Hollace Starr (Director) is an associate professor of theatre at Pepperdine University, where she teaches, coaches voice and dialects, and directs. Recently, Hollace most recent credits include Finegan Kruckemeyer’s This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing, Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, and Sonheim’s Into the Woods at the Smothers Theatre at Pepperdine University. In early 2020, she directed the West Coast Premiere of Mike Bartlett’s Earthquakes In London at Rogue Machine Theatre, and she wrote and voiced the original prologue for the video version of Pepperdine’s COVID-canceled The Cherry Orchard, which was published in the “Emergency” issue of the online theatre journal Imagined Theatres. During the height of the pandemic, Hollace adapted Shakespeare’s As You Like It for the zoom stage which included 13 music videos with original music by Jeremy Zerbe which were intercut into the live production. Other directing credits include Falling, Circle Mirror Transformation, and Eurydice at Pepperdine, and Three Views Of The Same Object at Rogue Machine Theatre. Hollace has provided voice and dialect coaching for numerous productions including Joe Egg (Odyssey), Miss Lilly Gets Boned (Rogue Machine), and Tracers (USVAA) and many Pepperdine theatre productions, including Christmas at Pemberley, Curtains, South Pacific, Heritage, Medea, and The Interference. Hollace’s acting credits include Yard Sale Signs and Milkmilklemonade at Rogue Machine, A Chicago Christmas Carol at Crown City Theatre, Small Tragedy at the Odyssey for which Hollace received an Ovation Award nomination, Vieux Carre at the Ivy Substation, Window Of Opportunity at the Met, and productions at The Fountain Theatre, The Actors’ Gang, and more. Hollace performed her one-woman show My Dad Came Dressed As Marilyn Monroe at Highways Performance Space and at the Hysteria Festival in Toronto, Canada. She is a founding member of Rogue Machine Theatre Company and on the board of Trade City Productions, which operates the Popwagon, Los Angeles’ very first mobile theatre truck. In 2021, while the Popwagon was in residency at 18th Street Arts Center under Santa Monica’s Recovery Justice program, Hollace presented a COVID-safe presentation of Rooms: Tiny Openings, an original installation that explored performance art as a means of examining the global pandemic. Hollace received her MFA in acting from UCLA’s School of Theatre, Film and Television. She is a lifetime member of the Actors Studio and a designated Linklater Voice teacher. Hollace is honored to be joining the Pepperdine Scotland team for this production.

Lewis Hetherington (Playwright) is Glasgow-based playwright and performance maker. His work is rooted in collaboration, storytelling and play. He has won two Fringe First Awards and an Adelaide Fringe Award. He is co-founder of fieldwork performance and Constellation Points. He often works in community contexts and is passionate about amplifying unheard voices, using creativity to empower people to find connection and agency.

Work with Constellations Points includes Cloud Man, The Secret Life of Suitcases and Rocket Post! Other recent work includes: The Multiverse is Gay! (Lyceum Theatre Young Company), Red Riding Hood (Citizen’s Theatre), The Coming Back Out Ball (National Theatre of Scotland), Dear Green Place (fieldwork performance), BOYS (The PappyShow). 

His work has travelled all over the world including performances in Australia, China, Canada, Germany, Japan, US and Singapore amongst other places.

Sam Hardie (Producer/Dramaturg) Originally from Fife, Sam is a Director and Theatre Maker. She trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and co-runs award winning theatre company The PappyShow. Sam was recently an Origins Artist with Headlong and an Accelerator Artist with Imaginate.

Recent Theatre Credits as Director: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), To the Bone (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), GIRLS (The Pappy Show)

As Associate/Assistant Director: Little Women (Pitlochry Festival Theatre/HOME), An Edinburgh Christmas Carol (Royal Lyceum Theatre), Rocket Post (Constellation Points), What Do You See (Shoreditch Town Hall/The PappyShow), BOYS (The Barbican/The PappyShow) and CARE (The PappyShow).

Sam was a finalist for the JMK award in 2023 and won the Nicole Kidman Award for Female Director from the MGCfutures in 2021. Photo credit: Helen Murray

Paul J. Dufresne (Production Manager/Design Supervisor) is a scene designer for theatre and opera based in Los Angeles. Originally from Ventura California, Paul has designed both nationally and internationally working with companies such as The English National Opera, The Minnesota Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, The Rubicon Theatre Company, The Road Theater Company, The Gary Marshall Theatre, The Guthrie, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Milwaukee Rep, and LA Opera, among others.

Selected opera credits include scene designs for The Merry Widow, Dolores Claiborne; Pelléas et Mélisande; Le Nozze di Figaro; Hydrogen Jukebox; Die Zauberflöte directed by Henry Price; Additional credits include ovation nominated production Nowhere on the Border (The Road Theatre 2020); Rhinoceros, as well as productions of Angels in America Pt. 1 & 2; These Shining Lives; Hamlet; Associate scene design for Class; Scott and Hem (Gary Marshall Theatre – 2015) La Rondine, Man of la Mancha, Ghosts of Versailles; The Destiny of Desire among others; Paul is the head of the theatre design program at Pepperdine University. He was awarded the USITT designers’ national award for outstanding achievement in scenic design.

Santana Mosher (Assistant Director) is a Fourth – Year Theater Arts (Directing) major from Indian Wells, California. Her previous credits at Pepperdine University include The Tempest (Assistant Director), The Music Man (Assistant Stage Manager), Americana: A Murder Ballad (Props Designer/Wardrobe Head), The Winter’s Tale (Assistant Stage Manager), The Importance of Being Earnest (Assistant Director), and Mamma Mia! (Assistant Stage Manager). Mosher is a recipient of the Theater Arts Scholarship Award and Regent Scholarship. She is so grateful for this opportunity to bring a powerful piece of storytelling to the Fringe Festival alongside some wonderfully talented artists!

Jacqueline Thornell (Stage Manager) is a junior Theatre major with an emphasis in directing and a minor in Hispanic Studies from Cheyenne, WY. Her Pepperdine Credits include Silent Sky (Performer), the West Coast premiere of Villette (Stage Manager), This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing (Assistant Director), The Revolutionists (Director), The Clean House (Performer), Into the Woods (Assistant Stage Manager), The Winter’s Tale (Assistant Director), Some Oral Histories of Ground Zero (Stage Manager). She is a Regent Scholar and a Pepperdine Theatre Arts Scholarship recipient. She is a sister in the Gamma Phi Beta Sorority. Thornell is grateful to all who support her on this beautiful journey that we call life.

Melanie Watnick (Costume Designer) has been working as a professional costume designer for theatre and dance for over 25 years. In addition to her work at Pepperdine, she has designed and lectured at the University of California San Diego, University of California Irvine and Hartnell College.   Her costume designs for dance have been seen in both national and international tours with companies such as : ABT II, Ballet X, Company C, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre,  Malashock Dance, Backhausdance, Ballet West and Norwegian Cruise Line.  Her theatre  designs have included work with companies such as : Julliard, Seattle Repertory, San Diego Repertory Theatre, the Barter, Great Lakes Theater Festival, South Coast Repertory Theatre,  Open Fist, Boston Court, The Flea and Rouge Machine and most recently Children’s Theatre Cincinnati.  Ms. Watnick received her MFA from the University of California San Diego and a BA with a distinction within her major from University of California Santa Barbara.  Her love of cheese is only surpassed by her love of dogs. 

Niroshini Thambar (Sound Designer & Composer) Niroshini is a musician, composer, and sound designer, initially playing live on violin and piano/keyboards, before moving into composition and audio production. Her work spans theatre, installation, film, and participatory art projects with creative research interests encompassing ecology, identity and belonging.

Theatre credits include Sho and the Demons of the Deep (National Theatre of Scotland/IAP), Disciples (Stellar Quines), Cyprus Avenue (Tron Theatre), To the Bone (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), Maud’s Map (Citizens Theatre), Jinnistan (Play Pie Pint), Little Women (Pitlochry Festival Theatre/Watford Palace Theatre), Rocket Post (Constellation Points) The Bookies and Gagarin Way (Dundee Rep), Here (Curious Monkey/Northern Stage), Scent of Roses (Royal Lyceum Edinburgh), The Tempest (Tron Theatre), Ghosts (National Theatre of Scotland), Hindu Times (Royal Lyceum Edinburgh/Pitlochry Festival Theatre/Naked Productions), Revolution Days (Bijli Productions)

Further work includes Associate Director for the audio-led drama Niqabi Ninja (Independent Arts Projects) and Series Composer for United Kingdoms (Naked Productions/BBC Radio 4). For more information, visit niroshinithambar.com

Zoe Macarewa (Scenic Designer) is a senior Art and Theatre-Screen Arts (production design) major with an emphasis in scenic design from Loma Linda, California. Her Pepperdine University production credits include set crew for The Music Man, light board operator for This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing and The Merry Widow, and sound board operator for The Tempest. She is excited to be designing her first show! She is a recipient of the Pepperdine Theatre Arts Scholarship.

Ephram Aguirre (Lighting Designer) is a third year Theatre Arts major from Pepperdine University with an emphasis in Production/Design. Aguirre is originally from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. His previous Pepperdine credits include The Tempest (Assistant Scenic Designer), a student-directed production of Silent Sky (Sound Designer), The Merry Widow (Deck Manager), Villette (Properties Designer), The Music Man (Assistant Lighting Designer/Lead Electrician/ Follow Spotlight Operator), This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing (Stage Manager), a student-directed abridged version of The Revolutionists (Sound Designer and Lighting Programmer), Americana: A Murder Ballad (U.S. Premier) (Properties Designer), H.M.S. Pinafore (Follow Spotlight Operator), Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Light Board Operator, Assistant Master Electrician), and Into The Woods (Assistant Stage Manager).

Alex Negrila (Prop Designer / Wardrobe Supervisor) is a rising sophomore double major in Theater with emphases in scenic and costume design and Integrated Marketing and Communications from Seattle, WA. Her Pepperdine credits include This Girl Laughs (Wardrobe Head), Villette (Projections operator), and The Music Man (Crew Position). She is a member of the Pepperdine Fashion Club and a sister in the Gamma Phi Beta sorority. Alex would like to thank everyone who supports her on her journey through the art of theater.