Actor, Poet, Playwright, Educator

Longtime Community Partner, Modesto Flako Jimenez, has been a part of the Starr since our earliest days, when his support helped lay the groundwork for what we've become. A passionate advocate for theaters like the Starr, Flako has long championed our mission, offering not only his generosity but also his unwavering belief in the value of our work. His steadfast commitment to the Bushwick community through his theater company ¡Oye! Groupand his partnership with the Starr has been transformative.

Writer, Arts Journalist, Revada Foundation Board President

Longtime partner Liz Logan and the Revada Foundation have been steadfast champions of the Starr's education and community programs, particularly Big Green Theater, for more than a decade. Through her leadership at the Foundation, Liz has helped make high-quality arts experiences accessible to young people across the country, building lasting partnerships with organizations in major cities, rural communities, and tribal lands. Her generosity, vision, and enduring belief in the power of the arts have had a lasting impact on the Starr and the communities we serve.

Director, Writer, Founding Artistic Director of the TEAM

Rachel Chavkin is a director, sometime writer and founding artistic director of Brooklyn-based experimental collective, the TEAM whose work has been seen all over NY, the U.S., and internationally, and whose consensus-driven writing process was the subject of a feature length documentary. She won the 2019 Tony Award for her work on Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown (Broadway, NYTW, National Theatre, London). She is a three-time Obie Winner, and received Tony and Lortel nominations, and a Drama Desk Award for Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (Broadway, Ars Nova, A.R.T.). Select projects: Sarah Gancher’s Eugene Onegin: A Bluegrass Musical (T2 in Arkansas), a musical adaptation of Ritesh Batra’s glorious film, The Lunchbox with composers Daniel and Patrick Lazour (Berkeley Rep), The Bengson’s My Joy is Heavy (NYTW), Carson Kreitzer’s and Matt Gould’s Lempicka (Broadway 2024), the TEAM’s Mission Drift (National Theatre), Arthur Miller’s American Clock (Old Vic), the TEAM’s RoosevElvis (Royal Court), Larissa Fasthorse’s The Thanksgiving Play (2ST, 1st play by a known Native American woman on Broadway), Lilianna Padilla’s How to Defend Yourself — co-directed with Padilla and Steph Paul (NYTW), Marco Ramirez’s The Royale (LCT; Obie Award, Drama Desk and Lortel noms.), Bess Wohl’s Small Mouth Sounds (Ars Nova and national tour), and multiple collaborations with Taylor Mac, Heather Christian, the Bengsons, and Manchester-based writer/performer Chris Thorpe. Her first short film, Remind Me, was an official selection of the Venice and Beverly Hills Film Festivals. 2017 Smithsonian Award for Ingenuity.

Stage & Film Actor

Michael Zegen is perhaps best known for playing “Joel Maisel” in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, created by Amy Sherman-Palladino. The critically acclaimed Amazon series won him 2 Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series. Over the course of its five seasons, the show itself won 22 Emmys, 5 Critics' Choice Awards, 3 Golden Globes, and a Peabody, among many other nominations, honors, and accolades. On stage, Michael made his Broadway debut as “Marco” in Ivo Van Hove's Tony-award winning revival of A View From The Bridge, opposite Mark Strong. His more recent theater credits include Miriam Battye’s Strategic Love Play at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theater, and the Tony-Nominated Broadway revival of Alice Childress’s Trouble In Mind at Roundabout Theater Company's Todd Haimes Theater. Prior to that, he originated roles in The New Group's productions of The Spoils, written by and co-starring Jesse Eisenberg, and Duncan Sheik’s musical adaptation of Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, both directed by Scott Elliott. He also originated the role of “Liam Haber” in Joshua Harmon's smash hit Bad Jews, directed by Daniel Aukin for Roundabout. For television, Michael was included in the 2015 SAG Award nomination for Best Ensemble in a Drama Series for his standout role as “Benny ‘Bugsy’ Siegel” on HBO's Boardwalk Empire. Other television includes recurring arcs in Lena Dunham’s Too Much, The Penguin, The Walking Dead, Girls, How To Make It In America, Happyish, and all seven seasons of FX’s Rescue Me. Michael’s film credits include Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha, opposite Greta Gerwig, The Stand-In opposite Drew Barrymore, Michael Mayer's adaptation of Chekhov's The Seagull, opposite Annette Bening and Elisabeth Moss, John Crowley's Oscar-Nominated Brooklyn, opposite Saoirse Ronan, Sebastian Silva's Sundance drama Tyrel, Greg Mottola's Adventureland, Simon Hacker's Notice To Quit, and Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock. Upcoming films include the indie black comedy Thumb, as well as a feature adaptation of Trouble In Mind, directed by Charles Randolph Wright.

The Flat-Chested Witch!

Performance artist and clown Amando Houser's alter ego is DeliaDelia—a witch from the swamps on a quest to become a “real girl” and join a human basketball team. She will defy all expectations and will go to ridiculous lengths to try to fit in, even if it kills her.

Justin Hicks, Jade Hicks, and Kenita Miller-Hicks

The HawtPlates is comprised of drama desk-nominated singer-songwriter/artist Justin Hicks, his sister, singer-songwriter Jade Hicks, and his wife Tony-nominated actor/singer Kenita Miller-Hicks. Their music breaks down vernacular music styles into multiple modes of vocalizing, producing their sound and songs in the spirit of the family heirloom.

Writer & Actor

Eboni Booth is a writer and actor from New York City. Her plays include Primary Trust (Roundabout Theatre, Pulitzer Prize for Drama) and Paris (Atlantic Theater). Eboni is a resident playwright at New Dramatists and a Judith Champion Playwriting Fellow at Manhattan Theatre Club. She is the recipient of a Dramatists Guild Horton Foote Award, a Steinberg Playwright Award, an Outer Circle Critics Award, and a Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting. She is a graduate of Juilliard’s playwriting program and the University of Vermont.

Director

Jordan Fein is a London and New York based theatre and opera director. Credits Include: Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Into The Woods (Bridge Theatre, Noel Coward Theatre West End: Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival), Arthur Miller's Broken Glass (Young Vic Theatre), Fiddler On The Roof (The Barbican, Regent’s Park Open Art Theatre, UK & Ireland Tour : Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival), Dark Disabled Stories by Ryan Haddad (The Bushwick Starr: Obie Award for Best New American Play); Rags Parkland Sings The Songs of The Future by Andrew R. Butler (Ars Nova:Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding NewMusical); Singlet by Erin Markey (The Bushwick Starr); A Ride On The Irish Cream by Erin Markey(American Realness Festival, American Repertory Theater); The Miserly Knight and The Dead City (Bard Summerscape); Dialogues of The Carmelites (Opera Philadelphia/Curtis Opera Theatre). Jordan co-directed the London transfer of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! at The Young Vic (Olivier Award for Best Revival of a Musical) and was the Associate Director for the 2019 Broadway Revival (Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical). He is the Director of The Prologue and Associate Director on the current West End and Broadway revival of Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret (Olivier Award for Best Revival of a Musical).

Actor & Playwright

Ryan J. Haddad is an actor and playwright. His autobiographical plays include Hold Me in the Water (Playwrights Horizons - Lortel, Drama League, and Drama Desk nominations), Dark Disabled Stories (Bushwick Starr/Public Theater - Obie for Best New American Play), and Hi, Are You Single? (Woolly Mammoth/IAMA - Helen Hayes nomination). His new play Good Time Charlie will premiere at The Public Theater fall 2026. Additional stage credits: Tartuffe (New York Theatre Workshop), La Cage aux Folles (Pasadena Playhouse), american (tele)visions (NYTW), and The Watering Hole (Signature). TV: “A Murder at the End of the World” (Hulu) and “The Politician” (Netflix). Haddad received the Drama Desk’s 2023 Sam Norkin Off-Broadway Award, Vineyard Theatre’s 2021 Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, and a 2020 Disability Futures Fellowship. He is an alum of The Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group and a former Queer|Art Performance and Playwriting Fellow, under the mentorship of Moe Angelos.

Playwright & Performance Artist

Haruna Lee is a Taiwanese-Japanese-American experimental playwright and performance artist, screenwriter, and community steward based in Brooklyn, NY. Their plays are often an urge to honor their mother’s broken English, to translate experiences despite the gulf of cultures, to know their own psychic blood and guts, and to give up on words entirely and commune through epic imagery and ritual. Lee is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Creative Capital Award, a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist with a Special Commendation, a Steinberg Playwright Award, and an Obie Award for Playwriting and Conception. Their writing has been published by Broadway Licensing, Yale’s Theater Magazine, Table Work Press, and 53rd State Press. As a performer and collaborator, they’ve worked alongside artists like Lynn Nottage, Aya Ogawa, Ralph Lee, Mac Wellman, Minor Theater, The Talking Band, Taylor Mac, and Anohni—among many others. They currently teach at Hunter and Yale in the MFA Playwriting Program.

Actor

John Rothman was an early adopter of the Bushwick Starr having served on our board and supporting the theatre since its founding. A New York actor for over 50 years, with over a hundred films to his credit including such memorable pictures as the original Ghostbusters , Sophie's Choice, Devil Wears Prada, United 93- He has a wonderful supporting role in an upcoming picture with the great  Sheila Hass and Betsy Aidem- and he is in The Accompanist which premiered at this year's Tribeca Film Fest.  He has years of Television work most notably starring opposite Tig Notaro in One Mississippi on Amazon. He has worked on Broadway, off Broadway and in many regional theaters, and with Trevor Nunn and Simon Godwin in Shakespeare at TFANA. His one man show The Impossible H.L. Mencken played at The American Place theater to great critical acclaim in 1980  and he has just filmed an exploration of Mencken in light of the charges of anti semitism revealed in the publication of his diary.

Director, Writer & Musician

Whitney White is a Tony Award-nominated, Obie Award and Lily Award winning director, writer, and musician. She was also awarded the Drama League’s Founders Award for Excellence in Directing (2025). She is a believer in collaborative processes and multi-disciplinary work. Her Broadway debut, Jocelyn Bioh’s award-winning Jaja’s African Hair Braiding (2023), announced her at the largest scale with a riotous, vibrant ensemble comedy that earned her a Tony nomination for Best Direction of a Play. She was the third African American woman to ever be nominated in this category.  Her most recent original work All Is But Fantasy is a four-part look at William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet and Richard III, each scored with original music and featuring a live-band on stage. All is But Fantasy premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon and was called “a subversive hurricane” by critics.