Lauren Gunderson, Playwright
Lauren Gunderson is the most produced living playwright in America, the winner of the Lanford Wilson Award and the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and John Gassner Award, and a recipient of the Mellon Foundation’s three-year residency with Marin Theatre Company. She studied at Emory University and NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where she was a Reynolds Fellow. Her work has been commissioned, produced, and developed at companies across the United States, including DCPA Theatre Company (The Book of Will), South Coast Repertory (Emilie, Silent Sky), The Kennedy Center (The Amazing Adventures of Dr. Wonderful and Her Dog!), Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Shotgun Players, TheatreWorks, Crowded Fire Theater, San Francisco Playhouse, and more. Her work is published by Dramatists Play Service (Silent Sky, Bauer), Playscripts (I and You, Exit, Pursued by a Bear, and Toil and Trouble), and Samuel French (Emilie). laurengunderson.com @lalatellsastory

Margot Melcon, Playwright Margot Melcon is a theater artist, administrator, and writer. She was the director of new play development at Marin Theatre Company for seven years, where she dramaturged more than 30 productions — including six world premieres — and administered the company’s two annual new play prizes and commissioning programs. She has developed plays with TheatreWorks, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Crowded Fire Theater, Shotgun Players, Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Ground Floor, The Kennedy Center, The New Harmony Project, and The Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis. She is currently the program executive for promoting culture at the Zellerbach Family Foundation. Margot is a graduate of California State University, Chico.

Marissa Wolf, Director
Currently in her second season as artistic director of Portland Center Stage at The Armory, Marissa previously served as associate artistic director/new works director at Kansas City Repertory Theatre and artistic director of Crowded Fire Theater in San Francisco. Select directing credits include Fire in Dreamland by Rinne Groff (The Public Theater; world premiere at KCRep); Man in Love by Christina Anderson and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Simon Stephens (KCRep); 77% by Rinne Groff (San Francisco Playhouse); Precious Little by Madeleine George (Shotgun Players); The Lily’s Revenge (Act II) by Taylor Mac (Magic Theatre); and The Late Wedding by Christopher Chen (Crowded Fire). She’s been nominated for Best Director by Broadway World San Francisco and the Bay Area Critics Circle. Marissa held the Bret C. Harte Directing Fellowship at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and has a degree in drama from Vassar College, with additional training from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. 

Peter Ksander, Scenic Designer
Peter is a scenographer and media artist who’s stage design work has been presented both nationally and internationally. In 2006, he joined the curatorial board of the Ontological-Hysteric Incubator. In 2008, he won an Obie Award for the scenic design of Untitled Mars (this title may change), and in 2014 he won a Bessie Award for the visual design of This Was the End. Recent Portland credits include set designs for Arlington [A Love Story], John, Our Ruined House, Teenage Dick, and Uncle Vanya. He holds an M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts, is an associate professor at Reed College, and is an associate company member with the Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble.  

Alex Wren Meadows, Costume Designer
Alex is thrilled to be designing costumes for Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, following last season’s Buyer & Cellar. Regional design credits include shows for TimeLine Theatre, Next Theatre, Organic Theatre Company, Famous Door Theatre, Shattered Globe Theatre, Classical Kids Live, Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, and Monomy Theatre in Massachusetts. He received a Jeff Award nomination for The General from America at TimeLine Theatre. Alex is the costume shop manager at Portland Center Stage at The Armory and an adjunct instructor in costume design at Portland State University. He also previously managed the costume shop at Loyola University and taught costume design and costume construction. Alex holds an M.F.A. in costume design from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and a B.A. in theater design from UNC Asheville.

Jennifer Lin, Lighting Designer
Jennifer is a freelance lighting designer and stage technician who has been working behind the scenes for Portland theater, opera, and dance since 2008. She attended Portland State University and in 2007 received The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival’s Achievement Award for her lighting design for PSU’s production of Electra. Her designs have spanned a wide range of venues, disciplines, and styles, from site-specific dance (Re/Activate at Wieden+Kennedy) to innovative opera in bars (Opera Theater Oregon's The Medium at Someday Lounge) and children's theater (Oregon Children's Theatre's Diary of a Worm, a Spider, and a Fly). Jennifer is a core-company member of Third Rail Repertory Theatre, a member of IATSE local 28, and a recipient of the 2018-2019 Drammy Award for Outstanding Season. Recent work includes Evolve (August Wilson Red Door Project), Arlington, and Mother Come Home (Third Rail Repertory Theatre).

Phil Johnson, Sound Designer
Phil is a visual and theatrical artist based in Portland and the host of the podcast Radical Listening (Coho Productions). His recent productions include Cop Out and Hands Up (August Wilson Red Door Project), A Doll’s House, Part 2, Everybody, The Humans, and An Octoroon (Artists Repertory Theatre); Twilight, Elliot: A Soldiers Fugue, The Antigone Project (Profile Theatre); Worse Than Tigers (A Contemporary Theatre/Red Stage); Watsonville, Lydia, Contigo Pan y Cebolla (Milagro Theatre). Phil has a B.F.A. and M.A. from Ohio University. If you enjoyed the show please comment @Philjohnsonlive or visit philjohnsondesignstheworld.com for more content and show playlists.

Jessica Miller, Wig Designer
Jessica is so excited to be back for her third season as the wig master and designer for Portland Center Stage at The Armory. She has a B.A. in costume design from the University of Oregon. It is there where her passion for wig making and styling began. She later got her cosmetology license so that she could learn all aspects of hair. As a wig maker, her credits include last season's The Color Purple, Crossing Mnisose, and Sense and Sensibility.

Karl Hanover, Dialect Coach
Karl has been involved in theater in various capacities for the last 25 years. Previous dialect work includes Orlando, The Call, Blue Door, Antigone Project, Elliot: A Soldier's Fugue, and 2.5 Minute Ride with Profile Theatre; A Christmas Carol and The Language Archive with Portland Playhouse; Hen Night Epiphany, Belfast Girls, Lifeboat, Quietly, Hurl, How to Keep An Alien, and Eclipsed with Corrib Theatre; and recently A Christmas Memory at Portland Center Stage at The Armory. He received his M.F.A. in acting from the National Theatre Conservatory in Denver.

Mark Tynan, Stage Manager
Imagine being in a room full of artists, watching the birth of an idea, a movement given purpose, a sentence, phrase, scene, act given life. Then imagine that room translating to the stage with lighting, sound, costumes, scenery, and props; then you can imagine what Mark’s job is like. Special thanks to the stage management apprentices, Dana Petersen and Macarena Subiabre. Prior to Portland Center Stage at The Armory, Mark toured nationally and internationally with musicals including Dreamgirls, The King and I with Rudolf Nureyev, How to Succeed …, Grand Hotel, The Phantom of the Opera, Rent, and Jersey Boys. Other Portland credits include several summers with Broadway Rose Theatre Company in Tigard. Regional credits include Alley Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, and Casa Mañana Theatre.

Macarena Subiabre, Production Assistant
Macarena is excited to join Portland Center Stage at The Armory as a production assistant this season, where she was recently a production assistant for In the Heights. She graduated in 2018 with a B.F.A. in stage management from the University of Utah, where she stage managed productions such as: Arcadia, Cats, Into the Woods, Good Kids, and the U.S. premiere of The Beautiful Game. Other credits include: A Comedy of Tenors (Pioneer Theatre Company); How I Learned to Drive (Salt Lake Fringe Festival); You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Salt Lake Shakespeare); and Steel Pier, Dogfight, and A Funny Thing Happened … (University of Utah). She was also lucky to complete an internship with Cirque du Soleil where she worked on Zumanity and the Cirque Cabaret, 2018. She thanks her family, Bruce, and cat for all their love and support.