The Farm Theater's Bullpen Sessions

Bullpen Sessions Episode 70: Suzy DeVore

Suzy DeVore is a professor of theatre, actor and director.  She holds an MFA from The Actors Studio Drama School, New School University in New York City and a BA in Dance from Point Park College, Pittsburgh, PA. She is currently the Program Manager for the Hillsborough Community College Theatre Program, Ybor Campus in Tampa, FL. She has directed over 25 productions for the college.  She is also the president of the Visual and Performing Arts Series of the college, which welcomes national guest artist performances and workshops. While in NYC, she was the managing director of her theatre company of P.L.A.Y. Put Life Ahead of You, which focused on the integration of education through the arts, by both producing new work and pursuing the history of classical work.  Favorite theatre productions include roles in Extremities, Laura, The Shadow Box, Last Night of Ballyhoo, and In the Blood.  She is a member of Association of Theatre in Higher Education and has been awarded outstanding director for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, Region IV.

Bullpen Sessions Episode 69: Dr. Indira Etwaroo

Dr. Indira Etwaroo (she/her) (award-winning producer, director, scholar, and arts and culture executive) has worked across the world to develop multiplatform venues and content that represents the diversity of the globe and explores the complex intersections between stories-that-matter and the topics-of-our- time. She currently serves as the first-ever Director of the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple in California.

Dr. Etwaroo was a major force for content innovation and inclusion in the public media field, as the Founding Executive Producer of The Greene Space in NYC and Founding Executive Producer of NPR Presents, the national live events platform to bring live, on-air and online content to audiences across the world. Of note, she Executive Produced the American Broadcast Premiere of the 75th Anniversary of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, starring Phylicia Rashad and the first-ever audio recordings and video broadcasts of August Wilson’s entire American Century Cycle, in partnership with the August Wilson Estate and Artistic Directors Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Stephen McKinley Henderson. She led The Billie Holiday Theatre in Brooklyn through radical growth, as its Executive Artistic Director: more than doubling the audience, increasing revenue by 212%, and producing groundbreaking content. Dr. Etwaroo spearheaded the launch of the first-ever national $10 million strategic plan for thrivability for Black theater institutions, The Black Seed, in partnership with Gary Anderson, Dr. Monica NDounou and Shay Wafer. Indira’s work at BAM developed educational and humanities’ content that leveraged BAM’s MainStage work. Dr. Etwaroo has been a professor of graduate studies at Temple University and at NYU, teaching Leading Performing Arts Institutions in the 21st Century.

She has received awards and honors for her work, including the “40 under 40” of national leaders by The Network Journal, the Black Theater Network’s Larry Leon Hamlin Legacy Award, as well as the Larry Leon Hamlin Producer’s Award from the National Black Theatre Festival. She has lectured and published extensively on the performing arts, race, womanhood and equity; and has served as a Fulbright Scholar where she lived and worked with refugee Somali women in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Indira is the mother of Zenzele, a director and writer.

Bullpen Sessions Episode 68: Skylar Fox

Skylar Fox (he/him) is a director, playwright and creator of magic and illusions for theatre. He cares about making wildly theatrical plays and musicals that push the boundaries of what theatre can do to tell demandingly vulnerable stories powerfully.

As a magic designer, Skylar is the illusions and magic associate for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway and around the world, and has created magic for Fat Ham (The Public Theater and National Black Theatre, Broadway upcoming), You Will Get Sick (Roundabout), A Beautiful Noise (associate design, Broadway), Damn Yankees (Shaw Festival) and Dracula (Maltz Jupiter Theater). He also has consulted on The Tonight Show, The Tony Awards and San Diego Comic Con.

He is the co-artistic director of Nightdrive, where he has directed and cowritten an apocalypse around a campfire (The Grown-Ups, secret location); a live, immersive alien movie (Alien Nation, Paradise Factory); a fivedimensional community meeting with a full pancake breakfast (Providence, RI, The Tank); a haunted rock concert (Thank You Sorry, Ars Nova); and a hybrid comic book with interactive animation (Apathy Boy, The Brick & Ars Nova, 2015 O’Neill finalist). He also directed and co-created The Annotated History of the American Muskrat by John Kuntz (The New Ohio, Boston Center for the Arts).

Bullpen Sessions Episode 67: Stacey Raymond

Stacey Raymond is a critically-acclaimed stage and screen actor who resides in New York City. They played Paramedic Kerry Whitaker on NBC's hit series New Amsterdam for entire five seasons, Stacey has appeared in dozens of performances, workshops and readings with such theaters as New York Theatre Workshop, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club, Ensemble Studio Theater, Page 73, LAByrinth Theater Company, The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, to name a few. Select Film credits include: Alice in Andrew’s Land, August In The City and Romance In The Digital Age. Select TV credits include a recurring role on New Amsterdam (NBC), The Legend Of Vox Machina (Amazon Prime), Mr. Robot (USA), Bull (CBS), Law & Order: SVU (NBC), The Good Cop (Netflix), Alpha House (Amazon).

Stacey received a BFA in Acting from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and is a proud member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA.

Bullpen Sessions Episode 66: Neptune

Neptune: (HE/THEY) After a stint at home in Los Angeles with the ELIZA company, ‘Tune has been a member to all national companies of Hamilton but currently stands by for Aaron Burr, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, & King George III. Select credits: OFF BWAY: MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG  BWAY: HAMILTON, BEAUTIFUL, MOTOWN. T.V.: SVU, GOD FRIENDED ME, STEPHEN COLBERT, FILM: (in post) QUEEN OF KNIVES

Bullpen Sessions Episode 65: Scott Illingworth

Scott Illingworth is a professor in the Graduate Acting Program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, a freelance director, co-founder of SOCIETY, and author of Exercises for Embodied Actors: Tools for Physical Actioning. He’s taught, lectured, and directed at universities and schools across the United States and internationally. His directing credits include new play collaborations with Lucas Hnath, Mona Mansour, Christina Anderson, Stefanie Zadravec, Padraic Lillis, and Bill Bowers among others. Scott's work has been seen in New York, across the United States, Europe, South America, and Asia. He is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner (GCFT), and a Fulbright grant recipient.

Bullpen Sessions Episode 64: Rob Kaplowitz

ROBERT KAPLOWITZ is most interested in the stories told by deliberately curated sound and music, and how those stories interact with society.  He has spent the last 27 years creating work as a sound designer and composer for theater, opera and art installations, and has been honored with a Tony Award for Fela! and an OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence in Sound Design, among other flattering celebrations of his work.  His approach to design was greatly influenced by the years he spent working with James Houghton, at both the O’Neill Playwrights Conference and the Signature Theater in NY, where he learned his role as a writer’s ally, and to never say “no” but only ask “why” when he doesn’t understand a collaborator’s idea. 

His work for the screen is more recent – since the Pandemic, he has undertaken various roles for theatrically centered movie work.  “Sound Design” in theater seems to translate to about 15 titles in film, including location recording, audio editing, audio repair, music supervision, mixing, mastering…  Film projects include After/Glow for Helios Films (Nominee,Best Sound Track On a Feature Film, Seattle Film Festival), Opera Philadelphia’s Digital Commissions series, and the full-length concert film of Tyshawn Sorey and Terrance Hayes’ Cycles of My Being.    

He is also on the Faculty at Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts, the leader of an annual Masterclass in Sound Design at the Kennedy Center, a co-founder of We Embrace Fatherhood (a West Philadelphia organization dedicated to reduction of systems harms and violence in the Black community), co-creator of the app Stagecaller and proud spouse and parent in his delightful family.

Bullpen Sessions Episode 63: Maggie Bofill

Maggie Bofill: Actor/Playwright. Founding member of LAByrinth Theater Company, member Ensemble Studio Theater (EST) WAW, WomanArtistWriters. WRITER/FILM: Wrote and featured in Cuban American Gothic, nationally televised PBS short, Pata de Perros Productions, PLAY PRODUCTIONS: Devil of Choice, LAByrinth Theater Co. NYC, Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Drawn and Quartered, INTAR (NYTimes critic’s pick), Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Kingshead Theatre Pub, London. Winners, EST Mainstage, Face Cream, EST One Act Marathon. ACTING/STAGE: Moises Kaufman Workshop of Las Aventuras de Juan Planchard, NYC: Miranda, The Formula (world Premier) and Alonso, The Tempest, Santa Cruz Shakespeare Co.: Bella, The Sound Inside, Theater Works Hartford, Dir. Rob Ruggiero: Nora, A Doll's House Part Two, The Longwharf Theatre, Dir. Will Davis: Armida, Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles, St. Louis Rep. Dir: Rebecca Martinez: Blanca in The 24 Hour Plays Viral Monologues, Writer Michael John Garcés: TV/FILM: High Town, The Path, Smash, Law&Order SVU. IG: maggiebofillita

Bullpen Sessions Episode 62: Douglas Taurel

Douglas Taurel recently played Joe Petito in the upcoming Lifetime Movie, The Gabby Petito Story. He worked opposite Thora Birch, who also directed the film. He was cast as a voice in the popular video game Red Redemption and has appeared in numerous television shows and independent films. Including The Cobbler (starring Adam Sandler and Dustin Hoffman) and The Kindergarten Teacher (starring Maggie Gyllenhaal), which premiered at Sundance. He's built a seasoned resume with characters living on the edge of life. The Los Angeles Times said his work on Nurse Jackie, "Nurse Jackie gets her most fascinating character yet to date." He recently finished directing and starring in the TV series Landing Home which he wrote. It recently earned Best Drama at the GI Film Festival, and he was nominated for Best Actor and Best First Time Director at the GI Film Festival. The series also earned Best Drama by the Wings of Honor Festival. It is now streaming on Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Tubi and Vudu, and Vimeo On Demand. 

Douglas is well known for his solo show, The American Soldier, which has been nominated for the Amnesty International Award. A play that he wrote to honor Veterans and their families. It is based on actual letters from veterans and their families that span from the Revolution through the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is touring throughout the country and has performed in over 34 cities. Including notable spaces like The Kennedy Center in 2016 and 2019, The Library of Congress, and Off-Broadway at 59east59th street.

Bullpen Sessions Episode 61: Andrea Ciannavei

Andrea Ciannavei is a writer, actor, teacher, producer, and political activist. TV: Pink Marine (Netflix), Mayans MC (FX Networks), The Path (Hulu), Last Men Out (National Geographic);  American Odyssey (NBC Universal), Copper (BBC America), Borgia (Canal Plus). She has optioned her pilot Late Bloomers with Universal TV with Jessica Goldberg as showrunner in summer 2021. Plays: The Winstons, one-act play commissioned by Hangar Theater, Deep Trees, The Hard Sell, 7 Captiva Road, and Pretty Chin Up which received a development production at LAByrinth Theater Company (Artistic Directors: Philip Seymour Hoffman and John Ortiz) at The Public Theater.  

Publications: Pretty Chin Up (Playscripts, Inc.) She has also been published in DAME Magazine, Alternet and Flurt Magazine. For a decade, Andrea produced the Helen Deutsch Writing Workshops: free writing workshops for wounded warriors returning from service in Iraq and Afghanistan (as well as their family caregivers) in Colorado, Minnesota, Ohio, Texas, New York, Los Angeles, and the American Military Hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. Sponsored by the Writers’ Guild Initiative and in partnership with Wounded Warrior Project. This workshop has expanded to include Witness to Innocence who advocate for death row exonerees. In addition to teaching privately, Andrea has taught master classes and been a guest lecturer at Carnegie Mellon, Chapman University, Snow College and UC San Diego.

Education: NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts’ Dramatic Writing Program and went on to Juilliard’s Lila Acheson Playwriting Fellowship 2008-2010.  Proud member of WGA.