The School for Lies

The Artistic Team
(Tap for bio)

• 
  David Ives
  Playwright

  Playwright

  David Ives
  

  STC: The School for Lies, The Metromaniacs (winner of a Helen Hayes Award for Best Original Play Adaptation), The Liar (winner of the Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play), The Heir Apparent. NEW YORK: Broadway: Venus in Fur; Is He Dead? (adapted from Mark Twain); White Christmas. Off-Broadway: Classic Stage Company: New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza (winner of the Hull-Warriner Award); Primary Stages: All in the Timing, Time Flies, Ancient History, Lives of the Saints. REGIONAL: Chicago Shakespeare: A Flea in Her Ear (winner of Joseph Jefferson Award for adaptation). AWARDS: Guggenheim Fellowship in playwriting. TRAINING: Northwestern University; Yale School of Drama.

• 
  Michael Kahn
  Director

  Director

  Michael Kahn
  

  Since the start of his tenure as Artistic Director in 1986, Michael Kahn has directed 65 productions at STC, received 28 awards for his artistry and leadership and steered the Company to the 2012 Regional Theatre Tony Award. In 1991 he inaugurated the Free For All, which brings an STC production to audiences completely free of charge each year and has reached 690,000 patrons. He also created the Academy for Classical Acting, an MFA program in partnership with The George Washington University. Since the 1960s Kahn's work has appeared on Broadway, Off-Broadway and in theatres around the United States, in addition to Athens, Cairo, Stratford upon-Avon and Adelaide. He has directed productions for the Houston, Dallas, San Francisco, Washington National and New York City Center Opera companies. Previously Artistic Director of the McCarter Theatre Center, the American Shakespeare Festival, The Acting Company and Chautauqua Theatre and Conservatory, he was a founding faculty member of the Drama Division of The Juilliard School and served as the Richard Rodgers Director of Drama for 15 years. He has also been on the faculties of New York University and the Circle in the Square Theatre School. Honored by numerous awards, including a Tony Award Nomination for Show Boat, Kahn was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame and was recognized as an Honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (C.B.E.) in 2013.

• 
  Alexander Dodge
  Scenic Designer

  Scenic Designer

  Alexander Dodge
  

  STC: Vanity Fair; The Panties, The Partner and The Profit; The School for Lies; Henry IV, Part 1 and 2; Measure for Measure; The Heir Apparent; The Liar; The Dog in the Manger. NEW YORK: Broadway: Anastasia, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Present Laughter, Old Acquaintance, Butley, Hedda Gabler. Off-Broadway: Signature Theatre: When Playwrights Kill | Vineyard Theatre/Minetta Lane Theatre: Harry Clarke | Manhattan Theatre Club: Ripcord | Second Stage: Lips Together, Teeth Apart | Playwrights Horizons: Rapture, Blister, Burn | Roundabout Theatre Company: The Understudy | Public Theater: Measure for Pleasure | Lincoln Center Theater: Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Toward the Somme, Chaucer in Rome. REGIONAL: Arena Stage: Catch Me If You Can | Alley Theatre: Noir (World Premiere) | INTERNATIONAL: La Jolla Playhouse/Paper Mill Playhouse/Japan/Germany/Austria: Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame | London West End/Manchester/Glasgow: All New People. OPERA: Metropolitan Opera: Samson et Dalila | Santa Fe Opera: The 13^th Child | LA Opera: The Ghosts of Versailles | Minnesota Opera: Dinner at Eight, Cosi Fan Tutti | Deutsche Oper Berlin: Il trittico | Hungarian State Opera-Budapest: Lohengrin. AWARDS: Lucille Lortel Award (Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Toward the Somme), Tony Award nomination (A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Present Laughter), Outer Critics Circle Award nomination (Anastasia, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder). PERSONAL: Training: Yale School of Drama.

• 
  Mark McCullough
  Lighting Designer

  Lighting Designer

  Mark McCullough
  

  STC: The Critic and The Real Inspector Hound, The Metromaniacs, Coriolanus, Wallenstein, Design for Living, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Edward II, Tamburlaine, Titus Andronicus, Richard III, Hamlet, Henry V, Richard II. NEW YORK: Broadway: Outside Mullingar, The American Plan, Accent on Youth, After Miss Julie, Jesus Christ Superstar (Broadway; National and UK Tour); Off-Broadway: The Language Archive, Old Money, Mouth to Mouth, How I Learned to Drive, The Long Christmas Ride Home, This is Our Youth, Lobby Hero. REGIONAL: Court Theatre; La Jolla Playhouse; Mark Taper Forum; Long Wharf Theatre; Hartford Stage; Huntington Theatre; Old Globe; Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Guthrie Theater; Steppenwolf Theatre. INTERNATIONAL: Aldwych Theatre (London): Whistle Down the Wind; Ronacher Theatre (Vienna): Der Besuch Der Alten Dame; St. Gallen (Switzerland): Artus, Rebecca (and the Palladium Theatre, Stuttgart); Jesus Christ Superstar (UK Tour). OPERA: Washington National Opera Ring Cycle, Metropolitan Opera, The Bolshoi, La Scala, The Vienna Staatsoper, New York City Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Teatro Real Madrid, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opéra national du Rhin, Opera North, Dallas Opera, Opéra de Montréal, Seattle Opera, National Centre for the Performing Arts (Beijing). TRAINING: North Carolina School of the Arts; Yale School of Drama: MFA.

• 
  Murell Horton
  Costume Designer

  Costume Designer

  Murell Horton
  

  STC: The School for Lies (Helen Hayes Nomination), The Critic and The Real Inspector Hound (2017 Helen Hayes Nomination), The Metromaniacs, Coriolanus, Wallenstein (Helen Hayes Nomination), The Government Inspector (Helen Hayes nomination), The Heir Apparent, The Liar (Helen Hayes Nomination), The Alchemist, Edward II (Helen Hayes Nomination), Hamlet (2007), Titus Andronicus, Lorenzaccio (Helen Hayes Nomination), Richard III (2003), Hamlet (2002), The Silent Woman, Hedda Gabler (Helen Hayes Nomination), Camino Real (Helen Hayes Nomination). NEW YORK: Classic Stage Company: The Liar (Drama Desk Award Nomination); Jeffrey Finn Productions; The Acting Company; The Juilliard School; Pearl Theatre Company. REGIONAL: Guthrie Theater; Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Denver Center Theatre; Cleveland Playhouse; Philadelphia Theatre Company; Berkshire Theatre Festival; Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey; Madison Repertory Theatre; Indiana Repertory Theatre. OPERA: New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera. AWARDS: 2007 Irene Sharaff Young Master Award for Costume Design. WEB: MurellHorton.com.

• 
  Christopher Baine
  Sound Designer

  Sound Designer

  Christopher Baine
  

  STC: The School for Lies, The Critic and The Real Inspector Hound, The Heir  Apparent. REGIONAL: Founder and CEO of Avae, creating new software tools for live performance artists and designers (Avae.io); recipient of UNCSA's inaugural Artpreneur of the Year Award for his work on Avae. Studio Theatre: Three Sisters/No Sisters, Water by the Spoonful; Kennedy Center (TYA): From the Mouths of Masters, Gift of Nothing, Jason Invisible; Imagination Stage: When She Had Wings (Composer, Helen Hayes Award), The BFG (Composer, Helen Hayes nomination); Guthrie Theater: The Critic and The Real Inspector Hound; Olney Theatre Center: Colossal (Helen Hayes Award); Theatre Alliance: The Wonderful World of Dissocia (Helen Hayes Award); Marin Theater Company: Fetch Clay Make Man; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Detroit, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (Helen Hayes nomination), Gruesome Playground Injuries, A Bright New Boise  Helen Hayes Award); Folger Theatre: Romeo and Juliet (Helen Hayes nomination), The Taming of the Shrew (Helen Hayes nomination); Everyman Theatre; Forum Theatre; Dog and Pony; Adventure Theatre; Children’s Theater Charlotte; Synetic Theater. OTHER: Imagination Stage: Resident Sound Designer (2006-2016); Kennedy Center: 2012 Kenan Fellow; TEACHING: University of Maryland: Guest Artist; Catholic University: Guest Artist; UMBC: Guest Artist.

• 
  Adam Wernick
  Composer

  Composer

  Adam Wernick
  

  STC: The Critic and The Real Inspector Hound; The Metromaniacs; Measure for Measure; The Government Inspector; The Heir Apparent; All’s Well That Ends Well (Mainstage and Free For All); The Liar; The Alchemist; The Way of the World; Hamlet (Mainstage and Free For All); Love’s Labours Lost (Mainstage and at RSC); Othello; Five by Tenn; Cyrano; Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2; The Winter’s Tale; Romeo and Juliet; The Duchess of Malfi; Hamlet; Hedda Gabler; Camino Real; The Merchant of Venice; King John; Twelfth Night; Sweet Bird of Youth; The Tempest; Mourning Becomes Electra; Henry VI; Henry V; Macbeth; Henry IV; Richard II; Hamlet; Troilus and Cressida; Measure for Measure. NEW YORK: Classic Stage Company: The Liar; Red Bull Theater: ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore; Manhattan Theatre Club: Five by Tenn; Public Theater: Temptation; Joyce Theater: 1984. REGIONAL: Guthrie Theater; Denver Center Theatre Company; Old Globe Theatre; Signature Theatre; Santa Cruz Shakespeare; Great Lakes Theater; Berkshire Theatre Festival; Wilma Theater; Idaho Shakespeare Festival; PlayMakers Repertory Company; Mum Puppettheatre; Philadelphia Theatre Company; Walnut Street Theatre.

• 
  Frank Ventura
  Period Movement Consultant

  Period Movement Consultant

  Frank Ventura
  

  STC: The Critic and The Real Inspector Hound, The Metromaniacs, The Heir Apparent, The Liar, The Way of The World. NEW YORK: Broadway: Movement, Etiquette and Choreography: Roundabout Theatre Company: The Winslow Boy, The Importance of Being Earnest, After Miss Julie, The Constant Wife; Atlantic Theater Company: The New York Idea; Manhattan Theatre Club: Top Girls; Public Theater (Shakespeare in the Park): Tartuffe; Winchell (Broadway Workshop); Assistant Director: Annie Warbucks. Off-Broadway: Choreographer: Girl Crazy, Kiss Me Quick Before the Lava Reaches the Village, The No-Frills Revue. REGIONAL: Director/Choreographer: Six of One, The Library, One Tough Cookie, The Game. OTHER: Founder and Executive Artistic Director of Collaborative Arts Project 21 (CAP21), served as President of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation. INSTRUCTION: CAP21 Conservatory, NYU Graduate Acting Department. TRAINING: Goodman School of Drama: BFA and MFA in Acting; Catholic University: BA in Speech and Drama.

• 
  Laura Stanczyk, CSA
  Casting Director

  Casting Director

  Laura Stanczyk, CSA
  

  STC: Richard III; Camelot; Noura; The Lover and The Collection; Macbeth; The School for Lies; The Secret Garden; Romeo and Juliet; The Taming of the Shrew; Othello; Kiss Me, Kate; Salomé; The Metromaniacs; The Tempest; Man of La Mancha; As You Like It; The Winter’s Tale; Strange Interlude; Old Times. NEW YORK: Broadway/Off-Broadway/Tours: Encores! Off-Center, Side Show, After Midnight, A Night With Janis Joplin, Follies, Cotton Club Parade, Lombardi, Ragtime, Impressionism, The Seafarer, Radio Golf, Coram Boy, The Glorious Ones, Flight, Translations,  All Our Children, Fetch Clay Make Man, The Brother Sister Plays, Tryst, Jitney, The Woman in Black, Dirty Dancing, The Cripple of Inishmaan (also national tour), Encores! Summer Stars: Damn Yankees, Urinetown (also national tour). REGIONAL: Alliance Theatre, Alley Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Drury Lane, Goodman Theatre, Hartford Stage, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company, McCarter Theatre Center, Royal George Theatre, Seattle Rep, Signature Theatre, Wilma Theatre. INTERNATIONAL: Theatre Royal Bath, Hampstead Theatre, London, Druid Theatre Company (Galway), Rough Magic (Dublin); Dublin/West End: The Shawshank Redemption.   

• 
  Carter Wooddell
  Resident Casting Director

  Resident Casting Director

  Carter Wooddell
  

  STC: Timon of Athens; The Amen Corner; Peter Pan and Wendy; Everybody; Hamlet (2018 and 2019 Free For All); The Oresteia; Vanity Fair (STC/A.C.T.); Richard III; The Panties, The Partner and The Profit; The Comedy of Errors; Romeo and Juliet (2016 and 2018 Free For All); Camelot; Noura; Twelfth Night; The Lover and The Collection; Othello (2016 and 2017 Free For All); The School for Lies; Macbeth; King Charles III; The Secret Garden; The Tempest (2014 and 2016 Free For All); The Taming of the Shrew; The Critic and The Real Inspector Hound; Kiss Me, Kate; Salomé; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2015 Free For All); Tartuffe; Man of La Mancha; The Metromaniacs (STC/Old Globe); As You Like It; The Winter’s Tale (2014 Free For All); The Merry Wives of Windsor; The Two Gentlemen of Verona; Much Ado About Nothing; The Merchant of Venice. NEW YORK: NYC McCorkle Casting (2008–2012), Casting Assistant and Casting Associate: Broadway: End of the Rainbow, High | Off-Broadway: Tribes, Our Town, The Acting Company, Freud’s Last Session, A Perfect Future, The Irish Curse, An Error of the Moon, et al. | Lincoln Center Institute: Hamlet, Fly, Sheila’s Day. REGIONAL: Alley Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, Barrington Stage Company, The Broad Stage, CATF, Crossroads Theatre Company, George Street Playhouse, Guthrie Theater, Pittsburgh Public Theater, TheaterWorks Hartford. FILM: Premium Rush, Junction. OTHER: BBC Radio: The Piano Lesson. 

• 
  Dr. Drew Lichtenberg
  Literary Manager/Dramaturg

  Literary Manager/Dramaturg

  Dr. Drew Lichtenberg
  

  STC: 50 productions over ten seasons, including 19 works from the 36-play Shakespeare canon and world premieres by David Ives, Robert Pinsky, Jeffrey Hatcher, Yaël Farber, and Heather Raffo. NEW YORK: Broadway: Roundabout: Time and the Conways (dir. Rebecca Taichman). REGIONAL: Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: The Arsonists (German translation/Text Consultant) | Oregon Shakespeare Festival: The Taming of the Shrew (Play on!) | STC/McCarter Theatre Center: The Winter’s Tale | Baltimore Center Stage: Caroline, or Change; Cyrano; Around the World in 80 Days | Yale Repertory Theatre: Lulu (dir. Mark Lamos) | Williamstown Theatre Festival: The Front Page, The Physicists, The Corn Is Green | New York Shakespeare Festival: Macbeth (dir. Moisés Kaufman). EDUCATION: DFA in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism from Yale School of Drama. 

• 
  Lisa Beley
  Head of Voice and Text

  Head of Voice and Text

  Lisa Beley
  

  STC: Much Ado About Nothing; Red Velvet; Our Town; Peter Pan and Wendy; Everybody; The Oresteia; Vanity Fair; Richard III; The Panties, The Partner and The Profit; The Comedy of Errors; Romeo and Juliet; Camelot; Noura; Hamlet; Twelfth Night; The Lover and The Collection; Othello (2017 Free For All); The School for Lies; Macbeth; King Charles III | ACA: As You Like It, Measure for Measure, Macbeth, Pericles, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Coriolanus. INTERNATIONAL: Vancouver, Canada: Rumble Theatre: Indian Arm | Vancouver Playhouse: The Music Man | UBC Theatre: The Glass Menagerie, The Cherry Orchard, The House of Atreus, Arcadia | York University: Our Country’s Good. FILM: Dialect, voice, text: Warcraft, Horns, Firewall, Monster Trucks, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Suckerpunch, The Watchman, Hidden, Apollo 18, The Uninvited, Hot Rod, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Elektra. TELEVISION: Dialect: The Good Doctor, Tin Star, Bates Motel, The 100, Alcatraz, Rogue, Red Widow, The Secret Circle, Heavenly, Human Target, The Good Wife, Inseparable, Just Cause. PERSONAL: Directing: The Bay at Nice, Agamemnon | Teaching: STC’s Academy for Classical Acting: Voice, Speech and Text Instructor; Canada’s National Voice Intensive: Voice and Text Instructor | Training: York University: MFA in Acting, Voice Teacher’s Diploma; University of British Columbia: BFA in Acting.

• 
  Craig Baldwin
  Assistant Director

  Assistant Director

  Craig Baldwin
  

  STC: Richard the Third; The Panties, The Partner and The Profit; Camelot; Hamlet; The Lover and The Collection; The School for Lies; The Tempest (2016 Free For All); The Taming of the Shrew; Othello (mainstage and 2017 Free For All); The Critic and The Real Inspector Hound; Tartuffe; The Metromaniacs; The Tempest. NEW YORK: 59E59: C.O.A.L. (Confessions of a Liar); New York International Fringe Festival: Magic Kingdom, The More Loving One (FringeNYC Overall Excellence Award: Best Overall Production/Play); Marymount Manhattan College: columbinus; August Strindberg Rep Theatre: Mr. Bengt’s Wife; Atlantic Acting School: A Midsummer Night’s Dream; HERE Arts Center: Ingmar Bergman’s Persona; Classic Stage Company: MacB**h (workshop); Outhouse Theatre Co: Mercy Thieves (U.S. Premiere), The Boys (U.S. Premiere); Lincoln Center Theater Director’s Lab: MacB**h (workshop). REGIONAL: 5th Avenue Theatre: The Secret Garden; Opera House Arts: Antony and Cleopatra; SUNY Purchase College: The Miser. INTERNATIONAL: The Flick by Annie Baker (Sydney Premiere); The Aliens by Annie Baker (Sydney Premiere); 4 Minutes, 12 Seconds (Australian Premiere). OTHER: Producer, Red Bull Theater, Short New Play Festival; Lincoln Center Theater Directors’ Lab (member). TRAINING: The Juilliard School. WEB: CraigBaldwin.net.

• 
  Joseph Smelser*
  Production Stage Manager

  Production Stage Manager

  Joseph Smelser*
  

  STC: Resident Stage Manager; 40 productions including King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing; Our Town; Once Upon a One More Time; The Amen Corner (2021 remount); The Oresteia; The Panties, The Partner and The Profit; The Comedy of Errors; Camelot; Hamlet; The School for Lies; The Secret Garden (also at 5th Avenue Theatre and Theater Under the Stars); The Critic and The Real Inspector Hound (also at Guthrie Theater); Kiss Me, Kate; Man of La Mancha; The Tempest; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Strange Interlude; All’s Well That Ends Well. REGIONAL: Arena Stage: The Heiress, Let Me Down Easy | Seattle Repertory Theatre: Eight seasons including An Ideal Husband, Play On!, Golden Child, Don Juan, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (with Lily Tomlin) | American Conservatory Theater: The Rivals, The Circle, The Government Inspector, Vigil | Berkeley Repertory Theatre: Journey to the West, An Almost Holy Picture, Having Our Say | Regional Tour: Let Me Down Easy, Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (both with Anna Deavere Smith). PERSONAL: Training: Oberlin College: BA.

  *Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers.

• 
  Ms. Jessica Skelton
  Assistant Stage Manager

  Assistant Stage Manager

  Ms. Jessica Skelton
  

  STC: Stage Management Fellow, 2012-2013 Season. REGIONAL: Rep Stage: Antigone Project; Imagination Stage: Looking for Roberto Clemente, The Freshest Snow Whyte; Signature Theatre: Sex with Strangers, Tender Napalm, Soon, Cake Off, Pride in the Falls of Autrey Mill. TRAINING: The Catholic University of America: BA in Drama.

  * Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers.