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.

Robert Barry Fleming: Prior to joining Actors Theatre of Louisville as the Executive Artistic Director, Fleming served as Associate Artistic Director at Cleveland Play House from 2016–2019. Prior to Cleveland Play House, he served as the Director of Artistic Programming at Arena Stage; world premieres he commissioned, developed and championed during this tenure include the 2017 Best Musical Tony Award winner Dear Evan Hansen, Mary Kathryn Nagle’s Sovereignty, John Strand’s The Originalist, Katori Hall’s Blood Quilt, Karen Zacarías’s Destiny of Desire and the 2017 Pulitzer Prize winner, Sweat, by Lynn Nottage. Fleming was an Associate Producer for the Off-Broadway premiere of The Two-Character Play by Tennessee Williams, starring Amanda Plummer and Brad Dourif. He was also an Associate Professor (tenured) and Chair of the University of San Diego Theatre Arts and Performance Studies Department. His most recent directing and choreography credits include Next to Normal (Tantrum Theater), The Royale (Cleveland Play House), Destiny of Desire (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Caroline, or Change (Tantrum Theater) and Between Riverside and Crazy (Cleveland Play House). As part of the 2018 Cleveland Play House New Ground Theatre Festival, Fleming directed a reading of the new musical Minton’s Place by acclaimed contemporary music composer Nolan Williams, Jr., with libretto by Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright Nikkole Salter.His professional acting credits include stints on Broadway (Ragtime directed by Frank Galati, Stand-Up Tragedy directed by the late Ron Link), Off-Broadway (the leading role in Insurrection: Holding History by Robert O’Hara at The Public Theater), joining the Actors’ Equity Association with the national tour of Cats (Original Bus and Truck), playing major regional theatres (The Old Globe, the Guthrie Theater, A Contemporary Theater, The Mark Taper Forum with the world premiere of George C. Wolfe’s Jelly’s Last Jam as Young Jelly) and appearing on television (Emmy-winning Disney Channel series Adventures in Wonderland, Family Matters, The George Carlin Show) and in films (Academy Award-winning L.A. Confidential and Twilight Of The Golds).

Nataki Garrett is Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s sixth artistic director. As the former associate artistic director of CalArts Center for New Performance, Garrett has been hailed as a champion of new work as well as an experienced, savvy arts administrator. 2019 was Garrett’s first season at OSF, where she directed How to Catch Creation. At CalArts, Garrett oversaw all operations of conservatory training and produced mainstage, black box, developmental projects, plays, co-productions and touring productions. She is currently on the nominating committee for The Kilroys, and she recently served on the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust Distinguished Playwright Award nominating committee and the Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship panel. Garrett’s forté and passion are fostering and developing new work. She is responsible for producing the world premieres of The Book of Will by Lauren Gunderson, Two Degrees by Tira Palmquist, Zoey’s Perfect Wedding by Matthew Lopez, The Great Leap by Lauren Yee, and American Mariachi by José Cruz González. She also directed the world premieres of BLKS by Aziza Barnes and Pussy Valley by Katori Hall, and the U.S. premiere of Jefferson’s Garden by Timberlake Wertenbaker. She is well-known for her work with MacArthur Fellow-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, having directed the regional premieres of several of his plays, including Everybody at California Shakespeare Theater and An Octoroon at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. Garrett also directed the first professional production of Jacobs-Jenkins’ acclaimed play Neighbors at the Matrix Theatre Company in Los Angeles. Garrett’s production received five Ovation Award nominations—including Best Production. Garrett most recently served as acting artistic director for Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) during the $66 million organization’s 18-month leadership transition, working in partnership with the chief executive officer, managing director and board of directors to oversee all artistic operations for the theater company. During her tenure, she produced a very provocative Macbeth. The play was the most successful production in the Space Theatre’s 40-year history. She also initiated and negotiated the first co-world premieres in 10 years for two DCPA-commissioned plays—The Great Leap with Seattle Repertory Theatre and American Mariachi with The Old Globe.  Garrett is a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts and Theatre Communications Group Career Development Fellowship for Theatre Directors and a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. Garrett is also a member of the board of directors for Theatre Communications Group, a company member at Woolly Mammoth and an advisory board member for Mixed Blood Theatre. Garrett is a graduate of California Institute of the Arts with an MFA in directing.

Jacob Padrón is the Founder and Artistic Director of The Sol Project, a new theatre initiative dedicated to producing the work of Latinx playwrights in partnership with leading Off-Broadway theaters in NYC and beyond. He was most recently the Senior Line Producer at The Public Theater in New York City. He was formerly the Producer at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago where he oversaw the artistic programming in the Garage, Steppenwolf’s second stage dedicated to new work, new artists, and new audiences. From 2008 to 2011, he was an Associate Producer at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Padrón is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University (BA) and Yale School of Drama (MFA), where he is now on faculty in the theater management program. He is originally from California and began his life in the theater with El Teatro Campesino. Jacob is the new Artistic Director of Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut.

Hana Sharif is a director, playwright, producer and the Artistic Director of The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. She has served as Associate Artistic Director at Baltimore Center Stage; Associate Artistic Director, Director of New Play Development, and Artistic Producer at Hartford Stage; Program Manager of the ArtsEmerson Ambassador Program; and as Developmental Producer/Tour Manager of Progress Theatre’s musical The Burnin’. Hana also served as co-founder and Artistic Director of Nasir Productions, which brings theatre to underserved communities. Her regional directing credits include: The Who & The What, Fun Home, Sense & Sensibility, The Christians, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Pride & Prejudice The Whipping Man, Gem of the Ocean, Gee’s Bend, Next Stop Africa, Cassie, The Drum, and IFdentity. Hana has directed numerous developmental workshops during her twenty years of championing New American plays and playwrights. Her plays include All the Women I Used to Be, The Rise and Fall of Day, and The Sprott Cycle Trilogy. Hana is the recipient of the Aetna New Voices Playwrights Fellowship and Theatre Communications Group (TCG) New Generations Fellowship. She currently serves on the board of directors for The Theatre Communications Group and the Sprott Foundation.