Karen Kohlhaas is a New York-based theater director, teacher, author, and filmmaker. Director: Karen is a founding member of Atlantic Theater Company, where her credits include mainstage and Atlantic Stage Two productions by Harold Pinter, David Mamet, Annie Baker, Keith Reddin, Shel Silverstein and Kate Moira Ryan, and shorts by Hilary Bell, Joe Penhall, Kia Corthron, and many others. She has also directed for the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater, Naked Angels, Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York Live Arts, 24 Hour Plays on Broadway, the Alley Theatre, Houston, New Dramatists, Menagerie Theatre in Cambridge, UK, The Culture Project, Practical Theater Co. in Sydney and others. Teacher: Karen has over 30 years teaching experience and is a senior teacher at Atlantic Acting School. She teaches her own NYC classes in The Monologue Audition; Fearless Cold Reading & Audition Technique; Advanced Acting; and Directing. She has taught guest workshops around the country and internationally including USC, Drama, Inc of Atlanta, Austin Shakespeare, University of Houston’s 3-summer MFA in Theater Education, Florida International University, Theater Educators of Texas Association, Oklahoma City University, University of Central Oklahoma, Colorado College, Seattle University, Baldwin Wallace University, the University of the South at Sewanee, Rose Bruford College, UK and others. She also teaches Monologue Teacher Training to university and high school teachers. Author: Karen’s books and DVD are The Monologue Audition: A Practical Guide for Actors (foreword by David Mamet and a Backstage Must-Read); How To Choose A Monologue For Any Audition; The Monologue Teacher’s Manual; and, The Monologue Audition Video (DVD). Filmmaker: Karen’s short films include two with acclaimed performer/playwright Taylor Mac, several short documentaries, and she is currently finishing a feature documentary about Tennessee Williams in the Mississippi Delta. (www.TennWmsDelta.com). She is the founder and curator of the Tennessee Williams Rectory Museum in the former Clarksdale, Mississippi rectory rooms once occupied by Williams and his family (www.TennesseeWilliamsRectoryMuseum.com), and co-director of the Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival (www.DeltaWilliamsFestival.com).

Neil Pepe is an acclaimed director and has been the Artistic Director of Atlantic Theater Company since 1992. Neil has been a master teacher at the Atlantic Acting School at New York University Tisch School of the Arts and an associate adjunct professor of directing at Columbia University Graduate Film Division. He has been a guest at The O’Neill Playwrights Conference as well as the American Theatre Wing. Neil holds an Honorary Doctorate as well as a BA from Kenyon College in Ohio. He has served on the Board of ART/NY as well as the Selection Committee for Harold and Mimi Steinberg Playwriting Award as well as the Pew Charitable Trust in Philadelphia. 

As a director, Neil’s Broadway credits include Doug Wright, Trey Anastasio and Amanda Green’s musical Hands on a Hardbody, the acclaimed revival of David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow, as well as Mamet’s A Life in the Theatre. At the Atlantic, Neil has most recently directed John Guare’s 3 Kinds of Exile, Moira Buffini’s Dying For It, Jez Butterworth’s Parlour Song, Mojo and The Night Heron. Other Off-Broadway and Regional credits include: Ethan Coen’s Happy Hour, Offices and Almost an Evening; Harold Pinter’s Celebration and The Room; Adam Rapp’s Dreams of Flying, Dreams of Falling; David Mamet’s American Buffalo (Donmar Warehouse, Atlantic); Romance, Keep Your Pantheon/School (Center Theatre Group, Atlantic); Zinnie Harris’ Further than the Furthest Thing (Manhattan Theater Club); Jessica Goldberg’s Refuge (Playwrights Horizons); Frank Gilroy’s The Subject Was Roses with Martin Sheen (CTG) and Eric Bogosian’s Red Angel (Williamstown Theater Festival).

Maggie Kiley is an award-winning filmmaker based in Los Angeles. She is an alumnae of AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women, both a Fox and Film Independent Directing Fellow and recently the first director chosen for Ryan Murphy’s Half Foundation. Maggie made the transition from acting to directing with her award winning short film some boys don’t leave. The film stars Jesse Eisenberg and Eloise Mumford and played over 50 festivals, garnering top honors at Tribeca and Palm Springs.

Maggie received the Panavision New Filmmaker Grant for her debut feature, Brightest Star. The film, starring Chris Lowell and Allison Janney, was released by Gravitas in early 2014. Her second film, Dial a Prayer, starring Brittany Snow and William H Macy, released in the Spring of 2015. Her last film was thriller Caught starring Anna Camp for Mar Vista Entertainment, marking an impressive three features in just three years. Caught world premiered in competition at the Los Angeles Film Festival and was later acquired by A & E. On the series side Maggie most recently directed “Katy Keene,” “American Horror Story:Cult,” “Riverdale,” and the pilot and first season of “Caring/Superdeluxe.”

Maggie is an ensemble member of off Broadway’s critically acclaimed Atlantic Theater Company and part of the filmmaking collective Film Fatales. She is attached to direct Eyal Alony’s Skin Deep with Storyboard Entertainment as well as Alissa Dean’s Cricket with producers Lynn Hendee and Bill Chartoff.

Anya Saffir is a theater director, educator and writer based in and hailing from New York City. Directing credits include Much Ado About Nothing at the American Repertory Theater Institute, Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle at Theater for a New City (ITBA Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Show; New York Innovative Theater Award for Best Original Score), Hamlet with Orpheus Productions (three New York Innovative Theater Award nominations, including Outstanding Direction), American Sojourns: Three Plays by Thornton Wilder at The Moscow Art Theater, an all-male Romeo and Juliet at The American Theater of Actors, a new translation of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull which she co-developed with translator Moti Margolin, and Pierre Corneille’s L’Illusion Comique at The Abe Burrows Theater at Tisch School of the Arts. With composer Cormac Bluestone Anya co-wrote a musical adaptation of Marjorie Williams Bianco’s The Velveteen Rabbit, which premiered at Atlantic Theater Company (Off-Broadway Alliance Award nomination for Best Family Show). Also for Atlantic Anya has directed original work for the 10×25 Play Festival and the New Works Series, as well as numerous student productions such as Uncle Vanya, Twelfth Night, The Winter’s Tale, As You Like It, and Pericles, to name a few. Anya has served as Artistic Associate at Classic Stage Company and is a regular contributor on Shakespeare topics for National Public Radio’s The Takeaway.  She is currently the co-director of “It Makes a Sound,” a fictional podcast on the Night Vale Presents Network written by and starring Jacquelyn Landgraf. Anya has been on the faculty at Atlantic since 1997 and teaches Advanced Script Analysis classes in Chekhov, Shakespeare, Throughline, and Postwar British Drama.  She has been a visiting professor and guest artist at The Center for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University, Penn State Graduate Theater Program and Brave Studios in Melbourne, Australia, an Adjunct Professor at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, and is currently on the faculty at Brooklyn College where she teaches Chekhov to the B.F.A. students. For more information please go to www.anyasaffir.com.

Jessica Frey is an actor/singer/writer/comedian/teacher located in NYC. She has had the pleasure of teaching with the Atlantic Acting School, with Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festivals teaching artist program, and as private acting and on camera coach. Some favorite acting credits include: Sense & Sensibility, BEDLAM (in both the Off-Broadway and ART productions); Clown Bar and Giant Killer Slugs with Pipeline Theatre Co; Pride & Prejudice (Lizzy Bennet) with Dorset Theatre Festival; All’s Well That Ends Well (Helena) and King Lear (Cordelia) with Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival; Twelfth Night (Viola), Esperance Theater Company. Film/TV: “The Characters” (NETFLIX); “BASIC WITCH” (star and co-creator). (NYT Critic’s Pick). She’s also a proud member of Partial Comfort Productions, Pipeline Theatre Co, and the award winning sketch group, Uncle Function. She got her BFA from NYU / Atlantic Acting School. www.jessicafrey.com

Todd Thaler  is a prolific Film & Television Casting Director, teacher, (NYU/Tisch School of the Arts, Columbia University, Brooklyn College, Atlantic Acting School), and private acting coach. Among many others, he served as Casting Director on Sidney Lumet’s Running On Empty, Luc Besson’s The Professional, Todd Field’s Little Children, Ed Harris’ directorial debut, Pollock, Barbra Streisand’s The Mirror Has Two Faces, James Foley’s Perfect Strangers, Stacy Cochran’s My New Gun and Boys, Irwin Winkler’s Night And The City, John McNaughton’s Mad Dog & Glory, Gavin O’Connor’s Tumbleweeds, James Mangold’s Heavy and Cop Land, Wayne Wang’s Because of Winn-Dixie and Maid in Manhattan, and all the films of John Turturro: Mac, Illuminata, Romance & Cigarettes and Fading Gigolo. Television projects include: TBS’ “Are We There Yet?,” Peter Berg’s “Wonderland,” and NBC’s “Ed” for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award.

Tatiana Pandiani is a NYC based director-choreographer and writer who works in English and Spanish. Her work combines live performance, dance, and music to challenge and entertain; it is inspired by the legacy of Maria Irene Fornes, Frida Kahlo, Pina Bausch, Bob Fosse, and Bertol Brecht. She serves as the Associate Director for the First National Broadway tour of What the Constitution Means to Me by Heidi Schreck which recently closed on Broadway. Recent: When My Mama was a Hittite By Melis Aker (Park Theatre, London), Christina by Alexis Sheer (Cleveland Playhouse, workshop), Dike by Hannah Benitez (Urbanite), Friends with Guns by Stephanie Alison Walker (NYTW, workshop), Nanas by Leonardo Gonzales (IATI, La Micro). Tatiana directed the international tour of La Negrophilie by Zakiya Markland (Frank Collymore Hall, Bridgetown, Barbados; Ubumuntu Festival, Kigali, Rwanda; Kampala International Festival, Kampala, Uganda). As a choreographer, Tatiana develops and produces concerts & music videos with Latin Indie music artists. She has developed Azul, Otra Vez [Blue, Revisited] at Musical Theater Factory, Tofte Lake, NYTW, BRIC, The Drama League. She is also developing new plays with Alexis Scheer, Melis Aker, Monet Hurst-Mendoza, Hannah Benitez, Whitney White and other exceptional writers with the support of institutions such as Long Wharf Theater, Cleveland Playhouse, Urbanite Theater, NYTW, Miami New Drama, Westport Country Playhouse, Pipeline Theatre Co.,The Park Theater (UK). These collaborations are her favorite part of the work. Upcoming: Torera by Monet-Hurst Mendoza (Long Wharf Theater),  LEMPICKA (Associate Director to Rachel Chavkin, La Jolla Playhouse), Whitewashed by Hannah Benitez (Island City Stage) and many stops of the Constitution tour. Tatiana is an adjunct professor at Hofstra University, a Teaching Artist at the Atlantic Theater Company and an Associate Artist at Miami New Drama. She is an alumna of the NYTW 2050 Fellowship, and a 2018 recipient of the National Directors Fellowship. MFA: Columbia. Proud Member of SDC. Representation: Paradigm Talent Agency. www.tatianapandiani.com