
New York, USA Sat, 19 Sep 2026 at 10:00 EDT
London, UK. Sat, 19 Sep 2026 at 15:00 BST
Cairo, Egypt Sat, 19 Sep 2026 at 17:00 EEST
Mumbai, India Sat, 19 Sep 2026 at 19:30 IST
Singapore, Singapore Sat, 19 Sep 2026 at 22:00 SGT
Sydney, Australia Sun, 20 Sep 2026 at 00:00 AEST
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
Board of Directors Episode 19: Irina Kruzhilina
Irina is an award-winning multi-hyphenate theater maker whose various hats include director, scenographer, experience designer, professor, playwright, and artistic director.
Raised in Moscow in an intercultural household with a Ukrainian mother and Georgian father, Irina creates work that grapples with social issues, exploring identity, displacement, and belonging. Since 2000, Irina has created over two dozen performances spanning interdisciplinary downtown theatre, large-scale parades, opera, and site-responsive installations. Her work has been shown at Times Square, Tokyo Disney, BAM, Prague National Theatre, the NY Philharmonic, the XXI Commonwealth Games, and Barbican Center.
Currently, her work centers on two primary forms: site-specific performances and socially engaged projects with community members to address issues like immigration, polarization, conflict, and peacebuilding.
Relentless in her ambition and risk-taking, Irina pushes the boundaries of theatre to create work that is both artistically daring and socially urgent. Irina launched SpaceBridge, a theatre workshop and devised performance uniting 19 refugee and American children, most of whom had never been on stage. Leading a team of 60 collaborators, Irina transformed their stories into a fully realized Off-Broadway production. After being named a critics’ pick at the 2025 Under The Radar Festival, she is expanding her workshop curriculum to develop new SpaceBridge performances with local and refugee youth in the U.S. and globally.
Irina is the founder of Visual Echo, a New York-based performance organization fostering generative dialogues among people from diverse backgrounds who rarely intersect.
Irina is an associate professor at the New School of Drama, where she co-developed a new MFA program in Contemporary Theatre and Performance. She is a La MaMa resident artist and recipient of the 2024 Joan D. Firestone Fund Award and the 2024 Elliot Norton Award.
Board of Directors Episode 18: Bill Rauch
Bill Rauch is the inaugural artistic director of Perelman Performing Arts Center. His work as a theater director has been seen across the nation, from low-income community centers to Broadway in the Tony Award®-winning production of Robert Schenkkan’s All The Way and its sequel, The Great Society, as well as at many of the largest regional theaters in the country. His other New York credits include the world premiere of Naomi Wallace’s Night Is A Room at Signature Theatre, the New York premiere of Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House at Lincoln Center Theater, and a site-specific Occasional Grace in multiple Manhattan churches for En Garde Arts.
From 2007 to 2019, Bill was artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF), the country’s oldest and largest rotating repertory theater, where he directed seven world premieres and 20 other plays, including several by Shakespeare, as well as innovative productions of classic musicals, including a queer re-envisioning of Oklahoma! Among his initiatives at OSF, Bill committed to commissioning 37 new plays to dramatize moments of change in American history. “American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle” has resulted in such watershed plays as Lynn Nottage’s Sweat(winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize), Paula Vogel’s Indecent, the 1491s’ Between Two Knees, Lisa Loomer’s Roe, Universes’ Party People, Culture Clash’s American Night, and both of Robert Schenkkan’s plays about LBJ, among others.
Bill is also co-founder of Cornerstone Theater Company, where he served as artistic director from 1986 to 2006, directing more than 40 productions, most of them collaborations with diverse rural and urban communities nationwide. He has directed world premieres at Portland Center Stage, Center Theater Group, and South Coast Rep, and has directed multiple times at American Repertory Theater, Yale Rep, the Guthrie, Arena Stage, and Seattle Rep, as well as at Long Wharf Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Pasadena Playhouse, and Great Lakes Theater Festival. His production of The Pirates of Penzance performed at the Portland Opera.
Bill twice won the Independent Reviewers of New England Award. He is also the recipient of the 2018 Ivy Bethune Award from Actors’ Equity Association for his commitment to diversity in casting and producing, a 2015 Ford Fellowship, the 2012 Fichandler Award from the Society of Directors and Choreographers, the 2010 Theatre Communications Group’s Visionary Leadership Award, the 2009 Margo Jones Medal for his commitment to living writers, and the 2008 United States Artists Prudential Award. Other honors include Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for Best Direction of All The Way, as well as Helen Hayes, Ovation, Los Angeles Weekly, Drama-Logue, Garland, and Connecticut Critics’ Circle Awards, and he is the only artist to have won the inaugural “Leadership for a Changing World” award from the Ford Foundation.
He was a Claire Trevor Professor at the University of California, Irvine, and has also taught at the University of Southern California and U.C.L.A. Bill was educated at Harvard College. He lives in New York City with his husband, Christopher Liam Moore, and their two children, Liam and Xava Rauch-Moore.
Board of Directors May 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 23/Sunday 24 Session (1 hour 30 min)
San Francisco, USA Sat, May 23, 2026 at 7:00 am PDT
Mexico City, Mexico Sat, May 23, 2026 at 8:00 am CST
New York, USA Sat, May 23, 2026 at 10:00 am EDT
London, UK. Sat, May 23, 2026 at 3:00 pm BST
Cairo, Egypt Sat, May 23, 2026 at 5:00 pm EEST
Mumbai, India Sat, May 23, 2026 at 7:30 pm IST
Singapore. Sat, May 23, 2026 at 10:00 pm SGT
Sydney, Australia Sun, May 24, 2026 at 12:00 midn AEST
Board of Directors Episode 17: Chong Tze Chien
Tze Chien is a core member of The Finger Players and an award-winning playwright and director. He is the recipient of the Singapore Dramatist Award and multiple The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards, with his play Oiwa: The Ghost of Yotsuya notably sweeping the awards, including Production of the Year and Best Director, in its year of presentation. His plays have been staged internationally, including in Singapore, the UK, Budapest, Taiwan, and Japan. His published collections with The Necessary Stage and Epigram Books feature critically acclaimed works such as Charged and PIE. In 2015, Charged was named by The Business Times as one of the top ten plays of all time in Singapore. Other notable works include Turn By Turn We Turn, Poop!, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, and The Book of Living and Dying. He has also written for films and television, with credits on Singapore networks such as Channel 5, OKTO/Arts Central, and Vasantham. In recognition of his contributions to the arts, he was awarded the Young Artist Award by the National Arts Council in 2006.
On a national level, Tze Chien has held key creative leadership roles across major cultural events. He was the Creative Director of Singapore Pools’ float and performance at Chingay Parade in 2007 and 2008, Co-conceptualist and Writer for National Day Parade 2016, Creative Director of Island Adventures for the National Museum of Singapore’s Children’s Season 2012, Artistic Director of The Arts House’s 10th Anniversary in 2014, and Co-curator of The Studios: Fifty, a festival of 50 iconic Singapore plays presented by the Esplanade in 2015. He is currently the Festival Director of the Singapore International Festival of Arts.
An established arts educator, Tze Chien has conducted workshops and masterclasses for tertiary institutions and schools since 2001. He serves on several Curriculum Development Advisory Committees at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, and is an Adjunct Lecturer at Nanyang Technological University/National Institute of Education, as well as a Principal Tutor at the National University of Singapore. He has also taught at institutions including LASALLE College of the Arts and NTU/NIE. Beyond academia, he has contributed significantly to arts education nationally, serving as an adjudicator for the Singapore Youth Festival Arts Presentation (Drama) for seven years and as Creative Director of the SYF Concert 2019. He has also been commissioned by Singapore’s Ministry of Education to conduct devising workshops and develop educational scripts for the OPAL teaching and learning portal.
In addition to his artistic and educational work, Tze Chien contributes to the broader arts ecosystem through governance and advisory roles. He is a Board Member of Trustees of the University of the Arts Singapore, and serves on the Industry Advisory Group for LASALLE College of the Arts.