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Michele Volansky is Associate Professor of Drama at Washington College. In addition to her role as the Conference Dramaturg and Associate Artist for the annual PlayPenn New Play Development Conference, she has worked at the Atlantic Theatre Company, the Arden Theater, Azuka Theatre Collective, 1812 Productions, Theatre Exile/Act 2 Playhouse, Victory Gardens, and Next Theatre. Volansky also served on the artistic staffs at Actors Theatre of Louisville (1992-95), Steppenwolf Theatre Company (1995-2000) and Philadelphia Theatre Company (2000-2004). In her career, she has worked on over 150 new and established plays, including the Broadway productions of Buried Child and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as well as plays that have been produced in theaters across the United States and Europe. She is the 1999 inaugural recipient of the Elliot Hayes Award for Dramaturgy and is a past President of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas. Her book on playwriting and collaboration, co-written with Bruce Graham and entitled The Collaborative Playwright, was published by Heinemann Press in March 2007. She is also a doctoral student at the University of Hull (England), writing about the critics Kenneth Tynan and Frank Rich. |
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Rick DesRochers is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Long Island University CW Post, and an Artistic Associate at the PlayPenn New Play Development Conference of Philadelphia. He has served as the Literary Director for the Joseph Papp Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival and The Goodman Theatre of Chicago. Prior to his tenure at The Public Theater, he was the Artistic Director of the New Theater of Boston for six seasons, where he produced and directed over fifty new plays and musicals. He is a member of the Society for Stage Directors and Choreographers, and in New York City he has been director and dramaturg for several theater companies including the New York Music Theatre Festival, the Public Theater, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Circle Repertory Theatre/Circle East, Young Playwrights’ Inc., Rude Mechanicals, and for regional theaters across the country including The Playwrights’ Center of Minneapolis, The Goodman Theatre, PlayPenn Theatre Conference, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Boston Center for the Arts, and Chicago Dramatists, as well as internationally for The Soho Theatre of London. DesRochers has taught in theatre departments across the country including the New York University Tisch School of the Arts Dramatic Writing Program, New School University, Emerson College, and the Chicago Conservatory for the Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in stage direction and dramaturgy from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and is currently a Level II Ph.D. candidate in Performance Studies and Theatre History at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. email: rickdesrochers63@gmail.com |
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John, as always, is excited to be spending his 4th summer with PlayPenn. John has been an Actors’ Equity stage manager for over 19 years in Louisville, Chicago and Philadelphia. The theaters he has worked at include Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Arden Theatre Company and the Broadway Tour of Ragtime. In addition, John is a photographer and artist whose work has been published in American Theatre Magazine, Chicago Magazine, Philadelphia Magazine and all major newspapers in Chicago and Philadelphia. Next season will be his fifth as the marketing photographer for 1812 Productions. He is the proud father of two little girls: Dylan Lorraine and Harper Isabel. |
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Karyn Lyman (Consulting Director of Development) has worked across the country in the nonprofit theatre for the past 12 years. Prior to consulting with PlayPenn and other nonprofit arts organizations, Karyn was Managing Director of Philadelphia's Lantern Theater Company (2005-2009), where she helped to build the company's administration and advance its marketing and development activities. She also served as Associate Managing Director at Yale Repertory Theatre, and previously held positions in management and marketing at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Westport Country Playhouse, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven. Karyn chairs the Promotions and Awareness Committee of the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, where she has been a Board member since 2006. She received her BA in English from Barnard College and her MFA in Theatre Management from the Yale School of Drama.
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 Seth Rozin Casting |
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 Debbie Fleischman Publicist |
A partner at Fleischman Gerber & Associates, Deborah K. Fleischman has been hailed by Philadelphia Magazine as “one of the city’s leading arts publicists.” She has served a variety of performing arts organizations such as the Philadelphia Theatre Company, the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema, and the Curtis Institute of Music. She has provided marketing services for a tenth anniversary season, regional music and film festivals, world and American theatre premieres, a U.S. debut concert, several national touring productions of Broadway shows, a record album, and the inaugural season of a national music theatre festival. She has been an Adjunct Professor teaching graduate level courses in Marketing and Public Relations at both Drexel University and Rosemont College.
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2010 Conference Staff |
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 Hal Brooks Director |
Hal Brooks (director, The Whale) is pleased to return to Play Penn. Last summer he directed Mary Hamilton’s We Three. Hal directed the Obie Winning No Child...by Nilaja Sun as well as the world premiere of Will Eno's Pulitzer Finalist THOM PAIN. Recent projects: Picasso at the Lapin Agile (Two River), Precious Little (Clubbed Thumb) and My Name is Asher Lev (Marin). A Drama League Fellow, Hal is also a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, SDC, and is a recipient of the 2007-09 NEA TCG Career Development Program for Directors. |
 Jackson Gay Director |
Jackson Gay (director, Raising Jo) - Jennifer Maisel’s, Out of Orbit (Sundance at Mass MoCA) Punk Princess at NYMF (book/lyrics Yasmine Lever/ music Stew and Heidi Rodewald) Deborah Laufer’s End Days (People’s Light and Theater Company) Workshops of David Adjmi’s Marie Antoinette (Goodman Theater, Sundance/The Public, JAW/West). Guggenheim Museum Works & Process with lighting designer Jennifer Tipton. Lucy Thurber’s Scarcity and Rolin Jones’ The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow -Pulitzer Prize finalist (Atlantic Theater Company). Best Production Connecticut Critic’s Award Jenny Chow (Yale Rep). Founder of the film company YARN. MFA Directing Yale School of Drama. |
 Adam Immerwahr Director |
Adam Immerwahr (director, Love and Commnication) Off-Broadway: The Chimes (SPF—The Public Theater) and Missing Celia Rose (SPF—Theater Row). Other world premieres at: Hangar Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Going to the River Festival, McCarter Theatre’s Youth Ink Festival, and Passage Theatre Company. Other productions at: Luna Stage, Westminster Choir College, Interlochen Center for the Arts, and others. Adam is the Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre, the Resident Director at Passage Theatre, and the Artistic Director of CWW On Stage. An alumnus of Luna Stage Directors’ Lab, Adam was the recipient of a 2008 Drama League Directing Fellowship. |
 David O'Connor Director |
David O'Connor (director, Hum) is a freelance director, lighting designer and teaching artist. Recent credits include Peter Panand The Seafererat The Arden, A Queer Divine and Melancholy, A Comedywith solo artist Sara Felder, First Lady of Philadelphia at Temple University, and The Misanthrope at Arcadia University. Nominated for a Barrymore and named as Best Director by Philadelphia Weekly for “Master Harold…and the boys” at Lantern Theatre Company. Married to theatre consultant Karyn Lyman, and father to the well photographed Zachary. |
 Aaron Posner Director |
Aaron (director, Clementine in the Lower Nine) is a director, playwright, teacher and consultant. He has directed at major regional theatres across the country, his adaptations of literature have been published and produced by more than 30 theatre from coast to coast and in Canada, Israel, Brazil and South Africa. He is the founder and former artistic director of the Arden Theatre Company and the former artistic director of Two River Theater Company. He has won Barrymore Awards and Helen Hayes Awards for directing and playwriting, is an Eisenhower Fellow, and is originally from Eugene, Oregon. |
 Rebecca Wright Director |
Rebecca Wright (director, Etched in Skin on a Sunlit Night) is a director and dramaturg. Her directing credits include Larry Loebell’s The Ballad of John Wesley Reed, Philadelphia Young Playwrights/InterAct Theatre Company’s Young Voices, The War Party at InterAct, and LOVE JERRY at Nice People Theatre Company. She also directed and co-created the site-specific pieces Selkie, It's Hard Times at the Camera Blanca, Inside Julia Child, and Ses Voyages Sauvages with her company, Applied Mechanics. She holds an MA in Performance and Culture from the University of London. She is the Literary Director and Resident Dramaturg at InterAct. |
 John M. Baker Dramaturg |
John M. Baker (dramaturg, The Whale) is the artistic associate at Brooklyn-based Page 73. He has dramaturged new work with 24Seven Lab, Clubbed Thumb, Juggernaut, Juilliard, The Kennedy Center, The Lark, Ma-Yi, NNPN, The O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Page 73, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, SPF, Williamstown Theatre Festival, among others. He has recently worked with directors Kip Fagan, Jackson Gay, Sam Gold, Wendy Goldberg and Davis McCallum and playwrights Neena Beber, Julia Cho, Jason Grote and Samuel D. Hunter. John holds a BA from Boston University and an MFA from the University of Iowa. |
 Carrie Chapter Dramaturg |
Carrie Chapter (dramaturg, Etched in Skin on a Sunlit Night) is a freelance dramaturg who got her start as an intern for both PlayPenn and Philadelphia Theatre Company. She graduated with an M.A. degree from Villanova University. At the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, as the literary associate, she dramaturged new workshops of Picnic at Hanging Rock and Tales of the City. Her Philadelphia credits include The Light in the Piazza at Philadelphia Theatre Company and the upcoming A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Mauckingbird Theatre Company. Other credits include The Burnt Part Boys at Playwrights Horizons and the forthcoming The Book of Mormon. |
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Bill D’Agostino (dramaturg, Raising Jo) is honored to return to PlayPenn this summer, thanks to the Samuel S. Fels Fund Summer Internship in Community Service. Last summer at PlayPenn, he was the intern for and performed in Appetite by Arden Kass. This past season, he was a literary intern with the Philadelphia Theatre Company, where he served as assistant dramaturg for Humor Abuse. Bill is receiving his M.A. in Theatre from Villanova University, where he was awarded a research scholarship. At Villanova, he served as dramaturg for Medea. He also stage managed Metamorphoses and performed in Le Dindon and As You Like It, both directed by Harriet Power. Bill received his BA in Theatre Arts from Brown University. He is serving on the 2010 Literary Committee for the Philadelphia Young Playwrights and is a proud member of LMDA, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas. |
 Elizabeth Pool Dramaturg |
Elizabeth Pool (dramaturg, Love and Communication) has been the Resident Dramaturg at People’s Light and Theatre since 2006. At People’s Light she has worked on over twenty productions including Stretch (A Fantasia), End Days, Glass Menagerie, Theophilus North, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Splittin’ the Raft, The Imaginary Invalid, Fabulation, and The Crucible. New play dramaturgy at People’s Light includes Absence by Wendy Hammond, Eggs and Getting Near to Baby by Y York, and Something You Didby Willy Holtzman. She has also been fortunate enough to work with Kathryn Petersen on three original Pantos – Snow White, Cinderella, and Treasure Island. She also worked on new plays with Playpenn (We Three by Mary Hamilton) and 1812 Productions (The Karma Cookie by Seth Bauer and The First Day of School by Billy Aronson). She is on the Literary Committee for the Philadelphia Young Playwrights, the Steering Committee for the Philadelphia New Play Initiative and has been a reader for both The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis and for PlayPenn. She is the Philadelphia Regional Vice President of the Literary Managers & Dramaturgs of the Americas. Elizabeth is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and Villanova University. |
 Harriet Power Dramaturg |
Harriet Power (dramaturg, Hum) is Associate Artistic Director of Act II Playhouse & a professor of theatre at Villanova University, first joined PlayPenn in 2008, directing the 1st reading of Bruce Graham’s Any Given Monday – which premiered in an Act II/Theatre Exile coproduction under her direction Feb.-April 2010. She’s devoted much of her professional career to new play development, working with new plays and playwrights at New Dramatists, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, West Coast Playwrights, Iowa Playwrights Festival, and the International Women Playwrights Festival. Recent directing: Marc Camoletti’s Boeing-Boeing, James Still’s Iron Kisses, the world premiere of Jeff Baron’s Brothers-in-Law (Act II); 2 world premieres at InterAct, both by Seth Rozin - Reinventing Eden and Missing Link (Barrymore nomination, Outstanding New Play); Donald Margulies’ Dinner With Friends in Rome, Italy at Teatro L’Arciliuto (Trova Roma “Best of Rome”). A three-time Barrymore finalist for Outstanding Direction of a Play, she shared the 1997 Barrymore award with James J. Christy for Angels in America: Perestroika. Upcoming directing: The Tempest & Sebastian Barry’s The Pride of Parnell Street (Act II); Jen Child’s Why I’m Scared of Dance by Jen Childs (world premiere, 1812 Productions). |
 Justin Ellington Composer |
Justin Ellington - Composer/Music Director Clementine in the Lower Nine
Off Broadway credits: ; The Pride (MCC) The Seven (New York Theater Workshop) Regional credits include: Shakespeare’s As You Like It (Shakespeare Festival at Stratford);Fetch Clay Make Man (McCarter Theater); Middle School the Musical (Alliance Theater); Shakespeare's A Twelfth Night or What You Will (Bristol Riverside Theatre); Class of 3000 Live!(Alliance Theater); Five Fingers of Funk (Children’s Theatre Company); The Seven (La Jolla Playhouse); Black Nativity (Goodman); Top Dog Under Dog (Alliance Theater/Trinity Rep/New Repertory); Ferdinand the Bull (Alliance Theater); Shakespeare’s R&J (Alliance Theater); Pill Hill (Push Push Theater); Androcles and The Lion (Alliance Theater); King Hedley II (Alliance Theater); A Negro Dance Lesson (Horizons Theater); Times (St. Louis Black Repertory); |
 Janus Stefanowicz Costume Designer |
Janus Stefanowicz (Costume Designer, The Whale) has worked at numerous regional theatres including: Manhattan Theatre Club, ACT Theatre, McCarter Theatre Center, NY Stage & Film, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Wilma Theatre, Delaware Theatre Co, Philadelphia Theatre Company, The People's Light and Theatre Company, Arden Theatre Company, and Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. Janus is the resident Costume Designer and shop manager for Villanova University's Theatre Department. Since 1996, she has been nominated for 16 Barrymore Awards and has won three: the 2006 Barrymore Award for Best Costume for Intimate Apparel at Philadelphia Theatre Co., the 2003 Barrymore Award for Big Love and 1998 Award for On the Razzle both at the Wilma Theater. |
 Thom Weaver Lighting Designer |
Thom Weaver (Lighting Designer, Raising Jo) – is the artistic director of Flashpoint Theatre Company. Lighting designs in the area include: Arden Theater Company – Romeo and Juliet, Blue Door, My Name is Asher Lev. Wilma Theatre Company – Scorched, Coming Home, Becky Shaw. InterAct – When We Go Upon the Sea. People’s Light – Snow White in Follywood. Lantern – The Breath of Life. Delaware Theatre Company – The Foocy, It’s a Wonderful Life, All the Great Books, The Diary of Anne Frank. Theatre Exile – Shining City, American Buffalo. Two River Theatre – Picasso at Lapine Agile. 26 Miles (also with Roundhouse), ReENTRY (also at Urban Stages), A Year with Frog and Toad, Macbeth (also with the Folger), Bad Dates. New Paradise Laboratories – Mort. Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival – Complete Works, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Other theatre credits include: Cal Shakes, Vital Theater Company, Children’s Theatre Company, CENTERSTAGE, Folger Theater, Syracuse Stage, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Signature Theater Company, Berkshire Opera, Lincoln Center Institute, Lincoln Center Festival, York Theatre, Summer Play Festival, 37 ARTS, Spoleto Festival USA, City Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, and Yale Rep. Awards include 2 Barrymore nominations in 2009, a 2010 Helen Hayes Nomination, and the 2007 AUDELCO Award for King Hedley II, Signature Theatre. He is on the selection panel of the McKnight Fellowship for emerging writers, and a member of Wingspace Design Group. Education: Carnegie Mellon and Yale. |
 Robert Kaplowitz Sound Design |
Robert Kaplowitz (Music & Sound Design Hum and Etched in Skin on a Sunlit Night): Is delighted to return to PlayPenn. Other credits include: Bill T. Jones' Fela!(Broadway); John Beluso's Poor Itch, Tracy Scott Wilson’s The Story, Lemon Anderson's County of Kings (Public Theater); David Adjmi's Stunning (Lincoln Center); Kia Corthron's Light, Raise the Roof (NYTW); Abbey Spallin's Pumpgirl (MTC); Art Spiegelman's Still Moving (Pilobolus); Adam Bock's The Thugs (SoHo Rep), and Tanya Barfield's Blue Door (Arden), amongst others. Awards include an OBIE for Sustained Excellence in Sound Design; as much as he loves his work, he loves Kittson and Niall even more. |
 Karin Graybash Sound Design |
Karin Graybash (Sound Designer. Love and Communication) returns to PlayPenn for her third season. Some of her design credits include: Arena Stage, McCarter Theatre, Berkeley Repertory, Walnut Street, Dallas Theater Center, Yale Repertory, Folger Theatre, Arden Theatre Company, Two River Theatre Company and director Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company. Karin is also the Sound Supervisor for the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. |
 Stephanie Cook Stage Manager |
Stephanie is pleased to be back at PlayPenn. Most recently she stage-managed If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, at Arden Theatre Company. A past Walnut Street Theatre apprentice, she has also worked with Theatre Horizon. She is thankful for the opportunity and sends love to her family and Colin. |
 Margie Price Stage Manager |
Marguerite Price (Stage Manager) has been honored to help many new plays and musicals reach their premiere performances, including: Bruce Graham’s Any Given Monday, Jeff Baron’s Brothers-In-Law, Stephanie Fleischmann’s Street of Usful Things (Act II Playhouse), Polly Pen’s The Night Governess, Doug Wright’s Not Suitable For Children (McCarter Theatre), 6221 (InterAct), Larry Gatlin’s Alive and Well, Suzan Zeder’s Do Not Go Gentle (Bristol Riverside Theatre), Nancy Giles’ Black Comedy and Notes of a Negro Neurotic, Finkle, Fay and Weeden’s Move It and It’s Yours (Passage Theatre). Margie has been the Production Stage Manager at Act II Playhouse since December 2002. She is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association and was its Philadelphia Liaison from May 2005 – January 2007. Margie is a Past-Chair and the Philadelphia Regional Rep for the Stage Managers’ Association. |
 Sarah Rowland Stage Manager |
Sarah Rowland is delighted to be working for PlayPenn. A 2008 graduate from The Pennsylvania State University with a degree in Theatre- Stage Management. Since graduating she was a Stage Management Internship at the Shakespeare Theatre Company- DC. Sarah then moved back to the Philly area and is the Touring Stage Manager for George Street Playhouse. |
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Greg Miller has been master electrician at The People's Light & Theatre Company since 2002, where he's designed lighting for The Glass Menagerie, The Foreigner, Pretty Fire and Tuesdays With Morrie, and was privileged to be in the cast for PLTC's production of Lou Lippa's adaptation of Six Characters in Search of an Author. He's worked as a journalist and editor, and once upon a time taught English. |
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Dominic has been doing lighting and sound design on the East Coast ever since moving to Philadelphia in 2002. An Illinois native he received his undergraduate degree from The University of Iowa. He is currently pursuing his MFA in Lighting Design from Temple University in Philadelphia. He has designed for People's Light and Theatre Company, Flashpoint Theatre Company, 11th Hour Theatre, Temple University and Walnut Street Theatre Studio 3. He has been an assistant at The Prince Music Theatre, Opera Company Philadelphia, and The Walnut Street Theatre. He is work can be seen this summer at Shakespeare in Clark Park, The Arden Theatre Company, Capital Fringe Festival, San Francisco Fringe Festival, and the Minneapolis Fringe Festival. |
 Jessica Blanch Intern |
Jessica Blanch is a 2007 graduate of Garnet Valley High School and currently a Senior at Washington College majoring in English Education and Drama. Performing since 1990 she has held numerous roles, back stage, technical and dramaturgical positions. She has been a member of Baby boomers talent agency, and has taught drama for the last three years at both Galena Middle School in Maryland as well as Garnet Valley Performing Arts Center. For her senior thesis Jessica will be directing The Cripple of Inishmaan in march at Washington College, and is looking forward to her internship and a successful year. |
 Allison Keefe Intern |
Allison Keefe is a rising senior at Bryn Mawr College, with an English major and creative writing minor (playwrighting concentration). She is an active member of the Bryn Mawr Theatre department as well as a participant in several student-run theatre groups. She has been privileged to work on everything from musical theatre, to commedia dell arte, to the avant-garde. Recent credits include: Little Sally (Urinetown), Ariel (The Tempest), Brighella (For the Love of Three Oranges) and a Witch (Macbeth). Allison directed the Forge Theatre’s Youth Production in the summer of 2008, and went on to co-direct The Compleat Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) in this year’s Bi-college Theatre Festival. Next year, she will serve as the senior director of Bryn Mawr’s annual production of The Vagina Monologues. Allison toured Turkey this year with the Chamber Singers of Haverford & Bryn Mawr Colleges and has performed solo material from Bizet’s Carmen and Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Bi-college chorale. |
 Mark Kennedy Intern |
A proud member of Arden Theatre Company Professional Apprentice Class 17, Mark moved recently to Philadelphia to pursue an omnivorous career in directing, producing, writing, stage managing, and just about everything else he can manage to do in theatre. He was fortunate enough to assistant stage manage If You Give A Mouse A Cookie at the Arden, as well as understudy in Peter Pan at the Arden. He stage managed for Room 6 Theatre's production of Tape and the Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival's production of Bare: a pop opera last summer. He has a bachelor of arts in theatre and a minor in English from Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA. |
 Laura Martin Intern |
Laura Martin is a John B. Hurford Humanities Intern and a senior philosophy major at Haverford College. She has written two short plays, and has acted in several productions, including Hamlet and The Importance of Being Earnest. When she is not at Haverford, she lives in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. |
 Jessica Rodriguez Intern |
Jessica Rodriguez is going into her senior year at The University of the Arts. She majors in Directing, Playwriting, and Production, with an emphasis in playwriting and directing. Her previous credits at UArts include The Umbrella Play (Director), Equinox Student Play Festival 2009 (Producer), Frets with Strings (Playwright), and To Kill a Mockingbird (Dramaturge). She will be a literary intern for the Philadelphia Theatre Company this summer. In the spring of 2011 she will be directing Trish Cole’s Butterfly. |
 Madeline Shapiro Intern |
Maddie grew up in the Philadelphia area and recently returned to the city after graduating from The George Washington University in May 2009 with degrees in both Theatre and Dramatic Literature. Since then she has worked with 1812 Productions, Pig iron Theatre Company, The Wilma Theater, Headlong Performance Institute, BCKSEET Productions, Kathy Wickline Casting and Philadelphia Dramatists Center. As an aspiring playwright and theatre director Maddie has sought various positions within these companies to gain as much experience as she can while getting to know the fabulous theatre artists that make up Philadelphia’s theatre community. She plans to get her MFA in either playwrighting or directing after taking a short break from school to tackle this whole ‘life’ thing that everyone keeps talking about. |
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