The front porch arts collective Leadership team
Dawn Meredith 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.
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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
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Pascale Florestal
she/her/hers Education Director and Associate Producer Pascale Florestal is a first generation Haitian American Queer Woman. As the Education Director 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.
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Judi DeJager
she/her/hers Development Manager Judi is an experienced improvisor - on and off stage - but it is because of her in-depth knowledge of the non-profit sector, including fundraising positions at Actors Shakespeare Project, Wheelock Family Theatre, and the Handel and Haydn Society among many others, that she came to the Porch. A lifelong lover of performing arts, she has a natural affinity for fundraising and donor engagement. Meet her and you will probably notice she has an easy laugh. In fact, you should meet her. She wants to meet you and encourage you to make a charitable donation :)
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Donovan Holt
he/him/his Artistic Associate Donovan is an actor, director, and producer in Boston. As the Artistic Associate, Donovan works as the casting director, and producer for the upcoming reading series. Originally from Chicago, he is a 5th year Theatre major at Northeastern University. 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 is the recipient of the Garnet Award and was inducted into the Huntington 100 at Northeastern this past year.
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