Paul Meshejian is the Founding Artistic Director of PlayPenn. Since 1989 he has been a company member at People’s Light and Theatre (PLT) outside Philadelphia where he has both acted and directed. In addition to his work at PLT he has performed with all of Philadelphia’s major theatre companies. He has been nominated for the Barrymore award numerous times. His work has been seen on film an television. In the 1980’s he was the founding artistic director of Stage One: Collaboration, a professional theatre in Minneapolis/St. Paul devoted to new and rarely produced works. Paul is on the Acting Faculty at University of the Arts in Philadelphia, also teaching at Arcadia University. He has a long history of new play development work as both actor and director in his 14 year relationship with The Playwrights Center in Minneapolis. He serves on the Board of Directors of the International Institute for Theatre Research and is a member of LMDA, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas. Email Paul at paul@playpenn.org

Rick DesRochers (director, SAVING GRACE) is an Assistant Professor of Theatre of theatre history, dramaturgy and directing at Long Island University at the CW Post Campus, and an Artistic Associate at the PlayPenn Theatre Conference of Philadelphia. He has served as the Literary Director for the Joseph Papp Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival and The Goodman Theatre of Chicago. Prior to his tenure at The Public Theater, he was the Artistic Director of the New Theater of Boston for six seasons, where he produced and directed over fifty new plays and musicals. He is a member of the Society for Stage Directors and Choreographers, and in New York City he has been director and dramaturg for several theater companies including the New York Music Theatre Festival, Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Circle Repertory Theatre/Circle East, Young Playwrights’ Inc., Rude Mechanicals, and for regional theaters across the country including The Playwrights’ Center of Minneapolis, The Goodman Theatre, PlayPenn Theatre Conference, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Boston Center for the Arts, Chicago Dramatists, Live Bait Theater, and Teatro Vista, as well as internationally for The Soho Theatre of London. He has also written several plays including Vegas Baby! (co-written with Gerrit O’Neill produced by Live Bait Theater, Chicago), Lady Trane: A Love Supreme (produced by the New Theatre, Boston), and A Point of Departure (produced by the Huntington Theatre Company, Boston), and has translated plays from French language playwrights including Cheech by François Létourneau (produced at the Melbourne Theatre Company in Australia), and Molière’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (entitled The King of Quality, produced by the New Theatre). Rick DesRochers has taught in theatre departments across the country including the New York University Tisch School of the Arts Dramatic Writing Program, New School University, Emerson College, DePaul University, Chicago Conservatory for the Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, and the University of Texas at Austin. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in stage direction and dramaturgy from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
email: rickdesrochers63@gmail.com

Michelle Houle Hitz (Director of Development) Before moving to the Philadelphia area in the summer of 2005, Michelle was the Director of Development at New York City’s Vineyard Theatre where, over the course of her three-year tenure, she helped to formalize the theatre’s fundraising efforts. Prior to working at the Vineyard, she was the Manager of Foundation and Government Relations and the Grant Writer at Manhattan Theatre Club. As a special events consultant, Michelle managed the front of house staff for the annual New Yorker Festival from 2002-2004. As a writer, she has published six non-fiction books for children under the auspices of Enslow Publishers, Inc. Michelle studied English and classics at Cornell University and received her master’s degree in English at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Sarah Rasmussen
Director

A partner at Fleischman Gerber & Associates, Deborah K. Fleischman has been hailed by Philadelphia Magazine as “one of the city’s leading arts publicists.” She has served a variety of performing arts organizations such as the Philadelphia Theatre Company, the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema, and the Curtis Institute of Music. She has provided marketing services for a tenth anniversary season, regional music and film festivals, world and American theatre premieres, a U.S. debut concert, several national touring productions of Broadway shows, a record album, and the inaugural season of a national music theatre festival. She has been an Adjunct Professor teaching graduate level courses in Marketing and Public Relations at both Drexel University and Rosemont College.

Tim is a 22-year-old graduate of Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. Having just completed a double major in business and drama with a concentration in stage management, Tim has been involved in numerous productions at Washington College as a stage manager, ASM, sound op, and props master. In addition to this backstage work, Tim has enjoyed four major acting roles: The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told as Kevin, Boy’s Life as Don, This Is Our Youth as Denis, and The Lonesome West as Coleman. Tim has also been active in the Washington college musicians union and a valuable member of the Gibson Performing Arts Center tech crew. Tim looks forward to the possibility of starting a career in theater as a stage manager.