West Hyler was the Producing Artistic Director of the New York Musical Festival, co-Artistic Director of Drama-League nominated Artistic Stamp, and the Scene Director and Story Writer for Cirque Du Soleil Paramour, Cirque's first Broadway Musical. Directing work includes the Bulgarian premieres of The Sound of Music and Shrek! The Musical (National Opera House of Bulgaria), Piff, the Magic Dragon (Flamingo Hotel and Casino), Avenue Q, SpongeBob The Musical (State Puppet Theater of Bulgaria), Air Play (New Victory, Int’l tour), Mortality Play, Wingman, Kid who would be Pope (Ars Nova), H2O (59E59), Getting My Act Together, Game of Love (York Theater Company), Tempest, Love's Labours Lost, Merry Wives of Windsor (Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival), Georama, The Disappearing Man (St Louis Rep), Legendarium and Metamorphosis (Big Apple Circus, Lincoln Center) and Panda! (Beijing State Theater, Palazzo Hotel and Casino), amongst others. Other Broadway work includes associate director on Jersey Boys, associate director on How The Grinch Stole Christmas, and he directed Vanessa Carlton into Beautiful, the Carole King Musical. He has been a Drama League fall directing fellow as well as a Drama League Resident Artist and holds an MFA from UCSD.

Shelley Butler has over thirty Broadway, Off-Broadway and regional credits to date and has worked extensively with writers on new plays and musicals. Recent productions include the world premieres of Kate Hamill’s A Scarlet Letter at Two River Theater and Lucas Hnath’s A Doll’s House Part 2 at South Coast Repertory and the Japanese premiere of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, at the Imperial Theatre in Tokyo. She has directed and developed work across the country for theaters including: Ars Nova, Primary Stages, E.S.T., WP Theater, Hartford Stage, South Coast Repertory, Denver Center Theatre Company, Pioneer Theatre Company, Geva, The Old Globe, Contemporary American Theater Festival, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, New York Stage and Film, Dallas Lyric Stage, PlayPenn, New Dramatists, the Lark, New Georges, Dixon Place, The Playwright’s Realm, Wellfleet Harbor Actor’s Theatre and Keen Company. Shelley is the recipient of a Drama League Directing Fellowship, a 2005 Director’s Guild of America Trainee, a member of SDC, the Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab and the Women’s Project Directors Lab. Shelley spent two seasons as artistic associate in charge of new play development for Hartford Stage and three seasons as artistic associate for Great Lakes Theater Festival.

Morgan Patterson was the Director of Production for the SC Governor's school for the Arts & Humanities for 11years. Morgan grew her theatrical roots here in Greenville, with the Fine Arts Center and the Warehouse Theatre. Morgan has worked to produce theatre, opera, dance, music, circus and fashion in a wide variety of venues ranging from Santa Fe Opera, Bard Summerscape Festival, Spoleto USA, New York Fashion Week. Some of her favorite projects include Cendrillon at Santa Fe Opera in 2006 where she worked with the lighting team creating illuminated props and realizing the lighting design of Duane Schuler, remounting Lucinda Childs' Dance (1979) at the Fisher Center at the 2009 Summerscape Festival and Eurydice at Warehouse Theatre in 2013, where she made custom props for the set design of Shannon Robert. Morgan is thrilled to be a part of the SCNPF and to work with all of the uniquely amazing theatres in Greenville.

Kimberly Colburn is a skilled event manager, producer, dramaturg, administrator, and community builder. Kimberly has produced digital, hybrid and in-person events for Soulpepper Theatre, the University of Toronto’s Robotics Institute, and the Canadian Robotics Council, in addition to freelance dramaturgy and story editor work. From March 2020 to November 2020, she was the Program Manager for CanCOVID, building and implementing a digital network for scientific research around COVID in Canada, including managing and hosting a weekly speaker series. Trained as a theatre producer and dramaturg, she was formerly the Literary Director of South Coast Rep (SCR), where she co-directed the Pacific Playwrights Festival and led the CrossRoads commissioning program. She has worked with companies including Los Angeles Opera, Denver Center Theatre Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Mixed Blood Theatre, Oregon Contemporary Theatre, Artists at Play, The Playwrights Center, the Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Musical Stage Company, and Native Voices at the Autry.

A lifelong educator, Julie Allen was the Dean and Vice President of Arts and Academics for the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities, Greenville, SC. Prior to that position, she was associate dean a full time teacher before then.

Linda graduated from the University of Iowa with degree in Accounting and received her MBA in Business from Clemson. She spent thirteen years with Dow Chemical/Dow Brands before moving to BMW where she served as Department Manager in the Finance Department for twenty-four and a half years. She works with The Warehouse Theatre Board and has assumed roles there including the board President, Vice President, and Treasurer.

Alyssa is the Director of Digital Marketing for United Community Banks Inc. where she leads the digital marketing team, develops and executes integrated channel strategies and programs. She is also the owner of Armor Consulting where she helps small businesses get their digital footprint up and running.

A longtime Theater lover and board member of Greenville Theatre, Mark is also a travel agent with AAA Carolinas.

Mary Freeman is the Executive Director of the Acadia Community Foundation, created to help preserve the environmental and civic life of the Saluda River Basin, a part of the National Heritage Corridor. She has been serving in the arts for over 40 years as a music teacher, singer, actor, and board member. As a past chair of the board of the Greenville Theatre, Mary currently serves on its Vision and Development Committee. She was also a founding board member for Mill Town Players.

Mary has performed in numerous stage, commercial, and musical productions. You may have seen her on stage at the Greenville Theatre, Centre Stage, the Warehouse Theatre, and South Carolina Children’s Theatre. She and her husband Caleb are developers of the Acadia community and have two adult sons. Through the South Carolina New Play Festival, Mary is excited to play a small part in promoting new plays for American theatre.

Bill was a project manager for Live Nation and RK Management and Talent Agent at Elite model management before coming to work at the Peace Center in 2014 prior to his retirement.

Stacey D. Mills is Executive Director of REEM (Racial Equality and Economic Mobility) Commission and has also served as Senior Pastor to Mountain View Baptist Church in Downtown Greenville for the past 20 years. He earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies (English and Secondary Education) from the University of South Carolina Upstate and completed coursework toward the Master of Education Degree in Teaching at the University of South Carolina, Columbia.

Vee Popat is the Director of the Fine Arts Center of the Greenville County Schools. The Fine Arts Center (FAC) is South Carolina’s first public school for the visual, performing, and creative arts. Vee started as Director of the FAC in 2019, and was named as Greenville County Schools’ Administrator of the Year in 2022. With 20 years of experience as a public school educator, Vee served as a band director for the first 9 years of his career before moving into the administrative level. He holds a B.A. in Music Education from Virginia Tech, an M.M. in Jazz Education from the University of Miami (FL), and an M.S. in Educational Administration from the University of Scranton. The bulk of Vee’s career as a music educator was in the award-winning programs of the Randolph Township Schools in Randolph, NJ, where he was twice named “Teacher of the Year.” His tenure as an administrator began as an Arts Supervisor, serving in that role in the Randolph Township Schools and the West Essex Regional School District (North Caldwell, NJ). He then served 6 years as West Essex Middle School Principal before moving to Greenville to become the Fine Arts Center’s Director.

Bill Pelham is president of Pelham Architects and an active philanthropist who helps organizations build creatively and ambitiously upon their foundations. He’s spent more than a decade supporting Camperdown Academy with his time, energy, expertise, and resources and helped The Fine Arts Center (FAC) establish the first four-year high school architecture program in the country tied to a university (Clemson University, his alma mater). Now, FAC students can graduate from a Greenville County public school with portfolios advanced enough to replace the first year of a college architecture program.

Kendra has been the Executive Assistant to Mayor Knox White of the City of Greenville, South Carolina, since 2022. She assists the Mayor of one of the Fastest Growing and most often recognized cities in America. She also leads the Black History walking tours of Greenville, SC.

Prior to her work in the mayor’s office, she was the Development Manager at AK Williams Global Consulting and was a trainer for the South Carolina Foster Parent Association.

Since returning to Greenville in 2008, John has served as Executive Director of the Fine Arts Center Partners, Finance and Administration at the SC Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities and Executive Director of the Ray and Joan Kroc Center. John is co-Founder and former President of Selective Micro Technologies, LLC. John also remains active in several local cultural and economic development organizations.

Prior to founding Selective Micro, John held several senior executive positions with large industrial companies. He was Chief Operating Officer at World Minerals, Inc., Vice President and General Manager for Grace Packaging (a division of W. R. Grace & Co), in both Europe, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, and Asia Pacific, based in Hong Kong, and senior management positions in Grace Packaging’s US organization, including Chief Financial Officer.

John is a former US Air Force pilot and was an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the US Air Force Academy. He is now retired from the Air Force Reserve. John is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and holds graduate degrees from North Carolina State University (Applied Mathematics) and Clemson University (Business).

Susie White enjoys her work as a realtor with Coldwell Banker Caine in Greenville. First moving to Greenville to begin a career as an attorney, she sequed to a career in marketing and development and started her own marketing and consulting firm where she consulted with various nonprofits in the area. Career highlights include fundraising for the capital campaign to build Greenville’s impressive Children’s Museum of the Upstate and serving as Executive Director of the SC Governor’s School for the Arts Foundation. Susie and her husband Andy share a passion for the arts, particularly performing arts. The opportunity to serve on the inaugural board of the South Carolina New Play Festival is right up her alley. She is excited to be a part of the effort.

Greenville native Mimi Wyche is an abstract landscape artist, painting primarily in oil and cold wax (mimiwychestudio.com.) She also worked for many years as an actor and singer, performing on Broadway, Off-Broadway and in regional productions throughout the country, with directors including Trevor Nunn, Julie Taymor, and Meredith Monk. Mimi has appeared as a soprano soloist at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and with numerous symphonies and opera companies. She’s written six one-woman shows, one of which, “Eaten Alive,” toured the US and Canada for four years.

A staunch advocate for reducing the stigma of mental illness, Mimi promotes the arts as a tool for enhancing well-being and enriching the lives of individuals who face mental health challenges. She is thrilled to be a part of the SC New Play Festival, and its mission to and nurture and support new theater.