As a Ghost Light member, you'll get the chance to take free workshops with working professionals in the theater, film, and TV industries. We're proud to host professional artists from a variety of disciplines, who we invite to teach at GLC based on their unique knowledge and skillsets. Our goal is to offer workshops that are practical, creative, and informative to our GLC members, and assist them in building their professional networks by connecting them with instructors whose workshops they've attended. We also offer opportunities for early-career artists (and even GLC members) to lead workshops in their areas of expertise.
Embedded Files
Arden Traynor (they/them) is an actor, dramaturg, and writer hailing from Pittsburgh, PA. They hold a BFA from NYU Tisch, where they received cross-disciplinary training at Playwrights Horizons Theater School. Arden’s work has appeared at the Exponential Festival, Dixon Place HOT! Fest, Caveat, and Shakespeare in the Square. This past summer, they were a resident artist at Fresh Ground Pepper’s BRB Retreat. Favorite credits include BLOODSHOT: The Call, As You Like It, Civic-Minded Responsible Thrill-Seeking, sop ii, and FRANK. Their work has been described as queer, feral, and unapologetically ebullient.
Workshops: Build a Better Sandbox: A Worldbuilding Playwriting Workshop
Ella Lee Davidson is a Black playwright, actor, and director. She grew up in Upstate New York, but most of her family is based in Brooklyn, where she has lived for the last 6 years. Ella attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where she double majored in Dramatic Writing and Drama and studied at Playwrights Horizons Theater School and The Classical Studio. Her latest play, Sapphire, enjoyed a sold-out run at The Brick Theater as part of the 2025 Exponential Festival and was featured in The New York Times. She developed Sapphire as a part of her fellowship at Fresh Ground Pepper's 2024 Playground Playgroup. Other projects include The Ben Shapiro Project at The Brick Theater as part of the 2023 Exponential Festival, a show she wrote, directed, and played Ben Shapiro - and herself - in. She also directed the new play Baby Powder by Paul Levine at Dixon Place in 2023. Ella's work focuses on comedy, absurdism, identity, and her real and imagined life experience, as well as her bizarre pop culture fascinations. She is currently working on her first novel.
Workshops: 4-Week Writers Workshop
Grant Harrison most recently played Scott in the feature film Birth/Rebirth which had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2023 and can currently be streamed on AMC+ and Shudder. Upcoming in 2024, Grant plays Andy in Relay (feature) starring Lily James and Riz Ahmed, directed by Oscar Nominee David Macknzie. Also in 2024, Pretty Little Liars Summer School (Season 2), for HBO MAX in the recurring role of Benny. Grant has acted on shows for Paramount+, Amazon and CBS. He holds an MFA from NYU’s Graduate Acting Program and a BA from the UCLA School of Theater Film & Television. He has taught acting, voice and movement at New York Film Academy’s Burbank Campus.
Workshops: Film and TV Sides
Jeremy Rishe is an actor and writer, and a Co-Founding board member of Kids Creative Collective inc. Most recently he appeared as Al Manners at the Dallas Theater Center’s production of TROUBLE IN MIND. He also plays a leading role in the upcoming Jay Craven film, LOST NATION, as Pastor Samuel Knight. He has written and starred in a number of feature films, most notably JEWTAH. Other Select credits include guest starring roles on Apple plus TV, NBC, ABC, and CBS; and several off- Broadway premieres. He holds an MFA from NYU's Graduate Acting Program.
Workshops: The Deadly Serious Business of Clowning Around, The More Deadly Serious Business of Clowning Around, Crushing Your Self-Tape
Jose-Maria Aguila is a Mexican born actor, writer, and fight choreographer. A graduate of the NYU Graduate Acting Program, and has studied at the British American Drama Academy, Oxford University, and the National Theatre Conservatory. Credits include SWAT (CBS/Paramount+), Pose (FX), Blue Bloods (CBS), Madam Secretary (CBS), 5th of July (Amazon). Regional: Portland Stage, Ivoryton Playhouse, Williamstown Theater Festival, Denver Center, The Guthrie Theater. Jose-Maria currently teaches and has taught stage combat/acting/movement for the actor at NYU Graduate Acting, The Stella Adler Conservatory, NYU Tisch Undergraduate Acting Program, The Dalton School, The 52nd Street Project, and Dream Yard. "Enseñales quien eres.."
Workshops: The Deadly Serious Business of Clowning Around, The More Deadly Serious Business of Clowning Around
Krystel Lucas is a New York City-based freelance actor, director, audition coach, and teaching artist who values human connection and the necessity of utilizing our voices to serve the community. As an actor, some of her selected credits include Dial M For Murder (Westport Country Playhouse); Galboss Power Hour (Primary Stages); Hamlet (Shakespeare Theatre DC); Pride and Prejudice, Good People (Dorset Theatre Festival); Couriers and Contrabands (Barrow Group Theatre); Our Town (Triad Stage); Love’s Labour’s Lost (Shakespeare in the Park(ing) Lot); Twelfth Night, The Christians (Denver Center); Disgraced (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park); Twelfth Night Short Shakespeare (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Twelfth Night, The Book of Will (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival); In the Next Room (Syracuse Stage and Repertory Theatre of St. Louis); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice (Old Globe Theatre); Good People, Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily (Alley Theatre); Death and the King’s Horseman, Macbeth (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); The Sty of the Blind Pig (TheaterWorks Hartford); The Summer House (Passage Theatre Company). On television, she appeared in Jessica Jones (Netflix), The Blacklist (NBC) and Dying for Sex (upcoming on FX). She is a proud volunteer at 52nd Street Project and is a long-serving volunteer and chair of the NYU Grad Acting Alumni Association. She received her BA from UNC-Asheville, graduated from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, and holds her MFA from NYU’s Grad Acting Program at Tisch School of the Arts.
Workshops: Auditioning for the Stage
Madison Mayer (she/her) is an NYC based creator, performer, and dramaturg. She has worked with such companies as Tectonic Theater Project, Frantic Assembly, and the Million Underscores. Currently, she is working as a dramaturg for Amanda Gronich (Playwright, Here There Are Blueberries, The Laramie Project) and crafting her own solo show (as all 20-somethings do!). She believes theatre is where we rehearse our dreams, and is happy to wear as many hats as she needs to in order to make those dreams come true.
Workshops: Dramaturgy: What the Heck Is It?
Max Mooney (he/him/she/her) is a Queer playwright, director, stage manager, producer, dramaturg and theatre educator who works primarily in New York City and the greater Philadelphia area. Max graduated from NYU Tisch's Playwrights Horizons Theatre School, studying directing and playwriting. As a playwright, his work has been seen and workshopped at Playwrights Downtown, The Wild Project, the Fresh Fruit Festival, The Tank, Rooted Theater Company and Garden Level Theater. In other roles, he has worked with Ars Nova, Concrete Temple Theatre, New Victory Theatre, Little Island, HERE Arts Center, Fake Friends Theater Company, SoHo Playhouse, New Georges, Immediate Medium, Theater Mitu, Powerhouse Theater, Art House Productions and Baryshnikov Arts Center. Currently, Max is the Director of Programming at Sanguine Theater in Brooklyn and the Associate Producer at Concrete Temple Theatre.
Workshop: Self-Producing Theatre in NYC
Originally from Penang, Malaysia, Nicky Khor is now an NYC-based comedian and actor. Recent credits include Guildenstern/Osric in Hamlet (Spokehouse productions), Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Tieline Theater), and Lennox in Macbeth (Gallery Players). He is a professional role-player in both medical (NYU, Einstein) and legal (Powerplays Coaching) simulations and can be seen performing weekly at Batsu! a Japanese-inspired improv show in New York’s East Village. Nicky was recently a part of Batsu!'s inaugural cast at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where the show helped headline the festival's late night programming. Alum of Whitman College, NTI Theatermakers, and the apprentice company at Horizon Theatre. Some say he is the reason the Mona Lisa smiles.
Workshops: Things I Wish I Knew: A Guide to Starting Out
Peg Denithorne (she/her) is a professional director and teacher. She has been associated with New York's Circle Repertory Theater since the 80s, serving on the staff as a Casting Director as well as the Associate Artistic Director of the LAB Theatre Company. She has taught at numerous colleges and universities including the Graduate Directing Program at Rutgers University and the Graduate Acting Program at Catholic University, and currently teaches at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the National Theatre Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center in Connecticut. Her favorite directing experiences include the New York premiere of WHAT I MEANT WAS by Craig Lucas for the Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon, A DOLL'S HOUSE at Juilliard and a national tour of NO, NO NANETTE.
Workshops: Monologue Coaching
Stacey Linnartz (she/her) is a professional actor, director, teacher, and arts activist. Stacey is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Kids Creative Collective, a non profit which provides tuition-free theatre arts education to young people in New York. Select Acting Credits-Off Broadway: LIFE SUCKS by Aaron Posner, directed by Jeff Wise (NY Times Critics Pick, Drama Desk Nomination and OBA Award), ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE (Wheelhouse), THE FEAR PROJECT (Dixon Place), STRANGE BARE FACTS (Signature), GOD OF VENGEANCE (The Barrow Group), MODOTTI (Theatre Row), AMENDMENT 13 (Clubbed Thumb), LOST IN LIGHT (The Public Theatre). Film: THE LAST 48, THE WEEKEND, COUPLES, FIRST WORLD problem. Television: GOSSIP GIRL, AS THE WORLD TURNS, RESCUE ME. MFA, Graduate Acting, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU.
Workshops: Monologue Coaching, Text Work for Auditions and Performance, Monologue Workshop Series
T Valada-Viars, a native New Yorker, has been a professional actor (scripted, improvisation, mime), director, playwright, and arts educator for more then thirty years. She has been a guest director/teaching artist in Zagreb, Croatia and areas throughout the United States; exchange production with Bournemouth, England, and studied with artists at the Monaco International Theatre Festival, and has a BA Theatre/Acting/Directing/Education. She has used her skills as a director/actor/teaching artist to create innovative Alternative Employment Opportunities for Artists through T'INK: Know Nothing's Impossible Theatre.
Workshops: Create Your Own Work
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