Kitchen Theatre Staff
| Rachel Lampert | Artistic Director |  |
| Stephen Nunley | Managing Director |  |
| Lesley Greene | Associate Producing Director |  |
| Lindsay Hahnes | Director of Development & Marketing |  |
| Rachel Burttram | Dir. of Audience Svcs & Community Programs |  |
| LaShawn Keyser | Production Stage Manager |  |
| Brendan Komala | Technical Director |  |
| Jennifer Gregory | Production Intern |  |
| Michael Kalmanowitz | Production Intern |  |
| Joanna Drivalas | Marketing & Development Intern |  |
Front of House Trainees - Savannah Burdette, G-Quan Booker, Julissa Acevedo
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Rachel Lampert(Artistic Director) is a playwright, director and choreographer. Her work at the Kitchen includes: Playwright: Main Stage Musicals Book & Lyrics for Bed No Breakfast, Comfort Food, Tony & the Soprano, The Angle of the Sun and Precious Nonsense. Main Stage Non-musical plays: Losing Myself, The Trial, The Book Club, Frankenstein and The Soup Comes Last. Family Fare: I Have a Song to Sing O!, Scoot, Sizzle & Slide, The Mozart Mystery, The Odyssey parts 1 & 2, A December Suite, The Sisters and A Christmas Carol, among others. Director: Mary’s Wedding, At A Loss, Gutenberg! The Musical!, Secret Order, Last Train to Nibroc, The Glass Menagerie, The Price, Master Class, A Delicate Balance, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Swimming in the Shallows among many others. For the 2011-12 season she will direct Red Light |
Winter and a new movement theater piece, In the Company of Dancers will premiere in September. She is proud to have been involved in the building of the new theater and, after a year in the new space, continues to be awed by its possibilities and always grateful to everyone who supported this project.
Rachel is active in the Ithaca arts community beyond the Kitchen, having directed and choreographed at the Hangar Theatre (director: Sweeney Todd, Falsettos, The Sisters Rosensweig; choreographer: 2007 production of Hair) Other collaborations include: Ensemble X, Music' Recreation and the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra. Her play Bet You Can't Catch It? was commissioned by AIDSWORK of Tompkins County as part of an educational program for teens and toured Central NY for three years.
Directing and theatrical choreography credits outside Ithaca include productions at Cal Rep, Arkansas Rep, Portland Stage Company, New York's Public Theatre, Mill Mountain Theatre and Hawaii Opera Theatre. Her concert dance works have been in the repertories of numerous dance companies in the U.S. and abroad.
Her trip to China in 1997 to stage West Side Story resulted in her writing The Soup Comes Last produced off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters in Fall 2004. The Angle of the Sun (written by Lampert & Pressgrove) was selected by the New York Musical Theatre Festival and to be presented in NYC in September 2007. Rachel is a 4-time recipient of NEA Choreography Fellowships and a CAP Individual Artist Grant. She received a SALT Award for Best Actress 2004. She attended Mount Holyoke College and has a BFA and MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Raised in Brooklyn, she moved to Ithaca as a trailing spouse right behind her husband David Squires in 1995. They enjoy a wonderful house, two terrific dogs, and the joy of having family join them in Ithaca and friends always visiting. This is her 15th season as Artistic Director – a job she truly loves.
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Stephen Nunley (Managing
Director) was born and raised in the Buffalo area and received a B.S in Mathematics from Rensselear Polytechnic Institute. Stephen sidestepped a career as a junior high math teacher to become a modern dancer. He has danced for a variety of companies and choreographers around the world and, most notably, was a member of Rachel Lampert & Dancers during the 80's and early 90's. He later became general manager of Eighteenth & Eighth, a popular restaurant in the Chelsea area of NYC. In 2004, he combined his managerial and financial skills and moved to Ithaca to take on his current position. Although his primary responsibility is to maintain and improve the Kitchen Theatre Company's fiscal stability, he is occasionally coaxed out of the office to exercise his other talents. Over the past seasons he has appeared in a variety of roles on and "next to" the KTC |
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Lesley Greene (Associate
Producing Director) has been a member of the Kitchen Theatre staff since 2003. She has degrees in physics, geology, and atmospheric science from Cornell University. It wasn't until a chance encounter with Rachel Lampert & Dancers in 1997 that she knew she was destined for a career in the arts.
In addition to her producing responsibilities, Lesley's work at the Kitchen has included composing music (SCIENCE FAIR, WINTER TALES, and EMMETT & ELLA'S BIG APPLE ESCAPADE and others); playing flute; and acting. Last season she appeared in FIRST DAY, LOSING MYSELF, and I HAVE A |
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Lindsay Hahnes (Director of Development and Marketing) is looking forward to her second season at the Kitchen. A born and bred Jersey girl, she graduated from Binghamton University with a BA in Theater/Directing Concentration. After working on and off stage with The Growing Stage Children's Theater of New Jersey, a brief internship with the Civic Theater of Allentown and a stint in the legal department at Bank of America Securities, she finally made the move off Broadway as the Development Associate with Primary Stages. While at Primary Stages she worked to raise funds for New York and World Premiere productions from both new and established playwrights, including Brooke Berman, Rogelio Martinez, Lee Blessing, A.R. Gurney and the late great Horton Foote. |
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Rachel Burttram (Director of Audience Services and Community Programs) has been working in the theatre for over 15 years. As an Arts Administrator, she has served as an Associate Director, Director of Audience Development, Company Manager, Front of House Manager, Director of Education, Box Office Manager, Fundraising Researcher, teaching artist and mentor for at-risk youth. As an actress, her stage work has been seen across the country in venues such as Actors' Theatre of Louisville in KY, Gloucester Stage in MA, Barnstormers' Theatre in NH, City Equity in AL and various stages in NYC including the prestigious Actors' Studio. Most recently she served as Associate Director and ensemble company member at Florida Repertory Theatre, named by Wall Street Journal's Terry Teachout as "one of America's Top Repertory Companies. Her work on screen includes independent films and TV shows such as Burn Notice as well as national commercials. Her honors include a nomination for the 2009 Southwest Florida Angel of the Arts Performance Artist of the Year as well as an honorary membership with the NAACP’s Birmingham, AL chapter. Rachel is a proud member of the Actors' Equity Association and is eligible for the Screen Actors' Guild. |
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LaShawn Keyser (Production Stage Manager) is in her third year with the Kitchen as the SM. She's constantly looking for other things to do and new people to meet in Ithaca. She is a native of Baltimore City and a graduate from the University of Pittsburgh with a BA in Theatre Arts. Previous professional credits includes work with the Bakerloo Theatre Project, Windhorse Arts, Prime Stage Theatre, Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre, and the Hazlett Theatre. Go big or go home. |
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Brendan Komala (Technical Director) is joining the Kitchen for his first season of theater in downtown Ithaca after several years working on the Cornell campus. He has built sets for a number of groups including the Cornell's Department of Theatre, Film, and Dance, Steppenwolf Theatre, Next Theatre Company, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, and Breadline Theater Group among others. He is excited to be joining the company in their growth and transition into the new playing space. |
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Jennifer Gregory (Production Intern) is excited to be joining the Kitchen Theatre Company for the 2011-2012 season. Born and raised in central Arkansas, Jennifer graduated from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, with a BA in theatre, where she focused on improving her stage management craft. Previously she attended the Rhodopi International Theatre Laboratory in Smolyan, Bulgaria, as part of her work with FourthWorld Theatre Projects, and she worked at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival as a stage management intern on The Playboy of the Western World and The Merry Wives of Windsor. She also interned with The Space on the Isle of Dogs in London, England, during the fall semester of her senior year. |
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Joanna Drivalas (Development and Marketing Intern) is excited to join the Kitchen Theatre Company and finally live north of the Mason-Dixon. She holds a BA in Creative Writing and Theatre from The Florida State University ('09), and spent the last two years as an adjunct professor at Tallahassee Community College teaching Developmental Writing and English. In college, she was very active in the a cappella world, and is happy to have moved to a city where it abounds. Her theatre experience, up to this point, has generally revolved around character shoes and multiple drafts of one-act plays, so she's very ready to learn new things. Joanna is looking forward to making KTC and the very-welcoming Ithacan community a part of her family. |
Top: Rachel Lampert, Rachel Burttram, Stephen Nunley
Bottom: Ruthy Lorenzana, Savannah Burdette, G-Quan Booker, Julissa Acevedo
