About the kTC

Staff

Kitchen Theatre Staff

Rachel Lampert	Artistic Director
Stephen Nunley	Managing Director
Lesley Greene	Associate Producing Director
Lynn Craver	Marketing and Development Associate
Melody Faraday	Trainee Mentor
Brendan Komala	Technical Director
Jacob Tyrell	House Manager
Emily Jackson	Artistic Intern
Rachel "Gordy" Gorman	Marketing and Development Intern
Ally Poole	Arts Administration Intern
Elizabeth Haroian	Stage Management Intern / Assistant Stage Manager
Megan Gerber	Production Intern
Nukia Adams	Next Steps Trainee
Blane Bent	Next Steps Trainee
Laura McEnerny	Next Steps Trainee

Rachel Lampert (Artistic Director) is a playwright, director and choreographer. Her work at the Kitchen includes: Playwright: Main Stage Musicals Book & Lyrics for Waiting for Spring, 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. Main Stage Movement Pieces: In the Company of Dancers and Summers at Rock's Edge. Family Fare: I Have a Song to Sing O!, Scoot, Sizzle & Slide, The Mozart Mystery, The Odyssey parts 1 & 2, A December Suite, and A Christmas Carol, among others. Director: Broke-ology, Red Light Winter, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Mary’s Wedding, 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 2012-13 season she will direct Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Opus, and Crooked and will premiere in May a new piece And, Lately... in collaboration with composer/pianist Richard Montgomery.

She is proud to have been involved in the building of the new theater and, after two years in the new space, continues to be awed by its possibilities and always grateful to everyone who supported this amazing 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: Rounds for Orchestra with the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, A Soldier's Tale with Ensemble X, and dance pieces with Music's Recreation. 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 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 16th season as Artistic Director – a job that is always exciting.

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. Most recently he was in the cast of In the Company of Dancers. He is a member of the Ithaca Rotary Club and president of the Ithaca Gay Men's Chorus.

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, Emmett & Ella's Big Apple Escapade and others), playing flute, and acting. She also serves as the Kitchen Theatre's in-house sound and projections designer. Lesley is co-founder of Porchfest, a music festival held on the porches of Fall Creek. Her husband is Robbert van Renesse – Ithaca's only computer scientist/unicyclist/ukulele player. They have two wonderful daughters, Anneke and Tanya, and this year a Dutch exchange student named Bink as well!

Lynn Craver (Development Associate) enjoys the opportunity and challenge of being the Development Associate at The Kitchen Theatre. As an opera singer and long time theatre goer, it is a gift to enter a career that allows her to directly support the arts. Lynn has been seen in The Cornell Savoyards production of Gallery of Illustrations (Miss Annabelle Penrose/Miss Rosa Tare), CRS Barn Studios’ production of The Magic Flute (Lady 1), Womens Work’s productions of Les Dernier Sorcier (Verveine) and Viardot’s Cendrillon (Cendrillon), and most recently, CRS Barn Studios’ production of Hansel and Gretel, (Dew Fairy). Lynn has her undergraduate degree in Vocal Performance from Ithaca College. She has studied with Dawn Pierce, Eduardo Valdes, and Deborah Montgomery-Cove. She is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Vocal Performance at Ithaca College.

Meloday Faraday (Trainee Mentor)

Brendan Komala (Technical Director) is joining the Kitchen for his third 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.

Jacob Tyrell (House Manager)

Emily Jackson (Artistic Intern) is pleased to call Kitchen Theatre Company her home for the 2012-2013 Season. Originally from Dallas, TX, Emily grew up in a theatre family, and, of course, caught the acting bug. She attended Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, where she participated in such extracurricular activities as Mime Troupe and Entertainers, the musical theater performance group. She continued to pursue the theatre at the University of Oklahoma’s School of Drama and has recently graduated with her BFA in Acting. As an actor, her credits include: Amelia Earhart, They Promised Her the Moon; Julia, The Two Gentlemen of Verona; Shedevil, The Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage; Ursula, Bye Bye Birdie; Feste, Twelfth Night; and Gertrude McFuzz, Seussical! The Musical. Emily also had the extreme pleasure of being invited by renowned Italian playwright, Dacia Maraini, to perform the role of Elizabeth I in Maraini’s play Mary Stuart at the first annual international Festival delle due Rocche in Arona, Italy. Throughout school, Emily explored all aspects of the theatre, spending time stitching in the costume shop, trying her hand at marketing in the Audience Development office, and directing in class projects. Directly after graduating with her BFA, Emily and her colleagues produced two plays in Dallas, TX as part of an inaugural season of their theatre company, 2 by 4 in Repertory. She serves as Artistic Director and Company Member for that organization. Emily is a proud member of the Equity Membership Candidate program.

Rachel "Gordy" Gorman (Marketing and Development Intern) grew up in a small town in Northeastern Pennsylvania in an artistic household so it was only natural to continue in this path. She majored in Fine Arts at Alfred University with a minor in Communication Studies. During college she held various positions at different types of art organizations. She worked as a graphic designer for her university's career development center and at the Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, a fine art gallery at Alfred University. During the summers, she had an internship at the Wayne County Arts Alliance, worked as a photographer at a summer camp, and as a gallery docent at the Art on the Edge gallery in the Hawley Silk Mill. After graduating from college in 2011, she spent the next year traveling around Europe, soaking in all the art, culture and theater she could. Newly returned from her travels, Rachel is excited to take her first steps in the real world as the marketing and development intern at the Kitchen Theatre for the 2012-2013 season.

Ally Poole (Arts Administration Intern) is thrilled to be joining the Kitchen Theatre Company this season. Ally hails from Denton, Texas and graduated from Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri with a BFA in Theatre and a minor in Music. At Stephens, Ally directed Caryl Churchill's Top Girls and was the Assistant Stage Manager for All My Sons and The House of Blue Leaves. After graduating in May, Ally returned to Texas where she was a featured ensemble member in Shakespeare Dallas' production of Coriolanus. Previously, Ally has acted at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Okoboji Summer Theatre and in the award-winning short film, Scraps. Upon completion of her internship, Ally plans to move to New York City to continue pursuing her theatre career.

Elizabeth Haroian (Stage Management Intern / Assistant Stage Manager) is very excited to be working with KTC for the 2012-2013 season! She is a graduate of Le Moyne College in East Syracuse, NY where she majored in theatre arts with a concentration in stage management. Past stage management credits include: Miss Saigon (Boston Children's Theatre), John & Jen (Redhouse Arts Center), Is He Dead? (Le Moyne College), Miss Nelson has a Field Day (Gifford Family Theatre) and Madame Butterfly and La Traviata (Syracuse Opera). Elizabeth also stage managed the premiere production of Reaching for Marsby by Syracuse native and humor columnist Jeff Kramer. She would like to thank her friends and family for their continued support and belief in her. Enjoy the show!

Megan Gerber (Production Intern) is very excited to be joining the team at Kitchen Theatre Company. Since graduating with her Bachelor of Liberal Arts from Whittier College where she majored in theatre in May 2010. Megan has had opportunities to work with such theaters as The Old Globe in San Diego (stage management intern) and the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts (properties artisan intern). She views moving from southern California to Ithaca and accepting the position of production intern at KTC as the next steps in the beginning of an exciting career in theatre.

Nukia Adams (Next Steps Trainee) was born in Queens, NY and raised in Brooklyn. She loves to socialize, and her life goal is to be successful at whatever she ends up doing. Live and let live.

Blane Bent (Next Steps Trainee)