Meet the Team

Jackie Apodaca

Jackie Apodaca, Artistic Director

A Professor of Theatre and the Head of Performance at Southern Oregon University, Jackie has worked as an actor, director, and producer in theatre, film, and media, with companies such as Roundabout Theatre Company, Denver Center Theatre Company, National Geographic, Modern Media (Head of Production), Venice Theatre Works (Associate Artistic Director), and Shakespeare Santa Barbara (Producing Director). Jackie is the author of the book Answers from the Working Actor published by Routledge in 2018, and spent more than a decade at Backstage Newspaper, where she was a Contributing Editor. She earned her MFA from the National Theatre Conservatory at the Denver Center Theatre Company and her BFA from UC Santa Barbara. Locally, she facilitates Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Acting Trainee Program and is a former board member of the Ashland Independent Film Festival. Jackie joined ANPF in 2016 as Associate Artistic Director, serving as casting director and regularly acting and directing for the company. She directed The Night Climber, Go. Please. Go., Constellations, and The Bottle Tree, and played roles such as Kit in EdanEv, the title role in Sofonisba, and Beth in Cold Spring. Learn more about Jackie.
Kyle Haden Director Photo 2018

Kyle Haden, Associate Artist

Kyle Haden was ANPF’s artistic director for six years, and directed readings of Berth Breach/Breech Birth; Primary User; I Can Go; Hazardous Materials; and The Luckiest People, as well as performed in readings of Go. Please. Go.; Edward III; and Now This. Kyle was named a 2018 Drama League Directing Fellow and is a member of their Directors Council. He has directed various productions across the country, including the award-winning world premiere of Hazardous Materials (Creede Repertory Theatre); the world premiere of The Devil is a Lie (Quantum Theater); Waiting For Lefty (Quintessence Theatre); The Chief (Pittsburgh Public Theater); The Realness and A Brief History of America (Hangar Theatre Company); Hamlet and The Winter’s Tale (Island Shakespeare Festival); and The Tens (Actors Theatre of Louisville). As an actor, he has performed at regional theatres nationwide including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (three seasons), Guthrie Theater, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Arizona Theater Company, City Theatre Company, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, and Cleveland Play House, as well as various theatres in New York and Chicago. He is also a senior coordinating producer with Black Lives, Black Words International Project as well as a member of the 2021 cohort of artEquity’s BIPOC Leadership Circle. Kyle serves as the Senior Associate Head of the School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University, where he is an assistant professor of acting. Learn more about Kyle.

Lisa Loomer

Lisa Loomer, Associate Artist

Lisa Loomer’s plays include Roe, Living Out, The Waiting Room, Distracted,
Homefree, Café Vida, Expecting Isabel, Two Things You Don’t Talk About at
Dinner, Birds, Bocón!, Maria! Maria Maria Maria, and Broken Hearts. Her work
has been produced at Roundabout, Vineyard Theatre, Second Stage, INTAR,
The Public, Mark Taper Forum, Arena Stage, South Coast Repertory, Kennedy
Center, Seattle Repertory, Denver Center, La Jolla, Trinity Repertory,
Williamstown Theatre Festival, Missouri Repertory, and in Mexico, Israel, Egypt
and Germany.
Screenwriting credits include Girl, Interrupted and pilots for HBO, CBS, FOX, and
Showtime.
She has received awards from the American Theatre Critics (twice), Kennedy
Center Fund for New American Plays, Lurie Foundation, Edgerton Foundation,
Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Jane Chambers Playwriting Award (twice), an
Imagen Award, and an Ovation Award.
She’s currently writing the books for the musicals Real Women Have Curves and
Like Water for Chocolate.

Octavio Solis

Octavio Solis, Associate Artist

Octavio Solis is a playwright and author whose works have been produced in theatres across the country since 1988. His fiction and short plays have appeared in the Louisville Review, Catamaran literary Reader, the Chicago Quarterly Review, Arroyo Literary Review, Huizache and Stone Gathering. His book, Retablos, published by City Lights Books, won the 2019 Silver Indies Award for Book of the Year from Foreword Reviews. His latest plays are Scene with Cranes (REDCAT CalArts Theater 2022), Quixote Nuevo (California Shakespeare Theatre 2018), and Mother Road (Oregon Shakespeare Festival 2019). A Thornton Wilder Fellow for the MacDowell Colony and a member of the Dramatists Guild, Solis was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters in 2020. Learn more about Octavio.

Clarence Coo Ashland New Plays Festival 2022

Clarence Coo, Host Playwright

Clarence Coo is the recipient of a Whiting Award and the Yale Drama Series Prize. His plays include The Birds of Empathy; Beautiful Province (Belle Province); People Sitting in Darkness; Chapters of a Floating Life; and On That Day in Amsterdam. His work has been developed at the Atlantic Theater Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, New York Theatre Workshop, and the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. He has received fellowships from the Dramatists Guild of America, the Rita Goldberg Playwrights’ Workshop at the Lark, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Playwrights Realm. He received his MFA in playwriting at Columbia University. He is a member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab and an alumnus of New Dramatists.

 

E.M. Lewis Headshot

E.M. Lewis, Host Playwright

E.M. Lewis is an award-winning playwright, teacher, and librettist. She is a former ANPF winning playwright (Song of Extinction, ANPF 2008) as well as having served as ANPF host playwright for eight seasons.

Her work has been produced around the world and published by Samuel French. She received the Steinberg/ATCA Award for How the Light Gets In, the Edgerton Award for Magellanica, the Steinberg Award for Song of Extinction, and the Primus Prize for Heads from the American Theater Critics Association, as well as the Ted Schmitt Award from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle for outstanding writing of a world premiere play, an L.A. Weekly Award for Production of the Year, a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, a playwriting fellowship from the New Jersey State Arts Commission, and the 2016 Oregon Literary Fellowship in Drama. Her play Now Comes the Night was part of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival in Washington DC, and was published in the anthology Best Plays from Theater Festivals 2016. More about E.M. Lewis.

Haley Forsyth
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Haley Jane Forsyth, Production Manager

Haley Jane Forsyth is a stage manager, performer, director, and choreographer who has lived and worked in the Rogue Valley for the last seven years. Stage managing credits include: Sherlock Holmes and the Final Problem as ASM and The Full Monty as Standby SM for 22 Performances (Oregon Cabaret Theatre); Almost, Maine (Camelot Theatre); Triumph of Love, Waiting for Godot, and Broadway Bound (CTP); Guys and Dolls, and Saucy Jack and The Space Vixens (TMCC Theatre). Acting credits include: Marthe Daubriel in Poirot: Murder on the Links and Ex-Girlfriend in Once: The Musical (Oregon Cabaret Theater); Maid Marian in Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood and Chris Mundy in Dancing at Lughnasa (Collaborative Theatre Project); Lucy Van Pelt in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Ghostlight Playhouse); Florence Vassy in Chess: The Musical (Livia Genise Productions). Director/choreographer credits include Peter Pan and Spotlight on Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons (Camelot Theatre); Marry Me a Little (Randall Theatre). Learn more about Haley.

Ellie Debortoli, Marketing Manager

Ellie is the Marketing Manager and Web Developer for the Ashland New Plays Festival. A graduate of Southern Oregon University in 2018, she has since gained valuable experience working in marketing for both small businesses and nonprofit organizations in the Rogue Valley. With a strong background in web development, Ellie combines her technical expertise and creative skills to enhance ANPF's digital presence and help share the festival's mission. Passionate about supporting local arts and community initiatives, Ellie is dedicated to ensuring that ANPF continues to thrive and reach a wide audience.

Alysia Beltran Headshot

Alysia Beltran, Casting Coordinator and Covid Safety Officer

Alysia N. Beltran is a professional actor and theater-maker based in the Rogue Valley. She currently supports the Legal Department at Lithia Motors with licensing and compliance matters. She brings to her new role at ANPF years of contract management and legal support along with her love for creating ground-breaking theater. She is deeply rooted in the local theater community and is excited to take part in its growth. You can find her developing new material from writers and composers all over the country. Some notable projects Alysia has been associated with: Colour My World (new musical by the band, Chicago); Sueños: Our American Musical; and The Copper Children. She earned her Bachelor of Arts cum laude from San Francisco State University. Learn more about Alysia.

Volunteers

Carole Florian
Penny Mikesell
John Rose
Volunteers And Staff 13
Trish And Beryl

Carole Florian
Editor & Reader Committee Chair

Penny Mikesell
Script Submission Coordinator

John Rose
Transportation Coordinator

Dennis Tetz
House Manager

      Trish Mullinix &    Beryl Patner
Co Volunteer Coordinators