Meet the BBTF Team

Lenore Skomal is a theatre-maker, playwright and author of over 20 books and published plays. She is the director of TCB Theatre Productions, the non-profit that produces Broadway Bound Theatre Festival (BBTF) in New York City. In addition to BBTF, she has produced her Off Broadway comedy THE EXES at Theatre Row (2019) and BLUFF at Hudson Guild (2016), both currently available for licensing by community and regional theatres. Her first book, THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER’S DAUGHTER, has been licensed by LA-based Little Warriors Productions. She has also co-produced BLEED LIKE ME, a feature-length film released in 2024 and FLOWERS FOR MRS. HARRIS (UK production). A proud member of the Dramatist Guild, Commercial Theatre Institute, Off Broadway Alliance, Theater Communications Group, the National Newspaper Columnists Association, Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), and the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), Lenore is dedicated to empowering self-producing artists.

Rick Sayers is a theatre producer and former newspaper publisher and editor as well as co-founder of Broadway Bound Theatre Festival, with over 50 years in the newspaper and communications industry. As a former editor of the Erie Times-News, publisher of the Connecticut Post, The National Sports Daily, Detroit News, and Boston Herald, he is a skilled manager at heart. Rick brings a passion to working with theatre professionals, especially playwrights, helping them develop their skills and hone their abilities to produce their own works with confidence and little stress. His motto: Drama is our business, but we don't accept drama in our business.

Sarah Schetter is an entertainment professional with over 20 years experience spanning live performance, film, events, photography, and education. Originally from rural Ohio, she has called New York City her home since 2002, after completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatrical Production from Ithaca College. Sarah has benefitted from the practice of taking on a diverse range of positions and responsibilities throughout her career. She possesses the flexibility to adapt and thrive as a collaborator from the early stages of project development to the execution of the culminating event. Recent credits include Technical Director for Dracula: A Comedy of Terror, The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers, Heartbeat Opera’s Eugene Onegin & Extinctionist, and Production Manager for Winesday: The Wine Tasting Musical, Cellino v Barnes, and A Guide for the Homesick. For more, please visit sarahschetter.com.

Kimberly O'Loughlin is a queer transfeminine, award-winning Sound Designer and Composer from NYC. She has taught Theatrical Sound Design and Engineering at Montclair State University for the last three years in addition to her freelance career. She is a veteran of many festivals including NYMF, RAVE, and BBTF. She holds resident Sound Design positions at The Barnstormers Theatre in Tamworth, NH; and The Argyle Theater in Babylon, NY.  Favorite Credits from NYC and Regional theaters include: Jersey Boys (Argyle Theater), Misconceptions (Blessed Unrest) Two By Synge (Irish Rep), While You Were Partying (SoHo Rep) Leaving Eden & Overture (NYMF 2019), Clue (Oregon Cab) I Am My Own Wife (Long Wharf), Fully Committed; Into the Woods; Popcorn Falls (The Barnstormers), Till (ATG) www.oloughlinsound.com

Chris Phillips is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and director. His plays have been seen on both coasts in venues such as Celebration Theatre, SoHo Playhouse and the Cherry Lane Theater, receiving two GLAAD Media Award nominations, winning the award for Overall Excellence in Playwriting at the New York International Fringe Festival, and receiving a grant from the Robert Chesley Foundation, which supports LGBTQ playwrights.  After moving from L.A. to New York City and back again, shifting his focus to film & TV, he directed 7 short films – 4 from his own scripts – screening at festivals such as Outfest Los Angeles and the California Independent Film Festival, where he won Best Director of a Short, and the Austin After Dark Film Festival, where his short won Best Drama. Chris was a Top 50 semi-finalist for the Academy Nicholl Fellowship, a finalist for the Warner Bros. TV Writers Workshop, a semi-finalist for the NBC Universal Emerging Writers Fellowship, and a finalist for both the WB TV Pilot award and the Josephson Entertainment Fellowship at the Austin Film Festival. His first feature-length film, BLEED LIKE ME, is on the festival circuit.

Nathan Repasz is a New York-based drummer, vocalist, improviser, theatremaker, and Foley artist. He is a founding member of the experimental theatre company CHILD, which presented 1-800-3592-113592 in Spring 2024 (NYC), which was included in The New Yorker's Best Theatre of 2024 list. Other 2024 projects include, as drummer: Fouad of Nazareth by Fouad Dakwar; Golem Owned A Tropical Smoothie by Ethan Crystal + Garrett Poladian; \\\ by Shannon Yu; and The Best You Can, an upcoming film starring Kevin Bacon. Foley art: Silent Light, an opera by Paola Prestini; Lone Wolf (NYC and Luxembourg). Music director: The Four Lives by Theodora Skipitares. His solo language+percussion performance practice explores sense/nonsense and groove/noise and his piece “National Hot Dog Day” was featured in the 2024 “Emergency Index”. He works as a choral singer, session/pit musician, and goat-cheesemonger in the NYC area.

Laurence Holzman wrote several original musicals with longtime collaborator, Felicia Needleman, until her untimely death in 2023. Together, they won the Kleban Award for Librettists and ASCAP’s Sammy Cahn Award for Lyricists. In addition to Making Ends Meet and One Night, both of which were presented in the 2025 BBTF,  they wrote Wallenberg (WPPAC), The Jerusalem Syndrome (York Theatre Company; OCR on JAY Records; Theatre for the American Musical Prize), That Time of the Year (York Theatre Company; OCR on JAY Records), Suddenly Hope (Denver Civic Theatre), The Window, and I Married a Witch (ASCAP Workshop). Laurence is also co-author (with Marc Goldsmith) of the play, The Queen is in the Parlour, and the screenplay, Fella.  As a principal of Bard Theatricals, Laurence's producing credits include The Play That Goes Wrong, Mrs. Doubtfire, Jagged Little Pill, and Scottsboro Boys. Laurence is also a graduate of Columbia Law School and a BBTF 2025 alum.

Aaron Benham is an award-winning music director, conductor, and composer. National Tour: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, An American in Paris. Off-Broadway: The Book of Merman. Regional: It's All Your Fault, Tyler Price, LA; Transcendence Theatre Co., Sonoma; Montana Shakespeare in the Parks; Porchlight Music Theater, Chicago; Chicago Opera Theater; Second City. Film: Bleed Like Me, Producer & Original Score. BFA Emerson College. He is also a BBTF 2025 alum.

Joseph Verlezza is a theatre visionary: the founder of The Cornwall Community Theater; a co-founder of Jomar Productions, a traveling musical theater company; a co-founder of Belfry Repertory Company, a regional theater under Equity SPT contract which he helped develop for under 99 seat theaters outside of Manhattan; and the co-founder of Theatre Reviews Limited which was the first
online website devoted to theatre reviews in 1997. He is an actor with an extensive career on stage and film; a director with over 75 credits including community, regional and Off-Broadway theaters; a playwright currently developing a new musical; and a professional NY theatre Critic. He has served as artistic director of 3 theater companies and has occupied a seat on the Board of Directors of four companies. He is a current member of AEA, Dramatist Guild, and voting member of Outer CriticsCircle. His theater experience spans over 40 years.

David Roberts is a theatre maker, a professional educator, and a New York theatre critic. He is a co-founder of Belfry Repertory Company, a regional theater under Equity SPT contract which he helped develop for under 99 seat theaters outside of Manhattan; and a co-founder of Theatre Reviews Limited which was the first online website devoted to theatre reviews in 1997. David is an Outer Critics Circle Nominator and Executive Committee Member; a Drama Desk Voting Member; an American Theatre Critics Association Full Member; the Chief Critic Theatre Reviews Limited www.theatrereviews.com; the Chief New York Critic OnStage www.onstageblog.com . and a Staff Writer for Jersey City Times jcitytimes.com.

Thomas Mullen is playwright and director who co-founded a community theater in the Black Hills of Wyoming in the late 1990s and most recently, has created a a playwright’s workshop in New Orleans, where he spends his winters. Mullen started his theatre career in earnest six years ago after 30-plus years of owning and operating community newspapers. He has his Master's from Cambridge University in the UK, after returning to school to pursue a Masters in Writing for Performance where he joined The Cambridge Footlights. His final project FLAGS was produced in 2024 at the Broadway Bound Festival.He summers in Union, Washington with his wife, Annie, and their Welsh Terrier, Harry. He is also a BBTF 2024 alum.

Alicia Foxworth is an actor/playwright/producer and founder of Brownstone Steps Entertainment

Recent TV/Film Credits include: The Hunter’s Anthology (Smithline Films); Saints Church Presents: a Twenty Twenty Christmas; The Amber Ruffin Show (Peacock TV) and Rehoboth For You TV (Brooklyn cable). Recent Stage credits include: Island Girls/One Drop (Theater for the New City), Harriet Tubman the Woman (NIA Productions). Producing Credits: Brownstone Steps Play Festival/Summer Reading Series; Ghost Writer, an Abolitionist’s Tale (Broadway Bound Theater Festival); Roommates, a play. Recent Honors: 2025 Broadway Bound Theatre Festival selection - Ghost Writer 2024 Artist in Residence for Bedford-Stuyvesant -The Laundromat Project 2023 NY League of Independent Theater Caffe Cino Award 2019 Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference semi-finalist

Memberships: SAG/AFTRA, The Dramatists Guild, League of Professional Theater Women; Theater Resources Unlimited; Off-Broadway Alliance; Board member-Frank Silvera Writers’ Workshop; AEA eligible

Sehra K. Eusufzai is producer and theatre maker, who years ago, could not have known that a random conversation struck up with an actor sitting next to her at a performance would turn into a thrilling first step as an investor in award-winning theater productions that have won Tony awards and toured the globe. Her investments include: the national tour of CAMBODIAN ROCK BAND by Lauren Yee; GUTENBERG! THE MUSICAL, starring Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells; a revival of Ibsen's THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE, starring Jeremy Strong and Michael Imperioli; and the smash hit Broadway transfer of STEREOPHONIC, currently on national tour. When not investing in shows and attending performances--she averages over 50 a year--Sehra's full-time career is as a marketing executive who has delivered brand value, revenue growth, and culture change at leading global organizations in the healthcare and technology industries. She has worked in brand, communication, and marketing leadership roles at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), Dataminr, Openlink, IBM, and PwC. Since 2017, she has served on the board of directors for Sapna NYC, a community-based organization serving immigrant women and their families.

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Fred Rohan-Vargas is the author of several plays and musicals produced throughout the country and abroad. He holds an MFA in dramatic writing from New York University and founded Mixing It Up Productions, LLC, a multi-media entertainment company. He has co-produced the Off-Broadway musical Money Talks and was an Associate Producer for the Off-West End production of Flowers for Mrs Harris in London. He has also participated as a Broadway investor in the shows The Lightning Thief, Parade the Musical, Flowers for Mrs Harris, and the touring of Company. Fred is an eclectic songwriter and composer whose music is currently heard throughout Southeast Asia. He is a member of BMI Engel Lehman Musical Theatre Workshop and Dramatists Guild and serves on the advisory board of Ripple Effect Artists Inc. 

Alexander is a NYC-based music director, keyboardist, and Assistant Teaching Professor for BFA Musical Theatre at Montclair State University. From 2020 - 2022, he was interim Program Head for BFA Musical Theater at Pace University and is continuing faculty at Fordham University’s Summer Leaders Academy at Lincoln Center. He remains focused on new work development at Montclair State partnering with Theatrical Rights Worldwide, Musical Theatre Factory, and the National Alliance for Musical Theatre. Alexander is an active member of the Musicians United for Social Equity (MUSE), AFM’s Local-802, AFT Local-1904, and the BMI Lehman-Engel MT Advanced Workshop. Recent credits: Here Lies Love, The Music Man (Broadway), Pacific Overtures (Signature Theatre), Sound of Music (Paper Mill Playhouse), and Bandstand, State Fair (The Rev). www.alexanderobertom.com

Matt Gurren is an NYC-based filmmaker, videographer and founder of MWG Productions, a digital marketing firm that creates video content for Broadway, Off-Broadway and regional theaters nationwide. He has shot and edited thousands of theatrical productions, galas, concerts, workshops and readings. He co-wrote the award-winning musicals RIO UPHILL (Rio/São Paulo Full Productions 2024/2025) and WHAT DO CRITICS KNOW? (Off-Broadway, Alice Griffin Theatre at Signature). Website: www.mattgurren.com