Meet The Elsewhere Artistic Staff
We use the term “staff” loosely, here. “Staff” implies a lot of fundraising and schmoozing and grant writing and traditional theatre company stuff that we’re just not into. We are all volunteers, paying for our shows and programs largely from our own pockets. Without a horde of donors and stakeholders, we are freer to create the art we want without anyone looking over our shoulders.
Mac MacDaniel
Actor-Manager
Mac is a high school dropout who first encountered Shakespeare watching reruns of Star Trek. He started Elsewhere because he wanted to create Shakespeare that felt like the punk shows he grew up going to.
Hilary Dennis
Actor-Manager
Hilary Dennis is a native of Massachusetts. She attended NYU and graduated from the Tom Todoroff Conservatory in NYC. She is a teaching assistant and former farmer.
Katie Mixon
Actor-Manager
Katie Mixon is an actor, educator, and conservationist. When not performing classical theatre, she is working to protect animals and educate people about them. She is a graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and she lived for years on an elephant sanctuary in Thailand.
Leah MacDaniel
Marketing Manager
Leah is a digital marketer, data nerd, and bird enthusiast.
Making the Band
The Elsewhere Shakespeare Origin Story
In the summer of 2019, Mac, Hilary, and Katie attended a weekend Shakespeare acting intensive held by Shakespeare and Company. They had never met before, but over the course of the weekend, they became connected to and inspired by one another. One night after class, Hilary told Mac about her dream of playing Hamlet. “But no one’s ever going to cast me as Hamlet,” she told him sitting on a bench next to the Hudson, “I’m a young woman fresh out of drama school.” Having grown up in the punk scene, starting bands with people who barely knew how to play their instruments and booking shows in dubiously legal venues, Mac’s answer was simple:
“Why don’t we start our own theatre company, and we’ll produce Hamlet and you can play Hamlet?”
“Can we do that? Do you know how to do that?” Hilary asked.
“No, but I’m sure we can figure it out.”
The first person they asked to join them in this foolhardy venture was Katie, and over the next few months, with the help of their friends, they came up with a name, became members of Fractured Atlas and the Shakespeare Theatre Association, found a venue, assembled a cast, and put on an enormously successful inaugural production to a packed house.
From the beginning, Elsewhere has been about finding friends who inspire you, and figuring shit out together. Enthusiasm and love beat training and skill, and making mistakes is better than waiting around for permission.
I’m sure we can figure it out
-Mac