Pesha Rudnick, Founding Artistic Director
Local Lab
Pesha Rudnick
Founding Artistic Director
She/Her/Hers
pesha@localtheaterco.org
Pesha Rudnick is the founding artistic director of Local Theater Company in Boulder, CO, where she pursues the company’s mission to discover and develop new American plays. For Local Theater Company, Pesha directed twenty new works including the world premiere productions of Paper Cut (Colorado Theater Guild winner Best New Play) by Andrew Rosendorf, Discount Ghost Stories: Songs from the Rockies music and lyrics by Alexander Sage Oyen, Book by Rob Wright and Pesha Rudnick; Elijah: An Adventure by Michael Mitnick (Colorado Theater Guild Nomination Best New Play), Faith by James McLindon (Colorado Theater Guild nomination Best New Play), The Firestorm by Meridith Friedman (Colorado Theater Guild nomination Best New Play). Pesha curated the digital series “Living Room Local” in 2020 and the past ten annual new play festivals, Local Lab.
Pesha was featured in Westward Magazine’s “100 Colorado Creatives."
Nationally, Pesha has developed and directed dozens of new works including the world premiere of O.P.C. by Eve Ensler at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University and 26 Miles by Quiara Hudes at Curious Theater Company. She previously collaborated with Ensler as associate director of the world premiere of Emotional Creature at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and Signature Theatre Center. She has worked at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Creede Repertory Theater, Florida Stage, and The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C and many others.
Pesha is the former associate artistic director of Theater Master's National MFA Playwright's Festival (59E59, Atlantic Stage 2, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Wild Project, Theatre Row, and the Aspen Institute). For six years, she served as the associate director of education at Cornerstone Theater Company in Los Angeles. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree from New York University. Pesha is Drama League Directing Fellow and a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.
Want to know more about Pesha’s passion for live theater? Visit her website pesharudnick.com or watch her TEDx talk on "The Danger of Live Theater."
Misha S. Zimmerman
Executive Producer
She/Her/Hers
misha@localtheaterco.org
Misha S. Zimmerman has worked with Local since 2017 in various roles before becoming the Executive Producer. Sher previously served as Associate Producer and Resident Stage Manager. Misha's stage management credits with Local include Discount Ghost Stories: Songs from the Rockies, Paper Cut, Wisdom from Everything and Pop the Holidays as well as numerous Local Lab play readings. Other stage management credits include The Year of Magical Thinking (The Aurora Fox), Sisters in Law (Theater Or), The Secretary (Curious Theatre Company), The Headliners (Cherry Creek Theatre), Florencia en el Amazonas (Opera Steamboat) and The Enchanted Pig (Opera Steamboat). Misha holds a BA in Theater and Literature from the University of Colorado and participated in the Semester at Sea study abroad program.
Nick Chase
Co-Artistic Director, Production & Education
He/Him/His
nick@localtheaterco.org
Nick Chase is a writer/director who began his career at twenty-one, staging productions at a number of celebrated downtown New York venues including The Ohio, Galapagos, Fez and The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. Following this, he was awarded a yearlong residency at the Tony Award/Pulitzer Prize-winning Public Theater/Joe’s Pub for his critically acclaimed theatrical series, SHELLS. During his tenure, Nick wrote and directed twenty-seven “episodes” of the live series and was featured in The New York Times. In the fall of 2014, Neil Patrick Harris tapped Nick to write the book for BURTKA, DAVID, Broadway star David Burtka’s solo performance at 54 Below. Impressed with the results, Mr. Harris invited Nick to serve as his Associate Director, working on a team that included veteran Broadway music director, Seth Rudetsky. In the spring of 2015, director Chiemi Karasawa (Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me) commissioned Nick to script her premier feature narrative film, DRAKE. In addition to this screenplay, Nick has completed work on two new screenplays. The first, BLUE, concerns the events that launched Picasso into the Blue Period. Karen Tenkhoff (Producer, The Motorcycle Diaries) is attached to produce. The second project, LAST FERRY OUT, is a feature-length horror film set on Fire Island which he created alongside Emmy Award-winning writer/director, Doug Shultz. JASH/Group Nine Media is attached to produce.
Betty Hart
Co-Artistic Director, New Plays & Community Engagement
She/Her/Hers
Betty Hart is an actor, director, and facilitator who moved from Atlanta to Denver in fall of 2013. Betty has acted in Local Lab, and has facilitated audience conversations and salons for Local Theater Company since 2015. In 2020, Betty directed Josh Kroenig’s Vroom Vroom for Local Lab, which audiences never saw due to the theatre wide shut down. In Spring of 2022, Betty directed You Enjoy Myself and co-directed Local Lab 11, Local Theater Company’s new play festival alongside Nick Chase. In the summer of 2022, Betty became one of the Co-Artistic Directors of Local Theater Company. She helmed the exciting Local Lab 12 in 2023.
Recent directing credits include the world premieres of Mountain Octopus and the online production of To The Moon by Beth Kander for Creede Repertory Theatre. Betty assistant directed the world premiere of co-creators David Byrne and Mala Gaonkar’s Theater of the Mind in collaboration with and co-produced by the Denver Center’s Off-Center.
Additional credits include Blackademics (Vintage Theatre), Once on this Island (Town Hall Arts Center), By the way, Meet Vera Stark (Fine Arts Center at Colorado College), Polaroid Stories (Metropolitan State University), and the one person play, An Iliad (Creede Repertory Theatre), an original devised theatrical film for the University of Northern Colorado called 2020 Speaks, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill (DCPA Cabaret & Vintage Theatre); The Scottsboro Boys and Crowns (Vintage Theatre); Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies (Aurora Fox); The Darker Face of the Earth; Evelyn in Purgatory; A Thousand Circlets; Jim Crow and the Rhythm Darlings (Essential Theatre).
Recognition: 2022 Henry Award nominee for outstanding direction of a musical (Once on this Island), 2018 & 2021 True West Award winner and 2021 BroadwayWorld Denver Award for Best direction of a stream for Creede Repertory’s online production of Beth Kander’s To the Moon.
In November of 2020, Betty gave a Ted Talk on compassion culture instead of cancel culture. You can view the talk here: go.ted.com/bettyhart
Kate Gipson
Executive Director
She/They
kate@localtheaterco.org
Kate Gipson is the Executive Director at Local Theater Company. In addition to a career in non-profit and arts leadership, she is a theatre-maker and educator. Select previous directing credits across the front range include work at Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company (The Few, Silent Sky), University of Denver (Savage in Limbo), Denver School of the Arts (Juicy and Delicious), Edge Theatre (Exit Strategies World Premier), Curious Theatre Company (The Whipping Man), and Kaiser Permanente where she wrote and directed the touring production, 5210 Main Street. She was the co-producer of the Colorado Creative Careers Festival in 2019, produced After Orlando and the Women's Voices Summit as a company member at Benchmark Theatre. Kate previously served as Associate Artistic Director at Curious Theatre Company, Manager of Youth Workforce Development at Goodwill Denver, Director of Strategic Imperatives at Fund for the Arts (Louisville, KY) and General Manager at StageOne Family Theatre (Louisville, KY). Kate graduated summa cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis with a BA in theatre.
Levi Franklin
Associate Producer
He/They
levi@localtheaterco.org
Levi Franklin will be a graduate in May of 2023 from MSU Denver with a double major in Theatre and Sociology. His studies have focused on directorial, arts administration, devised theatre, and arts advocate work; he is currently the Associate Producer here at Local Theater Company and a teacher and director at the Actor’s Academy for the Performing Arts. His recent credits include Assistant Director at MSU Denver for The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Teacher, and Director for three devised pieces with the Actor’s Academy for the Performing Arts focusing on Memory, Heaven’s Gate, and the Russian Revolution. Levi is passionate about fostering a collaborative, supportive, and growth-oriented community through theatre making with all members of the art form, including the audience, production team, and performers. Levi enjoys dismantling systems in order to create a more inclusive, diverse, equitable, and inspirational world. He has accomplished starting this never ending process by starting MSU Denver’s FOUND Theatre, and by creating programs for students at MSU Denver to get certified in Stage Combat at no expense to the students. They are excited to immerse themselves into more work at Local as a soon to be college graduate.
Jordan Lichtenheld
Resident Dramaturg/Copy Editor
She/Her/Hers
jordan@localtheaterco.org
Jordan is a dramaturg, director, and actor currently based in North Carolina. She is a Colorado native who graduated from the University of Colorado in Boulder with a bachelor’s degree in English Literature, as well as two Minor degrees in Business and Theatre. Since graduating, Jordan has directed (Forever, 2021; Nine Lives, 2021), dramaturged (Mlima’s Tale, 2023), and acted (The Cherry Orchard, 2023) at Burning Coal Theater Company in Raleigh, North Carolina. Additionally, she is a member of the Board of Directors for Burning Coal Theater Company. In addition to being part of Local’s staff, Jordan is also an Associate Artist with Local. Before being brought onto Local’s staff in the fall of 2020, Jordan had previously interned with Local as an artistic researcher. Jordan has undertaken the role of dramaturg over much of her time in college and beyond, working primarily with scripts or on staged readings and productions of new plays. Jordan is passionate about working with emerging playwrights and invigorating new works of theater and aligns deeply with Local’s mission to bring original works of exceptional quality that spark camaraderie, learning, and contemplation to audiences.
