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NEW! View a slide deck of my portfolio on Google Drive.

Out There: Underground New Play Festival

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I was selected to direct two new short plays for Theatre Cedar Rapids' 2019 Underground Festival.  This festival of all new works featured 14 plays in total.  I directed Again, I'm You by Dylan Cooley and Black Box, an Adoption Story by Zhen E. Rammelsberg.  Again, I’m You played with time, space, dimension, human ability, life, the afterlife, and moments in between. Half the actors  performed their roles in ASL (one actor is Deaf, and the other is an interpreter who was fully built into the story).  Black Box... is a choreopoem that conveys the varied experiences and emotions of adopted Asian women and their mothers. I was lucky enough to work with a gorgeous cast of diverse women. Black Box... went on to win three festival awards including Best Play Runner-Up, Best Ensemble, and Best Performance by a Youth Actor.  In addition to directing, I solely created the props design and selected all sound cues, which I handed off to an engineer to program into the board.  I chose the set from a prescribed list of available items for festival directors, costumed the actors from their own closets, and collaborated with the lighting designer (Jim Vogt) to create the looks I had in mind.  

Shakespeare in Love 

Theatre Cedar Rapids produced Shakespeare in Love by Lee Hall in March 2019, and I was invited to serve as Assistant Director.  My primary contributions were ensuring the Shakespearean text was properly scanned and interpreted, and dialect was accurate. I also consulted on original practices, stage intimacy, historical dance, and Elizabethan manners.  I served in a quasi-stage management capacity--noting blocking and being "on book" for the first half of the rehearsal process.  Leading into and during tech I provided notes to actors to tighten performances and watched the action from the balcony to ensure staging was clear in the performance space. 

Shakuntala 

I co-directed Shakuntala with my friend, Ken-Matt Martin, in summer 2016. My primary contributions were to plan and schedule rehearsals, block the scenes, coach the actors, and provide guidance for designers leading into tech.  This production of Shakuntala by Kalidasa was truly a global collaboration.  Des Moines based Gateway Dance Theatre and Pyramid Theatre Company collaborated to produce the show.  The script was a new adaptation from the original Sanskrit text by Sarmishtha Sarkar, an accomplished dancer who also served as choreographer and joined as all the way from Ahmedabad, India.  Our cast included local actors and dancers from a broad array of cultural backgrounds and performance experience.

Marjorie Prime 

When I first heard that Stagewest Theatre Company (now known as Iowa Stage Theatre Company), a company where I had appeared as an actor several times, was going to produce Marjorie Prime by Jordan Harrison--I wanted in.  My day job at the time was within the world of advocacy for seniors, so I wanted to serve the production by offering relevant information about the aging process and the experiences of people who deal with dementia--whether personally or as a caretaker.  I served as Assistant Director and Dramaturg for this lovely production.  Due to some personal matters, my role as Assistant Director become critical during the lead up to and during tech.  I became the key point of contact for actors (providing notes), designers (giving final approval to looks and cues), and the production crew (ensuring they were ready to take the reigns).

Young Artists Sing...Andrew Lloyd Webber

Young Artists Sing...Andrew Lloyd Webber (2017) was a two-performance fundraising event for Des Moines Young Artists' Theatre (DMYAT) in anticipation of their upcoming summer production of School of Rock.  The young artists were comprised of experienced DMYAT actors ranging in grades of upper elementary through college, including local adult guest artists.  The Music Director, Francine Griffith, and myself curated a two-act concert of Andrew Lloyd Webber staples and lesser known melodies at Noce, a jazz venue in Des Moines.  I coached the young emcees and all musical acts.  I also choreographed and staged the large ("Joseph" opening medley) and small group acts ("Buenos Aires" dance duet).   

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