Jennifer Chang

Jennifer Chang (she/they) Select directing credits include WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON by Min Kahng at South Coast Rep, HANNAH AND THE DREAD GAZEBO by Jiehae Park at The Fountain Theatre, VIETGONE by Qui Nguyen (LA Drama Critic’s Circle award for Direction) DEATH AND COCKROACHES by Eric Reyes Loo for Chalk Rep, ANIMALS OUT OF PAPER by Rajiv Joseph at East West Players (LA Times Critic’s Pick), EDITH CAN SHOOT THINGS AND HIT THEM for Artists at Play (GLAAD Media Award, Stage Scene LA Award Best Director, Ovation Award Nominated) and OUR AMERICAN STORY and RESIDENCE ELSEWHERE (commissioned for the 75th Anniversary of Executive Order 9066) at the Japanese American National Museum. She loves developing new plays and has done so with Ashland New Plays Festival, Center Theatre Group, Boston Court, The Geffen Playhouse, the Chance Theatre, Echo Theatre Company, Circle X Theatre Company, EST-LA, Chalk Rep, and East West Players. COVID affected projects included The TIME OF YOUR LIFE by William Saroyan at Antaeus Theatre Company. Other: 2020 APAFT Award Outstanding Direction, Alumnus Directors Lab West, Drama League NY Fellowship. She is currently on faculty at UCSD’s Department of Theatre and Dance as Head of Undergraduate Acting and is an inaugural member of the Drama League Director’s Council. She is a proud member of the Stage Directors and Choreographer’s Society (SDC), Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA), and Actor’s Equity Association (AEA). BFA NYU, MFA UCSD. More info: www.changinator.com

Josh Costello

Josh Costello (he/him) is the Artistic Director of Aurora Theatre Company. Throughout his career, Josh has worked to make theatre more accessible for more people, sharing a passion for the visceral experience of live theatre with new audiences and underserved communities. He was the founding Artistic Director of Impact Theatre, which focused on audiences in their teens and twenties. As the Artistic Director of Expanded Programs at Marin Theatre Company, Josh created and administered several programs that built relationships with new audiences. At Aurora, Josh initiated student matinee and Community Partner programs and led a revision of Aurora’s mission to emphasize the theatre’s role as storyteller to the community. Josh has directed Exit Strategy, The Importance of Being Earnest, Detroit, Wittenberg, and The Heir Apparent for Aurora, as well as the world premiere of Eureka Day, which won every Bay Area new play award. His world-premiere production of Aaron Loeb’s Ideation with the San Francisco Playhouse in both SF and NYC won the Glickman Award for best new play in the Bay Area and the Theatre Bay Area Award for Outstanding Direction, and was named a New York Times Critic’s Pick. Other directing work includes My Children! My Africa! at Marin Theatre Company, House of Lucky at Magic Theatre, and his adaptations of Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother and Aphra Behn’s The Rover. Josh was the Education Director at Marin Shakespeare Company, and a faculty member at Cal Shakes, ACT, SF Shakes, UC Riverside, Cal State Long Beach, South Coast Rep, and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Josh holds a BFA in Theatre from Boston University, and an MFA in Directing from the University of Washington, Seattle.

Michael Heintzman

Michael Heintzman (he/him) is the co-author of Separating the Men from the Bull, which had its premiere at the Jungle Theatre in Minneapolis and subsequently produced at The Unofficial New York Yale Cabaret Theatre, Off-Broadway. Prior to the Jungle production, Bulls was a workshop in New York under the direction of Tony winner John Rando and was selected for Williamstown Theatre Festival. Michael’s other full-lengths are Magic Moment, a story of bravery during a WWII reenactment weekend, which was a semi-finalist at the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, followed by readings at the Guthrie Theatre, TrueNorth Theatre Project and Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. Under The Hood, also a semi-finalist at the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, and short-listed at Cape Cod Theatre Project, along with a

staged reading at TrueNorth Theatre Project. The Story of God is a cautionary tale of living a lie and surviving a near-death experience over and over again. His Act of Contrition shares the story of twelve-year old Raymond’s dream of marrying his Dad off to Sister Alice, a nun. He is a four-time finalist at Actors Theatre of Louisville’s National Ten-Minute Play Contest and the Heideman Award. He wrote and performed a monologist’s play Oddjobbers, with direction by Wynn Handman at the American Place Theatre in New York. Michael wrote, acted and directed Jerry the web series. He is the author of the children’s adventure book, The Fisherman, published by Macmillan/McGraw-Hill.

Michael is a veteran stage, television & film actor with lead roles that include Off Broadway’s world premiere of A Cup of Coffee by Preston Sturges, Neddy by Jeffrey Hatcher, Epic Proportions by David Crane & Larry Cohn. Regional theatre work includes; Saint Joan, Taming of the Shrew, Imaginary Invalid, On the Razzle, One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest, Jesse’s Land. Film; Paper Man, Pretty Bird, A Dog Year, Soldier Jack, The Stick. Television includes too many credits starring or featured credits to list. Prior and during his acting career Mike did stand-up comedy as a solo act and also with comedian Carey Eidel. Their mothers loved them.

Liz Nofziger

Liz Nofziger (she/her) is a site-specific installation artist whose work examines relationships to space within the physical, architectural, political, and pop-cultural landscape. Employing a broad range of media including video, sculpture, light, audio, found material and text, viewer investigation often completes her work. Nofziger received her MFA from the Studio for Interrelated Media at Massachusetts College of Art. She currently teaches at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, MA. 

Tanya Palmer

Tanya Palmer (she/her) is an Associate Professor at Indiana University, Bloomington in the Department of Theatre, Drama and Contemporary Dance. Prior to joining the faculty at IU, Tanya Palmer was the Producer and Director of New Play Development at the Goodman Theatre and led the theatre’s new play programs for 14 seasons. She curated and produced New Stages, the theatre’s annual new play festival, and served as the production dramaturg on a number of world premieres including an original adaptation of Roberto Bolaño’s novel 2666 written and directed by Seth Bockley and Robert Falls. From 2000-2005 she served as the Director of New Play Development at Actors Theatre of Louisville, where she led the reading and selection process for the Humana Festival of New American Plays. Originally from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, she holds an M.F.A. in Playwriting from York University in Toronto.

Karen Rodriguez

Karen Rodriguez (she/her) is a proud Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble member who was most recently seen in the Steppenwolf for Young Adults adaptation of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, and in Steppenwolf's main series productions of Dance Nation, La Ruta, The Doppelgänger (an international farce) and The Rembrandt. She also appeared in the world premiere of Breach by Antoinette Nwandu at Victory Gardens Theater and in the critically acclaimed solo show The Way She Spoke by Isaac Gómez at Greenhouse Theater Center. Other Chicago credits include The Displaced (Haven); Hookman (Steep Theatre); Blue Skies Process, Another Word for Beauty (Goodman Theatre); good friday (Oracle, Jeff nomination for Best Ensemble); Don Chipotle (The Storefront Theater). Television credits include Chicago Fire and Chicago Justice. Ms. Rodriguez is a 2017 recipient of the Make a Wave 3Arts Award. 

Angela Tillges

Angie Tillges (she/her) is a civic project manager, artist, and educator skilled at working with public institutions and community organizations on projects of social, artistic, and ecological importance. She leads projects that provide people the opportunity to make personal, lasting connections with public and natural spaces. She is the Great River Passage Fellow for the City of Saint Paul. Formerly, she served as Senior Program Specialist for Chicago Park's Culture and Nature Unit and spent 9 years as the Associate Artistic Director for Chicago’s Redmoon Theatre, a company that created free public spectacles providing opportunities for engagement, community building, and recognition of the possibility for change. She holds an M.Ed. from Harvard University with a focus in Arts and Education.