Design by Monet Cogbill.
Our latest version spotlights theatre staff within the Pacific Northwest. If you need to suggest a theatre artist (from anyplace) for a future Position Name, fill out our open Google Type right here.
Johamy Morales (she/her)
Occupation: Affiliate inventive director, educator, deviser, director, producer, and developer of recent work
Hometown: San Diego, Calif., and Tijuana, Mexico
Present dwelling: Seattle
Recognized for: Morales is affiliate inventive director for Seattle Kids’s Theatre and a board member for Purple Eagle Hovering, an arts group serving Indigenous youth in Seattle. In 2017 and 2022, Morales was invited to advertise consciousness on gender-based violence and world variety in India by the U.S. State Division, the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in India, and a number of other NGOs. Morales was additionally a keynote speaker for the 2023 American Alliance for Training & Theatre Nationwide Convention, the place she mentioned her social justice and her work.
What’s subsequent: Morales is directing SCT’s manufacturing of Luchadora! (Feb. 22-March 17), a play by Alvaro Saar Rios that facilities Mexican American tradition, highly effective women and girls, and the custom of Lucha libre wrestling. Morales stated that this would be the first absolutely produced manufacturing she has been in a position to direct that speaks to her individuals, tradition, and heritage.
What makes her particular: “Johamy is a considerate, insightful inventive collaborator and educator who makes a speciality of making and sustaining house for creativity and storytelling,” stated SCT inventive director Idris Goodwin. “Johamy has pioneered her technique to worldwide recognition and a sterling fame as a frontrunner of at this time and tomorrow.”
For tomorrow’s theatremakers: Morales, a primary technology Mexican American and the primary in her household to graduate with a masters diploma, attracts inspiration from her household and a childhood dwelling in an underserved group. “Theatre opened a door of inventive prospects, and, extra importantly, led me to my private mission of training, empowering others, and uplifting underrepresented tales,” Morales stated. “My imaginative and prescient of theatre is to create a world the place younger individuals can see themselves mirrored within the tales we produce, and can proceed towards that aim by altering the make-up of inventive management on this trade, particularly by theatre for younger audiences. That is the sphere that helps the way forward for our trade, however extra importantly, the way forward for our communities.”
Kamilah Bush (she/her)
Occupation: Playwright, dramaturg, and literary supervisor
Hometown: Born in San Antonio, raised in Gaston County, N.C.
Present dwelling: Portland, Ore.
Recognized for: Bush is the literary supervisor at Portland Middle Stage. She was additionally a analysis assistant for Act 1 of the Classix podcast (re)clamation and a dramaturg for Love in Hate Nation, by Joe Iconis, at Two River Theater. Bush’s play Nick & the Prizefighter was a semifinalist within the 2021 Bay Space Playwright’s Pageant, the 2022 L. Arnold Weissberger Award, and the 2023 Princess Grace Award. The play additionally gained the 2021 Urbanite Theater Trendy Works Pageant and was featured in Williamstown Theater Pageant’s Fridays @ 3 studying collection this previous summer time.
What’s subsequent: Because the resident dramaturg at Portland Middle Stage, Bush is looking forward to the theatre’s productions of What the Structure Means to Me (Jan. 20-Feb. 18, 2024) and Clyde’s (June 1-30, 2024), the latter a co-production with Syracuse Stage. Bush’s 10-minute play Mamas & Papas will probably be featured in The Hearth This Time Pageant in January 2024.
What makes her particular: Fellow dramaturg Taylor Barfield praised Bush’s potential to create a nurturing setting for visitor artists. “Kamilah has the uncommon potential to discern what a course of wants and the way finest to assist it, even when meaning doing the onerous factor,” stated Barfield. “She balances a pointy wit with a revolutionary politic to make sure that each establishment that’s fortunate sufficient to have her doesn’t lose sight of what artwork is meant to do.” Director and playwright Chris Woodworth agreed, calling Bush a “caretaker of phrases” who “takes care of the phrases on the web page and the writers who put them there.”
A tangible “sure”: Bush envisions a theatre trade the place everybody can see themselves mirrored onstage, not simply in philosophical or value-based methods, however in literal, tangible methods. She sees an trade “the place there’s a narrative that celebrates each sort of physique, tradition, and household that exists, as a result of there’s an viewers in each sort of physique, tradition, and household that deserves to be celebrated,” Bush stated. “I don’t discover that idealistic. Persons are already writing these performs. These actors exist. These administrators, designers, and artisans are on the market. All they’re ready on is a ‘sure.’”
Michelle Rodriguez (she/her)
Occupation: Manufacturing supervisor and stage supervisor
Hometown: Seattle
Present dwelling: Des Moines, Wash.
Recognized for: Since 2006, Rodriguez has stage managed and manufacturing managed for a number of firms on the West Coast. She has been the manufacturing supervisor at Seattle’s Taproot Theatre Firm since June 2019. Rodriguez obtained the Melissa Hines Behind-the-Scenes award on the Theatre Puget Sound Gregory Awards for her work alongside co-recipient Kathryn Louise as they developed Taproot’s COVID security protocols, which had been shared with a number of different theatres domestically and past. Rodriguez stated that a number of her current work since becoming a member of Taproot lower than a 12 months earlier than the pandemic has been “centered on the sustainability of theatre sooner or later, not solely from a well being and security perspective, but additionally from a perspective of fairness, variety, and inclusion.”
What’s subsequent: Rodriguez is wanting ahead to Taproot’s 2024 productions, the primary of which—Lauren Gunderson’s The Ebook of Will (Jan. 24-Feb. 24)—begins rehearsal the day after Christmas.
What makes her particular: Taproot literary supervisor Sonja Lowe praised Rodriguez and her work with Louise for rising to the challenges introduced by COVID. “This was work that that they had by no means been skilled for,” stated Lowe, “however they rose to the problem with grace and talent, all the time centering the identical core worth of care that guided their work as stage managers—all the time working to create a course of during which everybody can thrive as they do their work. I might love to acknowledge all of those theatre artists/directors for this sacrificial labor and honor the care that they’ve proven to so many fellow artists on phases throughout our nation.”
Area for storytelling: Rodriguez stated she has been drawn to stage administration since highschool, and nonetheless finds herself consistently impressed by the individuals she works with and the younger artists whose inventive minds will form the way forward for the trade. “I’ve all the time liked the artwork of storytelling,” Rodriguez stated. “As a stage supervisor, I desired to create a protected house for individuals to create these tales collectively and produce them to life. Storytelling by efficiency permits us to see others and it exposes us to views we might not encounter in our on a regular basis lives. The extra we work to create a various and inclusive arts group, the extra we’ll be capable of elevate up these tales that haven’t been absolutely instructed.”
Naghmeh Samini (she/her)
Occupation: Playwright, director, and educator
Hometown: Tehran, Iran
Present dwelling: Seattle
Recognized for: Samini has a PhD in drama and mythology and is a college professor. Alongside Parmida Ziaei, she co-founded Seda Iranian Theatre Ensemble, Seattle’s first Iranian theatre firm. Samini additionally serves as Seda’s inventive director. Greater than 20 performs of hers have been staged in Iran, France, India, and past, together with Sleeping in an Empty Cup, Sky Horses Rain Ashes, and Born in 1361. In 2007, she was named one of many high 5 playwrights in Iran. Samini can be an completed screenwriter and researcher, having printed two books and quite a few articles.
What’s subsequent: In April, Samini will direct English (April 4-28), by Sanaz Toossi, in a co-production with Seattle’s ArtsWest. Samini will then direct a brand new play she not too long ago completed writing. Samini and Ziaei are additionally seeking to develop their theatre firm and herald a extra numerous viewers.
What makes her particular: Seda co-founder Ziaei hopes extra theatremakers and audiences exterior of academia come to know Samini, one of the vital acclaimed up to date Iranian playwrights. “Her writing is magical, visceral, distinctive, and unforgettable,” stated Ziaei. “Her character is humble and sort, and dealing alongside her as my sister and colleague is a present on daily basis.”
Theatre’s altering energy: Samini grew up impressed by the social and cultural points she was going through on daily basis, and pursued theatre for its energy to make change. “I consider that theatre is the most effective place to speak about social, cultural, and political points,” Samini stated. “It’s 4 years since I immigrated to the U.S., and I really feel theatre remains to be one of the simplest ways of speaking with people who find themselves culturally totally different from me. In my expertise in U.S. theatre, audiences are so open to listening to new voices, and I want to be the voice of immigrants in addition to Center Jap girls.”
Stevi Costa (she/her)
Occupation: Creative director, adapter, director, actor, burlesque artist, grant skilled
Hometown: Crockett, Calif.
Present dwelling: Seattle
Recognized for: Costa is called a burlesque artist and emcee beneath the stage identify Sailor St. Claire, and because the co-founder and co-artistic director of Noveltease Theatre, an organization devoted to reviving the historic artwork type of literary burlesque for up to date audiences. Along with performing with Noveltease, Costa has tailored and directed an environmental staging of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, tailored Dorothy Scarborough’s The Wind, and co-adapted A Metamodern Prometheus, a literary burlesque concerning the creation of Frankenstein, during which Costa performed Mary Shelley. In her day job, Costa serves as Seattle Rep’s grants supervisor.
What’s subsequent: In January 2024, Costa will carry out as Sarah Bernhardt in Mark Siano and Opal Peachey’s cabaret musical Bohemia. Later in 2024, Noveltease will stage a literary burlesque adaptation of Hamlet that Costa has been engaged on.
What makes her particular: Fellow burlesque performer, playwright, and promoting skilled Jessica Obrist stated Costa, a transparent lover of literature, was “destined for a life as an English professor.” As a substitute, Obrist continued, “Stevi has turned her ardour for the written phrase into two distinctive careers in theatre.”
The place burlesque meets theatre: Costa’s work is about honoring the roots of American burlesque as a theatrical type, respecting the supply materials, whereas taking works which have traditionally been male, straight, and white and studying in opposition to the grain by explicitly gender-bending, queering, and race-bending. “We consider that this makes literary classics really feel extra accessible to audiences which have been traditionally excluded from the literary canon,” Costa stated. “We combine the intense and the salacious to inform tales in new methods. What excited me about that’s the potential to transform audiences who historically solely see revue-style burlesque reveals into theatre lovers in addition to introducing conventional theatre audiences to burlesque.”
Tyler Buswell (he/him)
Occupation: Educator, scenic designer, and drag performing artist
Hometown: Born in Riverside, Calif., raised on the Shoshone-Bannock Reservation in Fort Corridor, Idaho
Present dwelling: Portland, Ore.
Recognized for: Buswell teaches technical theatre and costume, hair, and make-up to center and highschool college students at Northwest Academy, the place he additionally serves because the technical director and designer for productions. Buswell can be a drag performer beneath the alter ego Donatella No person (she/her). Along with his designs, Buswell is within the financial system of house, using each inch of the stage and transporting audiences to new worlds in thrilling and shocking methods. A few of his favourite previous designs embrace his set for Piper Durham’s Nesting, which he sculpted completely out of move-in bins; a set for Thornton Wilder’s Our City that seemed as if the bricks and furnishings/props had been being “raptured into the heavens”; and his first foray into projection design, collaborating with Chip Miller on Portland Opera’s Journeys to Justice.
What’s subsequent: Buswell is the scenic designer for Liberace and Liza: Vacation on the Mansion (through Dec. 24) at Portland Middle Stage, a manufacturing co-written and co-starring Buswell’s husband David Saffert. He additionally served as drag marketing consultant and wig stylist for Bag&Baggage Productions’ current manufacturing of Who’s Vacation! by Matthew Lombardo. Buswell would be the scenic designer for Broadway Rose Theatre Firm’s manufacturing of Sh-Increase! Life May Be a Dream (April 4-28, 2024) by Roger Bean, along with designing the upcoming season of reveals at his faculty (Heathers: The Musical, Honk Jr., and Hamlet).
What makes him particular: Saffert complimented Buswell’s work together with his college students, during which he strives to see their ardour for theatre realized. “His college students typically get to attend performances of his skilled work and get inside information into the world of theatre,” Saffert stated. “Tyler is ready to relay his ardour and abilities from his personal expertise to college students who’re desirous to work and happy with the reveals they assist to construct and handle.”
A world of inspiration: Buswell attracts inspiration from all around the world round him, together with youth he works with each day, the scripts and administrators in entrance of him, and quite a few designers previous and current, similar to Ming Cho Lee, David Rockwell, Beowulf Boritt, and Bunnie Christie. “Generally I’m impressed by inanimate objects I see on my stroll to work, the relationships people need to house, and the performance of on a regular basis issues that we might not suppose a lot about, however all occur to be delightfully difficult,” Buswell stated. “I’ve additionally been impressed for a few years as a scenic designer by this excerpt from a Margaret Atwood poem titled Variation on the Phrase Sleep: ‘I want to be the air / that inhabits you for a second / solely. I want to be that unnoticed / & that needed.’”
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