NYSX LEADERSHIP COUNCIL 2021
As we step into our second decade of using Shakespeare to create community conversations and connections, New York Shakespeare Exchange is moving to a new, more collaborative model of artistic development that will push the boundaries of how we innovate! The NYSX Leadership Council will work directly with Co-Artistic Directors Cristina Lundy and Ross Williams to produce a season of groundbreaking performances and programs.
| Anaseini Katoa is thrilled to be joining the New York Shakespeare Exchange in this new role through the Leadership Council. You may have seen her in past NYSX ShakesBEER pub crawls but she has also worked as an actor with Silicon Valley Shakespeare, South Dakota Shakespeare Festival, and The San Jose Repertory Theater to name a few. She received her B.A. in Theater Arts from San Jose State University and has been working in the city at an education assessment software company. The first Shakespeare play she ever saw was, Two Gentleman of Verona when she was in fifth grade. This is where her love for the language and the stories really started to blossom. In addition to her experience onstage, Anaseini has experience volunteering with at-risk youth in San Jose, CA. |  |
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Anna Snapp is a Brooklyn-based actor, writer, and teacher. In 2019, she graduated from The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and has also studied at The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and Temple University. She has been performing her autobiographical one-woman show, I Found That the Sun Will Rise Tomorrow about her struggles with physical and mental health and trauma since 2016, with appearances in Maryland, Washington, DC, Edinburgh, and New York City. One of her missions as an artist is to de-stigmatize mental illness, and bring awareness to the battles against invisible health issues. She also works as an English pronunciation and communication coach with ELK Academy. She loves the power and universality of Shakespeare, and aims to make it come alive for those who may not have had access to classical literature in the past. She is thrilled to be a part of the NYSX team! |
| Christine Bruno received her MFA in acting and directing from the New School, is a member of The Actors Studio and works nationally and internationally as an actor, director, teaching artist, and disability inclusion consultant for the entertainment industry. Her selected Off-Broadway and regional theatre credits include The Glass Menagerie; world premieres of Bekah Brunstetter’s Public Servant (Off-Broadway), The Maids (adaptation by Jose Rivera); The Good Daughter, musicals The Ugly Girl and Raspberry (UK tours), and her solo show, Screw You, Jimmy Choo! Her TV and film credits include God Friended Me, Law & Order, Hungry, Ready to Ride, iGilbert, the award- winning short Trouble on High, award-winning independent features Flatbush Luck and This is Where We Live. Christine sits on the NY Local Board of SAG- AFTRA, is Chair of the NY SAG-AFTRA Performers with Disabilities (PWD) Committee, serves on the SAGAFTRA National PWD and Actors’ Equity EEOC Committees and was Disability Advocate for the Tony™ Award-winning nonprofit Inclusion in the Arts from 2005 until its closure in 2018. www.Christine-Bruno.com; www.BrunoDisabilityInclusion.com |  |
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Jennifer Curfman is a NYC-based director, and a Resident Artist and Associate Artistic Director of The CRY HAVOC Company. Directing credits include Art & Class (Play-by-Play Series, The Pioneer Theatre) The Pawnbroker: Lies, Lovers, and Bertolt Brecht (FringeNYC/Fringe Encores); the world premiere of Peace, Love, and Cupcakes, The Musical (Vital Theatre); and Our Town (Stagedoor Manor). Associate/assisting credits include Women in Jeopardy (The Pioneer Theatre – Karen Azenberg, dir.); Lincoln Center Originals: The CRY HAVOC Company (Matt Cowart, Kitt Lavoie, dirs.); SINATRA: Voice for a Century (Live from Lincoln Center – Lonny Price, Matt Cowart, dirs.); Romeo and Juliet (Kitt Lavoie, dir.). Acting credits include the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey, NYC Opera, Great Lakes Theater Festival. Jennifer has taught acting, script analysis, and Shakespeare with CRY HAVOC, the Hunts Point Children’s Shakespeare Ensemble (Public Theater), Stagedoor Manor/Studios, and NSKI (Norwegian Actors College) in Oslo, Norway. Jennifer holds a B.F.A. from NYU. She is a 2017 SDCF Observership Fellow, an Ambassador with The Shakespeare Society, a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab and Actors Equity Association, and an Associate Member of SDC. |
| Jessica Bauman is a director, teacher and community engaged theater maker. With NYSX, she is the proud director of the Sonnet 89 film for the Sonnet Project. Her work on Shakespeare includes Arden/Everywhere, a reimagining of As You Like It as a refugee story. She directed and produced Arden/Everywhere with a company of both professional and community actors – a total of sixteen people from nine different countries. She has spoken about her work on Arden/Everywhere at Shakespeare’s Globe, The Shakespeare Association of America, and in a TEDx talk. Jessica was the director and a co-creator of WordPlay Shakespeare, an innovative electronic book series that combines complete text and original video of several Shakespeare plays. She is currently collaborating with Tijuana Hace Teatro in Tijuana Mexico to create a piece about the US/Mexican Border for American audiences. She is the Resident Director for the Dorset Theater Festival’s Women Artists Writing group, and a long time Affiliated Artist at New Georges. Jessica is an alum of the Drama League Directors Project, the Lincoln Center Directors Lab and Yale College. |  |
 | Liz Thaler is a playwright, director, and native New Yorker who for the last five years served as Artistic Director of All Out Arts/The Fresh Fruit Festival, New York’s most inclusive celebration of LGBTQ theatre and art. She has produced and directed shows in Edinburgh Fringe, NY Fringe, and at venues throughout NYC. She was the founding Artistic Director of In Extremis Theater Company, where she still curates the “Most Unkindest Cut” classics series. Recent directing credits include Different Worlds and Kara Sevda (Now What Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (IETC), and The President Plays (ANT Fest). She will soon be directing the world premiere of David Haan’s Fartlek, or der Froschmauskrieg, which she helped develop from short to full-length with producing company Amios. In addition to her theatre work, she directed the new web series Settling Up, which you can now watch on Amazon Prime! She is an alum of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art’s graduate directing program, and of Wesleyan University. |
| Sam Leichter has worked in theatre education for over seven years. Currently, Sam is a Teaching Artist with Theatre for a New Audience, George Street Playhouse, New York City Children’s Theatre and LEAP. Sam is a company member and Education Director with the New Collectives. He served as the Education Manager at Marin Shakespeare Company in San Rafael, California. Sam is a working actor, a member of of Actor’s Equity Association, and performs regularly in classics and new works. With NYSX, Sam appeared in Much Ado About Nothing, which ran in NYC and College Station, Texas. Other recent acting credits include Bug Play, M4M and Trojan Women with New Collectives, Measure for Measure and Henry IV, pt 1 with Hip to Hip, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg with The Night Shift, among many others. Sam holds a BA from Bates College, and received his MFA in Acting from Rutgers. He lives in the Bronx with his partner, Tom, and their dog, Pinter. |  |
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Sarah Kinsey is an actor, singer, writer, producer here in NYC, and is thrilled to be joining the inaugural Leadership Council with NYSX. She has appeared on stage in NYC with Amios, NYSX, and Partly Cloudy People (with whom she also co-produces). She has also been a part of several award winning short films, including Candlestick Justice, which she also wrote. Regionally, she has performed at several theaters including Cleveland Play House and Actors Theatre of Louisville. Sarah teaches at New York Film Academy both here in NYC and in Florence, Italy. She holds an MFA in Acting from Case Western/Cleveland Play House. You can occasionally find her singing classic country tunes with Bourbon Express and Patsy Hank Lovechild. Sarah-Kinsey.com for more news! |