Che’Rae Adams is the Artistic Director of PlayPenn, which is a new play incubator in Philadelphia. She has also been the Producing Artistic Director of the LA Writers Center since 2006 where she develops new work with local writers. She was the Director of Operations and Programming for the Moss Theater in Santa Monica for seven years and has been the Development Executive for Playhouse Pictures Studios, Co-Artistic Director of the Road Theatre Company, and Managing Producer for the LA Women’s Theatre Festival.

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She began her career as the Assistant to the Staff Producer at The Mark Taper Forum where she worked on the writing workshop of the Pulitzer Prize winning Angels in America, Part II: Perestroika. As you can imagine, this was like a master class in new play development for her. Bitten by the new play bug, she went on to do other projects for the Taper that supported playwrights such as coordinating the Taper Lab Series and Mentor Playwright’s Series. There she worked with writers such as Luis Alfaro, Anthony Clarvoe, Han Ong, Oliver Mayer, Ellen McLaughlin, Alice Tuan and Mac Wellman.

 

She has a MFA from the University of Cincinnati, College Conservatory of Music (CCM) and a BA from California State University, Northridge. For almost two decades, she has produced the Directors Lab West which takes place at the Pasadena Playhouse annually.

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Che’Rae has developed and directed the West Coast premiere productions of several new plays including plays by Lee Blessing, Ken Hanes, Tim Toyoma, Patricia Cardosa, John DiFusco, Jon Bastian, and Abi Morgan. She has also provided direction and/or dramaturgy for productions with Cincinnati Opera Outreach, Disney/ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop, Highways Performance Space, and Troupe Vertigo at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre. She has worked with prominent performers such as Tonya Pinkins, Lynn Redgrave, Kim Fields, and Carlos Alazraqui; as well as award winning directors and choreographers such as Vincent Paterson, Tom Hulce, Jane Jones, Bonnie Story, Kitty McNamee, and Tina Kronis; and distinguished designers such as Sara Clement, Cricket S. Myers, and Ming Cho Lee. She is also an experienced public speaker and educator, having taught acting and writing workshops at various institutions around the country such as The Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Brown University, Catholic University, Miami Dade University, California State University Fullerton, UCLA Extension, Azusa Pacific University Drexel University, and Hussian College. She has also served on panels for Hollins University, USC, The New Playwrights Festival at the College of the Desert, and the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.

 

Che’Rae is an advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion. She spent the last two years of the pandemic producing diverse online programming with HowlRound TV in response to the social inequity taking place in our society. Recently, she curated Breathe: A BIPOC Reading Series in response to George Floyd’s murder; Home: Asian Voices Reading Series to amplify Asian-American stories; and The Voices of Afghanistan project where monologues were constructed from interviews with Afghan artists in hiding. She has had 22 articles published online at NOHOARTSDISTRICT.COM, and self-published a workbook for writers called Writing is Hard… She is the recipient of a SDC Foundation Observership award where she shadowed James Burrows on the TV show Will and Grace. She has been nominated for a Cincinnati Enquirer Entertainment Award and Backstage West Garland Critics Citations Award. Fun fact: In 2009, Che’Rae played Gladys Presley in Cirque du Soleil’s Viva Elvis which opened the Aria Casino in Las Vegas.

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Ernest A. Figueroa has been a dedicated director, producer, actor, and playwright in theatre, radio, film, and television throughout the country. As a founding director of Directors Lab West, he has served on the Steering Committee from its inception in 2000. He was a member director and presenter for the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab in New York in 1998 and 1999. He directed the New York premiere of Dos Corazones, representing the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab Festival at HERE in New York. Ernest served as Producer at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica for 11 years, where he assisted with programming as well as produced over 900 events, which included notable artists in the fields of opera, jazz, choral, chamber, and orchestral music, multi-media, theatre, and dance. He served as Artistic Director of The Group Rep at the Lonny Chapman Theatre in North Hollywood and was both a director and performer with the second-longest-running show in Los Angeles, the American Girl Revue. He was the Associate Artistic Director for the Sacramento Theatre Company, where he also served as casting director and literary manager. Previously, he worked as the National Education Director for Plays for Living, Inc. in New York City, and worked on both the artistic and administrative staff at Pasadena Playhouse. He worked as a director and producer with Bonnie Franklin’s outreach program, Classic and Contemporary American Plays, directing staged readings featuring notable actors from theater, film, and TV. Ernest was a 2001 Drama League Fellow serving as the Associate Director on Blue starring Phylicia Rashad, first working on the production at the Roundabout Theatre Company, then guiding the play starring Leslie Uggams, at the Pasadena Playhouse, Arizona Theatre Company, Coconut Grove, and Paper Mill Playhouse. Ernest’s award-winning productions include Oleanna at the Third Street Theatre and The Effect of Gamma Rays . . . at the Alternative Repertory Theatre. He has launched two active Improv companies, “Loose Screws” in Hawaii and “Metro North Improv” in Connecticut. Figueroa won the ’96 W.A.V.E. award for his talk show Adelante! featuring Hispanic role models. You can occasionally hear him as DJ personality Ernest “Sparky” Figueroa on Z107.7 FM in Joshua Tree, California. Today, he works as a professional arts consultant with Arts Consulting Group in Executive Search. Ernest received his MFA in Directing from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and his BA in Speech and Theatre Education comes from McPherson College in Kansas. His professional training includes improvisation studies at the Groundlings School in Los Angeles and studies at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. 

 

www.ernestfigueroa.com

info@ernestfigueroa.com

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Debbie McMahon is a theatrical director, devisor and performer, and Artistic Director of Grand Guignolers with whom she creates and directs critically acclaimed productions blending traditional physical theatre genres in new ways: melodrama, Commedia dell’Arte, clown, Grand Guignol, dance, vaudeville and puppetry in a 1920’s Parisian event-like atmosphere. The Guignolers have performed around Los Angeles, in Hollywood, at The Actors’ Gang and for Pasadena Playhouse’s Cirque-A-Palooza. Her naughty French finger puppets, Les Petits Guignolers, have their own ‘following.’

 

In the vein of interactive theatre, Ms. McMahon creates and runs large scale custom mystery role playing events as Dial us For Murder where guests are characters written for them with multiple intertwined plots and events. Ms. McMahon has also directed at USC, for Wicked Lit at a Pasadena Mausoleum, has been a member of the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, The Actors’ Gang and has clowned with Cirque du Soleil. 

 

She graduated Dell’Arte School of Physical Theatre, earned a BA in Philosophy and Theatre at Connecticut College, and an MA in Performance Studies at NYU.  She teaches melodrama and Grand Guignol with her Guignolers, at Dell’Arte, and CSSSA and was an Associate Professor of physical theatre at USC. Ms. McMahon works with numerous theatre companies and schools as a movement and physical theatre coach and Grand Guignol advisor.

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Janet Miller is a producer, director, choreographer, and educator. She is the recipient of the Los Angeles

Drama Critics Circle Joel Hirschhorn Award for Outstanding Achievement in Musical Theatre. Her original

choreography has been showcased Off-Broadway at the Westside Theatre in The Marvelous

Wonderettes. She received a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Outstanding Choreographer for this

production. Janet garnered a LA Stage Alliance Ovation nomination for her work on TMW, a BackStage

West Garland, a LADCC Award for Best Choreography, a BroadwayWorld LA Award nomination for Best

Choreography and was part of the team that won the Ovation Award for Best Intimate Musical. She also

received a Garland and a LADCC choreography award for Winter Wonderettes. Ms. Miller was thrilled to

choreograph the European Premiere of TMW for Teatro Franco Parenti in Milan, Italy. Janet has staged

her award-winning step touch extensively throughout the US, most notably at Northlight in Chicago, San

Jose Repertory Theatre, Capital Repertory in Albany, NY, Sacramento Music Circus, Pittsburgh CLO, The

Plymouth Playhouse in Minneapolis, Cabrillo Music Theatre in Thousand Oaks, Moonlight Stage

Productions in Vista, McCoy Rigby Entertainment, and The Merry-Go-Round Playhouse in Auburn, NY.

Janet serves as Producing Artistic Director for Good People Theater Company, with offerings such as A

Man of No Importance, Barrymore (2x) The Fantasticks, Closer Than Ever, Marry Me A Little and the LA

premiere of The Toxic Avenger. The shows have been well received in Los Angeles by both critics and

spectators, garnering wonderful notices, as well as inclusion in several year-end roundups for Best

Production and Best Director, and LA Weekly nominations for Best Musical Production, Best Musical

Director, and Best Director-Musical for AMONI. AMONI and Barrymore were both Ovation Recommended,

and Barrymore received an Ovation nomination for Best Actor. Janet was the Resident Director for

Phantom Projects Theatre Group, housed at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. She had the

honor of directing Lydia R. Diamond’s adaptation of the Toni Morrison book, The Bluest Eye to critical

acclaim. The following season, Phantom remounted this production at the Miles Playhouse in Santa

Monica for a successful run. Also, for Phantom Projects, she helmed The Miracle Worker, The Crucible, Of

Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) Grapes of

Wrath, The Giver and The Importance of Being Earnest. Ms. Miller has worked on both coasts on such

shows as Side By Side By Sondheim, South Pacific, Guys and Dolls, Kiss Me Kate, Jesus Christ Superstar,

Man of La Mancha, Anything Goes, Baby, Annie Get Your Gun, Dames At Sea, Charlie Brown, Urinetown,

The Addams Family, Joseph, Bat Boy-The Musical, The Odd Couple, Middletown, Crimes of the Heart, The

Nerd, The Man Who Came To Dinner, The Rimers of Eldritch, and Taming of the Shrew to name a few.

Her preferred style of dance is tap, which she has taught and choreographed worldwide in China and

Thailand. She was one of the founding members of Golden State Theatre, the Family Theatre of La

Mirada, for eighteen years, directing and choreographing over fifty original productions. Janet is the

recipient of the 2003 Excellence in Art Award for Drama from the city of Torrance, where she was the

Artistic Director/Resident Director at the Torrance Theatre Company for seven years, directing sixteen

shows during her tenure. JM holds a B.A. in musical theatre from CSUN, a M.A. in theatre from CSULA,

and a M.F.A from the TV, Film, Theatre Program at CSULA. She chairs the Theatre Department at College

of the Desert. Ms. Miller is a proud member of SDC.

 

www.janetmiller.net  

www.goodpeopletheaterco.org

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Emmett Murphy is a theater director and multimedia artist whose work integrates storytelling, music, and digital media across live performance. He has created and produced theater, musical projects, and special events throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. With a performance background in music, theater, and dance, Murphy applies his artistry to drive narrative innovation.

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His recent work includes directing Behind the Lines: A 9/11 Story, which debuted in New York marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. He directed the national touring production of Modern Warrior Live and its film adaptation, which premiered at the National Veterans Film Festival. He directed The Birth of Swing at the Teatro della Pergola and The Three Divas at the Pitti Palace's Boboli Gardens for the New Generation Festival in Florence, Italy.

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Murphy brings the same directorial vision to his multidisciplinary work. He created scenic projections and lighting design for Les Ballets Russes à Florence, staged by Reunited in Dance, a star-studded ensemble of Russian and Ukrainian dancers impacted by the war in Ukraine. He was the dramaturg and co-librettist for the operas Lycidas and The Faultless Painter, composed by Robert Balaguer, and has collaborated extensively with jazz trumpeter Dominick Farinacci, including concerts, international performances, and video projects.

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In commercial entertainment, Murphy has worked with Cirque du Soleil® in conjunction with The Beatles LOVE at Mirage Las Vegas and Clint Holmes: Between the Lines, and directed Sin City Comedy at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas. He created and directed 18 original productions for Princess, Norwegian, Carnival, Oceania, and Regent Seven Seas cruise lines, and served as producer for the large-scale theatrical production Illusions at Joyland Theme Park in Shanghai.

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Murphy is the founder of showHive, a creative collaborative developing large-scale entertainment projects. He is an alumnus and Steering Committee member of Directors Lab West, and studied directing and dramaturgy at Primary Stages Einhorn School of Performing Arts and Roundabout Theater Lab. He is a member of SDC, AEA, AGVA, and APAP. A Montana native, he divides his time between New York and Los Angeles.

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EmmettMurphy.com