People 4the Theatre| The Artistic Co-Op!

Mahina Susan Bowyer, Co-Op Member

Mahina Bowyer is a hapa kānaka maoli director and artist, from Waiʻanae Hawaiʻi.  She began singing and acting at a young age and eventually graduated with her B.A. in Theater from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. After graduation Mahina moved to New York City where she studied acting with Celia Schafer (McCaskill Studios) and Directing with Isaac Byrne (MCS). She is passionate about carrying on the storytelling practices of her kūpuna and highlighting indigenous voices in her work. Mahina previously directed the staged reading of Blue Gum, Brooklyn by LR Savage, and the 2023 MCS Scene Showcase. She most recently served as the Assistant Director to Isaac Byrne on T4TP production of Stupid F*cking Bird.

Isaac Byrne, Founder and Co-Artistic Director

Isaac has spent over a decade in New York City making new plays happen as a director, actor, writer, and producer. He has received the New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Direction twice and productions he has directed have been nominated for a Drama Desk Award, an Off Broadway Alliance award, 25 NYIT awards, and 11 Planet Connection Awards. He also performs regularly with the Aztec Economy theatre company in the touring show Butcher Holler Here We Come. He studied acting with renowned acting teachers including Fred Kareman and Matthew Corozine in NYC and Terry Martin in Texas. He has taught acting at the University of the Arts, the New York Film Academy, and the Matthew Corozine Studio. MFA in Directing from Texas State University.

Evan Simone Frazier, Co-Op Member

Evan Simone Frazier is an interdisciplinary artist from Long Island, NY. Evan is trained in Musical Theater and Meisner acting - her stage credits include Ragtime (Axelrod Theater), The Cake (The Philipstown Theater). In 2021, she received an MFAIA from Goddard College, where she developed a solo show Perfect. In 2022, Evan became certified in Playback Theater with The Village Playback theater Company. Through Playback she has used storytelling to connect with communities and further understand what it means to be human. She continues to discover the power in storytelling through teaching writing workshops with Naked Angels Theater Company to children living in residential foster care. Evan is also a yoga and meditation instructor. She approaches yoga as a vital tool for discovery, creativity and self-understanding.

Haley Rice, Co-Op Leader

Haley Rice is a NYC-based creative. She most recently played The Cosmonaut in Isaac Byrne’s Under The Dragon’s Tail. She is currently the Creative Producer at MCS Theatre and has curated the 2023 New Works Series.  She recently directed Ryan Tofil's play reading Part One, MCS Writers' Block Showcase “Scratch That,” and assistant-directed Isle of Shoals production of Romeo & Juliet. Proud to be asked by the late Ted Wold to direct his 2021 production of Sunday on the Rocks.  Haley has a body of work that spans from full-length plays to multiple pilots and feature screenplays. She's studied TV-Writing through UCLA,  play writing at Primary Stages, and is a founding member of The Writers' Block at MCS since 2019. Haley was an Artist-in-Residence at The Ace Hotel and is currently head Artist in Residence at Theatre4thePeople.Haley wrote her first play LOU, based on the life of Lou Salome, which premiered at the Paradise Factory NYC in 2017. In 2020, her play Chimera placed in the top 30 at the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival. Don't Feed the Ducks will premiere at the 2023 International Human Rights Art Festival at The Tank.Her screenplay The Last Gableton was selected for the LBGTQ+ Toronto Film Festival, a quarter finalist in the Vancouver International Women in Film Festival, and a finalist in the 2021 Downtown LA Film Festival screenplay competition. Her original pilot “Giselle, In Process” was a semi-finalist for the 2021 Emerging Screenwriters Competition.  Co-Founder of Messy Stars Productions.

Joshua Rose, Co-Artistic Director

Joshua has been involved in theatre from a very early age. Performing on stage occasionally as a child into college when he discovered the technical side of theatre. Falling in love with design in general and lighting in particular Joshua got his BFA in design from the University of Utah and his MFA in stage design from Southern Methodist University. After arriving in New York City Joshua has worked in theatre, dance, opera, concerts, events and architecture. His work has been seen from Hong Kong, to The Vatican, to Mexico City in venues from the Kennedy Center to China’s National Center for the Performing Arts, to Lincoln Center. Touring the world, the country and the five boroughs of New York City. 

Joshua has been a lighting designer, set designer, projection designer, stage manager, technical director, company manager, production manager, writer, director, student, teacher, audience member, basically he has almost done it all. Unless it involves sewing. He can’t sew.

Joshua is excited to use his decades of experience in the many facets of the industry, to build a company that aims to build an industry that pushes for progress and continual improvement in all the ways we interact with each other, as colleagues, as collaborators, as artists, as humans. 

Sidney Rushing, Co-Op Member

Syd has penned various stage productions in both Chicago, Texas and Los Angeles. He also wrote and performed his one man show Brother’s Tellin’ in Los Angeles which was nominated for a NAACP Theatre award. Syd was then selected for the Mark Taper Playwright’s Program. He went on to write a string of produced plays including Akashic Permutations, Unsung Heroes, Patterns, Flossie, Zu’s Earth and many others. Soon thereafter, Syd was employed at Paramount Studios where he learned under mentors in the TV industry with the nation’s top rated shows. Rushing was grateful to be a winner in the Queensbury Theatre New Work Playwright series and a recipient of the Lorraine Hansberry Distinguished Achievement Award at the Kennedy Center. He was the recipient of the Inaugural August Wilson Playwright Fellowship for 2021 and received the honor of 21st Century Voices for 2022. He is a graduate of the American Musical & Dramatic Academy in New York, the University of Mississippi, Writer’s Boot Camp Screenwriting in Los Angeles, Kingwood College and Texas State University’s dramatic writing program. He thanks Greenlight Production Company for hiring him to write numerous plays, the people that did not give up on him and the Grahams. Before playwriting, Syd enjoyed a career performing in hundreds of professional productions in summer stock theatre, regional theatre, tours and Off-Off Broadway. Lastly, as an educator, he has taught every grade from K-12 to college while winning Teacher of the Year three times.

TJ Young, Co-Op Member

TJ Young is a Texas-born playwright and dramaturg based in Pittsburgh, where he serves as co-representative for the Dramatists Guild - Pittsburgh region. He has served as a dramaturg for the Young Playwrights Festival at City Theatre since 2018. His plays include The Inseparables (Pittsburgh Public Theatre commission), Isle of Noises (James Madison University Commission), No. 6 (2017 Harold and Mimi Steinberg Award Winner – KCACTF, Indiana Rep), Lyon’s Den (2018 Harold and Mimi Steinberg Distinguished Achievement awardee), Ruby’s Baby Blue (2016 John Cauble Short Play Award Regional Finalist- KCACTF), Hell is Empty (2017 John Cauble Short Play Award Regional Finalist - KCACTF). His 10-minute plays include: Before the Fire (Fade to Black 2018 Festival Selection), Hallmark (TETA Playfest 10-minute Winner) Effie, Rock the Cradle, Lillies, and Stuffed. He is the recipient of the 2017 Ken Ludwig Playwriting Scholarship. He has had productions at Texas State University as part of their New Works Festival, Director/Designer Collaboration Project, and as part of their 2016-2017 Main Stage Season. He was the 2019 Spotlight Artist of Throughline Theatre Company in Pittsburgh, PA. He received his MFA in Dramatic Writing from Texas State University. He is also the NPP Chair for Region 2 of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, where he also aids with the Playwriting Intensive and teaches workshops both at the regional and national level. He is currently an Associate Professor of Dramaturgy at Carnegie Mellon University.