ABOUT US
STAFF
ADMIN TEAM
Adam Odsess Rubin - Founding Artistic Director
Adam Odsess-Rubin (He/Him) is the Founding Artistic Director of National Queer Theater (NQT) and the acclaimed Criminal Queerness Festival, showcasing censored and criminalized LGBTQ+ artists from around the world. Odsess-Rubin has directed community-based theater programs such as Write it Out! for playwrights living with HIV, New Visions Fellowship for Black trans artists, DREAMing Out Loud for LGBTQ undocumented writers, and Youth Write Now for young queer playwrights. Since 2021, he has been a lead Teaching Artist for Rainbow Connection, an intergenerational theater program for queer teens and elders in Fire Island. In 2023, he launched Staging Pride: Queer Youth Theater, a free afterschool theater program for marginalized LGBTQ+ youth in New York City at The Center. At NQT, Odsess-Rubin has presented work with Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York Theatre Workshop, NYC Pride, MCC Theater, and PAC NYC. Through NQT, he has raised over $800,000 for queer and trans artists since 2018, and has received praise for his work in The Advocate, The New York Times, American Theater Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, and Time Out New York. Odsess-Rubin is a Teaching Artist and former Education Associate at New York Theatre Workshop, and served as the first Education and Community Programs Fellow at American Conservatory Theatre. Odsess-Rubin has published work in Howlround, Yale's Theater Magazine and The Teaching Artist Journal, and is a 2020 Mayor's Grant for Cultural Impact awardee and AM NY LGBTQ+ Power Player. BA: UC Santa Cruz MA: New York University.
Achiro Patricia Olwoch - Interim Artistic Director
Achiro P. Olwoch (she/her) is a writer who hails from Gulu, Northern Uganda. She was born in and grew up in exile as a result of the Idi Amin murderous era that displaced her parents. She has written four books so far and is presently in the process of completing her late father’s manuscripts that he left behind after his death in 1994. Several of short stories have been published in a couple of anthologies around the world. One of her short stories got a special mention by the Common Wealth short story prize. Achiro has also worked as a radio script writer and film and television script writer. She has worked as staff writer and sub-editor for the Ugandan lifestyle magazine ‘African Woman’ magazine. She was also the editorial director for a lifestyle magazine that she started in Malawi in 2012 called ‘The African Dzuwa’ meaning The African Sun. She has mentored emerging writers on writing in the performing arts during annual residential workshops by the Kampala International Theatre Festival for the past two years. More about Achiro and her works can be found on her website: www.achiropolwoch.com
Rose Oser - Producing Director
Rose Oser (she/they) is a theater producer, writer, and performer. From 2017-2022, she worked at Z Space in San Francisco, rising from Associate Artistic Director to Interim Producing Director. Rose successfully co-led Z Space during the height of the pandemic and produced the world premiere of The Red Shades: A Trans Superhero Rock Opera. Other notable producing credits at Z Space: Problematic Play Festival (LMDA Bly Award) and the world premiere of Ripped by Rachel Bublitz (Will Glickman Award). As the Co-Artistic Director of FaultLine Theater in San Francisco from 2016-2019 (recipient of the Annette Lust Award in 2018), Rose mounted full productions of new works by a diverse array of emerging playwrights. She is the book writer of Shoshana in December, a new queer Hanukkah musical (December 2022 production Custom Made, Relentless Award Honorable Mention 2022, December 2021 reading Z Space, NEA ArtWorks recipient) and Tinderella: the modern musical (April 2018 world premiere FaultLine and Custom Made, March 2022 production Portland'5). She has produced and hosted over 35 performances of Tinder Disrupt, San Francisco’s hit PowerPoint dating show. She worked as the Grant Writer for American Conservatory Theater from 2014-2017. BA in Rhetoric from University of California, Berkeley.
Julie Monteleone - Education Coordinator
Julie Monteleone (they/them) is a director, intimacy/fight choreographer, and educator focused on uplifting queer and trans voices, particularly through Shakespeare and classical theatre. Julie is also dedicated to exploring lesbian identity through theatre practices that genuinely decenter cisgender men. They recently graduated from Northwestern University where they studied Theatre and Gender Studies. Favorite directing credits include How to Defend Yourself, Macbeth, and a workshop production of Sarah Grace Goldman’s Beneath the Floorboards. Select fight/intimacy credits include Fun Home, Falsettos, and Cabaret. Julie has served as an educator with the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare & Company, and Boston Public Schools.
Brooke Whitaker-Royster - EDI Consultant
Brooke Whitaker-Royster (She/Her) is an experienced strategist with a passion for arts, education, and social impact, who has built a career advancing innovative programs and strategic partnerships across diverse sectors.
Previously, as Assistant Director, Global Partnerships at Lincoln Center Education, she expanded educational reach through consulting and thought leadership, driving international partnerships in 20 countries and fostering critical thinking in schools and communities. Notably, she curated a first-of-its-kind Summer Forum Speaker Series prominently featuring BIPOC women leaders.
During the inaugural cycles of the Lincoln Center Cultural Innovation Fund, a program in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation, Brooke championed cultural capital reclamation and collaboration among grantees as a Program Director.
Her early career included roles at the African American Museum, The Leeway Foundation, and the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. She holds a BA from Temple University and as a lifelong learner has studied at Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education, IDEO U and is currently pursuing graduate education.
Today, Brooke leads Mid Monday Morning, LLC, a consulting agency empowering non-profits through strategic planning and cultural capital utilization. Her recent projects include partnerships with the National Guild for Community Arts Education, New York Transgender Advocacy Group, Camden Repertory Theater, and The Colored Girls Museum.
Kevin Smith Kirkwood - Teaching Artist
Kevin Smith Kirkwood (he/him) was most recently seen in the Off Broadway return of Kinky Boots the Musical as the Referee Angel! He made his Broadway debut in the Tony Award-winning musical “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” and earned a 2005 New York Innovative Theater Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor for “It's Karate, Kid!” Kirkwood would go on to receive a New Hampshire Theater Alliance Award Nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor for "Violet" and won the award for Outstanding Supporting Actor for his performance in "RENT." After performing in the entire Broadway run of the Tony Award Winning Musical “Kinky Boots,” Kevin went on to play the role of the 'Scarecrow' in the Broadway at Sacramento Music Circus production of “The Wiz,” which received rave reviews.
In the tv/film world, Kirkwood recently guest starred on 'Katy Keene' on the CW Network, and Kirkwood stars as 'Roxy' in the recently released horror feature film entitled “Condemned” (written and directed by Eli Morgan Gesner and also starring Dylan Penn and Lydia Hearst). He can also be heard voicing the character DJ on Season two of Marvel's Wolverine Podcast: The Lost Trail.
Kirkwood created and stars in the wildly popular and critically acclaimed solo show, "CLASSIC WHITNEY: ALIVE!" which has played to sold out houses at Joe’s Pub, The Cutting Room, on cruise ships around the world, and even a command performance at the Whitney Houston estate.
Educated by the Jesuits (St. John's Jesuit Toledo and Fordham University) who instilled a love for youth, service, and the arts, Kirkwood has worked as a teaching artist for NYC nonprofits like The Leadership Program and Arthouse Astoria. As a director, Kevin has directed numerous NYC cabaret and solo shows and also productions of Kinky Boots, Little Shop of Horrors, and Aint' Misbehavin' at the Weathervane Theater in New Hampshire and the Hillbarn Theater in California's Bay Area. Art is power! www.kevinsmithkirkwood.com
Amy Ackerman - Teaching Artist
Amy (they/them) is a Brooklyn based Arts Educator, Performer and Body Advocate. They are a company member of Honest Accomplice Theatre where they have developed and performed in numerous productions including ReconFIGURED, The Trans Literacy Project, Engineers Not Found, A Chip on her Shoulder and Unmuted. They are also a member of the Monday's collective— a pop up cabaret performing on stages around NYC (Club Cumming, Joe's Pub, Tavern on the Green, House of YES). Their Solo cabaret, Big Kitty in the Big City which explores navigating the theatre industry as a person of size premiered at the Tank as part of their Tankaret series. As a disabled dancer they create movement pieces with The Olimpas Collective (Judson Church, The Tenement Museum, Suffolk Street Garden). As an educator they teach creative expression, theatre and run workshop on reclaiming our bodies with the Girl Scouts of America. B.A. Sociology and Performance Studies.
Mo - Community Engagement Coordinator
Mo is our Community Engagement Coordinator. If you have any questions or inquiries regarding marketing or potential collaboration with NQT, (or to just say "Hi" and get to know more about Mo's work) please email mo@nationalqueertheater.org
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