MEET OUR TEAM
OPERATIONS LEADER
Justine Bayod Espoz (she/her) is an arts journalist, producer, curator and arts administrator. She holds BAs in Spanish and English Literature from Smith College and a Master's in Cultural Management from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She is the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Torito Arts NFP, which is dedicated to promoting racial, ethnic, and conceptual diversity in the performing arts. Justine has worked with artists from around the world and secured grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the State of Illinois, and the City of Chicago among many other public and private institutions.
She has also written about and researched flamenco for close to two decades, lecturing on the evolution of the artform at various North American universities, museums, and cultural institutions. Her articles and research on the performing and fine arts have been published in magazines around the world, with her most recent article on flamenco appearing in the New York Times’ magazine Departures.
COMMUNICATIONS LEADER
Socks Whitmore (they/them) is a nonbinary producer, director, educator, writer, actor, voice artist, and composer rooted in voice, text, and accessibility. Known for their work with Stage Raw and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, Socks is also a sought-after drama journalist in the LA theater scene. Their creative work as a musician and wordsmith spans from live performance to digital media to print, including music theater, choral music, audio dramas, narrative design for games, poetry, short fiction, op-eds, and more.
To top it all off, Socks is a co-founder & facilitator of the trans vocal group 8TPS, a producing partner at the trans-led events production company, Prismatic.one, and the creative director at the gender-expansive Bolero Game Studio. A self-described “professional overachiever,” Socks likes to keep busy—if they’re not on stage, set, or their laptop, they can be found watching bad movies and amassing large amounts of socks. Learn more about their adventures in professional overachievement on their website.
INITIATIVE LEADERS
A lifelong theatermaker and arts worker, Cindy Sibilsky (she/her) is the founder/CEO and producer of inJOY Entertainment LLC (established in 2011), a multimedia, multi-genre and multi-purpose arts & entertainment company focusing on meaningful cultural exchange worldwide. She is a Broadway, Off-Broadway & international independent producer, marketing/PR director, and writer/journalist. In 2019, she was guest editor, curator, and lead writer for American Theatre Magazine’s special edition on Japanese Contemporary Theatre. Through inJOY Entertainment, Cindy represents a diverse and constantly growing roster of New York and global clients, companies and shows, including festivals, theatre, musicals, dance, cirque, plays, cabaret, drag, concerts, curated art shows, public art, and immersive performances.
Claudia Norman (she/her) is an award-winning Creative Independent Producer based in New York City with 25 years experience developing, producing, and executing international performing arts projects in the USA and Latin America. She is the manager and producer of Odissi master dancer and choreographer Bijyaini Satpathy; curator and producer of Lincoln Center’s La Casita; the founder and executive director of Celebrate Mexico Now Festival, New York City’s first and only arts festival spotlighting contemporary Mexico celebrating its 20th edition in 2023; and part time faculty at the College of Performing Arts/Arts Management and Entrepreneurship at The New School in New York.
Carolyn Boyd (she/her) is based in New York City, working across dance, music, immersive, nightlife, and event productions. Collaborators and past work include Punchdrunk, Emursive Productions, The American Repertory Theater, American Modern Opera Company, and Spike Jonze. She is an alumna of Boston University's College of Fine Arts. carolynraeboyd.com
ADVISORY BOARD
Thomas O. Kriegsmann (he/him) of ArKtype is an industry leader in new work development and touring worldwide. His past work includes projects with Kaneza Schaal, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Peter Brook, Daniel Fish, Victoria Thiérrée-Chaplin, Yael Farber, Anna Deavere Smith, Annie-B Parson & Paul Lazar, Jessica Blank & Erik Jensen, Peter Sellars, Julie Taymor, John Cameron Mitchell and Tony Taccone. Ongoing collaborations include Bryce Dessner, Sophia Brous, 600 HIGHWAYMEN, Sam Green, Timothy White Eagle, Andrew Schneider, Big Dance Theater, John Cameron Mitchell & Amber Martin, and Compagnia T.P.O. Upcoming premieres include the Under the Radar Festival, Sufjan Stevens & Justin Peck’s ILLINOIS, Bryce Dessner & Kaneza Schaal’s UNTITLED OCEAN VUONG PROJECT, Sam Green’s UNTITLED TREES PROJECT with Yo La Tengo & Gabriella Smith, and Penny Arcade’s autobiographical epic THE ART OF BECOMING. He is a founding member of CIPA. More information at arktype.org.
Sami Pyne (she/her) is passionate about demystifying and decluttering the production process for creators. Sami is currently a Producer at the new city-wide iteration of the Under the Radar Festival and the Producing Director at ArKtype. Through ArKtype, she’s had the pleasure of producing work with artists including 600 Highwaymen (A Thousand Ways, The Following Evening), Bryce Dessner (Dream House Quartet), CHRISTEENE (The Lion, The Witch, and the Cobra), John Cameron Mitchell (Cassette Roulette), nora chipaumire (NEHANDA, dambudzo), Sam Green (32 Sounds), Sophia Brous (Invisible Opera) and Timothy White Eagle (The Indigo Room, Indian School). In her independent practice, Sami is dedicated to making the creative process more accessible for emerging artists who are developing new work. Recent independent producing credits include Jeesun Choi’s To the Ends of the Earth / 땅끝까지 at JACK, Alex Hare and Julia Izumi’s Capricorn 29 at The Tank, Jen Pitt’s TRASH BODY MONKEY HOUSE at New Ohio’s Ice Factory Festival, Christina Tang’s TRAFFIC at The Brick’s Exponential Festival, and Keenan Tyler Oliphant’s Kyk Hoe Skyn die Son [Look how the Sun Shines] at Clubbed Thumb’s Winterworks. Sami received her MFA from Columbia University in Theatre Management and Producing, served as an observer for the Asian Producers Platform (APP) 2024 Camp in Malaysia, and is a proud Advisory Committee member of the Creative & Independent Producer Alliance (CIPA).
As a principal of Pomegranate Arts since its formation in 1998, Alisa E. Regas (she/her) has developed projects by Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, Taylor Mac, Bassem Youssef, Improbable, Hal Wilner, Collective: Unconscious, Sankai Juku, Lucinda Childs and Dan Zanes. She was the Associate Producer of the 2012 production of Philip Glass & Robert Wilson's Einstein on the Beach, and Available Light by John Adams, Lucinda Childs, & Frank Gehry. Together with Pomegranate’s founder Linda Brumbach, Alisa served as creative and executive producer of Robin Frohardt's The Plastic Bag Store, Taylor Mac's A 24-Decade History of Popular Music and Bark of Millions by Taylor Mac & Matt Ray. Alisa’s film credits included Taylor Mac’s “Whitman in the Woods” (co-producer), Plastic Bag Store: The Film (exec. producer) and HBO documentary Taylor Mac’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (producer) directed by Jeffrey Friedman & Rob Epstein. She is the co-author of the special edition of Philip Glass Etudes: The Complete Folios 1-20 with Essays by Fellow Artists (2023). Alisa is an executive committee member of the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA) and has served as a consultant for the National Dance Project/NEFA & Creative Capitol.
Jennifer Harrison Newman (she/her) is a New York based artistic director, producer, educator, choreographer, and performer with over twenty-five years in the visual and performing arts. She works extensively across disciplines with artists pushing the boundaries of dance, theater, and opera. She has been an artist in residence at Princeton, Yale and Central Connecticut State Universities, The Field, Mabou Mines, Baryshnikov Arts Center, 651 Arts, and Sisters Academy Inkost, and has taught workshops across the United States, Sweden, South Africa, China, and Mexico.
Courtney Ozaki (she/her) is an independent creative producer/experiential designer, Off-Center Line Producer for the Denver Center for Performing Arts, and founder of the Japanese Arts Network, a national resource for artistic collaboration and connection which supports, advances, and strengthens visibility for Japanese Artists and culture in America. She holds an MFA in performing arts management from Brooklyn College and previously worked as a project manager and dance producer for Joyce Theater Productions and as GM for ADH Theatricals. As a creative producer, she writes/designs/produces original work, and serves on the board of directors for the Western Arts Alliance where she co-founded Hyphen+Asian, a collective AAPINH community space for artists and administrators in the field. She is thrilled to continue to help CIPA to support a sustainable ecosystem of support for new work development and creative independent producers in America and beyond.