Find Your Light

Isabella is a lighting designer based in Brooklyn, New York.

She was recently awarded an Obie for her design of Light Shining in Buckinghamshire at New York Theatre Workshop. (Check out the current / news page for the latest highlights.) Her design collaborations have been presented in New York City and regionally across the United States.  With a special interest in developing new works, her process pivots/activates/blooms around design dramaturgy, musical movement, and color composition. Her work favors architectural impulses and shadow play.

Isabella was a Design Editor and creative producer at Chance Magazine.  Aside from curating content for the magazine, she was invited to lead a symposium and seminar at the 2015 Prague Quadrennial, exploring the fertile encounter of photography, theatrical design, and thought artifacts.

Isabella was the Creative Producer for 13Playwright's archival website www.13p.org. In 2012, the Obie Award-winning downtown collective completed their producing mission and 'imploded' into the interactive time capsule.

Isabella is a proud member of USA-829, and interested in expanding her creative interactions to redefine the theatrical bubble. Do not hesitate: say hello.

Amanda Hibschman (she/her, @amandathedietition) is an award winning San Diego based Registered Dietitian Nutritionist who is passionate about making food FUN! From cooking in clients homes, to developing menus, to teaching culinary techniques, to working with clients 1:1 to develop a healthy relationship with food. Amanda loves helping others find peace with food through mindful and intuitive eating techniques and provides weight neutral medical nutrition therapy for various conditions, including diabetes, renal disease, eating disorders, and gastrointestinal disorders. Amanda works with Athletes and Artists fuel themselves to reach peak performance while loving and honoring their bodies. When Amanda is not in the kitchen or the office, she enjoys singing, dancing, and acting. Amanda regularly performs throughout San Diego with Encore Vocal Ensemble and is an accomplished marathoner who runs with the Potterhead Running Club (a Harry Potter themed virtual running club).

Host: Emily Stamets (she/her, @theemilystamets)

Original Music: Jaclyn S. O'Connor

Graphics: Tiffany Spence

You know you're ready to play big, but you keep holding yourself back. If you have thoughts like,

"I can't talk about my accomplishments or no one will like me,"

"If I try, I'll fail and that would be the worst possible thing to happen to any human being ever," or,

"Don't get too big for your britches, self!"

then you might be suffering from Toxic Humility.

The Green Room is free! It's my gift to our amazing creative community. To see the schedule and learn how to join, visit EmilyStamets.com/GreenRoom

Emily Rollie (she/her,@emilyrollie) is a passionate artist-scholar and freelance yogi-director, Emily Rollie (she/her/hers) is an assistant professor at Central Washington University, where she teaches theatre pedagogy, dramatic literature, theatre history, directing, acting, women's and gender studies, and yoga. Her primary research areas are directing, feminist theory and performance, Canadian theatre, and the relationship between mindfulness, yoga, and creativity. In addition to her scholarly and teaching endeavors, Emily also is a freelance theatre director and an associate member of the SDC (Stage Directors and Choreographers Society), for which she also serves as the associate book review editor of the SDC Journal Peer-Reviewed Section. Emily is also a registered yoga teacher (RYT-200) and maintains a regular home practice in the Ashtanga yoga method. She teaches a variety of yoga classes in several local studios as well as travels around the country leading workshops on yoga and creativity for artists.

Host: Emily Stamets (she/her, @theemilystamets)

Original Music: Jaclyn S. O'Connor

Graphics: Tiffany Spence

Q: Why isn't your art (or your career, or your family) making you feel fulfilled, even though you're pouring everything you've got into those pursuits?

A: IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO.

In this recording of Emily's Green Room group coaching session, we dive into WHY this is happening, and WTF to do about it.

See details about the Green Room HERE; it's free to pop in!

cw: adult language

host: Emily Stamets (she/her, @theemilystamets)

original music: Jaclyn S. O'Connor

graphics: Tiffany Spence

cw: rape, sexual violence

Manjula Padmanabhan (she/her), is an author, playwright and cartoonist. Her play HARVEST won the 1997 Onassis Award for Theatre. Her weekly comic strip SUKIYAKI appears in Business Line, in Chennai, India. Her two most recent novels ESCAPE and THE ISLAND OF LOST GIRLS, are set in a brutal future world. She lives in the US, with a home in New Delhi.

Host: Emily Stamets (she/her, @theemilystamets)

original music: Jaclyn S. O'Connor

graphics: Tiffany Spence

Hands up if you want something different for your life than what you've got now 🙋🏽‍♀️

Join Emily for 3 Big Thoughts about moving through the discomfort of change, so you can stop procrastinating and finally start creating at the level you were born to.

Emily is a Harvard-trained leader and coach for women+ in theatre and leaders in the arts.

cw: adult language

Host: Emily Stamets (she/her) @theemilystamets

Original music: Jaclyn S. O'Connor

graphics: Tiffany Spence

cw: adult language, religious trauma, eating disorder

Bridget McCarthy (she/her,@SomethingWittyPlease) is an actor, playwright, teaching artist, and community theatre maker. 

In 2013, she stepped into a men’s prison for the first time and witnessed a theatre making circle. She fell in love with theatre as a tool of amplification, empowerment, and connection.

Since then, she’s worked with the American Shakespeare Center, Elm Shakespeare, Pigeon Creek Shakespeare, Cincinnati Shakeapeare, and is now in residence at the Atlanta Shakespeare Company. 

Bridget’s greatest bliss is using theatre as a tool of amplification for unexpected voices. She has devised new theatre pieces with her neighbors experiencing incarceration, homelessness, folks who are reintegrating into life after sexual slavery, with those battling addiction, and with brave new Americans who came to us as refugees. 

In addition to community work, she is an advocate for eating disorder awareness and mental health destigmatization. Her one woman show is called Fat Juliet: One Woman’s Unsolicited Thoughts About Eating Disorders, Christian Extremism, Shakespeare, and AC/DC. It premiers this summer in Atlanta and is available for booking starting this fall. 

Host: Emily Stamets (she/her), @theemilystamets

Original music: Jaclyn S. O'Connor

Graphics: Tiffany Spence

In this episode, we talk about theatre as personal growth, the challenges of retiring from a 30 year teaching career, and what it's like to watch your kid perform on Broadway.

Robin Murphy (she/her) has spent a life in the theatre as a teacher, director, producer, and performer. She has spent 30 years teaching high school theatre and has directed over 100 productions. Robin has also been published in the Educational Theatre Associations professional journal. She has raised 4 children, and has two daughters in the industry. She also played Brutus in Julius Caesar in 6th grade, and wrote and directed a version of The Aristocrats in her 4th grade class.

IG: @robinroams

[email protected]

Host: Emily Stamets (@theemilystamets)

Original music: Jaclyn S. O'Connor

Graphics: Tiffany Spence