Join us virtually on Tuesday, August 25th at 4pm EDT for a second roundtable conversation about artistic leadership, moderated by SDCF Trustee and Artistic Director Emeritus of Pasadena Playhouse, Sheldon Epps.
Sheldon will lead a conversation with regional Artistic Directors new to their roles about facing the specific challenges of the moment. He will be joined by Melia Bensussen (Hartford Stage), Tim Bond (TheatreWorks Silicon Valley), David Ivers (South Coast Repertory), Rob Melrose (Alley Theatre) and Sarah Rasmussen (McCarter Theatre Center).
Registration:
Registration is free, but space is limited. Please click here to RSVP.
If you are unable to attend, please email Dani Cattan at dcattan@sdcfoundation.org, so those on the waitlist can join.
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Melia Bensussen:
Melia Bensussen is the Artistic Director of Hartford Stage, and spends her time between Hartford and Boston. Boston work has included productions at the Huntington, Merrimack Repertory, Sleeping Weazel and Actors Shakespeare Project. Around the country she has directed at Baltimore Centerstage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, the New York Shakespeare Festival, MCC, Primary Stages, the Long Wharf, ATL, People’s Light, San Jose Rep, and many others. Recent work includes two premieres, Yerma (adaptation by Melinda Lopez) and We All Fall Down (Lila Rose Kaplan) for the Huntington. Her work with new plays and musicals has brought her to the O’Neill Theater Center, New York Stage and Film, and the Playwright’s Center. Raised in Mexico City, Melia is fluent in Spanish and has translated/adapted a variety of works, including her edition of the Langston Hughes translation of Lorca’s Blood Wedding, published by TCG. A longtime faculty member at Emerson College, she served as department Chair for eleven years. A winner of an OBIE award, she is the Chair of the Arts Advisory Board for the Princess Grace Foundation. She has been a member of SDC since 1990, and currently serves as the Secretary for the Executive Board.
Tim Bond:
Tim Bond joined TheatreWorks Silicon Valley as Artistic Director in July 2020. He is a nationally-known director and educator with past leadership roles as Producing Artistic Director at Syracuse Stage, Associate Artistic Director at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Artistic Director at Seattle Group Theatre, and tenured full Professor and Head of the Professional Actor Training Program at the University of Washington School of Drama. Over the last 35 years Tim has directed at many theatres including The Market Theatre (Johannesburg), Baxter Theatre Centre (Cape Town), Guthrie Theater (Minneapolis), Milwaukee Rep, The Wilma Theater (Philadelphia), Arena Stage (DC), GEVA Theatre Center (Rochester), Cleveland Play House, Indiana Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, PCPA (Santa Maria), Arizona Theatre Company, Portland Center Stage, Dallas Theater Center, Seattle Rep, A Contemporary Theatre (Seattle), Empty Space Theatre (Seattle), Paul Robeson Theatre, and Seattle Children’s Theatre. He is the recipient two Backstage West Garland Awards, two Syracuse Area Live Theatre (SALT) Awards, and a Dallas-Fort Worth Critics Forum Award. Tim received his BFA in Dramatic Arts from Howard University and his MFA in Directing from the University of Washington.
Sheldon Epps:
Sheldon Epps was Artistic Director of the renowned Pasadena Playhouse for 20 years (1997-2017) and now serves the theatre as Artistic Director Emeritus. Before beginning his tenure at the Playhouse he served as Associate Artistic Director of the Old Globe Theatre for four years. He was also a co-founder of the Off Broadway theatre, The Production Company. Mr. Epps has directed both plays and musicals at many of the country’s major theatres including the Roundabout, Manhattan Theatre Club, the Guthrie, Playwrights Horizons, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, and the Goodman Theatre. He conceived the highly acclaimed musicals Play On! and Blues In the Night, which both received Tony Award nominations. He directed productions of both of those shows on Broadway, in London, and at theatres throughout the world. He co-directed the Broadway production of Baby It’s You!, which had its world premiere at The Pasadena Playhouse. He also has had a busy career as a television director helming episodes of shows such as Frasier, Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond, Girlfriends and many others. Mr. Epps received the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award for his efforts and accomplishments at the Pasadena Playhouse. He served for many years on the SDC Executive Board and was previously also the Chair of the SDCF Board of Trustees.
David Ivers:
David Ivers (Artistic Director) is responsible for the overall artistic operation of Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, where he started in March 2019. In addition to artistic leadership, he is active as a director at the theatre. In April 2019, he directed a concert reading of the new musical, Prelude to a Kiss, during the Pacific Playwrights Festival, a national showcase of new works. In 2020, he directed She Loves Me, his production directorial debut as artistic director. He spearheaded the re-branding of SCR’s renowned new play development programs in 2020, as The Lab@SCR, which enhanced and expanded the theatre’s commitment to a more rigorous development of new American musicals, commissions for playwrights at various stages of their careers, playwright residencies and additional in-house readings and workshops. The Lab@SCR includes the new Pinnacle Commission, a grant to a major U.S. playwright. The Pinnacle’s $60,000 inaugural commission was given in partnership with Playwrights Horizons (New York City) and is among the largest in the U.S. from a theatre to a playwright. 2020 also saw the creation SCR CommUNITY, a new digital platform dedicated to amplifying regional artists and narratives by producing stories inspired by or about the rich diversity of people living in Southern California. Announced for 2021 is Outside SCR, featuring repertory performances under the stars in different outdoor locations in Orange County, Calif. No stranger to SCR, in 2015, he directed the SCR-Berkeley Repertory Theatre co-production of One Man, Two Guvnors. Prior to SCR, Ivers served as artistic director for Arizona Theatre Company. Before that, he served more than 20 years as an actor and director at Utah Shakespeare Festival, with the last six as artistic director. For a decade, he was a resident artist at Denver Center Theatre Company, acting in and/or directing more than 40 plays and has helmed productions at many of the nation’s leading regional theatres including the Guthrie Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and South Coast Repertory. He taught at the University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, Southern Utah University and Southern Oregon University. Ivers earned his BA from Southern Oregon University and his MFA from the University of Minnesota.
Rob Melrose:
Mr. Melrose is the Artistic Director of the Alley Theatre where he has directed productions of The Winter’s Tale, 1984, and Murder on the Orient Express. He was formerly the Artistic Director and co-founder of the Cutting Ball Theater. He has directed at The Public Theater (Pericles, Prince of Tyre), The Guthrie Theater (Frankenstein, Happy Days, Freud’s Last Session, Pen, Julius Caesar – with the Acting Company); The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Troilus and Cressida – in association with the Public Theater); Magic Theatre (An Accident, World Premiere); The Old Globe (Much Ado About Nothing); PlayMakers Rep (Happy Days); Black Box Theatre (The Creature, World Premiere, BATCC Award for direction); as well as Actors’ Collective; The Gamm Theatre; and Crowded Fire, among others. His directing credits at Cutting Ball include Timon of Athens, A Dreamplay, Ondine (World Premiere), Mount Misery (World Premiere), Strindberg Cycle, The Chamber Plays in Rep, Krispy Kritters in the Scarlett Night (World Premiere), Pelleas & Melisande, the Bay Area Premiere of Will Eno’s Lady Grey (in ever lower light), The Tempest, The Bald Soprano, Victims of Duty, Bone to Pick & Diadem (World Premiere), Endgame, Krapp’s Last Tape, The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, Hamletmachine, As You Like It, The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World among others. He has taught at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, USF, the University of Rhode Island, and Marin Academy. He has a BA in English and Theater from Princeton University and an MFA in directing from the Yale School of Drama. Rob recently directed Strindberg’s Svarta Handsken (The Black Glove) in Stockholm, Sweden at Strindberg’s Intimate Theater. This was the first time the play was performed on the stage for which it was written, 110 years after it was composed. He has translated Woyzeck, Ubu Roi, Pelleas & Melisande, The Bald Soprano, The Chairs, No Exit, Communique n ̊ 10, Where and When We Died, and The Blind. His translations of Woyzeck, Ubu Roi, and Pelleas & Melisande have been published by EXIT Press. He has written a number of plays including: Helen of Troy, The Flat Earth, Divorsosaurus, When Human Voices Wake Us, Asylum, and Serpentyne and has written a rock musical adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s Ozma of Oz with the San Francisco electro-rock group Z.O.N.K. He is represented by Max Grossman at Abrams Artists Agency.
Sarah Rasmussen:
Sarah Rasmussen is the Artistic Director at McCarter Theater Center. She started her first theater company as a teenager in her hometown of Sisseton, South Dakota, after seeing a Garland Wright production at the Guthrie. Since then she’s gone on to a directing, producing and teaching career, earning critical acclaim for inventive storytelling and the generous exchange she creates between actor and audience. Rasmussen was appointed Artistic Director of the Jungle Theater in Minneapolis in 2015. She was named the Star Tribune’s “Artist of the Year” in 2018 and an inaugural recipient of the BOLD Theater Women’s Leadership Circle grant. She is the recipient of the Princess Grace Award and Drama League and Fulbright Scholar fellowships. She was formerly Resident Director for Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Black Swan Lab new work development program and Head of M.F.A. in Directing at The University of Texas at Austin. Sarah has also directed at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Guthrie, Dallas Theater Center, Actors Theater of Louisville and La Jolla Playhouse. MFA from the University of California, San Diego.