Hometown: Charlottesville, Virginia
Education: BA, University of Virginia
Favorite Credits: Persephone (Idly Bent Theater Company), The Winter's Tale (Shakespeare On The Lawn)
Why theater?: It's the perfect blend of visual art, music, construction, storytelling, sound, text, human interaction. It requires a real commitment to communication and collaboration - between the cast, crew, audience members. Theater intensifies all the best things about being human.
Tell us about El Coqui Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom: It's an intelligent, magical piece about identity and resilience. A young Puerto Rican comic book artist in New York moonlights as a superhero - and things develop from there.
What inspired you to direct El Coqui Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom?: I love the world that writer Matt Barbot has created. Reading the script, the warmth and messiness of Brooklyn and its inhabitants just glows on the page. The play shifts between fantasy and reality, and the text is a beautiful amalgamation of Spanish and English, utilizing poetry, modern slang, and dramatic comic book expressions in the same breath.
What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: Original work by young artists. I'm inspired by scripts-in-progress, bilingual scripts, scripts that deal with difficult topics in an unexpected way. Short, forceful scripts. That being said, I also love big, beautiful, mythic stories. I'm inspired by new and unusual voices from a variety of backgrounds.
If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: Tom Waits. What a strange, imaginative, fearless mind. Tom, call me.
What show have you recommended to your friends?: I may be biased, but The Mysteries at The Flea is a unique, heartfelt, and epic night of theater. If you want to see a whole bunch of insanely talented young actors tackle an amazing story, get down to 41 White St. for the extension!
What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: The raspberry bars at Outpost in Brooklyn.
What’s the most played song on your iTunes?: Recently? Tune-Yards'"Real Thing." Ever? Etta James'"I'd Rather Go Blind."
If you weren’t working in theater, you would be _____?: A fiddle player in a seedy bluegrass band.
What’s up next?: Workshopping some beautiful new scripts with my company, Idly Bent, and directing something gruesome for The Flea!