Director

Rita has over 35 years of experience in professional theatre locally and across the country. Recent SCT credits include The Lamp is the Moon, Into the West, Brooklyn Bridge, The Garden of Rikki Tikki Tavi, Pippi Longstocking, and Crash. She has been directing at SCT steadily since 1981, so the full list is long and varied, and includes: A Year with Frog and Toad, Harold and the Purple Crayon, The Borrowers, Getting Near to Baby, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, I Was a Rat!, A Tale of Two Cities, and Hamlet. Other Seattle-area credits include work with Seattle Shakespeare Company, Seattle Public Theatre, Seattle Rep, ACT, The Empty Space, Village Theatre, TAG, Theater Schmeater, Center Stage, Unexpected Productions, and Stark/Raving Theatre. Ms. Giomi is the Artistic Associate at SCT, and from 1993 to 2007, she served as the Artistic Director of SCT’s Young Actor Institute.

Mike Egan At SCT: The Diary of Anne Frank, The Journal of Ben Uchida: Citizen 13559, Into the West, The Cat in the Hat, James and the Giant Peach.  Broadway: Les Misérables, Man of La Mancha, Never Gonna Dance. National Tours: Billy Elliot, Les Misérables, Miss Saigon, Cabaret, Mamma Mia!. Seattle Rep: Familiar, A People’s History, King Charles III, Disgraced, Lizard Boy, The Piano Lesson, Good People. Seattle Opera: Wagner’s Ring Cycle (twice!), Il trovatore, Pearl Fishers, Parsifal, Lohengrin, Iphigenie en Tauride.  The 5th Avenue Theatre:  Man of La Mancha, Singin’ In The Rain.  Spoleto Festival USA: Eugene Onegin, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, La Cenerentola, Kepler.  A proud English major and member of Actors Equity Association.

Melanie Taylor Burgess (she/her) is a proud Seattle Costume Designer. Occasionally, she is taken elsewhere: The Guthrie, Cincinnati Playhouse, Playmakers, Denver Center, Arizona Theatre Company, and others. She has designed costumes for 26 plays at Seattle Children’s Theatre and over 160 productions for Seattle Rep, 5th Avenue Theatre, ACT, Intiman Theatre, The Village Theatre, Seattle Opera, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and others. She is also a professor of costume design at Cornish College of The Arts. She received the first Gregory Award for Outstanding Costume Design 2010 and again in 2019. ^denotes member of United Scene Artists

Alyssa is pleased to return to SCT, having last coached Into the West. Recent coaching credits include: A Raisin in the Sun (Seattle Repertory Theatre), Ride the Cyclone, A Christmas Carol, Bloomsday (ACT Theatre); Mama Mia, Ragtime (5th Avenue), and Much Ado About Nothing, Mrs. Warren’s Profession (Seattle Shakespeare Company). Recent acting credits include Lili in Why We Have a Body (Strawshop); Mary in Hotel Nordo (Cafe Nordo); Yvette in Mother Courage and Her Children (Seattle Shakespeare Company); and Mary Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life (The 14/48 Projects). Alyssa is a member of the faculty at Cornish College of the Arts, Freehold Theatre Lab, Seattle Film Institute, and produces podcasts and manages education programs at Jack Straw Cultural Center.