Meet the Directors!
We are ecstatic to welcome these four talented directors to our 2019 summer season!
Jack Young: The Comedy of Errors
Jack Young is the Artistic Director of Houston Shakespeare Festival, and leads the University of Houston's MFA Professional Actor Training Program. Mr. Young has directed over 120 directing productions (35 of Shakespeare), including HAMLET, A FLEA IN HER EAR, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE, ARCADIA, THE ODYSSEY, THE CHERRY ORCHARD, FOOL FOR LOVE, THE SERVANT OF TWO MASTERS and the NYC premiere of Yussef El-Guindi’s HOSTAGES. Young has been an actor, director or fight director for ten different Shakespeare Festivals and is a Certified Teacher and Fight Director for the Society of American Fight Directors. Having choreographed violence for over 100 productions! The Comedy of Errors will opening June 7th on the Lawn of UCA.
Rebekah Scallet: Macbeth
Rebekah Scallet has been the Producing Artistic Director of Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre since 2011. Raised in Little Rock, she received her BA in Theatre and English from Brandeis University and her MFA in Directing from Illinois State University. Rebekah spent five summers with the Illinois Shakespeare and lived and worked in Chicago for ten years, where she was a member of the Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, and also worked with Northlight Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Theatre Seven, LiveWire Chicago Theatre, Raven Theatre, and greasy joan & co. For AST, Rebekah has directed Twelfth Night, King Lear, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Merchant of Venice,Romeo and Juliet, Love’s Labour’s Lost, My Fair Lady, and will direct 2019’s Macbeth.She is also a Lecturer in UCA’s Department of Theatre, Film, and Creative Writing, and was the recipient of the Arkansas Arts Council’s 2014 Individual Artist Fellowship in Directing. Macbeth is set to open on June 21st in Reynolds Performance Hall.
Tommy Novak: Family Shakespeare Romeo & Juliet
Tommy Novak is a Chicago-based theater director, vocal coach, movement specialist, performer and an adjunct professor of Musical Theater at Carthage College. Their work as a professional theater artist has taken them to places all over the world. Some of Tommy’s international credits include Seussical The Musical and Love Loss & Other Nonsense(An original cabaret), On My Way(an original cabaret) that toured the cities of Xi’an, Shanghai, Beijing China. Regionally credits include: Skylight and Idaho James and The Stone of Desire for the Shawnee Summer Theater, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea for Coastline Theater, Wit, and Biloxi Blues for the Carthage College Theater Department, See What I Wanna See, Addams Family, Andrew Lippa’s Wild Party, How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, and Seussical for the Carthge college Musical Theater Department. Tommy is proudly represented by Paonessa Talent Agency. Follow Tommy on Instagram for more theater fun @tommy.j.novak. Family Shakespeare Romeo & Juliet will open on June 26th in Reynolds Performance Hall as well as tour all over the state of Arkansas.
Jenna Elser: Guys and Dolls
Jenna is a native of Searcy, Arkansas and now serves as the Artistic Director of Glow Lyric Theatre in South Carolina where she directed IN THE HEIGHTS, HMS PINAFORE, and FIDELIO for their 2018 Season. Recent directing credits include SPRING AWAKENING and ROCKY HORROR with The Warehouse Theatre, FROG AND TOAD with Synchronicity Theatre, HANDS ON A HARDBODY with Guilford Arts Collective, and as Assistant Director for the Spoleto Festival’s historic production of PORGY AND BESS. Some of Jenna's original works include TWENTY CAGED NIGHTINGALES DO SING, a re-imagining of Shakespeare's TAMING OF THE SHREW following a gender questioning Kate and PULSE with Anam Cara Theatre Company, which reacted to the 2016 tragic mass shooting in Orlando. She also moonlights as the Director of Converse Opera Theatre at Converse College. Jenna is a recipient of the Robert Porterfield Directing Award from Southeastern Theatre Conference and was recently named a finalist for the Drama League New Musicals Fellowship. She holds a MFA in Directing from Florida State University. Guys and Dolls will be opening on June 15th in Reynolds Performance Hall.