011 Kristi Schultz Theatre Maker & Director

In today's episode we have Kristi Schultz, a theatre maker, director and educator. We discuss her journey from college to New York where she worked at a strip house. Don't get too excited she wasn't stripping. Her stories from that time are entertaining and are the premise of her solo show Operation Dollhouse. We discuss how she got started in Los Angeles. Join in to this interesting and might I say, educational episode of life in the dollhouse. Kristi Schultz is a hyphenate Theatre maker and Teaching Artist using interdisciplinary movement-driven performance practices to reinvent classics, adapt literature, and devise original work. Kristi is on the Theatre Faculty at Marlborough School in Los Angeles and Artistic Director of the Marlborough Ensemble Theatre.  Kristi developed the Musical Theater and Dance Program at New Roads School. Her productions of IN THE HEIGHTS and CHICAGO, received several Jerry Herman Award nominations including Best Production. She won the award for Best Staging & Choreography for IN THE HEIGHTS. In the years under her guidance, the New Roads Dance program grew exponentially. At New Roads, she was an Artistic Producer for the Moss Theater, producing guest productions and developing guest artist partnerships. She also implemented a workshop lab for Performance Activism. She has been a guest faculty member at the Arkansas Arts Center Children's Theatre, Bluepalm Arts, Rembiko Edinburgh Project, and CalArts Interim Project teaching acting, movement, and composition, and leading professional development for Faculty, as well as guest Directing.  From 2006 to 2010, she was Producing Artistic Director of the award-winning LA company, Zoo District, helming their 3 year residence at [Inside] the Ford as part of the Ensemble Theatre Collective. At the Ford, she directed a critically acclaimed production of Ionesco's THE SUBMISSION and THE FUTURE IS IN EGGS, produced and performed in THE DEFENDERS in Los Angeles and San Francisco, the show garnered 5 Garland Award Honorable Mentions. For Zoo District, she received grants from the Doris Duke Foundation, Network of Ensemble Theatres, Flintridge Foundation, and LA County Arts Commission. At the Ford, she curated and presented original works in progress in SHOT IN THE DARK and JOUR DE BOSSE CABARET. She was commissioned by Padua Playwrights to direct the World Premiere of Murray Mednick's play, DESTRUCTION OF THE 4th WORLD. Currently, she is dedicated to championing new voices with several projects on deck. As Covid struck in 2020, she was directing the premiere of FLESH by Ash Nichols at INKFest at the Broadwater, and her last live performance was a workshop of THE INCIDENT at MeetCuteLA.  She is working on her own solo performance piece, OPERATION DOLLHOUSE. She has been a Company Member and Festival Producer for SON OF SEMELE ENSEMBLE, continuing to produce original work for the Quick Creation Festival throughout COVID in a virtual format.  She could also be seen performing with the Grand Guignolers. She is an Associate Producer for the SSDC Director's Lab West 2023. Other work in New York incudes Third Rail Dance in SPUN, Director at New York's Theatre Studio, Inc., Choreographer for Yale Drama Cabaret's ROCKY HORROR. She spent many years as a musical theatre performer and dance captain, making special appearances as a singer/entertainer at a variety of New York and Los Angeles corporate events, industrials, and fundraisers, including The Drama League's annual Broadway Bash. An alumna of Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, the British American Drama Academy, SITI Company Intensives, Frantic Assembly Train, and the SDC Director's Lab West, she is a member of AEA, TCG, and the Network of Ensemble Theatres.    Theatre Maker, Director, Educator www.kristischultz.com @schultzie56