Kristi Schultz is a Director, Choreographer, Producer, and Teaching Artist.  Using interdisciplinary, contemporary performance practices to revive classics, adapt literature, and devise original work, Kristi has spent the last 5 years building a Musical Theater and Dance Program at New Roads School. Her 2017 production of IN THE HEIGHTS, received 5 Jerry Herman Award nominations including Best Production.  She and her partner, Brian Frette, won the award for Best Staging & Choreography at the Pantages Theater. In the years under her guidance, the Dance program has grown from 8 students to over 80 students and 4 Faculty Members.  At New Roads, she implemented a workshop lab for Dance Activism. Other recent Directing experience includes My Hero Project's INTERNATIONAL PEACE DAY event honoring veteran activist Ron Kovic,  SEEING RED, an evening of original dance, theater, and cabaret.

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 From 2006 to 2010, she was Producing Artistic Director of the award-winning LA company, Zoo District, helming their 3 year residence at [Inside] the Ford as part of the Ensemble Theatre Collective.  At the Ford, she directed a critically acclaimed production of Ionesco’s THE SUBMISSION and THE FUTURE IS IN EGGS, produced and performed in THE DEFENDERS in Los Angeles and San Francisco, the show garnered 5 Garland Award Honorable Mentions.  For Zoo District, she also curated and presented original works in progress in SHOT IN THE DARK and JOUR DE BOSSE CABARET, bringing together solo performing artists and theatre companies from the community. She and Brian Frette’ were commissioned by Padua Playwrights to direct the World Premiere of Murray Mednick's play, DESTRUCTION OF THE 4th WORLD.

 

Kristi has been a guest faculty member at the Arkansas Arts Center Children's Theatre, teaching acting, movement, and composition, a teaching artist and performer with international company, Bluepalm, touring LA schools with programs that integrate literacy, identity, movement, and artistic thinking.  As a performer and ensemble member, she can be seen with the Grand Guignolers, most recently at Pasadena Playhouse Cirque Fest. She developed original work with Third Rail Dance in SPUN, New York’s Theatre Studio, Inc., Choreographer for Yale Drama Cabaret’s ROCKY HORROR. She spent many years as a musical theatre performer and dance captain, making special appearances as a singer/entertainer at a variety of New York and Los Angeles corporate events, industrials, and fundraisers, including The Drama League’s annual Broadway Bash.  An alumni of Carnegie Mellon University, the British American Drama Academy, SITI Company Intensives, and the SSDC Director’s Lab West, she is a member of AEA, TCG, and the Network of Ensemble Theatres. 

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