Kate Attwell (Panel Producer) is playwright & performer. She is a founding member of I AMA BOYS CHOIR. Credits include: REDCAT, The Public Theater (Under the Radar), Segal FilmFestival on Theatre and Performance, BAM (Everybooty), Stratford New Works Lab, The Bushwick Starr (Reading Series), JACK, Dixon Place, The Brick Theater, Poet’s House, The River to River Festival, Tisch, The Wickham Theatre, The Yale Cabaret. She is a member of Page 73’s writers’ group, a finalist for the 2016 P73 Playwriting Fellowship, a member of the Public Theater’s Devised Theater Working Group, and a Mabou Mines resident artist.
Madeleine F. Bersin (Associate Producer) is Executive Assistant to the Artistic and Managing Directors at New York Theatre Workshop by day and a producer/developer of live performance works by night. Maddy has previously worked with Soho Rep, The Civilians, the American Repertory Theater, and London’s Gate Theatre. Projects have included CAENIS(Pace Gallery), Piehole’s Old Paper Houses (Irondale), Matthew Aucoin’s Hart Crane (A.R.T.’s Loeb Mainstage), David Adjmi’s Marie Antoinette (A.R.T.), and John Tiffany’s The Glass Menagerie (A.R.T./Broadway). Maddy holds an A.B. in American History and Literature from Harvard and continues to write about American culture. www.madeleinefbersin.com.
Brad Burgess (Technical Director/Segal Center Associate) is the Artistic Director of The Living Theatre, after having worked with friend and mentor Judith Malina for 10 years until her passing in April 2015. He is an OBIE award-winning member of The Living Theatre ensemble. Brad is a founding board member of The Indie Theater Fund, an organization of 230-plus theatre companies that collectively tithes and fundraises to support independent theatre. He is a founding board member of Sophie Gerson’s Healthy Youth with former councilman Alan Gerson and many other NYC community leaders, an organization that provides arts, sports, and science programs to underprivileged kids in the city. He is a board member of The Assembly and FRIGID NY. He is an associate at The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at The Graduate Center, CUNY. He is also a workshop leader for the All Stars Project Cops & Kids program with the NYPD.
Jonathan Cottle (Light Technician) is a theatre artist working in multiple capacities. His lighting and scenic design, and original creative work has been seen at: Theatre Row, the Incubator Arts Project, Abrons Arts Center, The Flea Theater, The Irondale, The Cherry Lane, Dixon Place, New York University, Fordham University, Dean College, HERE, and the Bushwick Starr, as well as many many site specific locations around New York City. He has worked with the companies: Foundry Theatre, Object Collection, Live Source, MaYi and Theatre Reconstruction Ensemble. He enjoys building, creating and rehearsing in backyards in the summer, unheated church lofts in the winter and dusty basements and empty warehouses all year round. He is currently developing a series of pieces for living rooms, a shakespeare adaptation and an immersive piece.
Soriya K. Chum (Front of House Manager/Assitant to the Associate Director of Programs,the Segal Center) is an arts adminsitrator and playwright. He previously has held positions at the Asian American Arts Alliance, Theatre Communications Group, HERE Arts Center,and American Symphony Orchestra. Currently, he is a third-year graduate student studying dramaturgy at Columbia University. His thesis focuses on the ethics and aesthetics of memory work in the theater.
Paula Court (Photographer) lives and works in New York.
Frank Hentschker (Executive Director, the Segal Center) who holds a Ph.D. in theatre from the now legendary Institute for Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen, Germany, came to the Graduate Center in 2001 as program director for the Graduate Center’s Martin E. Segal Theatre Center and was appointed to the central doctoral faculty in theatre in 2009. Among the vital events and series he founded at the Segal Center are the World Theatre Performance series, the annual fall PRELUDE Festival, and the PEN World Voices Playwrights Series. Before coming to The Graduate Center, Hentschker founded and directed DISCURS, the largest European student theater festival existing today; he acted as Hamlet in Heiner Müller’s Hamletmaschine, directed by the playwright, performed in the Robert Wilson play The Forest (music by David Byrne) and worked as an assistant for Robert Wilson for many years. Frank currently teaches Theatre History at Columbia University.
Alex Weiss Hills (Web Designer) is a designer and musician based in Bloomington, IN. He has been working with The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center as Associate Director of Digital Initiatives since June of 2014. He is also the Web Developer at The Media School at Indiana University. For a portfolio of Alex’s work, please visit his website.
Yu Chien Liu (Design Coordinator/Administrative Producer, the Segal Center) is a Taiwanese young professional in the field of arts and nonprofit administration. She is now working at theMartin E. Segal Theatre Center as Administrative Producer where she gains experience in management, producing, and graphic design. She is thrilled to be part of her third PRELUDE! She received her master’s degree in Public Administration and Arts Management from SUNY, Brockport and her BA in Political Science in Taiwan.
Michael LoCicero (Technical Director/Segal Center Associate) received his undergraduate education at Wake Forest University, where he studied music, with a focus in musicology. In 2012 he interned as an administrative and production assistant at the David Rubenstein Atrium at The Lincoln Center and in 2013 worked for his alma mater as a technical assistant for two Wake Forest performance spaces before returning to New York. Michael was the 2014/15 MESTC Next Generation Fellow and continues to work with the Center as a Segal Center Associate.
Valentina Medda (Company Manager) is an Italian multidisciplinary artist based in NY. In the last ten years she has been working as Teaching Artist, Art Residency Manager, Visitor Engagement Representative, Event Organizer and Art Installer for several well-known nonprofit arts organizations in NY and in Italy–among them NYFA -NY Foundation for the Arts, SOHO20 Art Gallery, Nosadella2_Public Art Program, and TPO –Teatro Polivalente Occupato. As an artist, she has shown her work internationally and she has been invited as Artist in Residence in Paris, NYC, Brussels, Milan, and Berlin.
Antje Oegel (Curator/Associate Director of Programs, the Segal Center) is the founder of AOInternational (AOI), a NYC-based agency that represents American and international theater artists and Associate Director of Programs at the Segal Theater Center at the Graduate Center/CUNY. Originally from Germany, Antje worked at the Euro-Scene Leipzig, an international theater and dance festival and then became the co-artistic director of the theatre Schaubühne Leipzig. Antje came to NYC in 2002 and worked at MCC Theater before becoming a theater agent at Bret Adams, Ltd. In addition to her work at AOI and the Segal Theater, Antje co-runs 53rd State Press along with founder, Karinne Keithley Syers. 53rd State Press is dedicated to publishing performance texts and new plays. She is also the co-founder of Drama Panorama, a Berlin-based forum for international theater translation.
Isabella Pinheiro (Social Media Manager/ Next Generation Fellow, the Segal Center) is a Brazilian actress working as the Next Generation Fellow at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center. Isabella has worked at the New Ohio Theatre as a production intern and at Cidadão Global as a research assistant. She graduated this May from Sarah Lawrence College with a concentration in Theatre, Art History and Anthropology and studied classical acting at LAMDA in London. Isabella is thrilled to be a part of her first PRELUDE!
Danielle Santos (Stage Manager) is a NY-based director and designer. Her assistant directing credits include Red Wednesday (LaGuardia Performing Arts Center), Men on Boats (Clubbed Thumb Summer Works/Playwrights Horizons). Her directing credits include Naked (Cradle Theatre Company Reading Series), A Dream Play, and Prometheus Bound (College of the Holy Cross). Her costume design credits include Romeo and Juliet (Cradle Theatre Company) and Footloose (Hanover Theatre Summer Program). She is the company manager for Built for Collapse as well as a former artistic intern at New York Theatre Workshop, and an artistic associate at The Cradle Theatre Company. She holds a BA in English and Theatre from College of the Holy Cross.
Nina Segal (Producer) is a playwright and producer based in New York. Current producing includes PRELUDE 2016 (Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, NY), Beyond Caring (upcoming European tour) and Wonderland (upcoming run at the Yard Theatre, London and HOME, Manchester). Previous work for the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center: curation of the second annual Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (2016). Previous producing includes: Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, HOME, Gate Theatre, Birmingham Rep, Sophiensaele
Berlin, Paines Plough Roundabout, Donmar Warehouse, Roundhouse, Gym at Judson and 59E59 Theaters. Her play In The Night Time (Before The Sun Rises) was a finalist for the Yale Drama Series and premiered at the Gate Theatre in 2016, directed by Ben Kidd. She is currently on attachment with HighTide under their First Commissions scheme.
Tom Sellar (Curator) is editor of Yale’s international performance journal Theater. Under his editorship since 2003, Theater has commissioned and published plays, criticism, reportage and creative dossiers by leading global artists and authors. Tom is professor of Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism at Yale University, where he teaches courses in contemporary global performance and theater, critical practice, and performance curating. His criticism and arts writing has appeared in Artforum, the New York Times, the Guardian, American Theatre, and other national publications. From 2001-2016 he was a frequent contributor to the Village Voice, where he served as chief theater critic for two years. A New York City native, he is a proud resident of Brooklyn.
Rebecca Sheahan (Managing Director, the Segal Center), a New Yorker since 2003, joined the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center as Managing Director in 2012. Previously, she worked as a Marketing Director for Brooklyn arts organizations, including 651 ARTS, and St. Ann’s Warehouse. This is her eighth PRELUDE Festival!
Becca Silbert (Stage Manager) is a director, theatre maker and occasional stage manager. She is the current assistant director for Untitled Theatre Company No. 61. Becca has assisted directors such as Edward Einhorn, Lileana Blain-Cruz, Janos Szasz, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Patrice Miller. She has interned for NYTW, Daniel Fish and Nature Theatre of Oklahoma.
Jenny Tibbels (Party Producer, Assistant to the Executive Director, the Segal Center) is a theatre artist, administrator, and professor currently teaching at St. John’s University and serving as a mentor teacher for the Arthur Miller Foundation. A graduate of the MFA Theatre program at Columbia University, Jenny is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, the Academy for Teachers, and Creative Capital’s Summer Intensive. Jenny directed the premieres of Ursula Rucker’s My Father’s Daughter at the Annenberg Center and Scott Ramsey’s Dance with the Sun at the Wild Project, co-produced and directed A South African Play Festival at Baltimore’s Theatre Project, company managed the premiere of Arjuna’s Dilemma at BAM, and has performed with the SITI Company Lab, The Chocolate Factory, Pedro Reyes’ Doomocracy, and as an original member of The Ride New York, an ongoing performance that takes place on a bus throughout New York City, produced by Michael Counts.
