The Team
Leadership
The Rich Family Artistic Director of La Jolla Playhouse
Christopher Ashley
has served as La Jolla Playhouse’s Artistic Director since 2007. During his tenure, he has helmed the Playhouse’s productions of The Squirrels, Hollywood, The Darrell Hammond Project, His Girl Friday, Glengarry Glen Ross, A Dram of Drummhicit, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Restoration and the musicals Diana, Escape to Margaritaville, Disney’s Freaky Friday, Chasing the Song, Xanadu, Memphis, which won four 2010 Tony Awards including Best Musical, and Come From Away, for which he won the 2017 Tony Award for Best Director of a Musical. He also spearheaded the Playhouse’s Without Walls (WOW) series and the Resident Theatre program. Prior to joining the Playhouse, he directed the Broadway productions of Xanadu (Drama Desk nomination), All Shook Up and The Rocky Horror Show (Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations), as well as the Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration productions of Sweeney Todd and Merrily We Roll Along. Other New York credits include: Blown Sideways Through Life, Jeffrey (Lucille Lortel and Obie Awards), The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, Valhalla, Regrets Only, Wonder of the World, Communicating Doors, Bunny Bunny, The Night Hank Williams Died and Fires in the Mirror (Lucille Lortel Award), among others. Mr. Ashley also directed the feature films Jeffrey and Lucky Stiff, as well as the American Playhouse production of Blown Sideways Through Life for PBS. Mr. Ashley is the recipient of the Princess Grace Award, the Drama League Director Fellowship and an NEA/TCG Director Fellowship.
Managing Director
Debby Buchholz
was appointed La Jolla Playhouse’s new Managing Director in 2018 and has served as General Manager of the Playhouse since 2002. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the League of Resident Theaters (LORT). In 2009, she received a San Diego Women Who Mean Business Award from San Diego Business Journal. Previously she served as Counsel to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. She was a faculty member of the Smithsonian Institution’s program on Legal Problems of Museum Administration. Prior to the Kennedy Center, she served as a corporate attorney in New York City and Washington, D.C. She is a graduate of UC San Diego and Harvard Law School. Ms. Buchholz and her husband, noted author and White House economic policy advisor Todd Buchholz, live in Solana Beach and are the proud parents of Victoria, Katherine and Alexia.
Senior Staff
Producing Director
Eric Keen-Louie
Eric Keen-Louie joined the Playhouse in September, 2018, after seven years at The Old Globe, where he started as Associate Producer and later became Associate Artistic Director. At the Globe, he helped guide nearly fifty productions, eleven of which moved to Broadway or off-Broadway, including Bright Star, Allegiance and the Tony Award-winning A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. He co-created the theater’s new play development initiative The Powers New Voices Festival and helped launch the arts engagement programs Community Voices and Globe for All. Keen-Louie spent three years at The Public Theater as the Assistant to the Associate Producer and then Director of Special Projects, working on world premieres by Stephen Sondheim, Richard Nelson and Suzan-Lori Parks, as well as the Broadway revival of Hair and the creation of The Mobile Unit. Independently, he produced Kingdom and the GLAAD Media Award-winning when last we flew. He also assisted Broadway producer Margo Lion on Hairspray and Caroline, or Change. He is a recipient of The Edward & Sally Van Lier Arts Fellowship for Producing, an alumnus of American Express’ Leadership Academy, and served on NAMT’s Festival Committee and New Works Committee. He graduated with a B.A. in Dramatic Literature from New York University and an M.F.A. in Theatre Management and Producing from Columbia University, where he received a Dean’s fellowship. He shares his commute to La Jolla with his husband Anthony Keen-Louie, an administrator in student affairs at UC San Diego.
Director of Artistic Development
Gabriel Greene
Gabriel Greene joined La Jolla Playhouse’s artistic staff in 2007. In addition to curating and producing the annual DNA New Work Series, he has dramaturged over two dozen new plays and musicals for the Playhouse, including The Squirrels, Wild Goose Dreams, At the Old Place, Escape to Margaritaville, Miss You Like Hell, JUNK, The Last Tiger in Haiti, Blueprints to Freedom, Up Here, The Darrell Hammond Project, The Who & The What, Milk Like Sugar (also off-Broadway) and Memphis (also Broadway and London; four Tony Awards). With Alex Levy, he wrote Safe at Home, a site-specific show which was developed through the DNA Series and received its world premiere at Mixed Blood Theatre in 2017 (Ivey Award). Goosebumps Alive, his immersive adaptation of R.L. Stine’s best-selling novels (co-written and directed by Tom Salamon) received its world premiere at The Vaults (London) in 2016. He is a graduate of University of Michigan and Trinity College, Dublin.
Director of Philanthropy
Julia B. Foster
A native New Yorker, Julia B. Foster has dedicated the majority of her career to the non-profit arts, in both performance and administration. After earning a B.A. in dance at Washington University in St. Louis, she pursued a professional career in modern dance, musical theater, singing and acting, including six years as a soloist with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company. Later transitioning to arts administration, Foster most recently worked at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California, as Vice President of Development, overseeing their successful annual fund campaign that raised a record $10.5 million goal in FY18, and leading the Center’s annual Candlelight Concert gala to its highest net profit finish in its 44 year history. While at the Center, she previously served as the Director of the Capital Campaign, where she oversaw the Center’s $73 million Next Act Capital Campaign, and planned and implemented successful campaign events, including the groundbreaking and opening celebrations for the Julianne and George Argyros Plaza. Past positions at Segerstrom Center include Director of Major Gifts and Director of the Annual Fund. She also co-chaired the Orange County Association of Fundraising Professionals’ National Philanthropy Day fundraiser luncheon. Prior to the Segerstrom Center, Foster held the post of Chief Development Officer at both Project Access and at Irvine Barclay Theatre and served as the Cultural Development Manager for the Vail Valley Foundation in Colorado.
Director of Communications
Mary Cook
Mary joined the Playhouse’s Communications team in 2007. During her tenure she has overseen the launch of the marketing campaigns for the Tony Award-winning musical Memphis, the Page To Stage Production of the on and Off-Broadway hit Peter and the Starcatchers, the West Coast premiere of the Tony-nominated play 33 Variations and the world-premiere musicals Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Side Show and Little Miss Sunshine. Under her direction, the Playhouse was named one of the “Top 100 San Diego Brands” by the San Diego Ad Club and was the recipient of a 2011 Telly Award. She and her team played an instrumental role in launching the Playhouse’s groundbreaking Without Walls Festival in 2013, which garnered major national press coverage. Prior to joining the Playhouse, Mary held a marketing position for Advanced Marketing Services, a national book distributor that serviced Costco and SAM’S Club. In this role she managed a $4 million cooperative advertising budget and launched the in-store promotional campaigns for numerous major book releases, including Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Jimmy Carter’s Our Endangered Values. She attended the University of California Irvine where she graduated Cum Laude and was a member of the Humanities Honors Program.
Director of Public Relations
Becky Biegelsen
Becky joined the La Jolla Playhouse staff in 2009. During her tenure, she has garnered major national coverage in such publications as The New York Times, Time Magazine, American Theatre, LA Times, USA Today for the Playhouse’s world-premiere productions of Hands on a Hardbody, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, The Who & The What and the 2013 Without Walls Festival, among others. Prior to working at the Playhouse, she served as Associate Director of Alumni Communications at UC San Diego and as Director of Public Relations at The Old Globe. She has also held communications positions at Boston’s Citi Performing Arts Center and WNCN-FM classical radio station. Alongside her career in arts administration, Becky has performed professionally, with credits ranging from a European tour of Jesus Christ Superstar to regional productions of Into the Woods, Once Upon a Mattress and The Gift of the Magi, among others. She is a graduate of Carleton College and the American Musical & Dramatic Academy.
Interim Director of Education and Outreach
Bridget Cavaiola
Bridget has been with La Jolla Playhouse since 2017, first as a Teaching Artist, and now as the Interim Director of Education and Outreach. She is a San Diego based educator, improviser, and facilitator and has been performing and teaching improv theater and communication strategies to adults and children since 2005. She has been a Master Teaching Artist with Arts for Learning, San Diego, La Jolla Playhouse, and San Diego Junior Theatre and is a performer and teacher with Finest City Improv. She is the former Education Director for the Baltimore Improv Group as well as a former Teaching Artist for Young Audiences of Maryland. She was a Baltimore County Public Schools High School (MD) English and theater teacher for seven years. Bridget is a graduate of the Young Audience of Maryland Teaching Artist Institute and has extensive training in inclusion, professional development, and arts integration. She holds a masters degree in Communicating in Contemporary Cultures and teaches adjunct at the college level. She has performed improv in Baltimore, DC, New York, Chicago, Austin, Philadelphia, London, and San Diego.
General Manager
Ryan Meisheid
Director of Operations
Ned Collins
Director of Finance
Laura Killmer
Production Manager
Benjamin Seibert
Board of Trustees
Randall L. Clark
Chair
Sheri L. Jamieson
First Vice-Chair
Michael Flaster
Second Vice-Chair
Susan Tousi
Secretary
Scott M. Stanton
Treasurer
1947 Founders
Mel Ferrer
Dorothy McGuire
Gregory Peck
Trustees
Christopher Ashley
Michael Bartell
Denise Bevers
David Bialis
Andrew Boyd
Ralph Bryan*
Debby Buchholz
Robert Caplan
Hope Carlson
Peter Cowhey, Ph.D.
Doug Dawson
Edward A. Dennis, Ph.D.
Brian Dovey
Susan Dubé
Emily Einhorn
Teri Evons
Dr. Lawrence Friedman
Judy Garrett
Hanna Gleiberman
Lynn E. Gorguze
Luke Gulley
Kay Gurtin
Dwight Hare
Osborn Hurston
Debby Jacobs
Joan Jacobs
Cynthia James-Price
Jeanne Jones
Kathy Jones, Ph.D.
Pradeep K. Khosla, Ph.D.
Lynelle Lynch*
Ayse Ozkan
Lorne Polger
Karen A. Quiñones
Jeffrey Ressler*
Becky Robbins
Don Rosenberg
Tim Scott
Shane Shelley
Karen Silberman
Steven M. Strauss*
Andy Thomas
Carrie Vilaplana
Mary Walshok, Ph.D.
Barbara ZoBell
Honorary Trustees
Richard Atkinson, Ph.D.
Ivan Gayler
John Goodman
Joel Holliday*
Julie Potiker
Geri Ann Warnke*
Gary Wollberg*
Robert Wright, Esq.
Emeritus Trustees
David Copley (1952-2012)
Ted Cranston (1940-2012)
Milton Fredman (1920-2005)
Ewart W. Goodwin, Jr.* (1938-2019)
Hughes Potiker (1925-2005)
Roger Revelle (1909-1991)
Willard P. VanderLaan, M.D.* (1917-2012)
Arthur Wagner, Ph.D. (1923-2015)
Mandell Weiss (1891-1993)
Emerita Trustees
Rita Bronowski (1917-2010)
Marian Jones Longstreth (1906-1997)
Sheila Potiker (1930-2011)
Ellen Revelle (1910-2009)
*Past Chair of the Board
As of August 24, 2020
Staff by Department
Artistic
Producing Director
Eric Keen-Louie
Director of Artistic Development
Gabriel Greene
Producing Associate
Amy Ashton
Artistic Programs Manager & Local Casting Director
Jacole Kitchen
Executive Assistant to Christopher Ashley
Rick VanNoy
Director Emeritus
Des McAnuff
Administration
General Manager
Ryan Meisheid
Assistant General Manager
Samantha De La Riva
COMPANY MANAGEMENT
Company Manager
Erica Martin
Company Management Assistants
Alex Bezdeka, Beth Hall, Hannah Meade, Jacob Sinclair
LEGAL COUNSEL
Corporate/Legal Counsel
Robert C. Wright, Wright & L’Estrange
Theatre/Legal Counsel
F. Richard Pappas, Esq.
Finance
Director of Finance
Laura Killmer
Staff Accountant
Sara Kiebooms
Controller
Jared Jackson
Accounts Payable Manager
Sharon Ratelle
Human Resources Manager
Jennifer Boaz
Philanthropy
Director of Philanthropy
Julia B. Foster
Associate Director of Philanthropy
Bonnie Broberg
Foundation & Government Relations, Senior Manager
Elizabeth Pennington
Philanthropy Operations Manager
Tony Dixon
Corporate Relations Manager
Rebecca Pierce Goodman
Individual Giving Manager
Cristina Hernandez
Philanthropy Coordinator
Sarah Huddleston
Corporate and Foundation Relations Assistant
Sarah Goodwin
Philanthropy Assistant
Anna Juarez
SPECIAL EVENTS
Special Events Manager
Samantha Watkins
Special Events Coordinator
Erica Kao
Communications
Director of Communications
Mary Cook
Director of Public Relations
Becky Biegelsen
Director of Sales & Marketing
Mia Fiorella
Communications Manager
Grace Madamba
Senior Multimedia Designer
Nancy Showers
Multimedia Designer
Jane Sanders
Marketing Specialist
Jacey Aldredge
Marketing Database Analyst
Dani Meister
Direct Sales Associate
Andrew Fink
Patron Services Sales Specialist
Paul Preston
Sales Concierge
William Guiney
PATRON SERVICES
Associate Director of Ticketing Services
Pearl Hang
Senior Patron Services Manager
Travis Guss
Patron Services Assistant Manager
Mike Brown
Senior Lead Patron Services Representative/Group Sales Specialist
Renee Shinske
Lead Patron Services Representative
Bill Washington
Patron Services Representatives
Devon Gonzales, Devin O’Reilly, Heidi Smith
Education & Outreach
Interim Director of Education & Outreach
Bridget Cavaiola
Education & Outreach Coordinator
Hannah Reinert
Teaching Artists
Frankie Alicea-Ford, Julie Benitez, Leticia De Anda, Julia Cuppy, Kelly Derouin, Farah Dinga, Kristen Fogle, Kirsten Giard, Samantha Ginn, Cory Hammond, Jeffrey Ingman, Justin Lang, Bernardo Mazon, Ursula Meyer, Wilfred Paloma, Michael Shantz, Bex Walker, Gary Ware, Sofia Zaragoza
Contact LJP Education: [email protected]
Operations
Director of Operations
Ned Collins
Operations Manager
Jen McClenahan
Network Systems Specialist
Daryl “Scooter” Davis
FRONT OF HOUSE
House Manager
John Craft
Production
Production Manager
Benjamin Seibert
Associate Production Manager
Becca Duhaime
Assistant Production Manager
Carrie Bates
Production Office Manager
Caren Heintzelman
SCENE SHOP
Technical Director
William Hartley
Associate Technical Director
Jonathan Gilmer
Assistant Technical Director
Michael Strickland
Shop Foreman
David Weiner
Production Carpenter
Laura McEntyre
Carpenters
Kyle Ahlquist, Mihai Antonesco, Ryan Beasley, Michael Brodsky, Jacob Bruce, Amanda Cohen, Adam Day, David Hanna, Nick Jackson, Eszter Julian, Scott Kinney, Stephanie Lee, Ryan Lewis, Brylan Ranscht, Ernest Saldana, Syd Svetz, Tim Van Der Lind, Adam Torpey, Zane Whitmore, Andrew Zenner
Shop Helper
Doug Collind
Charge Artist
Melissa Nalbach
Scenic Painters
Edee Armand, Dwaine Best, Jennifer Imbler, Caroline Kvaas
PROPERTIES SHOP
Prop Shop Supervisor
Deb Hatch
Lead Prop Artisan
Zlatko Mitev
Props Artisans
Melinda Barnadas, Rai Feltmann, James Michael McCullock, Zachary Zeringue
COSTUME SHOP
Costume Supervisor
Jennifer Ables
Resident Costume Design Assistant
Desiree Hatfield-Buckley
Draper
Alexander Zeek
First Hands
Kyle Everett, Rebecca Fabares
Stitchers
Amanda Bergman, Stephanie Gift, Sonya Levin, Keira McGee, Carissa Ohm
Craft Artisan
Tess Mattraw, Teri Tavares
Costume Shop Assistant
Jacqueline Rosa
Shopper
Justin Hall
ELECTRICS
Electrics Supervisor
Jeff Brewer
Master Electrician
Kristyn Kennedy
Electricians
Alex Cluff, Jessica Dean, Sean Murray, Ernest Saldana
SOUND/VIDEO
Sound/Video Supervisor
Timothy Riggs
Head of Sound Department
Haley Wolf
Sound Technicians
Jordana Abrenica, Amanda Cohen, Jonathan Fredette, Stephan Jensen, Daniel Silva
This theatre operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 122.
Photo credit: René Millán and the cast of American Night, The Ballad of Juan José; photo by Craig Schwartz.