Meet The Team
Executive Director
Frank Hentschker
(He/Him)
Frank 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 Heiner Müller; created a performance with Joseph Beuys; performed in the Robert Wilson play The Forest (music by David Byrne) and worked for Robert Wilson. Next to programming Segal Theatre Center events Frank teaches Theatre History at Columbia University and is currently working on a book about Robert Wilson’s play texts.​
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Web Manager
Gaurav Singh
(He/Him)
Gaurav is a theatre-maker, actor, arts manager and freelance marketer who works across New Delhi and London. He trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama with an MA in Advanced Theatre Practice, supported by the Chevening scholarship. His artistic practice investigates live performance and audience-performer interactivity using technology and distanced composition. Gaurav is the General Manager at Kaivalya Plays, a Delhi-based independent theatre company where he co-created the Theatre Management Fellowship, a unique training initiative that focuses on the strategic management and creative administration of theatre. He is also the Communications & Community Manager at The Nursery Theatre, a London-based improvisational theatre company. In a past life, he was a digital marketer and now seeks to work at the intersection of theatre, technology and communications.
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Producer
Andie Lerner
(She/Her)
Andie is a New York based actor, director and theater collaborator originally from Denver, Colorado. She is a graduate from Marymount Manhattan College with a BFA in Acting and Directing with a minor in Arts for Communities. Recent production credits include: A Voluptuary Life at HERE Arts Center (PSM), Get it Together at Denver Fringe (Producer), Randy’s Dandy Coaster Castle (Director), Not Knowing at 3LD Art & Technology Center (ASM). She collaborates to produce work under the name Open Floor Plan, is an Associate Producer at The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, and an Archival Assistant for Little Cinema
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Digital Marketing
Cactus Juice
Agency
Cactus Juice is an all-inclusive creative marketing solutions agency based in Bombay, India. Founded by three college friends and entrepreneurs—Elton Dmello, Shannon Fernandes and Nihar Nair, Cactus Juice specializes in telling stories that relate to audiences and seamlessly integrate the brand.
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Producer
Tanvi Shah
(She/Her)
Tanvi is an independent multi-lingual theatre maker from Bombay, India. She practices as director, dramaturg, writer and adaptor, documenter of oral narratives and archivist of theatre history, curator of arts conversations, and conductor of literary encounters. She was trained under Indian Ensemble’s Directors’ Training Programme 2017 – ’18. She holds an MA in Theatre Directing (Classical and Contemporary Text) from The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow 2019. Direction Credits include: Vidaai OR (Ganga Nu Aavnu), Lethewards OR [The Play They Have All Come To See], The Age of Blindness, and Unshared Childhoods. She has previously worked with theatre organisations like CRY HAVOC Company (New York), The Woodstock Players (New York), Tamaasha and Arpana Theatres (Mumbai), Junoon Theatre (Mumbai), Jana Natya Manch (Delhi), The Freedom Theatre (Palestine), Indian Ensemble (Bangalore), Drama School Mumbai, Flinn Works (Berlin), India Foundation for the Arts (Bangalore), HowlRound Theatre Commons (Boston), Those Women Productions (Berkeley), and others. She presently works remotely as the Associate Artistic Producer at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center. She approaches theatre – a form that encompasses all her preoccupations – as an investigation into identities, histories, languages, and perspectives.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the support of the staff of The Graduate Center, City University of New York and Howlround Theatre Commons. We would like to thank Thea Rodgers, Vijay Mathew and Jackie Spaventa for their support with digital production for the festival.
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