Dmetrius Conley-Williams is a graduate of the Harvard Institute of Theatre and Moscow Art Theatre where he received his MFA. After graduating, he joined the American Repertory Theatre for three seasons and also did a world tour playing Tartalia in The King Stag, directed by Andrei Serban and costumed by Julie Taymor.

He has performed in various regional theatres throughout the country and has worked off-Broadway at the Classic Stage Company, The Barbican in London and The Moscow Art Theatre in Russia. Dmetrius played the role of Chutes&Ladders in Ironweed’s 2019 production of Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegría Hudes, part of The Eliot Trilogy and directed by Valli Rivera.

Dmetrius’ voice can be heard as the lead villain, Wraith, in Stan Lee and Deen Studio’s Japanese Animé series, The Reflection, which can be seen on Funimation. Dmetrius resides in downtown Los Angeles.

Talking Theatre Santa Fe with Artemisio Romero y Carver

Artemisio Romero y Carver is based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a Co-Founder, Steering Committee member, and Policy Director of Youth United for Climate Crisis Action (YUCCA), a youth-led nonprofit that advances climate justice, democracy, and civil rights. Artemisio’s art pursues those same goals. His visual art has been shown at the Zalma Lofton Gallery, the Zane Bennett Gallery, the Napa Valley Museum, and Warehouse 508, among others. His writing has appeared in publications that include Genre: Urban Arts, Inlandia Literary Journal, Tumbleweeds Magazine, and Magma Poetry. Artemisio received the 30 Under 30 Changemakers Award from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, earned First Place in Specialty Articles during the New Mexico Press Women 2020 Communications Contest, and was Santa Fe’s 2020 Youth Poet Laureate. He is a recent graduate of the New Mexico School for the Arts.

Talking Theatre Santa Fe with John Flax

John Flax is a co-founder of Theater Grottesco. He has also worked with the Theatre de la Jeune Lune in Minneapolis and Paris; The Paris Circus; London’s Theatre Complicite; the Los Angeles Philharmonic; San Francisco Choreographer, Della Davidson; the Sundance Playwriting Laboratory; the Out of Context Orchestra; and the Sevda Balkan Choir. He has taught at theaters and colleges nationally and internationally and spent eight years as a National Endowment for the Arts artist-in-the-schools. He was a board member of the national Network of Ensemble Theaters and is a graduate of the Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris where he also studied with Phillipe Gaulier. He studied voice with Arthur Lessac, holds a BA in Environmental Studies from Prescott College and has an ABD Ed.D in Anthropology and Philosophy. At the age of twelve, John was a state judo champion. In his early twenties, he led a 2,000 mile kayaking expedition across Canada.

Talking Theatre Santa Fe with Aaron Leventman

Aaron Leventman attended Columbia University’s Graduate School for film where his thesis screenplay was given a professional reading at the Union Square Theatre in Manhattan. He moved to Santa Fe from Provincetown after his involvement as a writer/director/actor with the Provincetown Theatre Company. While living in Santa Fe, he has performed with most of the local theatre companies in both classics and original plays.

Aaron has enjoyed over thirty productions of his plays all over the country, many of which are published and available on Amazon.com. He co-produced an evening of his own short works titled Almost Adults that met with tremendous acclaim, including the Mayor declaring LGBT Theatre Day in Santa Fe on opening night for the first time in the city’s history. His recent play was a finalist for the Samuel French OOB One Act Play Festival and the Secret Theatre’s One Act Factor, both in New York. He is currently the producer of a bi-monthly online LGBTQ+ short play reading series through his company Almost Adults Productions which has been bringing together talent and audiences from all over the world.

Talking Theatre Santa Fe! With Matt Sanford

Matt Sanford is a theatre artist and Santa Fe native with over one hundred credits as an actor, director, writer, designer, and technician in film and theatre. Onstage roles include Macbeth, Dracula, Vince in Buried Child, The Gentleman Caller in The Glass Menagerie, and both twins in the original comedy Dead Man's Jest. He has directed a number of new and original works, as well as published plays, including a lauded production of Conor McPherson’s The Weir. Prior to the pandemic, Matt most recently appeared as Jasper in Ironweed’s critically-acclaimed production of Annie Baker’s The Aliens, directed by Lynn Goodwin.

Matt has spent much of his professional life encouraging and cultivating young theatre artists as well, through performing outreach and creating workshops at Warehouse 21; serving as Assistant Director to Pandemonium Children’s Theater for four years; teaching acting, writing, and directing for children and teens through Chimera; and teaching technical theatre to high school students in and around Santa Fe through the Lensic Performing Arts Center.

In addition to the theatrical arts, Matt is also a published poet, photographer, visual artist and musician, playing ambient guitar compositions under the name MASKSKS.

Talking Theatre Santa Fe! With Annie Liu

Annie Liu is a lighting designer, video editor, and Production Manager based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatre Design & Technology from Santa Fe University of Art and Design, where she concentrated in Lighting Design. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she found herself thrust into the world of videography and editing, and absolutely loves it. For Santa Fe Playhouse, she has edited The Confessions of Clayton Younger, Good Riddance, 2020!, #ENOUGH: Plays to End Gun Violence, and the Playhouse’s Shelter in Plays series. Her newest collaboration is with a Las Cruces aerial dance company, Project In Motion, with whom she is curating and editing a new series of promotional videos. Pre-plague, she designed lights (and sound) for live theatre, including No Number Home, Fun Home, Marjorie Prime, Trevor, The Rocky Horror Show, Cabaret, and The Pillowman.

Talking Theatre Santa Fe! With Skip Rapoport

Skip Rapoport has designed lighting in New York, Los Angeles, and many points in between: at New York’s American Place Theater and Dance Theater Workshop, Los Angeles’ Vanguard Theater and Schönberg Hall, and Chicago’s Body Politic Theater. His clients have included The Acting Company, Mark Taper Forum’s New Theater for Now, Donald Byrd and the Group, and Nevada Dance Theater. In Santa Fe, he has designed for the Lensic Performing Arts Center, Theaterwork, Theater Grottesco, Ironweed, the International Shakespeare Center, New Mexico Actors Lab, and many others. Skip is especially proud of his work with New Mexico School for the Arts, Santa Fe Prep, and Just Say It Theater, working with the next generation of theater artists. Skip also serves on the Board of Teatro Paraguas.

Talking Theatre Santa Fe! With Froggy Fernandez

Rudy “Froggy” Fernandez is a Native New Mexican, born and raised in the northern village of Peñasco. He moved to Santa Fe in the mid-50’s and attended Santa Fe High School. He worked at a gas station, then as a banker, in auto sales, and as a realtor before retiring in 2005. Froggy has been deeply involved in the community as a member of the Caballeros de Vargas since 1961, the Santa Fe Fiesta Council since 1981, and he served as a Santa Fe County Commissioner from 1981 to 1984. He also currently serves on the Board of Teatro Paraguas.

Froggy began acting in 1986 with a speaking part in The Milagro Beanfield War, directed by Robert Redford. Since then, he has acted at Northern New Mexico Community College, with Santa Fe Performing Arts, Teatro Paraguas, and at the Santa Fe Playhouse. Recently, he appeared as Pop in Teatro Paraguas’ 2019 production of Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue, as part of The Elliot Trilogy by Quiara Alegría Hudes.

Talking Theatre Santa Fe! With Robyn Rikoon

Born and raised in New Mexico, Robyn Rikoon earned her BFA in Drama from The North Carolina School of The Arts, she worked as a professional actor in television, film, and theater throughout New York City, Portland, Oregon, Minneapolis, and New Mexico. In 2012, Robyn founded and ran an arts collective in Brooklyn, NY, where she created site-specific work based on Carl Jungs’ The Red Book. In 2015 she ventured around the world and studied in Southeast Asia, South America, and Mexico. After receiving The Kenan Fellowship for Directing at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in September of 2017, Robyn worked as a director and actor in and around the nation’s capital. Passionate about the power of live arts and community, she now serves as the Artistic Director of the Santa Fe Playhouse.

Talking Theatre Santa Fe! With Mona Malec

Mona Malec is a world champion Highland Games athlete, actress, power lifter, and mother of two. She has a BA in Theater Performance & Anthropology from Cornell, and an MFA in Theater Arts from Ohio State. She has extensive movie and theater experience, performing on stage in productions by Santa Fe Playhouse, Ironweed Productions, the Lensic, Theater Grottesco, and Theaterwork. Mona was most recently seen in Santa Fe in her powerful solo piece Motherhood, Barbells, and T-Shots, which she also wrote and produced.

Talking Theatre Santa Fe! With Cristina Vigil

Cristina Vigil is a born and raised Santa Fean and has been on a steady diet of activism, art, and community care since birth. She was trained in performing arts at Santa Fe Performing Arts, Alvord Elementary, and College of Santa Fe. She received her high school diploma through an accelerated program at the Santa Fe Career Academy and has since been working as a Scopist (or specialized proofreader, for the uninitiated) to court reporters and transcriptionists. She is also a member of the longest running burlesque troupe in Santa Fe, Zircus Erotique, and a former member of the Meow Wolf immersive performance crew. She currently resides on the southside of Santa Fe with her two dogs, Goat and Candie.

Talking Theatre Santa Fe! with Mary Beth Lindsey

Mary Beth Lindsey (she/her), born in Dallas, Texas started acting on stage at five years old with her community theatre. She was able to join a high school with a theatre magnet program and continue with her community theatre until she left for College of Santa Fe in 2003. Some of her favorite roles post-college would be Olympe De Gouges in Adobe Rose Theatre’s The Revolutionists (2018), with Emily Webb as a close second in Ironweed Productions' Our Town (2012). If you came to College of Santa Fe’s production of Chicago in 2007, then you witnessed Mary Beth as Mama Morton.

Being an actor has helped her into her day job as an Education and Prevention Specialist with Solace Crisis Treatment Center. Mary Beth goes to middle schools in the area and speaks about rigid gender roles, rape myths, consent, and victim blaming. Being a part of the solution is a very invigorating feeling and also a stark reminder that this is a long game. It has brought to light her passion for social justice issues, and she now plans to use any platform she may have in the future to educate others on how we as community members can prevent sexual violence.

Talking Theatre Live! with Alix Hudson

Alix Hudson is a playwright, teacher, writer, and general theatre-maker whose home away from home is Teatro Paraguas. She has been seen on stage as a compiler and actor in Atravesada: Poetry of the Border; as Unfriendly Animal 1 in her Christmas play, The Holy Season; and she will play Emmy in the upcoming Doll's House 2, produced by New Mexico Actors Lab. She was also the director of We Are Hispanic, American Women. . . Okay? Her soundscapes have been most recently featured in her full-length play, Revolution, Atacama, and El Coquí Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom. Her newest play, Hummingbird, premiers at Teatro Paraguas in February 2020.

Talking Theatre Live! with Ketevan Kharshilze Ussery

Ketevan Kharshilze Ussery was born in Tbilisi, the capital city of the country of Georgia. For four years she studied at the Moscow Art Theater Laboratory in Russia, which was founded by Konstantin Stanislavsky. She has directed more than fifty productions as a stage director, artistic director-in-chief, and university professor. Ketevan moved to the United States in 2000. She deeply loves and respects the art, the culture, and the people of the United States. She also remains involved in the theatre life of Georgia where she still has plays running.

Talking Theatre Live! with Luca Seara Pacheco

Luca Seara Pacheco grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he developed a love for theatre after attending Carlos Gilbert Elementary School and acting in his first play, Annie, as Daddy Warbucks. After graduating from Carlos Gilbert, Luca attended Santa Fe School for the Arts and Sciences where he continued to perform in other productions such as Bye Bye Birdie and Little Shop of Horrors. After middle school, Luca was accepted into New Mexico School for the Arts where he knew he would continue his love for stage performance. He has been in productions such as Lysistrata, the 2017 Fiesta Melodrama at the Santa Fe Playhous,e and many others. Luca has also worked with other outside companies including Reclaiming Wholeness and the National Dance Institute.

Talking Theatre Live! with Quinn Fontaine

Quinn Fontaine is an out and proud transgender TRANSguy who has a background in all things expressive (standup, sketch and improvisational comedy, installation work, and found-object sculpture). He began his studies in Communications Media at Simmons College in Boston and continued his education studying Performance/Video at the California College of the Arts in Oakland. Quinn’s first-ever one-person show, Learning to Stay, was selected for fellowship with The Global Center for Cultural Entrepreneurship. Quinn’s first book, Hung Like a Seahorse: A Real-Life Transgender Adventure of Tragedy, Comedy, and Recovery made multiple international bestseller lists. The companion piece, Hung Like a Seahorse: The Show + Tell Version, is his first solo show since transitioning. It is a comedic foray into Fontaine’s journey thus far.

Talking Theatre Live! with Jonathan Richards

Jonathan Richards is an author, journalist, actor, and cartoonist. He has performed frequently on the Santa Fe stage in leading roles, most recently in The Gin Game, Ever the Twain, and Vaudeville. Television includes Breaking Bad and Manhattan. Film includes Independence Day: Reckoning, Alan Arkin’s Blood: Thicker than Water, and the narration of the Oscar-nominated short Never Give Up. His latest novel is Nick & Jake, published by Skyhorse Press. His political cartoons have appeared in the Santa Fe Reporter, the Albuquerque Journal North, and the Huffington Post. His movie reviews are seen in Pasatiempo.

Talking Theatre Live! with Bronwen Denton Davis

Bronwen Denton Davis is a playwright, screenwriter, actor, and director whose works have premiered in Santa Fe and traveled to L.A., New York, and London. She served as Co-Artistic Director of the Santa Fe Theatre Company, which was founded to encourage new plays by focusing exclusively on original works. She served as Director of the Playwrights Lab assisting new plays to production both locally and nationally. She was a co-creator of the original Benchwarmers at the Santa Fe Playhouse. Three plays of Bronwen’s were produced at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Her play, The Book of Wren, premiered in Santa Fe at Theaterwork and went on to Valentina Fratti’s Miranda Theatre Company in N.Y. where it won a best new play nod from Backstage. Bronwen’s Peeling Figs was nominated for an New York Innovative Theater Award. In addition, she has written films for Sandra Bullock, Gabriel Byrne, and Moctesuma Esparza.

Talking Theatre Live! with Marguerite Scott

Marguerite Louise Scott is a playwright and actress who relocated to Santa Fe in 2015 and has been seen locally on stage at the Santa Fe Playhouse in the past two Benchwarmers, as well as Parsons in 1984 and Marks in Talking With. At Teatro Paraguas she portrayed Ruby in Robert Benjamin’s Still in The Game. Short film roles include Sophia in Bottled Up (Girls Make Movies), Rosie in Sam Franco’s Truth or Consequences, and Ruby in Alejandra Castro’s Paperless. Her short plays, Pigeons and The Scorpion & the Songbird, were presented in the past two Benchwarmers, and other works have been produced in NYC, Boston, and Portland, Oregon. Her full-length play, Flight Plan, was given a workshop production in May at the Santa Fe Playhouse, and Marguerite recently returned from the Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, Alaska, where the latest draft was given a reading.  This summer she will be leading workshops with the Santa Fe Playhouse Young Playwrights Project.

Talking Theatre Live! with Kate Chavez

Kate Chavez has worked as a writer, director, actress, and dramaturg in New York, Madrid, London, and Philadelphia, as well as in her native New Mexico. She received her training from Brown University and the London International School of Performing Arts (LISPA). Kate is a screen actress who appeared most recently in Better Call Saul; she is also a co-founder and co-artistic director of Up & Down Theatre Company, based in Santa Fe and New York. Up & Down focuses on original social and political satire. and their music video Make America Great Again was the audience favorite for MoveOn.org’s “Laughter Trumps Hate” competition. As a director, she most recently co-directed Lysistrata for NMSA at the James A. Little Theatre and The Ultimate Christmas Show at the Adobe Rose Theatre. Kate is currently an instructor in the theater department at the New Mexico School for the Arts. She is a teacher for Santa Fe Improv and has also taught at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design and at the University of New Mexico.

Talking Theatre Live! with Dale Dunn

As playwright, Dale Dunn’s most recent play, The Big Heartless, was produced this spring at Relative Theatrics in Laramie, Wyoming.  Other plays include Body Burden (Adobe Theater, Santa Fe Performing Arts), Sworn to Water (Theaterwork), Parakeet Love (Fusion Theater), DWI: Driving While Innocent (First Stage L.A. One-Act Contest winner), Armed and Dangerous (Fusion Theater, Actors’ Theater of Louisville’s 10-Minute Play Contest finalist) and Gun Play (Fusion Theater).

As dramaturg, Dale has worked extensively with Ironweed Productions here in Santa Fe.  With Just Say It Theater, Dale and co-artistic director Lynn Goodwin recently produced Nick Payne’s Constellations at the Adobe Rose Theatre. She received her MFA from Columbia University’s School of the Arts.

Talking Theatre Live! with Ruth Zaporah

Ruth Zaporah entered the dance studio at age three, and now six decades later continues to enter the studio door. The doors have changed, as have the locations, but the particularities of what she does in the studio—responding to her interest in the body as a vehicle for transformation—has never wavered. Now a master and pioneer of an internationally received practice of improvisation physical theater, Ruth teaches, performs, and writes about what she calls Action Theater.

Ruth has twice received NEA choreography grants, as well as numerous other tributes and honors. She takes her work to most continents. Recently she was named a Cultural Envoy by the U.S. State Department. Her home is in Santa Fe New, Mexico.

Talking Theatre Live! with David Olson

David Matthew Olson is the Artistic Director of THEATERWORK in Santa Fe since its establishment in 1996. He was the founding Artistic Director of Teatro Laboratorio in Bogota, Colombia (1965–1972),  and Cherry Creek Theater in St. Peter, Minnesota (1973–1993).

Olson is a playwright, having authored more than fifty full-length plays as well as numerous short pieces, children’s plays, scripts for ceremonial events and community celebrations, and  works generated in educational settings.  He works as a story collector, cultural animateur, and educator. Olson has directed more than 300 productions during the fifty-year course of his professional life in theater.

Talking Theatre Live! with Tone Forrest

Tone Forrest has been a theatre pro for 50+ years as actor, director, stage manager, production manager, and cofounder of Red Thread Collective. A SAG/AFTRA and Actors Equity member, he is also a Life Member of The Actors Studio. Credits include stage, film, television, and commercials, as well as many roles in Santa Fe theater. Tone is also well known in Santa Fe as a bass player and has hosted the Canyon Road Blues Jam at El Farol for the past decade.

Talking Theatre Live! with Virginia Hall-Smith

Virginia Hall-Smith trained at the University of Iowa (BFA) and New York University, and appeared in a number of Off-Broadway plays. She taught at Buxton School (Williamstown, MA) for thirty-four years, where she directed/produced more than 300 shows.  She returned to her childhood home of Santa Fe in 1992 and has been active in a number of theater productions since.  She is a member of the permanent company at Theaterwork and most recently appeared in The Madwoman of Chaillot at the Santa Fe Playhouse, directed by Barbara Hatch.

Talking Theatre Live! with Larry Glaister

Larry Glaister is an actor, director, and playwright with degrees in theatre from Howard University in Washington, D.C., and Hunter College in NYC. He is also a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC. Larry has written short plays which have been performed around the country (including Benchwarmers in Santa Fe), and he has written a full-length two-act farce entitled Writer’s Cramp, or How Will Shakespeare Got Into Show Biz, which has been published by Dramatic Publishing Company. 

Talking Theatre Live! with Freddy Lopez

Fredrick Lopez grew up on the border of two countries (USA & Mexico) and two states (Texas & New Mexico). The first time he hit the boards was in high school in 1973 when he played an ant. He went on to be in more than 55 films, many of them westerns. His early work was in Robert Redford’s The Milagro Beanfield War, Larry McMurtry’s Streets of Laredo and Comanche Moon, and Billy Bob Thornton’s All the Pretty Horses. His most recent film work was The Girlfriend Experience, Night Shift, and Bless Me Ultima. Locally, Freddy has proudly worked in theater with Ironweed Productions in Creating a Scene, Wolf in Camp at SF Performing Arts, with Wes Studi in John Herbert’s Fortune and Men’s Eyes and Oscar Rodrigues’s Coyote Blues at the Santa Fe Playhouse.

Talking Theatre Live! with Debrianna Mansini

Debrianna Mansini has been seen in both film and television in Hell or High Water, Crazy Heart, Breaking Bad, and Better Call Saul. Mansini trained in NYC at Circle in the Square before moving to Santa Fe. She produced theatre with Tin Roof Productions and Santa Fe Performing Arts Company and she is currently a company member of NM Actors Lab and For Giving Productions. She has worked Off- Broadway in New York City at the Soho Rep.

Talking Theatre Live! with Danielle Reddick

Danielle Reddick came to New Mexico after touring as a company member of the International Broadway tour of Stomp. Prior to Stomp, she was an actor, solo performer, and puppeteer in New York City. Danielle is currently an actor on stage and screen and an ensemble company member of Theater Grottesco.

Talking Theatre Live! with Ann Roylance

Ann Roylance’s varied professional career has included television, musical theatre, plays, and clubs, from D.C. to New York to Sydney to L.A. to Santa Fe. In Santa Fe, Ann has been seen at the Santa Fe Playhouse dancing with a ghost in I Hate Hamlet, playing a Granny in Moon Over Buffalo, two Benchwarmers, and another teenager in Kimberly Akimbo. At the Adobe Rose, she played a dopey sister in Bonjour, La Bonjour, and lately at the Playhouse, the singing landlady in Cabaret.

Talking Theatre Live! with Joey Chavez

A native of Santa Fe, Joey Chavez holds an MFA in Theatre from the University of Oklahoma. As a professional actor, he was a company member of The Open Eye Theater in NYC and also worked at The Public Theatre, Lincoln Center, and The Alliance Theater, to name a few. He is a published playwright and has more than twenty produced shows. In 1995, Joey returned to Santa Fe from NYC with his wife Robin and little Joey. He ran the theater department at Santa Fe High for fifteen years, presenting more than 100 productions and twenty-one world premieres. In 1994, Joey was named New Writer of the Year by HBO for his one man show, Teeny, Tiny Potatoes. Teaching recognition includes the 2017 TONY Award Nomination for Excellence in Theatre Education and the Santa Fe Arts Commission Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. Joey is currently the Theatre Department Chair at the New Mexico School for the Arts.

Talking Theatre Live! with Matthew Montoya

Matthew Montoya is a local actor and native of Santa Fe. You would’ve seen him in A Christmas Carol (2012) and Madwoman of Chaillot (2015) at the Santa Fe Playhouse, as well as Welcome to Arroyo’s (2016) and The Motherf**cker with the Hat (2017) at Teatro Paraguas, among others.

Talking Theatre Live! with Robert Benedetti

Robert Benedetti is a distinguished director, actor, and teacher of theatre, and three-time Emmy and Peabody Award-winning film writer/producer. After serving as Artistic Director of the Court Theatre in Chicago, he was an early member of Chicago’s Second City Theatre. A distinguished teacher of acting for more than fifty years, Benedetti served as Chairman of the Acting Program at the Yale Drama School, and Dean of Theater at the California Institute of the Arts. His books, The Actor at Work and The Actor In You, were for many years the largest-selling acting texts in the country.  In 2014 he formed a new theater group in Santa Fe, the New Mexico Actors Lab.