Company Members

Elizabeth Sutton-Stone: Co-Founder/Artistic Director/Lead Teaching Artist

Liz has been described as an 'actor’s director,' because she has a passion for mutual creation and learning. She favors intimate, detailed, aesthetically bold production concepts, which leave room for discovery through improvisation. Recently, Liz has focused on developing a more process-oriented approach. She seeks clarity and depth, using only a handful of technical elements, empowering the body and voice to lead storytelling.

Liz graduated from Yale University in 2010, with a B.A. in English. She has trained in acting and directing at RADA in London and at the New School in New York City. She has devised acting Shakespeare programs for students in her home town of Panama City, Florida, as well as here in Brooklyn.  She has been a teaching artist and coordinator for White Bird Productions’ Creative Theatrics program since 2015.  Past directing credits include Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, King John, Measure for Measure, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Euripides’ Hippolytus. In 2013, she assistant directed The Revisionist by Jesse Eisenberg at the Cherry Lane Theater. Acting credits include principle roles in The Cherry Orchard, David Auburn’s Proof, and Harold Pinter’s Old Times.

Erin Capistrano: Co-Founder/Dramaturg/Teaching Artist

Erin is an actress, costume designer and dramaturg. Acting credits include: Macbeth (Ladies Macbeth/Macduff), Trial By FIre (Hauptmann), Cherry Orchard (Varya), Hippolytus (Phaedra), Lorca’s Once Five Years Pass (Secretary) and Othello (Desdemona). She teaches theatre history and dramatic literature for the drama program at the Professional Performing Arts School. Erin graduated from Yale University and has trained at LAMDA. She received her M.A. in Shakespeare Studies at King’s College, London. erinkcapistrano.com

Caity Richards: Choreographer/Lead Teaching Artist

Caity graduated from Yale University, with a B.A. in American Studies.  She has nearly 20 years of training as a dancer and vocalist, originally in musical theater, though her current focus combines vocal composition and postmodern dance. In college, Caity was one of the first students to participate in Yale’s Dance Concentration, with Emily Coates, and she performed with the Liz Learman Dance Exchange. She has also studied at the Bates Dance Festival with Bebe Miller, Kathleen Hermsdorf and Chris Aiken. Most recently, she is working on extended vocal technique with Perter Sciscoli and Meredith Monk.

Caity is interested in exploring expressive range, particularly the interplay between body and voice. In her work with Old Hat, she uses an eclectic mix of techniques -- drawing on dance improvisation, Western vocal technique, and contemplative traditions, among others -- with the intention of making relevant, complex meaning available in the staging of classic texts.

Emma March Barash

Emma is an actor, director and musician living in Brooklyn, New York. She’s performed at St. Anne’s Warehouse, Soho Rep and Ars Nova as an actor. Her spooky-folk-rock duo, Stabwounds, has performed at Arelene’s Grocery, Rockwood Music Hall, and Pete’s Candy Store.

Sam Bolen

Sam Bolen is an actor and singer living in Brooklyn. Originally from Duluth, MN, Sam graduated from Yale University where he was a member of the Whiffenpoofs and the Spizzwinks(?). He also trains with Bill Esper at the William Esper Studio. Sam has appeared in theaters from City Center and Carnegie Hall to Ars Nova and The New London Barn Playhouse. Old Hat: Julius Caesar (Antony), Macbeth (Malcolm, First Witch), Chekhov Project, Twelfth Night (Sir Andrew), Hamlet (Osric, Barnardo). Also: City Center Encores!, New London Barn Playhouse, ANTFest, NYFringe, Red House Arts Center. 

Brennan Caldwell

Brennan Caldwell is a NYC-based actor, writer, recent Yale graduate, and former Whiffenpoof. Brennan was born and raised in Kansas City, MO. New York and regional theater credits include Who's Your Baghdaddy? (Actors' Temple), Midsummer (Tiltyard), Anything Goes (STAGES St. Louis), Urinetown (Theatre Raleigh), Zelda (NYMF), Hound of the Baskervilles (Playhouse on Park), Shrek the Halls (DreamWorks Theatricals). Brennan also stars as Jimmy in the web series, Twenty Five, and writes, produces and acts in the internet comedy, Off. He is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association.

Stephen Chen

Stephen is a musician and the saxophonist for the bands San Fermin and Great Caesar. He plays various instruments, kickboxes and loves his cat. Stephen has composed and performed the music for King John and ‘Forgeries of Jealousy.’  Stephen graduated from Yale University and studied at Berklee College of Music.

Cory Finley

Cory Finley is a St. Louis-born, New York-based playwright. His play The Feast was produced by the Flea Theater in spring 2015, and he was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Gurney Playwrights Fund. He is a member of Youngblood at Ensemble Studio Theater; a Sloan grantee; and an alum of the Clubbed Thumb early career writer's group and of Uncharted, Ars Nova's group for musical theater writing teams. His work has been developed at each of those theaters as well as around the country at Seattle's ACT Theater, at St. Louis' HotCity Theater, and with the apprentice company at the Actors Theater of Louisville. His work as a journalist and features writer has appeared on the front pages of the New Haven Advocate and the Arizona Republic. Acting credits with Old Hat include Sir Toby in Twelfth Night and Hamlet in Hamlet. 

Cordelia Istel

Cordelia is an actor and director. She is a co-founder of Rudy's, a devised theatre ensemble, and has worked in the educational department of the Metropolitan Opera. Old Hat credits include Gertrude in Hamlet and Viola in Twelfth Night. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Cordelia is a grad of Saint Ann's School and Yale University. She's currently working on her MFA at Cal Arts.

Derek Loehr

Derek is an actor and scenic carpenter living in Brooklyn.  He has performed with Studio Six in Montreal, Moscow and Chisanau, Moldova. In New York he has worked with Van Cougar and 600 Highwaymen. Old Hat credits: Twelfth Night (Antonio), Chekhov Project, Macbeth (Macbeth), Julius Caesar (Brutus). He has a motorcycle and likes to cook.

Eamon Murphy

Maya Seidler

Maya is a director, producer, and actor. She has directed at the Pleasance Theatre and Edinburgh Fringe, and assistant directed and designed in Singapore (Marina Bay Sands Theatre), London (Soho Theatre, Les Enfants Terribles National Tour), and New York (The Juilliard School). Maya graduated from Yale University and is currently getting her masters at New York University.