Directorial team:

 

COURTNEY SURMANEK (Co-Director, they/them/Court) is an Ashkenazi Jewish cultural organizer, educator, joker and transdisciplinary artist. Court believes in the power of theatre, art making and creative play as tools for making policy and planning efforts more accessible and equitable. Court is an M.F.A./M.S. Candidate in Theatre: Directing & Public Dialogue and Urban Planning at Virginia Tech, a Visiting Fellow at Skidmore College's Storytellers' Institute, Member of the 2019-2021 Observership Program with SDCF and Member of the Broadway Advocacy Coalition. In 2019, Court was a SU-CASA Artist-in-Residence with the NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs, Social Practice Artist-in-Residence with ProjectArt, Fellow at The Performance Project at University Settlement, EmergeNYC Fellow at the Hemispheric Institute for Performance & Politics and Teaching Artist with Ping Chong + Company. They dream with Streaks of Lavender, a queer collective of artists building ourstory, and call the occupied lands of the Matinecock and Maspeth (Queens, NY) home. For more extensive biographical information, visit www.courtneysurmanek.com. 

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TAYLOR WOOD (Co-Director) is a performer, artist, theater-maker and instructor. She currently teaches acting and applied collaborative techniques to nonmajors in Virginia Tech’s School of Performing Arts. Her primary research focuses on creating theatre that inspires and transforms. She seeks to boost group creativity, promote conflict resolution, and convey an understanding of humanity. Prior to VT, Taylor taught acting and devised theatre on faculty at the University of Georgia. Her original show Glue premiered at Moonlight Theatre Company in Athens, Georgia. She has created work and performed with Playhouse on the Square, Theatre Memphis, and Tennessee Shakespeare Company in Memphis, Tennessee. She most recently worked as a performance coach for business, accounting, and law students at the annual Ole Miss Speaker’s Edge Competition. Taylor holds a BFA in Theatre Performance from the University of Mississippi and an MFA in Acting from the University of Georgia. For more extensive biographical information, visit www.taylorwood.com. 

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Creative Team

 

TEASYA HUDSON (Co-Writer) is second-year undergraduate student at Virginia Tech, studying psychology and organizational leadership. She is thrilled to continue working in theatre here after assistant directing her first project, Three Anne Franks, as a freshman.

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KEITH MCCOY (Co-Writer / Choreographer / Costume Designer)

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Cider Ellison (Collaborating Artist) is an Indigenous, Two-Spirit woman using arts and culture to build community power. She is a writer, artist, community organizer, and activist living in the Appalachian Mountains. 

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design Team

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CHARLIE DUFF (Sound Designer)

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DIKSHA PILANIA (Scenic & Props Design) is a Third-year Master of Fine Arts candidate in Theatre (Scenography and Properties Design and Management). She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Accessory Design from NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology), India. Coming all the way from across the globe, she has explored a lot and worked for various productions including Wolves (Set &; Prop Designer), Balm in Gilead (Set designer & Scenic Artist), Decision Height (Scenic Artist), Angels in America: Part One (Prop designer), Foreigner (Scenic Designer), As You Like It ( Scenic Artist), How I Learned to Drive (Scenic Artist). Along with set Set & Prop design, her interest lies majorly in Graphic Design as well and she feels grateful to be able to use this skill and contribute to the “online world” of theatre. "For her, theatre gives her an opportunity to live in her own drawing."  

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RACHEL WEIS (Creative Technologies Coordinator and Lighting Designer) is a South Florida native who migrated to Blacksburg in early March 2020. She has a passion for using light to tell stories and a degree in Theatrical Technology and Design. She would like to thank Kendall, Courtney, Keith and Taylor for the opportunity to design in a divergent way. Thank you to David and ICAT for the various support you have provided.

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production Team

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SHANNON CLARKE (Sound Operator) is a senior double majoring in technical theatre with a focus in sound design, and business management. Her previous involvements in the School of Performing Arts include The Wolves, Decision Height and The Foreigner (Assistant Sound Designer); and Angels in America: Part One Millennium Approaches and How I Learned to Drive (Sound Designer). She also spent the summer working for Pacific Conservatory Theatre on A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder and The Addams Family. Shannon got her start at Encore Theatrical Company in Morristown, Tennessee. This company continues to support her and many other young artists.
 

JOE LINK (Technical Director) earned his B.S. in Physics and Theatre from Hampden-Sydney College in 2016. Since then, Joe has worked for theatre companies all over Virginia, eventually landing a carpentry position with Maltz Jupiter Theatre in South Flordia. After working in Florida for two years, he decided he got enough endless sun and made a transition back to VA and into grad school.

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RACHEL NUNN (Social Engagement Manager) is a first year MFA candidate in the Arts Leadership program. She hails from Raleigh, NC, and she holds BAs in English and Theatre. She has worked as a performer, director, arts administrator, and theatre designer around the NC Triangle area since 2014, most recently co-directing a fully-realized Zoom production of Carson Kreitzer's Freakshow for Women's Theatre Festival of Raleigh (www.womenstheatrefestival.com). She is excited by the possibilities in online theatremaking, and is thrilled to have a chance to participate in this project.

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KENDALL PAYNE (Production Manager)

 

JORDAN PHILLIPS (Stage Manager) is a native from Pulaski, VA.  She studied at Radford University and has a BS degree in Theatre, with a focus in Stage Management and Technical Theatre.  Her previous SM experiences include: Stage Manager for Making a Scene: “Third and Oak, The Laundromat,” and Assistant Stage Manger for “Anything Goes,” “The Waiting Room,” and “Clybourne Park,” at Radford University.  This past winter, she assistant stage managed Adaire Theatre’s “Home for the Holidays.” In the summer of 2016, she worked as a Swing Tech at Stagedoor Manor in NY, where she was able to do various jobs, but her favorite was running spot for Stagedoor Manor’s “Our Time” Cabaret,” “Rock of Ages,” and “Avenue Q.”  The last couple years Jordan had taken a hiatus from theatre and has been working with and entertaining children.  She’s excited to be working with Va Tech and Adaire Theatre for “The Civility Project and the Race 2020,” and is very thankful for the amazing opportunity.

 

SUSANNA YOUNG (Production Assistant) is a first-year graduate student in the Directing and Public Dialogue Programs at Virginia Tech, currently based in Roanoke, Virginia. She is also an artist-in-residence with Hollins University, directing and choreographing alongside longtime friend and mentor, Ernie Zulia. She also runs the dance company, DanceWorks, at the University of Lynchburg, where she uses somatic listening, modern and postmodern theory, and improv to create collaborative classes and dance pieces with students. As a director, choreographer, performer, educator, and activist, Susie uses interdisciplinary art practices to blur the lines between creation and cultural understanding.

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support Team
 

CARA RAWLINGS (Intimacy Director) Cara Rawlings is Associate Professor of Movement and Acting in The Department of Theatre and Cinema at Virginia Tech. Ms. Rawlings has worked professionally as a teacher, fight director and dance choreographer in Chicago, Washington D.C., New York and abroad in Greece and Austria. Ms. Rawlings is a Certified Stage Combat Instructor with The Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD). She is a member of the Association of Theatre Movement Educators (ATME) and has served on the board of Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC). Ms. Rawlings holds a Master of Fine Arts in Movement Pedagogy and Fight Direction from Virginia Commonwealth University.

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TODD SCHENK (Building Civility Project Lead) Dr. Todd Schenk is an Assistant Professor in Virginia Tech's School of Public and International Affairs. Much of his teaching, research, and outreach focuses on two areas and often their intersection: collaborative governance and environmental policy and planning. Schenk is involved in projects focusing on a wide range of topics, including freshwater salinization, endangered and invasive species, and climate adaptation. He also has a parallel line of work on civil discourse, often conducted under the #CivilityVT and Frenemies Project banners.  Todd is affiliated with VT’s Global Change Center and a member of the Policy Destination Area stakeholder committee, on which he chairs the curriculum committee. In that capacity, he is particularly excited about the group's new Science, Technology, and Engineering in Policy (STEP) program. 

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TANNER UPTHEGROVE (ICAT Advisor)

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SPECIAL THANKS! Corrie Besse, Publicity Director / Bob Leonard, Mentor / David Franusich, ICAT Mentor / George Hardebeck, Facility and Studio Manager at the Creativity and Innovation District / Doug Witney, Director of Production at Moss Arts Center / Cider Ellison, for crafting and delivering the land acknowledgement for this show / Brittany S. Harris, with gratitude for the mentorship and the apt rehearsal workshop offering / Michael Rohd, Phil Weaver-Stoesz and Sojourn Theatre for the guidance, generosity, connection, and mentorship along the way.