Director
Troy NickersonTroy Nickerson (he/him, Director) has directed countless productions at nearly every local theatre. Stage Left credits include I Am My Own Wife, Bare, The Trip to Bountiful, and Equus. Other local favorites include A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder; Mary Poppins (winner of the Inlander “Best Of the Northwest Award”); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf; Evil Dead, The Musical; Fiddler on the Roof; and The Full Monty at Spokane Civic Theatre; Jesus Christ Superstar, Avenue Q, Wit, Into The Woods, and Rent at The Modern Theater Coeur d’Alene; Man of La Mancha and Wild Party for The Modern Theater Spokane; Little Shop of Horrors for Ignite!; The Boys Next Door at Interplayers; and the annual Travolta Christmas show at The Coeur d’Alene Resort. An accomplished director, choreographer, and actor, Troy has garnered numerous local, regional, and national awards. He has directed three national AACTFest productions, and his portrayal of Jody in Lonely Planet at AACTFest 1999 earned him the “Best Actor in the Nation” award. Local honors include “Best Actor” as Lenny in Of Mice and Men and the Arts Community Leadership award from the Spokane Arts Commission for his many contributions to local charities.
Stage Manager
Lauretta HeaneyLauretta Heaney’s (she/her, Stage Manager) favorite theatre job is stage managing as it incorporates many of the same skills as her previous profession of Registered Nurse. This is Lauretta’s third production at Stage Left Theater. Lauretta is thrilled to be working on a production as thought-provoking as Corpus Christi. She is eager to see the audience reaction and to be part of the discourse that this production will promote. She would like to thank Troy and Jeremy for this incredible opportunity.
Production Manager
Michelle HollandMichelle Holland (she/her, Production Manager) has produced numerous shows at various local theaters over the past 23 years, including I Am My Own Wife, Bare, and The Trip to Bountiful at Stage Left. In addition, she has worked on seven AACTFest productions, most recently Lonely Planet, Stage Left’s entry into Virtual AACTFest 2021. Michelle has filled nearly every backstage role (with the exception of lights), and enjoys many administrative and front-of-house positions.
Scenic Design
Jeremy WhittingtonJeremy Whittington (he/him, Scenic Design) is the Managing|Artistic Director here at Stage Left Theater. He has been the Resident Designer for many theaters, including The Public Theater of San Antonio, Lake City Playhouse, and The Modern Theaters of Spokane and Coeur d’Alene. Jeremy has been seen in various productions across the United States including Disney’s Newsies (Wiesel/Teddy Roosevelt), Hairspray (Mr. Pinky/Mr. Spritzer), Assassins (Sam Byck), and Rumpelstiltskin (Sweepy, World Premiere) to name a few, and he is a proud member of Actors Equity Association. Jeremy was recently awarded the Governor’s Arts Heritage Luminary Award from Washington Governor, Jay Inslee, for his work in keeping theatre alive during the pandemic. He is thrilled to bring this important message of unconditional love to our stage.
Lighting Design
Alana ShepherdAlana Shepherd (she/her, Lighting Design) is a 15-year veteran of the NYC architectural lighting world who returned to Spokane in 2021. Notable projects: Times Square Ball (ALD/programmer - Lumen Award), W Hotel Times Square (IES Award of Merit), Thompson Hotel Miami Beach (IES Award of Merit). She is also the founder of the North American Coalition of Lighting Industry Queers, and is a 2021 Women in Lighting Award nominee. She recently returned to the stage after 14 years, designing the lighting for EWU’s production of RENT. MFA (Lighting): Carnegie Mellon University, 2006; BA (Theatre): EWU, 2001.
Sound Design
Paul J Watts Paul J Watts (he/him, Sound Design) Paul J Watts has been a thorn in the side of Stage Left Theater, both on stage and behind the scenes, getting in the way of performances by adding scenic painting, sound and light cues for both festivals and season productions since 2017 when Texas ran him out of town. Having pestered the Lone Star State with everything from Stage, Screen, TV performances, photography, makeup and playwriting, they finally had enough. Now he’s Spokane’s problem. His past acting roles as Fred from Civic Theatre’s Present Laughter and Odysseus in Stage Left’s Hecuba were particularly dangerous. Paul has been the Sound Technician for all of Stage Left’s streamed events this past year. Social distancing around him is advised or you may lose a finger.
Costumer
Lena CooleyLena Cooley (she/her, Costumer) has been costuming for local Spokane Theatres for the past 16 years. Along with theatre, she is an avid cosplayer and choreographer. Her last opportunity to costume for the stage was Three Penny Opera and she is excited to be invited back to Stage Left. While she has performed on stage, and on TV as a zombie in Z-Nation, she feels most comfortable working behind the scenes.
In Loving Memory of Terrence McNally, for all the stories...
Terrence McNally (Playwright, November 3, 1938 – March 24, 2020) was an American playwright, librettist, andscreenwriter.
Described as "the bard of American theater"and "one of the greatest contemporary playwrights the theater world has yet produced," McNally was the recipient of five Tony Awards. He won the Tony Award for Best Play Love! Valour! Compassion! and Master Class and the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ragtime, and received the 2019 Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1996, and he also received the Dramatists Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 and the Lucille Lortel Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2018, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the highest recognition of artistic merit in the United States. His other accolades included an Emmy Award, two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, four Drama Desk Awards, two Lucille Lortel Awards, two Obie Awards, and three Hull-Warriner Awards.
His career spanned six decades, and his plays, musicals, and operas were routinely performed all over the world. He also wrote screenplays, teleplays, and a memoir. Active in the regional and off-Broadway theatre movements as well as on Broadway, he was one of the few playwrights of his generation to have successfully passed from the avant-garde to mainstream acclaim. His work centered on the difficulties of and urgent need for human connection. He was vice-president of the Council of the Dramatists Guild from 1981 to 2001.
Terrence McNally died of complications from COVID-19 on March 24, 2020, at a hospital in Florida.
