Learn More About the Panel
Arminda Thomas (she/her) is a dramaturg, director, and archivist. She is a resident dramaturg and producing member of CLASSIX, and a resident dramaturg/curator for New Perspectives Theatre’s On Her Shoulders reading series. She has served as associate artistic director and resident dramaturg for the Going to the River Festival and Writer’s Unit and as archivist and literary manager for Dee-Davis Enterprises, where she was an executive producer for the Grammy-awarded audiobook, “With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together,” and consultant for the film Life’s Essentials with Ruby Dee. Selected dramaturgy credits include The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window (Brooklyn Academy of Music/Broadway), The Wash (New Federal Theatre), Wine in the Wilderness (Classic Stage Company), The Great Privation (Soho Rep), and Wedding Band (Theatre for a New Audience; Stratford Theatre Festival).
Hillary Cohen (The Acting Company Executive Director for Institutional Advancement) has arts administration experience working with Vox Populi co-operative art gallery, Manhattan Theatre Club, Film Forum, Wave Hill public garden and cultural center, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Cherry Lane Theatre, and New York Classical Theatre. She has served as a Creative Space Grant panelist for the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York. Hillary studied Nonprofit Management at NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and is a graduate of Drexel University with a degree in Corporate Communication and a Theatre Production minor. She is a proud IATSE Local One spouse.
Sarah Spring (aka “Dame Sarah”) is a professional actor, coach, and Shakespeare influencer. She has degrees in theater from Interlochen Arts Academy and Fordham University at Lincoln Center, and has played many of Shakespeare’s most powerful women, including Lady Macbeth, Isabella, Viola, Hermione, and Beatrice. Her film “A King’s Curtain” has garnered several awards and is currently making its way through the festival circuit. For more, follow Sarah on social media and Patreon @shakespearemadeclear.
Emily Lyon is a director, artistic director, and dramaturg that carves out the humor and authenticity in new and classic texts. She co-created, leads, and curates Expand the Canon – a call to action to include a global intersection of historic women writers in the canon of classics – as Artistic Director of Hedgepig Ensemble. Expand the Canon highlights 52 plays by 50 historic gender-expansive writers from 1600-1990, and has partnered with companies across the country including Classic Stage Company, Fiasco Theater, American Shakespeare Center, Roundabout, INTAR, Island Shakespeare Festival, The Acting Company, The Folger, and more. As a freelance director, Lyon has directed 9 world premieres, many classic plays, and worked with The Folger, The Brick, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Geva Theatre, The Old Globe, LaMaMa, Yale Rep, The Royal Shakespeare Company, University of Michigan, and others. Her productions have won Best Direction and Best Production (sheNYC), Best Ensemble (MITF), Best Actress (FringeNYC), and Best Premiere (UnitedSolo). As a freelance dramaturg, she’s worked with writers on shaping 25+ new plays, including the world premiere of Kate Hamill’s Sense & Sensibility and Diana Ly’s Sex and the Abbey, as well as editing classical texts, including many of the Expand the Canon plays, an English-Spanish bilingual Hamlet (readings at The Public, The Folger, CTH, TAC), and The Tempest directed by Michael Greif for Shakespeare in the Park. Drama League Directing Fellow, SDC Associate. Find out more at EmilyALyon.com and ExpandTh
Rhiannon Ling (she/her) is a bisexual, multi-industry artist, specializing in the creation and development of politically-driven, community-engaged story across mediums. Her work often revolves around gender and sexuality and its entwining with history, politics, the arts, and identity; she is passionate about amplifying the voices of those silenced, providing unity in discomfort, and sparking genuine query between opposition. Recent credits include: All the Daughters of Viola’s House, The Collapse of the Hubbard Glacier, Seasons, The Interview, Rebound, The City of Forget-Me-Nots, Assassins, Nunsense, A Woman’s Kingdom (actor); Best Time to Be Alive, Monsters in Our Blood, The City of Forget-Me-Nots, Manic Pixie Dream Girl Goes to Brunch (writer); The Selkie Bride, Beethoven: Live in Concert, The Maids, (beyond) Doomsday Scrolling, This Mortal Life Also (dramaturg). O’Neill and SheNYC Arts Semi-Finalist. NAPSeries Finalist. Recipient of the Mayor’s Arts Award, the NEA ArtWorks Grant, and the RedLine Arts in Society Grant. Proud member of AEA, Rewrite the BiLine, Ring of Keys, LMDA. BFA, CAP21 Conservatory. rhiannonlingnyc.
