President
KATE KILBANE is a longtime supporter of Open Circle Theatre and is a freelance Equity Stage Manager in the Washington, DC area. Credits with Open Circle Theatre include Story Theatre, Songs for a New World, and Evita. Kate has worked on a variety of plays and musicals as a solo Stage Manager and as part of a team by serving as an Assistant Stage Manager or Production Stage Manager across the gamut of theatres including, The Kennedy Center, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Ford’s Theatre, Folger Theatre, Imagination Stage, Studio Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, African Continuum Theatre Company, Theater J, and Mosaic Theater Company of DC, among others. Notable productions include Ragtime and Follies at The Kennedy Center, both of which transferred to Broadway, as well as The Oedipus Plays with the Shakespeare Theatre Company, which performed on the Acropolis at the Athens Festival in Greece. Since 2004, Kate has been a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association and has enjoyed mentoring students who are looking to get into stage management or are early career professionals.
Vice President
SERGE DELPIERRE is a filmmaker and theatre artist. Notably, he produced and directed the award-winning short film, Odyssey, featuring OCT Artistic Director, Suzanne Richard. Over the last several decades, Serge has developed a well-rounded production background, earning a myriad of film/TV production credits including, American Idol, White Bird In A Blizzard and Adam Ruins Everything. Serge’s corporate entertainment experience spans such companies as Discovery Communications, MGM, NBC Universal and Disney. His acting highlights also include appearing on the Craig T. Nelson series, The District, as well as a string of work as a background artist on such shows as Just Shoot Me, Arli$$, ER, Providence, and The West Wing. Serge’s theatre directing highlights include Landscape of the Body, On The Verge, Fresh Horses and The Chinese Viewing Pavilion. Serge credits his development as a film and theatre artist to his mentor, Walt Witcover, himself a student of Lee Strasberg. Serge is the recipient of a BA in Visual Arts – Film and a BFA in Acting – Theatre from UMBC.
Treasurer
ARIANNA ROSS is an Executive in Communication, Non-Profit Leadership, Corporate Visioning, and Community Investment. An expert in education, responsibility integration, and storytelling, she is a sought-after writer, keynote speaker, and agent of change as Chief Executive Officer of Story Tapestries. Arianna has developed a successful non-profit in Story Tapestries, helping it reach over 3 million individuals and improve their ability to communicate effectively with proper parties. Leveraging a performance vocabulary, she addresses Mental Health in all industries and introduces creative solutions proven to work. An accomplished consultant for Standards for Excellence™, and for more than 26 years, Arianna has reached people where they are at; corporations, nonprofits, conferences, colleges, libraries, and schools. Her mission is to “effectively communicate and share proven skills” that improve corporations and reinforce good community.
Board Members At Large
ELVER ARIZA-SILVA is active in advocacy efforts for all people with disabilities, but mostly those folks who are Latino in Washington DC. Originally from the Republic of Colombia, Elver is a polio survivor who since childhood had dreamed of living in the United States and pursuing a career in the International arena, Performing Arts, and Advocacy and Human Rights. In his role as an Advocate, Elver provides support to siblings and parents in addition to providing direct services to individuals with disabilities. In the past 10 years, Elver has led the outreach program directed specifically to Latino families of a non-profit organization that predominantly serves individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Prior to this and back in his native country, Elver took a job backstage at a theatre company, which allowed him to travel around Colombia and discover passion and love for the performing arts. He is now on the stage rather than behind it!
ALEXANDER FITZGERALD is a musician and visual artist with multiple disabilities that includes deaf-blindness, mobility impairment, and muscle weakness. He use his nose to create digital art on a touchscreen and my mouth to paint on canvas and also use midi pedals to create music. Alexander Fitzgerald is currently a student at UMBC majoring in Social Work. He has served on the Board of Directors for Camp Inclusion, a summer camp for students with and without disabilities in Howard County, Maryland. As a member of the Board, he founded the camp’s drama program, assisted with fundraising and provided input to help the organization achieve its programing goals. He’s been actively involved with Open Circle’s Hive since the summer of 2022.
ABBY HAROUN, who resides in Baltimore, is a seasoned deaf scientist, artist, fashion designer, writer, editor, and published poet. Abby received her primary and secondary education from the Mary Hare Grammar School for the Deaf in Newbury, England, where she spent her childhood. She has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Gallaudet University, an MFA in creative writing/publishing arts from the University of Baltimore, and a PhD in English with a focus on creative writing and poetry from Morgan State University. As an artist, Abby’s works have been featured at the renowned Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History, including being a participating artist in Artscape, America’s largest free arts festival. A strong advocate for accessibility in the arts, Abby has served as a Sign Master at Baltimore’s Centerstage for plays like August Wilson’s Joe Turner Has Come and Gone and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and Kwame Kwei-Armah’s Let There Be Love.
MARIANNE MEADOWS is a freelance lighting designer and has been delighted to be Ms. Richard’s muse since the inception of Open Circle Theatre. Local designs in the Washington, DC area include productions for The Kennedy Center, Ford’s Theatre, Studio Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Rep Stage, Theater J, Washington Shakespeare Company, Scena Theatre (including international tours), Washington Stage Guild, Solas Nua, Histrio, The In-Series, Step Afrika, Compass Rose, and more. She has toured nationally as the Lighting Director for Cook, Dixon, and Young, the original Three Mo’ Tenors. Marianne also works as a Designer for Atmosphere Lighting Inc, and as a Lighting Director for Optimum Audio. She has received four nominations for the Helen Hayes Award, and received The Theatre Lobby’s Mary Goldwater Award in 2004. Marianne is a member of I.A.T.S.E. United Scenic Artists Local USA 829; she earned her BA from Sarah Lawrence College, and her MFA from the University of Washington, along with training at Lester Polakov’s Studio and Forum of Stage Design in New York City.
JEAN-PAUL RICHARD is Vice President of Sid Jaffe & Associates, LLC (SJ&A), a team that provides business advisory support, and has worked in the information technology field for 35 years since receiving his MS from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. He is the former President of the Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation and was an original board member of the Genetic Alliance. He has served as treasurer for the Genetic Alliance, HOW: Handicapped’s Only a Word, and the Coalition for Heritable Disorders of Connective Tissue.
Board Members Emeritus
ELENA WIDDER
ROB MCQUAY
JOEL SNYDER, PH.D.
MICHAEL KYRIOGLOU