The Directors

Meet the Directors

Rick Sordelet (Artistic Director) has made his career as a fight director, playwright, director, actor, and teacher. He attended Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts graduating in 1985 with an MFA. Rick has worked in over 30 shows on Broadway including, TITANIC, URINETOWN, and Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, LION KING, and AIDA. He’s worked on over 1200 productions of various Shakespeare plays at the Roundabout, Playwrights Horizons, and hundreds of Regional Theaters and Shakespeare Festivals all over America. His film and TV experience includes HAMLET starring Campbell Scott and Blair Brown, THE RECONCILERS, SLINGS AND ARROWS, GIFT OF SERPENT, BREAKING THE SILENCE, and a CD-Rom, JEDI KNIGHT for George Lucas. He is Chief Stunt Coordinator for GUIDING LIGHT with over 350 episodes. As a playwright, his play, “Buried Treasure” was named the best play of the season at the George Street Playhouse and “Pillow Talk” played at the Fringe Festival in Orlando, Florida. He currently teaches at the Yale School of Drama as well as the Neighborhood Playhouse. Rick is married to actress Kathleen Kelly with three beautiful children, Kaelan, Christian and Collin.

Laura Swanson (Producing Director) has been a professional actress, director, producer and teacher for the last 21 years. As an actress, credits include off-Broadway, regional theatre and touring shows in the U.S. and Germany. She has created roles for a number of new works and was one of the original members of The Waterfront Ensemble – a community of playwrights, directors and actors who focus solely on the development of new plays. Through the auspices of The Waterfront Ensemble, she co-created and produced the Hudson County Young Playwright’s Festival. Laura received her MFA in Acting from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ and her BA from Trinity University in San Antonio, TX. She has taught Acting, Movement for Actors, Playwriting and Communications for Rutgers University, Kean College, Action Theatre Conservatory and Playwright’s Theatre of New Jersey. As a Communications Consultant, she is a partner in Interlude Group, LLC, a creative services firm that specializes in design and delivery of customized simulations and programs for corporate training and organizational initiatives for Fortune 500 companies in a variety of industries.

Keith Strunk (Managing Director) is a native of Bucks County, PA, and has made his career as an actor, teacher and writer. After receiving his BA in English from Ursinus College, he taught high school English for a year and then went on to attend Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts Professional Training Program in Acting, receiving his MFA in 1985. After graduate school, Keith spent seven years teaching in the Communication Arts department at Ursinus College. While there, he directed and produced college productions, taught Public Speaking and Oral Interpretation, and appeared as a guest artist in numerous productions. He has also written and produced several NYU student films. Keith has worked as an actor in commercials and corporate film in the Philadelphia market and taught acting at the Walnut Street Theatre. In addition, he has written numerous scripts both corporate and creative, garnering a Communicator Crystal Award in 1999 for script writing. Keith is a partner in Interlude Group, LLC with Ms. Swanson.

David Kucher (Associate Producer) combines creativity with management in all facets of his professional life. With over nine years of professional experience in the music industry (resource management, information technology, system deployment, end user support), ten years of experience in the academic teaching world (professor of English Literature, Victorian Literature, Screenwriting, Fiction Writing, Business Writing), eight years of corporate consulting (Communication Training, Leadership Skill Training, Organizational Development Liaison, Change Management Liaison, Corporate Script Writing) and twenty years in the creative theatre world (actor, writer, grant writer, fund raiser), David strives to find the drama in everything --- then keep the drama on the page and on the stage. Trained in literature and education at Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ) and Montclair State University (Montclair, NJ), David has completed four screenplays, one of which, Out of Slavery, is currently in production.