Our Team
Tatiana Baccari creates badly-behaved theater that makes the absurd poignant and the heartbreaking unexpectedly funny to investigate grief, disability, and intergenerational change—and meet audiences in the inexplicable.
Select new play directing creditcredits: Monstrous by Elle Thoni (ColLABo Residency),Then Act Like It by Savannah Lyons Anthony (Writing Is Live/Brown University), Heaven is Something to Keep You Warm by Kandace James(Carnegie Mellon University), and Daughters of the Sexual Revolution by Dana Leslie-Goldstein (Brave New World Rep).
Production credits include: The Taming of the Shrew (NYU Tisch/Atlantic Acting School), Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play by Anne Washburn (Carnegie Mellon University), LEAR by Young Jean Lee (Carnegie Mellon University) and Animals Out of Paper by Rajiv Joseph (Jobsite Theater/Straz Center).
Tatiana has served as assistant/associate director regionally at Asolo Rep, Geva Theatre, Northern Stage, and City Theatre Company. They’ve been awarded grants from The Puffin Foundation, A.R.T./NY, NYSCA and NYFA. They recently received their MFA in Directing as a John Wells Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University.
Tatiana serves as Artistic Director of Experimental Bitch, developing genre-defying new performance by emerging TGNC & women artists in NYC. SDC Associate Member. TatianaBaccari.com
TATIANA BACCARI
Director
Sarah Groustra (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based, Massachusetts-born playwright and theatermaker. Sarah's work has been produced by the B Street Theater, Fishmarket Theater Company, off-Broadway at the SheNYC Festival (winner, Best Script), Soho Playhouse, the Concord Theatricals OOB Festival, and at additional regional theaters across the country. She is the winner of the 2024 Austin Film Festival Play Script Award, was a finalist for the 2023 Jane Chambers Award, the recipient of the 2021 James E. Michael Playwriting Prize, and was named a 2022 Ascending Playwright by Yonder Window Theater Company.
Sarah has developed new work with Under Construction Playwright's Group (the Road Theater), Valdez Theatre Conference, Breaking & Entering Theatre Collective, Yonder Window New Works Collective, The Parsnip Ship New Play Club, Forager Theater Company, and Historically Close Friends.
Sarah's passion project is making plays accessible to readers and sustainable for playwrights, and founded 1319 Press in service of both these goals.
SARah Groustra
Playwright
Ningning Yang is a scenic designer for theatre and screens. Also an exploring artist currently interested in the audiovisual experience. Born and raised in China, she was pursuing fine arts until she fell in love with theatre through bootlegs and occasional touring shows, then decided to come to the US to pursue scenic design.
Ningning spent the past several years pursuing scenic design, but found herself using the skills and interest in other art forms like performance art, installations and music. She believes everything is connected, Art is about sharing your voice with others, to connect and provoke resonance, thoughts or empathy. Ningning is always looking for new ways of creating, inspiring and raising questions. She is excited to meet collaborators that she can share voices and create with in various ways. Ningning is enthusiastic to work in theater, film and other live events, to help curate collaborators’ visions, and find opportunities to showcase her own story.
NINGNING YANG
Scenic Designer
Dre Shapiro a multidisciplinary theatre creative in NYC. Her greatest artistic value is shining a spotlight on the strange and unsaid. Her theatre company, Underbelly Theatre Co., is BroadwayWorld nominated for her passion project “PUNK GOES BROADWAY” with 54 Below.
Dre holds a BFA in Acting from Northern Illinois University, and a post-college certificate in Musical Theatre at NYU.
DRE SHapiro
Executive Producer
Joelle Westwood is an award-winning producer, writer, and performer. After working alongside VP Marie Zeniter of Utopia Distribution at the Cannes Film Festival 2023, she co-founded Western Star Entertainment, a company dedicated to telling socially and politically relevant stories. She is also co-founder of Reaching Glory Productions, and CEO of new tech company, BVision.
A graduate of Fordham University (B.S. Psychology), Westwood trained in film production and performance at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and the Atlantic Acting Conservatory.
Beyond her artistic career, Westwood serves on NY Governor Hochul’s campaign team and is a dedicated environmental activist, committed to bridging meaningful art with tangible politics.
Joelle Westwood
Producer
Jonathan is a New Jersey based Producer/Director/Writer with a B.A. in Theatre Studies from Northern Illinois University. He is also the first Business Director of Underbelly Theatre Company, a company that allows artists to feel comfortable in their vulnerability in order for creativity to flourish.
His directing/producing credits include Sizwe Banzi is Dead (Raven Theatre) in Chicago, IL, Punk Goes Broadway!, 54 Goes Gaga, Punk Goes Broadway Vol. 2. (54 Below) in New York City. He has also produced Sapphic Showtunes and Lauver’s Lullabies: An Evening of Laufey (54 Below) in New York City.
JON MCLAWHORN
Producer
Trey Sullivan is a marketing producer and creative strategist working across live entertainment, social media, and experiential brand storytelling. His experience includes supporting influencer relations and marketing activations at the Tony Awards, the Met Gala, and New York Fashion Week, as well as contributing to the launch and campaigns for Meredith Marks Caviar and TSQ Live, and collaborating on marketing and editorial projects with PAPER Magazine, Queerty, So.Gay, and others.
He is co-founder of Reaching Glory Productions, where he develops original theater in New York, and also serves as Marketing Coordinator at Mix Media Plus, supporting brand development and social strategy for boutique hospitality and lifestyle clients across New York and Northern California.
A graduate of Fordham University, with additional studies in social media marketing at the University of Sydney, Sullivan brings a culturally fluent, audience-first perspective to his work, bridging creative vision with strategic execution.
Trey Sullivan
Marketing Producer