OFFICERSCo-Presidents – Shellen Lubin & Mary E. Hodges BOARD OF DIRECTORSDebora Balardini
Abigail Zealey Bess
Cate Cammarata
Laura Caparrotti
Katherine Elliot
Susan Izatt
Kim Marie Jones
Tanya Khordoc
Kat Mustatea
Wendy Peace
Cynthia Straus
Elizabeth Van Dyke
Lauren Yarger ~
STAFFAdministrator – Jhanaë K. C. Bonnick Bookkeeper – Thomas Kelso PRESS AGENTEmily Owens PR is a bicoastal media relations agency
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ADVISORY COUNCIL CO-CHAIRS Theresa Rebeck ADVISORY COUNCIL Margot Astrachan PAST PRESIDENTS Catherine Porter 2018-2020
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LPTW Executive Officers
SHELLEN LUBIN – CO-PRESIDENT
SHELLEN LUBIN works professionally as a director, playwright, songwriter, and actor/singer. Her plays have been produced and workshopped at Manhattan Class Company, The Public Theater, Pacific Resident Theatre, Hubbard Hall, West Coast Ensemble, American Jewish Theatre, and more. Her songs have been featured on radio and cable TV, in Milos Forman’s first American film, Taking Off, in Susan Merson’s Between Pretty Places, in numerous cabaret acts including her own, and in a one-hour special on WBAI-FM, Shellen Lubin – Songwriter/Singer. As a director/dramaturg assisting in the development of new plays, she has directed across the country, currently working on projects with Lanie Robertson (The Actors Studio), Susan Cinoman (Pawling Theatre Exchange), and Stuart Warmflash and Amy Oestreicher at multiple venues. She is a member of the Playwright Directors Workshop at The Actors Studio (as both playwright and director) and is the resident director for the Bistro Awards. She also teaches and coaches actors, singers, and writers both privately and as a guest artist (Bennington College, Marymount Manhattan, etc.). As the Artistic Director of Untold Stories of Jewish Women, she helmed a three-day theatre festival at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in March 2018. As an advocate for women+ in theatre, she is the Co-President of the League of Professional Theatre Women, the 1st Vice President and Past President of the Women in the Arts & Media Coalition, and chair of the Women Playwrights Initiative for the National Theatre Conference. Her reflections on artistry and life have been featured in five cover pieces for Back Stage Publications (archived on her website) and are read weekly in her Monday Morning Quotes think-pieces (www.mondaymorningquotes.com). Proud member of DG, SDC, AEA, and more. www.shellenlubin.com @SHLubin
MARY E. HODGES – CO-PRESIDENT
MARY E. HODGES was recently interviewed in American Theatre Magazine by writer Caro Macon in a piece titled, Theatre or Family: I Shouldn’t Have to Choose. The magazine partnered with PAAL for the issue, focused on parents and caregivers in the theatre. She was a part of the ground-breaking Slave Play Broadway team as an Assistant Director to Robert O’Hara, written by Jeremy O. Harris. She was also a part of Slave Play at NYTW as an SDCF Observer. Other directing credits include at The National Black Theatre: Institute for Action Arts, the premiere workshop production of Derek McPhatter’s sci-fi thriller Serious Adverse Effects. For Harlem9’s 48Hours in…Harlem The Ballad of Nigg-O-Lee written by Stacey Rose; at New Perspectives Theatre, she has directed in three consecutive short play labs that commission original work by women directed by women; at Queens Theatre the critically acclaimed The Park Plays in which she directed two commissioned short plays; off Broadway at The Davenport Theatre she directed the New York premier of Michael Bradford’s Father & Sons. She has staged countless readings for organizations that focus on new work: The Fire This Time Festival, Black Board Plays, Liberation Theatre Company, New Federal Theatre and has consulted with many writers as a dramaturg. Some acting credits: Extra in The Lehman Trilogy Broadway; Hope Hypothesis (Sheen Center); Macbeth3 (Here Arts Center); The Test (ART/NY); Othello (Harlem Shakespeare Festival); TV/film: Grace (Independant Short), Law & Order: SVU (NBC), It’s Bruno (Netflix), Wu-tang: An American Saga (Hulu), Blue Bloods (CBS). Mary will be directing Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegria Hudes for Fordham Theatre Program’s mainstage season 2021. In addition to serving on the Board for the League, she is also co-chair of the newly EDI committee. – Co-VP of Communications.
KATRIN HILBE – EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT
KATRIN HILBE is a director of Liechtenstein-Kansas origin, working both in opera and theatre, in the US and in Europe. Within the German opera world Katrin was assistant director and house director at Stadttheater Würzburg and Städtische Bühnen Frankfurt, while building her career as a director. She was thefirstassistantandremounterofDer Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuther Festspiele in the production of Tankred Dorst. In the US her production of R. Strauss’ Salome for New Orleans Opera won “Best Opera Production”. In addition to her directing work, Katrin has founded Many Tracks Inc.” For every complex problem there’s an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” H.L.Mencken. Since its inception in 2009, Many Tracks has steadily generated projects of varied subjects, themes and ambitions. MT productions have been presented in New York, Edinburgh, Rome, the theatres Konstanz and Liechtenstein, and at the Dublin Gay International Theatre Festival, where the production of Julia Pascal´s St Joan won the Hilton Edwards Award for best direction and adaptation. Select theatre credits: IDENTITY EUROPE, SHOOTER, FÄGFÜÜR, IN BED WITH ROY COHN, BREAKING THE SILENCE, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT´S DREAM, DANTON´S DEATH. Select opera credits: DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE, DIE SCHUMANN SONATE, FALSTAFF, PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE, FREMD BIN ICHEINGEZOGEN… Katrin is a regular contributor to EUROPEAN STAGES, a publication of the Martin E. Segal Center. She is a member of SDC, TRU, DG and the Playwright Directors Unit of The Actors Studio, and of course proud to be a part of the LPTW community. She has an MA in Philosophy, Musicology, English/American Literature from the University of Berne (Switzerland) and speaks English, German, Italian and French. Katrinhilbe.com and ManyTracks.org
opportunities to develop from the new #OneMoreConversation campaign and this #MeToo moment.
SHERRY EAKER – VICE PRESIDENT, PROGRAMMING
SHERRY EAKER has been the producer of the annual Bistro Awards since the awards’ inception in 1985. She is the former editor of Back Stage and, during her 30-year run, produced panel discussions and workshop events on an ongoing basis, including the programming for Back Stage’s annual Actorfest. She compiled and edited four editions of the Back Stage Handbook for Performing Artists, and compiled and edited The Cabaret Artists Handbook. Sherry is a member of the National Theatre Conference, the American Theatre Critics Association (and produced eight of ATCA’s New York weekend conferences), and has been a member of the League of Professional Theatre Women for about 30 years. She is an advisor to the boards of both the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and the Women in the Arts & Media Coalition.
TRICIA MCDERMOTT – CO-VP, MEMBERSHIP
TRICIA MCDERMOTT is the founder and producing artistic director of Airmid Theatre Company, an NEA award-winning theatre. Throughout her career, Ms. McDermott has worked professionally in regional theatres, Off-Broadway, and internationally, including as executive director of the Shakespeare Globe Centre USA, and literary manager at the Off-Broadway theatre, Primary Stages. Tricia has an MFA in Directing from Illinois State University and a BA in theatre from Florida State University.
ALISA MATLOVSKY – CO-VP, MEMBERSHIP
Alisa is a freelance theater director based in New York. Since moving from a career in film, she has focused on new play development and on creating original theater pieces. She is an alumna of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors’ Lab and La MaMa’s International Directors Symposium and is the recipient of several NYFA grants. She is a member of Stage Directors and Choreographers, the Director’s Guild of America and New York Women in Film and Television. Alisa is currently on the Board of the League of Professional Theatre Women and the Jewish Plays Project. As co-VP of Membership, Alisa intends to help build membership rolls to be more inclusive and will work to offer an array of programs that will continue to support and engage the membership.
NANCY RHODES – CO-VP, COMMUNICATIONS
NANCY RHODES (Artistic Director, Encompass Music/Opera Theatre) stages a wide range of musicals, operas and plays in the U.S.A, Europe and Asia. She directed The Astronaut’s Tale at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, BAM Fisher; staged the world premiere of Tartuffe for San Francisco Opera, and Virgil Thomson’s Lord Byron at Alice Tully Hall. At Encompass she staged over 65 works: Virgil Thomson/Gertrude Stein’s The Mother of Us All, Blitzstein’s Regina, Britten’s Phaedra, and Only Heaven by Ricky Ian Gordon. Her production of Grigori Frid’s opera The Diary of Anne Frank was nominated for an Artistic Achievement Award and played to over four thousand people on tour at the Cleveland Opera. She directed the world premiere ofAnna Christie, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Eugene O’Neill; the Cast Album was released by Broadway Records in 2019, and reached #6 on the Billboard charts. Internationally, she directed Death In Venice (Stockholm), Carmen (Oslo), Happy End (Finland), Kiss Me Kate (Ankara, filmed for TV), West Side Story (Istanbul), and Eccentrics, Outcasts and Visionaries for the Holland Festival (Amsterdam), and the first American musicals ever staged in the country of Albania. kkShe launched Paradigm Shifts, Music and Film Festival, to celebrate courageous people around the world protecting our planet, oceans, and wildlife, and in 2017, Paradigm Shifts was presented in Seoul, Korea. As Vice President/U.S. Delegate to the International Theatre Institute, Rhodes conducted workshops and served as a guest speaker in Italy, Sweden, Germany, Venezuela, Argentina, Korea, Holland, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Estonia. She is the commissioned librettist of The Theory of Everything, inspired by physics’ string theory of multiple dimensions and alternate universes.
TESS HOWSAM – CO-VP OF COMMUNICATIONS
Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist, Tess Howsam curates and directs ekphrastic shows that blend theater, installation art, and performance. Howsam seeks to subvert theatrical expectations while building cross-disciplinary collaborations rooted in story and collaboration, viewing art as a dialogue to address contemporary sociological, political, and environmental issues.
Her installation Corseted Community is a part of an international exhibit Puentes – No Muros/ Bridges – Not Walls, (El Centro de las Artes de Querétaro (CEART) Querétaro, Mexico, March 2018/ Casa de Europa Mexico, San Miguel, Mexico, October 2018).
KATE MCLEOD– CO-SECRETARY
KATE MCLEOD Kate plays have been produced and performed in New York at Emerging Artists Theatre, EST, Looking Glass, Midtown Festival, and Noor Festival; throughout the Northeast as well as Alaska and London. Her most recent short play, The Pharm Awards was presented at EAT’s New Works Series in October 2017. Her play Tea Time was produced at the New York WinterFest in February 2018 and her play, By The Light was part of New Jersey Rep’s Festival of the Arts in 2018. McLeod was a resident playwright with America-in-Play and a member of the Dramatists Guild and received an MFA in Acting from Catholic University. McLeod resides in New York City.
CHERYL L. DAVIS – CO-SECRETARY
CHERYL L. DAVIS has been a member of the LPTW for more than 10 years, and she has previously served on the Board as Vice President of Communications, and for several years served as a member of the Nominating and Award Committees. She is an award-winning playwright, librettist/lyricist, and television writer, and the General Counsel of the Authors Guild. Cheryl is also a member of Honor Roll!, an advocacy and action group of women+ playwrights over 40 as well as our women+ over 40 allies. Amplifying the voices of women playwrights and authors is a personal and professional issue for her.
Liz Amadio – Treasurer
LIZ AMADIO has produced and/or directed staged readings and workshop productions of 75+ works showcasing 300+ artists. As DAPLab Moderator (2008-2018), she produced seasons including her full-length plays, Evolution: Among Statues, Skeletons and Millennium Mom, which premiered at Theater for the New City’s 2016 Dream Up Festival. Liz played Militant Mom. As Cosmic Orchid’s Artistic Director, Liz curates Integrative Theatre, a synergy of performing and visual arts. The Hoodie Play (BASP 2015-2016) recently had four university productions and a NJ Thespian Festival presentation. The Voire Dire Project’s 2019 Photography Cycle, a Puffin Foundation Grant recipient, featured 25 artists, 4 one-acts, 4 artworks at The Medicine Show Theatre. Liz helms iPower Theatre Collective – NYC high school students integrating arts and social justice – a past Citizens Committee Grant recipient and a 2020 Chelsea & Hudson Yards Grant recipient. Lincoln Center Education Leadership Lab, 2019. MFA, Actors Studio Drama School. Member: Dramatists Guild; League of Professional Theatre Women; National League of American Pen Women.