Organizations
Companies, institutions, businesses, and other cool places I like to be.
Theatre Battery
I started this company with a group of friends from high school in 2011, and it has grown into a professional artistic home, a gathering place for the Kent community, and the source of my most passionate work on new plays. The theatre partners with local organizations, businesses, and schools to provide the city of Kent with access to material that speaks directly to the politics and society of the town.
We partner with the shopping mall Kent Station to turn their vacant storefront warehouses into original performance spaces every year. Our work has included full productions, plays for young audiences, festivals, staged readings, classes, and community gatherings. All events at Theatre Battery are provided with no ticket charges through our policy of Radical Hospitality.
Working for Theatre Battery is one of the most special things I get to do, because it serves the community that raised me. Kent is one of the most diverse and fastest growing cities in the country, and Theatre Battery represents my long-term commitment to enriching the culture of the region.
Position: Producing Artistic Director (since 2011)
Works Directed: Deep Purple Wiggle by Milo Cramer, We Are Pussy Riot or Everything is P.R. by Barbara Hammond, Hooded or Being Black for Dummies by Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm, A Maze by Rob Handel, Milk Like Sugar by Kirsten Greenidge, Dog Sees God by Bert V. Royal, Neighborhood 3: Req. of Doom by Jennifer Haley, and Chatroom by Enda Walsh
Yale School of Drama
I am in the 2020 class of MFA Directors at YSD, graduating alongside my colleagues Danilo Gambini of Sao Paolo, Brazil and Kat Yen of New York City. The School of Drama is an intensive graduate program training directors to work with large amounts of resources and in a wide range of theatrical forms, all alongside a compliment of actors, playwrights, designers, stage managers, technicians, and arts managers also in training. The directing course encompasses closely reviewed work and productions of new plays, opera, Shakespeare, Chekov, Greeks, and contemporary plays from around the world.
My experience of Yale has been filled with exhilaration, surprises, trials, and intense joys. It has changed the scale of my career and given me the opportunity to create on a level beyond anything I have imagined before. Most importantly, I have met other artists my age that are on track to define the functions of the American Theater as we transition into a new generation of leadership.
If you have questions about my experience at YSD, please feel free to reach out. https://www.drama.yale.edu/
Studied with: Liz Diamond, Yuri Kordonsky, Karin Koonrod, Robert Woodruff, Ethan Heard, Lileana Blain-Cruz, Evan Yionoulis, Pat Diamond, James Bundy, Stephen Brown-Fried, Tarrell Alvin McCraney, Anne Erbe, Gregory Wallace, Peter Francis James, Riccardo Hernandez, Wendall Harrington, Catherine Sheehy, Rick Sordelet, Glenn Seven Allen, Erica Fae, Walton Wilson, Narda Alcorn, and others.
Works Directed: ALICE by Wilson, Waits, Brennan, and Schmidt, Henry VI, Part 3 by Shakespeare, The Shift by Margaret E. Douglas, blues for miss lucille by Audley Puglisi, Non-Player Character by Walt McGough, and numerous classroom and studio explorations.
Magic Theatre
Coming out of undergraduate, I was thrilled to be hired to work as Loretta Greco’s apprentice at Magic Theatre in San Francisco, a position that led to six formative years living and working in the Bay Area. Loretta and Magic taught me the power of producing new plays and the strength of will required to work in non-profit arts administration. It was at Magic that I first worked assistant directing professional productions, coordinating casting, producing readings and special events, and serving as an artistic staff support member, and then years later working as a producer in residence. This experience has been foundational in my work with other companies as a producer and artistic leader.
Loretta is in her final season at Magic, which is bittersweet because she has been such a huge inspiration to me. I look forward to participating in the future of this extremely special and vibrant home for new plays.
Positions: Artistic Direction Apprentice (2011-2012), Producer in Residence (2016-2017)
Projects Directed: Numerous staged readings, including IVANKA by Joshua Harmon, THE FIREFLY PROJECT with Art for Recovery at UCSF, and GO. PLEASE. GO. by Emily Feldman
Playwrights Foundation
This organization, founded originally by my mentor Robert Woodruff, exists to provide developmental resources to playwrights. They produce the Bay Area Playwrights Festival every summer, an intensive residency and workshop opportunity in San Francisco. The festival attracts hundreds of writers to annually submit their newest works in development, and for two consecutive years I facilitated the selection of plays alongside Artistic Director Amy Mueller. It was here that I came into contact for the first time with the work of substantial emerging playwrights like Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm, Jeremy O’Harris, Hillary Bettis, Hansol Jung, and many more.
https://playwrightsfoundation.org/
Position: Literary Manager (2015-2017)
Workshops Directed: Non-Player Character by Walt McGough
Kent School District
Serving one of the most diverse and fastest growing cities in the country, the Kent School District was a huge part of my upbringing and continues to be a network of community inspiration in Kent. I am the third generation of my family to attend Kent-Meridian High School, where I am fortunate to participate as a guest lecturer and mentor to theater students.
Major district leaders like Becky Hanks, Maya Vengadasalam, Calvin Watts, Wade Barringer, and Dee Klem have been instrumental in the growth of Theatre Battery. The district as a whole is a crucial link between local arts non-profits and the families of our region.
Bay Area Rainbow Symphony
I played in the viola section of this amazing orchestra for the six years I lived in San Francisco. Under the leadership of Dawn Harms, BARS is dedicated to producing the symphonic works of LGBTQ+ and women composers. The community of the organization includes local musicians from many backgrounds and industries, and I was thrilled to join a string quartet from the group.
Seattle Boat Cruise
My brother Dorin Ellis is the #approachablehipstercaptain of the 1933 Classic Yacht MITLITE, and his business hosts sunset cruises, parties, marriage proposals, weddings, funerals, and trip packages around the idyllic waterways of Seattle. In recent years, Dorin has become a leader in the nautical industry in the Pacific Northwest with his passion, friendliness, and craftsmanship.
When I’m lucky, I get to work as a crew member on the MITLITE, and Dorin and I have been working together with his colleagues to restore another classic wooden boat, the FOREVERMORE (1945). We were both raised on boats by our parents.
Seattle Puppetory Theatre
On the left here is Beatrice Joan King, my grandmother, who along with Jean Mattson (right) ran a two-woman puppet theater that toured the world with original plays performed by handmade puppets. They used a stage that folded down and fit into a pickup truck. Seattle Puppetory Theatre was on a mission to bring delight, education, and cross-cultural exchange to audiences of all ages. They collaborated with some of the most well-known puppeteers and festivals of the 80s and 90s and were frequently commissioned by public schools, libraries, and local government organizations in the Pacific Northwest. In 2010, they were honored with lifetime achievement awards from the Puppeteers of America.
Though I haven’t collaborated with them, per se (my mother did tour with them to Pakistan when I was a baby), I hope to carry the imagination of craft, spirit of storytelling, and accessibility of my grandmother’s work into my own.