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Creative Team 

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Jacole Kitchen
Director

Jacole Kitchen is Director of Arts Engagement and In-House Casting at La Jolla Playhouse. As the co-lead of the Learning and Engagement Department, Jacole helps to expand and nurture community partnership, and foster relationships throughout the greater San Diego community of artists. Directing credits: Iron (Roustabouts Theatre Co.), The Music Sounds Different to Me Now (La Jolla Playhouse - WOW Festival) Pick Me Last and Light Years Away (La Jolla Playhouse POP Tour), Cardboard Piano (Diversionary Theatre), An Iliad (New Village Arts), September and Her Sisters (Scripps Ranch Theatre – Out on a Limb) and more. In addition, Jacole is a private acting coach, and serves as Executive Director for San Diego Performing Arts League (SDPAL).  Previous positions: Casting Director and Artistic Associate for San Diego Repertory Theatre, and  bicoastal talent agent specializing in representation for professional theatre actors, directors and choreographers at Kazarian/Measures/Ruskin & Associates.

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Min Kahng
Playwright

Min Kahng (he/him) is an award-winning playwright, composer, lyricist and creative coach whose works include The Adventures of Honey & Leon, The Four Immigrants: An American Musical Manga (Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award, Theatre Bay Area Award, Edgerton New Play Award, NAMT Production Grant), GOLD: The Midas Musical (Theatre Bay Area Award), Iris Lee’s Audio Odyssey (published by Playscripts), Inside Out & Back Again, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon: A Musical Adaptation, Bad Kitty On Stage!, The Song of the Nightingale and Tales of Olympus. Kahng also wrote the NEA-funded project Story Explorers, an original musical for young audiences with autism. Kahng is an alumnus of MacDowell, Playwrights Foundation Resident Initiative, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, Djerassi, Willapa Bay AiR, and the TheatreWorks New Works Festival. He has been invited as a Guest Lecturer/Artist at Harvard University, Stanford University, UC Berkeley, San Jose State University and The San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Kahng is a Jonathan Larson Grant Finalist, a Richard Rodgers Award Finalist, and a Dramatists Guild committee member. www.minkahng.com

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Keira McGee
Costume Designer

Keira McGee works in costume design and construction for both theater and film. Design credits include Into the Woods (New Village Arts), The Servant of Two Masters (New Village Arts),
Cabaret (ION Theatre), Iceman Cometh (Target Margin Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare & Company), and The Tempest (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival). Film credits; Production Assistant for Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount Pictures). Keira currently works in the costume department of La Jolla Playhouse, and runs her own sustainable clothing company called Keira Designs.

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Maddie Williams
Dramaturg

Madison Mae Williams is a multidisciplinary artist and scholar based in San Diego. Born and raised on Cape Cod, she received her BA concentrating in musical theatre, poetry, and Africana studies from Hampshire College. Maddie is continuing her studies as a fifth year Theatre PhD candidate at UC San Diego. As a dramaturg, Maddie has worked with La Jolla Playhouse, the Old Globe, Cygnet Theatre, the New Cosmopolitans, the Playwrights Realm, Chautauqua Theatre Company, and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. She is passionate about theatre work that is accessible, radical, and increases visibility and representation for people of marginalized identities. Maddie is a proud member of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas and the Black Theatre Network. madisonmaewilliams.com

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Desha Crownover
Music Director

Desha Crownover is a stage and musical director specializing in Theatre for Young Audiences. She has had the opportunity to direct, teach, and perform across the country for the past twenty-five years where her work has been commended by such theatre notables as Edward Albee, Ming Cho Lee, Patricia Zipprodt, and Timothy Near. She holds a Master’s degree in Theatre from SDSU and a B.A. in Theatre with an emphasis in Performing from UCSD and has served on the teaching faculty of SDSU, Cuyamaca College, and Santa Fe Christian Schools teaching music, acting, theatre history, public speaking, and speech and debate. Her work as a playwright has been produced at UCSD, SDSU, and Santa Fe Christian Schools, as well. Desha currently serves as the Artistic Director of San Diego Junior Theatre where she has taught and directed for the past twenty years. 

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Eliza Vedar
Sound Designer

Eliza Vedar is a composer, sound designer, music director, and pianist. Her work has been featured in several productions throughout San Diego. She has written music for three original musicals during her undergrad with her collaborator Mario Vega. They are currently working on their fourth musical, DayDreamer. Eliza recently received a Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance at SDSU and was Artist in Residence at CSUSM during the 2021-2022 academic year.

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Jonathan Gilmer
Scenic Designer

Jonathan Gilmer (he/him) is a San Diego-based multidisciplinary theatre artist. Recent projects include The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park Ribbon Cutting Ceremony (San Diego Symphony), Pick Me Last (La Jolla Playhouse), Noel Noel (San Diego Symphony), As One (San Diego Opera), The North Plan (ION Theatre), Shostakovich Day (Barbican Centre), Whistleblower (Waterloo East Theatre) and was a member of the design team for the UK Student Exhibit at the 2015 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space. Jonathan is also the Scenery Supervisor at La Jolla Playhouse. He received his B.A. Honours in Technical Theatre Arts from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

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LEARNING AND ENGAGEMENT STAFF

2910 La Jolla Village Drive

La Jolla, California 92037

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Administrative Office:

(858) 550-1070

Hannah Reinert

Learning and Engagement Manager

hreinert@ljp.org

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Bridget Cavaiola Stone

Director of Learning

bcavaiola@ljp.org

Jacole Kitchen

Director of Arts Engagement and In-House Casting

jkitchen@ljp.org

Danniel Ureña

Learning and Engagement Coordinator

durena@ljp.org

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© 2023 by La Jolla Playhouse

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