People

Rob (he/him/his) is an arts administrator, educator, and director originally from New Jersey. He originally joined PlayCo in 2013 as General Manager and stepped into the Managing Director role in 2016. His early career was spent developing and directing new plays in various festivals across the northeast during which he was recognized for excellence in directing by the Kennedy Center-American College Theatre Festival. This work led to producing plays including his time as Associate Artistic Director of the inaugural season of the Paramount Theatre’s grand re-opening in Asbury Park, NJ in 2007. Rob expanded his work into arts education including his tenure as Company Manager & Associate Director of The American Place Theatre’s Literature to Life, a national arts literacy program for underserved communities. He is also an adjunct professor and guest lecturer at several local universities. Rob holds a masters degree in arts management from Montclair State University.

Carolina Đỗ (she/her/hers) is the Community Engagement Manager at PlayCo. She is an actor, producer, writer and proud descendant of Vietnamese freedom fighters . She’s a community organizer and advocate for art that facilitates healing in marginalized communities. Co-founder and co-Producing Artistic Leader of The Sống Collective.

[BROADWAY] Linda Vista (u/s), Grand Horizons (u/s). [NY THEATER] PlayCo: Is It Supposed To Last? ; Adjusted Realists: The Refugees; Yangtze Rep: Stacey In The States, 410[Gone] [REGIONAL] Everyman Theatre: Dinner and Cake (world premiere) [PLAYWRITING] 2022-2023 Soho Rep Writer-Director Lab, 2022 Orchard Project Greenhouse Lab Resident Artist; JACK 2021 Residency; buried ruins: 2022 Princess Grace Semi-Finalist, 2022 Bushwick Starr Finalist.

Steven Gillenwater (he/him/his) is an actor, director and theatre educator who also works as an accountant, Controller and Business Manager. Originally from California, he has a B.A. and Graduate Certificate in Theatre from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a M.S in Educational Theatre from the City College of New York. Steven previously worked for The Subjective Theatre Company, University of Oxford, and Facilities USA/Guard Services USA. Previously, his accounting /administrative work was always in industries outside the arts, and he is excited to be bringing the two worlds together now with PlayCo!

Kate Loewald (she/her/hers) co-created The Play Company with her late partners, Mike Ockrent and Jack Temchin. Prior to launching PlayCo, from 1990-99 she was Director of Play Development at the Manhattan Theatre Club, and also directed their Writers in Performance series for two seasons. Before MTC, Kate worked for producer Margo Lion, developing and producing shows on and off Broadway including George C. Wolfe’s Jelly’s Last Jam and Martha Clarke’s The Garden of Earthly Delights. She was a dramaturg at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference 2000-2003. In addition to her work with PlayCo, she was the Guest Artistic Director for the Signature Theatre Company in the 2004/2005 season. Kate is an adjunct faculty member of the Columbia University School of the Arts, and has also taught at The New School, Fordham College and NYU.

Mateo Rodriguez-Hurtado (they/elle) (@_laserpipe) is an NYC-based comedian, variety show host, writer, co-founder of the Brown Theatre Collective, and Performance Studies chameleon from Chicago. Recently, Mateo appeared in LOVE AROUND THE BLOCK, at Hermés, directed by Jason Eagan with music by Dave Molloy, book by Isaac Oliver. Film: a to be announced feature written & directed by Ophir Ariel. They’ve been seen (perf)orming throughout the big apple at rambunctious spaces including Ars Nova, The Kitchen, HERE Arts Center, Chateau de 420 Marcy, Mayday Space, Triple Crown, Queens Brewery, Littlefield, The PIT, ART/NY, Edge Theater @ The Point, and The Footlight, among other spaces. MA: NYU Performance Studies. BFA Theatre Studies & BA Latina/o/x Studies: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Olivia Sargent (she/her/hers) is the Interim Development Associate at PlayCo. She is currently working toward a Master of Science degree in Nonprofit Management from the University of Florida. Originally from Florida, Olivia is an actor, performer, and administrator who has worked with the Tampa Repertory Theatre as an artistic associate and as a development manager. As a performer, she can be seen in various regional productions in Florida and New York.

Annie Jin Wang (she/her/hers) is the Associate Director for Programming at PlayCo. She is a first-generation Chinese American dramaturg and generative artist whose body of work investigates constructs of race, gender, and citizenship. She is currently supporting new projects in development at Beth Morrison Projects, the Perelman Performing Arts Center, Yangtze Rep, the Playwrights' Center, and Theater Mu. Her own writing has been developed with Soho Rep, Target Margin, Fresh Ground Pepper, Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company, and PlayGround-NY. She also serves as the Artistic Associate at Theater Mu. Annie holds an MFA from Columbia University, and BAs from Wellesley College.

Kayla Zanakis (she/her) is a Domini-Greek actor, activist, producer, and theatre-maker. BFA: NYU Tisch. Recently, Kayla was an Emerging Leader in Theatre Fellow at Ars Nova. Some of her favorite acting moments include singing at Radio City Music Hall and performing 6 different characters in "Richard III" at the Shanghai Theatre Institute Winter Festival. As an activist, Kayla has coordinated with the Mayor of New York City to send hundreds of first-aid supplies to Puerto Rico to aid those affected by Hurricane Maria. This inspired her to create Artists in Action.

Carmine D. Boccuzzi is a partner based in Cleary Gottlieb’s New York office. His litigation and arbitration practice covers a broad range of complex civil litigation matters.

He focuses on international disputes, including those involving foreign states and state-owned entities, as well as disputes involving the capital markets and antitrust issues.

Carmine joined the firm in 1994 and became partner in 2003.

He earned his J.D. from Yale University and his B.A. from Yale University.

Kate Loewald (she/her/hers) co-created The Play Company with her late partners, Mike Ockrent and Jack Temchin. Prior to launching PlayCo, from 1990-99 she was Director of Play Development at the Manhattan Theatre Club, and also directed their Writers in Performance series for two seasons. Before MTC, Kate worked for producer Margo Lion, developing and producing shows on and off Broadway including George C. Wolfe’s Jelly’s Last Jam and Martha Clarke’s The Garden of Earthly Delights. She was a dramaturg at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference 2000-2003. In addition to her work with PlayCo, she was the Guest Artistic Director for the Signature Theatre Company in the 2004/2005 season. Kate is an adjunct faculty member of the Columbia University School of the Arts, and has also taught at The New School, Fordham College and NYU.

Trip Cullman's most recent credits include: The Rose Tattoo (Broadway, 2019), Choir Boy (Broadway, 2019) and Lobby Hero (Broadway, 2018). He previously directed Adam Bock's The Drunken City and Sarah Schulman's Manic Flight Reaction at Playwrights Horizons. Other New York credits include Adam Bock's Swimming in the Shallows, Leslye Headland's Bachelorette and Terrence McNally's Some Men (Second Stage); Lloyd Suh's American Hwangap, Robert Farquhar's Bad Jazz, Roland Schimmelpfennig's Arabian Night and Brooke Berman's Smashing (The Play Company); Gina Gionfriddo's US Drag (stageFARM); Bert V. Royal's Dog Sees God (The Century Center); Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's Dark Matters (Rattlestick Theater); Jonathan Tolin's The Last Sunday in June (Century Center and Rattlestick Theater); Glen Berger's The Wooden Breeks (MCC Theater); Paul Weitz's Roulette (EST); Rinne Groff's Of a White Christmas (Clubbed Thumb); Gary Sunshine's Sweetness and Brooke Berman's Sam and Lucy (both at Summer Play Festival '04) and The Wau Wau Sisters (Ars Nova). Regional credits include the World Premiere of Lloyd Suh's American Hwangap (Magic Theatre), Six Degrees of Separation (Old Globe) the World Premiere of Richard Greenberg's The Injured Party at South Coast Rep, Keith Huff's A Steady Rain and The Petersons Project (both at New York Stage and Film), Lauren Weedman's Rash (The Empty Space, Seattle), John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation (The Old Globe, San Diego). Training: Yale School of Drama.

Ruth Hendel, with her husband Stephen, produced the musical FELA! (Broadway, London’s National Theatre, National and International Tours). Select co-producing credits include Parade (2023), Beetlejuice, Mean Girls, The Band’s Visit, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Clybourne Park, A Raisin in the Sun, Caroline, or Change. Off-Broadway: Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, Our Lady of 121st Street, The Exonerated. Upcoming productions include Monsoon Wedding (St. Ann’s Warehouse, May-June 2023), A Walk on the Moon, and The Devil’s Arithmetic. Films with Stephen: Alex Gibney's documentary Finding Fela! (2014) and Saul Williams' Afro futuristic Rwandan film Neptune Frost (2022). Ruth is treasurer of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center and serves on the boards of The Jewish Theological Seminary and The Play Company. Tallis weaver and loving grandmother!

George Sheanshang graduated from Harvard College cum laude (where he won the Boylston Speaking Prize) and from Harvard Law School. He initially practiced law at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in NYC. Thereafter he was a senior business affairs executive at International Creative Management in New York City where he was responsible for negotiating contracts on behalf of the agency's premiere film, television, theater and book clients. Since leaving ICM in the 1980s, Mr. Sheanshang has been an
entertainment attorney in private practice in New York City. He specializes in film, television, theater and publishing law, and his clients include top-level producers, directors, writers, showrunners, screenwriters, actors, production companies, novelists, non-fiction writers, playwrights, financiers, rightsholders, executives, radio hosts, podcasters and universities. Ever since 2010 George has been named a Super Lawyer and a Best Lawyer in the entertainment field in New York City by those two annual publications, and in 2015 Best Lawyers named him the Entertainment Lawyer of the
Year. He also does a significant amount of pro bono work, primarily for theatre artists and not-for-profit theater and dance companies. In recent years George has been cast by his writer-director clients in speaking parts in a number of films, including “Jesus Rolls”, She Came To Me”, and “Wildcat.”

Charlene Adhiambo (she/her/hers) is a Kenyan American writer currently based in her hometown of Atlanta. Her one-act play Guardian was read at Saudade Theatre’s Re-Descobrimentos Festival in July 2020. Her creative work spans many mediums including (but not limited to), screenplay, stage play, fiction, essay, poetry, and song. While the containers and even genres of her work change, constant themes are mother- and daughterhood, black girl- and womanhood, friendship, romance, and grief. She writes in a space somewhere between Ray Bradbury and Toni Morrison, two of her favorite authors. When not writing, she is listening to R&B music, teaching herself guitar, or doing yoga. She received her B.A. in Creative Writing and English Literature from Columbia University.

Wesley Ahn (he/him/his) was the Artistic and Literary Intern at PlayCo for the summer of 2021. He is a writer, actor, and a student at Drew University, where he is pursuing dramaturgy. He is also a member of an improv troupe, an a capella group, student government, and has been certified to teach yoga.

Taylor Gaines (she/her/hers) is a translator and arts worker who has been affiliated with PlayCo since her time as a Literary Fellow in 2017. With a bachelors in Theatre and French (University of Virginia) and a masters in Cultural Translation (American University of Paris), she has worked as a theatre translator, general manager of a bilingual theatrical production, English instructor, and literary consultant. She is the recipient of grants from the FACE Foundation and ARTCENA, and her translations have received public readings at the Martin Segal Theatre Center at CUNY, the International Play Reading Festival at Columbia University, and productions at Cherry Arts Space and Carnegie Mellon University. Taylor is currently a Cultural Attachée with the Québec Government Office in New York.

Ana Graham (Director, Actor, Translator and Costume designer) born in Mexico City, where she studied drama at the Núcleo de Estudios Teatrales. She is Artistic Producer and Founder of the Mexico-based Por Piedad Teatro where she has developed most of her work. She is also a member of the adviser committee for the US/MEXICO exchange program at The Lark and has been a recipient of Mexico’s National Fund for Culture and Arts performers grant. In 2012 Graham was appointed Mexico’s Art, Culture and Tourism Ambassador by former President Felipe Calderón. Aiming to expand the activities of her theatre company and to open international opportunities for Mexican theatre artists, she moved to New York in 2009. She splits her time producing work in Mexico City and New York City. Ana and collaborator Antonio Vega partnered with The Play Company to present Ettore Scola’s Working On a Special Day in New York at 59E59 (2013) and The Duchamp Syndrome at The Flea (2015). In 2018 she was a resident artist at Berkeley Repertory Ground Floor program. In Mexico she recently directed Samuel Beckett’s El Final (The End), Maria Milisavljevic’s Abismo (Abyss) and co-directed with Antonio Vega El Ensayo (10 Out of 12) by Anne Washburn and Winter Solstice by Roland Schimmelpfennig. As an actor she has performed in more than twenty plays, including Woody Allen’s Interiors and Terror by Ferdinand Von Schirach. In 2005 she received an Ariel nomination as Best Actress for her role in the movie Mezcal directed by Ignacio Ortiz. She is currently collaborating with New York playwright Andy Bragen on the development of a new play called Summit and rehearsing William Shakespeare’s Anthony and Cleopatra where she has been cast as Anthony on an all-women Mexican production.

Soph/ie Sagan-Gutherz (they/them) is an artist who schleps around NYC occasionally donning a butterflied-covered cane. They are dedicated to new work development and have been a script reader and evaluator for The Williamstown Theatre Festival and The Orchard Project. They’re often found originating roles in new musicals/plays while writing stories exploring comphet, genderfuckery, and physical disabilities. They scored a BFA in Drama from NYU Tisch where they graduated with an Honors Thesis in Theatre Studies.

Anuka Sethi is an India-born, Dubai-raised, and New York City-based actor, writer, producer & model. A recent grad from NYU Tisch, Anuka uses her art as a way to connect with her roots since she grew up a third-culture kid and is passionate about creating work and space for South Asian artists. Recent acting credits include GIRLHOOD (Columbia MFA Playwriting), immersive musical Love Around The Block (by Dave Malloy for Hermès) and award-winning short film Hide & Seek (premiered at the London Indian Film Festival). She is also a proud Nine Muses Lab alumni where she worked directly under founder Bryce Dallas Howard. As a producer, she has worked with Live & In Color, Boomerang Theatre, Dixon Place & The Brick.

Antonio Vega (Author, Director, Actor, Set Designer) is a theatre artist born in Guadalajara where he graduated from ETX Jalisco School of Theater. He continued his training in Mexico, London and NYC. In 2013 Vega and collaborator Ana Graham partnered with PlayCo to present Ettore Scola’s Working On a Special Day. In 2015 he created, co-directed and starred in The Duchamp Syndrome. His most recent collaboration with PlayCo was Django in Pain which he wrote and directed.

Charlene Adhiambo (she/her/hers) is a Kenyan American writer currently based in her hometown of Atlanta. Her one-act play Guardian was read at Saudade Theatre’s Re-Descobrimentos Festival in July 2020. Her creative work spans many mediums including (but not limited to), screenplay, stage play, fiction, essay, poetry, and song. While the containers and even genres of her work change, constant themes are mother- and daughterhood, black girl- and womanhood, friendship, romance, and grief. She writes in a space somewhere between Ray Bradbury and Toni Morrison, two of her favorite authors. When not writing, she is listening to R&B music, teaching herself guitar, or doing yoga. She received her B.A. in Creative Writing and English Literature from Columbia University.

Carolina Đỗ (she/her/hers) is the Community Engagement Manager at PlayCo. She is an actor, producer, writer and proud descendant of Vietnamese freedom fighters . She’s a community organizer and advocate for art that facilitates healing in marginalized communities. Co-founder and co-Producing Artistic Leader of The Sống Collective.

[BROADWAY] Linda Vista (u/s), Grand Horizons (u/s). [NY THEATER] PlayCo: Is It Supposed To Last? ; Adjusted Realists: The Refugees; Yangtze Rep: Stacey In The States, 410[Gone] [REGIONAL] Everyman Theatre: Dinner and Cake (world premiere) [PLAYWRITING] 2022-2023 Soho Rep Writer-Director Lab, 2022 Orchard Project Greenhouse Lab Resident Artist; JACK 2021 Residency; buried ruins: 2022 Princess Grace Semi-Finalist, 2022 Bushwick Starr Finalist.

Ugo Chukwu (Actor) Most recently seen as Cord Elam in the Broadway National Tour of Oklahoma! Other credits include What To Send Up When It Goes Down (Playwrights Horizons), Do Your Feel Anger? (Vineyard Theater), [Porto] (WP Theater/Bushwick Starr), Today is my Birthday (P73) and Lunch Bunch (Clubbed Thumb). Regional: Ripcord (Huntington Theater) and Adventure Quest (Edinburgh Fringe). TV/Film: Seasoned, Inventing Anna, The Path, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Late Night with Seth Meyers and Late Late Night with James Corden. He has also appeared in commercials for Spectrum Mobile. Ugo is also a teaching artist with the New Victory theater. @ugolessinsta.

Victoria Detres is a producer dedicated to building a platform for contemporary theatre’s innovative voices, particularly those of the global majority. While supporting these artists, Victoria aims to dismantle the structures that do not allow for access, and restructure for equity and accessibility.

Ayo Renée Schwartz (they/she) is an Afro-Indigenous Two-Spirit Queer Feminist with a background in theatre operations, event production within film/theatre/media, general management, and human resources. Ayo currently serves as the Head of Human Resources at the National Theatre of Scotland.

Stitch Bukowski is an almost 4-year-old German Shepherd/Great Pyrenees mix, originally from Dallas, TX. At 7 months old, Stitch was rescued by Hearts and Bones Rescue and transported to New York City to live his best life. When not patrolling the neighborhood for pets and buttrubs, Stitch loves to nap on his West Elm couch, beg for treats, and woof at friends from the window. He is a former park ranger at Saratoga Park in Bed-Stuy and is now the King of Bay Ridge. 

Stella is a 3-year-old Siberian Husky/Australian Shepherd mix. She is originally from a roadside in Mississippi where she was rescued as a 3-month-old and brought to New York. Steven and Kevin met her soon after at the SPCA in Westchester and fell in love with her boundless love and energy. Stella loves doing bellies, sleeping in pools of sunlight, bully sticks, and greeting new friends with high pitched moans that will either leave you worried or enchanted.

Phoebe is a 4-year-old kitty girl who was found (in a box, in a mattress, in a dumpster in Orlando, Florida) in 2019, and rescued at 5 days old by Central FL Fosters / Southon Rescue. Since then she has lived a lavish life, has lived in three states, gone on many plane and U-haul trips, and even gone to college (BS in Applied Physics, Minor in Women's Studies.) When not in gargoyle mode, Phoebe enjoys soliciting treats, playing with springs, trash, and her fish taco toy, and watching TV. (@centralflfosters)