February Chat GBPT- The Great Adventure of Making Theater in Non-Traditional Ways

For our February Chat GBPT, we gather together four theater artists that create work in a variety of imaginative ways, veering away from the mainstream. What drew these artists to venture down alternative paths? What draws audiences to experience their work? How do these artists see these unique creation methods adding to/ changing the face of the theater in 2026?

Panelists: Patrick Gabridge, Randolyn Zinn, Allen McCullough, Genée Coreno

Moderated By: Judy Braha and Jim Frangione (Artistic Directors of GBPT)

Panelists Bios:

Patrick Gabridge is the producing artistic director and founder of Plays in Place and has created site-specific plays in partnership with many museums and historic sites, including Mount Auburn Cemetery, Boston’s Old State House, Old South Meeting House, Historic Northampton, and Old North Church, among others. He is an award-winning playwright and has written 24 historical plays, along with many contemporary plays that have received more than 1,000 productions from theatres and schools around the world (17 countries so far). He’s also a screenwriter, novelist, and a writer of audio plays.

Genée Coreno (she/her) is the Artistic Director of WAM Theatre and an arts leader advancing gender equity through innovative performance. Her work spans downtown and fringe performance, dance theater, original devised performance, and immersive, site-specific adaptations from novel to stage, emphasizing extended creative processes, experimentation, and technology. She has directed the world premiere of 1999, Fragments of Outside, Alien Girls, and Madge Love—an interactive media experience, The Hopelessly Hopeless Story of All Good Girls and more. Coreno has supported the development of new work at The Public Theater, Big Dance Theater, Ripe Time, and Third Rail Projects. She is also the founder of Fringe and Fur and holds an M.A. in Performance Studies from NYU and a B.A. in Drama from SUNY Purchase.

Randolyn Zinn, co-founder/artistic director of Living Room Theatre, has directed plays by Lorca, Chekhov, Ionesco, Strindberg, and Chuck Mee. Her choreography has served productions at the Guthrie, Baltimore Center Stage, the NY Philharmonic, Williamstown Theatre Festival, in the film Finding Graceland, and the original Broadway production of Sunday in the Park with George. Her original plays have been produced by New Georges, New York Theatre Workshop, Williamstown Theatre Festival, BACA, LRT, and BAM Recent plays have been nominated for the ACTA Prize and the Berkies; MFA: The New School. Faculty: Juilliard, Pace University, Circle in the Square.

Allen McCullough Co-founder/Artistic Director of Living Room Theatre: lrtvt.org  Off-Bway: Signature, Roundabout, 2nd Stage, Irish Rep. Regional: TheatreWorks Palo Alto, Pioneer, The Folger DC, Baltimore Center Stage, TheatreWorks Hartford, LRT: Get it Right, Amor & Psyche, Her Name Means Memory, A Doll’s House Part 2, 3 Sisters, Cherry Orchard, Exit the King, Uncle Vanya, Seagull. Also: Theatre for a New Audience, Williamstown, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Long Wharf, Westport. TV “Law & Order” “The Savant,” ”Blue Bloods,” “Dead Ringers,” “Blacklist,” “FBI-Most Wanted,” “Divorce,” “Blindspot,” “Law and Order C.I.,” “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” FILM: Martha Marcy May Marlene; Speed Demon.