Jeremy Winchester

Flint Youth Theatre, produced onsite at the Flint Farmers' Market, in October 2014.

Producer, Set & Lighting Designer

Written by Michael Rohd & FYT

Conceived & Directed by Janet Haley

9xNourished was a multi-year project between FYT and the Flint Farmers' Market, conceived as a site-specific play with a goal of examining the market's unique history in the community.  It involved multiple funding partners, and was developed through a devising process led by project director, Janet Haley.

One year into the development of the play, the owners of the market announced plans to relocate to a new site in downtown Flint.  This had a substantial effect on the project.  First, much of the original site exploration work done by the devising team was therefore no longer applicable, and would need to be replicated in the new space.  Second, there was substantial community turmoil about the announcement, resulting in a politically delicate environment.

The decision was made to put the project on a nine-month hiatus while the new space was constructed and the community grappled with the change.  We then resumed work, folding the controversy into the material of the play, and opened the production four months after the new building was complete.

Flint Youth Theatre

Producer, Director

in collaboration with Tapology and Raise It Up! Youth Arts and Awareness

Originally conceived as an exploration of Flint's outsized, negative national reputation, the project took on an unexpected urgency when the city of Flint's water supply was discovered to contain dangerously high levels of lead.  This news went national - even international - further underscoring the need for exploration.

The project was developed over the course of a year through story circles and devising work.  The resulting play blended multiple storytelling modes, including dance, puppetry and spoken-word performance. 

Written by Andrew Morton

Scenic Design: Timothy McMath

Costume Design: Amber Marisa Cook

Lighting Design: Drew Florida

Archive of Livestreamed Performance on HowlRound

Flint Youth Theatre

Producer, Director

World Premiere, written by Andrew Morton

Developed at the Write Now! Festival, Tempe, AZ, March 2013

FYT Playwright-in-Residence, Andrew Morton, developed this play after interviewing local urban gardeners and social workers. It tells the story of a teenage boy struggling with a difficult life transition, and the transformative effect of a summer spent helping a local retiree with his community garden.

FYT practices age-appropriate casting, with teen actors working alongside adult professionals. This provides both a unique learning opportunity for the student actors, and a powerful play-going experience for the audience.

Scenic Design: Tim McMath

Costume Design: Shelby Newport

Lighting Design: Andrew D. Smith

"What makes 'Bloom' work is that it tells a story on multiple levels that are specific and universal at the same time. Director Jeremy Winchester makes sure the play never gets heavy-handed, and he focuses on telling the story so that the story can work as one about relationships, about a garden, about a broken community, and about a city that needs to heal. It is about Flint, but it could be about any city where there is poverty. It is about a garden, but it could be about any creative endeavor that takes time, love and commitment. It is about relationships between strangers, between parent and child, between girlfriend and boyfriend, but it could be about any relationship where a strong bond is formed." - Encore Michigan Review

Carlo Collodi, Author

Greg Banks, Playwright

Flint Youth Theatre

Producer, Director

As adapted by Greg Banks, the story of Pinocchio is enacted for the audience by a group of painters who arrive at the theatre to work, only to find it filled with an audience. Feeling that they cannot send them away, the painters divide up the roles, and proceed to tell the story as best they can remember it.

In keeping with this conceit, we filled our stage with the things a painting crew would need to do their job, and these elements are employed in the telling of the story. As the narrative progresses, the painters become engrossed in the effort, and the design grows more elaborate and theatrical.

Scenic Design: Tim McMath

Costume Design: Katherine Nelson

Lighting Design: Drew Florida

Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Virtual Production

Co-Direction with Alex Lee Reed

Originally devised and written by Michael Rohd and Sojourn Theatre

Adapted by Alex Lee Reed and MCLA Theatre

Originally written in 2008, The Race has been performed by Sojourn Theatre every four years during the national presidential election. Through interaction with the audience, the play explores questions of what we, as a society, look for when we collectively choose our leader. For this year’s cycle, Sojourn opened the project to a national cohort of producers, resulting in a festival of productions, each of which was adapted to fit the needs of individual communities.

As a matter of public health, our production was rehearsed and performed entirely online. As an artistic response to the events of 2020, it focused heavily on Black Lives Matter and the ongoing struggle to end racism.

Choreography: Bethany Maloy

Set Design: Kaley Norsworthy

Costume Design: Michaela Petrovich

Lighting Design: Lydia Jung

Sound Design: Thomas Phillips

by William Gibson

Flint Youth Theatre

Producer, Director, Set Designer

This production featured two ASL shadow interpreters, incorporated directly into the action of the play. Their constant presence served both as interpretation to hearing-impaired patrons, and as a reminder to all audience members of challenges faced daily by disabled communities.

Costume Design: Amanda Janke

Lighting Design: Doug Mueller

by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett

Adapted by Wendy Kesselman

Flint Youth Theatre

Producer, Director

The creative team sought to provide for the audience the sense of pressure, even claustrophobia, felt by those in hiding during the Holocaust. For the period of time the Franks, Van Daans and Mr. Dussel were together, there was no escaping either the confines of the Annex, or each other.

Our set was based on the architecture of the actual Annex. Once a character-in-hiding arrived, they did not leave the stage again. Sleeping, eating, reading, even visiting the WC - all activities were on display for the audience. The only characters who entered the Annex once the hiding began were the Dutch helpers, and finally, the Nazis.

Scenic Design: Czerton Lim

Costume Design: Shelby Newport

Lighting Design: Doug Mueller

Encore Michigan Review

by William Shakespeare

FYT SummerStage

Adaptation; Producer, Director

FYT's first fully-produced Shakespeare, our Midsummer was part of SummerStage, a six-week repertory theatre environment, wherein students participate in both the performance and production halves of play-making. As with all FYT productions, students work alongside adult professional actors, directors, designers and technicians.

Our adaptation of Midsummer cast teens as Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helena. The mortal and fairy courts were double-cast with professionals in the roles of Theseus/Oberon, Hippolyta/Titania, and Egeus/Puck. The clear lines drawn between adults who have power, and young people who do not, gave Hermia's dilemma distinct potency.

Composer: Dan Gerics

Scenic Design: Gene Oliver

Costume Design: Adam Dill

Lighting Design: Doug Mueller

Encore Michigan Review

by James Still

Flint Youth Theatre

Producer, Director, Set Designer

Amber Waves tells the story of a farm family struggling to keep the business going in the face of drought and the pressures of a changing agricultural landscape. Originally written as an Indiana story, the playwright, James Still, encourages theatre companies to set the play locally.  With Mr. Still's participation, we changed place names to set our production in the farming communities outside Flint.

The production also featured live guitar accompaniment, with original music written and performed by local singer/songwriter Kenneth "Pop" Jones.

Costume Design: Shelby Newport

Lighting Design: Andrew D. Smith

by J.M. Barrie

Flint Youth Theatre

Producer, Director

For our Peter Pan, we wanted to show the audience how we were making the theater magic, and so placed the flight lift lines on stage. The flight operators, trained by ZFX, were also the show's pirates.  

We also created a puppet Tinkerbell, with a puppeteer dressed as an extension of the puppet design. The goal was that the actor/puppeteer would provide an opportunity for the audience to care more deeply for Tinkerbell, and invest more emotionally in her sacrifice to save Peter.

Scenic Design: Donald Robert Fox

Costume Design: Donna Buckley

Lighting Design: Michael Beyer

by William Shakespeare

FYT SummerStage

Producer, Director

Adaptation, with Kyle Clark

Our production of The Tempest invited the audience into an immersive circus experience, wherein the theatre had been transformed into the interior of a big top tent, complete with a live circus band.  By adding a character, The Ringmaster, we were able to condense exposition and tighten the action within the scenes.  We also replaced the Act 4 Masque with a rendition of "My Girl" performed by Ariel and the Island Spirits.  This served Shakespeare's original purpose of interjecting the play with a popular entertainment meditation on love, in a form more familiar to a contemporary audience.

Composer: Dan Gerics

Scenic Design: Gene Oliver

Costume Design: Adam Dill

Lighting Design: Drew Florida

"Winchester has imagined a “Tempest” filled with magic and presented with a theatricality that takes full advantage of being a live show. It is unapologetically a performance, an act of storytelling plucked from familiar lore to tantalize and entertain audiences of all ages." - Encore Michigan Review

by Thomas W. Olson

Flint Youth Theatre

Direction, Sound Design

For this delicate telling of Margery Williams' classic tale, each of the toys was represented in two aspects - the actual physical toy seen by the boy, and a personified version of it enacted by a performer.  However, rather than costume an actor to look like a sailboat, for example, that performer was dressed as a sailor.  Some choices leaned toward the whimsical, such as the performer was costumed as Teddy Roosevelt for the personification of the stuffed bear.

Scenic Design: Timothy McMath

Costume Design: Amber Cook

Lighting Design: Doug Mueller

adapted by Steven Dietz and Allison Gregory, from the book by P.D. Eastman

Flint Youth Theatre

Producer, Director

Scenic Design: Gene Oliver

Costume Design: Katherine Nelson

adapted by Mary Hall Surface, from the book by Eleanor Estes

Flint Youth Theatre

Producer, Director

Scenic and Lighting Design: Donald Robert Fox

Costume Design: Amber Marisa Cook

Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Venable Theatre

Direction and Set Design

Passing Strange was the first play in MCLA's "We The People" themed season, curated to participate in campus-wide dialogue following a tumultuous year of major social change.

For this most rock-n-roll of stories, we transformed the stage itself into a music club.  We erected a band platform in the stage left wing, up against the fly rail.  Both the band and the actors played the entire show from this location, while audience sat in chairs on the main stage floor.  The audience was enclosed by the back wall to their left, and the main drape to their right, for an immersive club environment.

We also hired in two guest artists.  Long-time collaborator Rodney Creech played the Stew role, and MCLA alumna Bryanna Bradley both choreographed and played Mother.  Their gravitas provided the show with additional emotional depth, rendering Youth's journey towards independence all the more moving.

Written by Stew and Heidi Rodewald

Music Direction: Laura Standley

Choreography: Bryanna Bradley

Costume Design: Andrea Williams

Lighting Design: Braxton Vittori

Peter Kyle Dance

Joyce Soho and Abrons Art Center, NYC

Lighting Design

Pacific Performance Project/east

Lighting Design

A fictionalized history of women's pioneering efforts in the early days of aviation.  The production blends narrative and presentational, physical virtuosity.

Playwright: Robyn Hunt

Direction and Scenic Design: J. Steven Pearson

Costumes: Lisa Martin-Stuart

by Suzan-Lori Parks

Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Venable Theatre

Set Design, Lighting Co-Design with Lydia Jung

Direction: Rodney Creech

Costume Design: Michaela Petrovich

Pacific Performance Project/east, at HERE Arts, NYC

Lighting Design

Shogo Ohta's Slow Tempo masterpiece has been performed in the US by P3/e three times.  It is performed entirely in Slow Tempo, and is without dialogue.

Direction and Scenic Design: J. Steven Pearson

by Manjula Padhmanhaban

Ethnic Cultural Theatre, Seattle WA

Lighting Design

Direction: Lydia Forte

Scenic Design: Czerton Lim

Costume Design: Katie Goodman

VTDance

Michigan State University

Lighting and Projection Design

Choreography: Vincent Thomas

Costume Design: Jodi Ozimek

Annas Bay Music Festival, Union, WA

Robert Orth, tenor

Lighting Design

Direction: Claudia Zahn

Scenic Design: Tim McMath

Costume Design: Melanie Burgess

by Lanford Wilson

Williamston Theatre

Lighting Design

Direction: John Lepard

Set Design: Bart Bauer

Costume Design: Melanie Schuessler

by Louis Nowra

University of South Carolina

Lighting Design

Direction: J. Steven Pearson

Set Design: Baxter Engle

Costume Design: Neda Spalajkovic

Pacific Performance Project/east

Connelly Theatre, NYC

Lighting Design

Direction and Scenic Design: J. Steven Pearson

Costumes: Lisa Martin-Stuart

Michigan State University, Passant Theatre

Lighting Design

Direction: Greg Ganakas

Scenic Design: Kirk Domer

Costume Design: Jodi Ozimek

Boise Contemporary Theater

Lighting Design

Directed by Gordon Reinhart

Scenic Design: Michael Baltzell

Costume Design: Jason A. Bishop

Boise Contemporary Theater

A new play by Don DeLillo

Lighting Design

Direction: Tracy Sunderland

Scenic Design: Michael Baltzell

University of Washington, Playhouse Theatre

Lighting Design

Direction: J. Steven Pearson

Scenic Design: Czerton Lim

Costume Design: Christine Tschirgi

Boise Contemporary Theater, February 2006

written and directed by Michael Rohd

Lighting Design

Scenic Design: Michael Baltzell

Costume Design: Hannah K. Read

University of Washington, Penthouse Theatre

Lighting Design

Direction: Leonid Anisimov, Honored Artist of Russia

Scenic Design: Stephen Dobay

Costume Design: Christine Tschirgi

Conceived and originally Directed and Choreographed by Fran Charnas

Boarshead Theatre, Lansing, MI

Lighting Design

Direction: Lance Roberts

Scenic Design: Nicole Broughton

Costume Design: Holly Speers

by The Wardrobe Ensemble

Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Venable Theatre

Set and Lighting Design

Direction: Sara Katzoff

Costume Design: Andrea Williams

by Jean Anouilh

University of Washington, Penthouse Theatre

Set Design

Direction: Lydia Fort

Costume Design: Mairi Chisholm

Lighting Design: Thorn Michaels

University of Washington, Meaney Studio Theatre

MFA Thesis Production

Lighting Design

Direction: Shanga Parker

Scenic Design: Thomas P. Lynch

Costume Design: Jessica Lustig

by James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim

Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Venable Theatre

Direction and Co-Set Design

Into the Woods was the final play in MCLA's "We The People" themed season, curated to participate in campus-wide dialogue following a tumultuous year of major social change.

In order to partner with this thematic approach to the season, we sought to associate the actors in the show with the audience members, inviting the audience to see themselves in these performers more explicitly than usual. The actors started the show from the house, and moved onto the stage during the Opening. They then partnered with the found objects of the scenery - scaffolding, ladders, clothing racks, etc - to tell the story.

We also cast two faculty members in the production. Associate Professor of Acting, Laura Standley, played the Witch, and Dance Minor Coordinator, Tom Truss, played the Narrator/Mysterious Man. Additionally, Mr Truss was the show’s piano player. We watched him narrate the show from behind a moveable piano, from which he moved away to step into the role of Mysterious Man.

Music Direction: Laura Standley

Choreography: Danielle DeLamater

Co-Set Design: Kevin McGrath

Costume Design: Andrea Williams

Lighting Design: Jarret Garland