Dogteam Theatre Project
Building Summer 2026, June 9-20
Our company of 29 students, theatre professionals, alumni, faculty, and staff are on the Middlebury campus for 2 weeks of script development, masterclasses, workshops, and training, culminating in TRAILBLAZING, a series of benefit readings June 19 and 20. The readings/showings are presented as a benefit for the company, and while there is a suggested donation price of $20 for the whole series, your presence is more important than your money, so please join us and contribute if you feel so moved.
Schedule of Events
FRIDAY, JUNE 19
Student Plays I
Friday, June 19 @ 7:30pm
Staged readings of new works written, directed, and performed by Midd students of the Dogteam Theatre Project.
Featuring: Hazel Hendler ’27, Alex Garcia ’26, Mariah Gunnison ‘29
Student Design Presentations (throughout Friday-Saturday)
Featuring: Hannah Alberti ’26, Evan Berger ’26, Morgan Chacon ’28, Alex Garcia ’26, Ramyn Zhang ’28.5
SATURDAY, JUNE 20
Disquiet
by Ivan Vyrypaev (Poland)
Translated by Noah Birksted-Breen
Directed by Olga Sanchez Saltveit
Saturday, June 20 @ 2pm
In the Manhattan penthouse of reclusive, Nobel-nominated writer Ula Richte, a carefully staged interview with a Polish journalist is meant to cement her legacy. With her agent and lawyer steering every word, the evening begins under tight control—until the script falls apart. What follows is an unguarded reckoning with the dark side of success, the cost of denying one’s roots, and the fierce, exhilarating courage it takes to tell the truth.
Featuring: Kristen Connolly ‘02*, Alex Draper ‘88*, Joel Cote*, Patrice Cahill ’25.5, Dominick Hutchins ‘28, Ryan Ulen ‘26, Ramyn Zhang ’28.5, Alex Garcia ‘26 and Zoe Park ’27.
Student Plays II
Saturday, June 20 @ 4:30pm
Staged readings of new works written, directed, and performed by Midd students of the Dogteam Theatre Project
Featuring: Hazel Hendler ’27, Alex Garcia ’26, Mariah Gunnison ‘29
The OAKWOOD project
Written & directed by Lucas Kavner ’06.5
Saturday, June 20 @ 7:30pm
Oakwood is a North Hollywood apartment complex that houses young aspiring performers and their guardians during brief, hopeful stays in Los Angeles. Around the kids linger the half-permanent residents of a transient industry: an aging acting coach, a struggling actress who never left, college kids drawn by the cheap rent and dorm-like atmosphere. In Oakwood, nearly everyone is passing through, and nearly everyone is under pressure—to succeed, to belong, and to make the sacrifices mean something.
Featuring: Joel Cote*, Stephen O’Reilly*, Alex Draper ‘88*, Hannah Alberti ‘26, Morgan Chacon ‘28, Bel Crosby ’26.5, Henry Garcia ’26.5, Mariah Gunnison ‘29, Zoe Park ‘27, Jamie Schwartz ‘27, Coco Zhu ‘29, Cole Newman ‘26, and Ryan Ulen ’26.
Dogteam 2026 Company:
Hannah Alberti ‘26
Stefán Örn Arnarson
Evan Berger ’26.5
Patrice Cahill ’05.5
Todd Canedy
Morgan Chacon ‘28
Kristen Connolly ‘02*
Joel Cote*
Bel Crosby ’26.5
Alex Draper ‘88*
Mark Evancho
Alex Garcia ‘26
Henry Garcia ’26.5
Mariah Gunnison ‘29
Hazel Hendler ‘27
Dominick Hutchins ‘28
Lucas Kavner ’06.5*
Callie Kimball*
Jeff Modereger
Cole Newman
Stephen O’Reilly*
Zoe Park ‘27
Jamie Schwartz ‘27
Charlotte Seelig
Susan Shopmaker
Ryan Ulen ‘26
Ramyn Zhang ’28.5
Coco Zhu ‘29
*Members of Actors Equity Association and/or Screen Actors Guild
Dogteam Company 2026
What we do
The Dogteam Theatre Project provides transformative experiences for emerging and professional artists, creating meaningful theatrical engagements for diverse audiences. Among its programs, the Dogteam Theatre Project provides training opportunities for emerging theatre artists in all realms of the field, including but not limited to acting, directing, playwriting, and design disciplines. The Dogteam Theatre Project produces theatrical works, including works in translation, reflecting the stories of our more connected world.
Among our programs, we provide training opportunities for emerging theatre artists in all realms of the field:
· Acting
· Directing
· Playwriting
· Stage Management
· Design & Technology
Structure
We operate on a series of Building Summers and Producing Summers.
Building Summers
Building summers are dedicated to pre-professional training for student actors, designers, producers, playwrights, stage managers, technicians, and directors; script development workshops for plays in translation in which the students would be joined by 3-5 professional actors; and outreach programs folding in high school students from Middlebury Union High School.
Producing Summers
Producing summers begin with three weeks of rehearsals in Middlebury followed by a 5-week run, during which the company presents two productions in rep at Atlantic Stage 2 in NYC.
Among our programs, we provide training opportunities for emerging theatre artists in all realms of the field:
- Acting
- Directing
- Playwriting
- Design & Technology
Structure
We operate on a calendar of alternating Building Summers and Producing Summers.
Building Summers
Building summers are dedicated to pre-professional training for student actors, designers, producers, playwrights, stage managers, technicians, and directors; script development workshops for plays in translation in which the students would be joined by 3-5 professional actors; and outreach programs folding in high school students from Middlebury Union High School.
Producing Summers
Producing summers begin with three weeks of rehearsals in Middlebury followed by a 5-week run, during which the company presents two productions in rep at Atlantic Stage 2 in NYC.
The first Building Summer is June 13-24, 2023.
The Team
Alex Draper
Co-Artistic and Producing Director
Alex Draper is a founding member of The Dogteam Theatre Project and Co-Artistic Director. As a professional stage, film and television actor, his twenty-five-year career includes performing with the Mabou Mines in Paris, France, filming the Bollywood extravaganza Kalapani in the Andeman Islands, and appearing in the New York premieres of Dare Clubb’s Obie Award-winning Oedipus, starring Billy Crudup and Frances McDormand, Erin Courtnry’s A Map of Virtue, the Presnyakov Brothers’ Terrorism, Neil Simon’s Rose’s Dilemma and Phillip Ridley’s The Pitchfork Disney. Regional work includes productions at Arena Stage, Yale Rep, the McCarter, Williamstown, the Westport Playhouse, the Huntington, and the Berkshire Theatre Festival. Film and television credits include: No Pay, Nudity (upcoming),Yellowbrickroad (Best Feature, New York Horror Film Festival), Joshua, Hysterical Blindness, Simply Irresistible, The Photographer, Hard Shell, John Adams, The Good Wife, Sex and the City, Law and Order, Law and Order SVU, Law and Order: CI, Suddenly Susan, Ed, and Dellaventura. He received his BA from Middlebury, and his MFA from the Yale School of Drama, where he was the recipient of the Oliver Thorndike Acting Award.
Olga Sanchez Saltveit
Co-Artistic and Producing Director
Olga Sanchez Saltveit is Artistic Director Emerita for Milagro, the Pacific Northwest’s premier Latinx arts & culture organization, following her service as the company’s Artistic Director from 2003-2015. She is an actor, director, devisor, and arts activist, whose work has been seen throughout the US and in Peru, Venezuela, Honduras, and Cuba. Olga served as co-artistic director of the People’s Playhouse in New York City, artistic director of Seattle Teatro Latino, and co-founder of La Casa de Artes, a Seattle-based non-profit organization dedicated to celebrating the beauty of Latinx arts and cultural heritage. Her ¡O ROMEO! received a Portland Drama Critics’ DRAMMY award for Outstanding Achievement in Devised Work, and her Como Agua para Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate) was nominated for several BroadwayWorld awards, including Best Direction. Olga served on the Executive Committee and the Diversity Task Force on the TCG (Theatre Communications Group) board of directors. She serves on the Advisory Committee of the Latinx Theatre Commons, in partnership with HowlRound Theatre Commons, Emerson College. Associations and affiliations include: Actors Equity Association, SAG-AFTRA, Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, and the Association for Theatre in Higher Education. B.A., Theatre, Hunter College, C.U.N.Y.; M.A., Human / Bicultural Development, Pacific Oaks College; Ph.D., Theatre Arts, University of Oregon. Research interests include BIPOC theatre and activism, Latinx feminisms, and the commons.
Todd Canedy
Production Designer, Theatre - Company and Budget Manager, Dogteam Theatre
Mark Evancho
Resident Designer
Mark Evancho previously taught at Drew University, NJ, and at Allentown College, PA. Mark has designed for the New York Shakespeare Company, NYC; New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, NJ; Blue Light Theatre, NYC; Potomac Theatre Project, MD; Olney Theatre Center, MD; Pennsylvania Stage Company, PA; Bucks County Playhouse, PA; and The National Opera Co., NC. In the New England area, Mark has designed for Vermont Theatre Company, Burlington, VT; Creative Video/ CH12, Concord, NH; Lyric Theatre Co, Burlington, VT; and Lost Nation Theatre, Montpelier, VT. Mark attended Lester Polakov’s Studio & Forum of Stage Design, NYC; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, PA; and graduated from Western Illinois University, and Baldwin-Wallace College, OH.
The Dogteam Theatre Project Fund
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Past Companys
