The front porch arts collective Leadership team
DAWN M. SIMMONS
she/her/hers Co-Producing Artistic Director Dawn Meredith Simmons is a director, a playwright and an arts administrator. She has worked with: Actors’ Shakespeare Project, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Greater Boston Stage Company, Bad Habit Productions, Anthem Theatre, Boston Public Works, Lyric Stage Company, New Exhibition Room, Suffolk University, Fresh Ink Theatre, Dorchester Fringe Festival, GAN-e-meed Theatre Project, The Theatre Offensive, Our Place Theatre Project, Mill 6, Actors Refuge Repertory Theatre, Fort Point Theatre Channel, Boston Theatre Works, and As Yet To Be Theatre. Ms. Simmons is Co-Artistic Director of New Exhibition Room and a founding member of the Small Theatre Alliance Boston, and Executive Director of StageSource.
Click here to contact Dawn |
MAURICE EMMANUEL PARENT
he/him/his Co-Producing Artistic Director Maurice Emmanuel Parent is an award-winning actor, director, educator and mentor with 20 years of professional experience. He has over 40 acting credits at theatres across the nation and abroad, having performed with some of Boston’s oldest and most respected companies. His work as an actor has earned him two Elliot Norton Awards from The Boston Theater Critics Association, three Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) awards, and an ArtsImpulse Award. Parent’s history as an educator extends back nearly a decade. He’s taught for Northeastern University, MIT, The Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and spent nearly 6 years as a Performing Arts Specialist in the Boston Public School System. Currently Parent is a full time Professor of the Practice in the Tufts Department of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies
Click here to contact Maurice |
PASCALE FLORESTAL
she/her/hers Director of Education Pascale Florestal is a first generation Haitian American Queer Woman. As the Director of Education, Pascale created and manages The Young Critics and Apprenticeship Program. She is the Associate Producer of The Reading Series, Black Out Events and other productions. Pascale is an Elliot Norton Nominated Director, Educator, Dramaturg, Writer and Collaborator based in Boston, MA. Recent directing Credits: Fairview with SpeakEasy Stage, Spring Awakening at Brandeis University, The Colored Museum with The Umbrella Performing Arts Center, Once On This Island with SpeakEasy Stage, This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing with Emerson Stage, Everybody with Boston Conservatory and others. As an Assistant to the Director she has worked with Timothy Douglas, Liesl Tommy, Billy Porter, Paul Daigneault and M. Bevin O'Gara. Pascale served as the Associate Director to Gil Rose on X:The Life and Times of Malcolm X with Odyssey Opera and Kimberly Senior on Our Daughters, Like Pillars at The Huntington Theater. Pascale also serves as the Associate Director for The Broadway National Tour of Jagged Little Pill. In 2021 Pascale was named one of the WBUR ARTery 25 Artists of Color Transforming the Cultural Landscape in Boston. In 2020 she won the Inaugural Greg Ferrell Award for her excellence in teaching and supporting young people. Pascale is an Assistant Professor of Theater at Boston Conservatory at Berklee College of Music and is a full member of the SDC Union.
Click here to contact Pascale |
DONOVAN HOLT
he/him/his Associate Producer Donovan is an actor, director, and producer in Boston. As the Associate Producer, Donovan works as the casting director, producer for Family Recipes Reading Series and main stage productions, along with marketing and communications manager. Originally from Chicago, he is a Northeastern University graduate with a degree in Theatre and minor in Human Movement Science. He has worked with multiple theaters including The Huntington, The Goodman Theatre, Central Square Theatre, and Greater Boston Stage Company. During his time with The Porch he has worked on Elliot Norton Award winning productions of Chicken & Biscuits, Ain't Misbehavin' and K-I-S-S-I-N-G. Donovan was a part of the College of Arts Media and Design’s 2024 Undergraduate Group Creative and Research Project Award winning team for Exception to the Rule where he served as Director. He has also been awarded the Eugene Blackman Scholarship for Outstanding Achievement in the Art of Theatre, Garnet Award, and the prestigious Huntington 100.
Click here to contact Donovan |
