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Directing Work

Plus some Dramaturg work thrown in for good measure.

As a director, my aim is to connect and collaborate with actors so that they feel ownership over their characters and what they've created. 

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ASSISTANT TO THE DIRECTOR: 
AS YOU LIKE IT

The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey kicks off a summer of Shakespeare with As you like it under the stars

The production will be directed by Jemma Alix Levy, a 25-year veteran stage director, founder, and former Artistic Director of Muse of Fire Theatre Company, playwright, and Associate Professor of Acting and Directing at Washington and Lee University. Early in her career, Levy was an intern with STNJ and directed for the company's Shakespeare LIVE! touring program. "As You Like It is full of well known show-stopping set piece monologues," says Levy, "and some of the most amazing and memorable characters Shakespeare wrote. I love the characters in this play - their realness, their messiness, and their confusion - because they are us in all our various stages and expreces in life. We look forward to welcoming audiences into their world of silliness, love, and hope." 

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Read the reviews

"The cast doesn't miss a beat as they deliver The Bard's clever, fascinating dialogue."

 

"The Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey’s annual outdoor production is a dependable highlight of the New Jersey theater year."

Directed:
Shakespeare
in love

"Shakespeare in Love is a play about the pursuit of dreams and the creative process."

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ASSISTANT DIRECTED: SHAKESPEARE'S R&J

A MODERN ADAPTATION

Four young prep school students, tired of going through the usual drill of conjugating Latin and other tedious school routines, decide to vary their very governed lives. After school, one breaks out a copy of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and they all take turns reading the play aloud. The Bard’s words and the story itself are thrilling to the girls, and they become swept away, enmeshed in the emotion so much so that they break school rules in order to continue their readings. The rigidity of their lives begins to parallel the lives of the characters in the play: roles in the family, roles in society, and the roles played by men and women soon seem to make all the sense in the world, and then, suddenly, they seem to make no sense at all. Although they had been taking turns playing all the parts, two eventually emerge playing Romeo and Juliet exclusively, bringing a whole new dimension to the proceedings. Perceptions and understanding are turned upside-down as the fun of play-acting turns serious, and the words and meanings begin to hit home and universal truths emerge.

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R+J Gallery

“The thing that kept coming up for me was the nature of yearning and its multitudes. The childish, petulant yearning of not getting the role or lines you want. The quiet, lonely yearning for companionship when you feel like an outsider!” - Courtney Knight

DRAMATURG:

Love's labour's lost

A RAUCOUS CELEBRATION OF HEAD VERSUS HEART

The King of Navarre and his classmates have sworn an oath to hit the books and swear off dating for three years. Can their vow survive the arrival of the brilliant Princess of France and her charming friends? Back for the 11th year as Two River’s most popular education program, A Little Shakespeare presents an abridged version of Shakespeare’s comedy. This raucous celebration of head versus heart is directed and designed by theater professionals, and performed and supported backstage by high school students.

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Love's Labour's Lost Gallery

“I love that we get to explore both tragedies and comedies through the Little Shakes program, and it's high time for a laugh,” says Director of Education Kate Cordaro. “We have assembled an incredible group of young actors for this production, and we are thrilled to start dissecting this very silly play with them.” 

Assistant
Directed: D.O.A.

Frank Bigelow walks into a police station to report a murder: his own. One day earlier, the small-time accountant kissed his girlfriend and secretary, Paula, goodbye and left on a trip to San Francisco with mysterious intentions. Shortly after he arrives, he's invited to join a group of rowdy businessmen celebrating with their clients after a successful market week. After a wild night of drinking at jazz clubs with sexy women, he wakes feeling ill. A doctor and detective arrive to deliver tragic news-Bigelow has been poisoned, and he only has hours left to live. Bigelow frantically searches the city for his killer and the reason he was targeted. Each person he encounters gives him a piece of the story that includes a mysterious suicide, a shady business deal gone wrong, and conniving women. Will he unravel the mystery before his time runs out? Will the killer be brought to justice?

READ THE REVIEWS

"I wanted to direct a story that felt cinematic," Hargadon said. "When we think of film noir, shadows and jazz seem to creep into the imagination like fog and scenes seem to materialize and dissolve quickly. So that was my goal all while immersing the audience in the same atmosphere with these shady, funny, quirky, and serious characters."

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D.O.A. Gallery

Our mission when approaching Macbeth was to answer, “Why this play now?” Through our process more questions emerged, and we saw the many parallels between the world of the play and the present. Macbeth invited the audience to ponder questions of their own, to embrace curiosity over surety, and to recognize all that we still must learn from one another about our shared human experience. 

Macbeth - Ensemble directed

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Directed:
Twelfth Night

This production was set during the 1920s, demonstrating the parallels between Shakespeare’s day and the prohibition era. The production highlighted attributes of the “Modern Woman” in Viola, Maria, and Oliva, in varying degrees. There was also a focus on the similarities between the Puritans and those in favor of prohibition, emphasized in the character Malvolio. 

Sebastian, Olivia, and Priest
First Officer, Viola, Priest, Olivia
Orsino and Fool
Orsino and Viola
Viola and Orsino
Olivia and Viola
Sir Andrew and Viola
Sebastian and Sir Toby
Sebastian, Olivia, Sir Andrew
Malvolio
Fool and Malvolio
Fabian, Malvolio, Sir Toby, Maria
Fabian, Malvolio, Sir Toby, Maria
Antonio and Sebastian
Malvolio and Olivia
Malvolio and Olivia
Sir Toby Belch
Malvolio
Sir Toby Belch
Malvolio
Fabian, Sir Toby, and Sir Andrew
Sir Toby Belch
Maria
Sir Toby and Maria
Viola
Viola and Malvolio
Viola
Olivia
Left to Right: Maria, Viola,Olivia
Olivia and Malvolio
Sir Andrew Aguecheek
Sir Toby Belch
Toby Belch and Andrew Aguecheek
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