Jessica Hanna

Make Trouble is excited to welcome Jessica Hanna onto our team for the summer. She will be directing A Midsummer Nights Dream, and guiding Suzuki and Viewpoints in our training.

Jessica is a Los Angeles based Theater Maker.  BFA in Acting from the Theater School at DePaul University in Chicago.  She has worked as an actor, director, choreographer and producer all over Los Angeles with many companies and spaces including, Open Fist, Sacred Fools, Evidence Room, John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, Greenway Court, Abundant Sugar, Occidental College, Atwater Village Theatre, Furious Theatre, Mine is Yours Theatre Co., B-Flat Productions, Center Theatre Group, Mutant Collective and Circle X. She has also had the pleasure of working with Anne Bogart and the SITI Co. as an actor at the Getty Villa twice. She has trained in Suzuki & Viewpoints since 2002. In June 2006 she co-founded Bootleg Theater and was the Producing & Managing Director through 2018.  At Bootleg she produced and worked with hundreds of artists and companies, overseeing production of all the theatrical and dance performances at Bootleg.  Her focus as a freelance director & producer has been on new work development. Recent directing credits include: Lisa Dring's DEATH PLAY, for the Son of Semele Solo Creation Festival and Circle X Theatre (full production - World Premiere). NO HOMO, at Hollywood Fringe (Winner Best Director, Ensemble Theater, World Premiere and Golden Playwright), New York Fringe and Atwater Village Theatres, FOUR CHORDS AND A GUN by John Ross Bowie at Bootleg (World Premiere), Nia Orm's' solo sketch show WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE at the Downtown Independent, I CARRY YOUR HEART by Georgette Kelly at Bootleg, PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT, the musical, at Celebration Theatre (7 Ovation Nominations including Best Director, WINNER Best Production of a Musical and Best Costume Design), THE WILLOWS by Kerri-Ann McCalla at Bootleg (World Premiere) and the work-in-progress BLUE GOLD & BUTTERFLIES by Stephanie Batiste in the Bootleg Creation Residency. She is an Artist in Residence at Thymele Arts. She is a new member of The Kilroys, an activist artists group working for gender parity in the American Theatre through guerilla actions. Most recently, she was a guest artist at CalState University Long Beach, directing Lauren Gunderson's THE REVOLUTIONISTS.

Thadd McQuade

Make Trouble Co-founder and Co-Artistic Director Thadd McQuade will direct Timon of Athens and take lead on actor training. Read more about him here

Laura Rikard

Laura will teach a master class in Commedia dell’arte and coach our actors in the principles of intimacy choreography.

Laura (SAG-AFTRA/AEA) is a director, actor, stage movement specialist, intimacy choreographer, and a founding member of Theatre Intimacy Education. Directing credits include: The Seagull, Dead Man’s Cellphone, Spring Awakening, 13, the Musical, Romeo and Juliet, and others.  Acting Credits include: A Streetcar Named Desire, By the Bog of Cats, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Macbeth, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Rhinoceros, and others. Stage Intimacy Choreography includes: Scenes from an Execution, Three Guys and Brenda, Tally’s Folly, Ominium Gatherum and The Red Paint.   She has worked in film and television, NYC, regionally, on national tours, internationally and devised solo performance productions.  She has been coaching and teaching for 19 years. Former students have won the National Shakespeare Competition at the Lincoln Center, been accepted into top training programs and are currently working on and off Broadway, in professional theatres in Chicago, Los Angeles, London, at top regional theatres and her students can also been seen in numerous films and television series. She is a recipient of the best acting award at the Virginia Film and has been named by Academic Keys as a "Who's Who in Fine Arts Education" Festival.  She has taught theatre performance at the University of Virginia, Stephen F. Austin State University, Brown University, and the University of Miami.  She is on faculty at the University of South Carolina Upstate.  She is a member of the SAFD, ATME, ATHE, VASTA, SDC and NCTC.