CitySpace Artist Advisory Committee
Did you know that CitySpace has an Artist Advisory Committee? Not only do they do impactful work with CitySpace (like reviewing program applications and processes plus advising about CitySpace’s organization strategies, too), they also perform, direct, and create throughout our region and beyond. The CitySpace Artist Advisory Committee is: Kyle Boatwright, Stephanie Carlson, Carolyn Cushing, Emily Ditkovski, Nathaniel Gowen, Trenda Loftin, Pamela Means, Myka Plunkett, and Amber Tanudjaja.
Kyle Boatwright (she/her/hers) is a Pioneer Valley-based musician, actor, coach, and creative collaborator. Regional musical direction and design credits include: Legacy Boy: A New Musical (Blue Panther Productions, NYC), Mr. Burns (Univ. of Mass. Amherst), Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Onyx Theater, Las Vegas, NV), The Chalk Boy (Cockroach Theater, Las Vegas, NV), Rise Up: A Hamilton Sing-along (Rise Up Productions, MA). Favorite acting credits include Marianne in The Revolutionists (Silverthorne Theater, MA), Gloria in Boeing Boeing (The Majestic Theater, MA), Frog in A Year with Frog and Toad (New Century Theatre, MA), and the role that started it all for her: Mimi in RENT (Exit 7 Theater, MA). In addition to music directing and acting, Kyle is the co-founder and artistic director of Rise Up Productions, a local collective that produces musical and theatrical benefits to support marginalized communities in the area. She also works as a developmental editor and sensitivity reader for new musical and literary works.
Stephanie Carlson is an actor/singer/playwright who lives in Easthampton with her husband, Historical Committee and CPA member John Bruner. She has worked with local companies such as Silverthorne, New Century Theatre, Panopera, the Majestic Theater, and the Hanover Theatre in Worcester. Co-founder of Passport Theatre Company, she periodically performs in Passport’s productions in both Western Mass and Helsinki, Finland. In 2019 she co-directed The Magic Flute at UMASS Opera Workshop. Stephanie is a graduate of Hampshire College and a member of Actors Equity Association and AGMA. She loves to putter in the garden.
Carolyn Cushing is a poet, Tarot practitioner, and seeker of justice.
As a poet, Carolyn is inspired by nature and focused on the places where life and death meet. She has been a finalist for the Philbrick Poetry Award of the Providence Athenaeum (2012) and the Tarantula Poetry Contest of Pilgrimage Journal (2018).
Through Soul Path Sanctuary, Carolyn offers spiritual mentoring, Tarot sessions, and on-line and in-person retreats to attune to the wisdom of the seasons. Carolyn has been a guest teacher at the Northwest Tarot Symposium, HATHOR Forum, and Gaian Tarot Circle; and co-created rituals at Readers Studio, the largest and longest running international Tarot conference. Her Tarot practices and writing are included in The Gaian Tarot Companion Guide and Tarot for Troubled Times. She is co-founder of the Massachusetts Tarot Society.
In her over 30 years of work in the non-profit sector, Carolyn has provided administrative support for peace and justice organizations; done research and developed curriculums for bringing heart, strategy, and undoing oppression work into social change movements; organized
gatherings and strategy sessions for communicators working for justice at grassroots and national levels; and raised money for organizations in the adult education, social change, humanities, and environmental fields.
Emily Ditkovski holds a B.F.A. in Drama from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and an M.A. in Educational Theater from NYU’s Steinhardt School. As an undergraduate, Emily had the joy of studying with Jan Cohen Cruz, a leader in the field of social justice theater. This led her to teaching positions in the South Bronx, Washington Heights, and Sunset Park, Brooklyn through the Children’s Aid Society and The Young Women’s Leadership Institute where she taught Shakespeare and devising with underserved students in grades 7-12. During graduate school, she again focused her coursework on social justice theater which led her to Ireland where she studied abroad at Trinity College and with Augusto Boal at the Center for Theater of The Oppressed in Brazil. From 2009-2021 she was the Director of the Theater Program at the Williston Northampton School in Easthampton, Massachusetts where she received the Gregory Instructorship. At Williston, Emily directed the mainstage productions, and taught acting, directing, social justice theatre, improvisation, and devising. She is currently pursuing her masters in Arts Administration at Columbia University where she is learning how to close the accessibility gap for BIPOC students in the performing arts.
Nathaniel Gowen is a proud native of Westbrook, Maine having moved to Massachusetts in 2015 for graduate school at UMass Amherst. On completing his Masters of Music in Jazz Composition/Arranging in 2017, he was hired by the UMass Department of Music & Dance as its Director of Admissions, Recruitment, and Career Planning. In addition to his duties at the university, Nate is a co-producer and member of the board of directors of the Northampton Jazz Festival. He currently resides in South Hadley though has become familiar with much of western MA since his move six years ago.
Trenda Loftin (she/hers) is a social justice consultant, theatre artist, worker-owner of The Compost Cooperative, and REALTOR with Coldwell Banker Community Realtors. She works closely with theatre companies, organizations, and individuals to address inequity within programs, practices, and policies, utilizing interactive and creative approaches. Trenda recognizes the importance of cultivating home spaces- not just as spaces for living, but for dreaming and co-creating. Her real estate and consulting work is anchored in seeking ways to increase access for those who face barriers to securing safe and enriching home and work spaces.
Pamela Means is a singer-songwriter with a penchant for protest songs. Conservatory-trained and best known for her folk music career, she is also a superb jazz singer and social activist. Curve Magazine calls her “one of the fiercest guitar players and politically rooted singer-songwriters in the music industry today.”
Myka Plunkett – is a theatre artist and studied music theater at the University of Central Oklahoma and resides in Western Massachusetts. Shows include: Seminar, A Year with Frog and Toad, and Laughter on the 23rd Floor (New Century Theater), Uncle Vanya and Soldier’s Heart (Academy of Music), The Life and Death of Queen Margaret, She Kills Monsters, and Hand Grenades (Real Live Theatre), Tar2fe! (Silverthorne Theater), An Inspector Calls, Iris, and Johnny Guitar (Majestic Theater), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (ACTh), Macbeth and King Lear (Hubbard Hall), and Annie Get Your Gun (Jewelbox Theater).
Amber Tanudjaja is a lighting designer, theatrical electrician, organizer, and educator. Touring experience includes national tours of In the Heights, Shatner’s World and Traces. Recent local designs include the 2020 Senior Dance Concert at Smith College and Matilda with Amherst Community Theater (formerly ALSCT). Amber has worked in local venues such as the Majestic Theater in West Springfield, the Calvin in Northampton, and across the Five Colleges. Amber is a partner in both Down Right Productions and Pine Box Studios, both based in Florence. She is also the proud President of IATSE Local 232. Amber has taught lighting and technical theater to middle and high school students, spent 8 years as a Montessori preschool teacher, and coaches ultimate frisbee.
