What does a director actually do? In this Creative Conversation, directors will lift the veil on the director's job before, during, and after rehearsals through Opening Night. KenYatta Rogers, Natsu Onoda Power, Shirley Serotsky, and Gregg Henry will share their perspectives and insights.

KenYatta Rogers is a director and actor with over 50 professional productions of theatre experience. Directing credits include productions with Mosaic Theatre, Ally Theatre, African Continuum Theatre Company, The IN Series, Theatre J, University of Pittsburgh, Point Park College, South Carolina State University, Howard University, and Montgomery College. Acting credits include productions with the Kennedy Center, Round House Theatre, Arena Stage, Signature Theatre, Everyman Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Ford’s Theatre, Olney Theatre, Folger Theatre, Trustus Theatre, Shakespeare & Company, and African Continuum Theatre Company. KenYatta received his MFA from the University of Pittsburgh and is currently Theatre Coordinator for Montgomery College’s Performing Arts Department.

Natsu Onoda Power specializes in adapting non-dramatic texts into new works of visual theater, but sometimes also directs plays and designs sets. Original works (writing/ adapting/ directing) include Thumbelina at Imagination Stage; The Lathe of Heaven at Spooky Action Theater; Alice in Wonderland with National Players; Wind Me Up, Maria!: A Go-go Musical at Georgetown University; Astro Boy and the God of Comics at the Studio Theater and Company One Theater, Boston. Other directing credits include Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival; Olney Theater Center; the Studio Theatre; Baltimore CenterStage; Mosaic Theater, and Theater J. She is the recipient of two Elliot Norton Awards (for Outstanding Direction and Production Design), two Helen Hayes Awards (Outstanding New Adaptation and Outstanding Set Design), as well as a DC Commission in the Arts fellowship. Onoda Power holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern University, and is the author of God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the Creation of Post- World War II Manga (The University Press of Mississippi, 2009). She is a Professor of Theater and Performance Studies at Georgetown University. 

Shirley Serotsky is a director, dramaturg, artistic leader, educator and programmer; she recently moved to Ithaca, NY to serve as the Associate Artistic Director/Education Director at the Hangar Theatre. Shirley has been involved with Mosaic Theater as a dramaturg and public programmer since 2018, and was thrilled to direct the 2020 production of Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World. She has taught and mentored students in the fields of directing, acting, dramaturgy, play analysis, theatre appreciation, new play development and auditioning. Selected directing credits include: The How and the Why, Another Way Home, The Call, Yentl, The Argument, The Hampton Years, The History of Invulnerability, The Moscows of Nantucket, Mikveh (Theater J); Rapture, Blister, Burn (Round House Theatre); Winnie-the-Pooh, The Jungle Book (Adventure Theatre); a 21/24 Signature Lab Workshop presentation of The Break (Signature Theatre); God of Carnage, Other Life Forms, Working: The Musical (Keegan Theatre); Blood Wedding (Constellation Theatre); A Man, His Wife, and His Hat and Birds of a Feather (which won the 2012 Charles MacArthur Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play, The Hub Theatre); Juno and the Paycock (Washington Shakespeare Company); Reals, Five Flights and Two Rooms(Theater Alliance); Crumble and We Are Not These Hands (Catalyst Theater); References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot (Rorschach Theater, for which she received a 2007 Helen Hayes nomination for outstanding direction); Sovereignty (The Humana Festival of New Plays). Training: BFA, The University of North Carolina School of the Arts; MFA, Catholic University.

Gregg Henry Recent productions as a director- for Mosaic Theatre Company of DC: Sooner/Later by Allyson Currin, for Theater J: The Christians by Lucas Hnath and Sons of the Prophet by Stephen Karam, for The Welders: happiness (and other reasons to die) by Bob Bartlett, Theater Alliance and Hub Theatre: Wonderful Life by Helen Pafumi and Jason Lott, Hub Theatre: Redder Blood by Helen Pafumi, Theater Alliance: You Are Here by Daniel MacIvor, Round House Theatre: A Sleeping Country by Melanie Marnich, WSC Avant Bard: Two-Headed by Julie Jensen and Scaramouche by Barbara Field (adapted from the Rafael Sabatini book), Metro Stage: Girl in the Goldfish Bowl by Morris Panych. He joined the staff of the Kennedy Center in 2000. Currently on leave, Gregg has been artistic director of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, artistic associate for Kennedy Center Theatre for Young Audiences, has produced the annual MFA Playwrights’ Workshop at the Kennedy Center in association with the National New Play Network, and has been affiliated with the Page-to-Stage Festival since its inception.