Playwright

Jennifer Haley

Jennifer's work delves into ethics in virtual reality and the impact of technology on our human relationships, identity, and desire. Her play, The Nether, won the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, premiered with Center Theatre Group at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles, and won the Ovation Award for Best New Play. The Nether was produced Off-Broadway by MCC Theater and in London by Headlong Theatre and the Royal Court Theatre, transferring with Sonia Friedman Productions to the West End at the Duke of York Theatre. The Nether has since been produced in 28 countries and translated into 19 languages, and is currently running at the Berliner Ensemble. Other plays include Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom, a horror story about suburbia and video games that premiered at the 2008 Humana Festival of New Plays, and Breadcrumbs, a fairy tale about a writer with dementia, also internationally-produced. Jennifer has developed work at the The Banff Centre, Sundance Theatre Lab, the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, PlayPenn, the Lark, and Page 73 Productions. For television, she has written on Netflix’s Hemlock Grove and Mindhunter. She is an alum of New Dramatists in New York City, founder of The Playwrights Union in Los Angeles, and currently lives in Austin. jenniferhaley.com

Media Designer

Jared Mezzocchi

Jared Mezzocchi is an two-time OBIE Award-winning theater artist whose work has appeared at notable theaters nationwide, including the Kennedy Center, the Geffen Playhouse, Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth (company member), and many more. In 2016, he received the Lucille Lortel and Henry Hewes Award for his work in Qui Nguyen’s “Vietgone” at the Manhattan Theatre club. In 2020,, the New York Times spotlighted his multimedia innovations alongside the pandemic work of four other theater artists, including Andrew Lloyd Webber and Paula Vogel. His work on Sarah Gancher’s “Russian Troll Farm” (co-director & multimedia designer) was also celebrated as a New York Times critic pick, and praised for being one of the first digitally native successes for virtual theater. In 2023, this digital production of Russian Troll Farm won Jared his second OBIE as director and multimedia designer (A citation that recognized the entire creative team). In 2021, Mezzocchi also co-directed “What If If Only,” a world premiere of a new Caryl Churchill play, alongside Tony Award nominated director Les Waters. Mezzocchi also created and performed two new works of digital theater during the pandemic: “On the Beauty of Loss” (Vineyard Theatre, NYC) and “Someone Else’s House” (Geffen Playhouse, LA). Mezzocchi is a two-time Macdowell Artist Fellow, a 2012 Princess Grace Award winner, and co-director of The Maya Brin Institute for New Performance. He is working on his first book, “A Multimedia Designer’s Method to Theatrical Storytelling,” which will be published through Routledge. He grew up in New Hampshire, and returns every summer to serve as Producing Artistic Director of Andy's Summer Playhouse, an innovative children’s theater producing original work by professional artists from across the country. jaredmezzocchi.com

Director

Matt M. Morrow

Matt [He, Her, They] is the Executive Artistic Director of Diversionary Theatre in San Diego, CA, where he has directed the 20th Anniversary Production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch (San Diego Critics Circle nomination: Outstanding Direction, Outstanding Musical Revival), the World Premiere of Gordon Leary and Julia Meinwald’s musical The Loneliest Girl in the World (Best of 2018, San Diego Union Tribune), Georgette Kelly’s Ballast (Winner, 2017 Outstanding New Play, San Diego Critics Circle Award), the San Diego Premiere of Bash Doran’s The Mystery of Love and Sex (Best of 2016, San Diego Union Tribune), and the West Coast Premieres of Jordan Harrison’s Amazons and Their Men, and Christopher Shinn’s Now Or Later. Matt recently directed Caryl Churchill’s Cloud Nine with The Old Globe/USD MFA program. Prior to joining Diversionary Theatre, Matt was the Associate Artistic Director of City Theatre Company, where he directed the Regional Premiere of Jessica Dickey’s Charles Ives Take Me Home, the World Premiere of Tami Dixon’s South Side Stories (Pittsburgh Post Gazette & Tribune Review’s Top Ten of 2012), and Kim Rosenstock’s Tigers Be Still.

Matt was a Creative Catalyst Fellow with The San Diego Foundation and La Jolla Playhouse. He has developed new work with The Sundance Theatre Institute, The Old Globe, The Banff Centre, Center Theatre Group, American Conservatory Theater, Lincoln Center, PlayPenn, and Page 73 Productions in residence at the Yale School of Drama. Matt is currently adjunct at UCSD's Graduate Theatre Directing program. He served as The John Wells Professor of Directing at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama (Graduate & Undergraduate Directing programs), and is a member of the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab. He holds a BFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University. mattmmorrow.com

Set Designer

Sibyl Wickersheimer

Sibyl’s designs have graced stages across the country at Theatre for a New Audience, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Lookingglass Theatre Company, Portland Center Stage, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company as well as in the Los Angeles area at Center Theatre Group, South Coast Repertory, and the Geffen Playhouse. Various projects have included art installations at Los Angeles art galleries and unique productions such as Eric Idle’s ‘What About Dick?’ and, the Encounter dinosaur puppet stage at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. Sibyl is also an Associate Professor at USC in the School of Dramatic Arts. sawgirl.com

Composer/Sound Designer

Nathan Leigh

Hailed as “a songbook for our time,” indie folk producer and songwriter Nathan Leigh's 2012 album A Life In Transit explored the highs and lows of touring life. Splitting his time between the life of a touring musician and a theatre composer, Nathan Leigh has performed in venues across the country, and had his music featured in over 300 plays from South Africa to Greece. With former Super Mirage bandmate Kyle Jarrow, Nathan co-created the musicals Big Money (WTF Boris Segall Fellowship 2008) and The Consequences (World Premiere 2012 at WHAT). Collaborating with Jason Slavick and the Liars and Believers ensemble, Nathan Leigh composed scores for adaptations of Song of Songs and Icarus (NYMF 2013). He is the composer and co-lyricist for The Mad Scientist’s Guide to Romance, Robots and Soul-Crushing Loneliness (NYC Fringe 2015) with book writer Megan Sass. Since 2010, Nathan has worked for AFROPUNK as staff music reviewer and producer for the monthly AFROPUNK Mixtape series. Nathan is a founding member of the Peoples Puppets of Occupy Wall Street, now in its 5th year of radical street theatre and puppetry. His latest full length solo album, Ordinary Eternal Machinery, is due out January 2017. nathanleigh.net