BMP: Producer Academy 2024 Participants

About

Marie Bland is a writer and producer from Los Angeles. Since graduating from Stanford’s film and media program, Marie has worked as a freelance photographer, church security guard, rehearsal assistant, and theater producer. She recently mounted the West Coast premieres of ‘Dido of Idaho’ and ‘Clarkston’ with the Echo Theater Company. Marie is also the co-founder of Stone Fruit Arts, a production company that recently celebrated a sold-out run of ‘Lines’ at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. She’s incredibly excited to be a part of this cohort and learn from the best!

Jasmine Burelsmith is a multidisciplinary artist from greater-Houston. She is a proud first-generation college student and alum of Florida State University with a BFA in Dance and minors in Art History and Business. She is grateful to have trained with esteemed teachers within her dance career thus far, including Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Gwen Welliver, Ilana Goldman, Kara Wilkes, Peter Chu, FLOCK, and more. Ms. Burelsmith has also had the honor of dancing professionally with the Tallahassee Ballet and presenting her choreographic work at various venues, Florida State University, the ACDA South Gala, The Tallahassee Ballet, Open Doors North America, the STP&A Conference in Seoul, the Center for Performance Research, and the Oklahoma International Dance Festival. Beyond that, she’s administratively supported Artists Seeking Transcendence, Battery Dance, and EnPointe Management as an intern in recent years. Ms. Burelsmith is now based in Orlando, FL, while she completes the Disney College Program.  

 

Rachel Cohen is a creator and performer in New York City. She has a lifelong interest in excavating the symbiosis of humans and things, and uncovering the beauty and humor in their irregularities. As director of interdisciplinary company Rococo Productions, Rachel works closely with performers, visual artists, composers, and musicians, fusing objects and materials with absurdist imagery, quixotic choreography, and inventive improvisation. Rachel studied dance and choreography with Claire Mallardi while at Harvard University, then moved to NYC in 1997, entering the orbits of the uniquely creative communities of Mary Anthony Dance Theater, Galapagos Art Space, Cave, Norte Maar, The Construction Company, and ChaShaMa, and improvisation form Action Theater. She has developed projects for diverse audiences and environments, including Symphony Space, the World Financial Center, Incubator Art Space, Creedmore Psychiatric Center, the Slipper Room, and Socrates Sculpture Park. Her favorite response: “I’ve never seen anything like that.”  

A proud Venezuelan-Italian theater maker, Roberto DiDonato‘s work has been called “An Experimental Masterstroke” by Austin Arts Watch. He is the current Producing Director of Tantrum Theater in Athens, OH and serves on the Board of Directors for Salvage Vanguard Theater which has been pushing the boundary of experimental performance in Austin, TX since 1994. Roberto is the collaborative producer for Shakespeare in the Woods (produced: Coriolanus at La MaMa Downstairs NYC and the 2024 Season in Manchester, VT) 

Roberto is the three-time director of A Perfect Day Away by Klae Bainter which has performed at the Seabury Quinn Jr. Festival, convergence-continuum theatre in Cleveland, OH, and the 2024 Cincinnati Fringe Festival. He has directed Twelfth Night and The Tempest at Shakespeare in the Woods. Roberto is the creator of Chicharrón: a communion with the triple As (New York, Austin, Cleveland).
@roberto_di_donato | www.robertodidonato.net 

New York City native Katrina Fasulo is a mezzo-soprano, arts leader, and fundraiser currently based in Detroit. She holds degrees from the University of Michigan (BMA, voice) and Seattle University (MFA, arts leadership). As a seasoned administrator and emergent producer, Katrina has worked with institutions of varying sizes including Detroit Opera, Opera Saratoga, Seattle Opera, Seattle Symphony, Opera MODO, Loft Opera, and Glimmerglass. Katrina has been featured in industry panels, podcasts, and roundtables discussing the future of opera and philanthropy (OPERA America, U-M EXCEL, ‘opera-isms‘). In her work she strives to break down barriers between audiences and opera, to champion inclusivity and representation on and off stage, and to reimagine holistic engagement experiences. With an eagerness to expand upon modes of presentation, Katrina is dedicated to producing opera as a relevant, resonant force for all.

Erica Ferguson (she/her) is an American stage director and choreographer based in the DC Metro Area. Praised for her visionary prowess, Erica seeks to cultivate innovative storytelling, foster collaboration, and to create fulfilling artistic experiences with every production. She’s had the pleasure of working with numerous opera and theatre companies, such as Washington National Opera Institute, Miami Music Festival, Chicago Summer Opera, Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Maryland Opera, L’Opéra Comique de Washington, Loudoun Lyric Opera, Victorian Lyric Opera Company, and OperaTerps at The University of Maryland. In addition to her directorial work, Erica holds a position in the Education division at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Ms. Ferguson’s role as a producer is deeply rooted in her passion for educating the next generations of artists and arts advocates.

Jasmine Galante is a composer, playwright, vocalist and arts administrator based in New York. Aiming to foster connections between the performer and audience, Galante’s music is dramatically driven and explores the intersection of timbre and texture through her imaginative sound worlds. She often explores themes of loss and resilience through her plays and librettos, seeking to create platforms to discuss these difficult topics. Upcoming projects include works for Experiments in Opera’s Writers’ Room 4.0 and TellTale Opera Theatre. Galante is also a soprano and board member of Cantori New York, a choir devoted to performing new and diverse repertoire, and earned her Bachelor of Music in Composition from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.

Anita Gonzalez is a recipient of a 2023-2025 American Opera Project Composers and Voice fellowship and the Opera America Fifth Annual IDEA grant for Faces in the Flames. Musicals: Kumanana (Gala Hispanic Theater), Ybor City (Latiné Musical Theater Lab), Zora on My Mind (The Woodshed), Ayanna Kelly. Plays& Librettos: Brathwaite’S Mecca (AOP), Forever Entwined (AOP) Faces in the Flames (Atlanta Opera) Courthouse Bells (Boston Opera Collaborative), Finding the Light (Louise Toppin and Marquita Lister), Sunset Dreams (The Vagrancy), Home of My Ancestors (HGOCo). Books: Performance, Dance and Political Economy, Black Performance Theory, Afro-Mexico. Gonzalez is a Professor at Georgetown University and Co-Founder of the Racial Justice Institute. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab and sits on the Board of Directors of the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. Gonzalez advocates for beautiful art crafted for social activism and consciousness raising. www.anitagonzalez.com or https://newplayexchange.org/users/7163/anita-gonzalez

Known for her versatility and nuanced interpretations, Kamna Gupta is an American Prize-winning conductor experienced in operatic, orchestral, and choral repertoires. In the 2023-24 season, she led the world premieres of Ruinous Gods (Layale Chaker / Lisa Shlesinger) at Spoleto Festival USA and Number Our Days at the Perelman Performing Arts Center, and she made her Kennedy Center debut as cover conductor of Songbird at Washington National Opera. At ease in a number of styles, recent credits have included conducting works from the canon at Vancouver Opera, Atlanta Opera, and The Glimmerglass Festival, as well as premiering new interdisciplinary works with International Contemporary Ensemble, Tapestry Opera, and PROTOTYPE Festival. Ms. Gupta sees performance art as encompassing a continuum of styles that explore a shared humanity; as such, she strives to bring honest interpretation and a flexible approach to all performance, regardless of the time period or genre. 

Kevaughn Harvey (he/him) is a director, actor, and producer based in NYC and Philadelphia. He has directed new works at New Circle Theater, John Jay College – CUNY, Amios Theater, Philly Artists’ Collective, and Brown/Trinity Rep. Assistant/Associate directing credits include Primary Trust at Roundabout Theatre Company, Radio Golf at Trinity Repertory Co. and All God’s Chillun’ Got Wings (Jack/Civic Ensemble). Kevaughn is a member of the LCT Directors Lab and the Roundabout’s Directors Group. He is a graduate of the Brown University/ Trinity Rep MFA program in acting and directing. 

 

Brenda L Huggins is a Boston based theater artist working in puppetry, new work development, public art, and classical and contemporary opera. As the Artistic Director of the NEMPAC Opera Project, she produced and directed a queer “Orfeo ed Euridice,” including a series of concerts and community programs (2024). Additional work includes: Assistant Director with the Boston Lyric Opera (2023-24), Assistant Director and Dramaturg with White Snake Projects, “Monkey: A Kung Fu Puppet Parable” (2023), and producer, director, and puppetry artist of “Mr. Twister and the Tale of Tornado Alley,” a touring opera in partnership with local climate activists (2022-23). Additional directing credits: Opera del West’s adaptation of La Clemenza di Tito with contemporary spoken dialogue (2023), Guerilla Opera’s Emergence Composer Fellowship, and facilitator of their inaugural Libretto Writing Lab (2020). Brenda holds an M.F.A. in Applied Theatre from Emerson College, and is the Director of Performing Arts at the Colleges of the Fenway, Boston MA. www.brendalynnhuggins.com 

Hope Hutman (She, They) is an Oakland, CA-based artist whose immersive and interactive installations and performances explore the intersection of technology, culture, and the human experience. Hope holds an MFA in Digital Art and New Media from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and their work has been featured at venues such as the Williamstown Theater Festival, Yerba Buena Center for The Arts, and on Twitch.tv. They have also been a featured speaker at conferences including HASTAC and Digital Hollywood. 

Currently, Hope is adapting Ntozake Shange’s novel Liliane into a live, in-theater performance, presented in mixed reality. Hope is a dedicated educator and mentor, inspiring the next generation of artists and creators. They serve on the board of the Immersive Art Alliance. 

Charles Jackson Jr. (he/him) is a critically acclaimed Producer and Director from Fort Worth, Texas, currently based in Brooklyn. Known for his unwavering commitment to uplifting the voices of marginalized communities, Charles passionately advocates for the portrayal of marginalized communities as primary figures in unconventional and avant-garde productions. His artistic practice fuses elements of black culture with imaginative concepts, including magical realism, non-linear storytelling, and Afrofuturism. Charles obtained his undergraduate degrees from Southeastern Oklahoma State University and earned his Masters at Regent University. He was appointed as the inaugural Producing Apprentice at Amphibian Stage Productions and formerly served as the Vice President of the Dallas Theater Center Young Professionals Board. Notably, in 2023, he was presented with the Bill Garber Young Theatre Artist Award by the Live Theatre League of Tarrant County during his tenure as the Associate Producer of Jubilee Theatre, the oldest African American Theatre in North Texas. Furthermore, Charles recently held the position of Black Theatre Coalition Producing Fellow at Alchemation and was the BTC Producing Fellow at ShowTown Theatricals for Oh, Mary! on Broadway. Presently, Charles serves as a Co-Producer for the forthcoming Broadway revival of Othello and the Producer for Notch Theatre Company’s Cafe Utopia. charlesjacksonjr.com

Alara Magritte (she/her) is a playwright, songwriter, and art director whose work often investigates the interplay between the grotesque and the gorgeous. Originally from the Bay Area and now based in Brooklyn, her work has been featured in venues such as La Jolla Playhouse, the Connelly Theater, and beachside caves. She has collaborated with numerous theatrical organizations including the New York Musical Festival, Seattle Public Theater, Playwrights Foundation, Phoenix Theatre Company, Maestra, Playdate Theatre, and TheatreWorks: Silicon Valley. Recently, Magritte partnered with frequent collaborator Daniel Rosen to produce “My Body, My Voice,” a benefit concert for The Brigid Alliance, which aids those traveling for abortion care. Together, they have written multiple award-winning musicals, including “Safe Hands,” recognized as SheNYC’s “Best Score” in 2022 and showcased in the 2024 Distillery Festival. Alara is dedicated to maintaining ethical, sustainable practices in the arts while exploring the spectacle of the mundane. Magritteandrosen.com

Praised for her “clear, beautiful soprano,”(Aisle Seat) Marcelle McGuirk (she/ella/they/elle) brings her musical interpretations to opera, concert, and cabaret stages. Her repertoire spans many eras, though she has a special love of 20th-21st century music.

Notable stage credits include: Juliette (Roméo et Juliette), Della (The Gift of the Magi), Snow Maiden (The Snow Maiden), Musetta (La Boheme), and several roles in the two woman contemporary opera, Between: The Elevator. Her solo concert credits include: Mozart’s Requiem, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Magnificat in D, and Orff’s Carmina Burana. In addition, she is a co-founder of Prismatic Arts Ensemble, which creates immersive stagings of song literature, featuring new works and the works of lesser known composers. 

 When not singing, Ms. McGuirk works with racial justice groups in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, with focus on Spanish speaking communities, as she is of Puerto Rican descent. 

 Learn more at www.marcellemcguirk.com 

 

Lindsay Nelson (she/her) is an actor and producer, with extensive experience across the events and performing arts industries. Based in the unceded territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Səlílwətaʔ Selilwitulh Nations, colonially known Vancouver, Canada, she is currently embarking on her third year as Festival Producer with PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.Lindsay is passionate about supporting the delivery of culturally urgent projects, connecting local communities with visiting artists, and facilitating discussions among industry professionals. 

She is inspired by challenging work that stimulates further creativity, social change and exchange. Looking forward, Lindsay is excited to work with artists earlier in the creative process, and eager to create more development and support systems for producers. 

As a text based performer, Lindsay holds a Theatre Arts diploma from McEwan University, and an MA in Classical Acting from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. 

Anna Pidgorna is a Ukrainian-Canadian composer, vocalist and multi-media artist who combines sound, visual arts, video, theatre and writing in her work. She works extensively with opera and voice, draws inspiration from Ukrainian folk singing and the natural soundscape, and incorporates visual elements into some of her manuscripts. Collaborating with writer and librettist Maria Reva, Anna has written several operas including “Plaything” developed through the Mécénat Musica Prix 3 Femmes 2020 Award, and“Our Trudy” commissioned and premiered by the Ad Astra Festival in Russell, Kansas. The duo are currently developing the musical play “Dental Interceptions” with Sawtooth Duo, supported by Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council and Shevchenko Foundation. Anna is the founder of Pickle Underground, a not-for-profit artist led organization designed to promote and develop Ukrainian music and other art forms in Canada. She holds a PhD from Princeton University. 

Jordan Rutter-Covatto (he/they) is a countertenor, actor and composer based in New York City and the co-founder and Artistic Director of counter codex, an arts collective presenting innovative stagings of concert programs drawing from the aesthetics of queer leather subcultures.

Rutter-Covatto’s performance practice spans across opera, early music, musical theatre, and contemporary music. They are a sought-after collaborator for development of new operatic and musical works, and have been a regular guest artist with NYU Tisch’s Opera Lab developing short operas to teach musical theatre composers and librettists the idioms of opera. They have also been seen in principal roles with opera companies including Chicago Opera Theatre, On Site Opera, Nashville Opera, and the American Opera Project. 

Rutter-Covatto’s work draws directly on their experience as a member of LGBTQIA+ community and as part of the Vietnamese diaspora. 

Cam Sczempka is an independent creative producer and performing artist working across film, theater, dance, music, and everything in between. As a line producer in film, he has led productions for Sony Playstation, Lancôme, Gibney Dance Company, Stereophonic, Meta, Google, Pepsi and more. In theater production, Cam is a front end developing producer on ILLINOISE by Sufjan Stevens, Justin Peck, and Jackie Sibblies Drury which played Bard, Chicago Shakespeare, Park Ave Armory, and Broadway garnering a Tony Award for best Choreography. He is also an investor in HADESTOWN. As an artist, Cam has performed on Broadway in FINDING NEVERLAND and BE MORE CHILL as well as other off-broadway and national touring credits. He is passionate about redefining what a live theater experience can be, exploring genre, physical space, technology, and subject matter to discuss the grey areas of our adult society and for the betterment of tomorrow. @cam_bond_sczempka

Lisa Sniderman is a multi-award-winning, San Francisco-based artist, playwright, composer known by her artist name, Aoede. As a disabled artist, Sniderman creates-often centering characters with illnesses-to express, foster healing, elevate, empower, advocate for people with chronic illnesses/disabilities. She’s been honored with 100+ awards/accolades for songwriting, albums, films, stage plays, spoken word, books, all while battling rare, disabling autoimmune disease for 16+ years-Dermatomyositis. Says Sniderman, “Music and art are my lifelines; I just cannot stop creating.” She kept so busy creating, Sniderman admits she forgot to grieve her illness. She’s also been home many years, missing live theater, and had a vision of bringing live theater to those like her through filmed stage performances, sparking “The Grieving Project” hybrid stage musical, performed live on stage and in a virtual theatre, to bring live, accessible, immersive theatrical experiences to chronically ill and disabled communities. She’s currently Open Circle Theatre’s Resident Artist (https://thegrievingproject.com/musical). 

Jacqui Sutton is the genre-creating composer, bandleader, arranger, and lead vocalist for the nine-member Houston-based Frontier Jazz Orchestra, a band which blur the lines between urban and rural America, as represented by American jazz and the American frontier. She produced two commercial CDs of cover songs introducing the Frontier Jazz sound: Billie & Dolly (2010), and Notes from the Frontier (2012), both released on her Toy Blue Typewriter Productions label.
Jacqui is a recipient of a $10,000 Houston Arts Alliance grant for original Frontier Jazz compositions and was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation by the City of Houston for her contributions to the city’s music culture. 

In 2022, Jacqui received her first libretto commission. Open Source (a theology built on the voices of many), premiered in 2023 with a repeat performance in 2024. Written for string quartet and bass-baritone, Open Source was brought to life by composer Karl Blench, performed by Houston’s Axiom Quartet, and sung by Timothy Jones.  

Jacqui is currently writing her first album of original songs and is writing her first Frontier Jazz musical. 

Justin Werner is an operatic professional with extensive experience in production, education, and artist representation. Mr. Werner is the Founder and President of Stratagem Artists in 2018, which cultivates and represents a select roster of operatic artists through artist driven collaboration.

Between 2014-2018, Mr. Werner was a co-founder and artist manager at Couret & Werner (C&W) Artist Management.  Mr. Werner gained his initial Artist Management experience at IMG Artists, where he served as an Artist Management intern. 

 Mr. Werner was the founder and Artistic Director of New York Opera Exchange (2011–2015), which afforded numerous opportunities for emerging singers, directors, and designers to mount critically acclaimed productions of standard operatic repertoire. 

 Mr. Werner earned his BM in Vocal Performance from Boston University and his Advanced Certificate in Vocal Performance from the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. Mr. Werner is also proud to be the chair of the On Site Opera Artistic Advisory Council and a member of the 2024 BMP: Producer Academy Cohort. 

Socks Whitmore (they/them) is a nonbinary producer, director, educator, writer, actor, voice artist, and composer rooted in voice, text, and accessibility. Known for their work with Stage Raw and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, Socks is also a sought-after drama journalist in the LA theater scene. Their creative work as a musician and wordsmith spans from live performance to digital media to print, including music theater, choral music, audio dramas, narrative design for games, poetry, short fiction, op-eds, and more. 
 
To top it all off, Socks is a co-founder & facilitator of the trans vocal group 8TPS, a producing partner at the trans-led events production company, Prismatic.one, and the creative director at the gender-expansive Bolero Game Studio. A self-described “professional overachiever,” Socks likes to keep busy—if they’re not on stage, set, or their laptop, they can be found watching bad movies and amassing large amounts of socks. Follow their adventures in professional overachievement at sockswhitmore.com / @SocksWhitmore. 

David Wolfswinkel is a South African opera maker and scholar based in Amsterdam. He is the artistic director of Koorinsident and the spityellow! vocal ensemble; and has toured both locally and abroad with engagements in South Africa, Mozambique, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Brussels, Germany, Barcelona, Hungary, and Hong Kong – working in the theatre and on the concert stage alike. His notable recent work includes the making the radical new operas brb <3 (2024), Hänsel und Gretel or The Incident (2023) and Orphea (2021). Has worked on several projects with composers Michel van der Aa, Philip Miller, Winfried Lüdemann, and Annemie du Plessis; and has also composed music for directors such as Marthinus Basson, Mbongeni N. Mtshali, and André Gerber. In 2023, David received a Fleur de Cap nomination for best sound design for his work on Marthinus Basson’s multi-award winning production of Tom Lenoye’s Fel Omstrede Kroom van Edward II en Gaveston.