Directing

January 16, 2018

Read more about my background and see my directing resume below. Currently I’m working on two directing projects:

Autobahn

Autobahn is a series of six short plays by Neil LaBute, one of the top American writers working in film and theatre today. I’m directing five of the plays (and appear in one), with guest director Trent Sutton (artistic director of Jubilee Theatre) directing the sixth.

The plays of Autobahn are awkward conversations between two people in the front seat of a car. You’ve probably had at least one of those. The plays contain mature language and subject matter. And, under those circumstances, why wouldn’t they.

Performances are at 7:30pm on Thursday February 8 and Friday February 9 at Cultivate 7twelve in downtown Waco. It’s a co-production of Cultivate and my new production company, InSite Waco, as a fundraiser to create an affordable performance space in downtown Waco that for local artists to present theatre, dance, and music.

Autobahn features: Faith Danielson, Jeremy Hagman, Chuck Jennings, Kat Phillips, Drew Pinkerton, Andrew Sabonis-Chafee, Sara Beth Stoltzfus, and Stephen Yanez.

More info.

The Three Musketeers

I’m also directing The Three Musketeers, a new adaptation by Ken Ludwig of the Dumas literary classic, at Waco Civic Theatre. Performances will be Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 2:30pm from Friday, March 23, through Sunday, April 1.

Auditions are coming up Monday and Tuesday, January 22 and 23. Those auditioning will come from 6-7pm or 7-8pm to read from the play and do some movement exercises as a group with our combat coordinator, Lizzy Talbot.

I’ll be casting men and women who look 15-45, all races and physical types. Men and women will fence, fight hand-to-hand, and dance. Previous stage combat experience isn’t required, but those who move well will be given more complex and exciting choreography. More info and schedule an appointment.

Background

I studied directing first with Pat Cook as an undergrad at Baylor University, then at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, where I got my MFA. After returning to my hometown of Atlanta I began working with Actors Express, founded by a former Baylor classmate, Chris Coleman, now the Artistic Director of Portland Center Stage and soon of Denver Theatre Center. I worked with Actors Express for five years as a mainstage director (Glengarry Glen Ross, Speed-the-Plow, A Bright Room Called Day) and as an acting instructor, coordinator of the acting intern program, and house manager.

Because I had been so impacted by the arts experiences I’d had as a child, I decided to found a theatre company for youth and families, modeled after Seattle Children’s Theatre and Children’s Theatre of Minneapolis, which produced intelligent plays that appealed to all ages and utilized adult actors in most roles. Atlanta’s FirstStage operated for four years, and produced 14 shows during that time.

Several of us who’d been very involved in FirstStage found ourselves at life crossroads, so we decided to take a break for what we thought would be a year. I moved to New York City to study the Meisner Technique of actor training, with the intention of returning to Atlanta to open my own acting studio. Well, God had other plans. I met a guitar player that I decided to marry and stick around New York with, and FirstStage didn’t resume.

In NYC I wasn’t particularly involved in theatre outside of founding an arts ministry at Redeemer Presbyterian Church, where I directed several Equity staged readings as part of our “In Dialogue” series of performance/discussions. I did, however, have the opportunity to work with my friend George Drance to realize his vision of *mark, a solo performance of the Gospel of Mark at LaMaMa experimental theatre company, a legendary off-off-Broadway performance space in the East Village.

I’ve been excited at the prospect of resuming a more active directing career since moving to Waco!