DESIREE SANCHEZ (Director) has been Aquila’s artistic director since 2012. This season she will be directing a new adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Past productions she has directed include The Great Gatsby and Macbeth (Spring 2022), Nineteen Eighty-Four and The Odyssey (2019); A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Frankenstein(2018); Hamlet and Sense and Sensibility (2017); Much Ado About Nothing and Our Trojan War (2016); Romeo and Juliet, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Philoctetes (2015); The Tempest and Wuthering Heights (2014); A Female Philoctetes at BAM Fisher's Hillman Studio (2014); Twelfth Night and Fahrenheit 451 (2013); The Taming of the Shrew and Cyrano de Bergerac (2012); Herakles (2012) at the Festival of the Aegean in Syros, Greece and at the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation in Athens and at BAM in 2013; Macbeth and The Importance of Being Earnest (2011); and Six Characters in Search of an Author (2010). Desiree wrote the stage adaptations for Frankenstein, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and Wuthering Heights for the Aquila Theatre and choreographed for: A Very Naughty Greek Play, based on Aristophanes' Wasps (2004); Julius Caesar (2006), Catch-22 (2007); The Iliad: Book One and The Comedy of Errors (2008). Desiree had a twenty-year career in dance which included working as a principal dancer for the Metropolitan Opera Ballet.
LIANNE ARNOLD (Projection Design) Lianne is a video & scenic designer and inter-disciplinary artist working in theater, opera, music, dance, film, & art installation. For Aquila: 1984, Hamlet, Sense and Sensibility. Other recent performance & film projects include Lil Buck & Jon Boogz’ Love Heals All Wounds (projections / CAP UCLA & MOVE on Netflix), Prospect Theater Co.’s VISION Series & The Hello Girls (scenic & projections), HBO's The Lady and the Dale (animations), Jazz Singer (projections / Abrons Artspace), Oscar at the Crown (projections / 3 Dollar Bill), Words on the Street (co-creator & projections / Baruch), Joseph Keckler’s Let Me Die (projections / Opera Philadelphia/FringeArts) and Joseph Keckler’s Train With No Midnight (projections / Prototype Festival/HERE). When the Covid-19 shutdown happened in March 2020, Lianne was working as the associate projection designer on The Lehman Trilogy on Broadway. Lianne teaches Video Design/Creative Technologies at The New School and is a member of Wingspace Design Collective. MFA from CalArts. www.liannearnold.com.
BRIAN BAILEY (Company Manager) Brian hails from the rural Appalachian region of Ohio where he grew up on a pig and cattle farm with his family. He graduated from Northern Kentucky University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre and had a career for several years on Broadway and National Tours in shows like CATS, THE LION KING, and THE ADDAMS FAMILY. While at home during CoVid pandemic Brian completed courses in Dinosaur Paleobiology with the University of Alberta, was a Zookeeper for over 75 species, taught World History at a middle school, became an editorial contributor for Getty Images, and was a radio personality for a country music station! After a decade long career at sea serving as a Cruise Director and spending two seasons in Antarctica on expedition vessels, Brian is thrilled to return to land and return to theatre as the company manager for Aquila Theatre.
KARA BRANCH (Costume Designer) is a New York based costume designer. Her recent design projects include Fidelio with Heartbeat Opera Company, Machinal at Boston Conservatory at Berklee and The End of Hester, Imagining Madoff and Brecht: Call and Response with New Light Theater Company. Recent Assistant design credits include Hamilton (Broadway, National Tours and International Germany Tour), Slave Play (Broadway), The Secret Life of Bees at Atlantic Theater Company, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark at Signature Theater Company and Detroit ’67 at The McCarter Theater. karabranchdesigns.com
CYNTHIA CARIDAD (Assistant Stage Manager). Cynthia got her start in stage management with Santa Monica Rep’s 2011 production of The Tempest in Santa Monica, CA. After graduating with a BA at California State University Fullerton, she worked as a stage manager on cruise ships for 6 years. She is now based in New York. Selected Regional: …what the end will be (PA), EgoManiac (PSM), Luisa Fernanda (PSM), Salir/Dido (PSM). She is grateful for her family’s support throughout all her adventures.
ALEX DUNCKER (Production Stage Manager) Hailing from beautiful Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Alex began her love affair with the performing arts at her local western dinner theatre. After progressing from showgirl to stage manager, she ventured east to pursue a Theatre degree from the University of Vermont. Since moving to New York in 2016,. Alex has dabbled in film, managed several inventive new works (Meshahnye, Late Night at the Serpent, Codependent, Cartography, Voyeur), and produced a pop-up theatre (Destiny Manifests) in a repurposed storefront that presented Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love alongside original poetry, dance, live music, visual and performance art. Now, Alex is elated to be back on the road for her fourth tour with Aquila to continue her career of working with women-led artistic endeavors.
ALEX MOON (Transcriber and Script Coordinator) is a nonbinary theatre artist and translator who’s worked with organizations such as The American Repertory Theatre; Ensemble Studio Theatre; Speakeasy Stage Co; Boston University; Emerson College; Theatre Collaborative, and more. Recently, their short play, “Bugs” was chosen to be published by Concord Theatricals as part of the 47th Annual Off-Off Broadway Theatre festival. Their full-length play “G-Town',' was a finalist for the 2021 Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, and their most recent work, “Ari + Dee”, was produced by Broke People Play Festival and The Chain Theatre. As a translator, their editions of the Homeric Hymns to Dionysus will be featured in the forthcoming issue of Persephone: The Harvard Undergraduate Classics Journal. They are a member of New York University’s class of 2022 double majoring in Dramatic Writing Classics, having trained as well with the Yale School of Drama, Frantic Assembly, and One Year Lease’s Apprentice Program in Papingo, Greece. www.alexmoondrama.com
BOB ROGERS (Production Manager, Set & Lighting Designer, Technical Director) is excited to be back with Aquila theatre for another exciting season. Bob's technical career started in 2005 at Crossville Tennessee. Since then, he has worked on cruise ships, theme parks, tours, regional theatres, circuses, and even 100 feet diameter balloons. Bob has done technical theatre in every state of the continental US, Guam, and even China.