Vineyard Playhouse Staff

The collaborative nature of live theater and the small size of the Vineyard Playhouse staff make it difficult to define our staff members by titles. So we are listing our current theater staff & co, and their contact information and including some of the jobs that they perform when they are not writing plays, acting, directing, stage managing, designing and doing “everything else”!

Year Round Staff:

MJ Bruder Munafo
Producer & Artistic Director
508-693-6450 x 13
mj@vineyardplayhouse.org

MJ Bruder Munafo has served as the Producer & Artistic Director of The Vineyard Playhouse since 1995. Previously, she worked as the Playhouse’s Managing Director for several years. She is responsible for the artistic management of the Playhouse and the production of over 200 plays during her tenure.

Her education in the theater has been in the theater itself, and in 1994, while actively running the Playhouse, she returned to school. In June of 1997, she graduated cum laude from the Harvard University Extension School, earning a BA with a Concentration in Drama.

Her work as a stage director spans twenty years and over fifty plays; including highly-acclaimed productions of The Grapes of Wrath, To Kill A Mockingbird and Our Town, as well as productions of Proof, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Laramie Project, Master Harold and the Boys, The Children’s Hour and others too numerous to mention. In addition, she has helped develop and direct many new plays including Jon Lipsky’s Walking the Volcano in 2009.

Ms. Bruder Munafo is committed to educating children and introducing them to the theater. So far at the Playhouse, she has co-founded The Fourth Grade Theater Project, TeenProv!, Summer Stars Theater Arts Camp, and The Fabulists: Theater for Children.

In addition to directing on the stage, Ms. Bruder Munafo has directed for industrial video, television documentary and various local commercials. She has served as a casting consultant for film and television projects filmed on the Vineyard. She is a member of Actors’ Equity Association and has worked both as an actor and as a professional stage manager. She and her husband Paul live in Vineyard Haven.

Kate Hancock
Properties & Costume Shop Manager,
Co-Director of Education
508-693-6450 x 19
kate@vineyardplayhouse.org

Kate joined the Playhouse in 2005 working on the Fourth Grade Theater Project. Since then she has stage managed and propped many Playhouse productions and co-directs the Fourth Grade Theater Project. Kate’s other credits include numerous off-Broadway, regional and opera productions. She is also a lyricist/librettist and has written book and lyrics for more than a dozen musicals for children and for a musical adaptation of Playboy of the Western World with Richard B. Evans. Kate has BA and MA degrees in education and an MA in Theater History and Criticism.

Fred J. Hancock
Resident Lighting Designer   

Fred has been designing at the Playhouse since 2006 as well as being the lighting consultant for The Fourth Grade Theatre Project. After working as a lighting designer off Broadway and in regional opera, and as a Broadway assistant, Fred has been  working as a Technical Director for Business Theatre for the past 23 years. He has a MFA in Theatre Design from NYU and a BFA in Theatre Design from Boston University.


Jim Novack
Production & Technical Manager       
508-693-6450 x14
jim@vineyardplayhouse.org

Jim Novack is the resident Production & Technical Manager at the Playhouse. Jim recently retired as director/manager of the MVRHS Performing Arts Center. He has designed sound for many Playhouse productions over the years.


Geneva Monks
Administrative & Production Assistant
Box Office Manager
508-693-6450 x 18
geneva@vineyardplayhouse.org

Geneva graduated from Emerson College in 2007 with a BFA in Stage Management.  She interned at the Playhouse in the summer of 2006 and has yet to leave.  She performs many many duties at the Playhouse including Administrative Assistant, Production Assistant, Box Office Manager, Webmaster and Amphitheater Stage Manager.


Robert C. Porter
House Manager, Program Ad Coordinator, Marketing & PR
508-693-6450 x26
robert@vineyardplayhouse.org

Robert C. Porter serves as House Manager and Program Ad Coordinator for The Vineyard Playhouse, and previously served as Managing Director of Centerpoint Theater Group, San Luis Obispo, CA. He has enjoyed working with children in projects such as Kids Take The Stage, Alameda, CA, and Science Adventures, Pleasanton, CA and the 4th Grade Theater Project at the Playhouse. Robert has an eclectic background which includes stage management, film location management, international produce brokerage, landscape design and masonry. He earned his BS in Business Administration/Marketing from Cal State East Bay.

Stephen M. Zablotny
Graphics & Publications
508-693-6450 x 16
steve@vineyardplayhouse.org


Playhouse Associates & Part-Time Staff:

Joann Green Breuer
Jon Lipsky
Artistic Associates

Sally Cohn
Jaxon White
Staff Photographers

Linda M. Smith
Robert Porter
House Staff

Heather Goff
Website Designer & Host