2009 Final Panel

Trevin Gay is the former Producing Artistic Director of Madison Repertory theatre where he directed Bus Stop and Fully Committed in the rep’s final season. He has directed and performed internationally in England, Germany, France, Wales, and stateside in Kansas City, Denver, Madison, and Chicago. Madison audiences may have seen him onstage in Sylvia, The Misanthrope, You Can’t Take It With You (Strollers) and Compleat Female Stage Beauty (Mercury Players). He has an MFA from Naropa University in conjunction with the London International School of Performing Arts.

Karen Moeller studied theatre at the University of Iowa and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. She has acted with Riverside Theatre in Iowa City; Madison Rep, Strollers and Mercury Players Theatre in Madison, and spent several years in New York City performing on stage and on camera. She wrote her first play, The End of the World, for the Mercury Rising New Play Festival, and can currently be seen in Chad Vader.

Tony Simotes is Director of University Theatre and an Associate Professor at UW-Madison. A Master Teacher of Fight & Movement, Tony is also a Founding Member and Associate Artistic Director of Shakespeare and Company. Directing credits include A Midsummer Nights Dream for Shakespeare and Company, Merry Wives of Windsor for the Orlando Shakespeare Festival and Little Shop of Horrors for The Centennial Theatre in Conn. to name a few. His work as a director and fight choreographer has been featured from coast to coast from the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles to the New York Shakespeare Festival's Public Theater, as well as abroad, includingThe Stage X Festival in Brisbane Australia and The Canadian Stage Company in Toronto. Locally he has worked on both artistic fronts for Madison Rep and American Players Theatre. He has appeared Off-Broadway, regionally, and in many film and television projects. He is also a proud member of Actor's Equity Association, Screen Actor's Guild, and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

Jacque Troy is Literary Manager and Education Director for Milwaukee Chamber Theatre. Prior to her work at MCT, she spent nine years as the Education Director at Milwaukee Repertory Theater. In addition to nearly twenty years as a theatre educator in a variety of settings, Jacque has enjoyed a vital acting career. Her work as an actor with Cornerstone Theatre, In-Tandem Theatre and Renaissance Theaterworks earned her a place in the annual “Top Ten” list compiled by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Jacque received a double-major B.A. in Theater (with an Acting emphasis) and Communication Studies from the University of Iowa and an M.A. in Education from Mount Mary College.

Michael Weller is the UW-Madison’s 2009 Carl Djerassi Distinguished Fellow in Playwriting. His best know plays – Moonchildren, Loose Ends, Spoils of War, and Fifty Words have been performed around the world. He wrote the screenplay for Hair, Ragtime (Academy Award nomination), Lost Angels and (for television) Spoils of War, Once and Again. His work has won an Academy Award nomination, an N.A.A.C.P. Outstanding Contribution Award, Critics Outer Circle Award, a Rockefeller Foundation Grant and a Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award. He serves on the counsel of the Dramatists Guild of America, and Writer’s Guild of America, east, Inc Foundation Fund.