Cast & Artistic Staff Bios

from Somewhere Over the Border Program

Gloria Vivica Benavides

(Antonia, Leona) is thrilled to make her Syracuse Stage debut! Regional credits include American Mariachi (Goodman Theatre); American Mariachi, Real Women Have Curves, White Rabbit, Red Rabbit (Dallas Theater Center); Scrooge in Rouge (Stage West); Dracula (Theatre Three); A Doll’s House, Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue (WaterTower Theatre); so go the ghosts of mexico, part two (Undermain Theatre). She is currently the voice of Scarlett on One Piece with FUNimation and is represented by the Campbell Agency. She earned her B.F.A. in theatre from the University of North Texas. Proud member of AEA. @gloriavivica

Tanya De León (Reina) is thrilled to be making her Syracuse Stage debut in the world premiere of this incredible story. She wants to thank Brian Quijada for trusting her with his mother’s story, Rebecca Martínez for bringing her in to play, and her incredible agents at DDO Artists for being a great team. Favorite credits include FAME en Español & English (Serena), In The Heights (Daniela), HAIR (Tribe member), Annie ( StarTo-Be), NBC Upfronts feat. JLO (Singer), Godspell (“Bless the Lord”

CAST

soloist). For performance information you can follow Tanya at tanyaAdeleon. com. Instagram: tanyaAdeleon.

Francisca Muñoz (Julia) is thrilled to make her Syracuse Stage debut with Somewhere Over the Border. She was previously seen as Letter Writer #2 in Tiny Beautiful Things (Theatre Squared) and Amalia in American Mariachi (Theatre Squared). OffBroadway credits include Mrs. Delgado in Felix Starro (Theatre Row); Maria in The Last Jew of Boyle Heights (The Actors Temple Theatre). Other theatre credits include Arella/Natalie in Informed Consent (The Gable Stage), Katherine Wright in Kitty Hawk (The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts); Frida Kahlo, Alfonsina Storni, Rufina Amaya in Tres Vidas (The Core Ensemble); June in Chicago (Boca Raton Theatre Guild). Television credits include: Abuela in the television special Our Lady Lupe (PBS), Med Tech in FBI Most Wanted (CBS), Australian Idol finalist (Ten Networks AU). She holds a Bachelor of Music (performance, theatre, composition) from Western Sydney University, Australia. Thank you to my fab team at Take 3 Talent. Love to George and my family. franciscamunoz.com | IG: ciscamusic

Bobby Plasencia (Don Napoleon, Silvano) is excited to be making his Syracuse Stage debut and sharing the stage with such a talented group of Artists! NY Stage: Orchid Receipt Service (MITU580), La Negra (BRIC Brooklyn), La Ruta (Working Theater), American Jornalero (INTAR), Luz (La MaMa), Julius Caesar (Drilling Company). Regional Theatre: The upcoming Mushroom Play (People’s Light Theater); American Mariachi (Goodman Theater, Dallas Theater Center, Denver Center, and Old Globe); Recent Alien Abductions (Humana Fest, Actors Theater of Louisville); Water & Power (San Diego Rep, Craig Noel Award); Vesuvius (South Coast Rep); Blood Wedding (La Jolla Playhouse); Down Past Passyunk (Interact Theater); The Tempest, Twelfth Night, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (ISCLA, Los Angeles); Water & Power (Understudy, Mark Taper Forum). Film and TV: House of Cards (Netflix), General Hospital (ABC Television), Fidel (Showtime), Maria full of Grace (Sundance, HBO Films), Angelfish starring Princess Nokia. M.F.A. in acting, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Arusi Santi (The Narrator) is thrilled to join this production and to make his Syracuse Stage debut. Regional theatre credits include: A Christmas Carol (Guthrie Theater), On Your Feet (Aurora Theatre), Ironbound (B Street Theatre, Moxie Theatre), Once (Craig Noel Award), Chaps! (Lamb’s Players Theatre), Cinderella Eats Rice and Beans (New Village Arts), Annie Get Your Gun, The Liar, Boomtown (Creede Repertory Theatre), Clandestino (Wilhelm Bros. & Co./Mixed

CAST

Blood Theatre). UK: Much Ado About Nothing (Edinburgh Fringe Festival). Mexico: La Alondra (Teatro UNAM). TV: Naomi, El Hotel de los Secretos, A que no me dejas, Hasta que te conocí. Arusi has also helped develop plays at La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe, The Guthrie Theater, Cygnet Theatre, and Moxie Theatre. Training: University of Minnesota/ Guthrie Theater B.F.A. Actor Training Program. Proud member of AEA. All my love to Nhi, Boba and the fam. www.arusisanti.com IG: @arusi.santi

BAND

Sarah Pool Wilhelm

(she/her)(Assistant Music Director, Copyist, Keyboard, Band Leader) is thrilled to be joining the team for Somewhere Over the Border. She is a Rochesterbased music director, accompanist, and vocal coach on faculty in the Theatre Department at Nazareth College and a recording artist for Appcompanist. Favorite credits include: Something Rotten! (Broadway National Tour), Curtains Up! (Highlands Playhouse), Urinetown (SUNY Geneseo), Pippin, Dogfight, Modern, Chaplin (Nazareth College), Gentleman’s Guide…, The Full Monty (Rocky Mountain Rep), On the Town, Company (OCU), Crazy for You, Chicago, Shrek (Post Playhouse), and RENT, Beauty and the Beast, In the Heights, Lend Me a Tenor: the Musical (PCPA). Many thanks to Brian, Julián, Rebecca, and Yendrys for having me as a part of the team, and to Andrew, Mom, Dad, and Sam for your endless love and support. B.M. Piano Performance (DBU); M.M. Vocal Coaching (OCU). Chris Blisset (Guitar) is an actor, musician, composer, and director who has worked in forty-five states (and Canada) in the last twenty years. TV: Bull (CBS – Guest Star), Killer Couples (Oxygen – Lead Killer). Off-Broadway he was seen in RockShow (actor, musical director, composer) and Bloodsong of Love (orchestra). He appeared as musical director and actor in both national tours of Stand by Your Man: the Tammy Wynette Story. Regional favorites include: Ring of Fire, Once, Twelfth Night, Pump Boys and Dinettes, Civil War, The Full Monty, Million Dollar Quartet, The Great American Trailer Park Musical, Cotton Patch Gospel, Unnecessary Farce (actor, musician, director, musical director, combat choreographer in various.) As a composer, Chris works primarily in New York City, where his songs have been sung by Lena Hall, Brenda Braxton, and Chris Jackson, among others, and has played music for a Bud Light commercial. “Red” performs oneperson shows regionally, and he co-wrote, arranged, and performed

BAND

most of the instruments on Broadway star Felicia Finley’s album Great Mood for a Tuesday. He can be seen doing stand-up comedy and is the musical director of The Grand Tour, a George Jones tribute act. Chris is also the composer of the new musical The Caldera - currently in development. His music for the short film Life is Funny was recently awarded Best Musical Score in the Creative International Film Festival. www.chrisblisset.com, @chrisblisset.

Freddy Colon (Percussion) has performed with Aretha Franklin, Tito Puente, and Phillip Bailey of Earth Wind and Fire. He currently tours with The Mambo Kings and is much in demand as a percussion clinician. Hector Diaz (Bass) has been playing since the age of 13 with bands in the Western New York area. He has performed with several legends in the Latin scene including Ismael Miranda, “El Cano” Estremera, Tito Nieves, and a long list of Salsa and Merengue bands. While in the U.S. Army, Hector toured with an All Soldier show throughout several Army bases in South Korea. He currently plays with Rochester’s premier Latin Jazz group, the Mambo Kings, who tour throughout the U.S. and Canada playing with various symphony orchestras. He is originally from Buffalo, NY, but has made Rochester, NY, his new home.

ARTISTIC STAFF

Tanya Orellana (Scenic Design) designs performance spaces for theatre, opera, and immersive experiences. Collaborations include The Winter’s Tale directed by Eric Ting (Calshakes), The Kind Ones by Miranda Rose Hall directed by Lisa Peterson (Magic Theatre), The Industry’s Sweet Land, an immersive opera directed by Yuval Sharon and Cannupa Hanska Luger, and the Mexico premiere of Angels in America directed by Martín Acosta (Mexico City). Originally from San Francisco’s Mission District, she has been a core member of the award winning ensemble Campo Santo since 2008, participating in their intimate new work process, conceptualizing and designing sets alongside the writing process. She is a member of Wingspace Theatrical Design and an organizing member of La Gente: The Latinx Theatre Design Network. Tanya received her M.F.A. in scenic design from CalArts and is the 2016 recipient of the Princess Grace Fabergé Theatre Award.

Asa Benally (Costume Design). Navajo and Cherokee Nations. The Rez Sisters (Stratford Festival); Where We Belong (Woolly Mammoth Theater, Baltimore Center Stage); Mrs.

ARTISTIC STAFF

Warren’s Profession (The Gingold Group); Blues for an Alabama Sky (Keen Company, Drama Desk Nomination); Venus and Adonis (New Camerata Opera); Too Heavy For Your Pocket (George Street Playhouse); Skeleton Crew (Westport Country Playhouse); Father Comes Home… (Juilliard); Measure for Measure (The Public Theater Mobile Unit); Cymbeline (Yale Repertory Theater); The Brobot Johnson Experience (The Bushwick Starr); Tricks the Devil Taught Me (Minetta Lane Theatre); Coriolanus and The Seagull (Yale School of Drama); Whale Song (Perseverance Theater); The Crazy Shepherds of Rebellion, Roberto Zucco (Yale Cabaret); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Frog and Peach Theater Company); The Winter’s Tale (HERE Arts Center). Training: M.F.A Yale School of Drama. B.F.A. Parsons School of Design. Online: www.asabenally.com, Instagram: @Asa_Benally_Design.

Jennifer Fok (Lighting Design) is a Chinese American NYC-based designer. Her design collaborations center around reimagining classics, exploring new work, and collaborating with interdisciplinary artists in dance and music. Jennifer uses she/they pronouns. Select designs have been seen at Theatreworks Colorado Springs, Beth Morrison Projects, NaNi Chen Dance, Eryc Taylor Dance, Long Island Post University, Boston College, Long Wharf Theatre, Lincoln Center Education, Flint Repertory Theatre, Detroit Public Theatre, Kitchen Theatre, Brown/ Trinity M.F.A., The Know Theater Of Cincinnati, HERE Arts, The New School of Drama, Brother(hood) Dance, Portland Stage, Bates Dance Festival, NCPA Beijing, Ars Nova, Luna Stage, Theatre At Monmouth, and Company One Boston. She received her B.F.A. in Theatre Production and Design from Ithaca College. www.jenniferfok.com

Jacqueline R. Herter (Sound Design) has served as resident sound designer at Syracuse Stage and Syracuse University’s Department of Drama since 1997. She shifted and combined theatrical design with video/ film design for last year’s season. Herter has designed for Indiana Repertory Theatre, Studio Arena, the Wilma, Geva, Round House, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Virginia Stage, and the Hangar Theater as well as other theatres across the nation. Some favorite designs have been: Annapurna, Beauty and the Beast, Next to Normal, Mary Poppins, Nine, Hairspray, The Overwhelming, Caroline, or Change, The Miracle Worker, The Wolves, The Day Room, The Christians, Radio Golf, Parade, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Red Noses, The Real Thing, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, M. Butterfly, A Raisin in the Sun, A Lesson Before Dying, Copenhagen, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Inherit the Wind, and Big River.

Sofia Ubilla (she/her) (Associate Director) is a NYC based director, theatre artist, and collaborator. She is extremely excited to be a part of

ARTISTIC STAFF

the world premiere of this incredible story and wants to thank Rebecca for bringing her on and trusting her. She graduated from Fordham University with a B.A. in theatre and Spanish studies. Her work is based on promoting Latinx and bilingual stories just like this one. Past directing credits include The Girls (Dixon Place), Emperor of 10th Avenue (Microteatro at INTAR Theatre), A Butterfly Dreams… by Kiernan Westrick, Valor, agravio y mujer by Ana Caro, and Cloud Tectonics by Jose Rivera (Fordham University). Past assistant and associate directing credits include Spanking Machine (Dixon Place), Antigonick, Dark Play, or Stories for Boys, and Intelligence (Fordham University). She has worked on a variety of projects with INTAR Theatre, Dixon Place, and Microteatro Miami. She is a proud Costa Rican raised in South Florida sending her love to her family and her community. Upcoming: Saguaros at JACK and The House of Bernarda Alba at Gallery Players. | www.sofiaubilla.com |

Kristin Leahey (she/her/hers) (Dramaturg) served as the director of new works at Seattle Repertory Theatre, the resident dramaturg at Northlight Theatre, and, prior to that post, the literary manager at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. She has freelanced as an artist with the O’Neill Theater Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Play On Shakespeare!, Arizona Theatre Company, Orlando Shakes, LA’s Ammo Theatre Company, Providence’s Trinity Repertory Theatre, NY’s Primary Stages, NY’s Classical Stage Company, Playwrights’ Center, Dallas Theater Center, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Guthrie Theater, MN’s Jungle Theater, WA’s Village Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, The Kennedy Center, The Old Globe, the Indiana Repertory Theatre, Cleveland Play House, Victory Gardens Theater, American Theatre Company, Boston’s New Repertory Theatre, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Ireland’s Galway Arts Festival, Teatro Luna, Teatro Vista (artistic associate), and A Red Orchid Theatre, among others. She is an assistant professor, dramatic literature & dramaturgy, at Boston University. She serves as the co-editor of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas official journal Review. She’s served as a scholar/artist-in-residence at Weber State University, Walla Walla University, and the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival. Leahey is a board member at Seattle’s Intiman Theatre. She is a producer with the WP 2020-22 Lab in New York City and is a 2021 recipient of a Fulbright.

Laura Jane Collins (Stage Manager) is happy to return to Syracuse Stage, bringing audiences back into the theatre, and to be a part of multiple productions this 2122 season: Matilda The Musical, Somewhere Over the Border, and The Play That Goes Wrong. Additional Syracuse Stage credits include: I and You, Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, Talley’s Folly, Amadeus, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Elf The Musical, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-

ARTISTIC STAFF

Time, Next to Normal, The Magic Play, Stupid F***ing Bird, Chinglish, Scorched, and The Boys Next Door. Regional credits include: Footloose, 42nd Street, Grease, South Pacific, Anne of Green Gables: A New Folk Rock Musical, Ghost (The Rev, formerly Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival); The Foreigner, Third, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Around the World in 80 Days (Hangar Theatre). She has also worked on several productions with Rochester City Ballet. LJ is a graduate of the stage management program in the Syracuse University Department of Drama.

Bass/Valle Casting(Casting), formerly Harriet Bass Casting, is a leading NYC boutique casting office. To know more about their upcoming projects and casting philosophy please visit www.bassvallecasting.com. Harriet Bass has cast for ABC/TV, Fox Television Studios, The Public Theatre: NEW WORK NOW, The Minetta Lane Theatre, The Women’s Project, La MaMa E.T.C., New York Women in Film and Television, and The Jewish Repertory Theatre. She has cast the last three of the late August Wilson’s ten part play series: the original Radio Golf, Broadway Gem of the Ocean, and Off-Broadway Jitney. Harriet is also a leading educator in audition technique, side and monologue coaching, and the business of acting. She has taught at the nation’s top universities and professional training programs. Gama Valle is a director, playwright, screenwriter, children’s book author, and casting director. His casting credits include: The American Tradition, The Great Novel, Split Second, I Wanna Fuck Like Romeo and Juliet, among others. He is a proud member of New Light Theatre Ensemble and the recipient of the Van Lier Directing Fellowship at Repertorio Español. Gama received the First Prize in playwriting from Puerto Rico’s Institute of Culture for his play Queishd&Dilit. Their regional casting credits include: Mark Taper Forum, Hartford Stage, Arena Stage, Trinity Rep, San Jose Rep, GeVa, Syracuse Stage, Pittsburgh Public, Merrimack Rep, Longwharf Theatre, Alliance Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, Kansas City Rep, Baltimore Center Stage, Huntington Theatre Company, Virginia Stage Company, Dallas Theatre Company, Berkeley Rep, Portland Center Stage, and Actors Theatre of Louisville. Feature films credits include: Pushing Hands directed by Ang Lee, Underheat, starring Lee Grant, First We Take Manhattan, produced by Golden Harvest Inc., and Graves End, directed by Sal Stabile.

DIRECTOR

Rebecca Martínez (she/her) is an award-winning director, choreographer, deviser, facilitator, and ensemble member of Sojourn Theatre and the BOLD associate artistic director at WP Theater. Recent projects include: Welcome Home and The Nourish Project (WP

DIRECTOR

Theater), Sanctuary: A Soundwalk (Working Theater), Here We Are: Pandemic Fight (Theater for One - NY Times “Critics Pick”) I Am My Own Wife (Long Wharf Theatre), Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis), Miss You Like Hell (Baltimore Center Stage), Wolf at the Door (Milagro Theatre, NNPN rolling world premiere), Anna in the Tropics (Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, Henry Award for Outstanding Direction). Rebecca has worked with Two River Theatre, INTAR, Working Theater, the Lark, The Playwrights Realm, New Dramatists, the 52nd Street Project, Radical Evolution, Milagro Theatre, Oregon Children’s Theatre, and Brave New World Repertory Theatre among others. Affiliations: 2021 TCG Rising Leaders of Color, Sol Project Collective, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, INTAR’s Unit52, SDCF Observer, Latinx Theatre Commons Advisory Committee, 2019 Audrey Resident, New Georges Affiliated Artist, 2018-2020 WP Lab, 2017 Drama League Directing Fellow, Member of SDC, and artist with Center for Performance and Civic Practice. She is the recipient of four Portland, Oregon, Drammy Awards and the Lilla Jewel Award for Women Artists. Rebecca is based in Lenapehoking aka Brooklyn, NY, and originally from the lands of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Ute peoples aka Denver, Colorado, with deep ancestral roots in the Southwest. rebeccamartinez.org

MUSIC DIRECTOR AND ORCHESTRATIONS

Julián Mesri is a New York-based Argentinean-American writer and composer who makes multilingual plays and musicals in the U.S. and around the world. In the spring he will be music directing/arranging Songs About Trains with Radical Evolution and Working Theater. Other music work includes composing music for the Public Theater Mobile Unit presentation of Pablo Neruda’s Romeo y Julieta, as well as working as lead composer for and a new commissioned musical for young audiences in China. He is a current member of the Public Theater Emerging Writers Group and received a 2020-2021 EST/Sloan Commission. Mesri has also been an Emerging Artist of Color Fellow at NYTW, a Van Lier fellow at Repertorio Español, and the recipient of an ASCAP scholarship. His adaptation of Fuenteovejuna received the HOLA Outstanding production award. He has also translated dramatic works for the Lark US/Mexico Exchange and PEN World Voices. He received his M.F.A. in playwriting from Columbia University. www.julianmesri.com

PLAYWRIGHT

Brian Quijada is an Emmy-nominated playwright, actor, and composer whose original work has been developed and produced all across the country. His Hip-Hop solo show Where Did We Sit on the Bus? has been produced at Victory Gardens, Geva Theatre, Teatro Vista (Jeff Award), Ensemble Studio Theatre (Drama Desk Nomination), Boise Contemporary, The Revolutions Festival in New Mexico, 1st Stage, City Theatre Pittsburgh, and a digital production at Actors Theatre of Louisville (Drama League Nomination). His play Kid Prince and Pablo premiered at The Kennedy Center in 2019. His plays have been developed at The Kennedy Center, Pittsburgh CLO’s Spark Festival, Victory Gardens’ Ignition Festival, New Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Festival, and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Musical Theatre Conference. Commissioning institutions include A.R.T., 1st Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Woolly Mammoth, Hero Theatre, and The Kennedy Center. Brian’s song “The Always Song” was Nickelodeon’s 2021 Hispanic Heritage Month Song. As an educator, Brian teaches solo performance at Harvard University. Select acting credits: Bobbie Clearly at Roundabout, Oedipus El Rey at The Public Theater, My Mañana Comes (original cast) at Playwrights Realm, How We Got On (original cast), and Airness (original cast) at Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival TV: Blue Bloods, Manhattan Love Story, Search Party.

CO-PRODUCERS

Geva Theatre Center. Now in its 49th season, Geva Theatre Center is a not-for-profit, professional theatre company dedicated to creating and producing professional theatre productions, programs, and services of a national standard. As Rochester’s leading professional theatre, Geva Theatre Center is the most attended regional theatre in New York State, and one of the 25 most subscribed in the country, serving up to 160,000 patrons annually, including more than 16,000 students. The 516-seat Elaine P. Wilson Stage is home to a wide variety of performances, from musicals to American and world classics. The 180-seat Ron & Donna Fielding Stage is home to Geva’s own series of contemporary drama, comedy, and musical theatre; Geva’s New Play Reading Series and the Hornets’ Nest–an innovative playreading series facilitating communitywide discussion on controversial topics. In addition, the Fielding Stage hosts visiting companies of both local and international renown. Geva Theatre Center offers a wide variety of educational, outreach and literary programs, nurturing audiences and artists alike. Since 1995, the organization has been under the artistic direction of Mark Cuddy.

CO-PRODUCERS

Teatro Vista, Theatre with a View, was founded in 1990 by Edward Torres and Henry Godinez to address the lack of opportunities for Latinx artists and other artists of color, and to explore the new work of Latinx writers that challenged not only the actor and director, but also the audience. In 1995, Godinez left the company and Edward Torres became artistic director. Under Torres’ direction, Teatro Vista used the stage to engage, connect, and challenge audience members through Latinx stories that reflect the universality of our humanity. In 2011, Teatro Vista was celebrated as one of 25 of “Chicago’s cultural leaders” by the Arts & Business Council of Chicago, and received the League of Chicago Theatres’ Artistic Leadership Award. In January 2013, ensemble member Ricardo Gutiérrez became its new artistic director. Teatro Vista celebrated its 29th season during 20192020, having grown to be Chicago’s preeminent Equity Latinx theater company producing full scale, Latinx theatrical productions in English.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Robert Hupp is in his sixth season as artistic director of Syracuse Stage. He recently directed Eureka Day, Annapurna, Talley’s Folly, Amadeus, Noises Off, Next to Normal, and The Three Musketeers for Stage. Prior to coming to central New York, Robert spent seventeen seasons as the producing artistic director of Arkansas Repertory Theatre in Little Rock. He directed over 30 productions for Arkansas Rep ranging from Hamlet to Les Miserables to The Grapes of Wrath. In New York City, Robert directed the American premieres of Glyn Maxwell’s The Lifeblood and Wolfpit for the Phoenix Theatre Ensemble. He also served for nine seasons as the artistic director of the Obie Award-winning Jean Cocteau Repertory. At the Cocteau, Robert’s directing credits include works by Buchner, Wilder, Cocteau, Shaw, Wedekind and the premieres of the Bentley/Milhaud version of Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children, Seamus Heaney’s The Cure at Troy, and Eduardo de Filippo’s Napoli Millionaria. He has held faculty positions at Pennsylvania’s Dickinson College and, in Arkansas, at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Hendrix College. Robert served as vice president of the Board of Directors of the Theatre Communications Group and has served on funding panels for the New York State Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, the Theatre Communications Group, the New Jersey State Council of the Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. While in Arkansas, Robert was named both Non-Profit Executive of the Year by the Arkansas Business Publishing Group, and Individual Artist of the Year by the Arkansas Arts Council. He and his wife Clea ride herd over a blended family of five children, one dog, and two cats.

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Jill A. Anderson has served as managing director of Syracuse Stage since 2016. Jill is responsible for Stage’s $7.5 million operating budget and has oversight of fundraising, marketing, and operational matters within the organization. Prior to joining Stage, Jill spent a decade as general manager at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT. During her tenure, the O’Neill completed a $7 million capital campaign and campus expansion, doubled its operating budget, and was honored with a 2015 National Medal of Arts and the 2010 Regional Theatre Tony Award. Under the O’Neill’s aegis, Jill also developed the Baltic Playwrights Conference, an annual international new play development retreat held in Hiiumaa, Estonia. Previously, Jill spent five years in the production office at Washington, D.C.’s Arena Stage, after working as a stage manager in Minnesota, New Mexico, and Massachusetts. In addition to her work at Stage, Jill is an instructor in the Theater Management program of the Syracuse University Department of Drama, building on her work with high school and college students elsewhere, including at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. Jill was recognized as part of the Central New York Business Journal’s “40 Under Forty” awards in 2017 and has served on numerous municipal and non-profit boards. Jill is delighted to call Central New York home, but will always be a proud cheesehead, originally hailing from Marshfield, Wisconsin.

ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Melissa Crespo is a director of new plays, musicals, and opera. Upcoming: world premiere of Justice, book by Lauren Gunderson, music by Bree Lowdermilk, and lyrics by Kait Kerrigan (Arizona Theatre Company). As a playwright, her play Egress, co-written with Sarah Saltwick, will receive an NNPN rolling world premiere at Salt Lake Acting Company. Fellowships and residencies include: Time Warner Fellow (WP Theatre), Usual Suspect (NYTW), The Director’s Project (Drama League), Van Lier Directing Fellow (Second Stage Theatre), and the Allen Lee Hughes Directing Fellow (Arena Stage). Melissa received her M.F.A. in directing from The New School for Drama. She is a founding editor of 3Views on Theater and was featured in the 2020 Broadway Women’s Fund “Women to Watch on Broadway”.

RESIDENT PLAYWRIGHT

Kyle Bass is the author of the play Possessing Harriet, commissioned by the Onondaga Historical Association, which premiered at Syracuse Stage in 2018, was subsequently produced at Franklin Stage Company, and will be produced at the East Lynn Theater Company and at SUNY Cortland in 2022. His new plays are salt/city/blues, which will have its premiere at Syracuse Stage in 2022, Citizen James, or The Young Man Without A Country, a one-man show on James Baldwin, commissioned by Syracuse Stage, which streamed in 2021, the libretto for Libba Cotton: Here This Day, a new opera based on the life of American folk music legend Libba Cotten, commissioned by The Society for New Music, and Wakeman & Toliver, commissioned by Franklin Stage Company. Kyle’s other full-length plays include Tender Rain, Bleecker Street, Baldwin vs. Buckley: The Faith of Our Fathers, which has been presented at Cornell University, Colgate University, the University of Delaware, and was presented at Syracuse University in September 2021, and Separated, a documentary theatre piece about the student military veterans at Syracuse University, which was presented at Syracuse Stage and the Paley Center in New York. With National Medal of Arts recipient Ping Chong, Kyle is the co-author of Cry for Peace: Voices from the Congo, which premiered at Syracuse Stage and was subsequently produced at La MaMa Experimental Theatre in New York. Kyle has also written for Noh theatre under commission by Theatre Nohgaku. Kyle is the coauthor of the original screenplay for the film Day of Days (Broad Green Pictures, 2017), which stars awardwinning veteran actor Tom Skerritt, and the author of the screenplay Abundance, an adaptation of the novel Milk by Darcy Steinke. As dramaturg Kyle worked with acclaimed visual artist and MacArthur Fellow Carrie Mae Weems on her theatre piece Grace Notes: Reflections for Now, which premiered at the 2016 Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, subsequently produced at Yale Rep and the Kennedy Center, and he was script consulted on Thoughts of a Colored Man, which premiered at Syracuse Stage in 2019 and opened on Broadway in 2021. Kyle’s plays and other writings have appeared in the journals Callaloo and Stone Canoe, among others, and in the essay anthology Alchemy of the Word: Writers Talk about Writing. Kyle is the founding curator of Syracuse Stage’s annual Cold Read Festival of New Plays, which has hosted some of the country’s mostproduced playwrights, including Larissa FastHorse and Kate Hamill. He has also served Syracuse Stage as literary manager and resident dramaturg and received the 2021 Impact Award as Artist as Manager, presented by the Arts Administration Program at Le Moyne College. After five seasons as associate artistic director at Syracuse Stage, in September 2021 Kyle was announced the theatre’s first-ever resident playwright. Kyle is assistant professor in the Department of Theater at Col-

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