// Core Creative Team
Sandy Dietrick // Librettist
Sandy Dietrick is a playwright, dramaturg, performer and digital content creator/producer. She has a BA in English from the University of Iowa and an MFA from the UI’s Playwrights Workshop.
While at the UI, she was an original member of the Geese Theatre Company, founded by UI doctoral student John Bergman. The Geese conducted workshops in minimum-, medium- and maximum-security correctional facilities (prisons) to assist inmates in creating theatre works from their life stories.
Sandy has performed her own work, mostly in NYC performance venues, including, Circle Rep Lab, Dixon Place, Pyramid Club, NADA, Theatre Club Funambules, Home for Contemporary Theatre, HERE, Duplex, Surf Reality, West Bank Café, No Shame at the Public Theater and (her personal fave) King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut. She has also performed at New City Theater in Seattle.
Her plays have been produced from coast to coast by professional theaters, colleges and universities. (She almost had a production in Rome, when her play, A Biology Lesson, was translated into Italian by the Casa Italiana of New York University; the production was canceled due to Covid.)
In the digital space, she has created videos, websites and feature content for a broad range of clients. For HBO she pioneered the creation of original online content for various on-air franchises, including THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW, THE SOPRANOS, SIX FEET UNDER, FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON, COMIC RELIEFs and AUTOPSY, among others.
Other types of digital projects for which she was a creative lead include:
- Welcome Back Veterans Initiative, launched by Major League Baseball and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, and with participaton from Tom Hanks and Paul Rieckhoff (founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America)
- Living with Asthma: a series of videos for social media, featuring actor Tony Hale, who lives with eosinophilic asthma (shot via Zoom while Mr. Hale was in pre-production quarantine for a film)
- The Cooking Cardiologist: a series of online cooking videos hosted by Dr. Richard Collins and Jerome “The Bus” Bettis of the Baltimore Ravens (NOTE: not the videos currently on YouTube)
Over the years, she’s won a few awards for both theatrical and digital work, and she currently resides with her husband in Brooklyn, NY.
Mary Beth Easley // Director
Mary Beth Easley is the DEO/Chair of the Department of Theatre Arts and Head of the MFA Directing Program at the University of Iowa. Prior to this appointment, she was Associate Professor of Theatre and the Artistic Director of the CUNY-Brooklyn College Department of Theater. Focusing on new play development, intercultural theatre expression, and outreach to under-represented urban and rural communities where she utilizes devised theatre as a means to deepen awareness and foment change, Ms. Easley has been directing plays, coaching, and teaching acting New York City for many years. She has directed Off-Broadway and in regional theatres throughout the Midwest. Her work has been featured at The Bushwick Starr, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Circle Rep, The Women’s Project, The New Federal Theater, and LaMama ETC, among others. At Theater de la Jeune Lune, MN, she directed Krasang Tree, an intercultural chamber-opera, developed with Cambodian poet, U Sam Oeur. She directed NYC premieres of Levy Lee Simon’s God, the Crackhouse and the Devil (LaMama), and Caseload (The Workshop Theatre). With Mr. Simon and composer-lyricist, Mark Bruckner, she created Same Train, a spoken-word musical, produced at Algonquin Theater in NYC, and featured as a main-stage production at the 2011 National Black Theater Festival. In March 2012, she directed the NYC premiere of Jeffrey Sweet’s Court-Martial at Fort Devens for Woodie King’s New Federal Theatre, earning an Audelco Award for Best Direction of a Dramatic Production. In the Spring of 2014, she directed the premiere of William Burke’s the food was terrible for the Bushwick Starr, which received a critic’s pick from Time Out New York. She worked with Randy Noojin on the development of his one-person show Seeger, which played at the 2016 New York Fringe Festival and is currently touring. A guest director and responder at the Great Plains Theater Conference since 2013, Ms. Easley is currently working with composer Mark Bruckner and librettist Sandy Dietrick to develop a ground-breaking music-theatre work, ARatorio for the Mis-Remembered, which marries live theatre, motion-capture acting and virtual reality to tell the stories of 12 University of Iowa veterans.
During her tenure as Artistic Director at Brooklyn College she built a relationship with the MFA Playwriting program headed by esteemed playwright, Mac Wellman. This 8-year interdepartmental collaboration featured a monthly reading series of plays-in-progress, which fueled the production of eight world premieres by graduates of the playwriting program. She also served on the planning committee for the three-year collaboration with The Public Theater, funded by the Leonard Tow Foundation; and she oversaw the 2017 edition of The Weasel Festival --- a series of one-act plays by alums of the Brooklyn College MFA playwriting program --- hosted by the Public Theater. Ms. Easley developed and produced New Works Brooklyn, a festival of new play workshops by a diverse cadre of established playwrights. In this festival, guest directors led workshops of new plays culminating in a staged reading featuring casts of both professional and student actors. Guests included, among others, playwrights Keith Jusef Adkins, Jaclyn Backhaus, Erin Courtney, Christopher Diaz, Lindsey Ferrentino, Nambi Kelley, Rehana Lew Mirza, Jose Rivera, and Anne Washburn; and directors, Elena Araoz, Lear DeBessonet, Kamilah Forbes, and Dan Rothenberg.
As a directing teacher, Mary Beth helps early-career directors develop the language and processes to work with actors at every level of proficiency, and to collaborate across all design and technical disciplines. Building on her practice in the reimagining and adaptation of classic plays, and her years of work in contemporary and new play development, Ms. Easley teaches students how to integrate the elements of the Theatre Visual, Auditory and Kinetic to tell stories that activate the playing space, reshape the performative act, and challenge and transform audience experience.
Professor Easley holds a dual MFA in Acting and Directing from the University of Georgia, where she studied under the mentorship of esteemed director and scholar, August Staub. She earned her BFA from Missouri State University. She is a recipient of the Charles Revson Directing Fellowship, which allowed her to study Shakespearean reinterpretation with A.J. Antoon, British comedy with Bryan Murray, George Bernard Shaw with Stephen Porter, and Samuel Beckett with Nagle Jackson.
Mark Bruckner // Composer-Lyricist
Mark Bruckner (Composer / Music Director / Musician) is an Assistant Professor of Instruction and Resident Music Director in the University of Iowa Department of Theatre Arts, where he teaches Musical Theatre, Sound Design, Audio Plays, and various Arts Performance and Leadership classes. Before coming to the University of Iowa, Mark was based in New York, where he held guest artist residencies at the Gallatin School of Interdisciplinary Studies at NYU, Boston College, CUNY Brooklyn College, CUNY-LaGuardia College, and Long Island University, Brookdale campus teaching composition and sound design for theatre, and engaging in the devising of new work and the revival of classic plays and musicals.
An Innovative Theater and Audelco Award-winning composer and music director, and a Henry Hewes American Theatre Wing sound design nominee, Mark is known for his work in intercultural theatre, new play development, and musical theatre adaptations. He has received commissions from off-Broadway, regional theaters, colleges, and producing organizations across the country. His scores are distinctive for their kinetic blending of original music, live Foley, and spatial, environmental soundscapes. His work with wearable technology is featured in a lead article he authored for the 2017 Spring Edition of Theatre, Design and Technology, entitled: Wearable Sound Technology: The Making of Magic in Caryl Churchill’s “Fen.”
Representative work in addition to ARatorio for the Mis-Remembered includes music and lyrics for Same Train, a spoken-word musical developed with playwright, Levy Lee Simon and director Mary Beth Easley (Algonquin Theatre, NYC & National Black Theater Festival); Electro-acoustic music for cello, piano and electronics + ambisonic sound design for Body Concert by master puppeteer, Kevin Augustine of the Lone Wolf Tribe which won top prize for Best Music at the 2024 International Puppetry Festival in Warsaw, Poland; Music, sound design and interactive installation for Alma Baya by Edward Einhorn (Gural Theatre, ART/NY, NYC); Music and sound design for The Marriage of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein by Edward Einhorn (Jermyn Street Theatre, West End London); Krasang Tree, a chamber opera based on the writings of poet U Sam Ouer, developed through intergenerational outreach within the Cambodian refugee community of Minnesota (Theatre de la Jeune Lune, MN); Music, sound, and live foley for The Service Road by Erin Courtney (Adhesive Theater Project, Brooklyn, NY); Audelco-award winning score and sound design for Court-Martial at Fort Devens by Jeffrey Sweet (The New Federal Theater in association with Castillo Theatre, NY); God, the Crackhouse and the Devil (LaMama E.T.C., NY) by Levy Lee Simon, featuring original music for hip-hop jazz sextet; Original music and second-line brass arrangements for a Mardi-Gras adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, commissioned by the University of Iowa. Other work includes original music, sound, and wearable technology design for the premiere of Royal Jelly by Paul Cameron Hardy, and Fen by Caryl Churchill (Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts); music and sound design for The God Projekt by Kevin Augustine and the Lone Wolf Tribe (LaMama, E.T.C. 50th anniversary season opening production); music and sound for the 2016 U.S. premiere of Privatopia by Maria Efsthatiadis (LaGuardia Performing Arts Center); original songs for the 2015 premiere of Exposed by Robert Brustein (Boston Playwright’s Theater at the Boston Center for American Performance); and music direction for the Audelco-award winning revival of Martin Duberman’s In White America produced by the New Federal Theater and Castillo Theater.
As a music director, Mark has directed contemporary musicals off-Broadway (Algonquin Theatre), at Regional Theatres (e.g., Capital Repertory, Albany NY, Central Square Theatre, Cambridge, MA) and at the University level. Since joining the faculty at the University of Iowa Department of Theatre Arts he has music-directed and conducted Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods (2024 – Univ of Iowa Mabie Theatre); Something Rotten (2023 – Univ of Iowa Mabie Theatre); the Midwest premiere of String, music and lyrics by Adam Gwon, libretto by Sarah Hammond (UI Mabie Theatre); and the 2020 revival of Ike Holter’s Hit the Wall for the 50th-anniversary commemoration of the Stonewall Riots (UI Mabie Theatre).
For the past several years, Mark has been a guest artist and teacher at the Great Plains Theatre Conference in Omaha, NE where he has co-taught with Professor Mary Beth Easley the immersive workshop The Energized Space; and participated in the development of plays from the New American Theatre Movement. In the summer of 2019, he was commissioned to compose music and sound, and perform for the premiere production of Epic by Iowa alum Ellen Struve, directed by Michael Garcés of the renowned Cornerstone Theatre. Featuring an intergenerational cast of members from the Communidad Maya of Omaha, this work wove together a re-telling of the Popul Vuh with current stories of immigrants who have made the perilous trek from Guatemala to seek refuge in the United States.
In addition to his creative work and scholarship, Mark has been an engagement and outreach teaching artist for over 18 years, partnering with BAM, Roundabout Theatre, New York City Children’s Theatre, Arts Connection, Center for Arts Education, Brooklyn Arts Council, among other organizations. He has worked with K-12 students and seniors in the NY Tri-state area to develop original musicals, songs, and theatre pieces based on their life experiences. From 2010 to 2016 he was the lead composer and music director for George Street Playhouse’s Summer Theatre Academy. He has received two NEA grants to teach songwriting, musical theatre, choral and percussive arts to cross-generational students throughout Brooklyn.
Visit www.markbruckner.net (Last updated 2019)
Kaelen Novak // Creative Director
Kaelen Novak is a Theatrical & Experimental Designer based in Iowa City, IA who focuses on the traditional theatrical design areas of Costumes, Scenery and Projections, while also researching and creating work using emerging technologies such as motion capture, game engines, and interactive systems to expand the boundaries of what theatre can be. They are a doctoral candidate at Drexel University in Digital Media focusing on their research into the incorporation of emerging technology into the live performance process, and hold a research position at the University of Iowa, focusing on the usage of motion capture and emerging tech in live performance across Theatre, Dance, Opera, and Installation Art.
They have a dual MFA in Costume and Scenic Design from the University of Iowa, and a BS in Integrative Biology from Southeastern Louisiana University. This dual focus in the arts and sciences has lead to a passion for both which is showcased in exploring new techniques across multiple genres, documenting the process and creating productions that don't sit in one world or the either, but both simultaneously.
They have also acted as motion capture consultant and designer for multiple projects such as the Future Stages Festival (Juilliard, 2025), Route Movements (an MFA dance thesis by Ellen Oliver), Pieces of Me (an interactive VR theatrical production), Nacreous Panoply (an exploration of having real life costumes control their virtual counterparts through motion capture), and many more.
Recent publications and presentations include "ARatorio for the Mis-Remembered: Making the Unimaginable Real with Unreal Engine" in USITT Design and Technology, along with two presentations at USITT 2025: "Devising Theatrical Shows with Emerging Technologies and Softwares" and "Exploring Motion Capture for Live Performance". More articles about their work with emerging software in performance are slated for late 2025 and early 2026.
For more information on their work and practice, visit kaelennovak.myportfolio.com
// 5-24-2025 Production Team + Cast
Bella Fortunato // Costume and Character Designer
Søren Olsen // Projection-Ambience Designer
Jackson Kopesky // Technical Manager
Reese Morgan // Stage Manager
PART I + III
PART II
"Discipline" performed by Maddie Rodriguez
"Friends" performed by Tony Nyugen
"Just Outside Fallujah" performed by Josh Turner
"Conscience" performed by Dusty Steele
"Iowa City to Kosovo" performed by Maddie Rodriguez
"One in a Million" performed by Josh Turner
"Crossroads in Kandahar" performed by Tony Nyugen
"Birthday in Iraq" performed by Dusty Steele
"On the Ocean" performed by Alice Conroy
"Through the Storm" performed by Dusty Steele
Alice Conroy // Vocalist
Brennan Malone // Vocalist
Kaiya Kralik // Vocalist
Nicolette Mayer // Vocalist
Raimundo San Martin Montero // Vocalist
Mark Bruckner // Pianist
Benjamin Stone // Drummer
Dakota Parobek // Guitarist
Chris Jensen // Sound Engineer
Magnolia Wallerich // Sound Mixer
// 2-17-2024 Prototype Team + Cast
Kaelen Novak // Scenic and Costume Designer
Victor Maldonado // Lighting Designer
Nicole Blodig // Projection and Font Designer
Jackson Kopesky // Stage Manager
PART I
Kolton Stremler // Voice 1
Andelyn Sunderman // Voice 2
Samantha Mayer // Voice 3
Kaelen Novak // Voice 4
Tony Nyugen // Voice 5
Brody Ohm // Voice 6
Josh Turner // Voice 7
Holland Larned // Voice 8
Victor Maldonado // Voice 9
Brody Ohm // Voice 10
Kolton Stremler // Voice 11
Kat Guerrero // Voice 12
PART II
"Just Outside Fallujah" performed by Josh Turner
"One in a Million" performed by Kolton Stremler
"On the Ocean" performed by Holland Larned
MUSICIANS + VOCALISTS
Mark Bruckner // Conductor and Keyboard:
Andelyn Sunderman // Soprano
Samantha Mayer // Alto
Brody Ohm // Tenor
Tony Nyugen // Baritone