Introducing OpenStage’s 52nd Season Directors
OpenStage Theatre & Company is excited to feature such a phenomenal group of directors this 52nd Season! Learn more about all six directors below.
Essential Season Directors
Reefer Madness
Book by Kevin Murphy & Dan Studney
Music by Dan Studney
Lyrics by Kevin Murphy
Directed by Kenny Moten
Kenny Moten, a highly in-demand director in Colorado, is back to direct the zany Reefer Madness at OpenStage!
Kenny directed Cabaret during OpenStage’s 50th season, and SWEAT last season. His other directing credits include: Other directing credits: Toni Stone (Aurora Fox Arts Center), Dreamgirls (Lone Tree Arts Center) Miss Rhythm (Denver Center for the Performing Arts), Cinderella (Arvada Center), and Motones & Jerseys (National Tour). Kenny is also part of OpenStage’s Board of Directors. When he is not developing new projects or directing theater, he is collaborating with the dynamic collective he started in 2016: Narrative Creative.
The 39 Steps
Adapted by Patrick Barlow
From the novel by John Buchan
From the movie by Alfred Hitchcock
Licensed by ITV Global Entertainment Limited
And an original concept by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon
Directed by Jessica Jackson
A well-established director, Jessica Jackson, will direct her first show at OpenStage, The 39 Steps.
Jess is a director, composer, actor, writer, and rampant improviser. During her time as Artistic Director of Creede Repertory Theatre, this award-winning theatre produced 6 world premiere productions, 7 new play festivals, & 12 world-premiere commissions for young audiences. She founded Boomtown Improv Comedy and helmed the devised Pants on Fire: a totally made-up musical for kids. Some of her favorite projects: Socially distanced golf-cart odyssey The Rough (writer/director) & satirical musical Small Ball (director) with The Catamounts, Roe (director) and The Laramie Project (director) at Oklahoma City University, Colorado premieres of Miss Holmes (director) and William Shakespeare’s Land of the Dead (director), the world premiere of Sight Hound (director) by Pam Houston, Billy Hell (composer-Denver Post Ovation Award Best Original Music), and sundry original shows created with Jeff Carey (composer/director). She’s working on a new full-length musical, Singletrack, with Steven Cole Hughes and goofing around with her 12-year-old daughter, Penny, and brilliant husband, Matt.
The Minutes
By Tracy Letts
Directed by Sydney Parks Smith
Producing Artistic Director and longtime artist with OpenStage, Sydney Parks Smith will direct the thrilling Broadway play, The Minutes.
Sydney has worked with OpenStage since 1997 and serves as Producing Artistic Director for the Company. She received the 2019 OpenStage OPUS Award for Outstanding Director for Avenue Q and the 2018 OPUS for Outstanding Director for And Then There Were None. Recent OST&C directing credits include The Book of Will, Hedwig And The Angry Inch, Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood, and Every Brilliant Thing.
Pride and Prejudice
by Kate Hamill
adapted from the novel by Jane Austen
Directed by Heather Ostberg Johnson
Director of last season’s hit Dance Nation, and OpenStage’s newest Associate Artistic Director, Heather, is returning to direct the outdoor show, Pride and Prejudice.
Heather wears many hats as a director, actor, improv comedian, writer, and dancer. But the director role allows her to utilize all her skills at once! Heather loves working with OpenStage and has done many productions over her 13 years in Fort Collins. With OpenStage Heather directed Dance Nation last spring, was the movement director and Assistant Director for A Doll’s House: Part 2 (2023), and the Assistant Director for Henry Award-winning, August: Osage County. Heather is curious about ensemble work and the physical theatre and is digging deeper into many theatrical movement practices that continuously shape how she approaches her craft and the rehearsal room. Heather spent the last year collaborating on a new play, Gin & Gothic: A Bronte Rock Tale with Band of Toughs which just closed in Denver at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House.
Etcetera Season Directors
October Surprise
By Miguel Muñoz
Directed by Miguel Muñoz
Local playwright, actor, and UNC graduate, Miguel Muñoz, will direct his own world premiere play, October Surprise.
OpenStage’s production of October Surprise is Miguel Muñoz’s professional directing debut. His satirical play Lati-NO! was selected for American Stage’s 2023 New Play Festival in St. Petersburg, FL. October Surprise was elected a semifinalist in Orlando Shakespeare Festival’s 2023 PlayFest. He was commissioned by American Stage in Florida to write their 2024 TYA musical, titled Familia de Flamingos. As an actor, Miguel has appeared professionally in Little Theatre of the Rockies’ The Quest for Don Quixote as Don Quixote, and OpenStage’s 2024 production of Sweat (2023) as Oscar.
Agnes of God
By John Pielmeier
Directed by Jessica Emerling Crow
Frequent OpenStage actor, Jessica Emerling Crow, will make her directorial debut this spring with the renowned play, Agnes of God.
Jessica is thrilled to be making her directorial debut this season having previously worked with OpenStage as a performer since 2011. Favorite onstage roles with OpenStage include Olympe de Gouges in The Revolutionists, the Narrator in Every Brilliant Thing and Rosemary in Outside Mullingar. Off stage Jessica is the owner of Be Ready Bookkeeping and enjoys beating her kids at basketball, traveling as much as possible and days when it is cold enough to wear one of her beloved sweatshirts.
