Cynthia Henderson is a Professor of Acting, in Ithaca College’s Department of Theatre and Dance Performance. A professional actor, director, and the author of The Actor’s Landscape, and her new book Beyond the Studio a conversation about acting will be released this year by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Cynthia’s artistic and educational work has been experienced in the U.S., Europe, South America, Asia, and on the African continent. She is the founder of Performing Arts for Social Change. Her work in the area of social justice has earned her the CSPA of New York State’s award for “Outstanding Contribution to Social Justice.” She was also cited at the NYS Women’s Expo as one the “20 Outstanding Women You Should Know” in Central NY. Her directing credits include Rent, Everybody, Plumfield Iraq, The Exonerated, Burn This, The Colored Museum, and other explorations. Cynthia is a member of Actors’ Equity, the National Alliance of Acting Teachers, and a Fulbright Scholar.

Jenny Mercein is an actor, teacher, director, producer, and writer currently living in New Orleans. She is an Associate Professor at Tulane University, where she received the 2023 Mortar Board Excellence in Teaching Award. She is proud a producer of Roleplay, a play and documentary film project exploring student perspectives on love, sex, power, and consent. The script for live stage version of Roleplay is published by Dramatic Publishing. The Roleplay documentary premiered at SXSW in March of 2024, where it was hailed by critic Brian Tallerico as “one of the best docs I’ve seen so far this year.” Along with KJ Sanchez, Jenny also co-created the acclaimed docudrama X’s and O’s about football and traumatic brain injury, which received the Rella Lossy Award Playwright Award.

Her latest solo show Two Elizas will have a European premiere in Amsterdam at Mezrab in June of 2024 following performances at Luna Stage (NJ) and Whitefire Solofest (CA). Other acting credits include Your Honor, NCIS: New Orleans, 30 Rock, Blue Bloods, Unforgettable, Law & Order, and extensive theater credits spanning the country. Member: AEA, SAG-AFTRA, and the National Alliance of Acting Teachers. BA: Yale, MFA in Acting: University of Washington.

DIRECTOR – KATIE MATHEWS

Katie Mathews is a filmmaker, researcher, & educator whose work explores the gray areas and transitional moments of modern life. Her recent narrative short film Dark Moon (2022) was a Vimeo Staff Pick and her non-fiction short Signal and Noise (2021) won a Special Jury Prize at New Orleans Film Festival. Previously she produced feature documentary Mossville (2019), which won the Human Rights Award at Full Frame and aired nationally on PBS. She is the 2022 recipient of the Princess Grace Award for Film.

Irondale exists at the intersection of art, education, community engagement and social justice. We develop long-term artistic collaborations to create theatre that expands the boundaries of the art form and helps audiences and artists make sense of today’s world. Every play and program we produce is chosen for its relevance to what is going on in the world now. Our projects range from epic theater pieces developed over several years to work that immediately engages at-risk youth, young scientists and engineers, and the New York City Police Department. At the core of what we do is the notion that theatre can lead us to a greater understanding of who we are and how we can communicate with each other—and coexist with empathy and compassion—in an increasingly polarized world.

Terry Greiss is a co-founder of Irondale, where he is also an actor and the Executive Director. He has performed more than 60 roles with the company and is a creator of most of Irondale’s original works and education programs. He has conducted hundreds of workshops in public schools, prisons, theaters and professional training programs. Terry was the Founding President of the Network of Ensemble Theatres and the Downtown Brooklyn Arts Alliance where he continues to serve on its Board of Trustees. He was a panelist for the New York Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2008 he was invited by the US Embassy to lecture and teach improvisation in Russia. He has taught at the New School, the University of Wisconsin Drama Center and in 2010 he was awarded Brooklyn Arts Exchange’s Arts Education Award. From 2015-2020 he was an improvisation instructor for the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. In 2015, he created To Protect, Serve and Understand Irondale’s improv training program for NYC police officers, designed to heal some of the tensions between officers and community members and provide real tools to improve communication and understanding. Terry is a graduate of the New York (LaGuardia) High School for the Performing Arts and Sarah Lawrence College. Outside of Irondale he has performed at the Manhattan Theatre Club and the Cincinnati Playhouse, in Sarah Ruhl’s adaptation of Three Sisters, directed by John Doyle. If you watch carefully, you can see him on episodes of Boardwalk Empire and Sneaky Pete. He is married to the amazing actress Vicky Gilmore and they have a son, Liam.

Michael-David Gordon is an Irondale Senior acting company member. Mr. Gordon has performed in all of Irondale’s Off Broadway productions since becoming a member in 1992; Working artist, director, arts educator and vocal coach for 35 years; Co director of Irondale’s Young Company; Co-facilitator of Irondale’s ‘To Protect, Serve And Understand’; Irondale: Much Ado About Nothing (Barrachio); Our Town (Stage Manager); Danton’s Death (Danton); Color Between the Lines, a musical about The Abolitionist struggle in Brooklyn (Co-creator); The Seuss Show (Cat in the Hat); 1599 (Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, Hamlet); alice, Alice, ALICE! (Cheshire Cat); Mother Courage and Her Children (Yvette, Soldier, General). Apollo Theater – performer, arts educator. Company member of Theater For The New City’s award- winning Street Theater since 1983. Tours: Dreamgirls, Hair, Freedom Train, Play To Win: The Jackie Robinson Story; Shame. Music: Michael – David Band (founder lead singer, composer); Apple Bonkers (Founder, lead vocalist); Pocket Band (Lead vocalist).

Erika R. Moore is a dance and theater artist, Critical Response Process Certified Facilitator, International Speaker, and Creative Business Consultant. She co-founded ReCreate it, an organization that uses art-making practices to support resource and development strategy in the corporate sector. Erika is also the founder of Moore Arts Entertainment, dedicated to nurturing the next generation of collectors and emerging visual artists. Erika’s career spans national and international tours, including serving as the Resident Choreographer for AZ Black Theater Troupe and a teaching artist with Rising Youth Theater. She has also worked extensively with faith-based organizations, providing arts and education training to under-resourced communities across the U.S., Brazil, and Argentina. Erika brings a wealth of experience as a grant panelist for organizations like the AZ Commission for the Arts, Tempe Center for the Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Children Arts Museum, among others. With a B.S. in Nonprofit Leadership and Management and an MFA in dance from Arizona State University, Erika combines artistic expertise with strategic acumen. Outside of her professional pursuits, she enjoys spending time at the gym training for triathlons.

Richard Stockton Rand

As an acting teacher, director, actor, ensemble member, and collaborator, Rich embraces a humanistic and transformational approach to the art form of acting. Rich left college to study the Grotowski work and supported himself as a street performer. His professional career led to work on and off Broadway, in regional theatre, and throughout Europe and Canada. The recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, Rich has taken solo work to a hundred colleges, universities and theatres, and festivals on four continents. His work can be found in Baseball Monologues, Monologues for Men, Hopewell Journal: New Work by Indiana’s Best Writers, and his scholarly work in Routledge Companion to Commedia dell’Arte and Movement for Actors. Rich has directed, acted, or choreographed 200 productions, serving as resident artist at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, BFA-Guthrie, UMKC, Asolo Conservatory, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Denver Center, Brandeis University, The College of William and Mary, Centre College, University of Rochester, Berea College, Franklin College, and the Indianapolis Children’s Museum. He currently teaches LIFE in the John Martinson Honors College at Purdue and Mask & Transformation at Maggie Flanigan Studio. The recipient of numerous teaching awards, Rich has been Senior Faculty Mentor in Purdue’s Teachers for Tomorrow program and is in Purdue’s Book of Great Teachers. Rich has established and chaired teaching excellence committees at all levels, and frequently lectures on teaching. In addition to serving as Chair and Head of the Theatre Program at Purdue, he is past president of the Association of Theatre Movement Educators and a member of National Theatre Conference. Teachers and mentors: Jim Hancock, Stella Adler, Dharma Mittra, Theo Barnes, Dale Rose, Melodie Somers, Steve Wangh, Fred Kareman, John Stix, Jack Clay, Dennis Moore, Joan Schirle.

NICOLAS NOREÑA is a Colombian theater maker and performer based in Brooklyn. He has worked with Richard Foreman, Mary Overlie, The Talking Band, Jess Barbagallo, and Object Collection among others. He is the artistic director of THE MILLION UNDERSCORES. Through this company he has developed, produced, directed and designed over fifteen original productions that have been presented in spaces such as The Museum of Modern Art, Theater Flamboyan, Triskelion Arts, The Brick Theater, Target Margin Theater, O.D.C San Francisco, as well as in galleries and public spaces in New York. He was a LEIMAY fellow 2015-2020,  LAB  artist with Target Margin Theater in 2019 and was a resident artist with MABOU MINES 2015-2016 and Mercury Store 2023. Nicolas currently teaches at the Experimental Theater Wing in New York University, and is the archive director of the Mary Overlie Legacy Project. 

Amy Herzberg is a Distinguished Professor of Theatre and Head of the MFA Acting program at the University of Arkansas, where she has taught since 1989. Her areas of specialization include acting, script analysis for actors, new play development, and musical theatre performance. Amy is co-founder and Associate Artistic Director of TheatreSquared. She has worked professionally as actor, director, and musical director at national and international venues. She serves as co-executive director of the National Alliance of Acting Teachers. 

Jeff Crockett has developed his work from over 30 years of teaching breath, movement, and voice.  His training began at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, where he received an Advanced Diploma in voice studies (distinction).  It was there that he began studying the Alexander Technique and other forms of movement and breathwork.  He received his certification to teach the FM Alexander Technique from the Alexander Training Institute of Los Angeles in 1995.  He began studying the work of Ilse Middendorf over 25 years ago and is a certified practitioner of Middendorf Breathwork. He was Head of Voice at ACT in San Francisco for 22 years. In Italy, he taught at l’Accademia Nazionale d’Arte Drammatica Silvio d’Amico, Prima del Teatro, and Teatro Due. He has coached at numerous regional theaters and has been a guest teacher at Columbia, DePaul University, the University of Maryland, and Stanford. In addition to his private practice, he teaches at USC in the School of Dramatic Arts. His article on Middendorf Breathwork, published in the Voice and Speech Review, has become a chapter in the book, Vocal Traditions: Training in the Performing Arts.