Artistic Director Emerita

Linda (she/ her) served as Artistic Director of Seattle Children’s Theatre from 1984 until 2016, directing 87 plays, including 56 world premieres. Linda also directed for Intiman, Empty Space, the Group Theatre, the mobile outreach for Seattle Rep, and in Syracuse, Chicago, Austin, Tempe, Japan, Australia, and the Olympic Arts Festival in 1992. She served on the boards of Theatre Communications Group, ASSITEJ/USA, and the Executive and Foundation Boards of the Stage Directors and Choreographers. She was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre in 1998. Linda is a recipient of the Gregory Falls Sustained Achievement Award, the Seattle Mayor’s Arts Award, the Washington State Governor’s Arts Award, the Distinguished Achievement Award from UW College of Arts and Sciences, the ArtsFund award for outstanding achievement in the arts, and the Orlin Corey Medallion from the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America. In 2017 she was chosen as Theatre Practitioner of the Year by Theatre Communications Group. Linda currently serves on the Board of Seattle Rep. 

Playwright

Mo is an author, illustrator, animator, playwright, and the inaugural Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence. During his two-year term, Willems will write, produce, and collaborate in creating fun new stuff involving classical music, jazz experiences, comedy concerts, dance, painting, and digital works with the National Symphony Orchestra, Ben Folds, Jason Moran, and others. Willems is best known for his #1 New York Times bestselling picture books, which have been awarded three Caldecott Honors, two Theodor Geisel Medals, and five Geisel Honors. He began his career as a writer and animator on PBS’ Sesame Street, where he garnered six Emmy Awards (writing). Other television work includes two series on Cartoon Network: Sheep in the Big City (creator and head writer) and Codename: Kids Next Door (head writer). His art has been exhibited around the world, including major solo retrospectives at the High Museum in Atlanta and the New-York Historical Society. Willems’s papers reside at Yale University’s Beinecke Library. Over the last decade, Willems has become the most produced playwright of Theater for Young Audiences in America, in large part thanks to his continued collaboration with Deborah Wicks La Puma and Megan Alrutz. Two of his previous plays, Knuffle Bunny: a Cautionary Musical and Elephant & Piggie’s We Are in a Play!, were commissioned by the Kennedy Center. Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: the Rock Experience was commissioned by the Seattle Children’s Theater. Willems is overjoyed to have written Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (The Musical!) with his longtime collaborator and friend, Mr. Warburton. Banana!

Composer & Orchestrator

Deborah is delighted to be premiering another work at the Kennedy Center with the Mo Willems team! As a composer and orchestrator, she has worked with Willems to create Elephant and Piggies We Are in a Play! (The Kennedy Center), and Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Rock Experience (Seattle Childrens Theatre). La Puma is one of the most produced artists in Theater for Young Audiences today, and has enjoyed premiering numerous new musicals at the Kennedy Center, including OLIVERio: A Brazilian Twist and Chasing George Washington: A White House Adventure with playwright Karen Zacarias, and Nobody’s Perfect, a bilingual musical in English and American MEET THE CREATIVE TEAM Sign Language based on Marlee Matlin’s book, with playwright Doug Cooney. Her latest musical, She Persisted with playwright Adam Tobin (based on the book by Chelsea Clinton and Alexandra Boiger), premiered this past spring at Bay Area Children’s Theatre. La Puma received her MFA in musical theatre Collaboration from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, her BA in music composition from Stanford University, and she studied Mexican folk music with ethnomusicologist Alfredo López Mondragón of the Universidad de Baja California. Her honors include the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award, an NEA New American Works Grant, two Parents Choice Awards, and a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Musical Adaptation. A proud Mexican-American and Navy brat who grew up in Brazil, Portugal, and California, La Puma is a member of TYA USA/ASSITEJ, ASCAP, and The Dramatists Guild. Mother to three daughters and Mimi the Cat, La Puma lives in Southern California with her PR Agent and loving husband, Chris.

Dramaturg and Associate Producer

Dr. Megan Alrutz is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, where she heads the Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities area. She MEET THE CREATIVE TEAM works nationally and internationally as a theatre-maker, director, and dramaturg. Alrutz’s work focuses on the role of performance, storytelling (live and digital), and drama-based pedagogy in building intentional communities of practice with young people. Alrutz has worked as the dramaturg for award-winning author and playwright Mo Willems for the last ten years, and she is currently the dramaturg and associate producer for Mo Willems’s Education Artist-in-Residence projects at the Kennedy Center. Alrutz creates and directs visually surprising theater for the very young and is the author of three books: Critically Engaged Devising with Youth: The Performing Justice Project (with Lynn Hoare); Digital Storytelling, Applied Theatre & Youth: Performing Possibility; and Playing with Theory in Theatre Practice (with Julia Listengarten and Vandy Wood). Other recent works and projects include: Gimme Please! (Alliance Theatre and PaperBoats), Outside the Lines (Arts on the Horizon), Patchwork Stories (Exeter, UK), and the Performing Justice Project (Austin, TX).

Marianne (she/her) is delighted to be back at SCT where she has choreographed over 30 productions with her favorite director, Linda Hartzell. Highlights include Lyle the Crocodile, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and James and the Giant Peach. Ms. Roberts has also choreographed at other Seattle theaters and taught ballet and dance for actors at Cornish College. She danced professionally in NYC, toured internationally with New York-based dance companies, and appeared in the film “Pumping Iron”. Hugs to my wonderful family, especially grandsons Raden and Rowan. 

Mr. Paul arrived in Seattle in 1980, directly after two seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He then began stage managing at Seattle’s Skid Road Theatre, where he first worked with Linda Hartzell in Grease. That same year he worked with Rita Giomi on Delusions of Reference.  Mr. Paul has stage managed locally at the Seattle Repertory Theatre (most recently In the Heights), ACT, Intiman, and the 5th Avenue Theatre. National credits include The Guthrie; Shakespeare Theatre in DC; Oregon Shakespeare Theatre; Milwaukee Repertory Theatre; Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park; Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Humana Festival; La Jolla Playhouse; Baltimore’s Center Stage; Manhattan Theatre Club and the late Alaska Repertory Theatre.  For Seattle Children’s Theatre:  Addy, An American Girl Story, Night of the Living Dead, Harold and the Purple Crayon, Cat in the Hat, Pippi Longstocking, Dick Whittington and his Cat, Elephant and Piggy - We Are In A Play! and, most recently, Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Rock Experience.

Jeffrey is a Washington native, working throughout the Northwest since 1989. Previous SCT designs: Naked Mole Rat: the Rock Experience, Fire Station 7, Elephant and Piggie, The Garden of Rikki Tikki Tavi. Jeffrey is the "In charge" scenic painter at SCT. Local designs include: The 5th Avenue Theater (Forum, Cinderella), Village Theater (The Gypsy King), Harlequin Productions, Book-It, Tacoma Actors Guild, Taproot.  He has designed the Winterfest décor, our cities official holiday event, at Seattle Center Armory and Ice Rink since 2008. Regional: Profile Theatre Project, Portland, and a dozen sets for Oregon Contemporary Theatre including Clybourne Park, Next To Normal, Last Five Years, and the upcoming Grand Concourse. National: three years at the Denver Center Theatre design and production studios, and touring with Thomas the Train Live on Stage.

BFA Washington State University 1991, MFA University of Oregon 1995.

Cathy (she/her) is a two-time Theatre Puget Sound Design Award winner, recipient of the Southeastern Theatre Design Award, Los Angeles Drama-Logue Award, San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Award, and was an inaugural Theatre Communications Group Design Fellow. Cathy has designed costumes for over 100 theatre and opera productions. Her work has been seen across the country at the Hartford Stage, San Diego Repertory Theatre, Syracuse Stage, New Victory Theatre, Cincinnati Opera, Pittsburg Opera, Seattle Opera, 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, LA Theatre Works, Intiman Playhouse, ACT Theatre, Village Theatre, Childsplay, and Clarence Brown Theatre. Cathy has been a guest lecturer at The University of Washington and Cornish College of the Arts. She holds an M.F.A. in Costume Design from The University of California, San Diego. 

Sound Designer

Chris is very happy to be in his 18^th year designing sound for S.C.T. In Seattle he has designed at The Seattle Repertory Theatre, A.C.T., Intiman and The 5^th Avenue.  In California he’s designed at The Old Globe Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, the Mark Taper Forum, the Geffen Playhouse, and ACT (San Francisco).  He spent seven seasons as the resident designer at the American Repertory Theatre in Boston, designing over forty productions while there.  He has also designed in New York, Houston, Philadelphia, Princeton, Chicago, Washingon D.C. and Phoenix, as well as internationally in Singapore, Taiwan and Moscow.  Commercially he has designed for Intel, Harvard University, Starbucks, and Popcap Games.  He holds a degree in Classical Piano performance from Cornish College of the Arts.