The Board of Directors

Onur Hamilton Karaoğlu is an artist working across performance, moving image, installation, and theater. His practice investigates erased histories, queer grief, and the relationship between memory, place, and archival absence.Karaoğlu’s work has been presented internationally since 2010 by institutions and festivals including Wiener Festwochen, Volksbühne Berlin, Dancing on the Edge, Sharjah Biennial, and Protocinema.Karaoğlu holds a BA in Sociology from Boğaziçi University and an MFA in Theatre Directing from Columbia University in New York. He is a recipient of the 2025-26 Weltoffenes Berlin Fellowship supported by the Berlin Senate and nGbK. He previously served as the director of Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence, co-founded the independent performance platform KÖŞE, and has taught performance at Boğaziçi University and Koç University.​Connect with usSupport the showTo submit a question:Voice- https://www.speakpipe.com/TheBoardofDirectorsEmail- [email protected] CreditsHost: Adam MarpleMusic: https://www.purple-planet.com/home

Brett Ashley Robinson is a Barrymore Award-winning devisor and theatre maker based in Philadelphia. She was a two-time nominee for the Golden Tassel Jawn, Philadelphia’s Drag and Burlesque awards, for best comedy act as Patricia! She was a collaborator and performer in Lightning Rod Specials: The Appointment at New York Theatre Workshop, which was a New York Times Critics' Pick and voted best play of 2019 in The New York Times, Vulture Magazine, Time Out New York, and New York Magazine. As an actor and devisor, she has worked at The Public, Ars Nova Ant Fest, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Wilma, Lightning Rod Special, Pig Iron Theater Company, The Arden Theatre Company, InterAct Theatre Company, The Flea Theatre, Theatre Horizon, and Geva Theatre. As Patrica! She has worked with 1812 Productions, The Bearded Ladies Cabaret, Lightning Rod Special, and Agitated! She teaches acting at the University of the Arts; she is a member of Applied Mechanics and of HotHouse, the Wilma Theater’s resident acting company. She loves buck-a-shuck oysters and Vino VerdeConnect with usSupport the showTo submit a question:Voice- https://www.speakpipe.com/TheBoardofDirectorsEmail- [email protected] CreditsHost: Adam MarpleMusic: https://www.purple-planet.com/home

Tlaloc Rivas (he/him/él) makes theatre where rigorous craft meets urgent questions - bridging classical forms and contemporary voices, institutional spaces and community practice, pedagogical inquiry and professional artistry.His foundation was built at El Teatro Campesino, where he trained in the physical theatre traditions that emerged from the fields of California's farmworker movement. That early formation, rooted in ensemble creation, cultural specificity,and theatre as a catalyst continues to inform how he approaches text, collaborators, and audiences.Currently, Tlaloc holds faculty appointments at two leading research institutions: as Associate Professor in Residence in Theatre Studies at the University of Connecticut and as Lecturer in Acting at Yale University's David Geffen School of Drama and the Department of Theatre & Performance Studies. As resident director at Connecticut Repertory Theatre, he maintains an active directing practice while mentoring the next generation of theatre artists.He was the inaugural Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, where he taught its first-ever Latinx theatre course and developed the plays DIVISADERO and THE REVOLUTION OF EVEYLN SERRANO.A co-founder of the Latinx Theatre Commons, Tlaloc has devoted over twenty years to expanding the ecology of American theatre - building infrastructure, amplifying underrepresented narratives, and fostering sustainable careersfor artists historically excluded from institutional spaces. His directing has been recognized through the Sir John Gielgud Fellowship in Classical Directing and the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Directors. He has been a Usual Suspect with New York Theater Workshop since 2001 and has served a 5-year term on the board of the New Harmony Project.Tlaloc's methodology draws from extensive training: the Suzuki Method and Viewpoints (SITI Company), devised performance (Mabou Mines Resident Artist Program), playwriting (Maria Irene Fornes Institute, La MaMa UmbriaInternational), community-based practice (Cornerstone Theatre), and artistic leadership (NALAC Leadership Institute). His ongoing engagement with anti-racism frameworks through Equity Quotient and artEquity informs both hiscreative process and institutional work.He holds an M.F.A. in Directing from the University of Washington School of Drama and a B.A. with high honors from UC Santa Cruz, where he received the UC Regents Presidential Award, Chancellor's Honors, and Dean of the Arts Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research. He is a member of the Society ofStage Directors and Choreographers and the Dramatists Guild.Connect with usSupport the showTo submit a question:Voice- https://www.speakpipe.com/TheBoardofDirectorsEmail- [email protected] CreditsHost: Adam MarpleMusic: https://www.purple-planet.com/home

What happens when we stop thinking of the audience as the people who simply show up to watch?In this special episode of The Board of Directors, I’ve gone back through conversations with more than thirty directors I’ve interviewed over the years and pulled together their thoughts about audiences: who they are, why they come, what happens between them, and how directors might shape—or surrender control of—that experience.Some of these directors think about the audience from the very beginning. Some think about audiences as collaborators, communities, witnesses, citizens, or even the main character. Some deliberately design the audience’s journey. Others insist they never think about the audience at all.Together, their voices raise a question I’ve become increasingly obsessed with: How do a thousand individuals become an Audience?This is not one director answering that question. It’s a conversation assembled from many directors, sometimes agreeing, sometimes contradicting each other, and sometimes asking questions I’m still trying to answer myself.I call this practice Audience Making. But these directors don't necessarily use that language. They’re simply wrestling with what happens between the work and the people who experience it.So, rather than tell you what I think Audience Making is, I thought I’d let them talk to each other.Featuring excerpts from conversations with:Anne Bogart, Benita de Wit, Brett Ashley Robinson, Simón Hanukai, Shaun Patrick Tubbs, Pirronne Yousefzadeh, Krish Natarajan, Mikhael Tara Garver, Bryan Doerries, Saheem Ali, Annie-B Parson, Shayok Misha Chowdhury, Nambi E. Kelley, Tlaloc Rivas, Onur Karaoğlu, Acadia Barrengos, Bill Rauch, and Chong Tze Chien.Connect with usSupport the showTo submit a question:Voice- https://www.speakpipe.com/TheBoardofDirectorsEmail- [email protected] CreditsHost: Adam MarpleMusic: https://www.purple-planet.com/home

Benita de Wit (they/them) is an Australian director based in New York. Recently, they were a Mercury Store lead artist and directed Life Sucks by Aaron Posner at Oklahoma City Rep.Benita is an SDC Member, a Barbara Whitman Award 2024 Finalist, and a New Georges-affiliated artist. They have developed new work at Clubbed Thumb, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Mercury Store, Powerhouse Theatre, Gingold Theatrical Group, Exquisite Corpse Company, Dartmouth College, and Playwrights Horizons Theater School. Benita has an MFA in Directing from Columbia University and is on the faculty at Circle in the Square Theatre School.As an Associate Director, their credits include Jamie Lloyd’s Sunset Blvd  starring Nicole Scherzinger (Broadway), SIX The Musical (Broadway), Black Swan (A.R.T), Bat Out of Hell (US & UK Tours), and Straight Line Crazy (The Shed) starring Ralph Fiennes as Robert Moses.Directing credits include Creature/Comfort (Exponential Festival), The Shark Is Broken (Weathervane Theatre), Small Mouth Sounds (Circle in the Square Theatre School), The Moors (Theatre Row), Tartuffe (Pace University), Slaughterhouse (Belvoir St Theatre), Razorhurst (Hayes Theatre Co), and Salty (Access Theatre).Connect with usSupport the showTo submit a question:Voice- https://www.speakpipe.com/TheBoardofDirectorsEmail- [email protected] CreditsHost: Adam MarpleMusic: https://www.purple-planet.com/home

Saheem is a proud immigrant from Kenya, currently serving as the Associate Artistic Director/ Resident Director of New York’s Public Theater. He is a Tony Award nominee for Buena Vista Social Club and Fat Ham, the latter of which also earned the Joe A. Callaway Award, Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel nominations. His Shakespeare in the Park productions of Romeo & Juliet, Twelfth Night and Merry Wives were recorded for PBS Great Performances, and were the subject of the HBO documentary Reopening Night. Other productions include Goddess, Good Bones, Fires in the Mirror (Signature Theatre), The Rolling Stone (Lincoln Center Theater), Passage (Soho Rep) and Sugar in Our Wounds (MTC). He is the recipient of an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Directing, a Sir John Gielgud SDCF Fellow and a Shubert Fellow. MFA: Columbia UniversityConnect with usSupport the showTo submit a question:Voice- https://www.speakpipe.com/TheBoardofDirectorsEmail- [email protected] CreditsHost: Adam MarpleMusic: https://www.purple-planet.com/home

Nambi E. Kelley is an award-winning actor, playwright, and television writer-producer whose work bridges history, politics, and intimate human storytelling. As an actor, she has performed regionally, internationally, and on television, including productions playing opposite greats such as Phylicia Rashad and Alfre Woodard, multiple productions at Goodman Theatre and Steppenwolf Theatre Company, with select television appearances on Chicago Med, Elementary, Person of Interest, Madam Secretary, Chicago P.D., and Chicago Justice. Recent stage credits include Goodman Theatre's critically acclaimed Joe Turner's Come & Gone, MacArthur Genius Dominique Morisseau’s Pipeline, and off-Broadway in Jeff Sweet’s Kunstler. Nambi has been nominated for multiple acting awards, including Chicago's prestigious Jeff Award and multiple Broadway World Awards, winning a Black Theatre Alliance Award for Best Lead Actor for her role in Coffee Will Make You Black (City Lit Theatre).  As a writer, Kelley has written and produced for television on shows such as Peacock's Bel-Air and Apple's Lady in the Lake, earning a Black Reel Award nomination for her work on the latter. She also served as a writer on Lena Waithe's The Chi and Fox's Our Kind of People. Her acclaimed stage adaptation of Native Son received productions nationwide, including at Yale Repertory Theatre and in New York with The Acting Company, earning an AUDELCO Award for Best Production and a Drama League nomination for Best Revival. Personally selected by Toni Morrison to adapt Jazz, Kelley continues to develop bold new theatrical work, including Broadway-aimed projects with Tony Award winners Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Ken Davenport, and Grammy Award-winning DJ duo Future Cut with Emily Phillips. Most recently, Kelley developed a television project with political icon Stacey Abrams and is currently developing a project with Grammy Award-winning rapper Nas and Oscar and MacArthur Genius Award winner Tarell Alvin McCraney for Lionsgate and Disney Entertainment Television’s Onyx Collective/Hulu (TBA). As a producer, in addition to television work, Kelley founded First Woman LLC, a family-centered production company creating work across film, television, and theatre. First Woman produced the internationally award-winning film adaptation of Jabari Dreams of Freedom, which also toured nationally as a play after premiering at New Victory Theater in New York City. The company has produced 4 national tours and is currently in pre-production for its upcoming 2026–27 touring season, including a run at the world-famous Apollo Theatre in New York (TBA). Kelley holds a B.F.A. from The Theatre School at DePaul University and an M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College.Connect with usSupport the showTo submit a question:Voice- https://www.speakpipe.com/TheBoardofDirectorsEmail- [email protected] CreditsHost: Adam MarpleMusic: https://www.purple-planet.com/home

Copeland Woodruff is currently the Mary and Michael Jaharis Director of Opera Studies at Lawrence University, Conservatory of Music. He has been on the directing and production staffs of the New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Yale Opera, Atlantic Coast Opera Festival (NJ), and Opera North (Philadelphia and New Hampshire). He has been on the faculties of the Juilliard School, Oberlin Conservatory, Academy of Vocal Arts, Temple University, University of Memphis, Universität Bamberg, the Harrower Opera Workshop, Red River Lyric Opera, La musica lirica (Italy), and Festival of International Opera of the Americas (Brazil).Copeland is highly sought after as a teacher of the singing actor and has directed 100+ productions, including the 2013 world premiere of the musical Raise the Red Lantern at the Tianqiao Theatre in Beijing, China. Since 2006, his productions have earned seventeen National Opera Association Best Opera Production Awards (including nine first-place awards) and nine awards in The American Prize (including two first-place awards), among other recognition and citations. He is the first recipient of the Charles Nelson Reilly Prize in Directing from The American Prize (2018). He was recently recognized as an Honored Artist of the American Prize (2023), which is awarded to those who have proven themselves to be of "sustained excellence" over a number of seasons as laureates of The American Prize competitions.He has enjoyed an extended relationship with Boston Conservatory’s Ensemble-in-Residence, Guerilla Opera. In addition to having served on their advisory board, he has directed three productions for the company, one of which (Rojahn’s Heart of a Dog) earned Second Prize in the American Prize for Opera Performance competition, professional division. Heart of a Dog was a favorite at the Opera America convention in May 2011 and its sold-out, two-week run in Boston garnered such reviews as: “…a brilliant stroke of staging” and “…stunning” (Boston Musical Intelligencer); “brilliantly physicalized in this extraordinarily well-acted production” and “a prime and rare example of opera properly compounded with theater” (Boston Lowbrow).Copeland is a proud member of the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA). He has a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in Vocal Performance (USC); M.F.A. studies in Theatrical Design (Lighting; USC); and a Master's in Stage Direction in Opera (Indiana University). He has also been lucky enough to assist Anne Bogart and the SITI Company, as well as train with them.https://www.lawrence.edu/people/copeland-woodruff-mary-and-michael-jaharis-director-of-opera-studies-and-associate-professor-of-musicConnect with usSupport the showTo submit a question:Voice- https://www.speakpipe.com/TheBoardofDirectorsEmail- [email protected] CreditsHost: Adam MarpleMusic: https://www.purple-planet.com/home

Natalie Hennedige is the founder and artistic director of CAKE, a Singapore-based performance company creating interdisciplinary works across diverse spaces. At the core of CAKE’s methodology is a commitment to interdisciplinarity and collaboration. The company works across theatre, dance, music, visual arts, film, and multimedia to generate hybrid forms that resist categorisation. This is embodied in long-running platforms such as Jamming Space and Running with Strippers, which function as exploratory frameworks for artistic exchange, experimentation, and the development of new performance vocabularies.A director and writer, Natalie works with performers and artists across disciplines and cultural contexts, shaping highly constructed, heightened worlds that interrogate complex states. She is the recipient of the National Arts Council Young Artist Award and the JCCI Singapore Foundation Culture Award. Most recently, she served as Festival Director of the Singapore International Festival of Arts (2022–2025). https://www.caketheatre.co/Connect with usSupport the showTo submit a question:Voice- https://www.speakpipe.com/TheBoardofDirectorsEmail- [email protected] CreditsHost: Adam MarpleMusic: https://www.purple-planet.com/home

We invite you to this month’s International Directors’ Meet-Up, our monthly gathering of directors and theatre makers from around the world.It’s a space to share experiences, trade advice, and find support in what can often be a pretty isolating role. You can come and go as you need, drop in late, leave early, whatever fits your schedule.It’s simply a chance to set aside time each month to sit alongside others who understand the work.For dates, times, and details, head to boardofdirectors.worldand pull up a chair at the table. Join the Board.Connect with usSupport the showTo submit a question:Voice- https://www.speakpipe.com/TheBoardofDirectorsEmail- [email protected] CreditsHost: Adam MarpleMusic: https://www.purple-planet.com/home