Our Staff
NOEL ALLAIN - Co-Founder / Artistic Director
Noel is a graduate of Skidmore College and the Juilliard School’s Drama Division. As an actor, he has performed in various theater, television, and film productions in and out of New York City. At the Starr, he has programmed artists and companies such as Heather Christian, Jeremy O. Harris, Dave Malloy, Raja Feather Kelly, Daniel Fish, Clare Barron, Ayesha Jordan, The Mad Ones, Phillip Howze, Erin Markey, Flako Jimenez, David Greenspan, Haruna Lee, Diana Oh, and Jillian Walker. He has helped create the Starr’s workshop Creating Performance at El Puente Bushwick, and the after-school program Big Green Theater. He has served as a panelist for NYSCA, LMCC, The Shed, Sundance Theater Lab, and HERE’s HARP Residency, appeared as a guest artist for the University of Iowa’s New Play Festival, and as a guest speaker at Colombia, NYU, Hunter, Bard, Skidmore, the Prelude Festival and Sarah Lawrence College.
SUE KESSLER - Co-Founder / Creative Director
Sue is devoted to supporting innovative artists and ground-breaking performance work within the vibrant community of Bushwick, Brooklyn. After attending Skidmore College, she became a member of the experimental theater company, Fovea Floods, where she performed, directed, composed music, and served as Company Manager throughout the company's ten year career. In 2007, Sue helped to transform The Bushwick Starr from a humble rehearsal space (acquired in 2001) into a full-scale black box theater. In addition to her work at the Starr, Sue is currently the director of the Theater Management program at Skidmore College and Chair of the Saratoga Springs Arts Commission for the Mayor's Office. Sue has been a guest speaker at Bard College, Carnegie Mellon's MFA directing program, The Orchard Project, and Henry Street Settlement, and served on various arts panels for organizations such as New York Foundation for the Arts, The Brooklyn Arts Council and The Public Theater's Under the Radar Festival.
LAUREN MILLER - Advancement + Alliance Director
Lauren Miller is a theatre director, producer, and development professional. She brings to The Bushwick Starr her experience in fundraising for the Irish Repertory Theatre and TACT/The Actors Company Theatre and her passion for contemporary performance-based work. From 2011-2015, Lauren worked to develop 20 original plays as producer of the newTACTics New Play Festival, and she continues to collaborate with theatremakers including The Amoralists and Amios.
LUCY JACKSON - Producing Director
Lucy is a London-born, Brooklyn-based independent performing arts producer, who supports playwrights and multidisciplinary artists to develop, produce and tour new work. She currently produces for Rachel Mars, Greg Wohead and for Salty Brine’s Living Record Collection. Lucy has produced with venues and companies in NYC including The Bushwick Starr, NYTW Next Door, The Play Company, BAM Fisher, La MaMa ETC, the New Ohio, and JACK. She has produced national & international tours to venues including UMS Ann Arbor, the A.R.T., Cambridge, On the Boards, Seattle, Fusebox Festival, Austin, and Melbourne & Brisbane fringes. Work in the UK includes 9 years at the Edinburgh Fringe, the Latitude & VAULT festivals, and productions at the Finborough Theatre, Bush Theatre and Theatre503. Previous roles include Interim Producing Director at the Bushwick Starr, New York Producer for Los Angeles Performance Practice, Producing Director for The Assembly, Development Director for the New Ohio Theatre, and General Manager/Touring Producer for the TEAM. She was a 2018-2020 WP Lab Fellow, co-teaches a class in Creative Producing at The New School, and is a member of the Creative Independent Producer Alliance (CIPA). www.lsajackson.com
CASSANDRA BROWN - Education Director
Cassandra cultivates environments where girls can dare to imagine what it is to live in full authenticity. She remains committed to creating spaces that illuminate experiences at the intersections of race, class, and gender. As a Black Woman, Cassandra encourages girls to exist outside of a monolith, while holding space for all of the ways that they show up and embrace all parts of their identities. She brings other "isms" to the forefront, specifically colorism, texturism, and featurism, which operate as racism's first, second, and third cousins.
Cassandra earned a Bachelor's degree in Theatre from Spelman College, before going on to earn two Master's degrees from New York University in the fields of Performance Studies in Film and Educational Theatre. During college, she served as a TA and as a department liaison to the Office of Disability Services. In addition to the many teaching positions she has held, Cassandra has spent her career exploring the performance of death, disease, and trauma in Lima, Peru and in New Orleans, LA. Cassandra served as the Performing Arts Coordinator for over 100 New York schools, helping to conduct professional development, set leadership standards, and coordinate trips and workshops. She has also served as a Career Advisor to over one thousand homeless individuals in New York City, helping to facilitate job-skills workshops and training.
MACHEL ROSS - Associate Artistic Director
Machel Ross (She/Her) is a Dominican American director and creative collaborator based in NYC, who specializes in the development of new work and aesthetic world building. Regardless of medium, she’s invested in generating rigorous images, in support of framing stories to their fullest potential.
She’s developed work with Melis Aker (Hound Dog), Aziza Barnes (NANA), Agnes Borinsky (A Song of Songs) Daniella De Jesús (Mambo Sauce), Deaf West (T), PigPen Theatre Company (Phantom Folktales), Ellen Winter (This House Is your Home), and directed the world premiere of Jeremy O. Harris’ Black Exhibition at The Bushwick Starr.
Machel is a 2022 Lily Award winner, a 2020-2022 WP Directing Fellow, a 2020 Sundance Theater Lab fellow, and a 2019 grant recipient of the Women's Fund for Film, TV and Theatre for her short film Signs He Made at Home. BFA-NYU Playwrights Horizons Theater.
DEVIN FLETCHER - Production Manager
Devin McCallion Fletcher is a production manager, stage manager, and producer from Midcoast Maine, based in New York City. Credits include productions and projects with: Lincoln Center, The Public, Ars Nova, The Assembly, Joe's Pub at The Public, Two River Theater, American Repertory Theater, Trusty Sidekick, Oye Group, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Sinking Ship, Camden International Film Festival, Elm Shakespeare, JACK, Tiltyard. She produces for Salty Brine's Living Record Collection, and is a current member of The Assembly's Deceleration Lab cohort. She served as the Co-Artistic Director of Bluelaces Theater Company from 2018-2020, and as the Director of Programs at Maine Media Workshops + College from 2020-2022. Education: Emerson College, with additional training from Beverly Hills Playhouse, IUGTE Austria & Italy, Harvard University. Additional positions have included running a drive-in movie theater, working at a hardware store, and picking lobsters.
JAY MAURY - Technical Director
Jay is a sound, lighting, video, and scenery designer working out of Brooklyn. As the designer of the BWS infrastructure and equipment, he has been working to raise the standards for control, efficiency, and artistic possibilities. Notably, BWS is now running an ultra-efficient LED worklight system with unparalleled control and light coverage. Recent design credits include Saratoga Opera (Sound Design, Lighting Design) BAWeaselOAPOYOB (Lighting Design) and Big Green Theater (Lights).
JEHAN O. YOUNG - Company & Cultural Manager / Reading Series Curator
A classically-trained actor, occasional dancer and emerging arts manager, Jehan O. Young hails from Atlanta, Georgia by way of California. Holding a BA & MFA in Drama & Acting from Spelman College and Columbia University, respectively, Jehan was a charter Arts Management Fellow with The Field Leadership Fund and currently serves as a company member and corps coordinator for Kotchegna Dance Company, a West African performance troupe specializing in the dance and drum traditions of the Ivory Coast. Jehan has performed internationally and appeared on numerous stages across New York City including countless esteemed basements with working pipes and a black curtain.
ALICE GORELICK - Development Associate
Alice is a development extraordinaire, authenticity reader, writer, and actress. She was introduced to the Starr as a production assistant on [PORTO] in 2017. Since then, she has worked in development at TLDEF, the Brooklyn Book Festival, and Girl Be Heard specializing in institutional giving for the arts and LGBTQ+ causes. As a creative, she has performed at JACK, New Ohio, the Flea, the Brick, Columbia Stages, and more, and she is a member of the inaugural Echoes Writer's Group at Primary Stages. Alice is overjoyed and proud to return to the Bushwick Starr (for a third time!) to help fundraise for their new space and NYC's artists.
MODESTO FLAKO JIMENEZ - Community Programmer
Modesto Flako Jimenez is a Dominican-born, Bushwick-raised theater maker, producer, and educator. ATI Best Actor Award Winner for 2016. HOLA Outstanding Solo Performer for 2017. Flako is best known for original productions and three signature festivals produced with his company Oye Group. Flako has appeared in Taxilandia (Oye Group, New York Theatre Workshop, The Bushwick Starr, & The Tank, NYTimes Critic's Pick), Early Shaker Spirituals (Wooster Group), Last Night At The Palladium (Bushwick Starr/3LD), Yoleros (Bushwick Starr/IATI theater), Conversations Pt.1: How To Make It Black In America (JACK), Take Me Home (3LD/Incubator Arts Project), Richard Maxwell’s Samara (Soho Rep.), Kaneza Schaal’s Jack & (BAM). In 2018 he became the first Dominican-American Lead Artist in The Public Theater Under The Radar Festival with his show Oye For My Dear Brooklyn. Currently, Flako is working on Margarita, Mercedes y Dementia, a multi-disciplinary memory play exploring the relationships between matriarchy and ancestors, familial bonds and inherited trauma, and how our own identity can impact our mental health.
JOHN DEL GAUDIO - Consulting Producer
John is a theater producer/maker and the former Producing Director at the Starr. Collaborators have included William Burke, Jessica Almasy, Kate Benson, Clare Barron, Corinne Donly, Lee Sunday Evans, Julia Jarcho, Haruna Lee, Carolyn Mraz, Daaimah Mubashshir, Aya Ogawa, Sarah Cameron Sunde, and Jillian Walker. He is an associated artist of Target Margin Theater (Brooklyn), board chair and affiliated artist of A Host of People (Detroit), former board member of A.R.T./New York. He is currently the Producer at the Mercury Store.
WILLIAM BURKE - Artistic Development Assoc. / Reading Series Curator
William is a playwright and director living Bushwick. His plays have been seen at IRT, Little Theatre at Dixon Place, The Seattle Fringe and The Bushwick Starr. Recently: EXPODITY!! as part of the Target Margin Last Futurist Labs and The Devil Wants his Hat Back as part of the Bushwhack Series at The Bushwick Starr and as part of the Black Swan Labs at The Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Other plays include: Furry, The Yurt, She has to be Outside and the food was terrible, Keeners, and Fire Liberty. He was also the Football Choreographer and dramaturginator for Half Straddle's Football/In the Pony Palace, he is the founder of ANGRY BLVD with Mallery Avidon. He is the front house and Box Office Manager for Soho Rep. He is a curator for The Bushwick Starr Reading Series. He is a Target Margin Associated Artist. He is pursuing his Masters in Playwriting at Brooklyn College.
Board of Directors
Michael Contini
Gita Deo (Co-Chair)
Asenhat Gomez
Robin Griffiths
David Herskovits
Michael Kendrick
Oliver Kramer
Lawryn LaCroix
Tom McMillan
Luis Munive
Keanu Reeves
David Ringer (Co-Chair)
Jennifer Sendrow
Danielle Thomson