Learn more the about people behind the work

Matthew has successfully acted and directed across the country, in Europe, and in Asia.

Matthew is proud to have served as a U.S. representative at the UNESCO
International Theatre Institute Research Lab in Romania. He was named a Promising Artist of the 21st Century by the International Arts and Cultural Exchange, and he has published papers on directorial theory in international peer-reviewed journals. He has also been recognized as one of Cincinnati Business Courier’s Forty Under 40.

His financial background includes serving as U.S. delegate to the People’s Republic of China for foreign business affairs and currently volunteering on the executive committee for the Association of Fundraising Professionals Foundation for Philanthropy USA.
 

Now, he looks to lift American theatre back to the top of the world’s stage.

Megan Bennett is a born and bred New Yorker, attending prestigious junior high and high schools in Brooklyn. Meeting minds that would go on to be doctors, executives and entrepreneurs shaped her to become not just a playwright, labor leader, and poet, but someone that is always thinking about how to shape tomorrow.

While on the surface Megan appeared academically successful (graduating from the University at Buffalo with a double major in English and Theater cum laude), behind the scenes every grade, word on the page and manifested idea was an uphill battle. She grew up in a community where most people were dependent on government benefits for survival, selling drugs was commonplace, and racial tensions between the Black and the Hasidic Jewish communities ran high. It was a childhood fraught with need, loneliness, and a desire for a better world. It created a woman with great strength, great vision, and a lot of inner battles to fight. 

After graduating college, Megan Bennett went on to write four books of poetry; Love Story, War Story and Soul Story, a trilogy documenting her growth as an artist, and Black, a direct response to the social unrest brought on by the murder of Black people in America. During this time, she also wrote, directed, and produced a lighthearted web series entitled Plus One. In exploring other artistic mediums, she found that nothing can compare to a community of people sharing the same experience at the same time. She believes that now, more than ever, it is critical that we return to the theater to discover both ourselves and the world around us. Outside of her creative endeavors, she is employed full time in the labor movement, working every day to create a world where every member of the artistic community is supported, encouraged, and empowered to pursue their creative endeavors. 

Kennen is a NYC-based performer-composer, director, choreographer, and storyteller born in Flint, MI, but raised in Newburgh, NY. Their cross-genre career spans musical theatre and commercial music. A proud member of Actors Equity, their diverse theatre credits include the revival of Seussical the Musical Off-Broadway/Tour (Wickersham), Hairspray (u/s Seaweed), Tommy (u/s Acid Queen), Diary of a Payphone (Original Cast Recording), Aida (Mereb), Urinetown (Senator Fipp), Legally Blonde (Emmett), Knock Down Drag Out (Zonna), and Songs for a New World (Man 1) among others. They spent time as a background vocalist for acts like Toby Beau. Abroad, they served as a Creative Consultant for Universal Studios Osaka as well as being a swing for the company. They would also serve as director/choreographer for a Japanese production company called Team Utsubo where they mounted revue musicals in both English and Japanese.

While their love for harmony and stories would be their entry point into music and musical theatre, it would be their experiences navigating being black in environments that undervalue you and being nonbinary in a time were there wasn’t a word or place for you that sparked their interest in adding their voice to the current musical climate. Under the name “Kennen Jakhan & the Story” they performed their original English and Japanese commercial music around Osaka and the south of Japan before making the transition back to the United States. They are currently a playwright and composer for American Legacy Theatre’s In Home program to write, compose, and perform one person shows in a week’s time. They graduated magna cum laude from Berklee College of Music in Boston where they studied Contemporary Writing and Production with a double minor in Musical Theatre Writing and Vocal Pedagogy. They have returned to NYC to pursue their masters in Musical Theatre Writing at NYU Tisch.

Terry was born and raised just outside Manhattan in a devoutly Catholic, Brazilian, and Lebanese household. He moved to the city to study with the Stella Adler Studio of Acting at NYU. He dropped out to tour as an improviser until the opportunity arose to make coffee for the writers of Dharma and Greg. After work he would escape into Los Angeles’ vibrant, intimate theatre scene where he was a writer and actor with Theatre of Note and Sacred Fools, where he hosted their late night serial competition Serial Killers for ten years. 

Then at 43, after six months of homelessness, Terry was institutionalized for chronic alcoholism, a disease he was less and less successful at hiding the older he got. As a ward of the state of California, he began recovery with not only other unhoused people, but also convicts and sex workers. Terry identified with them immediately, their stories articulated the bravery of a disenfranchised people caught inside the populations of both privileged and other disenfranchised peoples. He is committed to writing about people suffering from alcoholism and addiction because it is a population that can personify the cockeyed optimism of the human spirit while often receiving a cold detachment from the rest of the world. 

Terry finally finished school at the University of Louisville and The African American Theatre Program. He also studied at The Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing at Spalding University. His play, Too Soon and his solo show Drunky McGee were both semi-finalists for the annual National Playwrights Conference. Last year he was a finalist for the first Terrence McNally Recovery Fellowship. Drunky McGee is currently being  performed at rehabs, halfway houses, and in the Louisville Department of Corrections.

Dora has spent her career working at nonprofit organizations with a focus on education and equity. Before joining American Legacy Theatre, she held leadership roles at youth development organizations Squash & Education Alliance, SquashBusters, and CitySquash. Before that, she worked at New York-based arts integration program, LEAP (Learning through an Expanded Arts Program).

Whether performing musical theatre, singing in community choirs, teaching crochet lessons, or facilitating youth arts programming, creative pursuits have always been an important part of Dora’s life. Dora moved to Cincinnati in 2019 and is excited to deepen her connections to the Cincinnati community through her work at ALT.

Samantha Gellin is a journalist-turned-content-marketer who recently made the leap into the nonprofit world—bringing with her a decade of storytelling experience and a deep belief in the power of words to build connection. At ALT, she leads marketing and communications with a focus on clarity, impact, and human-centered messaging.

Before joining American Legacy Theatre, Samantha worked in content strategy and digital marketing at School Outfitters. She’s new to nonprofit life, but not to mission-driven work—and she’s learning fast (and asking a lot of questions along the way).

When she’s not writing, editing, or mapping out the next campaign, you can find her reading fantasy novels, wrangling three small kids, or making spreadsheets she insists are “fun.”

Colin joins ALT after nearly 10+ years working in the theatre industry as a performer, director, teaching artist, and administrator.  He is excited to be back in the city he fell in love with growing up and collaborating with such an impactful theatre company.