
ABOUT US
STAFF

Jackson Beer - Education Intern
Jackson (He/She/They) holds a BA from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study where they studied theatre and public health with a concentration in Didactic Theater as a Catalyst for Public Health Transformation. In their education, Jackson investigated ways in which theater could be used to motivate change and share important stories. They are now looking to pursue this goal by becoming a theater educator with the hope of instilling self-love, advocacy, and a strong voice in all of their students so they can motivate changes of their own. Jackson served as the administrative intern at the Bazaar Festival (Prague) and an artistic producing intern Poetry Society of New York. In the future, Jackson hopes to get an MA and teaching certification in Theater Education so they can step into the classroom and share the magic of theater and foster a safe, healthy environment where young people can discover themselves and their passions.

Dr. Durell Cooper - EDI and Anti-Racism Consultant
Dr. Durell Cooper is one the nation's leading cultural strategists and is the Founder and CEO of Cultural Innovation Group; a boutique consulting agency specializing in systems change and collaborative thought leadership. He is also the creator and host of the web series, Flow and the Podcast Fluency. He is also an adjunct instructor at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, New York University, and The City College of New York. Durell graduated from the Impact Program for Arts Leaders (IPAL) at Stanford University in 2018. He is a member of the Diversity Scholars Network at the National Center for Institutional Diversity, University of Michigan. He earned a B.F.A from Southern Methodist University, and both a M.A & Doctorate of Education from New York University.

Shannon Lippert - Grant Writer
Shannon (she/they) is a theater performer, writer, and producer. In 2017, Shannon produced a staged reading of her/their work, The Sibling Plays, as a fundraiser for TransLifeline, a peer support hotline run by and for trans people. Shannon’s transformative works include: My Immortal, a karaoke-style performance art piece, The Harrys, a web series, and several poems published on What Rough Beast by Indolent Books.

Adam Odsess Rubin - Founding Artistic Director
Adam Odsess-Rubin is the Founding Artistic Director of National Queer Theater (NQT) and Co-Founder of the acclaimed Criminal Queerness Festival, showcasing censored and criminalized LGBTQ+ artists from around the world. He directs community-based theater programs such as Write it Out! for playwrights living with HIV, New Visions Fellowship for Black trans artists, DREAMing Out Loud for LGBTQ undocumented youth, and Youth Write Now for young queer playwrights. Last year, he was a founding Teaching Artist for Rainbow Connection, an intergenerational theater program for queer teens and elders in Fire Island. In 2023, he will launch Staging Pride: Queer Youth Theater, a free afterschool theater program for marginalized LGBTQ+ youth in New York City at The Center. At National Queer Theater, Odsess-Rubin has presented work with Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York Theatre Workshop, NYC Pride, MCC Theater, and The Lark. Through NQT, he has raised over $250,000 for queer and trans artists since 2018, and has received praise for his work in The Advocate, The New York Times, American Theater Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, and Time Out New York. Odsess-Rubin is a Teaching Artist and former Education Associate at New York Theatre Workshop, and served as the first Education and Community Programs Fellow at American Conservatory Theatre. Odsess-Rubin has published work in Howlround and The Teaching Artist Journal on queer theater education, and is a 2020 Mayor's Grant for Cultural Impact awardee. BA: UC Santa Cruz MA: New York University.

Rose Oser - Producing Director
Rose Oser (she/they) is a theater producer, writer, and performer. From 2017-2022, she worked at Z Space in San Francisco, rising from Associate Artistic Director to Interim Producing Director. Rose successfully co-led Z Space during the height of the pandemic and produced the world premiere of The Red Shades: A Trans Superhero Rock Opera. Other notable producing credits at Z Space: Problematic Play Festival (LMDA Bly Award) and the world premiere of Ripped by Rachel Bublitz (Will Glickman Award). As the Co-Artistic Director of FaultLine Theater in San Francisco from 2016-2019 (recipient of the Annette Lust Award in 2018), Rose mounted full productions of new works by a diverse array of emerging playwrights. She is the book writer of Shoshana in December, a new queer Hanukkah musical (December 2022 production Custom Made, Relentless Award Honorable Mention 2022, December 2021 reading Z Space, NEA ArtWorks recipient) and Tinderella: the modern musical (April 2018 world premiere FaultLine and Custom Made, March 2022 production Portland'5). She has produced and hosted over 35 performances of Tinder Disrupt, San Francisco’s hit PowerPoint dating show. She worked as the Grant Writer for American Conservatory Theater from 2014-2017. BA in Rhetoric from University of California, Berkeley.

Seoyoung Park - Artistic Engagement Intern
Seoyoung Park (They/Them) is a non-binary lesbian gyopo (a diasporic Korean) currently based between Brooklyn, and Seoul. They were a 2023 Bread Loaf Contributor for Poetry, and they have a forthcoming chaplet with Belladonna* Series titled Diaspora Grief Epic. Their work facilitates communal connection, focusing on the transformative power of being “with.” Emotional exploration is crucial to Seoyoung’s work, as an East Asian femme navigating a white supremacist culture that denigrates emotions as frivolous, and depicts and expects East Asians to be stoic. They believe feeling deeply and with others is a form of deep protest against the dominant discourse of “objectivity,” which locks minorities into a single identity, and then discards them once they renounce it.