The Andy’s Team

ARTISTIC STAFF

  • Executive Director

    SMJ (they/them) is a mixed-Latiné, non-binary, and NYC-based playwright, theatermaker, and educator originally from Mount Vernon, OH. They are proud to be a Executive Director of Andy’s Summer Playhouse. They were a 2022-2023 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow. Their work has been seen in various forms with Ars Nova, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, New York Stage and Film, Latinx Playwrights Circle, The Orchard Project, Latiné Musical Theatre Lab, Carnegie Mellon University, New York University, and Manhattanville University. SMJ has been a finalist for the 2024-25 Princess Grace Award in Playwriting at New Dramatists, 2024-25 Ars Nova Vision Residency, 2024 June Bingham New Playwright Commission, 2024 Diverse Voices Playwriting Initiative at Illinois State University, and 2023 Parity Development Award. They were a Top 30 semifinalist for the 2024 Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival. Currently,  SMJ is in consideration for the following: 2025 National Music Theater Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center (semifinalist), 47th Annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival (semifinalist), 2025 Pegasus PlayLab at UCF (finalist), 2025 Distillery New Works Festival at the Seattle Public Theater (Short List), and 2025/26 Residency at the cell theatre (semifinalist). They are a member of the Dramatists Guild and Ring of Keys. www.smjwrites.com

2026 ARTISTS

  • Writer, The Forest Knows

    Marina Pires is a Brazilian actor and songwriter based in New York. Broadway/Off-Broadway: How to Dance in Ohio; Picnic at Hanging Rock. First National Tour of On Your Feet! The Story of Gloria and Emilio Estefan. Marina was most recently seen as Dot/Marie in Sunday in the Park with George at the Glimmerglass Opera (International Opera Award.) Past credits include: Nine at The Kennedy Center (Helen Hayes Award); The Bridges of Madison County (Signature Theater DC); In The Heights (Dallas Theater Center); Phish New Year’s Run(Madison Square Garden); Anna in the Tropics (Barrington Stage Company); Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Sony Pictures Animation VIVO. She’s performed her original music at iconic venues such as Sony Hall, Rockwood, Joe’s Pub, Lincoln Center, 54 Below, and many more. Her original song “at least the bed is made” - recorded by The Heartstrings Project - was up for consideration at the 64th Grammy Awards for “Best American Roots Song.” 

    Marina is also a teaching artist with CO_LAB Theater Group: a non-profit organization dedicated to providing creative and social opportunities for actors with developmental disabilities. MarinaPires.com (http://marinapires.com/) @MarinaMPires

  • Director, it’s literally the end of the world…

    Mackenna Goodrich (she/they) loves Big Girl Explosion Fests and plays of and about the body. Selected directing credits: America’s Next Top Ultimate Supreme Goddess by Paige Esterly (Pocket Theatre Company), Fated by Natalie Myrick (Andy’s Summer Playhouse), small town icons by SMJ (Off the Lane), The Station by Maggie Cregan (SheNYC), Cockroaches by Emma Schillage (The Cell), Straight Icons by SMJ and Anne-Marie Pietersma (Ars Nova/Second City NYC), American Girl Doll Horror Play by Jasmine Sharma (The Brick), An Axemas Story (The Players Theatre/54 Below), WO[MAN] by Alyssa Haddad-Chin (The Brick), Radio Man by Sarah Groustra (SheNYC), Bogeyman by Allison Merkel (The Road Theatre Company). Mackenna is also a producer for SciShow. BA: Kenyon College // mackennagoodrich.com

  • Projections Designer

    Emery Frost is an emerging video designer specializing in new, developmental, and devised​ works. Her practice is​rooted in the compositional techniques of experimental video art. Adjacent​ to design, Emery also enjoys writing and​devising theatre, specifically stories that require​ multimedia technology as a part of their core structure. Projection​ Design credits: Emerson Stage’s The Great God Pan and I Love XXX; Musical Theatre Against the Grain’s Songs for a​ New World; Mercutio Troupe’s Jamie has a Bomb and The Effect; BlueWorks’ The Omniscient​ Bus; Andy’s​ Summer Playhouse’s Battle of the Books and FATED. Assistant Projections​ Designer credit: The Moderate at Central​Square Theatre. Emery’s video art has also been​ featured at the Boston Museum of Science’s WAVEFORMS.​Emerson College BFA ‘27. Follow​ @emeryfrost.design on Instagram or visit emeryfrost.cargo.site for more​information!

  • Writer, EVERYTHING YOU WANTED

    Jess Honovich is a folk artist, playwright and educator who creates both performance and tangible art — often at the same time! She specializes in storymaking, playwriting, early childhood education, and working with loose parts. As a playwright, Jess is a LABA Artist Fellow Alum, a Jeffrey Melnick New Playwright Award Nominee, an O’Neill Finalist + Semi-Finalist, a recipient of the Mary Marlin Fisher Award for Excellence in Playwriting, a BAPF Semi-Finalist, a Premiere Stages Semi-Finalist, a Heideman Award finalist, a 24 Plays: Nationals alum, and a Theater Masters alum. Her plays have been performed and produced at various universities, the New York Transit Museum, Actors Theater of Louisville and the Pittsburgh Opera, among others.

    As a visual artist, Jess has been proud to showcase her work with Brooklyn's Arts Gowanus, San Francisco City Hall, and briefly in collaboration with her 3K students at the MoMA! She earned her MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University and her BS in Educational Theatre from NYU. She is a full time tenured teacher in the NYC DOE, and she lives in Brooklyn with her wife and two cats, Buckett and Tubbs.

  • Director, The Day the Crayons Quit and The Greenhouse

    Elsa Guerra (She/her) is so excited to return to Andy’s Summer Playhouse as a staff member for the second year! She lives in Massachusetts and is a graduate of Montachusett Technical School, where she earned a certification in cabinet-making. She currently uses her passion for theater in conjunction with her vocational background to work as a scenic technician at Theater at the Mount. She is a former Andy’s kid and started performing at Andy’s at the age of thirteen, and during her time there, she earned two New Hampshire Theater Award nominations for her roles in Giant Slalom and The Meeting House Tragedy. She is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in Theater Arts and Education, after directing and mentoring young artists as an Andy’s kid and artistic associate. On the occasion that she is not studying or making theater, she can be found enjoying all genres of live music.

  • Writer, it’s literally the end of the world, like, for real this time

    Paige Esterly is an NYC-based playwright, producer, and director, and general indie theater gal about town. Her many plays explore themes of politics and girlhood. A grad of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Dramatic Writing, Paige’s work has been developed with Theater for the New City (NYC), The Space at Irondale (NYC), SERIALS (NYC), The Tank (NYC), Murmation Theater Co. (NYC), TheatreWorks (Mountain View, CA), American Lore Theater (NYC), The Little Theatre of Alexandria (Alexandria, VA), Equity Library Theater (NYC), The Road Theater (Los Angeles, CA), 46 Minutes Collective (NYC), the Workshop Theater (NYC), and Pocket Theatre Co (NYC). She is the creator and producer of FUPF, a recurring theatrical festival showcasing new work by local playwrights! Member of The Road Theater's Under Construction 5 Playwriting Group, The Workshop Theater's Fall 2024 Playwriting Intensive, MCC's Ambies (2025-26), Producer for SERIALS @ the Tank. When she's making money instead of theater, Paige writes & edits scripts for popular YouTube channels Study Hall & Crash Course. 

  • Writer, The Greenhouse

    Sarah Groustra (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based, Massachusetts-born playwright and theatermaker. Sarah's work has been produced off-Broadway at the SheNYC Festival (Winner, Best Script 2023), the Paradise Factory, Soho Playhouse, the Concord Theatricals OOB Festival, and at regional theaters across the country. She was awarded the 2024 Austin Film Festival Stage Play Award, was a finalist for the 2023 Jane Chambers Award, and was named a 2022 Ascending Playwright by Yonder Window Theater Company. Sarah has developed new work with the Valdez Theatre Conference, Under Construction Playwright's Group (the Road Theater), Breaking & Entering Theater Collective, Uptown 1 Train, Purple Light Palette Cohort, the Parsnip Ship, Harlot Productions, Forager Theater Company, and Historically Close Friends. Sarah is an alumna of Kenyon College (2022), the 24 Hour Plays: Nationals (2022), and is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild. She is also the editor-in-chief and founder of 1319 Press, an independent theater publishing company. sarahgroustra.com

  • Director, EVERYTHING YOU WANTED

    Hope Johansen is so pumped to be back at Andy’s this summer! A Chicago-born, New York-based director and actor, she received a BA in Directing & BFA in Acting from Marymount Manhattan College. Select directing credits include the workshop of EVERYTHING YOU WANTED (Andy’s), Horse Girls (MMC), and world-premieres of plays at The Tank (Ivories) and The New York Theatre Festival (Medusa, War Dance!). Co-host of The Cinema Chicks podcast, available on all platforms. Endlessly grateful to SMJ and Jess for the opportunity to collaborate with the next generation of theatre makers. @hopejohansen

  • Director, The Forest Knows

    Andie Lerner is a New York based multidisciplinary theatre artist and graduate of Marymount Manhattan College’s BFA Acting and Directing programs. Her work is focused on collaborative storytelling and experimentation. Select directing credits include: Get It Together (Philadelphia Fringe; Fringie Honorable Mention), The Command Center (Laguardia Performing Arts Center), Please Let Me Save You (NYC Fringe/Emerging Artist Theatre), Sit For Me (Soho Playhouse), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare in the Woods), SERIALS (The Flea/The Tank), Constellations (The Barrow Group), Randy’s Dandy Coaster Castle (Breaking & Entering Theatre Company) Christmas Carol and Two Gentlemen of Verona (Valley Shakespeare Festival). She is currently a Creative Producer with Egg & Spoon Theatre Collective and is a member of the Moxie Arts Incubator. In addition she has collaborated with Second Stage, The Public Theatre, Under the Radar, HERE Arts Center, New York University, Powerhouse Theatre, The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, and 3LD Art & Technology Center. 

The Andy’s Board of Directors

Andy’s has an active and vibrant Board of Directors that facilitates the strategic planning for the Playhouse, defines and maintains our mission, advises our staff, fundraises, and performs many other essential functions.

Alison Barney, President
Amanda Dumont, Vice President
Crista Burrel, Treasurer
Sarah Kunyosying, Secretary

Katie Carchia, Beth Dunham, Susan Holmes Glazier, Leah Huntington, Mozammel “Muzi” Husainy, & Bob McCarthy, Board Members