macha board of directors
Our Board Officers work as a team fulfilling the required duties of a non-profit while allowing for a flattened hierarchical structure.
Executive Committee:
Melissa Hamasaki, Amelia Peacock, AArti Tiwari
This committee rotates and job shares the required job titles of Board President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer.
Board officers:
Lesley BaiN, Margaret Toomey
Team Macha
Amy Poisson (she/her) is a Seattle-based director and the producing artistic director of Macha Theatre Works. Amy’s work is primarily focused on world premiere plays by female artists. Recent work with Macha Theatre Works includes 17 Minute Stories, Macha’s Livestreamed Season, The Fifth Wave by Jenn Ruzumna and Lisa Every; Blood Water Paint and Smoke & Dust by Joy McCullough; Sheathed by Maggie Lee (2019 Gregory Award winner for Outstanding New Play; 2019 Gregory Award nominee for Outstanding Actress in a Play); Happy, Happy, Happy… by Jenn Ruzumna and Lisa Every; The Flight Before Xmas by Maggie Lee for Macha Theatre Works in 2019 and Seattle Public Theater in 2017; A Hand of Talons by Maggie Lee (2016 Gregory Award winner for Costumes; multiple Gypsy Rose Awards); The Twelfth Story by Rebecca Goldberg at Annex Theatre; Blood/Water/Paint by Joy McCullough-Carranza for Live Girls! Theater; and Fast Company by Carla Ching (2014 Seattle Times Footlight Award); and The Clockwork Professor and The Tumbleweed Zephyr (2016 Gregory Award nominee for Best New Play) by Maggie Lee, produced by Pork Filled Productions. Amy also directed These Streets by Gretta Harley & Sarah Rudinoff at ACT Central Heating Lab.
Amy Poisson, Producing Artistic Director
Parmida Ziaei is an Iranian designer and choreographer based in Seattle. Since receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree in Architecture and Theatre from University of California Berkeley, she has been merging her love of performing arts with her architecture skills by working in the themed entertainment design industry, creating branded experiences, themed attractions, food and retail, and other immersive spaces. Parmida has been a scenic and production designer with many local Seattle theatres including Macha Theatre Works, Theatre22, and Sound Theatre Company. Parmida is the co-founder and managing director of Seda Iranian Theatre Ensemble. When not designing, Parmida performs, teaches, and choreographs contemporary Persian dance. Learn more at parmidaziaei.com
parmida ziaei, Artistic associate
Leah Jarvik is an actor, educator, and administrator currently based in the Pacific Northwest. She was born and raised in Seattle, but considers herself bi-coastal after spending the last few years on the East Coast for college. As an actor, she has recently worked with VS. Theatre Company, GreenStage, Macha Theatre Works, Tales of the Alchemysts Theatre, and New York Stage and Film's Powerhouse Theater. She also has worked as a teaching artist with Seattle Children's Theatre, and as an arts administrator at numerous companies over the years, including The Young Americans' Theatre Company, 14/48:HS, and Spotlight Theatre Company. Leah holds a Bachelor's Degree in Theatre and English from Haverford College, where she also founded Spotlight Theatre Company and received the Kaye Award for Performance upon graduation. Find out more at leahjarvik.com.
Leah Jarvik, Literary Manager
Raised in Southern California, Kristi Matthews (she/her) first felt the power of storytelling through classic literature and opera. In 2003, she moved to Seattle, started to work in theatre, and just couldn't quit—working as a designer, stage manager, teacher, and technician at many theaters, high schools, and universities throughout Washington state. She is the box office manager at Taproot Theatre Company, theater manager and resident lighting designer/advisor at Roosevelt High School, and a clinician/adjudicator at Washington State Thespians. Kristi is particularly passionate about fostering arts in education, and she is excited for the opportunity to help support the making and marketing of fearless female theatre at Macha Theatre Works.
Kristi Matthews, Business Manager
Jenn Ruzumna is a Seattle based stage and film actor, and playwright. As an actor, she has enjoyed performing on many Seattle stages. She has also been active onscreen in the Northwest film and commercial industry and is looking forward to filming a feature with Try This Films next year. Happy, Happy, Happy… written along with her creative partner, Lisa Every, was directed by Amy Poisson and produced by Macha Theatre Works at the Erickson Theater in 2017 and later published by Mneme Press. Macha will also be producing The Fifth Wave, another Every/Ruzumna collaboration, when it is safe to do so. Jenn is a proud Artistic Associate of Macha, which brings fearless, female theater to the Seattle theater community.
JENN RUZUMNA, ARTISTIC ASSOCIATE
Indira is a recent graduate from The University of Texas at Austin (UT) with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Theatre Education. She will be working on Macha productions, as well as observing and participating in our In-School Residency program, and working with teens in Macha Youth Voices.
Indira Rampersad, Education Associate
Dani Norberg (she/her) is a long time member of the IATSE, Local 30 and a Cornish grad. She has been lighting live performances of all kinds around Seattle since 2010 and in Indiana before that. She is currently the Resident Lighting Designer and an Artistic Associate for Macha Theatre Works where she has lit The Fifth Wave, the livestream series 17 Minute Stories, Blood, Water, Paint, and Smoke and Dust.
Other recent designs include The Bonesetter's Daughter and Beowulf with Book-it, Auntie Val for Freehold Theatre, Champagne Widow at Cafe Nordo, and Transit of Metis For Coriolis Dance.
Dani Norberg, Resident Lighting Designer
Maggie Lee is a Seattle playwright who creates diverse and imaginative new worlds on stage in genres like science fiction, horror, and action-adventure, with plays produced in Seattle, New York, Seoul, Chicago, and San Francisco. Her play Sheathed (produced by Macha Theatre Works) was the recipient of the 2019 Gregory Award for Outstanding New Play and nominated for Outstanding Actor in a Play (for Sunam Ellis’ performance of the character “Bala”), the 2019 Gypsy Rose Lee Award winner for Excellence in Local Playwriting, and a semi-finalist for the 2018 Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Her other plays include A Hand of Talons (2016 Gypsy Rose Lee Award nominee for Excellence in Local Playwriting), The Tumbleweed Zephyr (2016 Gregory Award nominee for Outstanding New Play), The Clockwork Professor, The Flight Before Xmas, and The Journey of the Bell. She is currently a board member of Rain City Projects (an organization supporting Pacific Northwest playwrights) and a member of the Dramatists Guild. Her plays are available on New Play Exchange and published by Mneme Press (mnemepress.org).
Maggie Lee, Resident Playwright
Lisa Every is a Seattle-based theatre artist, producer, and co-founder of BASH Theatre. As a stage actor, she has worked at ReAct Theatre, Centerstage Theatre, SecondStory Repertory, West of Lenin, and BASH Theatre, where she produced three seasons at various venues. Favorite roles include Sylvia (Centerstage Theatre), Fool for Love (Rice Players), Wayne Rawley’s Beating Up Bachman (Radial Theater Project), ...And Starring Claire from Hollywood (Macha Theatre Works), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Capitol Hill Arts Center - CHAC), and Fat Pig (Art Attack). Film credits include the feature Brown’s Canyon, co-produced by BASH Theatre and Try This Films. Her first full-length play, Happy Happy Happy…, was co-written with Jenn Ruzumna, produced by Macha Theatre Works, and premiered at Erickson Theatre in 2017. As an artistic associate at Macha Theatre Works, Lisa enjoys being part of a team that develops and supports the many fierce female voices in this city.
LISA EVERY, ARTISTIC ASSOCIATE
Helen (she/her) is a Seattle-based theatre artist and filmmaker. On stage, she directed the world premiere of Queenfisher by Natalie Schmidt as well as a staged reading of Fire Country by Jessica Chisum, both at The Shattered Glass Project. The Noise Made by People, a narrative film Helen wrote and produced, won the Audience Award for Best Short at the Northwest Film Forum’s 19th Local Sightings Film Festival. The following year, she was a finalist for the Best Filmmaker award in the 2017 Easterseals Disability Film Challenge for her direction of the short film Relationship Demons. Helen is particularly drawn to telling stories about women (especially when they’re queer)!