Entry Point Panel Discussions

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FREE afternoon panel discussions

Saturday, January 21st at 2:00pm & 3:30pm

Guest speakers whose work is shaping the national theatre field will be featured on two panel discussions Saturday afternoon. The topics include Diverse Voices, The New Play Exchange, National New Play Network and more.

the panelists include:

Sherrine Azab

[Co-Director, A Host of People; Engagement Manager, Network of Ensemble Theaters]
Sherrine Azab is a theater director, producer, performance curator and educator. She is the Co-director of Detroit-based theater company A Host of People and has worked with theatres and arts organizations in Detroit, New York, Berlin and Seattle. Sherrine holds a BFA from Cornish College of the Arts and a postgraduate certificate from the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance at Wesleyan University. She was a member of the 2008 Lincoln Center Director’s Lab and is a proud Associate Artist of Target Margin Theatre (NYC). Sherrine served as the Associate Producer for The Foundry Theatre (NYC) during their 2011/2012 seasons and is currently the Engagement Manager for the Network of Ensemble Theaters.
Photo by Tanya Moutzalias.

Reginald Edmund

[Managing Curating Producer of Black Lives, Black Words International Project; Resident Playwright, Chicago Dramatists Theatre; Literary Manager, Pegasus Theatre Chicago]
Reginald Edmund is Managing Curating Producer of Black Lives, Black Words International Project, which brings together newly commissioned work by black writers whose work is alive to the issues embodied by the movement, to explore black diaspora experiences, to raise awareness and move beyond the hashtags and think-pieces into something lived and real. He is also Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists Center for New Play Development, Literary Manager at Pegasus Theatre Chicago and an Artistic Patriot at Merrimack Repertory Theatre.
Photo by Pin Lim.

Evren Odcikin

[Director of New Plays & Marketing, Golden Thread Productions; Theatre Director & Producer]
Evren Odcikin is a San Francisco-based director and producer. He has worked at South Coast Rep, The Lark (NYC), O’Neill Theater Center, Kennedy Center, InterACT, NNPN New Play Showcase, Magic Theatre, Playwrights Foundation and Crowded Fire with such writers as Mona Mansour, Yussef El Guindi, Kevin Artigue, Eugenie Chan, Hannah Khalil, Michael Lew, Rehana Lew Mirza, Nick Nanna Mwaluko, Betty Shamieh and Lauren Yee, amongst many others. He is the Director of New Plays and Marketing at Golden Thread Productions, where he leads all new play activities, including the annual New Threads reading series. Current: Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s I Call My Brothers at CPT. www.odcikin.com
Photo by Kevin Berne.

Gwydion Suilebhan

[Project Director, New Play Exchange, National New Play Network; Director of Brand & Marketing, Woolly Mammoth]
Gwydion Suilebhan is the author of The Butcher, Transmission, Reals, Abstract Nude, Let X, Cracked and Anthem. His work has been commissioned, produced and developed by Centerstage, Ensemble Studio Theatre, NNPN, Gulfshore Playhouse, Forum Theatre, Theater J and Theater Alliance, among others. Gwydion currently serves as Director of Brand and Marketing for Woolly Mammoth and Project Director of the New Play Exchange for NNPN. A co-founder of The Welders, Gwydion served as DC’s representative to the Dramatists Guild for six years. His speaking engagements include South by Southwest, TCG, LMDA, the Dramatists Guild, Americans for the Arts, APASO and TEDx.

Mark Valdez

[ArtsValdez]
Mark Valdez is an artist, organizer and consultant based in Los Angeles. He has worked at theaters such as the Alliance Theatre, Trinity Rep, the Mark Taper Forum, Mixed Blood, the Ricardo Montalban Theater, Teatro Vision, East West Players, the Falcon Theatre, among others. Current projects include DJ Latinidad’s Latino Dance Party, which he created to explore latinidad in contemporary U.S. culture, through the lens of a dance party; and a commission from the Alliance Theater to create a new play with and for people living and working along the Buford Highway, home to one of Atlanta’s largest immigrant/New American communities. Currently, Mark is working with various health providers and the Somali and East African residents of the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood in Minneapolis to use personal narrative as a tool for building social cohesion and improving health care advocacy and service.
Photo by Bonnie Allen.

Beth Wood

[Associate Artistic Director, Cleveland Public Theatre; Theatre Director, Performer & Producer]
Beth Wood has been CPT’s Associate Artistic Director since 2008. As a director of new plays, Beth has directed multiple national and regional premieres and is currently rehearsing Barbecue by Robert O’Hara which will open in February. In July 2016, Beth was awarded a Theatre Communications Group Leadership U[niversity] Continuing Ed grant allowing her to travel to theatres throughout the country during the 16/17 season to research new play development models.
Photo by Steve Wagner.