Eryk Aughenbaugh (Producer) is an artist and writer. Current Candidate, MFA Playwriting, Brooklyn College.

Brad Burgess (Technical Director/Segal Center Associate) is the Artistic Director of The Living Theatre, after having worked with friend and mentor Judith Malina for 10 years until her passing in April 2015.  He is an OBIE award-winning member of The Living Theatre ensemble. Brad is a founding board member of The League of Independent Theatre Fund, an organization of 130 plus theatre companies that collectively tithes and fundraises to support independent theatre.  He is a founding board member of Sophie Gerson’s Healthy Youth with former councilman Alan Gerson and many other NYC community leaders, an organization that provides arts, sports and science programs to underprivileged kids in the city.  He is a board member of The Assembly. He is an associate at The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at The Graduate Center CUNY.  He is development director for Erez Ziv at Frigid NY.  He is also a workshop leader for the All Stars Project Cops and Kids program with the NYPD.

Frank Hentschker (Executive Director, The Segal Center) Dr. Frank Hentschker, who holds a Ph.D. in theatre from the now legendary Institute for Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen, Germany, came to the Graduate Center in 2001 as program director for the Graduate Center’s Martin E. Segal Theatre Center and was appointed to the central doctoral faculty in theatre in 2009. Among the vital events and series he founded at the Segal Center are the World Theatre Performance series, the annual fall PRELUDE festival, and the PEN World Voices Playwrights Series. Before coming to the Graduate Center, Hentschker founded and directed DISCURS, the largest European student theater festival existing today; he acted as Hamlet in Heiner Müller’s Hamletmaschine, directed by the playwright, performed in the Robert Wilson play The Forest (music by David Byrne) and worked as an assistant for Robert Wilson for many years.

Alex Weiss Hills (Web Designer) is a designer and musician based in Brooklyn, NY. He has been working with The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center as Associate Director of Digital Initiatives since June of 2014. He is also Digital Designer and Website Manager at Bard Graduate Center. For a portfolio of Alex’s work, please visit his website.

Dennis Yueh-Yeh Li (Associate Producer) earned his Master’s degree in Performance Studies at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. As a director, playwright, performer, and performance artist, Dennis has devised productions that address sexuality, literature, philosophy, and politics. His work offers unique perspectives on time, space, identity, and power-relations. Dennis endeavors to make powerful and transcendental performances designed to stimulate compelling reactions in audiences. He is currently the Associate Artistic Director of The Living Theatre. His directing credits include Freud Out Loud—A Performative Reading of Civilization and Its Discontents (Judson Memorial Church), To Defend Freedom (The Secret Theatre), Upcoming Train/Stopped Clock/Untitled Waiting (Theater for the New City), Marat/Sade (Taipei, Taiwan), and others. Dennis is very excited and honored to join the PRELUDE Festival as Associate Producer. www.dennisyuehyehli.com

Yu Chien Liu (Design Coordinator/Next Generation Fellow, The Segal Center) is a Taiwanese young professional in the field of arts and nonprofit administration. She is now working at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center as Next Generation Fellow where she gains experience in management, development and graphic design. She is thrilled to be part of her second PRELUDE! She received her master’s degree in Public Administration and Arts Management from SUNY, Brockport and her BA in Political Science in Taiwan. Prior to moving to the States, she interned at Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Taiwan.

Michael LoCicero (Technical Director/Assistant to the Executive Director, The Segal Center) received his undergraduate education at Wake Forest University, where he studied music, with a focus in musicology. In 2012 he interned as an administrative and production assistant at the David Rubenstein Atrium at The Lincoln Center and in 2013 worked for his alma mater as a technical assistant for two Wake Forest performance spaces before returning to New York. Michael was the 2014/15 MESTC Next Generation Fellow and continues to work with the Segal as the Assistant to the Executive Director and Director of programs, Frank Hentschker.

Catherine Lynch (Stage Manager/Closing Party) has stage managed on Broadway and Off, most recently at MTC and Roundabout Theatre Company. She also dabbles in casting and cookie decoration. Check out curtainupcookies.com.

Antje Oegel (Curator) is the founder of AOInternational (AOI), a NYC-based agency that represents American and international artists, including Young Jean Lee, Thomas Bradshaw, Lisa D’Amour, Sibyl Kempson, Guillermo Calderon, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig and David Levine for both theater and TV & film. Originally from Germany, Antje worked at the Euro-Scene Leipzig, an international theater and dance festival and then became the co-artistic director of the theatre Schaubühne Leipzig. Antje came to NYC in 2002 and worked at MCC Theater before becoming a theater agent at Bret Adams, Ltd. In addition to her work at AOI, Antje co-runs 53rd State Press along with founder, Karinne Keithley Syers. 53rd State Press is dedicated to publishing performance texts and new plays, including works by Pig Iron, Nature Theater of Oklahoma, Miguel Gutierrez and the upcoming Rude Mechanicals’ anthology. She is also the co-founder of Drama Panorama, a Berlin-based forum for international theater translation. Find out more at www.aoiagency.com.

Sean Paulsen (Sound Engineer) is a film composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist from New York. Along with being the composer and music supervisor for the MSG Network’s The Garden’s Defining Moments, his music has been featured at numerous film festivals including the Tribeca Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, SXSW, and The Philadelphia Film Festival. He also works in film and television production with OBB Films.

Lina Renzina (Party Producer/ Social Media Manager) is a CUNY graduate, producer, and manager. She has previously worked with: The Public Theater, Nederlander, Situation Interactive, bdb Marketing, NYMF, ICM Partners, and Ars Nova.

Hanako Rodriguez (Stage Manager) is delighted to join the PRELUDE team for the first time this year.  A recent graduate of Wesleyan University, she aims to become involved in New York theatre through stage management.  Her recent Wesleyan credits include In the Heights, Really Really, The Shmagina Dialogues, The Tempest, A Behanding in Spokane, and Great God Brown.  This summer she was the Venue Director for Theatre for the New City’s Dream Up Festival.  When not stage managing, she also enjoys costume design and construction. Wesleyan costume credits include American Idiot and Ida.

Sarah Jane Schostack (Stage Manager) is a director, actor, stage manager. Selected NYC directing credits: Manere Fortis (Semi-Finalist in the Take Ten Festival), The Stand-Ins, and No Stranger There by Luke Wise (named a 2014 Samuel French Finalist). Past assistant directing credits include Lincoln Center Originals: CRY HAVOC (Lincoln Center), Period of Adjustment (WHAT), 101 Dalmatians, A Rockin’ Midsummer Night’s Dream, Liberty Smith, Disney’s The Lion King Jr., all with Michael Unger and the 12.14 Foundation, The Stone Will Roll (New York Theatre Workshop) and Trip to Bountiful (Hangar Theatre). SDCF Observer under Peter Flynn for Smart Blonde at the City Theatre. PA or ASM credits include: Scenes from a Marriage (NYTW), New York Theatre Workshop 2014 Gala, cast performance of Company in the 2011 Tony Awards. Associate Member of the SDCF.

Tom Sellar (Curator) is editor of Yale’s international performance journal Theater. Under his editorship since 2003, Theater has published plays, criticism, reportage and creative dossiers by leading global artists and authors. Tom is professor of Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism at Yale University, where he teaches courses in contemporary global performance and theater, critical practice, and performance curating. He currently serves as chief theater critic of the Village Voice, where he has written about New York performing arts since 2001. Tom curates public programs at Yale and for organizations including Philadelphia Fringe Arts and the Prague Quadrennial. A New York City native, he is a proud resident of Brooklyn.

Darielle Shandler (Panel Producer) is a light designer and theatre artist from Virginia now based in Manhattan. New York credits: Associate Producer for the ICE Factory Festival at the New Ohio Theatre, Light Designer for Post Traumatic Super Delightful (FRIGID Festival), Assistant Production Manager for Pretty Filthy (The Civilians), Crew and Follow Spot Operator for Sorry Robot (PS122’s COIL 2015); Light Designer for RCulture (IRT Theatre); Assistant Light Designer for My Stubborn Tongue (XO Feminist Productions). Regional Credits: Build Crew and Light Programmer for The Sound of Music (Mill Mountain Theatre); director of and tigers. at Drew University. In 2013, her original play Don’t Make It Weird premiered in Portland, Maine (Deering High School). Darielle is a graduate of Drew University, where she studied Theatre Arts and Arts Administration. She has also completed the Broadway Associate Certificate through Brooklyn College. She currently works as a Box Office Associate and Front Desk Receptionist at 59E59 Theaters. www.darielleshandler.com

Rebecca Sheahan (Managing Director, The Segal Center) A graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Rebecca began her career in performing arts in 2000 at the Market Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Market Theater hosted an eclectic range of noted performers and playwrights, including Alvin Epstein, Ricky Jay, Antony and the Johnsons, Charles Mee, Elie Wiesel, and Catherine Samie. For Peter Sellars’s monumental theatrical production, The Children of Herakles, which premiered at the American Repertory Theatre in 2003, she worked as an Associate Producer and Casting Associate representing the Carr Foundation. Since moving to New York that same year, she has worked as Director of Marketing for St. Ann’s Warehouse with Susan Feldman and 651 Arts with Georgiana Pickett. She became Managing Director of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York in 2012, after serving as Co-Producer and Creative Consultant for the PRELUDE ‘08 and PRELUDE ’09 Festivals.