The Lillys EXECUTIVE Directors
Brittani Samuel
co- executive director
Brittani Samuel (she/her) is a Caribbean-American arts journalist, theater critic, and the co-editor of 3Views on Theater. Her work has appeared in American Theatre Magazine, Broadway News, The New York Times, and several other publications. She is an alum of the BIPOC Critics Lab and the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Critics Institute, as well as the inaugural recipient of ATCA’s Edward Medina Prize for Excellence in Cultural Criticism. In 2024, she joined Sarah Rose Leonard as co-Executive Director of The Lillys. To read more of her published work, visit BrittaniSamuel.com.
Sarah Rose Leonard
co- executive director
Sarah Rose Leonard (she/her) is a dramaturg and creative producer. She is currently a Live Events Producer at KQED, Northern California’s NPR and PBS member station. Previously, she was the Literary Manager at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the Literary Associate at Signature Theatre. She dramaturgs plays nationally, reads on a bunch of committees, and her curating/producing work includes three PRELUDE Festivals and a myriad of downtown NYC theatre projects. In 2024, she joined Brittani Samuel as co-Executive Director of The Lillys.
The Lillys Board of Directors
Marsha Norman
President
Marsha Norman won a Pulitzer for her play ‘night, Mother, a Tony for The Secret Garden on Broadway and a Tony for her book for The Color Purple (2016 Revival).
Ms. Norman is co-chair of Playwriting at Juilliard and serves on the Steering Committee of the Dramatists Guild. She has numerous film and TV credits, as well as a Peabody for her work in TV. She has won several awards including the Inge Lifetime Achievement in Playwriting, and the Career Achievement Award from the Dramatists Guild.
In 2010, Ms. Norman founded The Lillys with Julia Jordan and Theresa Rebeck.
Julia Jordan
VICE PRESIDENT
Julia Jordan is an award-winning American playwright, television and screenwriter. She is a graduate of Barnard College, class of 1989, and received a masters degree from Trinity, Dublin. She is a member of New Dramatists and the Dramatist Guild Council.
Lily Fan
TREASURER
Lily M. Fan is a theater and documentary producer. She founded Scandobean Productions in 2010. She is proud to be part of this monumental and unprecedented drive towards betterment for all (women) in theater.
Janice Maffei
SECRETARY
Janice Maffei is a playwright and a partner in VisionFirst, a firm that helps organizations to think forward, create change and get results. A member of The Dramatists Guild, her work has been published and produced in the metropolitan area. She earned an MFA from Stony Brook University.
Jane Abramson
BOARD MEMBER
Kristen Anderson-Lopez
BOARD MEMBER
Kristen Anderson-Lopez is an Oscar and Grammy award winning songwriter. She is the co-writer of the recently opened Frozen on Broadway as well as Disney’s Frozen (Oscar and Grammy wins), and “Remember Me” from Pixar’s Coco (Oscar win). She is also the co-writer of In Transit, the first-ever all a capella musical on Broadway, Finding Nemo the Musical, running at Disney World since 2006, Disney’s Winnie the Pooh, and Emmy nominated songs for TV’s 87thAcademy Awardsand The Comedians. She’s currently at work on Disney’s Frozen 2. A recipient of the BMI Harrington Award and the 2014 Lily Award, Anderson-Lopez serves on the Council for the Dramatists Guild and on the Advisory Board for the Brooklyn Children’s Theatre. She resides in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters.
Antonia Belt
BOARD MEMBER
Antonia Belt grew up in Berlin and has lived in NYC since 1991.
She was trained as a men’s tailor in the German guild system and over the years her projects have spanned from suits for dignitaries to uniforms for the staff of the largest soup kitchen in Brooklyn. In between she has created costumes for the opera, dance and theatre. Currently she has a utilitarian clothing company called, Wagner Uniform. She is the mother of two daughters and lives in Brooklyn with her husband, David.
Rebekah Carver
BOARD MEMBER
One of the distinguishing characteristics of Rebekah Carver’s real estate career is that she has handled multiple transactions for so many of her clients. It’s common to have some repeat business, but she has helped several clients buy their first property and then sell that to find them an even better property– helping them grow their homes right along with their lives. Rebekah’s attention to detail, exceptional work ethic, and commitment to putting the customer’s needs first are among the reasons that clients keep coming back, and sending her referrals.
That warmth, passion, and authenticity can be traced back to her childhood, growing up in Montpelier, Vermont. Living in the state capitol, issues such as zoning and local politics were always part of the conversation.
Carver was co-owner of Brooklyn Hearth Realty, a full-service brokerage in 2006, she and her colleagues joined Douglas Elliman in June, 2017. After just six months at the company, Rebekah became the number 5 broker in Brooklyn. In 2018, she became the #1 broker for Brooklyn within the company. Rebekah's real estate skillset extends beyond the boundaries of Brooklyn to Manhattan, greater New York, and overseas where Douglas Elliman partners with Frank Knight, a global real estate consulting firm.
Valerie Curtis-Newton
BOARD MEMBER
The Head of Directing and Playwriting at the University of Washington’s School of Drama, Valerie also serves as the Artistic Director for The Hansberry Project, an African American theatre lab. She has worked with theatres across the country including: The Guthrie Theater, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Intiman Theatre, Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Children’s Theatre, The Mark Taper Forum, New York Theatre Workshop, among others. She has been awarded the National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group Career Development Grant for Directors, the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation’s Gielgud Directing Fellowship, Theatre Puget Sound’s Gregory Falls Award for Sustained Achievement, Seattle Times’ 13 Most Influential Citizens of the last decade, the Seattle Stranger Genius Award in Performance and the Crosscut Courage Award for Culture.
Dana Fields Muldrow
BOARD MEMBER
Dana is a corporate and brand reputation, integrated marketing, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) communications specialists with more than 25 years of experience. Her work spans the commercial and retail real estate and professional services industries as well as environmental, social, and corporate governance issues (ESG).
She currently oversees stakeholder engagement at ICSC, the member organization for the advancement of the marketplaces industry. In this role, she develops and executes full funnel marketing initiatives designed to retain current and reach future members, drive participation in nearly 200 events and programming per year and advance the organization’s public policy agenda.
Prior to joining ICSC, Dana served as the global director of inclusion and diversity communications at EY. There she led the internal and external communications strategy to position the firm as an international leader in building and nurturing diverse and inclusive workplaces. Before her time at EY, Dana spent nearly a decade at Deloitte working in several key positions including chief of staff to the chief communications officer and communications led for the chairman of the board.
Dana lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and two daughters.
Amanda Green
BOARD MEMBER
Amanda Green is an American actress, singer and songwriter.
Mandy Greenfield
BOARD MEMBER
Mandy Greenfield is the Founder and Principal of Red Yes Studio under the auspices of which she is developing projects for stage, television and screen with collaborators Adam Bock, Trip Cullman, Rick Elice, Leslye Headland, Julia Jordan, Robert O'Hara, Benjamin Scheuer, Lucy Thurber, Whitney White, Bess Wohl and Anna Ziegler, among others.
Greenfield served as Artistic Director of Williamstown Theatre Festival for seven seasons. During her tenure, the work she created filled theatres on and off Broadway, regionally and internationally. In 2021, her work received ten Tony Award nominations, including two for Best Play (Bess Wohl’s GRAND HORIZONS, which she co-commissioned and produced with 2ST and Adam Rapp’s THE SOUND INSIDE for which Mary-Louise Parker won Best Actress). Among many others, Greenfield developed and produced the world premiere of Martyna Majok’s THE COST OF LIVING, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and played on Broadway. In 2022, Methuen Drama/Bloomsbury Publishing released an anthology of plays Greenfield produced during her tenure as artistic director entitled THE HEIGHT OF SUMMER: New Plays from Williamstown Theatre Festival 2015-2021; this collection, including the 2021 Pulitzer Finalist SELLING KABUL, is available worldwide.
In response to the global health pandemic of 2020, Ms. Greenfield forged a collaboration with Audible, the world's largest producer and provider of spoken-word entertainment, to create a critically acclaimed season of audio projects.
Greenfield served as Artistic Producer of Manhattan Theatre Club for a decade, during which period she produced more than seventy-five world and American premiere plays and musicals both on and off Broadway.
New works commissioned, developed and produced by Greenfield have garnered every major theatrical honor including Tony Awards, the Pulitzer Prize in Drama, Lucile Lortel Awards, Drama Desk Awards, Obie Awards, and the Kleban Prize in Musical Theatre.
Before joining its Board, Greenfield was named a “Giant in the Theater” by the Lilly Award Foundation. She previously served on the Board of Planned Parenthood of New York City.
Stacey Mindich
BOARD MEMBER
Stacey Mindich is a Tony Award-winning producer and winner of the 2016 Robert Whitehead Award for Excellence in Commercial Producing. Stacey is the co-chair of the board at New York City Center, home to the Tony Award-winning Encores series of musical revivals and its newest series, Stacey’s brainchild, Encores: Off-Center.
Kate Navin
BOARD MEMBER
Lynn Nottage
BOARD MEMBER
Lynn Nottage is a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and a screenwriter. Her plays have been produced widely in the United States and throughout the world. She is the co-founder of the production company, Market Road Films. Over the years, she has developed original projects for HBO, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Showtime, This is That and Harpo.
Rita Pietropinto Kitt
BOARD MEMBER
Rita Pietropinto Kitt is the Chair of the Performing Arts Department at the Marymount School of New York, where she has served in this role for the past twenty-five years. Rita is also an Adjunct Professor of Acting in the Barnard Theater Department at Columbia University. As an actress, Rita has performed on and off Broadway, in television, film, and as an animation voiceover artist. Rita received her BA with honors from Columbia College in Political Science, her MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts in Theater and studied directing as a fellow at the Royal Court Theater, London.
She served as the first female chair of the Columbia University Alumni Association Board and helped create the Columbia Arts Access Program, a platform to connect Professional Artists and students with networking opportunities in the arts. She currently serves as a Vice President on the Columbia College Alumni Association Board with a focus on young alumni relations. In 2018, Rita received the Alumni Medal of Excellence at Commencement. She and her husband also received the Community Impact Award from Columbia in 2019. She is a trustee for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, a founding member of NYC Next, and a Board Member for the Lilly Awards. She and her husband, Tom Kitt, CC’96, the Pulitzer, Tony, Grammy, and Emmy award-winning composer live in NYC with their three children.
Sarah Ruhl
BOARD MEMBER
Sarah Ruhl's plays include How to Transcend a Happy Marriage;For Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday; The Oldest Boy; In the Next Room, or the vibrator play(Pulitzer Prize finalist, Tony Award nominee for best new play); The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize Finalist, The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize); Passion Play(Pen American award, The Fourth Freedom Forum Playwriting Award from The Kennedy Center); Orlando; Late: a cowboy song; Dear Elizabeth; Dead Man's Cell Phone (Helen Hayes Award); Eurydice; and Stage Kiss. She is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and a Tony Award nominee.
Robert Schenkkan
BOARD MEMBER
Pulitzer Prize, Tony, WGA and Humanitas Award winner, three-time Emmy nominated writer. Author of sixteen plays:Hanussen,Building the Wall, All the Way, The Great Society, Shadowplay, By the Waters of Babylon, Handler, A Single Shard, Devil and Daniel Webster, Lewis and Clark Reach the Euphrates, Final Passages, The Marriage of Miss Hollywood and King Neptune, Heaven on Earth, Tachinoki, The Dream Thief, The Kentucky Cycle, and a musical, The Twelve. Film: Hacksaw Ridge,and The Quiet American. TV: All the Way, The Pacific, The Andromeda Strain, Crazy Horse, and Spartacus. Robert also sits on the Dramatists Guild Council and the board of The Orchard Project. As a member of the National Theater Conference, he created the Women’s Playwright Initiative which has led to over 500 productions of new plays by American writers.