The Sol Project’s Associate Artistic Director, David Mendizábal, and Producing Assistant, Joey Reyes, interview Maria Goyanes, Artistic Director of Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington D.C., and Stephanie Ybarra, Artistic Director of Baltimore Center Stage in Baltimore Maryland. They discuss leadership turnover, institutional values, and the changing landscape of the American Theater. 

Maria Goyanes joined Woolly Mammoth Theater as the new Artistic Director in September 2018. Previously, she served as the Director of Producing and Artistic Planning at The Public Theater in New York City where she oversaw the day-to-day execution of the plays and musicals at the theatre’s five performance spaces, including the Delacorte Theater for the company’s Shakespeare in the Park programming. She also lead the season planning process as well as the theatre’s artistic programs, including Public Works, the Under the Radar Festival, and the offerings at Joe’s Pub. She is a faculty member at the Juilliard School, where she co-teaches a course on producing. She also creates the curriculum for Playwrights Downtown, the Playwrights Horizons Theater School at New York University. She serves as a board member of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre.

She served as executive producer of the 13P playwrights collective and as the co-chair of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. She was also the associate producer of Trinity Repertory Company. The League of Professional Theatre Women honored her with the Josephine Abady Award. She earned a B.A. at Brown University, where she was awarded the Susan Steinfeld Award.

Stephanie Ybarra joined Baltimore Center Stage as the new Artistic Director full-time in December 2018. Previously, she served as the Director of Special Artistic Projects at The Public Theater, where she lead the Mobile Unit and Public Forum programs. She made her artistic producing debut with the original production of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s The Brothers Size, for which she received the inaugural Producer’s Chair Award from the Foundry Theater. She went on to serve as the first Producing Director for Playwrights Realm and Producing Artistic Director for the Cherry Lane Theater’s Mentor Project, collaborating with artists such as Jen Silverman, Snehal Desai, Greg Moss and Awoye Timpo. In 2015, she was the recipient of TCG’s Continuing Education Grant, which took her to Peru to explore socio-political theater, and in 2016 she received the Congressional Award for Achievement in Excellence from Zara Aina, an international nonprofit dedicated to community engaged artmaking. Stephanie holds an MFA in Theater Management from Yale School of Drama.

David (daveed) Mendizábal is an NYC based director, designer, one of the Producing Artistic Leaders of The Movement Theatre Company, and Associate Artistic Director of The Sol Project. Learn more about David and his work at www.davidmendizabal.com. 

Joey Reyes serves as the Producing Assistant of The Sol Project and Executive Assistant at Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, CT. Originally from Southern California, they have worked as a producer, administrator, and facilitator on the east coast since late 2017. IG & Twitter: @joeykangarooooo.

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