Directors of 2017
Here is the talented roster of directors from the
2017 OC-Centric New Play Festival
Armina LaManna
Director of "Fair"
Armina LaManna is a Los Angeles based director and writer, and the Artistic Director of Imagine Project. Armina’s career in the theatre began when she was six at the Young-Adult Musical Theatre Academy in the former USSR. Since then she studied, performed and taught in America and Russia. Directing credits include: A Woman of No Importance, Fast & Loose, The Maids, We Wait (The Car Plays), Little Armenia, An Ideal Husband in LA; Who's Your Baghdaddy?, Red Light Winter and Pushkin at Boldino at The Chance Theatre’s On the Radar Series in OC; and The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Pushkin at Boldino, A Lie of the Mind, The Zoo Story, Hello Out There in Philadelphia. Other credits: P.L.A.Y., Middle Passage, Circumference of a Squirrel at the Mark Taper Forum’s New Work Festival. Armina’s writing and translation/adaptation credits include The Tale of Turandot, Pushkin at Boldino, Gogol’s The Government Inspector for The Lantern Theatre, Strindberg’s The Ghost Sonata and Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. Armina received an M.F.A. in Directing from Temple University, a B.A. in Directing from CSU Fullerton. She is a proud member of SDC, AEA, DG. Armina is very excited to work with OC-Centric. For more on Armina and her work, visit her official website at www.arminalamanna.com.
Angela Cruz
Director of "Celtic Knot"
Angela Cruz has returned to OC-Centric to direct Celtic Knot. Angela is a graduate from UCSB with her B.A in Directing. Some directing credits include: Chance Theatre: Izzy McGizzy’s One Night Only One Man Musical; Teatro de las Americas: Adan, Eva y La Orta, and other plays written by Angela for the children’s workshop, Theatre Out: A Festival of Short Plays, UCSB: The Gronholm Method by Jordi Galceran (English Translation by Anne Garcia-Romero, US Premiere), Ni Una Mas by Angela & Company (D & S Corwin Award Honorable Mention), Food for the Dead; Hangar Theatre: The Women of Juarez Project (Devised 10min); Breath Of Fire Latina Theater Ensemble: Stage Readings: Somebody’s Children, Performances: 9ine Digits Away From My Dream (Tour ’07-’08); FJC: Soldado Razo (FJC Winner Best of Fest 2004), The Nomads: Undertow by Mel Nieves and Casa 0101: Brown and Out Festival and Food for the Dead. This is Angela's 2nd time directing with OC-Centric with her festival debut directing Love's Lost Words.
Katie Chidester
Director of "Crimson"
Katie Chidester is a Southern California-based director and is excited to participate in OC-Centric for the first time! She spent 12 years as an executive member of The Hunger Artists Theatre Co., as an actor, producer and director. She directed/devised with experimental playwriting collective Fell Swoop Playwrights for the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Katie recently remounted Beautiful Star: An Appalachian Nativity at Triad Stage in North Carolina. Other credits include Les Liaisons Dangereuses (UNCG), Machinal (Long Beach Playhouse), Desdemona: A Play About A Handkerchief (The Hunger Artists), Sans Merci (The Garage), The Miss Julie Dream Project (Son of Semele) Cloud 9 and Trifles (Triad UpStage). She interned at the Yale School of Drama (Summer Cabaret), is an alumni of Directors Lab West (‘14), and was a candidiate in the 2016-17 SDC Observers Program. Katie holds a BA degree from the University of Southern California and an MFA in Directing from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro where she studied with Triad Stage’s Founding Artistic Director, Preston Lane. For more on Katie and her work, visit her official website at www.katiechidester.com.