Holly L. Derr is a writer, director, and professor of theatre specializing in viewpoints and composition, the performance of gender, and applied theater history. Her most recent production, Harry and the Thief by Sigrid Gilmer, ran at The Know Theatre of Cincinnati. She also recently directed As Long as Fear Can Turn to Wrath at Son of Semele in Los Angeles; presented her original script American Medea at the Warner Loughlin Studios and Ensemble Studio Theater/LA; and directed Rimers of Eldritch at Chapman University. Favorite past projects include Harry and the Thief; In the Penal Colony; Speak; The Time of Your Life (as a musical adaptation); The Front Page; and new plays by Gregory S. Moss, Ann Marie Healy, Timothy Braun, and Colin Denby Swanson. Holly was the founding artistic director of SKT Inc., a New York–based nonprofit theater, and has directed new plays for Opera House Arts at the Stonington Opera House, The Know Theatre, Big Dance Theater’s Play Play Faster Faster Festival, and the PlayPenn New Play Development Festival. She has served on the faculties of Marlboro College and Smith College and has taught and directed at the American Repertory Theater Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University, Brown University/Trinity Repertory Company Consortium, California Institute of the Arts, University of California at Riverside, and Chapman University. She is currently an artist-in-residence at Skidmore College. Originally from Dallas, Texas, Holly holds an MFA in directing from Columbia University and a BA in theatre from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Ms. Derr will direct Lauren Yee’s King of the Yees for the ANPF Women’s Invitational: For nearly 20 years, playwright Lauren Yee’s father Larry has been a driving force in the Yee Family Association, a seemingly obsolescent Chinese American men’s club formed 150 years ago in the wake of the Gold Rush. But when her father goes missing, Lauren must plunge into the rabbit hole of San Francisco Chinatown and confront a world both foreign and familiar. At once bitingly hilarious and heartbreakingly honest, King of the Yees is an epic joyride across cultural, national and familial borders that explores what it means to truly be a Yee.
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Terri McMahon was seen last season as Tracey in OSF’s production of Sweat and Mrs. Stiles, Nurse Spiller, Prison Matron, and Ensemble in Fingersmith. In 23 seasons at OSF, roles have included Lady Bird Johnson in The Great Society and All The Way; Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Widow in The Taming of the Shrew; Beline in The Imaginary Invalid; Ivy Weston in August: Osage County; Lisa in Well; Hermia in Dead Man’s Cell Phone; Frau Fischer in On the Razzle; Helen Griffin in UP; Mrs. Van Buren in Intimate Apparel; Assunta in Napoli Milionaria!; Rosie Pye in Humble Boy; Thea Elvsted in Hedda Gabler; Witch, Murderer, Lady Macduff, and Macduff in Macbeth; Queen and Belarius in Cymbeline; Flavia Antonescu, Rodica, and Doctor in Mad Forest; Rosalind in As You Like It; Joan La Pucelle in Henry VI, Part One; Portia in Julius Caesar; Frankie/Frances in The Voice of the Prairie; Julia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona; and Frankie in The Member of the Wedding. Terri participated in the Black Swan Lab (2009 and 2010). She appeared in Spin, or Twilight of the Bohemians at ANPF 2011; Omission at ANPF 2012; and And Vaster at ANPF 2015. Other theatres include La Jolla Playhouse, Center Theatre Group, TheatreWorks, Marin Theatre Company, Arizona Theatre Company, Intiman Theatre, California Shakespeare Theater, and Sacramento Theatre Company. Terri was an actor-teacher in OSF’s School Visit Program (1984–2005). She holds a BFA from the University of Southern California and is a member of Actors’ Equity Association.
Ms. McMahon will direct Jiehae Park’s Hannah and the Dread Gazebo: Inside the FedEx box are two things: a 100% bona-fide-heart’s-desire-level wish and a suicide note. Hannah tracks the package back to Korea, where her grandmother recently jumped from the roof of the Sunrise Dewdrop Apartment City for Senior Living onto the wrong side of the Demilitarized Zone. They’ll need North Korea’s permission to retrieve the body, but Kim Jong Il just kicked the bucket, and things in the DMZ are even stranger than they seem.
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Penny Metropulos adapted (with Linda Alper) and will direct OSF’s production of Great Expectations this season. In 20 seasons at OSF, other adaptations with Linda Alper include The Three Musketeers; Tracy’s Tiger; and The Comedy of Errors (A Musical). Other OSF directing credits include Henry IV, Part One; The Comedy of Errors; Tracy’s Tiger; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; The Philanderer; Humble Boy; Lorca in a Green Dress; Antony and Cleopatra; As You Like It; The Tempest; The Night of the Iguana; The Good Person of Szechuan; The Three Musketeers; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Death of a Salesman; Timon of Athens; Cabaret Verboten; The Merry Wives of Windsor; Restoration; and Lips Together/Teeth Apart. She was also associate artistic director (1996–2007) and an acting company member (1985–1987). She has directed productions at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Westport Country Playhouse, Denver Center Theatre Company, Arena Stage, The Acting Company, Guthrie Theater, Syracuse Stage, Portland Center Stage, Intiman Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and California Shakespeare Festival. Other credits include director of outreach (Arizona Theater Company); Quinn Martin Fellow (University of California, San Diego); and board member (Siskiyou Music Project). Penny has been an instructor, lecturer or director at numerous universities and theatre programs. She was educated at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and Dallas Theater Center Academy.
Ms. Metropulos will direct Martyna Majok’s The Cost of Living: What road brought us here? Unemployed truck driver Eddie Torres recalls his final moments with wife, Ani Luz, when a car accident turned the focus of their relationship from divorcing to care-giving. In another part of Jersey, overworked and under-qualified, Jess takes on yet another job to make ends meet – this time, as a personal caregiver for a wealthy and beautiful graduate student named John, who has cerebral palsy. As Eddie and Ani’s flame re-ignites, Jess and John’s relationship becomes surprisingly intimate – but life makes no guarantees and people are not always what they seem. Cost of Living dives into the chasm between abundance and need and explores the space where bodies – abled and disabled – meet each other.