Program Biographies
Please contact clarkrebecca333@gmail.com for more information
PRODUCTION TEAM
Rebecca Haley Clark (she/her), Director and Concept
Rebecca is a theatre director and practitioner who has worked in New York, Brazil, and Scotland. She completed the Masters of Classical and Contemporary Text directing course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She received her undergraduate degree in Drama and Comparative Ethnic Studies at Columbia University and a Fulbright research grant to study Shakespeare and race studies in Rio de Janeiro. She was born and raised in Santa Cruz, California.
Cree Noble (she/her), Deviser and Assistant Director
Originally hailing from Central Illinois, she is a 2018 graduate of DePaul University where she studied both Journalism and Peace, Justice, and Conflict Studies with a minor in Performance Studies. She received her Master’s in Performance Studies at Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. Her work includes a documentary theatre one-woman show called Sasha from Chicago which documented the lives of women of color whose lives have been impacted by the Trump Administration. At NYU, she worked on a documentary-style theatre show called What’s It All For? that highlighted the 2019 Jussie Smollett incident. She was recently seen in the devised piece Rewriting the Declaration of Independence from NYU’s Theatre Education Production. She is currently pursuing her second Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at DePaul University to become a Registered Drama Therapist. She is interested in theatre as a social justice and therapeutic tool, that not only creates social change but healing for people, especially Black women and girls.
Kat Phillips (she/her), Stage Manager
Kat is a Chicago-based actor, director, and photographer with Texas and Arizona roots. She holds a BFA in Theatre Performance with a Concentration in Musical Theatre and Emphasis in Directing from Baylor University. Kat focuses on queer, intersectional feminist theatre centering around girls, gals, and non-binary pals. This is her first time officially stage managing a project and she is so thankful that it’s in collaboration with Hindsight 2020. Regarding devised theatre, Kat devised and directed an original post-modern theatre piece titled BURNING (Baylor University Theatre) in addition to co-devising a project titled WE. WOMEN. (Baylor University Theatre). Select acting credits include Matilda (Trunchbull/Baylor University Theatre), Once (Girl/Waco Civic Theatre), & Godspell (Follower/Baylor University Theatre). Select directing credits include: 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche (Baylor University Theatre), At the Battlefront (Wild Imaginings Waco), & Me and Mrs.Cheverly (Assistant Director/PlayZoomers). Katphillips.net
DEVISING TEAM
Cody Holliday Haefner (he/him), Deviser
Cody is a queer director, deviser, and teaching artist based in Los Angeles, with roots in New York City, Upstate New York, and Seattle. He is most interested in theater that heals, either by way of catharsis, empowerment of the disempowered, spreading joy, or confronting social injustice. Cody holds an MFA in Directing from the University of Washington School of Drama, and a BA in Drama from Columbia University. He has directed, devised and assisted on works at HERE Arts Center, Dixon Place, HOT! Festival, FringeNYC, Fresh Fruit Festival, Theatre Askew, Intiman Theatre, ArtsWest, the Rochester Fringe Festival and more. Recent favorite directing credits include Men on Boats (Barnard College), Trojan Women: A Love Story (University of Washington), Rutherford and Son (University of Washington) and the original devised work HamletGhosts (HERE). Cody is currently developing an international dance-theater piece For Nigel, based on a true story of a bird that fell in love with a statue and died by its side. As a teaching artist Cody has taught acting and directing at the University of Washington and Barnard College. www.codyhh.com
Gilda Mercado (she/her), Deviser
Gilda is a Mexican actress and theater maker currently based in Mexico city. Her passion for classical theater inspired her move to the United Kingdom where she graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s MA Acting programme. Before this, Gilda lived in NYC for three years where she worked and studied as an actress. She graduated from the Two-Year Conservatory Program at the Stella Adler Studio Of Acting.
Some of her recent credits include Cycle-logical directed by Rebecca Clark performed at The Tron Theater for Outside Eyes festival. As You Like It and Tis Pity She’s a Whore at Shakespeare's Globe/RCS. The Witch Of Edmonton directed by Marc Silberschatz at RCS. Moonlight and Mardi Gras written and directed by Martha Horstman-Evans performed at The Duke for the New York New Works Festival. To Be Or No To Be - A Shakespearean Experience devised under the direction of Luis Salgado in collaboration with Ian Hersey from the Public Theater and Leon Ingulsrud, from S.I.T.I. Company. https://www.gildamercado.me
Helen Hy-Yuen Swanson (she/her), Deviser
Helen is a mixed-Asian actress and violinist based in Boston, looking to NYC. She graduated in 2019 from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with an M.A. in Classical and Contemporary Text (Acting), which included a residency at Shakespeare’s Globe. She’s also studied extensively at the Michael Chekhov Actors Studio Boston and is a Feldenkrais ATM® Teacher. Along with acting in numerous short films, her selected theatre credits include The Draft (Hibernian Hall, Winner of Best Ensemble at the Arts Impulse Awards); Yellow Face (O.W.I. Bureau of Theatre); As You Like It (Shakespeare’s Globe/RCS); The Witch of Edmonton, The Age of Blindness, Blackout, and Three Sisters (RCS). During her time at RCS, she developed a solo performance, titled ‘Mixed Up,’ based on her own experience as a half-Asian woman and the disconnect between others’ assumptions about this experience with how she actually sees herself. This work is intrinsically connected with her desire to support underrepresented stories and be the representation for others that she lacked when growing up. Helen is grateful to part of this delightful group of collaborators working on Hindsight 2020. Connect with her on IG/Twitter @thehelenswanson. https://helenswanson.com
Katherine Tanner Silverman (she/her), Deviser
Katherine is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Mentalhaus, a Devised Theatre Ensemble which creates work rooted in themes of mental health. She has embraced a renaissance theatre career holding various positions including director, education manager, instructor, stage manager, actor and producer. She holds an M.F.A. in European Devised Performance from Columbia College Chicago, a program which included 10-months of intensive study with Arthaus-Berlin in Germany. Most recently, she served as one of the 2020 Festival Directors for The International Voices Project during its 11th season, produced virtually for the first time. She performed a solo-devised show titled Lady M based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth exploring the trauma that catalyzes Lady Macbeth’s downward spiral. Katherine is thrilled to collaborate with Rebecca Haley Clark and the amazing international co-devisers of Hindsight 2020. Follow her on IG @tannerbackstage
Rylan Gleave (he/him), Deviser
Named ‘One to Watch' by The Scotsman 2021, and described as ‘one of the brightest lights in Scotland’s new music scene’, Rylan Gleave is a composer and vocalist based in Glasgow. He is fascinated by addressing the intersectional issues that overlap in his identity and communities in music, and strives to address these issues inclusively as both writer and performer. Working as a vocal tutor, Rylan facilities other trans/neurodivergent singers to reclaim their voices through creative noise-making. Professional affiliations include OVER / AT, a new concert series and trans music-making world: the British Paraorchestra, as a composer/performer: JACK Quartet NYC, as a JACK Studio Artist 2020-22: and band Ashenspire, as live vocalist. Rylan currently studies a Master of Music degree, with the Musician’s Company Silver Medal 2020, at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, supported by The Kenneth Barrett Scholarship from RCS Trust, a Dewar Arts Award, and The Glasgow Educational and Marshall Trust. He graduated from his Bachelor of Music Degree, with First Class Honours, in 2019. Find out more about Rylan, and get in touch at www.rylangleave.com.
Sanjay Lago (He/Him), Deviser
Sanjay Lago is a Scottish Indian Actor, Writer and Workshop Facilitator for the last 10 years, having trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland between 2015-2019. He is currently on the Soho Theatre Writers’ Lab 2020/21. He practice mainly consists of autobiographical writing and working in a socially engaged practice. He has experience of working in schools, hospices and prisons and enjoys devising theatre. Themes that his work looks at includes but not limited to, race, identity, sexuality, dyslexia, being working class and belonging. He has worked with companies including: National Theatre of Scotland, Tamasha Theatre, Mischief Las Bas and Licketyspit to name a few. He has had writing published in zines and online blogs, including for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and The Scottish BAME Writers Network. Sanjay has been influenced by his families journey into the UK and his place as a Person of Colour in the arts, diversity in the arts being a real passion of his. He is looking forward to being a part of this performance and stretching his devising bones again!
Simone Seales (they/she), Deviser
Simone Seales is a classically-trained cellist who is tired of playing music by dead white men. They focus on free improvisation (both tonal and atonal) and devising music for theatre. Simone is passionate about exploring sound and how sound can reflect emotional states of being and how emotions are embodied. Their creative influences come from Black feminist leaders such as Audre Lorde, Assata Shakur, and Angela Davis. Within their creative work, they centre Blackness, sexuality, intersectional feminism and anti-racism. https://simoneseales.com
Stephanie Mareen (she/her), Deviser
Stephanie Mareen is a classically trained German Actress, Director and Producer residing in New York City. She graduated from The Juilliard School with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama in 2017. During her time at Juilliard she adapted, produced, designed and directed a production of ‘Woyzeck’ involving 9 Actors, 5 Dancers and 11 Musicians in an immersive theatrical experience for which she was awarded two stipends from the Alan D. Marks Center for Career Services and Entrepreneurship. Stephanie has since starred in numerous short films, one of which received the Best Experimental Film Award at the Montreal Film Festival as well as starring as Lydia in ‘The Sunlit Night’ which premiered at Sundance Film Festival. Recently, her short film 'Inner Selves' won Best Film at the Berlin Independent Film Festival and Honorable Mentions at the New York Movie Awards. She has also used her fluency in German to coach numerous actors for Broadway and Netflix productions. Since graduating, she has worked as a Production Assistant and Artistic Administrator at Èlan Artists, planning, producing and executing a number of grand-scale Event Productions. During some time in Germany, she was the assistant to the Unit Manager at Red Seven Entertainment producing 5 Live Audience Studio TV Productions and is currently the Special Projects Producer at The Peace Studio.
Tanvi Shah (she/her), Dramaturg
Tanvi Shah is an independent multi-lingual theatre maker from Bombay, India. She practices as director, dramaturg, writer and adaptor, documenter of oral narratives and archivist of theatre history, curator of arts experiences, and conductor of literary encounters. Direction Credits include: Vidaai OR (Ganga Nu Aavnu), Lethewards OR [The Play They Have All Come To See], The Age of Blindness, and Unshared Childhoods. All four pieces written, created, and/or adapted by her. She has previously worked with theatre organisations like CRY HAVOC Company (New York), The Woodstock Players (New York), Tamaasha and Arpana Theatres (Mumbai), Junoon Theatre (Mumbai), Jana Natya Manch (Delhi), The Freedom Theatre (Palestine), Indian Ensemble (Bangalore), KathaSiyah (Bangalore), and Drama School Mumbai. She was one of seven individuals trained under Indian Ensemble’s Directors’ Training Programme 2017 – ’18. She went on to receive a Trust scholarship from The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and graduated with an MA in Theatre Directing (Classical and Contemporary Text) in September 2019. She was one of four directing students selected for the course. The Masters included a month-long residency at Shakespeare’s Globe, London that culminated in a mainstage directorial showcase. She approaches theatre – a form that encompasses all her preoccupations – as an investigation into identities, histories, languages, and perspectives.
Vic Rodriguez (He/They), Devise
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Born and raised in New Jersey, Vic is a writer and actor whose primary focus in their work is centering the lives of trans and queer people as they know them to be - funny, colorful, and based in love. He graduated from AMDA College and Conservatory of the Performing Arts in 2017 with an MFA in acting, and in 2019, he graduated from The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's Masters of Classical and Contemporary Text program. They are currently working on their first full length stage play, that he will be both performing in and directing for Indianapolis' Fringe festival this summer.
He also runs a free storytelling workshop for children on weekends, and one day hopes to teach theater to school aged children.