Team

Ria Mae Binaoro, Development Manager

Ria Binaoro (she/her/hers) is excited to join WP Theater as the Development Manager. She is a native New Yorker, storyteller, director, dancer and choreographer. Ria has a BA from Pace University with a concentration in Theater Management as well as over 15 years Analyst experience for manufacturing and distribution companies.  She has various credits including Director of an All-Filipina benefit performance of The Vagina Monologues and is a Featured Dancer in the Pagbubunyi concert archived in the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in Lincoln Center.  Currently, Ria is the co-founder of Dance Marathon Challenge, a quarterly dance workshop intended to inspire all levels of budding and professional dancers. Participants complete a back-to-back marathon of classes in one studio session, with the challenge of learning different styles and dance combinations, strengthening interpretation, stamina and versatility as a dancer.

Alisha Espinosa, Marketing Director

Alisha Espinosa (she/her/hers) is an Afro-Boricua theater maker (actor, playwright, producer, teaching artist). She is the Producing Artistic Director for the Latinx Playwrights Circle. Past Awards: Creatives Rebuild New York Artist Employment Grant and NALAC Fund for the Arts Artist Grant. Select Writer Residencies: Hedgebrook 2023, Saltonstall 2023; Audrey Residency 2022 – ’23 (New Georges); Early Career Writers Group 2021 – ’22 (Clubbed Thumb); First Stage Residency 2019 (Drama League); Diversity Cohort 2018 (NY Shakespeare Exchange). Select Acting Credits: Twelfth Night (St. Louis Shake), blooms (EST), A Skeptic & A Bruja (Urbanite), Seize the King (Classical Theatre of Harlem), Our Dear Dead Drug Lord (WP Theatre). Some of her work can be found on New Play Exchange. alishaespinosa.com

Sally Cade Holmes, Co-Facilitator: Producers Lab

SALLY CADE HOLMES is a two-time Tony Award-winning producer committed to making challenging and innovative entertainment with broad appeal. Her Broadway producing credits include Hadestown (Tony Award), The Inheritance (Tony Award / GLAAD Media Award), Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (Tony nomination), and Anastasia. Her Off-Broadway credits include Little Shop of Horrors (Drama Desk, Drama League & Outer Critics Circle Awards) and Puffs. Past credits include Nubia (featuring the queens of RuPaul’s Drag Race), Boy Gets Violent (Ars Nova’s AntFest), Summer Valley Fair (NYMF), Ryan J. Haddad’s Hi, Are You Single (Under The Radar) and Here’s Hoover (directed by Tony Award winner Alex Timbers). Former Associate Producer at Tom Kirdahy Productions (White Rabbit Red Rabbit, The Jungle, It’s Only A Play) and Producing Associate at Williamstown Theatre Festival. Sally Cade holds a Masters Degree in Arts Administration with an advanced certificate in Arts Enterprise from Boston University. She received her BS from the University of Evansville. www.sallycadeholmes.com

Gary Levinson, Production Manager

Gary Levinson (he/him/his) started at WP Theater with their production of What We’re Up Against. Most recently, he was the Director of Production of the Obie and Drama Desk Award winning Pearl Theatre for 10 seasons, Shakespeare on the Sound for 8 seasons, and has been with Red Bull Theater since 2015. Other productions: Post MortemMercy on the Doorstep, BetrothedLebensraum, New York Week of Food and Wine, and The 3M Most Gifted Wrapper Contest for 7 years. In a previous life he was a propmaster, working on productions such as Matchmaker (Ford’s Theater), The Exact Center of the Universe (Century), Waverly GalleryCollected Stories, Mrs. Klein; as well as numerous feature films, television, commercials and music videos.

Rebecca Martínez, CO-FACILITATOR: DIRECTORS LAB

Rebecca Martinez (she/her) is a multidisciplinary director and the Cohort Collaborations Director for One Nation / One Project. Recent projects: a musical, bilingual adaptation of The Comedy of Errors (The Public Theater’s Mobile Unit), Sancocho (WP Theater), Living and Breathing (Two River), Los Complicados (EST Marathon), Randy’s Dandy Coaster Castle (Egg & Spoon Collective), Songs About Trains (Working Theater and Radical Evolution), Somewhere Over the Border (Syracuse Stage and Geva Theatre). Rebecca has developed new work with The Public Theater, Amas Musical Theater, the O’Neill, Latinx Playwrights Circle, the Sol Project, NAMT, INTAR, Working Theater, The Playwrights Realm, among others and is the former BOLD Associate Artistic Director at WP Theater. Affiliations: Sojourn Theatre Ensemble, 2021 TCG Rising Leaders of Color; Sol Project Collective, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, INTAR’s Unit52, New Georges Affiliated Artist, WP Theater Directors Lab, Drama League Directing Fellow, member of SDC. Awards: Colorado Henry Award for Directing; four Portland, Oregon Drammy Awards; Lilla Jewel Award for Women Artists. Rebecca is originally from Colorado with deep ancestral roots in the Southwest. rebeccamartinez.org

Lisa McNulty, Producing Artistic Director

Lisa McNulty (she/her/hers) is an award-winning Broadway, off-Broadway and regional theater producer in her sixth season as the Producing Artistic Director of WP Theater. Lisa comes to WP from Manhattan Theatre Club, where she served as Artistic Line Producer for eight seasons, working on more than 30 productions both on and off Broadway, including plays by Lynn Nottage, Sarah Treem, Harvey Fierstein, and Tarell Alvin McCraney, among many, many others. Lisa has a long history with WP Theater. She was originally hired by the company’s founder, Julia Miles, as the Literary Manager from 1997-2000, where she dramaturged work by María Irene Fornés, Julie Hébert, and Karen Hartman, among others, and in 2004, she returned to WP as its Associate Artistic Director, working on projects with artists including Diane Paulus and Dierdre Murray, Rinne Groff, and Lisa D’Amour. From 2000-2004 she was McCarter Theater’s Producing Associate, and her independent producing career includes projects with Sarah Ruhl, Todd Almond, Lucy Thurber and Lear Debessonet. Lisa’s leadership is underwritten by the BOLD Theater Women’s Leadership Circle, an initiative to support and promote women’s theater leadership funded by The Pussycat Foundation.

Nidia Medina, BOLD Artistic Development Consultant and Co-Facilitator: Producers Lab

Nidia Medina (she/her/hers) is currently the Associate Producer and Director of the Studio at Theatre for a New Audience, bringing classic and contemporary works to life on TFANA’s Brooklyn mainstage and working hand-in-hand with artists on theatrical experiments in The Studio. Other producing positions include being a Line Producer at The Public Theater, Associate Producer at INTAR, and producing internationally touring one-woman show The God Box that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charities across the United States and beyond. Independent producing projects include off-off Broadway shows, fundraiser performances, and some wacky variety shows. She’s held a variety of other positions in the theater, and has spent the past ten years backstage, onstage and in the offices of some great NYC theater companies — including Cherry Lane, Ars Nova, MCC, MTC, and LAByrinth Theatre Company. She holds a BFA in Acting from Emerson College and a Master’s degree in Arts and Cultural Management from Pratt Institute.

Julianna Azevedo Mitchell, Audience and Community Engagement Manager

Julianna Azevedo Mitchell (she/her) is a Brazilian actor and arts administrator based in Brooklyn, NY. She is a co-founder of The Barn at Lee, a nonprofit dedicated to creating programs for emerging performing artists. Most recently, she has worked at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and The Diller-Quaile School of Music. Julianna holds a BFA in acting from the Experimental Theater Wing at NYU-Tisch, and a master’s degree in integrated marketing with a focus in nonprofit management.

Ayana Parker Morrison- BOLD ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Ayana Parker Morrison (she/her) is a Creative Producer in theater, live events, and across digital platforms. After graduating from NYU Tisch School of the Arts with a degree in Acting and a minor in Africana Studies, she shifted her focus to develop new projects that speak to the spectrum of stories from the African Diaspora. Ayana was the inaugural Producing Fellow with New York Theater Workshop’s 2050 Administrative Fellowship and an alum of the WP Producer’s Lab 21-22′ cohort. As Manager of Artistic Production at MCC Theater she produced many groundbreaking pieces including  BEES & HONEY, WET BRAIN, and NY Times Critic’s Pick WOLF PLAY. As current Creative Producer at Checkmark Productions, she develops work and cultivates community amongst the industry’s most exciting emerging artists of the global majority. Select freelance producing credits include TENDER NAPALM at HERE Arts Center, SAINTS OF FAILURE, a solo show performed in Fort Greene’s Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, and NY Times Critic’s Pick EUREKA DAY with Colt Coeur. She is currently developing SELF PORTRAITS by Phillip Howze with the Bushwick Starr. Ayana is also a public speaker sharing her philosophy on Culturally Responsive Producing and her expertise as an industry leader on various platforms across the country.

Michael Sag, Managing Director

Michael (he/him/his), in his 6th season at WP, was most recently the general manager for Williamstown Theatre Festival’s 62nd season (2016) which included four world premieres (one of which, Martyna Majok’s Cost of Living, won the Pulitzer prize for Drama), one American premiere and two revivals.  Prior to that, Michael worked in commercial general management on and off Broadway since 2001 including production of: Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, All The Way, Bullets Over Broadway, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, Driving Miss Daisy, August: Osage County, The Producers, Hairspray, Little Shop of Horrors, Sweeney Todd, and Stomp.  In addition, from 2006 to 2009, Michael headed a representative office in Shanghai out of which several Asian touring projects were launched.  Michael is currently an adjunct professor at Montclair State University and serves as both the President of the Association for Non-Profit Theater Companies and of Congregation Shomrei Emunah in Montclair, NJ.

Hannah Sgambellone, Associate Production Manager

Hannah Sgambellone is a director, producer, and production manager. She is currently the Junior Producer with Fault Line Theatre, and recently served as the technical director for The Acting Company’s 2022-2023 National Tour. She received B.A’s in English and in Theatre from Xavier University in 2019, and completed internships with Taproot Theatre and the Berkshire Theatre Festival. While in college, she was the co-founder and artistic director of The Regular Theatre in Cincinnati, OH, with whom she produced eight shows and directed five.  Favorite NYC credits include Scene Partners (The Vineyard Theatre), Chornobyldorf (Prototype Festival 2024), Love and Science (City Center), Robin & Me (Abingdon Theatre Co.)

Cori Thomas, Mellon Foundation Playwright in Residence

Cori Thomas (she/her/hers) is an award winning playwright and screenwriter. Produced plays: LOCKDOWN; WHEN JANUARY FEELS LIKE SUMMER; CITIZENS MARKET; MY SECRET LANGUAGE OF WISHES; PA’S HAT and more. Produced and Developed at: WP Theater; Rattlestick Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Page 73, Ensemble Studio Theatre; City Theater Co. Pittsburgh; The Goodman Theater; Pillsbury House Theater; Mixed Blood; Horizon’s Theater, Mosaic Theatre Co.; and others. She has won the American Theater Critics Osborn Award; Edgerton Foundation Prize; Was a 2017 runner up for The Dramatist Guild Horton Foote Playwriting Award; is a two time Theodore Ward Prize winner. Cori is a New Dramatists Resident. She has been awarded Fellowships at O’Neill National Playwrights Conference; Sundance Theater Lab; MacDowell Colony; Bogliasco Foundation; Baryshnikov Arts Center; and more. Film and TV Projects include: Original screenplay for HBO Films and Tribeca Productions; JuVee Productions; and more.. Cori is presently co-writing the memoirs of Sex Trafficking victim Sara Kruzan for Knopf/Random House. Founder: The Pa’s Hat Foundation a 501c(3) in 2012. Pa’s Hat is an organization focused on helping former child soldiers and other marginalized citizens of Liberia, West Africa with educational and work related assistance. Ongoing volunteer at San Quentin State Prison with the anti-violence program No More Tears. Board of Directors: of New Dramatists, Pa’s Hat Foundation, Project FEEL, and No More TearsSQ. Cori is represented by Leah Hamos and Vernalis Co at The Gersh Agency, Kirsten Jacobson at Good-Fear Eve MacSweeney at Fletcher and Co. LOCKDOWN is scheduled for Spring 2021 at Milwaukee Rep.

Michael Valladares, Business and Company Manager

Michael Valladares (he/any) is a playwright, performer, and dramaturg. Writing credits include Mad Little Reefers (2022, FreshFruitFestival at The Wild Project, NYC); Sometime When Everything Has Changed (2021, Theatre in the Open & Herter Park Amphitheater, Boston); and roped (2020, Pentameters Theatre, London). Previously, he served as a Marketing Coordinator for Concord Theatricals and an Associate Editor for Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the America’s Review: The Journal of Dramaturgy. Production dramaturgy credits include Kate Hamill’s Little Women at Cherry Lane Theatre, Chekhov’s Swan Song at Pentameters Theatre, and the 2021 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. He’s also freelanced as a teacher at Boston Children’s Theatre and as an artist and technician at Double Edge Theatre. He believes that imagination is liberation.

Nicole A. Watson, Co-Facilitator: Directors Lab

Nicole A. Watson is the HGB Bold Associate Artistic Director at the McCarter Theatre Center. Prior to this appointment, she served as the AAD at Round House Theatre. On behalf of both theaters, she produced the Adrienne Kennedy Festival, directing a digital version of Kennedy’s She Brought Her Heart Back in a Box. Select credits include: Passing, (McCarter/Bard at the Gate) School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play (Helen Hayes winner Best Ensemble, and Best Supporting Artist). The world premieres of A Wind in the Door, (The Kennedy Center) The West End (Cincinnati Playhouse) it’s not a trip it’s a journey (Round House) In addition to her work as an arts leader and advocate, Nicole continues to work as a freelance director and educator. A former history teacher, Nicole started directing in 2008 and has worked at theaters and universities across the country, championing new plays and playwrights, especially female playwrights of color. She has worked with New Dramatists, the Lark Play Development Center, the Fire this Time Festival, the New Black Fest, the Women’s Project Theater, The 52nd Street Project, Cincinnati, Playhouse in the Park, The Guthrie, Portland Center Stage, Baltimore Center Stage, Signature Theater, Playmakers Repertory Theatre, Center, A.C.T., Asolo Rep, Washington National Opera, Theater Latte Da, The Playwrights Center, The Kennedy Center, The Contemporary American Theater Festival, Working Theater, Smith College, UNCSA, NYU, and LIU. She is a New Georges Affiliated Artist and an alum of the Drama League, the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, the WP Directors Lab and a member of the SDC. BA: History, Yale. MA: NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study. http://www.nicoleawatson.com/