Meet The Masters
José Carrasquillo
José is a theatre practitioner and educator based in the DC region. Locally he has directed at GALA Hispanic Theatre, The Kennedy Center, 1st Stage, Theater J, Round House Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Studio Theatre, Signature Theatre, Avant-Bard, The In-Series, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and Forum Theatre. Jose is a faculty member at Theatre Lab and has taught/lectured or directed at: UMD-College Park, Catholic University, Julliard School of Drama, National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, University of Washington, University of Ohio, Cornish College for the Arts, Paso Nuevo (GALA), Theater J, and Imagination Stage. José is the recipient of a Mary Goldwater Theatre Lobby Award for his direction of The Maids at Avant-Bard and the 2020 Helen Hayes Award for his direction of The Brothers Size at 1st Stage. Jose is a member of the Latinx Theatre Commons steering committee and sits on the advisory board of Theatre Washington. He serves as Director of Artistic Programming at Ford’s Theatre.
Thembi Duncan
Thembi Duncan is an arts administrator, director, actor, playwright, and teaching artist with twenty years of experience synthesizing theatre, American history, and social justice in and around Washington, D.C. Past leadership highlights include serving as Creative Programs Director of Young Playwrights’ Theater, Producing Artistic Director of African Continuum Theatre Company, and Lead Teaching Artist at historic Ford’s Theatre. She has directed and performed in numerous productions during her career, most memorably of plays by Pulitzer Award-winning playwrights Lynn Nottage, Dael Orlandersmith, August Wilson, and Ayad Akhtar. She proudly served on the TheatreWashington Helen Hayes Awards Board of Governors for two terms and co-founded the biannual Black Theatre & Dance Symposium at the University of Maryland with Scot Reese, Head of Performance. Ms. Duncan holds a B.A. in Theatre, Summa Cum Laude, from the University of Maryland and currently serves as the Director of Arts Engagement and Education at Shea's Performing Arts Center in Buffalo, New York.
Jane Margulies Kalbfeld
Jane Margulies Kalbfeld has performed in NY, London, the DC/VA/MD region and has been teaching singing and coaching actors for 35 years, specializing in Classic Golden Age and Contemporary Musical Theatre. She studied acting with the legendary Stella Adler, received her BFA from NYU, and apprenticed in Classical Vocal Pedagogy and Bel Canto in London with Helena Shenel and Richard Alda. Jane is certified at the highest level of Somatic Voicework© The LoVetri Method from the Shenandoah University Graduate Contemporary Commercial Music Vocal Pedagogy Institute.. As a Founding Artist and The Casting Director for 1st Stage (proud to be one of three original incorporation signatories) she is thrilled to add 1st Stage to her teaching roster!
Nick Olcott
Nick Olcott has been acting, writing, directing, and coaching for the theatre for more than forty years. At 1 st Stage, he has directed My Name is Asher Lev and Floyd Collins and is scheduled to direct The Nance. Other credits include Constellation Theatre Company (The 39 Steps, On the Razzle), Adventure Theatre MTC (Tinker Bell, Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse, Garfield: The Musical with Catitude), Theatre J (David in Shadow and Light, Miklat), Round House Theatre (The Cherry Orchard, Heartbreak House, Uncle Vanya), and Arena Stage (The Miracle Worker). He also works in opera and was on the faculty of the Maryland Opera Studio for twenty years. His opera credits include Wolf Trap Opera, Opera Lafayette, and the InSeries
KenYatta Rogers
KenYatta Rogers is an alum of Clark Atlanta University and the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently a faculty member at Montgomery College where he serves as collegewide coordinator for the Theatre Discipline as well as advisor and producer for co-curricular programs such as the Black Box Players theatre club, the Broadway Bound lecture/workshop series, and the College Performing Arts Series. He was named the 2014 Maryland Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and in 2015 he was a WRC-TV NBC 4 Black History Month Honoree. He remains an active member of the DC-Baltimore arts community having directed and acted in over 50 professional productions and has received several Helen Hayes nominations for his work. KenYatta has produced and created several community-based arts programs, served on numerous grant panels, served as board president for the Welders Playwright's Collective, and participated in local and national discussions advocating for inclusion, access, and equity in collegiate and professional theatre.
Craig Wallace
Credits include: Folger Theatre: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Mary Stuart, Twelfth Night (2003, 2013), The Taming of the Shrew (Helen Hayes Award nomination Ensemble), Cyrano (Helen Hayes nomination Outstanding Ensemble), Much Ado About Nothing (2009), Othello (2002), As You Like It, Measure for Measure, Romeo and Juliet; Shakespeare Theatre Company: Henry IV parts 1 and 2, The Government Inspector (Helen Hayes Award nomination Outstanding Ensemble), Tamburlaine, Edward II, Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet; Ford’s Theatre: The Laramie Project (Helen Hayes Award nomination Outstanding Ensemble), Our Town, Necessary Sacrifices, Sabrina Fair, Jitney; Arena Stage: K2, All My Sons, The Great White Hope, Hot-n-Throbbing; Signature Theatre: Angels in America, Parts 1and 2 (Helen Hayes nomination for Part 2); Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: The Last Orbit of Billy Mars, Tommy J & Sally, Our Lady of 121st Street, Starving; Round House Theatre: Young Robin Hood, Permanent Collection, Tabletop, The Little Prince; Everyman Theatre: The Cherry Orchard, The Soul Collector (world premiere); Studio Theatre: F**king A (2nd Stage). Regional theaters include: Hangar Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Milwaukee Repertory Theater.
Matthew R. Wilson
Matthew R. Wilson is a two-time Helen Hayes Award recipient and seven-time nominee as an actor (AEA, SAG-AFTRA), director (SDC), fight director (SAFD Certified Teacher), and playwright. His work has been seen on stages and screens across the US and around the world, including at 1st Stage where he directed and choreographed fights for the comedy One Man, Two Guv’nors and performed in Bob Bartlett’s drama Swimming with Whales (Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actor). Wilson’s publications included the play A Commedia Christmas Carol, the stage combat chapter in Movement for Actors, and two chapters in The Routledge Companion to Commedia dell’Arte. He is a professor of theatre at The George Washington University’s Corcoran School of the Arts + Design and serves as Director of Graduate Studies for the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy for Classical Acting.