Theatre + Film
I am an actor, director, playwright, and chaplain for theater, film, and TV projects. I see theater as a relational art form; I am passionate about the work that plays can do in the lives of people that create and experience them to expand self-understanding and empathy.
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Regionally, I have worked at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the California Shakespeare Theater, Crowded Fire Theater Company, The Jewish Theater, and Boxcar Theater Company. In New York I have appeared in several student films at NYU Grad Film and cabaret sets at House of Yes, Don’t Tell Mama, and Green Room 42. Full acting/performance resume here.
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I am the ongoing director/deviser of THIS IS A PLAY THAT I WROTE IN THE FIFTH GRADE AND I’M STILL WAITING FOR MY PULITZER, an interactive performance and participatory art party centered around Shattered: A Drama in Two Acts, a play that I (actually!) wrote in the fifth grade. I have also directed a staged reading of J. Sylvan’s Beloved King: A Queer Biblical Musical, will direct an upcoming staged reading for the Episocal Actors Guild’s Barbour Awards, and devise and direct new work in my role as a teaching artist at CO/LAB Theater Group.
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I am a current Artist in Residence at The Skeleton Rep(resents), a New York-based theater company exploring modern myth. In this role I am writing a new play with the working title Why the F*ck Can’t I Get to Sleep that places the Biblical character of Jacob in the context of an insomniac’s retreat. I am also the author of The Shape of the Entire, a play in one act that will receive a developmental reading at The Skeleton Rep later this year.
As Jonathan in Beloved King: A Queer Bible Musical. Oberon, Boston, MA, 2020. Image by Jon Beckley.
Deviser/Co-Director of POSSESTHER, a Lab/Shul Purim epic. House of Yes, New York, NY, 2022. Image by Jesi Kelley.
Deviser/Director of THIS IS A PLAY THAT I WROTE IN THE FIFTH GRADE AND I'M STILL WAITING FOR MY PULITZER. Piano Fight, San Francisco, CA, 2016.
As Queen Vashti in PURIM7: From the Crown Down. House of Yes, New York, NY, 2023. Image by Jesi Kelley.
Director of Sunday in the Park with George. Musical Forum, Providence, RI, 2012. Image by Jon Key.
Director of Equus. Production Workshop, Providence, RI, 2013. Image by Jon Key.
Deviser/Director of THIS IS A PLAY THAT I WROTE IN THE FIFTH GRADE AND I'M STILL WAITING FOR MY PULITZER. culturefix, New York, NY, 2014. Image by Belle Cheves.
Director of Beloved King: A Queer Bible Musical. Oberon, Boston, MA, 2020. Image by Jon Beckley.
Deviser/Co-Director of POSSESTHER. 14th Street Y, New York, NY, 2022. Image by Jesi Kelley.
Staged reading of The Shape of the Entire (playwright). The Skeleton Rep(resents), 2023. Photo by Evan Reed.
Staged reading of The Shape of the Entire (playwright). The Skeleton Rep(resents), 2023. Photo by Evan Reed.
Staged reading of The Shape of the Entire (playwright). The Skeleton Rep(resents), 2023. Photo by Evan Reed.
TEXT HERE – WHAT I BELIEVE THEATRE CAN DO IN THE WORLD
Theatre is my oldest love – and the source of much of what I know about gathering, ritual, beauty, and awe.
TEXT HERE – BRIEF STORY OF ME
TEXT HERE – Ways to work with me
“Theater Chaplain”? What’s that?
Chaplaincy for Theater, Film, and TV is an emerging discipline that I am in the process of cultivating. The arts and entertainment industries are at a point of reckoning. Creative workers are rejecting long-normalized practices that prioritize the ostensible demands of production over the needs of people and recognizing the value of putting care at the center of the creative process. The vision of chaplaincy for theatre, film, and TV is to meet growing demands for mental health support and safe, caring, and culturally responsive working conditions by having people on staff and on production teams who are trained in providing nondenominational spiritual care. A theatre, film, or TV chaplain’s role is to make space for the soul of the artists and technicians making the work and the audience that comes to engage with it to be expressed and honored.
Chaplaincy for theatre, film, and TV builds on the important work that intimacy directors/choreographers, DEI consultants, and mental health clinicians are already doing to push for informed consent, clear mediation of power dynamics, and proactive support at all levels of process, and does so by harnessing what brings so many of us to the theatre in the first place: a need for belonging and connection. It aims to make an impact most specifically on the members of the production team charged with making space for creative work to happen – directors, stage managers, production managers – recognizing that this work is complex and deserves its own systems for reflective practice and support.
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A theater, film, or TV chaplain is brought on as a member of the production team and collaborates with the director to establish norms, guardrails, and processes for addressing conflict.
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A theater, film, or TV chaplain supports a company or ensemble in clarifying the vision of their work, addressing group dynamics, and creating proactive structures that support community wellness moving forward in an intensive format.
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A theater, film, or TV chaplain facilitates professional learning workshops around a relevant topic: e.g., inclusive practices of nondenominational spiritual care, ritual in the rehearsal room, recognizing and addressing conflict in group dynamics.
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A theater, film, or TV chaplain collaborates with a production team to develop facilitated opportunities for audiences to engage with the work in wholehearted, transformative ways – not your grandmother’s talkback.
Interested? Curious?
Get in touch!