Notable Alumni
While we believe that all our alumni are notable, the following is a list of graduates who have gone on to particularly illustrious careers in theater. Other theater alumni not listed here have become doctors, lawyers, scientists and academics, fronted rock bands, published NYT bestselling books, opened small businesses, and more- as we know, theater majors can do it all! And of course, we can't list all of the amazing alumni who are currently creating beautiful works for the stage and teaching the next generations of theater artists. In order of class year, here are just a few of our alumni who used their studies at Swarthmore as the beginning of a life in the theater.
Citlali Pizarro '20 is a theater artist and administrator, writer, and advocate for equity and social justice in the arts and beyond. She was an inaugural Miranda Family Connectivity Fellow at Wooly Mammoth in 2021, and Center Theater Group included her in their Rising Leaders of Color cohort in 2023. She currently works as a line producer at the Public Theater in NYC.
Wesley Han '18 is a bi-coastal actor and writer. As a versatile performer both on screen and onstage, Wesley has worked alongside the likes of Aubrey Plaza, Rachel Weisz, and Natasha Lyonne across streaming platforms such as Netflix and Paramount+.
Kendell Byrd '16 is a voiceover artist, writer, and theater performer based in Los Angeles. She works at the Netflix Animation Department as a member of the writing team and a voiceover artist.
Anita Castillo-Halvorssen '15 received an MFA in Acting from Brown University in 2019, after three years of graduate training at Trinity Rep. She additionally studied at the British American Drama Academy. She is a faculty artist for Middlebury College’s Beyond The Page program and a Rhode Island Latino Arts teaching artist. She has served as an actor, facilitator, and educator for the CUNY Creative Arts Team, Brown University, Swarthmore College, Young Actors Summer Institute, and Bread Loaf School of English.
Madeline Charne '14 is a freelance dramaturg, teaching artist, and facilitator. She graduated with her MFA from Yale School of Drama in 2020 and is currently pursuing her doctorate with research in Disability and Theater and Community-Based Art-making.
Sebastián Bravo Montenegro '13 teaches theater to 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th grade students at the Colegio Menor San Francisco de Quito in Cumbayá, Ecuador.
Kari Olmon '13 is the Associate Artistic Director at Page 73 in New York. A dramaturg, producer, and translator with a background in new play development, she has previously worked in the artistic departments of Yale Rep, Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep, the Wilma, and the Guthrie Theater. Kari received her MFA in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism from the Yale School of Drama and is currently writing a dissertation on the plays of Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Jessica Cannizzaro '12 is a New York-based actor, writer, and comedian. She originated the role of Sally in the hit off-Broadway comedy "Puffs" at New World Stages, and has appeared onstage at Lincoln Center, Playwrights Horizons, and New York Theater Workshop. Jessie’s face can be seen in multiple national commercials, and her voice can be heard everywhere from Audible audiobooks to Nickelodeon cartoons. She regularly writes and performs comedy with her team Infinite Sketch at The Peoples Improv Theater.
Ryane Disken-Cahill '12 is a New York-based costume designer whose work runs the gamut from homemade robot costumes to stylized period dramas. She has worked in network TV and on independent films. Most recently, she was the costume designer for Alternatino for Comedy Central.
Nell Bang-Jensen '11 is a Philadelphia-based theater maker and the Artistic Director of Theatre Horizon. She has directed and produced for many of Philadelphia’s major theater institutions, including Philadelphia Theatre Company, the Wilma, Pig Iron, and the Painted Bride. Nell is a recipient of a 2019 Map Fund Award, a Next Stage Director’s Fellowship from the Drama League (2019), a Thomas J. Watson Fellow (2011-2012), a Frank 5 Fellow for the Aydelotte Foundation (2017), and a participant in the Leadership U: One-on-One program, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by Theatre Communications Group; a national fellowship given to eight individuals who TCG believes are the core and future of theater. In October 2018, American Theatre magazine named her one of six "theatre workers to know" across the nation.
Niccolo Aeed '10 is a black/Palestinian writer and director based in New York. He is half the comedy duo Marina & Nicco, whose sketches and short films have been featured on The New Yorker, Comedy Central, Funny or Die, and many more. Marina & Nicco's plays have been produced at HERE Arts Center, The Peoples Improv Theater, New Ohio Theater and Ars Nova. Individually, Nicco has written and directed plays for The New York Fringe Festival, the Philly Fringe Festival, NY Summerfest and 7x7. He he has written and directed sketch comedy at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and The Peoples Improv Theater and teaches storytelling with The Moth.
Jessie Bear '09 is a writer, playwright and producer based out of New York City. With director Erin Mee, she is co-founder and co-artistic director of "This is Not A Theatre Company", and is the playwright for all the company’s premieres, including the critically acclaimed Ferry Play (2015), a pod play for the Staten Island Ferry that was deemed "a spirited, meditative performance" by The New York Times. She is also the co-writer (with Charles Mee) of TINATC’s “inventive new work” Pool Play (Waterside Plaza, 2014) which took place entirely in a swimming pool and left audiences “joyous and refreshed – and maybe a little wet” (Show Business Weekly, 2/12/14). In 2013, she received her MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Her work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and American Theatre magazine, and supported by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The New York International Fringe Festival, Theaterlab, and the Swarthmore Project in Theater.
Katie van Winkle '07 earned her PhD in Performance as Public Practice from the University of Texas at Austin in 2019.
Charles Coes '06 is as a sound designer, composer, and engineer on live performance events ranging from Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Regional theaters to spectacle shows on cruise ships, touring shows, international festivals and live music. He has taught sound design with a focus on technology at Yale School of Drama, Swarthmore College, and NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.
Neal Dandade '06 is an actor, writer, and improviser based in Los Angeles. Acting credits include Sirens (TNT), Kevin from Work (ABC Family), in addition to national and regional commercials. Neal was recently featured as a writer/performer in the 2016 CBS Diversity Showcase. He holds an MFA in Writing for Screen and Stage from Northwestern, where also worked as an Adjunct Lecturer. Neal was a writing intern at The Daily Show and the Colbert Report as part of the Chris Rock Summer internship and attended the School at Steppenwolf, a highly competitive Chicago-based program for stage actors. While in Chicago, Neal was a member of the Second City National Touring Company, created online content for Second City Network, and was a writer/performer at The Annoyance Theater.
Ben Camp '05 is an performer/creator and a Co-Founder of Team Sunshine Performance. He was lead artist for Team Sunshine’s Punchkapow, Terrarium, Zombie Defense Consultations, and Your Optimism Is Not Required as well as a core collaborator on all Team Sunshine projects and events including JapanAmerica Wonderwave and Henry IV: Your Prince and Mine, and The Sincerity Project. Benjamin was awarded the 2014 Independence Foundation Fellowship, was a 2015 Haas Emerging Artist Nominee, and has had the pleasure of working with Pig Iron Theatre Company, Shakespeare in Clark Park, Theater Horizon, and the Rosenbach Museum and Library, among others.
Joseph Small '05 is a professional taiko drum artist based and Assistant Professor of Dance at Swarthmore College. His creative approach often incorporates postmodern choreography and performance art.
Nicholas Malakhow '05 is a writer and theater educator. His full-length work includes AFFINITY LUNCH MINUTES (2021 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference), A PICTURE OF TWO BOYS (Upcoming World Premiere at New Conservatory Theater Center, 2022 BAPF finalist), SEEING EYE (Victory Gardens Ignition Festival, Fresh Ink Ink Spot Festival, finalist for the 2019 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and the 2018 LTC/HowlRound Carnaval), and GRIT (developed with Playhouse on Park, 2021 Princess Grace Award Finalist). His other work has been developed or produced by the Ithaca College Theatre Department, the Open Theatre Project, the Q Collective, the Boston Theater Marathon, and more.
Adrienne Mackey '04 is a multidisciplinary artist who explores the potential of performance and play. With her company, Swim Pony, she’s created works including SURVIVE!, a 22,000 sq-ft interactive science installation; The Ballad of Joe Hill, a production incorporating song, storytelling, and movement to convey the events surrounding the life of the eponymous labor organizer and staged at the historic Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia; War of the Worlds, an innovative mixture of site-specific live performance and games with Drexel University's Entrepreneurial Game Studio; The End, a month-long mixed reality game exploring fears about mortality; and TrailOff, a mobile app using GPS to embed stories on Pennsylvania nature trails. Mackey is an Independence Foundation Fellowship awardee and, with Swim Pony, a two-time recipient of the Knight Arts Challenge grant in Philadelphia. She is the originator of CROSS POLLINATION, a residency program in which 32 artists took part in documented interdisciplinary collaborations and she also writes for Swim Pony’s blog, which boasts over 50,000 views to date. Mackey holds an MFA in game/theater from Goddard College, and is an Assistant Professor of Acting, Directing and Devising at the University of Washington.
Audrey Pernell '04 is a performer and voice teacher in Santiago, Chile. Since 2006 she also has worked with Pantheatre, and under the mentorship of Linda Wise she completed a self-designed Master’s degree in Voice Performance and Pedagogy through Antioch University Midwest in 2011. In Santiago, Audrey has taught actors, singers, dancers, musicians, as well as speech therapists, psychologists, and fellow voice pedagogues. Alongside her husband, Chilean performer and voice teacher Andrés Zará, she directs Rumbos Laboratorio Artístico Vocal, a collective of artists who investigate the voice’s vast expressive and creative potential.
Marc Boucai '04 was the Theatre and Dance Director at AS220 in Providence, RI for three years, where he was committed to access, community engagement, and arts presenting. He now continues this work as a freelance director, producer, and arts administrator. He holds a PhD in Performance Studies from UC Berkeley.
Sam Dingman '04 is a writer, storyteller, and podcast producer. Sam is the creator and host of Family Ghosts, which has been hailed as a critic’s choice by Vulture, NPR, the LA Times, and The New York Times. He was the founding producer of Bad With Money With Gaby Dunn (named a Best New Podcast of 2016 by the New York Times), the editor of Karina Longworth’s acclaimed You Must Remember This, and served as a producer for WNYC’s Peabody-winning radio show On the Media. Sam is a winner of the Moth Grand Slam, and his stories have been featured on RISK!, The Moth Radio Hour, the CBC, and WBEZ. He’s created, written, produced, and edited original shows for Pushkin Industries, Spotify, Gimlet, Wondery, Stitcher, Panoply Media, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
Jessica Nakamura '03 is an Associate Professor of Theater and Dance at UC Santa Barbara. She earned an M.F.A. in Asian Theater Directing from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and a Ph.D in Theater and Performance Studies from Stanford University. She is the author of Transgenerational Remembrance: Performance and the Asia-Pacific War in Contemporary Japan (Northwestern University Press, 2020) about performances that portray previously obscured topics of Japanese war aggression and imperialism. Her writings have also appeared in the journals Modern Drama, Performance Research, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Verge: Global Asias, Trans Asia Photography Review and in the edited volumes, Performance in a Militarized Culture, Performing the Secular, and Theatre After Empire. Dr. Nakamura has trained in Japanese Dance, Chinese Beijing Opera, and Balinese Dance. Her directing work includes productions of Federico Garcia Lorca’s Yerma, Gao Xingjian’s Wild Man, and her English-language translation of contemporary Japanese playwright Matsui Shū’s Family Portrait.
Elisa Matula '02 is a multi- disciplinary theatre artist who brings her extensive physical theatre background to projects as varied as Molière, Shakespeare, Chekhov, original site-specific works, contemporary plays, puppet and mask creations, and independent films as well as ensemble-driven devised productions. Since moving to New York City, she has performed at a wide range of venues including the Theater for the New City, the Actors Studio New York (and Los Angeles), Dance Theater Workshop, PS 122, Cherry Lane Theater, the Living Theatre, 3-LD, Ontological-Hysteric, Dixon Place, the Flamboyan Theater, Abrons Art Center, the Warsaw National Home, the Flea, Columbia University, CUNY, and the Zebulon among others.
Jon Stancato '02 is a vocal coach and founder of the New York- and London-based training program, "Inside Voice".
Lars Jan '00 is a director, visual artist, writer, and founder of Early Morning Opera, a genre-bending performance + art lab whose works explore emerging technologies, live audiences, and unclassifiable experience. Jan’s original works — including Holoscenes, The Institute of Memory (TIMe), and Abacus — have been presented by the Whitney Museum, Sundance Film Festival, BAM Next Wave Festival, Under the Radar Festival, REDCAT, Hammer Museum, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art TBA Festival, ICA Boston, EMPAC, Toronto Nuit Blanche Festival, London’s Burning, NYU Abu Dhabi, and Times Square Arts among others. Lars is the winner of the 3rd Audemars Piguet Art Commission and exhibited Slow-Moving Luminaries, an immersive kinetic pavilion on an acre of waterfront during Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2017. Jan is a past MacDowell and Princeton Atelier Fellow, artist-in-residence at the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, and recipient of the Sherwood, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts100, 2021 Creative Capital, and 2022 USA Fellow Awards. He is the son of émigrés from Afghanistan and Poland, on faculty at CalArts, and a TED Senior Fellow.
Deborah Stein '99 is a playwright, director, teacher, and Co-Artistic Director of Stein | Holum Projects (SHP), a collaborative laboratory for creating new performances. With SHP she has written and co-directed CHIMERA (created in residence at HERE, where it premiered in the 2012 Under the Radar Festival; subsequently nominated for a Drama Desk Award) and THE WHOLEHEARTED (commission from ArtsEmerson, recipient of a 2015 National Theatre Project award from the New England Foundation for the Arts). SHP has workshopped new works at Philadelphia FringeArts, Kelly Strayhorn, Playwrights’ Horizons, Clubbed Thumb, the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, and at Perry-Mansfield. Deborah’s other plays include HEIST! (Actors’ Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival commission) GOD SAVE GERTRUDE (Workhaus Collective, Theatre @ Boston Court), WALLFLOWER (Stages Repertory Theatre), and BONE PORTRAITS (Stillpoint Productions, Live Girls, ASU). Deborah has created collaborative original work with artists such as Joseph Chaikin, Dominique Serrand, Lear deBessonet, and most frequently the Pig Iron Theatre Company, with whom she collaborated since 2000 on six original works. Deborah has taught writing and theatrical collaboration at Yale School of Drama, NYU/Tisch, Princeton, Northeastern, St. Olaf, and Parsons. Deborah received her MFA from Brown University, where she studied with Paula Vogel. She has received the NYSCA, the Bush Artist Fellowship, two Jerome Fellowships and a McKnight Advancement Grant at the Playwrights’ Center, and is a proud alumna of New Dramatists. She is currently a faculty member in Playwriting at UC San Diego.
Michal Zadara '99 is a Polish theatre director and set designer. Zadara has directed more than thirty plays and performance art pieces at The Wybrzeże Theatre in Gdańsk, Stary National Theatre in Kraków, Współczesny Theatre in Wrocław, National Theatre in Warsaw, Współczesny Theatre in Szczecin, the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin, the HaBima National Theatre in Tel Aviv, the Schauspielhaus Wien and a staging of Iannis Xenakis's opera Oresteia at the National Opera in Warsaw. He was awarded the Political Passport Prize- the Polish equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize - in 2007. His 2007 production of Witold Gombrowicz's Operetta was presented in the 2009 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival. In 2015, with Pew Center support, Swarthmore College brought the North American premiere of Zadara's Chopin Without Piano to Philadelphia, with performances at Swarthmore College and FringeArts. In the 2019/2020 academic year, Zadara was appointed to the position of Cornell Distinguished Visiting Professor at Swarthmore College to teach a course on the contemporary staging of Greek Tragedy in the Theatre and Classics Departments.
Simon Harding '99 is an award-winning set and video designer for live performance, interested in modalities of performance that create a living space between objects and the body. He was a co-founder and the resident designer for SaBooge Theatre, designing all of their productions including the critically acclaimed shows Hatched, Fathom, and Every Day Above Ground.
Sarah Sanford '98 is a Philadelphia-based theatre artist who has been collaborating with Pig Iron as performer-creator, company member, and teaching artist for over 15 years. As an actor Sarah has performed frequently with Pig Iron and on many Philly stages including the Arden, Wilma, Lantern, Theatre Exile, BRAT, Mauckingbird, and Montgomery Theatre. Sarah directed the original iteration of the Obie-winning Underground Railroad Game in 2015, written and performed by former Pig Iron School students Jenn Kidwell and Scott Sheppard. Sarah also taught a Bouffon intensive for the Berserker Residents in preparation for their production It’s So Learning (Fringe 2015), and served as movement consultant/choreographer at Villanova University on productions of Big Love and A Wonderful Noise. Sarah regularly teaches acting at the undergrad and grad level at local universities and has led workshops in Shakespeare and physical theatre techniques. After graduating from École Jacques Lecoq in 2001, she returned there in 2014 to pursue a Pedagogy workshop. Sarah is the winner of the 2010 F. Otto Haas award for Best Emerging Theatre Artist. She is a current Assistant Professor in the Devised Performance MFA at the University of the Arts and Pig Iron School.
Demetri Bonaros '97 is an actor, singer, writer and composer based in NY. Selected theatre credits include Measure for Measure, The Winter’s Tale, The Caucasian Chalk Circle (NYIT-nominated, Best Production), and The Taming of the Shrew (Hipgnosis Theatre Co); Barefoot in the Park (Two River Theatre); King Lear, The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merry Wives of Windsor (Hudson Warehouse); Secrets (Marvell Rep); The Island (Pig Iron Theatre Co.); the musicals Burt Dow, Deep Water Man (Opera House Arts) and Opa! (Queens Theatre and The Directors Company); and the operas Dinner and Delusion (Cell Theatre) and Sogno di Una Notte di Mezza Estate (Orvieto, Italy).
Martín Carrillo ‘97 is a theater artist, Sound Designer, Composer, Educator and spatial/immersive sound engineer based in Los Angeles but working the world over. He is beginning his second year as Sound Director for the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, and outputs Operatic works and concert sound in Los Angeles and everywhere for many fun collaborators.
Suli Holum '97 is a member of the Wilma Theatre’s HotHouse Company, was a founding member of Pig Iron Theatre Company, and is the former Co-Artistic Director of Stein | Holum Projects, whose works include Drama Desk-nominated Chimera, and The Wholehearted. She recently founded The Work, a Philly incubator for new performance, and is thrilled to be supporting the development of projects by Philly artists Jacinta Yelland and Priyanka Shetty. A recipient of a Drama Desk Award, a TCG/Fox Resident Actor Fellowship, a Barrymore Award, an Independence Fellowship, and a NEFA Touring Grant, her creations have been developed by the Orchard Project, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Playwrights Horizons, New Dramatists, the Playwright’s Center, The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, and HERE, and presented by FringeArts, The Public Theatre/UTR, La Jolla Playhouse, Center Theatre Group, Z Space and The Gate (London). She holds an MFA in playwriting from Goddard College. Credits at the Wilma include: Romeo and Juliet, Dance Nation, Minor Character, and Cherry Orchard. TV/Film: Baby Grief, The Fourth Wall, Ghostlight, Mare of Easttown.
Elizabeth Webster '96 has combined 18 years of work as a professional actress with a commitment to acting instruction at universities and professional theatres: Swarthmore College, George Washington University, Temple Univerity, The People's Light & Theatre Company, The Shakespeare Theatre, and The Wilma Theatre. She is a classically trained actress with a specialty in teaching Shakespeare scene study and text analysis, and has extensive practice in low-income and underserved youth mentorship, teacher development, arts integration in the classroom and creative dramatics instruction.
Lesley Tsina '96 is a writer, actor and comedian from Palo Alto, CA. Lesley can be seen in episodes of “Black-ish,” “Community,” “Conan,” “Flaked,” “Funny or Die Presents” and many commercials, including the one where the camel walks around the office saying “Hump Day.” She’s written for “ThunderCats Roar,” “Yabba Dabba Dinosaurs,” Circa Laughs, and the cult comedy anthology, The Devastator.
Adam Koplan '95 is a writer/director and the founding artistic director of The Flying Carpet Theatre Company. Under Adam’s leadership, the company has premiered 12 productions and toured to over a fifteen states and across Europe. Currently he is working on the screenplay version of his 1001 Nights along with collaborators Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez for Twentieth Century Fox. His production of Alpin Hong: Chasing Chopin appeared Lincoln Center as well as played for over 10,000 people across the US on tour. In addition to his work as an author and director, Adam ran the performance programs at The Dreamyard Project for seven years, training and overseeing a dozen teaching artists in residencies in New York City public schools. Adam earned an M.F.A. in directing from the University of Washington, and was a member of the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab.
Dan Rothenberg '95 is a co-founder and co-artistic director of Pig Iron Theatre Company. He has directed almost all of Pig Iron's original performance works, including the OBIE Award-winning Chekov Lizardbrain and Hell Meets Henry Halfway. Pig Iron's work has toured to 15 countries on four continents, with stops at the Humana Festival, Edinburgh Frince, Under the Radar, TR Warszawa, Konfrontacje Teatralne Festival, and Tokyo Performing Arts Market. Dan has directed three critically acclaimed premieres by Toshiki Okada for the Play Company in New York City, a national tour for the Acting company, and collaborations with the alt-comedy group Berserker Residents, new music outfit Bowerbird, and Sweden's Teater Slava. Dan teaches physical theater at the Pig Iron/UArts MFA and Certificate Programs. Pew Fellow; USA Artists Knight Fellow; Artist-in-Residence, Penn Program in Environmental Humanities.
Jeff Sugg '95 is a New York based artist and designer. He is a co-founder of the performance group Accinosco with Cynthia Hopkins and Jim Findlay, and co-designed their critically acclaimed trilogy (Accidental Nostalgia, Must Don’t Whip ‘Um, and The Success of Failure (or, The Failure of Success)). Other theater designs include: 33 Variations (projections: Broadway), Race For Love (projections: China), The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island (co-set & projections: The Vineyard Theater), El Conquistador! (lights: New York Theater Workshop), and The Thomashefsky Project & Let Them Eat Cake/Of Thee I Sing (projections: San Francisco Symphony). Multiple designs for theater companies: The Pig Iron Theatre Company (sets & lights), The Collapsable Giraffe (lights), Transmission Projects (co-founder: lights & projections), Daniel Wilkins and some superfriends (lights). Music design: Natalie Cole (lights), and Natalie Merchant (lights). In addition to his work as a designer, Mr. Sugg is regarded as a premiere technical consultant and system designer. Some credits include: The Wooster Group (technical artist), Laurie Anderson (video system design), Richard Foreman (video system design), Mikel Rouse (video system design), and The Baseball Music Project (video system design). Mr. Sugg has also taught Media and Technology at Swarthmore College. He has led several intensive courses in media technology, system design, and projection at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), Rude Mechanicals Theater Company, and others. For his work on Must Don’t Whip ‘Um, Mr. Sugg received a 2007 Bessie Award and was nominated for a 2007 Hewes Design Award. He was also nominated for a 2007 Hewes Design Award for his work on El Conquistador!. In 2008 he received a Lucille Lortel Award, an Obie Award, and a Hewes Design Award for his work with Jim Findlay on The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island.
Dito Van Reigersberg '94 is a co-founder of Pig Iron Theatre Company and has created and performed in almost all of Pig Iron's productions since 1995, including OBIE-winners Hell Meets Henry Halfway and Chekov Lizardbrain. A graduate of Swarthmore College, he trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse and the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. He has also performed with Headlong, Azuka, Mauckingbird, the Arden, Bearded Ladies, Rude Mechs, 1812 Productions, The Civilians, and Nichole Canuso Dance Company. He is a Barrymore Award recipient for Best Ensemble for Mission to Mercury and for Best Choreography for Cafeteria (Pig Iron), a Barrymore nominee for Best Actor in a Musical for Hedwig (Azuka), as well as a Helen Hayes Nominee for Best Leading Actor for Hell Meets Henry Halfway. With his Pig Iron cohorts Dan Rothenberg and Quinn Bauriedel, he was named a Pew Fellow (2002) and a Knight USA Fellow (2010). Dito's alter-ego Martha Graham Cracker is famously "the tallest drag queen in the world" and her monthly cabaret series at L'Etage in Philadelphia ran for over 13 years.
Erik Rehl '94 is a Production Designer and Artist working across film, TV, theatre, fashion and commercials, with twenty years of experience building unique environments in studios as well as challenging locations- from the mountains of Chile to the deserts of Jordan. Including BAFTA nominated work - Shifty with director Eran Creevy, Kilo Two Bravo with director Paul Katis, The Machine with CW James and the Oscar-winning Six Shooter with writer-director Martin McDonagh, Erik most recently designed A Dark Place starring Andrew Scott, followed by a number of feature documentaries including The Wonderful: Stories from the Space Station. Currently he is designing his sixth series of SAS: Who Dares Wins, as well as reforming the immersive theatre group Cinemorphe which he co-founded. He co-created Cinemorphe's recent Paris show Battre Le Pave, a joyful celebration of a neighborhood emerging from lockdown.
Quinn Bauriedel '94 has been one of the leading artists of Pig Iron Theater Company since 1995, co-creating many of the company's 30+ original works of theatre and touring them to venues and festivals in Brazil, Germany, Scotland, England, Romania, Poland, Peru, Italy, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Ireland, among others. Additionally, Quinn and Pig Iron regularly present their work in New York City and have toured throughout the States including engagements in San Francisco, Washington, DC, Princeton, Providence, Cambridge, Atlanta, Tampa, Logan (Utah), among others. He has directed, designed, and performed with the company since its inception. Quinn is the Program Director of Pig Iron School, a physical theatre school rooted in Lecoq pedagogy and ensemble theatre practice that offers MFA and certificate programs in Devised Performance through a partnership with the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, as well as workshops, residencies, and other training opportunities. Additionally, he has been on the faculty of Swarthmore College and the Headlong Performance Institute and has taught courses at Princeton University, as well as taught professional theatre training workshops in Philadelphia, New York, and San Francisco for the past 15 years.
Tara Webb '94 is a lecturer in Costume Design at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro's College of Visual and Performing Arts. Webb comes to UNC Greensboro from Swarthmore College, where she was the Costume Shop Manager and taught “Introduction to Media Design for Performance.” She also coordinated video installations and was an Artist-in-Residence at the Hacktory Makerspace in Philadelphia. Previously she taught “Costume Design for Film and Stage” at Philadelphia University. She has also presented a number of workshops including “Acting in Period Costume,” “Sustainability Advocacy,” and “The Art of Pounding Plants.” Webb’s designs have been seen at Drexel University, Juniata College, MIT, Swarthmore College, and the University of Pennsylvania. Recent projects include collaboration with other artists at the Marth Graham Cracker Cabaret, National Constitution Center, New Paradise Laboratories, Nichole Canuso Dance Company, Suli Holum/The Work, and Trey Lyford/Gimmick. In addition to costumes, she has also designed promotional wearables for corporate events, and custom soft goods and interior textiles for restaurants and businesses. Webb is impassioned about sustainability in the arts. She is currently making natural dyes from local plants and exploring surface design using non-toxic organics and food waste. Webb holds an MA in Visual Culture: Costume Studies from NYU.
Ted Pierce '94 is an American visual artist based in Copenhagen, DK. His work spans the fields of the performing arts, installation art, video, music, performance, and conceptual art. As a multi-disciplinary creator, he works as director, scenographer, light designer, and video designer, for live projects. With its mediating operations exposed, his work explores open construction and the multiplicity of ready-made objects. Pierce collapses illusionistic designs and creates a sense of surprised recognition for the viewer. His professional work in theater and performance over the past 30 years has led him to collaborate with more than 30 companies in over 10 countries. He graduated from Swarthmore College in 1994 (BA), and Yale School of Drama in 2001 (MFA). Pierce received the Danish Reumert Award for Best Scenographer in 2010.
Brent Askari '93 is the winner of the NNPN Smith Prize for Political Theater for his play The Refugees, which will be produced at Gulfshore Playhouse in 2024. Barrington Stage Company commissioned his play Andy Warhol In Iran, producing its world premiere in 2022; the play won Berkshire Theater Critics Award for Best New Play of the season. Chicago's Northlight Theatre produced a second production of Andy Warhol In Iran in early 2023, and it will be part of City Theatre of Pittsburgh's 2023-2024 season. Brent's other plays include American Underground (Runner-up winner Bonnie and Terry Burman New Play Award, produced at Barrington Stage Company 2019), Hard Cell (PlayPenn Conference 2017, produced at Geva Theatre Center in 2019), White Party (Semi-finalist for O’Neill Conference, Finalist Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Finalist Ashland New Plays Festival), Digby’s Home (Semi-finalist O’Neill Conference, produced at Mad Horse Theatre); Cocktails and Travails (Winner of Neil Simon Festival’s National New Play Contest and produced at The Theater Project); Bending Reeds (Semi-Finalist Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Blank Stage Living Room Series); Dirty Deeds Downeast (Finalist, B Street Theater New Comedies Festival). In addition, Brent has had plays produced at or developed by Ensemble Studio Theatre LA, Vital Theatre, The Boston Theatre Marathon, New American Theatre, The Drilling Company, Swarthmore College, Eastern Connecticut State University, and the College of Southern Nevada. He was part of HBO’s New Writers Project and has written screenplays for several companies including Paramount Pictures, Marvel Films, MTV, and Reveille Entertainment. He is an ensemble member of Mad Horse Theatre Company and an affiliate artist of the NNPN.
David Underwood '92 is a Senior Lecturer and Designer at UNC Pembroke. David Underwood came to UNCP in 1998 having obtained a Masters of Fine Arts degree in Technical Theatre from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has served as the Production Manager of GPAC and as the Technical Director, Lighting Designer, and Set Designer for the Theatre Program. He has designed over fifty productions at UNCP. Underwood teaches Introduction the Theatre, Set Design, Scene Paint, Stage Management, Stage Combat, Props Design, and Stage Combat II.
Gail Lerner '92 has spent over 20 years in show biz as a writer, director, and executive producer for shows such as Will & Grace, Happy Endings, and black-ish. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her 2001 short film, Seraglio, and six primetime Emmys for black-ish and Will and Grace.
Janet Erlick '88 serves as the Executive Artistic Director of the Florida Children’s Theatre (FLCT), where she oversees classes, productions, and community outreach initiatives. Janet is recognized as a Master Teaching Artist through the South Florida Cultural Consortium. She studied theatre at Swarthmore College and trained through The Kennedy Center and Wolf Trap. Her ongoing work in the community reflects her assertions as a cultural advocate.
Maya Roth '88 is a current Associate Professor of Theater at Georgetown University, and was the founding Artistic Director of the Davis Performing Arts Center. An artist-scholar, she specializes in feminist plays and criticism, cross-cultural adaptations of classics, and new work development. Maya brings critical and creative expertise to the plays of Timberlake Wertenbaker, exemplified by numerous essays, productions and her co-edited volume International Dramaturgy (2011). Recent research includes her adaptation of Aphra Behn’s The Rover (2020) and her multi-year developmental dramaturgy for Iraqi-American Playwright Heather Raffo on Noura (Shakespeare Theatre Co world premiere, Playwrights Horizon NY premiere 2018) and Fallujah (Vancouver City Opera 2012). Since 2007, she has stewarded the Jane Chambers Prize for Feminist Playwriting, sponsored by WTP and ATHE. Her co-edited volume, Lesbian & Queer Plays from the Jane Chambers Prize (NoPassport Press 2019) features a cadre of winning plays and original interviews, in addition to curation. Maya’s early collaborations with Megan Terry and Joe Goode shape her commitment to interdisciplinary performance and pluralism, whether via artistic direction, incubation of new theater (e.g. by L Feldman and Christine Evans) or her direction of classics, such as by Wertenbaker, Shakespeare, Adrienne Kennedy and Caryl Churchill. Her critical writing appears in playbills, scholarly journals and edited volumes, such as Feminist Theatrical Revisions of Classic Works,Theatre of War and Exile, and Dramatic Revisions of Myths, Fairytales and Legends. She is honored to have won the College Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award (2014), in addition to WTP’s Career Achievement Award in Service to the Field (2018). She previously served as Chair of the Department of Performing Arts at Georgetown. While Program Director for TPST, she stewarded the development of the major.
