Dek Ingraham (Managing Artistic Director) originally intended to become a lawyer. Instead, he's become an artist. In either field, he is a lover of language and ideas. Along the way he's played the Marquis de Sade twice (Quills and Marat/Sade) for Marietta College, played melodramas on The Show Boat Becky Thatcher, and everything in between. As a director, he helmed the North American premiere of The Master's Boy and Associate Director for the London premiere of The Guys. His local credits include directing The Mousetrap for Heritage Players and The Sea Horse for South Park Theatre, where he was recently elected to the Board of Directors. When not directing, look for Dek behind a book, or possibly behind a camera or occasionally a canvas.

dekingraham@phase3productions.org

Melissa Hill Grande (Artistic Director) holds a BFA in Production Design and Technology (emphasis Costume Design), an MA in Theater History and Criticism (emphasis Irish Drama) and an MFA in Directing (emphasis New Play Development). All three of her degrees are from Ohio University, making her a dyed-in-the-wool Bobcat and a fantastically educated. While working on her MA, she discovered professional wrestling (as a fan, not a performer), and spent a considerable amount of time researching and writing about pro wrestling's roots in Futurist Performance Theory for one of her graduate classes. (Seriously.) She attended her first baseball game last summer, and now the Pittsburgh Pirates have taken the place of World Wrestling Entertainment, though she still hopes to work for Vince McMahon some day. She is the Director of Marketing for Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre, for whom she has also dramaturged, assistant directed, and directed. Prior to moving to Pittsburgh, she spent thirteen years teaching in the theatre program at Marietta College, a small private liberal Arts school in Ohio. When not doing theatre or enjoying sports, she gardens and spends time with her husband and son.

melissagrande@phase3productions.org

J.R. Shaw (Production Manager) is a big geek. His living room book shelf is equal parts Shakespeare, comic book collections, anthologies of obscure playwrights, and paperback novels about wizards. Also, there are art books. He's been doing theatre in one form or another since grade school when his parents enrolled him in The Beck Center for the Arts' Children's Theatre Program. They thought that they were only getting some peace and quiet on Saturday mornings. They ended up giving J.R. a focus in life. Since that time, J.R. has worn many hats. From actor to playwright, he dabbled in it all and more before taking to working backstage - particularly in lighting. He came full circle while attending Ashland University by spending four years working for the Beck Center's Summer Performance Workshop Series as Assistant Producer. His Pittsburgh credits includes contributing a monologue for The Rage of Stage's recent work Villains, and Lighting Designer for the 2008 season at South Park Theatre.

 jrshaw@phase3productions.org