Roundabout Announces 2022-23 Directing Fellow and Directors Group

Roundabout Theatre Company has announced the newest addition to the artistic team: Directing Fellow Mack Brown. Brown is the fifth Roundabout Directing Fellow. This season they will assist on multiple Roundabout productions, and work with the theatre's artistic team as a script reader and on developing two projects of their choosing.

Roundabout also announced the 2022-23 Leon Levy Foundation Roundabout Directors Group, launched in 2019 to provide career assistance to emerging directors. The fourth Roundabout Directors Group cohort includes Autumn Angelettie, Chari Arespacochaga, Britt Berke, James Bruenger-Arreguin, Adam Coy, Evan T Cummings, Devin E. Haqq, Susanna Jaramillo, Margaret Lee, Sarah Shin and Dina Vovsi. This group adds to Roundabout's myriad artistic and career mentorship programs, including the Roundabout Directing Fellowship, the Theatrical Workforce Development Program and Space Jam, a support initiative for playwrights. The Cohort will once again be led by Roundabout Associate Artist and past Directing Fellow, Cristina Angeles.

The Roundabout Directing Fellowship was launched in 2017 to provide development opportunities, resources, and career assistance to early career directors in the American Theatre. The Fellowship was created specifically to foster new relationships with, and to create a launchpad for, artists who have traditionally been denied equitable opportunities in the theatre industry. Past Fellows have gone on to direct off-Broadway, regionally, and at academic institutions around the country. They have served as associate directors on and off Broadway and have taken further steps in their freelance careers after deepening their networks through the Fellowship.

Previous Directing Fellows include Roundabout Resident Director Miranda Haymon, who directed Exception to the Rule by Dave Harris for Roundabout Underground earlier this season, and Roundabout Associate Artist, Obie and Lilly Award winning director, writer, and musician Whitney White.

Launched in 2019, the Leon Levy Foundation Roundabout Directors Group (RDG) was created to provide an artistic community for directors at similar stages of their careers, fostering camaraderie, lateral mentorship, access to expanded professional networks, and insight into the workings of a large not-for-profit institution. The RDG cohort meets monthly with established artists to offer mentorship and workshops on topics such as: leadership during a global pandemic, transitioning from assisting to directing, directing for TV/Film, understanding SDC, self-producing, finding representation, and more. Most importantly, RDG serves as a connection point to find community between colleagues with the hope that our members leave RDG with a larger circle of industry connections, knowledge, and a close group of peers. The Roundabout Directors Group has included many individuals who have gone on to participate in directorial roles for Off-Broadway and Broadway work through the years. To view the full list of past Roundabout Directors Group members please visit here.

BIOGRAPHIES

Roundabout Directing Fellow:

Mack Brown

Mack Brown (they/them) is a big-hearted Brooklyn-based butch. Prioritizing the work of their contemporaries, Mack builds vibrant worlds that center lesbians and trans people. They wield structure and queerness to unlock rehearsal rooms that glow with mutual ownership, and they love to develop sharp new musicals. Recent fave creds: "At Hotel Macguffin" by M Sloth Levine, and "Insomniacs" by Brin Solomon. Mack is a member of the third cohort of the Roundabout Directors Group, and holds a BFA in Theatre Arts from the Boston University School of Theatre. www.readymack.com

Roundabout Directors Group:

AUTUMN ANGELETTIE

AUTUMN ANGELETTIE (she/her) is a theatrical director, producer, playwright, and performer from Greater Philadelphia, based in New York City. As an abolitionist, feminist theatre maker and organizer, Autumn seeks to create and produce radically transformative art in an evolving industry. Her experience and expertise lie in curating and leading creative teams composed of members of the global majority, and developing new, social justice-oriented works. Autumn has been involved in the development of world premieres by NSangou Njikam (21 Strings: A Rhyme), Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi (Klytmnestra: An Epic Slam Poem, Helen Hayes Best Outstanding Original Play 2020), T.J. Lewis (blk thoughts (:you can redo?:)) and nearly a dozen other new Black theatrical productions, including her own, in the varied capacities of director, producer, playwright, and actor. She has been honored with experiences on and offstage at the Apollo Theater, Signature Theatre NYC, Mabou Mines, Joe's Pub, Theater Alliance, Young Playwrights' Theater, Lime Arts Productions' 20 by 20 Fringe, Broadway Green Alliance, The Howard Players' 8x10 Play Festival, Philly Young Playwrights' Monologue Festival, Howard University, and with the Broadway Advocacy Coalition. Autumn earned her BFA in Theatre Arts in the inaugural class of the illustrious Howard University Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts. She currently serves as the Artistic Director of Lime Arts Productions.

Chari Arespacochaga

Chari Arespacochaga (she/they) is a FilipinX, queer director and educator. She has done work in theatre, film, multi-media, special events and concerts; and is committed to the development of new work and new forms in performance. Her work is deeply rooted in theatre-making (and theatre-teaching) as an act of radical imagination and necessary cultural work. She cultivates inclusive, diverse and circularly-collaborative spaces that invite innovation, investigation, conversation, experimentation and multi-disciplinary expression to creating so we might expand our notions of performance, how we might create them, with whom and for whom. www.chariarespacochaga.com

BRITT BERKE

BRITT BERKE (she/her) is a director whose work examines love, intimacy, and taboo through curiosity, honesty, and joyful theatricality. Britt has directed and developed work with New York Theatre Workshop (residency at Adelphi), The Public Theater, Mabou Mines, Torn Out Theater (aka "the Naked Shakespeare company"), The Mint, The Tank, Moxie Arts NY, and Origin Theater (Best Director Nom). She is the co-founder of November Theatre, a transatlantic collective telling heart-forward stories of identity. Britt is the assistant to Lileana Blain-Cruz and JoAnne Akalaitis. She is an alumna of the MTC Directing Fellowship, 24 Hour Plays: Nationals, and the NAMT & SDC Observerships. Britt and her work have been featured in The New Yorker, Time Out New York, and SDC Journal. BA, Barnard College. brittberke.com

JAMES BRUENGER-ARREGUIN

JAMES BRUENGER-ARREGUIN (he/him). Born in Los Cabos, Mexico, and raised in Denver, CO, James is an NYC-based Latino director and producer currently working in the Creative Development office at Disney Theatrical Group. He has worked and collaborated with the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Theatre Aspen, The 24 Hour Plays, and Southern Colorado Repertory Theatre (Associate Artistic Director). Recent Credits: Colorado Spring Fine Arts Center: Guadalupe in the Guest Room (2022 Henry Award Nominee - Best Director of a Play) and To Slay The Dragon. SCRT: The Last Five Years (Director), Evita (Director/Choreographer), Fly By Night (Choreographer), University of the Arts: Pop The Musical Exhibition (Director), and Momentos (Director). James is a current New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellow in Directing at Repertorio Español. BFA in Directing, Playwriting + Production from the University of the Arts. www.directordeteatro.com

Adam Coy

Adam Coy (he/him) is a Ukrainian-Tejano director, curator of vibes, and actor based in New York City, originally from San Antonio. He currently serves on The Fled's leadership circle and is the Associate Artistic Director of The Egg & Spoon Theatre Collective. The 2021-22 Playwrights Horizons Robert Moss Directing Fellow, a TCG Rising Leader of Color, Theatre Producers of Color, SDC Foundation Observership class alum, and an SDC associate member. As a performer Adam has developed work with San Diego Rep, JACK, Northern Stages, Pipeline, Latinx Playwrights Circle, Chautauqua Theatre Company and others. The Theatre he seeks to create: honors the past by retelling it, pushes the boundaries of what can happen in a physical space, feels like a fairy-tale-and-the-internet-and video-games-and-a-rap-battle, mixes forms, makes my ancestors proud, and doesn't alienate my friends that have never seen a play and would rather be on the block. I would have my audiences be conscious citizens of this terrible and beautiful world. Proud alumni of Syracuse University, BFA Acting.

EVAN T CUMMINGS

EVAN T CUMMINGS (he/him) is a director and playwright based in NYC. Recent directing: Trust by Steven Dietz at the Stella Adler Studio, An Evening of Short Plays for Lincoln Center's Restart Stages, and his own play Emergency Planning for Roundabout Theatre's Reverb Festival. He has directed workshops and readings with many companies including New York Theatre Workshop, Lincoln Center, The Private Theatre (company member), Fault Line Theatre, Queens Theatre, The Culture Project, Luna-Stage/">Luna Stage, The Lark, and Geva Theatre Center. He has assistant directed with The Public Theater, LAByrinth Theater, Geva, Pittsburgh CLO and Dallas Theatre Center. He is a co-founder of the World Wide Lab, an international company that has created community-based director-driven theatre in New York, Athens, Taipei, Rome, and Berlin. Evan directs frequently with Queens Theatre and their "Theatre for All" initiative which showcases disabled artists' voices through their New American Voices Series, and he is a teaching artist for the TFA Professional Actor Training Program. Evan was recently brought on as the director and coordinator of a new division within The Stella Adler Studio: the Division of Artistic Access and Inclusion. He is a graduate of The School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University. www.evantcummings.com

Devin E. Haqq

Devin E. Haqq (he/him) is a member of the Fiasco Theater Acting Company, an IFP alumni, and a Finalist for the HBOAccess 2020 Directing Fellowship. His feature film, Ambition's Debt, won the 2017 Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature at the prestigious American Black Film Festival (ABFF) and the 2018 Paul Robeson Award-Honorable Mention at the Newark Black Film Festival. Recently, Devin produced the short film Cupids, directed by Zoey Martinson, which had its world premiere at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival as part of the 8:46 Films Initiative sponsored by Procter & Gamble (2022 NAACP Image Award Nominee). Cupids has since gone on to play at some of the top film festivals around the world, including Woodstock, Cambridge, Chicago International Film Festival (Gold Hugo Award Nominee), Riverrun, The American Pavilion at Cannes, and recently aired on CBS & BET Networks. Devin was also a Finalist for the 2019 SAG Indie Fellowship at Stowe Story Labs and his short horror script, Wildin' Out, was a Finalist in the 2019 PAGE International Screenwriting Awards Competition. His latest short film project, The Mark, was nominated for Best Horror at the Academy qualifying 2020 LA Shorts International Film Festival and won Best Narrative Short at the 2021 Atlanta Shortsfest. His feature script Malsumis was a Finalist in the 2021 ScreenCraft Sci-fi & Fantasy Screenplay Competition and is now optioned by Create Entertainment. Devin made his stage directorial debut in 2020 with a much-celebrated production of the critically acclaimed Pass Over by Antionette Nwandu at Luna-Stage/">Luna Stage in West Orange, NJ. He has since gone on to direct workshops and staff as an associate director on productions for such organizations as The Public Theatre, The Folger, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Fiasco, and the National Black Theatre.

SUSANNA JARAMILLO

SUSANNA JARAMILLO (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based director and stage manager hailing from Cranford, New Jersey. As a director, Susanna believes in radical inclusion and aims to create work that subverts our expectations of identity, uplifts voices that are historically left out of the theatrical canon, and interrogates the societal structures that limit us. Recent directing credits include: f-ing A (PPAS), Best Life (JACK), Daddy (John Jay College). Assisting credits include: Dom Juan (Bard Summerscape), Wine in the Wilderness (Roundabout Theatre Co.), Bite Me (Roundabout Theatre Co.), African Caribbean MixFest (Atlantic Theatre Company). Select academic theatre direction includes: Yellow Face (Front Row Theatre Co.), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (iNtuitons Experimental Theatre), Little Shop of Horrors (Quadramics Theatre Co.), Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play (iNtuitons Experimental Theatre). Susanna is a proud member of the 2022-2023 Drama League Directors Project. Graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a BSE in chemical and biomolecular engineering.

Margaret Lee

Margaret Lee (she/her) is a theatre director based in New York. She has developed and presented work with Ma-Yi Theatre, 2G, IRT Theater, BRIClab, Breaking & Entering and recently directed three world premiere plays as part of the Moxie Arts Virtual Commission. She is currently the Associate Director of Scarlet Night (Virgin Voyages' signature show) and she served as Associate/Resident Director of virtual immersive nightclub-theatre Eschaton. Past assistant credits include Kathleen Marshall, David Mendizabal, Ellie Heyman, Victor Malana Maog, and Marcia Milgrom Dodge at theatres such as MCC Theater, Long Wharf Theatre, New York Stage & Film, and The Old Globe. Margaret is a Drama League Directors Project alumna, a 24 Hour Plays: Nationals alumna, a Black Girl Theatre Magic Director's Circle member, and SDC Associate Member. www.LeeMargaret.com

SARAH SHIN

SARAH SHIN (she/her) is a Schwenksville-raised Boston-trained, Brooklyn-based Korean American theatre artist dedicated to finding, gathering, and uplifting community. Recent directing credits include The Cradle Will Rock (Concord Academy), Manuka (Youngbloods @ EST), Final Contact (Central Square Theater), A Very Herrera Holiday (New Repertory Theater), The First Pineapple and Other Folktales (Central Square Theater), and Amputees (Boston University). Assistant Credits include My H8 Letter 2 the Gr8 American Theatre (Assistant Director, Public Theater, Ma-Yi Theatre/AYE DEFY), Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare & Co.), Endlings (Assistant Director, NYTW), Twelfth Night (Catskill Mountain Shakespeare), Moby Dick (Choreography Assistant, ART), and THE GIFT PROJECT (All For One Theater). She is the Co-Founding Artistic Producer of Asian American Theatre Artists of Boston (AATAB), 2020-2021 Asian American Arts Alliance Virtual Residency Cohort Member, and 2021-2022 National Queer Theatre Artistic Collective Member. She also performs, loves to sing, make music, and always dreamed of being in a band. BFA Theatre Arts Boston University. www.sarah-shin.com

Dina Vovsi

Dina Vovsi (she/her) is a New York-based director and theatermaker. Recent projects include EXITS, an audio-theatrical journey through Fort Greene, supported by New Georges and the Brooklyn Arts Council, and Love is... [Kocham Cię], a 2022 Brooklyn Arts Council SU-CASA collaboration with Pete McGuinness Senior Center. She has directed and developed new work with The Civilians, New Georges, Working Theater, Cape Cod Theatre Project, Dartmouth VoxFest, and more. Dina is a New Georges Affiliated Artist and a Working Theater 5 Boroughs 1 City Initiative commission recipient, co-creating a play with Liba Vaynberg about the intersection of the Russian-speaking and Pakistani immigrant communities in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. She was a 2021 Brooklyn Arts Council Grantee, a Robert Moss Directing Fellow at Playwrights Horizons, a member of The Civilians' R&D Group, the recipient of an SDC Foundation Observership, a member of the Lincoln Center Directors' Lab, and a Mass MoCA Assets for Artists Grantee. As an associate/assistant director, Dina has worked on Broadway, off-Broadway, and regionally with Roundabout, Playwrights Horizons, Spoleto Festival USA, WP Theater, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Ma-Yi, and more. Dina is a frequent guest director at universities, working with students at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts, Fairleigh Dickinson University, and Long Island University. A passionate advocate of new plays and playwrights, Dina was the Program Coordinator of PlayTime at New Dramatists from 2016-2019. www.dinavovsi.com

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