BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Silverthorne is a registered 501 (c)(3) non-profit arts organization. If you are interested in supporting our work by becoming a member of the Board of Directors, please contact us via email to find out more about our work.

When Silverthorne first appeared on an email from a friend, I immediately remembered many performances in that space at Northfield Mount Hermon. I showed it to my husband, Steve, who also attended plays there, and he auditioned as soon as possible. Thus began my association with the organization. When Lucinda asked me to join the board, after my retirement, how could I say no?

My own theater background includes being dragged by a friend into running the light board (pre computer) for college plays: hanging lights, focusing lights, writing my own directions for the board and then making it happen. It was fun! I have been in a couple of productions (Sister Angelica in college and My Fair Lady with The Country Players). I have helped with creating costumes for Titanic at NMH, dress actors, ushering, running the elevator, and coordinating Lucinda’s visits to the Northfield Senior Center back when I was the director.

Other interests include singing (DaCamera Singers and others), directing the church choir, sewing, reading, working in my yard and updating my house. I have two amazing children who have equally awesome spouses and a wonderful grandchild who brightens my week. I am blessed that they each live nearby and we are able to spend regular time together.

Knowing how much Steve enjoyed being part of this organization, I felt pulled to do my part as well. This is an incredibly dedicated group of people who make amazing productions happen on a shoestring budget. Being a part is an honor.

Throughout Lucinda Kidder’s 50-year career, theater and non-profit management have been interwoven. Since high school stage work piqued her interest in that world, and her first directing job in India cemented it. She completed her MA in Theater Education at Emerson College and went on to direct over 150 plays, teach all aspects of theater at every level from little kids to university courses, and found and manage seven different theater groups wherever she has lived.
In 1999 she returned to academia to pursue an MFA in directing at UMass Amherst. There, and through subsequent doctoral studies, she explored and worked in the areas of Renaissance Theater, International Theater, Shakespearean Analysis and Performance, Multiculturalism, and Translation Studies. While at UMass she initiated a five-week intensive summer program for middle school students in Holyoke and Springfield, and with two collaborators, organized Unexpected Journeys – a festival of plays by women from Islamic cultures.
Kidder joined forces in 2014 with Northfield Mount Hermon colleague David Rowland to create Silverthorne Theater Company, and acted as managing director through 2021

Ben is a lifelong resident of the Pioneer Valley with a decades-long connection to its theater community. The many plays he has directed include Proof and Lend Me A Tenor with Arena Civic Theatre (where he was also on the Board of Directors), as well as Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing with Hampshire Shakespeare Company. He has directed musicals such as A Little Night Music and Company, and vocal or musical directed productions of Chess, The Pajama Game, and Godspell. Ben has been a retail manager for many years, including General Manager for the departed Borders Books. He is currently the Guest Services Manager at the Yankee Candle Village in South Deerfield.

Ezekiel Baskin is a freelance director, lighting designer, stage & production manager, and arts educator. They have stage managed three productions for Silverthorne: Bright Half Life, The Revolutionists, and Stupid Fucking Bird; and were delighted when they were invited to join the board in October 2021 to help Silverthorne chart a course for the future.

Directing credits include Plague Wedding (Theater Between Addresses), Grail Knight (Electric Lite Collective), Night Train (Electric Lite Collective), Queer Intimacies (Eggtooth Productions), Mr Burns: A Post-Electric Play (Hampshire College), and Caeneus (HC). Stage management and design credits include the world premiere of NOW (Pauline Productions), A Little Night Music (Greater Worcester Opera), Athena (Real Live Theatre), The *Annotated* Taming (Hampshire Shakespeare Company), The Life and Death of Queen Margaret (RLT) and The Final Say (Strident Theater).

Ezekiel is connected with a number of other Valley theatre organizations, serving on the Board of Directors for Valley Light Opera, and as a proud Governing Member of Real Live Theatre. They are a Founding Member of Theater Between Addresses, a collective of theatre artists & writers focused on fostering and creating new work, and serve as Resident Lighting Designer for Pauline Productions. Ezekiel holds a B.A. from Hampshire College in Theatre, Education & Psychoanalytic Studies, with a focus on facilitating collaborative spaces. Beyond the stage, Ezekiel works in public health, currently serving as a Public Health Accompaniment Specialist with Partners in Health.

Willow Cohen is the UMass Amherst Department of Theater General Manager. Prior to joining the Department, Willow served as the Development and Marketing Manager for Yellow Barn, a chamber music summer festival in Putney, VT, Assistant Production Manager for the Calvin Theater in Northampton, and the Production Stage Manager for Commonwealth Opera, also in Northampton. Willow has stage managed more than 50 productions in New York City, Boston, Boulder, and Western Mass, and was the Founder and General Manager of Sweet Youth Productions, a nationally touring theater for children.  Willow is delighted to be a part of the Silverthorne board, of which she is also an avid patron.

Gina Kaufmann is a director and teacher who moved to the Pioneer Valley in 2017 to join the Department of Theater faculty at UMass Amherst, where she is a professor of Acting and Directing. Her first (and very joyful) experience with Silverthorne Theater was directing Lauren Gunderson’s feminist comedy, The Revolutionists, in 2019.

Gina is a member of the Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC). She has worked as a director and acting coach in numerous regional venues, including Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival and Sacramento Theatre Company. In New York, she directed for SoHo Rep, HOME for Contemporary Theatre and Art, Wings Theatre, and Dixon Place.

https://www.ginakaufmann.com/

The art and love of storytelling began with my dad and me playing piano and making up songs. These often evolved into short “scenes” which would include family characters and events. I taught Photography and Filmmaking while working as librarian at Mount Holyoke College for many years. This is where I put images to many of these stories.
While working at Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia I volunteered at Quintessence Theatre Group. Then, moving back to “the Valley”, I discovered Silverthorne and joined the board. I am also on the board of the Deerfield Valley Art Association in Northfield and Friends of the Dickinson Library in Northfield. It’s been a creative time and I look forward to another exciting – though with unique circumstances – year of theater!

David Rowland retired in 2013 after 47 years of teaching, the last 35 as director of the Theatre Program at Northfield Mount Hermon School where he taught Acting, Directing, and other theater courses, and directed over 100 major productions. Shortly after his retirement, Rowland and Lucinda Kidder began talking about starting a professional theater company in Franklin County.

Silverthorne Theater Company, named after the principal performing space on NMH’s old Northfield campus, was officially founded in 2014, celebrating that first year with productions of Peter Shaffer’s Black Comedy (directed by Kidder) and Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle (directed by Rowland) in NMH’s Chile’s Theater.

Following two years at GCC’s Sloan Theater, Silverthorne moved in 2017 to its present home on the fourth floor of Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center in downtown Greenfield. Rowland directed the first production in this new venue, the Long, Singer, and Winfield parody, The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare (abridged), with three actors offering comically twisted excerpts from the Bard’s collected works.

Rowland directed A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters as a benefit for Silverthorne in the LAVA Center, Greenfield, in February of 2020. After retiring from active membership on Silverthorne’s board of directors, Rowland consulted with the board to help chart Silverthorne’s course through and beyond the current pandemic.