The Future of Theater in the DMV.
Both love-letter and #realtalk, DMV area leaders will discuss season planning as world building, cultural leadership post COVID, and the intersection of civic + artistic practice in our Nation's Capital as we look toward the election.
Friday's guests include Maria Manuela Goyanes, Artistic Director of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; Reginal Douglas, Associate Artistic Director of Studio Theater; Nicole A. Watson, Associate Artistic Director of Round House Theatre; and Elena Velasco, Artistic Director of Convergence Theatre with moderator Laley Lippard, Public Programming and Partnerships at Mosaic. Join us for a celebration of what makes our community vital as well as what we envision for the future of theatre in the DC Metro Area and beyond.
Reginald Douglas (he/him/his) is a director, producer, and advocate dedicated to creating new work and supporting new voices, and the Associate Artistic Director at Studio Theatre in Washington, DC. His passion and acumen for both new play development and re-investigating the classics have led him to theaters across the country, including directing work at Eugene O’Neill Center, TheaterWorks Hartford, CATF, Everyman Theatre, Weston Playhouse, Pittsburgh CLO, Arizona Theatre Company, Theatre Squared, Playwrights Center, Profile Theatre, NNPN/Kennedy Center, NNPN/B Street Theatre, McCarter, Florida Rep, Luna Stage, Harlem Stage, Wild Project, Signature Center, Drama League, The Lark, New York Theatre Workshop, where he was an inaugural 2050 Directing Fellow, and City Theatre in Pittsburgh, where he served as the Artistic Producer from 2015-2020. Reginald has developed and directed plays and musicals by many acclaimed writers including Dominique Morisseau, Cori Thomas, Angelica Chéri, Nikkole Salter, Kemp Powers, Jen Silverman, Ngozi Anyanwu, Matt Schatz, Amy Evans, Zakiyyah Alexander & Imani Uzuri, Brian Quijada, Dave Harris, Chisa Hutchinson, Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm, Josh Wilder, Harrison David Rivers, Craig “muMs” Grant, Jessica Dickey, and many others. Reginald currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the National New Play Network; regularly serves on the selection committees for local and national fellowships and grants; has spoken at several national conferences and festivals; and is a guest lecturer at the O’Neill’s National Theatre Institute. Reginald is a proud graduate of Georgetown University and member of SDC, and the recipient of the National Theatre Conference’s 2020 Emerging Professional Award.
Elena Velasco (she/her/hers) is a freelance theater artist whose 27 year career has encompassed many aspects of production. A member of SAG, AFTRA, and AEA, she has performed at the Kennedy Center, Theatre Alliance, Discovery Theatre, Imagination Stage, Signature Theatre STAGES, and in several films, commercials, and TV shows. She has worked as a director and choreographer throughout the Washington D.C area, including GALA Hispanic Theatre, Keegan Theatre, Source Theater, Discovery Theater, Mead Theatre Lab, Capital Fringe and Helen Hayes recommended productions at Synetic Theater, which also featured her playwriting and music compositions in their family theater. She is an Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts at Bowie State University and has served as a teaching artist in residencies and outreach programs throughout the D.C. metro area, partnering with such organizations as Imagination Stage, Synetic Theater Studio, Theater Lab of DC, Interact Story Theater, Smithsonian, the Hirschhorn Museum, the National Zoo, and in public and private schools. As Director of Outreach for Educational Theatre Company, she developed over a dozen original student musicals and for 10 years served as director for their adult performing company, Shakespeare in the Schools. She is the Artistic Director of Convergence Theatre, a performance collective focused on evolving theatrical language to invite discourse on issues of social justice. Additionally, she is an affiliated artist for Óyeme, Imagination Stage's collaborative project that responds to the surge of refugee children fleeing violence in Central America who have arrived in the DC area.
Maria Goyanes (she/her/hers) is the Artistic Director of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. Prior to joining Woolly, she served as the Director of Producing and Artistic Planning at The Public Theater, where she oversaw the day-to-day execution of a full slate of plays and musicals at the Public’s five-theatre venue at Astor Place and the Delacorte Theater for Shakespeare in the Park. Earlier in her career at The Public, she managed some of the theatre’s most celebrated productions, including Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Maria is a first-generation Latinx-American, born to parents who emigrated from the Dominican Republic and Spain. She was raised in Jamaica, Queens, and has a collection of hoop earrings to prove it. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in 2001 from Brown University.
Nicole A. Watson is Jamaican by birth. New Yorker by choice. Nicole A. Watson (she/her/hers) is a freelance director and educator with an interest in new play development and plays that deal with the past. A former history teacher, Nicole started directing in 2008 and works in NYC as well as universities and theaters throughout the US. She is currently the Associate Artistic Director at Round House Theatre.
Nicole is a member of the New Georges Jam and has worked with New Dramatists, the Lark Play Development Center, the Fire this Time Festival, the New Black Fest, the Women's Project Theater, The 52nd Street Project, Signature Theater, and Working Theater. Credits include Jocelyn Bioh’s School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play, Eleanor Burgess’ The Niceties, Lucas Hnath’s A Doll’s House Part 2, Lynn Nottage’s Sweat, Robert Schenkkan's The Great Society, the world premiere of Kevin R. Free’s Night of the Living N-Word (NY Fringe Festival), a workshop of Lenelle Moïses Merit (New Black Fest), Katori Hall's The Mountaintop, the world premiere of the opera Approaching Ali, (Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center), and the world premiere of Johnna Adams’ World Builders at the Contemporary American Theater Festival.