Round House Theatre strives to involve the artistic community in its growth and development. We reach out to veteran and emerging artists of diverse backgrounds to enrich our programming and help guide our plans for future seasons.

The Artists’ Roundtable is an advisory body to Round House Theatre. Participating artists are selected by the Producing Artistic Director to serve a two-year renewable term. The Roundtable meets as a group twice per year and may be called upon to:

• Advise the Board and Staff on artistic matters
• Participate in season planning and program development
• Read scripts and provide feedback
• Help promote Round House in the community through special events and outreach activities
• Mentor students in the education program
• Participate in readings, workshops, and Kitchen events as available

Additionally, two members of the Roundtable serve as ex-officio members of the Round House Board of Trustees in order to bring an artistic perspective to the organization’s governing body.

Jessi Burgess has directed productions at Active Cultures, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Adventure Theatre, Catalyst Theater Company, Forum Theatre, the Hatchery Festival, the Inkwell, Rorschach Theatre, & Solas Nua, and has assistant directed at RHT (A Prayer for Owen Meany), Woolly Mammoth and Actors Theatre of Louisville. She serves as the Artistic Director of the Inkwell and on the board of Active Cultures. She is a two-time recipient of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Young Emerging Artist grant.

Matthew Detmer has performed at RHT in The Book Club Play, Camille, and as Owen in A Prayer for Owen Meany. In the 08/09 season, he will appear as McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Previous work includes productions at Vermont Stage Company, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Clarence Brown Theatre, North Carolina Stage Company, Independent Shakespeare Company, and the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. 

Danielle Drakes most recently worked as assistant director on A Lesson Before Dying at RHT. She is the Founder and Producing Director of Hegira, a new theatre company focusing on the experiences of African American women that will be performing at the RHT Silver Spring in 08/09.

Timothy Douglas directed A Lesson Before Dying for RHT and the world premiere of August Wilson’s Radio Golf for Yale Repertory Theatre. He served as the Associate Artistic Director for Actors Theatre of Louisville (2001-2004). Regionally he has directed at The Guthrie Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Milwaukee Rep, City Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Mark Taper Forum (Director in Residence 1994-1997), San Jose Rep, and Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre. Other DC productions include plays at Woolly Mammoth, the Folger, and Theatre Alliance.

Mitchell Hébert was last seen at RHT in Treasure Island and Crime and Punishment and will be joining us for the 08/09 season for Eurydice. Other RHT credits include The Diary of Anne Frank, The Drawer Boy (Helen Hayes nomination), Criminal Genius, Escape from Happiness, One Shoe Off and Shakespeare, Moses, and Joe Papp. Regionally he has performed at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Everyman Theatre, Theatre J, Olney Theatre Center, and Theater of the First Amendment. He is Head of the Performance Program at the University of Maryland Department of Theatre.

JJ Kaczynski is an actor and graphic artist who most recently designed projections for The Book Club Play at RHT. His other RHT design work includes Camille, Tabletop, and columbinus (also at Perseverance Theatre and New York Theatre Workshop). JJ is a Helen Hayes Award nominated actor who has performed at RHT, Signature Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Wayside Theatre, The Washington Opera, and The Kennedy Center. He is perhaps best remembered by RHT audiences for his HH nominated performance as Snoopy in You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown.           

Kathryn Kelley was last seen at RHT as Vivien Leigh in Orson's Shadow and will play Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in the 08/09 season. She loves the classics and has had the good fortune to appear in works by Shakespeare, Chekhov, Williams, Miller, Wilder, Shaw, Ibsen, Beckett, Pinter, Osborne, Sartre, Dumas-fils, and Lorca; in modern comedies by Alan Ayckbourn, Woody Allen, David Ives, Tina Howe and Yasmina Reza; in Irish tales by Conor McPherson and Stewart Parker, in children's classics by The Brothers Grimm, Lewis Carroll and Mary Norton. She coaches all ages. MFA, NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

James Kronzer has designed sets for numerous RHT productions including The Book Club Play, Nixon’s Nixon, Midwives, Camille, The Diary of Anne Frank (Helen Hayes Award), Wintertime, Heartbreak House, The Drawer Boy (Helen Hayes Award), and Shakespeare, Moses, and Joe Papp (Helen Hayes Award). His work has also been seen at Olney Theatre Center, Signature Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Theater J, The Kennedy Center, Delaware Theatre Company, Asolo, Milwaukee Rep, San Diego Rep, and Arden Theatre.  Recent NYC designs include Opus at Primary Stages and Glory Days on Broadway. Mr. Kronzer has received the Helen Hayes Award seven times.

Marcus Kyd appeared in RHT’s production of The Chairs and will appear in Alice and A Sleeping Country in the 08/09 season. Credits include Arena Stage, Metro Stage, CenterStage, the Washington Performing Arts Society, the Nebraska Shakespeare Festival and in Shear Madness and Cyrano at The Kennedy Center. As the guitarist and singer for The Most Secret Method he toured the United States and Europe. Mr. Kyd is the Artistic Director of Taffety Punk which will perform Sam Shepard’s The Tooth of Crime at RHT Silver Spring in 08/09.

Sabrina Mandell was recently seen at RHT in Low Tide Hotel and will return as part of Happenstance Theater’s production of FarFar Oasis at the RHT Silver Spring in 08/09. She wrote and performed a solo street performance, Poetry for the People: Sabrina VentDeLaMer and her Amazing Game of Chance for various events in the US, Canada, and Paris. Ms. Mandell performs with the Big Apple Circus’ Clown Care Program and is the Co-Artistic Director of Happenstance Theater.

Connan Morrissey most recently appeared at RHT as Jen in The Book Club Play and as Joan Plowright in Orson’s Shadow. In the 08/09 season, she will appear in A Sleeping Country. Credits include appearances at Arena Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Asolo Theatre Company, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Virginia Stage, Playmakers Repertory Company, Olney Theatre, North Carolina Stage Company, Clarence Brown Theatre Company, Peterborough Players, Capital Rep, and Vermont Stage Company.

Nick Olcott has directed 12 mainstage productions at RHT including, most recently, The Book Club Play and A Year with Frog and Toad. At Theatre J, where he is Resident Director, he has mounted numerous productions including David in Shadow and Light, The Disputation, Shylock, and The Mad Dancers. Opera credits include directing at the Opera Cleveland, Boston Lyric Opera, and Ash Lawn Opera Festival. He is a faculty member of the Maryland Opera Studio at the University of Maryland.

KenYatta Rogers made his RHT debut in A Lesson Before Dying and will appear in the 08/09 season in Eurydice. He has served as artistic associate with the African Continuum Theatre Company. Other regional credits include Ford’s Theatre, Arena Stage, Olney Theatre Center, Folger Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Theatre J, Essential Theatre, Source Theatre, and Shakespeare & Company. He is a faculty member in Montgomery College’s Department of Speech, Dance, and Theatre.

Patrick Torres has been a director and educator in the DC area for six years. He is currently on staff at Young Playwrights Theatre and has helped to administrate education programs at Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC), Round House Theatre, The Hangar Theatre, and the University of Southern Mississippi. He was selected as a Drama League Directing Fellow in 2003, where he served as co-artistic director of the Hanger Theatre Lab Company and was awarded an SSDC Foundation Observership to assist in rehearsal of The Glass Menagerie at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Daniel MacLean Wagner has designed lights for numerous RHT productions including Orson’s Shadow, A Prayer for Owen Meany, A Year with Frog and Toad, and Camille and will join us for One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest in 08/09. His lighting designs have been seen in more than 350 productions at Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Kennedy Center, The Studio Theatre, Signature Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Olney Theatre Center, Theater of the First Amendment, Potomac Theatre Project, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Boston Lyric Opera, Arden Theatre Company, and Portland Stage. He is an eight-time recipient of the Helen Hayes Award. Mr. Wagner is Professor of Lighting Design and Chair of the Department of Theatre at the University of Maryland.

Karen Zacarías is the author of The Book Club Play which received its world premiere at RHT in February of 2008. In September 2008, Round House premieres her adaptation of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents based on the novel by Julia Alvarez. Other recent premieres include Chasing George Washington at the Kennedy Center, Looking For Roberto Clemente at Imagination Stage, and Mariela in the Desert. Karen is the founding artistic director of Young Playwrights’ Theater, an award-winning non-profit dedicated to enhancing literacy, arts empowerment, and conflict resolution through playwriting in DC area schools.