Intelligence

JACQUELINE E. LAWTON

Playwright

JACQUELINE E. LAWTON (Playwright)’s plays include Anna K; Blood-bound and Tongue-tied; Deep Belly Beautiful; The Devil’s Sweet Water; The Hampton Years; Love Brothers Serenade; Mad Breed; and Noms de Guerre. She has received commissions from Adventure Theatre-MTC, Discovery Theater, National Portrait Gallery, National Museum of American History, Round House Theatre and Theater J. Her play Cinder Blocks was published in Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic: Art, Activism, Academia, and the Austin Project (University of Texas Press). A 2012 TCG Young Leader of Color, she is an alumna of the National New Play Network (NNPN), Arena Stage’s Playwrights’ Arena and Center Stage’s Playwrights Collective. She is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America. She received her M.F.A. from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a James A. Michener Fellow.

DANIELLA TOPOL

Director

DANIELLA TOPOL (Director)’s area credits include Ironbound (Round House, Rattlestick/Women’s Project, Steppenwolf) and Photograph 51 and Andy and the Shadows (Theater J). Recent NY credits include When January Feels Like Summer (Ensemble Studio/P73), How the World Began (South Coast Repertory, Women’s Project), Charles Ives Take Me Home (Rattlestick), Jesus in India (Magic Theatre, Ma-Yi Theater), Lascivious Something (Women’s Project/Cherry Lane) and The Sugarhouse at the Edge of the Wilderness (Ma-Yi Theater). Daniella received her undergraduate degree in directing and master’s in arts management from Carnegie Mellon. She was associate producing director of City Theatre, new works program director at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre and artistic program director of the Lark Play Development Center. A D.C. native, Daniella lives in Brooklyn with her husband and 4-year old daughter and serves as artistic director of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater.

MISHA KACHMAN

Set Designer

MISHA KACHMAN (Set Designer) has worked at Arena Stage, Asolo Repertory, Center Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the Kennedy Center, Milwaukee Shakespeare, Opera Lafayette, Opera Royal Versailles, Portland Center Stage, Round House, Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, Signature Theatre, Skylight Music Theatre, Studio Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Theater J, Wilma Theater and Woolly Mammoth, among many other companies in the United States and abroad. He is a company member at Woolly Mammoth and an associate artist at Olney Theatre Center. Misha is a Helen Hayes Award recipient and a graduate of the St. Petersburg Theatre Arts Academy. He serves as the associate professor of scene and costume design and head of M.F.A. in design at University of Maryland.

IVANIA STACK

Costume Designer

IVANIA STACK (Costume Designer)’s regional and D.C.-area credits include Woolly Mammoth (company member), the Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences, Center Stage, Everyman Theatre, The Second City, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Round House, Signature Theatre, Imagination Stage, Olney Theatre Center (associate artist), Studio Theatre, Theater J, Constellation Theatre, Pointless Theatre, Synetic Theater, Forum Theatre, Theater Alliance, Rorschach Theatre, The Karski Project, Metro Stage and Gala Hispanic Theatre. She is a Ringleader for Audience Integration and the Artistic Director for Original, Interactive Work for dog & pony dc, and has an M.F.A. in design from the University of Maryland.

KATHY A. PERKINS

Lighting Designer

KATHY A. PERKINS (Lighting Designer) has designed Off-Broadway and in New York at Manhattan Theatre Club, New Federal Theatre, Here Arts Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music and Carnegie Hall. Regional credits include Mark Taper Forum, Steppenwolf, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Goodman, St. Louis Black Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, American Conservatory Theater, Indiana Repertory, Seattle Repertory, Court Theatre, Penumbra Theatre, Alliance Theatre, eta Creative Arts, Writers Theatre, About Face Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Geva Theatre Center and Playmakers Repertory. Internationally she has designed in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and South Africa. Kathy is the editor of six anthologies focusing on African/African Diaspora Women. She is a professor of dramatic art at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a member of The College of Fellows of the American Theatre. www.kathyaperkins.com

JANE SHAW

Original Music / Sound Design

JANE SHAW (Original Music & Sound Design) makes her Arena Stage debut. Off-Broadway credits include Ironbound (directed by Daniella Topol, Women's Project/Rattlestick); Men on Boats (Clubbed Thumb/Playwrights Horizons); Yours Unfaithfully (Mint Theater); and Public Enemy (The Pearl). Regional credits include Rear Window (Hartford Stage); Steel Magnolias and The Crucible (Cleveland Play House); Lady Day… (Dorset Theater Festival); and The Price (Triad Stage). Jane last worked in D.C. on House of the Spirits at Gala Hispanic Theater; the show originated at Denver Center and traveled to Costa Rica. Her design for Hamlet at Hartford Stage was honored by the Connecticut Critics Circle. She has received a Drama Desk Award, Bessie Award, Henry Hewes Design Award, Latin ACE Award, Meet the Composer and two Lucille Lortel Award nominations. Her education began in biochemistry at Harvard and finished in sound design at Yale.

JARED MEZZOCCHI

Projection Designer

JARED MEZZOCCHI (Projection Designer) received the 2012 Princess Grace Theater Fellowship as the first projections designer to receive the honor. He is a company member at Woolly Mammoth, most recently having designed Women Laughing Alone with Salad. D.C. credits include Yellow Face (Theater J), Astro Boy and the God of Comics (Studio Theatre) and BELL (National Geographic). New York credits include Vietgone (MTC); Downtown Loop (3-Legged Dog); You Are Dead. You Are Here. (HERE Arts Center); and JET LAG 2011 (The Builders Association). Regional credits include Milwaukee Repertory, Cleveland Play House, Center Stage and The Wilma. He has designed for Big Art Group at the Vienna Festival (Europe, Canada and U.S. tour), Connect4Climate, Alcantara (Design Week, Milan) and the atrium of the World Bank in D.C. Jared teaches projection design at The University of Maryland.

LEIGH WILSON SMILEY

Dialect Coach

LEIGH WILSON SMILEY (Dialect Coach) is a voice teacher and professional voice, dialect and text coach. Smiley has worked at Arena Stage, Center Stage, Everyman Theatre, Round House, Ford’s Theatre, the Kennedy Center and Folger Theatre. She coaches NBC on-camera anchors, Cirque du Soleil performers, lawyers, doctors and others. Leigh is the director of the School of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies at the University of Maryland, where she is a producing director for main stage dance and theater shows, student produced shows and she conceived the Annual Black Theatre Symposium. She developed the Visual Accent and Dialect Archive, a web resource for dialect and accent samples. She is a member of Actors Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, Association for Theatre in Higher Education and the Voice and Speech Trainers Association.

TREVOR A. RILEY

Stage Manager

TREVOR A. RILEY (Stage Manager) returns to Arena Stage after having worked on Carousel, Destiny of Desire and Our War. Other D.C.-area credits include Jack and Phil, Slayers of Giants-INC, A Year with Frog and Toad and Sinbad: The Untold Tale (Imagination Stage); The Diary of Anne Frank, Bakersfield Mist, Godspell and A Christmas Carol (Olney Theatre Center); and Just The Two of Each of Us, Appropriate, Detroit and The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (Woolly Mammoth).