Directing
Todd is a director focused on new works. He's eager to collaborate with playwrights who offer poetic and theatrical lenses to look at the world, as opposed to perfectly mirrored reflections. Favorite projects have included: A meditation on absentee voting set at a stargate, A Chekhovian Caveman play about belief, a time traveling gentrification musical for kids, and an award-winning drama about YouTube stardom during the rise of #gamergate. Check below for more details and photos or view his resume by clicking here.
The Cake - Production - 2023
by Bekah Brunstetter - Portland Stage
Della has planned to bake Jen’s wedding cake since she was a little girl, but when Jen comes back from NYC with her fiancée Macy, Della doesn’t know what to do. This deliciously funny comedy asks what happens when what we believe comes in conflict with those we love.
Ft. Echaka Agba*, Eileen Hanley, Raymond McAnally*, and Sam Rosentrater*.
Sets - German Cardenas Alaminos, Costumes - Emily White, Lights - Mary Lana Rice, Sound - Seth Asa Sengel, Props - Anita Stewart, Stage Management - Meg Lydon, AD & Dramaturg - Rachel Ropella
Photos by NoUmbrella Media
peerless - Reading - 2022
by Jiehae Park - Too Strange to Live, Too Weird to Die
“Where are you? Because listen, I think… I think she may have like Magical Powers… I’m serious. Seriously. I’m serious. I know that sounds… But I’m serious…” Asian-American twins M and L have given up everything to get into The College. So when D, a one-sixteenth Native American classmate, gets “their” spot instead, they figure they’ve got only one option: kill him. A darkly comedic take on Shakespeare’s Macbeth about the very ambitious and the cut-throat world of high school during college admissions.
Funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission.
Ft. Ophelia Hu Kinney, Erica Murphy^, Mackenzie O’Connor, James Patefield, and Bari Robinson*.
Dramaturg - Beka Bryer
A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes - Reading - 2022
by Kate Benson - Too Strange to Live, Too Weird to Die
“For those of you just tuning in, Thanksgiving is already in progress here at Wembly kitchen. The stands are nice and full, it’s quite a crowd that’s gathered. They’re in for a real treat.” As the lights go up on A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes we’re greeted by the dulcet tones of sports commentators as an all-American family gets ready for the original bloodsport, Thanksgiving Dinner.
Funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission.
Ft. Grace Bauer*, Sarabeth Connelly, Kim Gordon, James Herrera, Jared Mongeau, Erica Murphy, James Patefield, Nathan Sylvester, Tess Van Horn, and Maya Williams.
AD - Macey Downs
The Zero Hour - Reading - 2022
by Madeleine George - Too Strange to Live, Too Weird to Die
“They want me to put word scrambles in the Auschwitz Unit…” Things are starting to unravel for Rebecca and her chronically unemployed butch girlfriend, O. Rebecca’s work starts bleeding into her personal life as she starts meeting World War II Nazis on the 7 train, passing as hipsters. While O is also sparring with visions of her long estranged—and recently dead?—mother to argue with her about her choices. This almost-love story explores the relationship between honesty and cruelty: How do you tell the truth about yourself when that truth might devastate the people you love? A tour-de-force for two actors playing eight different roles.
Funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission.
Ft. Catherine Buxton, and Lauren Stockless
AD - Meredith G. Healy
Rx Machina - 2021 Workshop
by Caity-Shea Violette - The 32nd Annual Little Festival of the Unexpected
Clauder Competition Gold Prize Winner. Rx Machina unpacks big pharma’s impact on everyday American culture through the eyes of five women on the frontlines of the opioid epidemic. An ambitious pharmaceutical sales representative’s relentless pursuit of a rigidly principled pain management doctor leads to an intoxicating, forbidden connection that comes with a cost. Searching for humanity in a healthcare system where patients are consumers and pain is profitable, Rx Machina asks who gets to get better and who gets left behind.
Ft. Caren Blackmore, Catherine Buxton, Hannah Daly, Moira Driscoll*, and Erica Murphy.
AD - Meredith G. Healy
Angry Fags - Reading - 2019
by Topher Payne - Too Strange to Live, Too Weird to Die
Bennett, a speechwriter for the only out state senator in Georgia, is thrown for a loop when his boss refuses to acknowledge a recent gay bashing that left his ex-boyfriend dead. When he and his roommate decide to take matters into their own hands and "make it better" things take a turn for the worse, and then some. Angry Fags is an uncompromising Oscar Wilde-meets-Fight Club fantasia about how good ideas go bad, toxic masculinity, and how no one is really afraid of gay guys.
Ft. Catherine Buxton, Sarabeth Connelly, Nolan Ellsworth, Mnemosyne Heileman, Benn May, Mackenzie O'Connor, and James Patefield
AD - Dylan Gurrera
The Bone Girls - 2019 Workshop
by Laura Edmondson
As a small New England town gets ready for their Fiftieth Annual Fifth Grade Colonial Festival the moms of the community are shaken by a surprising discovery. Their girls, on the other hand, are more interested in zombies than new discoveries or the colonial play they’re supposed to put together.
The Bone Girls is a Clauder Competition Gold Prize-winner and was included as part of Portland Stage’s 30th annual Little Festival of the Unexpected.
Ft. Tonia E. Anderson*, Abigail Killeen*, Bridgette Lorainne, and Danielle Slavick*
AD - Jae-Yeon Yoo
Am I Dead? The Untrue Narrative of Anatomical Lewis, The Slave - Reading - 2019
by Kevin R. Free - Too Strange to Live, Too Weird to Die
Am I Dead? The Untrue Narrative of Anatomical Lewis, The Slave re-imagines the Isis-Osiris myth featuring four strangers from different eras trapped in purgatory, tasked with rebuilding the bodies of men they wronged in life. The play confronts our country’s long history of violence on black bodies, and examines blackness, and whiteness, in unflinching, theatrical, and caustically funny ways.
Ft. Shannon Campbell, Oronde Cruger, LaLa Drew, Callie Kimball, and Tommy Waltz
AD - Rebecca Rovezzi
Red Bike - Reading - 2019
by Caridad Svich - Too Strange to Live, Too Weird to Die
Fresh off its three-stop National New Play Network rolling World Premiere, Caridad Svich’s Red Bike is brought to Portland Stage. Told entirely in the second person, this thrilling experimental work tells the story of that time you (yes you!) saw something on the wrong side of town on your red bike.
Ft. Jason LeSaldo and Ella Mock
Late: A Cowboy Song - Reading
by Sarah Ruhl
Mary and Crick have been in love since the second grade, but when Mary meets Red, a lady cowboy, just outside of Pittsburgh she wonders about things she hasn't explored, beyond the binaries of red and blue, man and woman, and husband and wife.
Part of Dramatic Repertory Company’s Patron’s Club Reading Series.
Ft. Joe Bearor, Bridgette Loraine, and Ella Mock.
Small Jokes About Monsters - 2018 Workshop
by Steven Strafford
Three Brothers spend an evening at a rented beach house sorting through the recent death of their father. After learning his final wishes, and with the unexpected arrival of their mother, they come to terms with the ugly truths that lie beneath the humor they share.
Presented as part of Portland Stage's Studio Series Workshops.
Ft. Corey Gagne, Erik Moody, Tommy Waltz, and Moira Driscoll*
AD - Dylan Gurrera
Kaya - 2018 Reading
by Iva Pezuashvili
Backus adapted Pezuashvili’s short story Kaya into a staged reading. The story focuses on a chance encounter between a photographer and a young woman in a graveyard that shakes his life’s foundation.
Presented as part of Portland Stage's 21st Annual From Away.
Ft. Peter Anestis, Catherine Buxton, and Christopher Holt.
AD - Dylan Gurrera
The Death Closet - Part of Haunting Hour 2.0
by Callie Kimball
When two women in the 14th century find themselves alone in a dark, damp room they learn about themselves, each other, and what it takes to survive.
The Death Closet by Callie Kimball was included as part of Dustin Tucker’s Haunting Hour 2.0 a collection of spooky plays for Halloween.
Ft. Hannah Daly and Bridgette Lorainne.
Sets - Meg Anderson, Lights - Corey Anderson, Sound - Seth Asa Sengel, Costumes - Kathleen P. Brown, Fight Director - Sally Wood, Assistant Director - Zoe Levine Sporer, Stage Manager - Alex Kimmel
Photos by Mat Garber
The Absentee - 2018 Workshop
by Julia Doolittle
Far out in the Milky Way, “Beacons” serve as lighthouses for warping spaceships around the galaxy. When a U.S. Space Forces ship explodes near Beacon 44.AR.90, its Operator finds herself alone in deep space with only her ship’s A.I. for companionship. That is, until a persistent canvasser calls, desperate to convince her to vote absentee in the 2088 election.
The Absentee was included as part of Portland Stage’s 29th annual Little Festival of the Unexpected.
Ft. Grace Bauer*, Charley Flyte*, René Johnson, and Evan Maltby*
AD - Katie Baskerville
The Nature Room - 2018 Workshop
by Nora Sørena Casey
High in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, in the middle of a majestic natural park, sits a small Natural History Museum and Gift Shop decorated to look like the forest outside. From within, Lee is trying to stop the hasty development scheduled by the new owners. But when she enlists the help of an old friend, Lee invites more than fond memories into her forest refuge.
Presented as part of Portland Stage's Studio Series Workshops.
Ft. Catherine Buxton, Hannah Cordes, Khalil LeSaldo, Erica Murphy, and James Patefield
Dear Elizabeth - 2018 Dark Week Production
by Sarah Ruhl
Dear Elizabeth is a moving and innovative play based on one of the greatest correspondences in literary history. From 1947 to 1977, Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop exchanged more than four hundred letters. Describing the writing of their poems, their travel and daily illnesses, the pyrotechnics of their romantic relationships, and the profound affection they had for each other, these missives are the most intimate record available of both poets and one of the greatest correspondences in American literature.
Presented as a Dark Week Project at Portland Stage.
Ft. Ron Botting*, Maureen Butler, Moira Driscoll*, Callie Kimball, Daniel Noel*, and Dustin Tucker*
Set & Projections - Anita Stewart, Sound - Devin Bruton, Lighting - Emily Kenny, Dramaturg - Clare McCormick, Stage Manager - Alex Kimmel
Refuge/Malja - 2018 Workshop
by Bess Welden
with Arabic translations by Ali Al Mshakheel
Jamie, a fiercely independent Jewish-American photojournalist, calls up an old friend, Ibrahim, in the middle of the night for help and advice. She is used to covering harrowing situations, but when shoeless, motherless Waleed steps in front of her camera lens, she suddenly feels compelled to cross the professional line and assist the young refugee. Now backed into an impossible corner, Jamie needs Ibrahim to translate a message into Arabic, but hesitates to tell him the secret of why she is so drawn to the boy. This decade-spanning drama, written in English and Arabic, explores what it means to truly communicate across languages and cultures as well as within our own families, and how each of us defines and finds our own malja (refuge).
Presented as part of Portland Stage's Studio Series Workshops.
Ft. Julia Langham, Khalil LeSaldo, Tess Van Horn, and Zahraa Salim
Birdstrike - 2017 Reading
by Xavier Villanova
Villanova presents an examination of Diana and Francisco's failing relationship, told from end to beginning, along with her affair with Jesus. The play is intercut with the tragic tale of a plane crash instigated by a birdstrike that kills all but two people on board.
Presented as part of Portland Stage's 21st Annual From Away.
Ft. Catherine Buxton, Ian Carlsen, and Jared Mongeau
Things That Are Round - 2017 Workshop
by Callie Kimball
Tetherly, a dentist specializing in existential terror, and Nina, an opera singer who just might be the worst babysitter ever, square off in a strange ballet of truth or dare. But is this a game anyone can even win? Thelma & Louise meets Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? on steroids.
Presented as part of Portland Stage's Studio Series Workshops.
Ft. Grace Bauer*, Hannah Daly, and Erica Murphy
The Cave - 2017 Workshop
by Eleanor Burgess
As winters get colder and food gets scarce, a makeshift tribe of cavemen struggles to decide whether to remain in the place they call home or head to greener pastures in the south. This new play by Eleanor Burgess shows us the lives that we evolved to lead, exploring our relationship with nature, our place in the universe, and what relationships mean in a time of survival.
Presented as part of Portland Stage's Studio Series Workshops.
Ft. Noah Bragg, Ellie Frances, Russell Kaback, Bridgette Kelly, and James Patefield
The Extraordinary Life - 2016 Reading
by Mariano Tenconi Blanco
An examination of the lives and loves of two young women from a remote part of Argentina told through letters, conversation, and poetry.
Presented as part of Portland Stage's 20th Annual From Away.
Ft. Catherine Buxton and Erica Murphy
It Can't Happen Here - 2016 Portland Stage Benefit Reading
by Sinclair Lewis
Adapted by Bennett S. Cohen and Tony Taccone
Written during the rise of fascism in Europe, Lewis’ darkly satirical It Can’t Happen Here follows the ascent of a demagogue who becomes president of the United States by promising to return the country to greatness. Witnessing the new president’s authoritarian tyranny from the sidelines is a liberal, middle-class newspaper editor from Vermont who is caught in the chaos of social upheaval.
Ft. Grace Bauer*, Channon Campbell, Cameron Foley, Anna Gravél, Meredythe Dehne Lindsey, Jody McColman, Michael Rafkin, Mark Rubin, Ann Tracy, and Dustin Tucker*
Here, It's Color - 2016 Reading
by Matt Barbot
Barbot's quick-witted, Invasion of the Bodysnatchers-esque exploration pits a young woman against the thing that used to be her brother in a battle of cunning and survival.
Part of The Navigator's 2nd Annual Lift-Off Festival.
Ft. Kaela Garvin, Mieko Gavia, Galen Sho Sato
Operation Cairo - 2016 Benefit Reading
by Rebecca Jane Stokes
A 10-minute short presented for The Dirty Blondes' Bombshell Benefit.
Ft. Anjili Pal and Dondrie Burnham
The Cave - 2016 Developmental Lab
by Eleanor Burgess
As winters get colder and food gets scarce, a makeshift tribe of cavemen struggles to decide whether to remain in the place they call home or head to greener pastures in the south. This new play by Eleanor Burgess shows us the lives that we evolved to lead, exploring our relationship with nature, our place in the universe, and what relationships mean in a time of survival.
Developed as part of Everyday Inferno Theatre Company's 2016 Playwright & Director Lab.
Ft. Mary Baynard, Zachary Clarence, Briana Sakamoto*, and Daniel Morgan Shelley*
Deliberations - 2016 Play-in-a-Day Festival
by Hope Weiner
Part of The Dirty Blondes' Play-in-a-Day Festival: The Comments Section. Deliberations was an intense exploration of courtroom dramas, the internet, and sports metaphors that were arranged in a delightfully physicalized tête-a-tête in the short span of about 12 hours.
Ft. Molly Elizabeth Bennett, loise Edwards, and Tyler Gardella
Derek and the Sheep - 2015 World Premiere Production
by Nora Sørena Casey
composed by Christopher Dennison
Derek and the Sheep is about community, time-travel, and siblings. It follows Derek, a young man thrown into the future, who finds his community has changed. There he meets Alice, a young girl, and Sheep, a... sheep(?). Derek tries to find a way back to the past to change the future, and Sheep revels in the idea of escaping her currently unhappy life. Will they make it into the past? Will the future stay the same? Music, Dance, and sheep tell a story about trying to find home.
Part of the Motor Company's 2015 Communal Spaces Garden Play Festival.
Ft. Koryna Flores, Marc Hem Lee*, Alison Shilling, and Christopher Dennison
Let's Play Play - 2015 World Premiere Production and Remount
by Ben Ferber
What happens when it's your job to be friends with someone? When do you compromise artistic integrity for cash? Two Internet personalities skyrocket to stardom with a new “Let’s Play” video game show. But when a female gamer joins them, things get ugly. And then even uglier.
Let’s Play Play is about selling out, and how we use Internet personalities as replacements for real friends. It also embodies the infamously horrifying vitriol of YouTube comments.
Part of the 2015 Game Play Festival.
Part of the 2015 FRIGID Festival.
FRIGID New York Sell Out Award
Ft. Paul Karle, Brittany K Allen, and Jonathan Iglesias*
"Easily the most interesting production of this year's bunch is Let's Play Play." - Matt Hawkins, Attract Mode
"Let’s Play Play stages a layered snapshot of Internet culture in action... A production that skillfully weaves together in-person, online, and text interaction... Small flourishes give additional force to the big-picture questions and critiques that Let's Play Play puts forth."
- Dr. Leah Richards & Dr. John Zeigler, Culture Catch
"Let's Play Play deals nicely with this IRL/URL tug-of-war, something to think about the next time you try to have an opinion on the internet."
- Liz Richards, Indie Theater Now
Stage Whispers: Founders - 2014 Reading
by Nora Sørena Casey, Shannon Stockwell, and Ella Wrenn
Curated and directed for the second series of staged readings. This evening featured selections of three plays in progress by founding members of PowerOut Casey, Stockwell, and Wrenn: Dreams of Malinche, The Continental Point of Inaccessibility, and Song Cycle
Stage Whispers: Sarah Kane - 2014 Reading
by Sarah Kane
Curated and directed for the second series of staged readings. This evening featured selections of three of Sarah Kane's plays: Phaedra's Love, Crave, and 4.48 Psychosis
The Shadow - 2013 Workshop
by Shannon Stockwell
The Shadow, written by Hans Christian Andersen in 1847, is widely known as one of his darkest and most disturbing fairy tales. Taking inspiration from both Tennessee Williams’ poetry and Hans Christian Andersen’s prose, Shannon Stockwell’s creative adaptation explores love, art, and what it means, in the most literal sense, to be human.
Ft. Spencer Kiernan McGrath, Katie Reid, Sean Senior, and Ann Tracy
For the Lulz - 2013 World Premiere Production
by Ben Ferber
A politically-motivated black hat hacker named poof begins attacking social networks. Fay, a stalwart tech journalist, Gale, a professor and embezzler, and MrJ, a patriotic grey hat hacker, decide to take him down for fame, for revenge, and for the lulz.
For the Lulz is a thriller based on real hacking, exciting Internet adventures, and online intrigue.
Nominated for the PEER Award for New Frontiers.
Ft. Caroline O'Connor, Shannon Stockwell, Eric Darrow Worthley, and Ella Wrenn
"[For the Lulz’s] fast-paced dialogue abounds in the clipped syntax of Twitter, technical explanations (DDoS, “phreaking”), and the wild-west obscenities of the blogosphere (“Nice tits, cuntmuffin!”). It’s exhausting, but it does nicely express the thrills of online anonymity and alliances, as do its capable actors, who are energetic and quirkily comic."
– The Portland Phoenix
Stage Whispers: Sarah Ruhl - 2011 Reading
by Sarah Ruhl
Curated and directed the first in a series of staged readings. This evening featured selections of three of Sarah Ruhl's plays: Melancholy Play, The Clean House, and Dead Man's Cellphone.
Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde - 2011 Thesis Production
by Moisés Kaufman
A dramatic examination of a historical moment, The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde attempts to piece together the series of events leading up to and following after Oscar Wilde's three trials in relation to his romance with Lord Alfred Douglas. Using multiple (often contradictory) sources Kaufman examines the nature of truth and art in this intricate ensemble piece.
