Bios—Cast, Creative Team, Leadership

BIOS

CAST

LAUREN SPENCER* (she/her—Georgiana Darcy) is thrilled to return to the gorgeous world of Pemberley after playing Jane Bennet in MTC’s 2016 production of Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley. Lauren has performed with Campo Santo, Crowded Fire, American Conservatory Theater, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Rep, San Francisco Playhouse, and San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, among others. As a director, she is passionate about developing new work that champions the joys and complexities of BIPOC women and femmes. Recent credits include: Darren Canady’s Black Butterflies (American Conservatory Theatre/Kansas City Repertory Theatre); Lisa Marie Rollins’ and Susan Ito’s Untold (Brava Theater for Women in the Arts); Noelle Viñas’s Derecho (Playwrights Foundation); and Jordan Remirez Puckett’s To Saints and Stars (Creede Repertory Theatre). She is a company member with the awardwinning ensemble Campo Santo, a founding member of The Coalition of Bay Area Black Women Theater Artists, a “Reimagining Political Power” Fellow with Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, a recipient of CalShakes Luminary Learn Award for her work applying theater arts in the classroom, and an inaugural member of the Calshakes Artist Circle. Deepest gratitude to Alex Lenarsky, John Francis, and Eric Ting for their extraordinary support. EMILIE WHELAN (she/ her—Kitty Bennet) moved to California in 2019 after a career in the bayous of New Orleans where she was a major force in arts and development post-Katrina. There she oversaw the development of NHP Foundation’s arts programming, Cripple Creek Theater Company, The Fringe Theater Festival New Orleans, and The DISTILLERY Artist Residency at the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans for mid-career performing artists. She is an Associate Artist with Oakland Theater Project and credits with them have included Macbeth; Romeo and Juliet; Streetcar Named Desire; Mother Courage and her Children; Hamlet; Waiting for Lefty; GROUNDED; The Radicalization of Bradley Manning; Othello. She is the Director of Advancement with West Edge Opera, supporting new opera development. She is also a professor at Contra Costa College having received her BFA from New York University Tisch School of the Arts, and an MFA from UC San Diego. She’s a big fan of laughter, impromptu dance parties, and adding more butter to...everything.

LAURA ODEH* (she/ her—Elizabeth Darcy) has appeared on Broadway in The Rivals (Lincoln Center Theatre). Favorite OffBroadway credits include The Aristocrats (Irish Repertory Theatre), A Body of Water (Primary Stages), Gaslight (Irish Repertory Theatre), King Lear (The Public Theater), and Mrs. Warren’s Profession (Irish Repertory Theatre).

Regional productions include Hand to God (Berkeley Rep), Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley (Marin Theatre Company), King Lear (Goodman Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company of DC), 33 Variations (La Jolla Playhouse, Arena Stage), and The Cherry Orchard (Yale Rep). Her television and film credits include The Other Woman, Synecdoche, NY, “The Unusuals” and “Guiding Light,” as well as various commercials and industrial videos. She has worked with such directors as Zelda Fichandler, Robert Falls, James Lapine, Mark Lamos, Bill Rauch, Moisés Kaufman, Charlie Kaufman, Don Roos and Meredith McDonough. Laura received her MFA from the Graduate Acting Program at NYU. She is a proud member of the Screen Actors Guild and Actors’ Equity Association.

MADELINE ROUVEROL* (she/her—Lydia Wickham/ Sarah Darcy) is overjoyed to return to MTC, having originated the role of Lydia in The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley in 2018. Madeline is a New Yorkbased actor and playwright originally from Santa Rosa, California. She has developed and performed in new plays at The Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, The Dramatists Guild, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Marin Theatre Company, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, and San Jose Stage Company. She made her Broadway debut this summer as the playwright’s assistant to Antoinette Nwandu on Pass Over. Madeline has been featured in American Theatre magazine and is a graduate of the theatre department at the University of Michigan. Her plays include Confirmation (Playwrights Foundation Semi-Finalist, Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program Semi-Finalist), You’re Not a Mystery to Me, and Fire Season. “Love always to B and my friends and family.”

ALICIA M. P. NELSON (she/her—Mary Bennet/ Margaret O’Brien) is a San Francisco/Bay Area actor, clown, and arts educator. She is also one of the newly appointed Education Coordinators at MTC, and is a member of the Red Ladder Theatre Company where she works to bring arts to at-risk populations. Regional theatre credits include: The National Women’s Theatre Festival (Othello), TheatreWorks Silicon Valley (FROST/NIXON), WAMTheatre (The Last Wife, The Virgin Trial), SF Playhouse (Dance Nation), Berkeley Repertory Theatre (u/s School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play), Berkeley Playhouse, Ragged Wing Ensemble, Bay Area Children’s Theatre, Word for Word, Town Hall Theatre, and Cutting Ball Theatre. She has a BFA in Acting from Boston University and is a Theatre Bay Area award winner. www.ampnelson.com

AIDAA PEERZADA (she/ her—Jane Bingley/Emily Grey) is an actor, poet and playwright who grew up between the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland and Lahore, Pakistan. Regional performance credits include: The Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, American Players Theatre, Theatre Lila, and Quantum Theatre. She was recently awarded the Theatre Bay Area’s Director’s Residency and is the Artistic

Development Director at the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company. Workshops of her original plays include: One Googol and One (SFBATCO), Grandma Science (The Greenhouse Theatre Solo Lab), Shining (The Ground and Field Theatre Festival at UC Davis), (The New Roots Theatre Festival with SFBATCO). She is a co-author of the original musical Sunflowered (Northern Sky Theatre). Aidaa studied at the Baltimore School for the Arts and went on to receive her BFA in Drama from Carnegie Mellon University.

ZAHAN F. MEHTA* (he/him—Henry Grey) is an actor and musician from Mumbai, India. A recent graduate of the American Conservatory Theater’s MFA program, he received his BFA from Northeastern University and has trained at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in the NMTI program. He most recently played the Rebel in For The Record’s The BratPack at Feinstein’s at the Nikko. His roles at A.C.T. include Barnaby in The Matchmaker, Maks in Martyna Majok’s Ironbound, and Isaac Babel in Rajiv Joseph’s Describe the Night. Zahan is also a multi-instrumentalist who plays the guitar, bass, piano, harmonica, and (his first love) the drums. DANIEL DUQUE-ESTRADA* (he/him—Fitzwilliam Darcy) is thrilled to be back in the Bay and on MTC’s stage for the first time. Other theaters include WP Theater and PlayCo (off-Broadway), as well as two seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Dallas Theater Center (former Acting Company Member), and Trinity Repertory Company, where he is currently a member of their Acting Company. He holds a BA from UC Berkeley and an MFA from Brown University/Trinity Rep.

ADAM MAGILL* (Thomas O’Brien) last appeared at Marin Theatre Company in Sovereignty as Samuel Worcester and Mitch. Previous MTC roles include Will Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love, Arthur de Bourgh in Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, and Elder Thomas in The Whale. Bay Area credits include: Vanity Fair (ACT), Uncle Vanya (Cutting Ball), Macbeth (Berkeley Repertory Theatre), Stupid F**king Bird (San Francisco Playhouse), and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (City Lights Theater Company). Adam is a graduate of the Foothill Theatre Conservatory.

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association.

BRIGITTE LOSEY (she/ her—Rehearsal Understudy, Female Roles) is a native Bay Area actress and theatre maker. Some past roles include Ali in Mamma Mia (San Jose Stage Company), Heather Chandler in Heathers (Pacifica Spindrift Players), Pauline in Saturday Night Fever (Broadway By the Bay), Poppy in Noises Off (Hillbarn Theatre), Little Red Riding Hood in Into the Woods and Ginger in The 1940’s Radio Hour (Los Altos Stage Company), and Mary Lane in Reefer Madness (Ray of Light).

GILLIAN EICHENBERGER (she/her—Understudy for Lydia Wickham/Sarah Darcy, Mary Bennet/Margaret O’Brien, and Jane Bingley/ Emily Grey) is an actor, vocalist, and theatre educator from Marin County. She is proud to have been part of the thriving North Bay theatre community. Favorite roles include Johanna in Sweeney Todd, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Roxie in Chicago, April in Company, and The Governess in The Turn of the Screw. She is a passionate educator of artists of all ages, working as a director, music director, and vocal coach. When she’s not acting, she plays synthesizer and sings with the rock band, The Hot Takes. Next up, she’ll be playing Sheila in Hair and directing A Doll’s House Part II. “Love and gratitude to Andre, her parents, and in-laws.” gillianeichenberger.org NIC A. SOMMERFELD (they/them—Understudy for Henry Grey, Thomas O’Brien, and Fitzwilliam Darcy) is a San Franciscobased actor and playwright. They are thrilled to be working with Marin Theatre Company for the first time. They have performed with such companies as Cal Shakes, Berkeley Playhouse, FaultLine Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, Berkeley Rep, The Thrillpeddlers, SF Oasis, and The San Francisco Shakespeare Festival. They have also acted in and worked as a Trans consultant on developmental readings with NCTC, UCSF, and Magic Theatre. When not writing or performing, they frequently perform as their drag king persona, Chester Vanderbox.

ELISSA BETH STEBBINS* (she/her—Understudy for Georgiana Darcy, Kitty Bennet, and Elizabeth Darcy) is a Bay Area-based actor and teaching artist. Recent regional credits include Becky Nurse of Salem (Berkeley Rep), Kings, Kiss, The Village Bike, and Caught (Shotgun Players), In Braunau (San Francisco Playhouse Sandbox Series), Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. and You For Me For You (Crowded Fire Theater), TheLittle Prince (Marin Theatre Company), and Minneola Twins (Cutting Ball Theater), among others. She is a TBA Award winner (Theatre Bay Area), and a TITAN and CASH grant recipient. Elissa graduated from Santa Clara University, and has continued training with Shakespeare and Company, and Atelier Matteo Destro.

LAUREN M. GUNDERSON (she/her—Playwright) has been one of the most produced playwrights in America since 2015 topping the list twice including 2019/20. She is a two-time winner of the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award for I and You and The Book of Will, the winner of the Lanford Wilson Award and the Otis Guernsey New Voices Award, a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and John Gassner Award for Playwriting, and a recipient of the Mellon Foundation’s National Playwright Residency with Marin Theatre Company. She studied Southern Literature and Drama at Emory University, and Dramatic Writing at NYU’s Tisch School where she was a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. She co-authored the Miss Bennet plays with Margot Melcon, and her play The Half-Life of Marie Curie is available on Audible.com. Her work is published at Playscripts (I and You; Exit Pursued By A Bear; The Taming and Toil And Trouble), Dramatists Play Service (The Revolutionists; The Book of Will; Silent Sky; Bauer, Natural Shocks, The Wickhams and Miss Bennet) and Samuel French (Emilie). Her picture book Dr Wonderful: Blast Off to the Moon is available from Two Lions/ Amazon. LaurenGunderson.com

MARGOT MELCON (she/ her—Playwright) is an artist, arts administrator and writer. She co-wrote Miss Bennet and The Wickhams with Lauren Gunderson, the first two parts of the Christmas at Pemberley trilogy. She was the Director of New Play Development at Marin Theatre Company for seven years, where she dramaturged over 30 productions—including six world premieres—and administered the company’s two annual new play prizes and commissioning program. She has developed plays with TheatreWorks, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Crowded Fire Theater, Shotgun Players, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, the Kennedy Center, the New Harmony Project, and The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis. She currently manages arts and culture grantmaking at the Zellerbach Family Foundation. Margot is a graduate of California State University, Chico and currently lives in San Francisco with her family.

MEREDITH McDONOUGH (she/her—Director) was the Associate Artistic Director at Actors Theatre of Louisville for seven seasons where favorite directing includes both parts of Angels in America, Peter and the Starcatcher, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and The Last Five Years. In the Humana Festival she directed the premieres of Marginal Loss, Dot, brownsville song (b-side for trey) and Airness, amongst others. Before ATL, she was the Director of New Works at TheatreWorks in CA where she directed the world premieres of Triangle, Upright Grand and Auctioning the Ainsleys. Other San Francisco credits include the premiere of Miss Bennett: Christmas at Pemberley at Marin Theatre Company, and The Lily’s Revenge with Taylor Mac at the Magic Theatre. Regionally, favorites include Noises Off (Guthrie Theater), Fair Use (Steppenwolf Theatre), Eurydice (Williamstown Theatre Festival), and the D.C. premiere of the musical Summer of ’42 and the U.S. premiere of NSFW (Round House Theatre). In New York City, Meredith has developed work with Playwrights Horizons, Red Bull, Keen Company, the Women’s

Project and Ars Nova. She was the Associate AD of The Orchard Project, the New Works Director for the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, a Drama League Fellow, an alum of the WP Directors Lab and a Kesselring Award Panelist. Education: Northwestern; MFA, UCSD. She is a Member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and served on the Board for six years.

NINA BALL+ (she/her— Scenic Designer) is happy to be returning to MTC with this wonderful production. Her work has been seen at American Conservatory Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, California Shakespeare Theater, Shotgun Players, San Francisco Playhouse, Aurora Theatre Company, Center REPertory Company, among many others. She is a company member at Shotgun Players in Berkeley as well as TheatreFIRST. Recent awards include a Theatre Bay Area (TBA) award for The Nether at San Francisco Playhouse; San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle awards for her designs of My Fair Lady at San Francisco Playhouse and Metamorphosis at the Aurora; a Shellie award for Mirandolina at Center REP. In addition to theatre, Nina is also a production designer and has worked on numerous film, TV and commercial productions. Nina is the scenic design professor at Stanford University and also a lecturer at UC Berkeley. Ninaball.com

FUMIKO BIELEFELDT+ (she/her— Costume Designer) is very happy to be designing Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley. Her work has appeared in MTC productions for over 10 years, including Oslo, Straight White Men, Guards at the Taj, The Oldest Boy, The Convert, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Othello, the Moor of Venice, Edward Albee’s Tiny Alice, Equivocation, What the Butler Saw, Lovers & Executioners, Frozen, Displaced, Fugitive Kind, Indiscretions, and Candida. Her career as a costume designer for over 30 years has garnered her many awards, including the Barbara Bladen Porter, San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Dean Goodman Choice, Back Stage West Garland, and Drama-Logue Awards.

WEN-LING LIAO+ (she/her— Lighting Designer) is happy to be back. Her previous credits with MTC: I and You, The Who & The What, The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley and The Catastrophist. Her selected credits: AW, Wilderness! with Hartford Stage; The Winter’s Tale, House of Joy and QuixoteNuevo with Cal Shakes; 44th Humana Festival (Are You There?, Nicole Clark is Having A Baby and Flex) with Actors Theatre of Louisville, Gloria and Vietgone at A.C.T.; White Pearl with Studio Theater; The Chinese Lady, Oedipus El Rey, The Resting Place and Reel to Reel with Magic Theatre; Dance Nation, Significant Other, King of the Yees and Barbecue with San Francisco Playhouse; Native Garden with Center REPertory Company; The Importance of Being Earnest with Aurora Theatre Company; The Boy Who Danced on Air with Abingdon Theater Company; Chill with Merrimack Repertory Theater; Milk Like Sugar with Huntington Theatre Company; and Sense and Sensibility with Dallas Theater Center. Others: She is the member representative of USA 829 Western Region Executive Board. She earned her MFA from University of California, San Diego and BA from National Taiwan University. wenlingliao.com

MADELEINE OLDHAM (she/her—Sound Designer) is a sound designer based in Oakland, CA. She is happy to be back at Marin Theatre Company, where her work has been heard in The Wolves and Love. She has designed sound for theatres around the country including A.C.T. San Francisco, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, NY, Crowded Fire, and more. You can hear her on KALX radio as DJ Madame X. Madeleine believes that stories hold power for both good and evil, and it’s up to us to keep this knowledge close and use it well. She also understands that the best sport is ice hockey, and wiener dogs are the embodiment of joy.

JENNY GIERING’s (she/ her—Composer and Musical Director) current projects include Alice Bliss commissioned by Playwrights Horizons and Stacey Mindich (2018 Weston Playhouse New Musical Award, 2021 TheaterWorks Silicon Valley New Works Festival), and What We Leave Behind (co-written with Sean Barry, 2019 TheatreWorks Writer’s Retreat) for which she received a 2021 Barrington Stage Spark Grant. She has written many incidental scores including music for Lauren M. Gunderson’s Silent Sky (TheatreWorks, 2015) and Peter Pan and Wendy (Shakespeare Theatre Company, 2019) Gertrude and Claudius (Barrington Stage, 2019) by Mark Saint-Germain, An Iliad by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare (Weston Playhouse, 2021) and many others. When she’s not writing music, you can usually find her making French Macarons. LISA ANNE PORTER (she/her—Dialect Coach) is currently the Head of Acting and Dialects at the American Conservatory Theater as well as the Co-Head of Voice and Dialects for the SF production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. She has also served on the faculties of Syracuse University, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Shakespeare & Company, The Tepper Center (New York City), Naropa University, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. She has coached voice and dialect in more than 70 productions nationwide. As a professional actor, she has performed with numerous repertory companies and Shakespeare festivals throughout the country. Most recently, she has been seen in the Bay Area world premiere of Eureka Day at the Aurora Theatre Company, as well as The Eva Trilogy and A Bright Half Life at the Magic Theatre. At MTC, she played Julia/Frederic in Lovers and Executioners. She has an M.F.A. in Acting from A.C.T. and a B.A. in Theater and American Studies from Wesleyan University. She is a Designated Linklater Voice Teacher, trained by the world-renowned voice teacher Kristin Linklater and has a Certificate in Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Training from Cornell University.

ELISA GUTHERTZ* (she/her—Stage Manager) has been a stage manager in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 28 years. Most recently she stage managed Toni Stone at Arena Stage and American Conservatory Theater. Some of her other A.C.T. credits include, Testmatch, Rhinoceros, Seascape, Sweat and Hamlet. She has stage-managed A Thousand Splendid Suns at A.C.T., The Old Globe, and Theatre Calgary. She has also worked on

many shows for Berkeley Repertory Theatre including, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Cloud Tectonics, and Suddenly Last Summer. Other credits: Failure: A Love Story at Marin Theatre Company; The Good Body with Eve Ensler at the Booth Theatre on Broadway; Big Love at Long Wharf Theatre, Goodman Theatre and Brooklyn Academy of Music; The Vagina Monologues with Eve Ensler at Alcazar Theatre.

CHRISTINA HOGAN* (she/her—Assistant Stage Manager) is excited to return to Marin Theatre Company. Previously she has worked as the Stage Manager at MTC on Brilliant Mind, The Catastrophist, and Skeleton Crew. Other Stage Management credits include Gloria, Top Girls, Edward Albee’s Seascape, and Men on Boats at American Conservatory Theater; In Old Age, The Baltimore Waltz, runboyrun, And I and Silence, and Any Given Day at Magic Theatre; Ripped and Selkie at Z Space; It Can’t Happen Here at Berkeley Repertory Theatre; and A Raisin in the Sun at California Shakespeare Theater. Christina has a BA in theater arts from Saint Mary’s College of California.

NAKISSA ETEMAD (she/ her—Producer, Casting Director) is an Iranian American dramaturg, producer, and French translator specializing in new BIPOC plays and musicals for over 25 years. Recent MTC credits include Producer for The Catastrophist and Brilliant Mind. Marin Theatre Company’s Associate Artistic Director, she is also a Resident Artist of Golden Thread Productions, Regional VP Metro Bay Area for Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA), and a member of MENA Theater Makers Alliance and the Anti-Racism Task Force of LMDA. Recent dramaturgy with Yussef El Guindi on Hotter Than Egypt (2020 Colorado New Play Summit), Heather Raffo’s Noura (Marin Theatre Company/ Golden Thread), Marcus Gardley’s Play on! commission of King Lear (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), and recent world premiere productions with Marcus Gardley, Lauren Yee, Marisela Treviño Orta, Margo Hall, and Torange Yeghiazarian. She is a frequent collaborator on Golden Thread’s ReOrient Festivals of Short Plays and Bay Area Playwrights Festivals, including plays by Betty Shamieh, Naomi Wallace, Niku Sharei, Katori Hall, Terence Anthony, Dustin Chinn, and Bennett Fisher. Festival Director for the 5th Annual New America Playwrights Fest, featuring new plays by Lynn Nottage, Naomi Iizuka and Polly Pen (San Jose Rep). Former dramaturg and literary manager of The Wilma Theater, San Jose Rep, and San Diego Repertory Theatre and Exec. VP Freelance of LMDA. Recipient of the 2015 Elliott Hayes Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dramaturgy for The Lark’s four-city premieres of Gardley’s the road weeps, the well runs dry. Nakissa dedicates this show to Dr. Galen A. Etemad, the patriarch, inspiration, role model, and guiding light to his family and friends for 99 wonderful years.

JASSON MINADAKIS (he/him—Artistic Director) Jasson is in his 15th season as artistic director of Marin Theatre Company. Directing credits include the world premiere commission of The Catastrophist, Mother of the Maid, Sovereignty, Oslo, Shakespeare in Love, Thomas and Sally, Guards at the Taj, August: Osage County, The Invisible Hand, Anne Boleyn, The Convert, The Whale, Failure: A Love Story, the world premiere of Lasso of Truth, The Whipping Man (San Francisco Bay Area Critics Circle Awards for Best Production and Best Acting Ensemble), Waiting for Godot, Othello: the Moor of Venice, The Glass Menagerie, Edward Albee’s Tiny Alice, the world premiere of Libby Appel’s adaptation of Chekhov’s Seagull, Happy Now?, Equivocation (SFBATCC Award, Best Director), the world premiere of Sunlight, Lydia, The Seafarer, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, A Streetcar Named Desire, said Saïd, Love Song, and The Subject Tonight is Love. As artistic director of Actor’s Express Theatre Company, he directed The Pillowman; Bug; The Love Song of J. RobertOppenheimer; Echoes of Another Man; Killer Joe; Burn This; The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?; Blue/ Orange; and Bel Canto. As producing artistic director of Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, he directed Jesus Hopped the ’A’ Train, Chagrin Falls (2002 Cincinnati Entertainment Award for Best Production), and numerous others, including 19 productions of Shakespeare. Regional credits include The Whipping Man at Virginia Stage Company, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Hamlet at Georgia Shakespeare, Copenhagen at Playhouse on the Square (2003 Ostrander Theatre Award for Best Dramatic Production), and Bedroom Farce at Wayside.

MEREDITH SUTTLES (she/her—Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer) Meredith joined Marin Theatre Company as its new Managing Director this April. Meredith is an arts leader with an extensive background in creative and performing arts in the areas of development, management, strategic planning, fundraising, and performance. She has held senior leadership roles at TheaterWorksUSA, Soho Repertory Theatre, Theatre Communications Group (TCG), and the New York City Opera. Meredith is a proud graduate of the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) and former EmcArts: Arts Leaders as Cultural Innovators (ALACI) Fellow. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., a Steering Committee Member of the Black Theatre Commons and currently serves on the Board of Directors of viBe Theater Experience (Brooklyn, NY). As a visionary leader known for her ability to win community support, develop key coalitions and build strong relationships with a shared sense of purpose, she is passionate about devising meaningful ways to address and further the goals of MTC.

NAKISSA ETEMAD (she/her—Associate Artistic Director) (see Producer bio)