ABOUT OUR LEADERSHIP AND STAFF
Board of Directors, 2022-2023
Tom Toce (President), Craig Horsley (Vice President),
Mik Chwalek (Secretary), Thomas Hehman (Treasurer),
Mary Churchill, April Gow, Frances Hill,
Peggy O’Brien, Lynn San Andres, Martha Sproule and Tom Toce.
Urban Stages Staff
FRANCES HILL (Founding Artistic Director) began her theatrical career in California as an actress. Since 1983, Ms. Hill has overseen more than 600 staged readings/workshops and 75 productions of new works for the stage. She has directed over 30 workshops and productions. Her favorite directing credits include: Gino DiIorio’s Apostasy, Roma Greth’s Our Summer Days, Jim Lehrer’s Chili Queen, (directed at Urban Stages and Kennedy Center), John Picardi’s Seven Rabbits on a Pole and The Sweepers (directed at Urban Stages and Capital Rep); and Comfort Women by Chugmi Kim (Urban Stages 2004),27 Rue De Fleurs. Two of her plays have been produced, Our Bench and Life Lines.Under the guidance of Ms. Hill, Playwrights’ Preview Productions/URBAN STAGES have moved two plays into commercial Off-Broadway successes. Minor Demons opened the new Century Center Theater and Men on the Verge of His-Panic Breakdown won an Outer Critic’s Circle Award while playing to capacity audiences at the 47th Street Theater. Urban Stages’ African American Poets as Playwrights won eight Audelco Nominations and Coyote On a Fence received two Drama Desk nominations and a Pilgrim’s Project Award. Eisa Davis’ Bulrusher was one of three nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. 2010 production of Langston in Harlem won several drama desk nominations, a John Calloway award, several Audelco nominations including a win for best music production of the year (2010), along with several other awards. urbanstage@aol.com
ANTOINETTE MULLINS (Development and Literary Director) is a NYC-based playwright, screenwriter and dramaturg. She graduated from VASSAR COLLEGE with a BA in Psychology and Film. She completed her MFA in Dramatic Writing at New York University’s graduate school formerly in Singapore, TISCH ASIA SCHOOL OF THE ARTS. Her written works include a 2009 short stage play, Love and Robbery, which was published in Drama: A Resource for Units 1A-1B, a textbook aimed at promoting drama in Australian high schools. She has been a finalist and/or semi-finalist for The Princess Grace Awards, The Nicholl Fellowship, The Austin Film Festival and more. Brave Girl, a short-film she co-wrote that brings to light to trafficking in Nepal, was awarded Official Selection in South by Southwest and Best Short Film in Palm Springs International Shortfest (2013). In 2015, she was a BRIO ARTIST in playwriting for The Bronx Council of the Arts. Her educational plays Up & Up: The Story of Dr. Mae C. Jemison and 3 Myths and My Annoying Sister currently tours NYC via Urban Stages Outreach Program. anmullins@urbanstages.org
OLGA DEVYATISILNAYA (Company Manager/Financial Administrator) has worked with Urban Stages for eight years as wardrobe supervisor on all productions produced on our Main Stage. In Russia, she worked as an assistant costume designer in many films. She assisted Farrah Fawcett as her dresser in Moscow on the film Margaret Bourke-White. Olga has many talents including bookkeeping and worked for us in this capacity since 2007. She currently serves as our Financial Administrator and Company Manager. olga@urbanstages.org
Ilanna Saltzman (Outreach Director) is a Brooklyn-based theater artist who specializes in children's theater and devised work. For Urban Stages, she produces and oversees over 300 free workshops and plays every year in libraries across the city. She's directed numerous outreach shows for Urban Stages, including The Mighty Patsy Mink!, The Mystery of the Twelve Curious Cousins, The Amazing Ava's Great Escape, and Kitty in the City: A Sound-a-Long. She has created new plays and overseen theater projects in senior centers in Manhattan and Queens. Ilanna has ventured to Russia, Azerbaijan, Guatemala, India, and Nepal with Bond Street Theatre to develop and tour new socially engaged plays with local partners. Her original TYA show Amelia and Her Paper Tigers has been performed at the FringeJR Festival and at various NYC schools and theaters. She has directed and/or performed for the Love Drunk festival, The Secret Theater, The Ume Group, Epic Actors Workshop, The Dream Up! Festival, and more. For her cultural diplomacy work, Ilanna was selected to represent the USA in the EU’s Global Cultural Leadership Platform in two conferences in Valletta, Malta and Brussels. Ilanna trained in Commedia dell'Arte at the Accademia dell'Arte in Italy and learned Spanish at the Proyecto Linguistico de Quetzaltenango in Guatemala. BA in Acting and Directing from Skidmore College.ilanna@urbanstages.org