Leadership and Advisory Board

Leadership

Artistic Director

HSRTartistic@hope.edu

Marcus Denard Johnson (he/him) is an actor, director and theater educator from Atlanta, Georgia. Marcus holds a BA in theatre from Morehouse College and an MFA from Florida State University/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training, after which he moved to New York City to pursue a career in acting. Marcus found an artistic home with Titan Theatre Company, where he is currently a resident company member and Artistic Director of Titan's New Classics Festival. While working on stages across New York City, Marcus discovered a passion for Theatre for Young Audiences and Theatre Education, prompting him to pursue an interest in teaching. Marcus was accepted into an inaugural, specialized cohort of the New York City Teaching Fellowship, earning a Master of Science in Adolescent Special Education from Hunter College. He would go on to teach in the New York City Department of Education for three years before transitioning to a seven-year career in non-profit arts education and administration. During his time working with non-profits, Marcus was guided by his passion for social justice to engage educators and artists in conversations regarding equity and anti-oppressive practices through the lens of theatre. This skill set eventually guided Marcus back to his home state of Georgia, where he now holds the position of Assistant Professor of Theatre at Columbus State University.

Staci Timmer

Interim Managing Director

timmer@hope.edu

Staci Timmer (she/her) is a Hope College graduate with a BA in theatre and English, she also holds an MA in communications from DePaul University. Staci has spent many summers with Hope Rep both during college and in recent years. She's had onstage roles in The Nutcracker, Oliver!, Peter Pan, Children of a Lesser God, Figaro and The Children’s Performance Troupe. She's also worked as an assistant to the producing director, costume shop technician, dresser and community and volunteer coordinator. Other credits include acting and production work with Act One Studios, Chicago Actors Studio, Theatre of the American West, Single Action Theatre and Manhattan Theatre Club.

Katy Atwell

Production Manager

hsrtpm@hope.edu

Katy Atwell (she/her) is a lighting designer and technical theater consultant based out of New York City. She has spent the last 6 years on staff with New York City Ballet as the assistant lighting director and is the assistant lighting designer for Moulin Rouge! on Broadway (and the National Tour). Her earlier summers in the industry were spent with HSRT and include lighting design for The Foreigner, The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged, I Do! I Do and Taking Steps. BFA: Millikin University, MFA: Boston University. To learn more, visit KatwellDesign.com.

Demetria Thomas

Artist in Residence

Demetria is the thrilled to join the Hope Rep team! She has worked across the country for nearly 30 years as an actor, theatre educator and producer.

Ms. Thomas is a three-time Jefferson Award-nominated actor, receiving the award for Best Actress in a Principal Role for her work in MPAACT’s The Divine Order of Becoming. Her contribution as a member of the ensemble of Live Bait Theater’s Love Child was also recognized with a Jefferson Award. Regional credits include Eunice in A Streetcar Named Desire (American Players Theatre), Doubt (New Stage Theater), Medea (Warehouse Theatre), Mistress Ford in Merry Wives of Windsor, Phoebe in As You Like It (Illinois Shakespeare Festival) and Helena in Midsummer Night's Dream (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival). She has also worked with companies including Second City, Writer’s Theatre, Houston Shakespeare Festival, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Stage Left and Raven Theatre, among others. For television, she has also appeared in the recurring role of Sgt. Bernie Charles on APB (Fox TV), and as a guest star on Chicago Fire (NBC Universal).

As a company member of MPAACT (Ma'at Production Association of Afrikan Centered Theatre), Ms. Thomas produced and developed new works for the company, at various stages of development from table read to production, including the workshop and world premiere of the Steinberg Award-nominated Blacademics by Idris Goodwin.

Ms. Thomas earned an MFA from the Professional Actor Training Program at the University of Houston in Houston, Tecas, and a BA from Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan. She is also a graduate of the Journeyman program at the Warehouse Theatre in Greenville, South Carolina. Ms. Thomas is a member of Actor’s Equity Association, and SAG-AFTRA. She lives in Qunicy, Michigan, developing her correspondence writer group, Woolgather, into a writer’s retreat on her six-acre alpaca farm.

Emily Sandstedt

Production Stage Manager

Emily is thrilled to be back in Holland, Michigan, for her fourth season at Hope Repertory Theatre and her first season as Production Stage Manager. Not only is she a proud Hope Rep veteran, but she is also a Hope College graduate. Recent theatre credits include Figaro and The Color Purple. When she's not stage managing, Emily is earning her master of arts in secondary education, with endorsements in English language arts and theatre.

Amy E Mills

Marketing Director

hsrtpr@hope.edu

Amy Elaine Mills (she/they) is excited to be returning to Hope Rep for her second season. In addition to growing up backstage, Amy Elaine spent almost 20 years working for theatres such as Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Denver Center Theatre Company, American Players Theatre and Milwaukee Rep.

Dr. Julia Moriarty

Education Director

Julia (she/her) is delighted to be joining Hope Rep as the director of education! She is a director, actor and educator with an MA in theatre education from Emerson College and a Ph.D. in theatre from Wayne State University. She has worked as a teaching artist with Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, The Coterie Theatre, KC Rep and the University of Michigan Detroit Center, and has been on faculty at Wayne State University, California State University, Bakersfield and Columbus State University. She has worked professionally as a director, actor and dramaturg throughout the country, working with companies like Lyric Stage Company of Boston, The Ringwald Theatre, and the Springer Opera House. She is a scholar and the co-founder/co-editor-in-chief of Etudes, a theatre and performance studies journal for emerging scholars. She is a certified teacher of the Michael Chekhov acting technique and is trained in theatrical intimacy direction.

Patrick Poole

Company Manager

Patrick Poole is excited to return to Hope Repertory Theatre for a second season. He has performed and taught all over the country and has provided his voice to dozens of anime films and TV shows. Some of his most memorable roles are Figaro (Figaro – Hope Rep), Malvolio (Twelfth Night – Houston Shakespeare), Antony (Julius Caesar – American Shakespeare Center), Krumpet (Santaland Diaries – Festival 56), Mr. Marks (Intimate Apparel – Cape Fear Regional Theatre), Cygnus Magnus (Knights of the Zodiac – Netflix), Ieyasu (Akame Ga Kill! – Toonami), Snoopy (Charlie Brown – RT Productions), and Robin/Gluttony (Dr. Faustus – American Shakespeare Center). To learn more about Patrick, visit patrickpooleactor.com. Eternal gratitude to my big love, Shannon, and my little love, Rosalind, for all their support.

Lenny Banovez

Producing Director

Lenny is an award-winning actor and director and educator that has worked with: The Kennedy Center, Cherry Lane Theatre NYC, Theatre Row NYC, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Resident Ensemble Players, PCPA Theaterfest, Houston Shakespeare Festival, Renaissance Theaterworks, Milwaukee Chamber Theater, Hyperion Theater Project NYC, Texas Shakespeare Festival, Virginia Shakespeare Festival, Milwaukee Shakespeare Theatre, First Stage Children’s Theatre, Huron Playhouse, Secret Theater NYC, Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre NYC, Monomoy Theatre on Cape Cod, and as a guest artist at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Wayne State University, Marshall University, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and University of Delaware. Lenny is also the producer and co-founder of Titan Theatre Company in New York City. Lenny holds an MFA from the Professional Actor Training Program (PATP) at Ohio University and a BA in theater arts from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.

Alexis Black

Resident Fight and Intimacy Director

blackal6@msu.edu

Alexis Black (she/her) is thrilled to join the Hope team as resident fight/intimacy director. She has choreographed fights/intimacy for multiple productions at HSRT, including Shakespeare in Love, West Side Story and Children of a Lesser God, and directed Elephant and Piggie: We’re in a Play! for the 2019 season. Credits include United States, Europe and Asia, including choreographing for Titan Theatre Company, Brick Theatre, NYCFringe and more in NYC, and serving as assistant fight director for the Broadway productions of Fool for Love (2015) and Macbeth (2022). Regional credits include Rattlesnake Kate (Denver Center of Performing Arts), The Three Musketeers (Birmingham Children’s Theatre), Julius Caesar (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival) and multiple shows at Shakespeare Theatre Company (DC). Alexis is assistant professor of acting/movement at Michigan State University, a certified teacher in the Chekhov and Margolis physical acting techniques and a certified intimacy director and instructor with Intimacy Directors and Coordinators. Member: SDC, AEA, ATME. Love to Erik and SBB.

Chaz Sanders

Resident Choreographer

sanderschaz@yahoo.com

Chaz Sanders (he/him) is very thankful and grateful for Hope Summer Rep! Chaz resides in Nashville, Tennessee, where he is a full-time dance teacher at Boost Dance Academy and a gymnastics/tumbling coach at Boost Gymnastics. Chaz has been training in Dance and Musical Theater since he was 13. He was apart of the Triple Threat Dance and Theatre Education program at The Cumberland County Playhouse for four years, and later he attended Shenandoah Conservatory. Recipient of the 2011 First Night (Nashville, TN) Rising Star Award, 2018 Winner of the West Michigan Wilde Award for Best Choreography for The Wiz (HSRT). Regional Credits: The Wiz (Hope Rep.), West Side Story (Hope Rep.), Grease (Cumberland Co. Playhouse), Hip Hop/Musical Theater dance teacher for Pacific Repertory Theaters education program “SoDa”.

“If you think you can do better, then do better, Don’t compete with anyone; just yourself.” —Bob Fosse

Dan Rutzen

Music Director

Dan is a highly specialized, multi-faceted performer and educator who has spent the last 17 years as a professional musical director and conductor in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. A graduate of the University of Illinois and the University of Toronto, Dan is currently on faculty at East Carolina University in the School of Theatre & Dance.

Most recently, Dan served as musical director of an immersive Sweeney Todd with Talk is Free Theatre for which he was nominated for a Dora Award for Outstanding Musical Direction. He was répétiteur for Rufus Wainwright’s opera, Prima Donna for the Toronto Luminato Festival; keyboardist for Sunday in the Park with George at the prestigious Shaw Festival; he conducted the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Opera School and MacMillan Singers on Leonard Bernstein’s Candide, and gave the Canadian premier of Joe Iconis’ Be More Chill with Bravo Academy.

Dan is an accomplished choral conductor having led The Dukes of Harmony Barbershop Chorus, the Canadian Men’s Chorus, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, and the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto. He conducted members of the Toronto Symphony and the Elmer Eisler Singers as part of the Toronto International Bach Festival with Helmuth Rilling.

Advisory Board

Hope College Representatives

Dr. Gerald Griffin

Provost

Gerald Griffin is a neuroscientist and virologist who began his faculty appointment at Hope in the departments of psychology and biology in fall 2015. Previously, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at Tuskegee University.

Gerald has several peer-reviewed publications that represent his dedication to neuroscience research and education. He has mentored and published with over 30 undergraduate and graduate students and has been active in numerous science education outreach opportunities, including the national Brain Bee and Kids Judge! Neuroscience programs.

Dr. Stephen Maiullo

Interim Dean for Arts & Humanities

Dr. Stephen Maiullo is the interim dean for the Arts & Humanities at Hope College.

Since joining the Hope College faculty in 2010, Dr. Maiullo has taught Latin and Greek language courses, and classes that focus on the literature of the classical world — from Homer to Plato’s Republic to the New Testament, and work by other classical authors such as Vergil, Apuleius and Cicero. The thread that runs through everything he does is teaching students how to read old books, and how they might be applicable in their lives now.

Dr. Maiullo has also taught general education courses on topics including classical mythology, the history of Rome, sport in the ancient world and freedom in the modern world. He advises students who are preparing to apply for post-graduate fellowships, most notably the Fulbright program.

His recent research has focused on the reception of the classical world, particularly among intellectuals in the early modern period. He recently completed a book with his Hope colleague Dr. Anne Larsen on the letters and poems of the 17th-century Dutch intellectual Anna van Schurman.

Dr. Sandra Visser

Professor of Philosophy

Sandra Visser teaches logic in the Department of Philosophy.

In her former role as dean for the arts and humanities, Sandra Visser supported faculty and staff development, facilities and other elements of nine of Hope College’s 24 academic departments: art and art history, dance, music, theatre, English, history, world languages and cultures, philosophy and religion. She had the same responsibilities for a number of Hope College institutions and programs including the Kruizenga Art Museum, Van Raalte Institute, Center for Ministry Studies, Mellon Scholars, and interdisciplinary programs in Women’s and Gender Studies and in Asian Studies. She helped to lead and manage people and facilities related to these departments and programs.

Dr. Visser collaborated with the other members of the Dean’s Council to provide support and staffing to ensure the quality of programs that serve Hope College students and help them grow intellectually and spiritually.

Dr. Sonja Trent-Brown

Chief Officer for Culture and Inclusion

As Hope College’s chief officer for culture and inclusion, Dr. Trent-Brown provides leadership for the development of an institutional vision and effective implementation strategies for inclusive excellence that champion the value and importance of a diverse and inclusive college environment. In this role, she serves on Hope College’s Administrative Council. She was appointed in 2015 as special assistant to the president for culture and inclusion, a position that was expanded and renamed in 2018.

Dr. Trent-Brown teaches courses including Introduction to Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Phonetics, Cognitive Psychology and Psycholinguistics. Hope’s 2012 graduating class honored her with the Hope Outstanding Professor Educator Award, and in 2016 the Acoustical Society of America presented her with two awards for excellence in student mentoring.

She served in a number of administrative roles since joining the Hope College faculty in 2005: as the social sciences faculty representative to the college’s Strategic Planning Steering Committee, as a member of the Presidential Search Committee, and as chair of the Residential Life Committee and Campus Life Board. She previously was the adviser for Hope’s Black Student Union, and currently advises the Theta Gamma Pi Sorority.

Dr. Trent-Brown is a member of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education and serves on the research committee of the Natural Start Alliance of the North American Association for Environmental Education.

Erik Alberg

General Manager

alberg@hope.edu

Erik Alberg (he/him) is working as the director of design and production for the performing arts at Hope College and is serving as the general manager for HSRT. He received his B.A in theatre at Hope College and his M.F.A. in technical production from the Professional Theatre Training Program at the University of Delaware. Erik’s design work has been seen or heard with H2 Dance, StrikeTime Dance, dANCEpROjECt Dance Company, IDT Dance Company, Lehrerdance, The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Hope College, Hope Summer Repertory Theatre, University of Delaware, Boarshead Theatre Company, Heritage Theatre Company and The Miniature Theatre of Chester. Erik is also an award-winning photographer, whose works have been featured in galleries and publications.

Industry Representatives

David Lee Huynh

David is an actor and activist based in New York City. Off-Broadway credits include the National Asian American Theatre Company’s Henry VI (Drama Desk nomination, Outstanding Revival), Transport Group’s The Trial of the Catonsville Nine, Pan Asian Repertory’s No-No Boy, Classic Stage Company’s Play On! Festival, and Gingold Theatrical Group's Mrs. Warren's Profession. Regional credits include the Kennedy Center, Alley Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, American Conservatory Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, TheatreSquared, and others. International credits include Prague Shakespeare Company and the Moscow Art Theatre. TEDx Speaker: “Asian Enough?” Founding member and a producing artistic leader of The Sống Collective, a Vietnamese-American Theatre collective set to produce it's first Off-Broadway project in Summer 2022. Cast member on the award-winning high-fantasy episodic podcast Encounter Party! TV/Film: Blue Bloods, FBI, Solitary, What's Missing?, Roll With It, Children of the Dust. MFA: University of Houston Professional Actor Training Program

Psacoya Guinn

Psacoya Guinn (she/her) is a New York City based actor and arts educator. Psacoya holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Education from Troy University, and has spent several years as an arts educator teaching in New York City and regionally. She has brought theatre education programming to a variety of students: students living in transitional housing shelters, multi language learners and adults with various developmental disabilities. Psacoya truly believes she will have a life long career dedicated to inspiring and educating through theatre.

Richard Costes

Richard Costes is a Chicago-based actor, director and accessibility consultant. Selected roles include Snout in Midsummer Night's Dream at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Bosun in Mosquitoes at Steep Theatre Company, Arjun in Opportunities of Extinction (World Premiere) at Broken Nose Theatre, and Rev D./Baby in In the Blood at Red Tape Theatre. Richard was one of 10 recipients of a 3Arts Award in 2019 and is also a 2020 ADA 25 Advancing Leadership Member. A 2006 graduate of Kent State University (B.A., theatre) he has presented at Gallaudet University’s symposium on Visual Shakespeare and was a panelist and member of the 2019 Deaf Theatre Action Planning Session hosted by HowlRound at Emerson College and now sits on the board of the National Theatre of the Deaf.

Community Members

Lindsay and Henry Cherry

Henry and Lindsay Cherry reside in Holland, Michigan, and have five beautiful children. They are both committed educators and have built the nonprofit I AM Academy. I AM Academy empowers Black and Brown students to achieve their full potential. Through partnerships with schools, businesses and organizations, they are working towards creating a community that is truly inclusive and welcoming for all. Lindsay continues to work as an assistant principal for West Ottawa Public Schools, while Henry devotes his time to directing I AM full-time, in addition to his master of arts in theology studies at Western Theological Seminary.

Al Ver Shure
Joel Schoon Tanis
Jeff Padnos

Bios and info coming soon