Gisela Cardenas | Heidi Carlsen |Rachel Chavkin | Linsay Firman
| Susanna Gellert Dyana Kimball | Wendy McClellan | Alice Reagan | Gaye Taylor Upchurch | Donya Washington 
GISELA CARDENAS
SUSANNA GELLERT
DONYA K. WASHINGTON
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Gisela Cardenas is a Peruvian Theater Director living in New York City. Gisela is interested in working with classics and adaptations of mythological material from a contemporary perspective. She has a B.A in Anthropology from Universidad Catolica in Peru, an M.A in Performance Studies from New York University and an M.F.A in Directing from Columbia University. Before becoming a director Mrs. Cardenas worked as a professional actress of Film, Theater and T.V in her former country and has trained professional actors in Chile, Brazil and Peru. In 2001, Gisela was invited by Arianne Mnouchkine and the Theatre Du Soleil to attend a workshop in Paris. Her New York credits include an adaptation of Marguerite Yourcenar's “Fires” for the Women's Center Stage Project, a free version of Ionesco's “The Killer”, Chekhov's “The Cherry Orchard”, Euripides' “Iphigenia at Aulis”, Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” at the Riverside Church Theater, and Federico Garcia Lorca's “Don Perlimplin” for Repertorio Espanol as part of the Van Lier Fellowships for New Directors.
As an instructor, Ms. Cardenas has taught at New York Stage and Film "Powerhouse" at Vassar Collge, Fontys Hogeschool/ Academie Voor Drama in the Netherlands, Colgate University and is a current lecturer at Columbia University in the city of New York. As a Director in Residence at The Vortex Theater Company she has directed in 2005 a revival of her adaptation of Yourcenar’s “Fires”, a version of Aeschylus “Agamemnon” which gave her a “Drama Desk Nomination for Directing in 2006”, and “In Delirium” adapted from Goethe’s “The Sorrows of Young Werther”. In 2007, Gisela worked on "Ajax, A furious study on humanity" a project that started at Classic Stage Company Summer Lab, continued as part of Target Margin Theater Hellenic Lab and will go up in 2009. In 2007 Ms. Cardenas directed "Antigone" a one woman show adapted from Sophocles by Jose Watanabe and that Premiered at the "Sibiu International Theater Festival" in Romania this past June and the New York Revival of Kander & Ebb's “Kiss of The Spider Woman” for the Vortex Theater Company. Upcoming projects include: Odon Von Horvath's "Figaro gets a Divorce" at INTAR, Sophocles 'Ajax, and Part 1 of "An Oresteia" for Classic Stage Company 2009 Season that will co-direct with CSC Artistic Director Brian Kulick. 
“Theatrically and personally I am curious about the border between the surreal and pedestrian worlds.” This curiosity, most recently, brought Heidi Carlsen to Poland to study on a Fulbright Scholarship. There, she conducted research and directed her most recent original dance/theater work, + - INFINITY (a site-specific work in an old tram warehouse). Her recent Los Angeles directing and devising credits include: Ice Maker, self authored/created (Highways Performance Space); a reading of The Great White Way by Sigrid Gilmer (Metro Gallery); until soon…, self authored/created (NYTW, REDCAT, Portland Art Center, Highways Performance Space). CalArts directing credits include: Dr. Faustus byChristopher Marlowe; Fantasias of the Immoderate by Jennifer Tsuei (reading/outside performance event); Mud by Maria Irene Fornes; The Pragmatists by Stanislaw Witkiewicz. Heidi is a proud member of TENT, a company unique in its insistence that everyone in the company take on all production and creative roles when making a new performance. Carlsen has trained with Rena Mireka and Zygmunt Molik, former members of Jerzy Grotowski’s Theatre Laboratorium, Piesn Kosla (Song of the Goat) and Dijana Milosevic of Dah Theatre. She has assisted Karin Coonrod, Kristy Edmunds, Chris Kondek and Linda K. Johnson. As a director and experimental theater artist, Heidi wrote and produced many new works before graduating with an MFA from CalArts.
Rachel Chavkin is a freelance director and the founder and Artistic-Director of the TEAM, a devised theatre company based in New York City dedicated to dissecting and celebrating the experience of living in America today. Two-time winners of the Edinburgh Fringe First Award, the TEAM’s newest work, Architecting, is being produced by the National Theatre of Scotland (Blackwatch). The TEAM’s work includes Particularly in the Heartland (2006 Edinburgh Fringe First, 2007 Best Production Dublin Fringe, Top Ten 2007 TimeOut New York), Give Up! Start Over! (In the darkest of times I look to Richard Nixon for hope) (2005 Edinburgh Fringe First), A Thousand Natural Shocks (2005 shortlist for The List’s Best Newcomer Edinburgh Fringe), and HOWL, adapted from the poem by Allen Ginsberg. The TEAM’s work has been seen all over New York City, including Performance Space 122, Soho Think Tank’s Ice Factory, and 59E59 Theaters; nationally, including at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; internationally, including Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre (Scotland’s new writing theatre), London’ Battersea Arts Centre, the Bath Shakespeare Festival, the Bristol Old Vic, the Galway Arts Festival, and Toronto’s Harbour Front Centre. In addition to her work with the TEAM, she is currently working on Canary, a new musical by Molly Rice, with music by Molly Rice and Ray Rizzo, and Peace, a new musical adapted from the play by Aristophanes, co-created with Taylor Mac. Other credits include Uncle Vanya (Classic Stage Company/Columbia University), Taylor Mac’s The Lily’s Revenge, the New York revival of Kurt Vonnegut’s Happy Birthday, Wanda June. She has directed numerous productions at Ithaca’s Hangar Theater, both on the Mainstage and previously as a Drama League Directing Fellow. Dramaturgy: Tempest (CSC, text coach for Mandy Patinkin), Macbeth (SITI Company), Le Petit Mort and Blind Spot (choreographer Pavel Zustiak). Selected assistantships include John Collins (Elevator Repair Service’s Sound and Fury), Anne Kauffman (The Ladies by Anne Washburn) and Diane Paulus (Measure for Measure at Show World). She is a New Georges affiliated artist, and currently serves on the directing faculty at Playwrights Horizons Theatre School, within New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She earned her BFA at NYU and MFA from Columbia University.
Linsay Firman’s NYC productions include Jose Rivera’s Flowers at the EST Marathon, Joy Tomasko’s Unfold Me, Catherine Trieschmann’s Crooked, Heather Lynn MacDonald’s Pink (all at Ariel Tepper’s Summer Play Festival), Anne Washburn’s Apparition (chashama; named one of Time Out New York’s ten best plays of 2003), Howard Barker’s The Power of the Dog and The Possibilities, Joe Orton’s Loot, Peter Rose’s Snatch (Soho Rep) and workshop productions of Pierre Diennet’s Perdita, Brooke Berman’s Until We Find Each Other and Stephanie Fleishmann’s Street of Useful Things. Linsay began working in new play development as the Associate Director of Soho Rep, where she worked from 1998 - 2004. While there, she founded Soho Rep's renowned Writer/Director Lab and ran the group for five years, and also curated Soho Rep’s developmental workshop programs. Additionally she was a 2003/2004 Resident Director at New Dramatists, a 2007/2008 Resident Director at EST and a Director/ Dramaturg in The Lark's 2007/2008 Meeting of the Minds writer’s group. She received her M.F.A. from CalArts. Upcoming: Tilted House by Susan Eve Haar (Chester Theater) and Perdita by Pierre Diennet (Lion Theater).
Susanna Gellert most recently directed The Duchess of Malfi at the FSU/Asolo Conservatory and Marat/Sade at The Fisher Center for Performing Arts at Bard College. New York directing credits include The Lacy Project for Soho Think Tank’s Ice Factory ‘07 at the Ohio Theater, adaptations of Tamburlaine the Great and Valkyrie for Target Margin Theater’s Laboratory, Match and L’Interieur at the American Living Room, as well as workshops at the Lark, EST, and NYU. Chicago directing credits include The Winter’s Tale, The Bathhouse, Electra, and Joe Whyte’s Nebraskoblivion. Yale School of Drama: The Duchess of Malfi, The Lacy Project, Measure for Measure, The Shoemaker’s Prodigious Wife, and Devil Caught Rope. Yale Cabaret: Request Concert, Tuesdays and Sundays, and Two Rooms. She is a recipient of SDCF’s Sir John Gielgud Fellowship and the Julian Milton Kaufman Memorial Prize. Susanna is a graduate of Yale School of Drama and The University of Chicago. Upcoming: Boss in the Satin Kimono, New York Fringe Festival; You Can’t Take It With You, University of Rochester; Othello, Milwaukee Shakespeare.
Dyana Kimball is a founding member of Ontik and the founder and former Artistic Director of Boston Directors’ Lab in Boston, MA. NYC productions include: CONVERSATION by Alexis Clements (University Settlement, Emerging Artist Theatre and Dramatists Guild); NUMBERS by Kieron Barry (Manhattan Repertory Theatre); YOUR OWN PERSONAL APOCALYPSE by Alexis Clements(Chashama and OMFM); Georg Buchner's WOYZECK (Central Park); Elmer Rice's THE ADDING MACHINE (Theatre at Riverside Church); Bertolt Brecht's BAAL, ISLAND OF SLAVES by Marivaux, and Bixby Elliot's LOVE AND LITERATURE (Schapiro Theatre at Columbia); LIBRARY PLAY by Paul Cohen (J. Houseman Theatre), STILL LIFE by Emily Mann (Belt Theatre), RUBBER by Tom Sleigh (RAW Space) and CHOPPING by Magdalena Gomez (HERE Arts Center). Regional: ORESTES 2.0, by Charles Mee Jr.-Brookville, NY (LIU, CW Post guest director); DON GIOVANNI, by Mozart-Juneau, AK (Opera-to-Go); WHAT WILL I DO WHEN YOU'RE GONE, by Neil Bell-Cambridge, MA (The Market Theatre/BTM); TRAVELING NAKED, by Debra Lake Fortson-Boston, MA (Boston Playwrights Theatre); THROUGH THE LEAVES, by Franz Xaver Kroetz-Boston, MA (BDL); TRANSFIGURATION OF BENNO BLIMPIE, by Albert Innurato-Boston, MA (BDL). Dyana received her MFA in directing from Columbia University and currently teaches directing at Marymount Manhattan College. She is also a teaching artist in several NYC public schools and is the head of Columbia University's Theatrical Collaboration Program for High School Students.
Wendy McClellan’s directing credits include: Upcoming: Sarah Hammond’s Green Girl in SPF at The Public, World premiere of Deborah Stein’s Wallflower at Stages Repertory Theatre, Houston. Washington, DC: World Premieres of Jennifer Maisel’s Birds (Rorschach Theatre), Laurie Brooks’ Brave No World (The Kennedy Center). Actors Theatre of Louisville: World premieres of Neon Mirage (2006 Humana Festival, New York International Fringe Festival), Uncle Sam’s Satiric Spectacular (2005 Humana Festival, New York International Fringe Festival), Goody Fucking Two Shoes (2005 Humana Festival), Fast and Loose (2004 Humana Festival), Trepidation Nation (2003 Humana Festival), also productions of Underneath the Lintel, The Caucasian Chalk Circle and Mad Forest. Los Angeles: World premieres of Gregory Gunter’s Antigone. Tertiary. Sexxx. (2001 LA Weekly Award Nominee Best Comedy Direction); Leon Martell and Penka Kouneva’s Steel: John Henry & the Shaker (2002 Ovation Award Nominee Best New Musical). Current projects in development include: The Listener of Junk City by Liz Duffy Adams, composed by John Hodian; A Good Neighborhood with playwright J. Holtham, Runway 69 by Carson Kreitzer, composed by Erin Kamler. Wendy has held staff positions at Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Mark Taper Forum, A.S.K. Theater Projects and Actors Theatre of Louisville. She was the Artistic Director of Los Angeles’ Oasis Theatre Company, the first company to bring Anne Bogart and the SITI Company to LA, and is currently Interim Director of New Play Development for Sonnet Repertory Theatre in NYC. She was the recipient of the 2006 New York Coalition for Women in the Arts and Media’s Collaboration Award. Wendy is a graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts, an instructor with Abrons Art Center, and a member of SSDC. 
Alice Reagan most recently collaborated with PL115 on a new translation/adaptation of Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle through the Mabou Mines/SUITE Resident Artist Program. Other directing credits include The Knights by Rob Handel (Target Margin Theater), Alice in War by Steven Bogart (Summer Play Festival), Women of Trachis by Kate E. Ryan (Target Margin), A Small Hole by Julia Jarcho (FringeNYC), Pickford with Beth Kurkjian (Ontological), Big Night by Dawn Powell (Bates College), Alcestis by Euripides (chashama), Machinal by Sophie Treadwell (Riverside Church). She has worked as a dramaturg or assistant director for Anne Bogart, Robert Woodruff, Robert Falls, and David Herskovits. 2006 Princess Grace Award. Target Margin Artistic Associate, 2006-07. 2008 Drama League Directing Fellow. MA: Performance Studies, Tisch School of the Arts/NYU, Amankulor Award. MFA: Columbia, Dean’s Fellow. Upcoming: Caucasian Chalk Circle at The Chocolate Factory in Long Island City, Queens in June 2009.
Gaye Taylor Upchurch is a freelance director living in New York. She has received several fellowships for directing including ones awarded from The Drama League, Lincoln Center Institute, and The Kennedy Center. Recent credits include: Jordan Harrison’s Fit for Feet (Drama League’s DirectorFest); Charles Forbes’ minor gods (SPF 2007); Patrick Huguenin’s Paper Dolls (NY Fringe Festival); Naomi Iizuka’s Language of Angels (Lincoln Center Institute); Dano Madden’s The Save for MileSquare Theater’s 7th Inning Stretch. She has also directed workshops of new plays by Kirsten Greenidge and Charles Forbes at The Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center Directors Lab, respectively. Other credits include developing and directing new work at Dixon Place, Sonnet Repertory Theatre, and Fordham University. As an assistant director, she has worked on Broadway with Garry Hynes (Translations) and James Macdonald (Top Girls) and has also assisted Michael Kahn, Chay Yew, Michael Wilson, Gerald Freedman and Davis McCallum among others. For the past two years she has worked with high school playwrights for FutureStages. She is currently working with Sam Mendes as the associate director for The Bridge Project which pairs The Winter’s Tale and The Cherry Orchard (new adaptation by Tom Stoppard) performed with a British and American cast at BAM, London’s Old Vic, and on an international tour. She is a 2007 Drama League Directing Fellow, and a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, 2007 & 2008. Gaye Taylor holds a BA in English from Wake Forest University and is a graduate of North Carolina School of the Arts.
Donya Washington's New York directing credits include 30 Patriot Actors by Erin Browne (Columbia); Menders by Erin Browne (reading, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre); Live Nude Girls Unite! (All Things At Once); Busoni's Faust, an excerpt (Target Margin Theatre); Squatters' Rights by Alex Brandes (Kate Fahy/Under St. Marks); The Jew of Malta (reading, Target Margin Theatre). At Brown/Trinity Consortium, Donya has directed The Cure At Troy; Taming of the Shrew; Cloud 9; and The Referee: A Football Play for Mothers and Daughters. For the Brown New Play Festival: Forever Never Comes by Enrique Urueta and Cipher by Cory Hinkle. At Williamstown: Before Breakfast (Workshop); Unwrap Your Candy (Fridays @ 3); Sorry Wrong Number (Workshop). Training: MFA, Directing - Brown University/Trinity Repertory Consortium; Tisch School of the Arts, NYU. Member of the 2008/2010 Women's Project Lab.
