Who We Are

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Craig Smith (Founder/Co-Artistic Director) is a veteran of over 200 New York stage productions--everything from Sophocles to Stoppard. He was one of the original ensemble members of New York's prestigious Jean Cocteau Repertory and made that his home for more than 3 decades. There he took on such roles as Hamlet, Romeo, Wyoceck, Sigismundo (Life is a Dream), Mr. Albatross (The Skin of Our Teeth), Vladimir (Waiting for Godot), Bloody Five (A Man's a Man), Davies (The Caretaker) among others. Previous to Jean Cocteau Repertory he appeared in Oedipus and A Midsummer Night's Dream at The Guthrie Theare. At Cocteau Repertory he also served as Director of Audience Development and Press Relations for more than 10 years. He has also appeared in films including BlowBack and Going Nomad and a recurring role in the day time drama The Guiding Light. A firm believer in the power of live theatre to have an impact on life and also the essential power to simply entertain -- theatre work at the collaborative Phoenix Theatre Ensemble is a natural next step.

Elise Stone (Founder/Co-Artistic Director) is a theatre artist deeply committed to theatre as a collaborative ensemble art form, creating an artistic home for theatre artists from diverse backgrounds and disciplines, and to the firm belief in the ability of artists to make artistic decisions for themselves. She spent nearly two decades as a member of the resident acting company of the Jean Cocteau Repertory where she performed in over one hundred productions including World and American premiers. Some favorite roles include Mother Courage, Medea, Lulu, and Mary Stuart. Elise's other credits include regional theatre, television, film, and Cabaret. In addition to her work onstage, Elise spent five years as the Director of Educational Programs, for the Jean Cocteau Repertory, creating and administrating programs, workshops, and performances for College residencies in New York and Pennsylvania, and heading up the Student Matinee Series. With a deep belief in the power of art to change the world one story at a time, and the ability of artists to be decision makers, Phoenix Theatre Ensemble was born in Elise's heart.

Michael Surabian (Founder) received his BFA from Hofstra University in 1990 and his MFA from the Professional Theatre Training Program at the University of Delaware in 1995. Since then, has worked regionally as an actor, director and writer at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, the Texas Shakespeare Festival and a number off-Broadway and off-off Broadway theatres, including The Accidental Theatre, SoHo Rep, the Metropolitan Playhouse, and The Jean Cocteau Rep, where he spent seven years as a member of the acting company. Great plays he has been privileged to participate in included Winterset, The Merchant of Venice, My Fair Lady, Small Craft Warnings, School For Wives, The Importance of Being Earnest, Henry V, The Trial, The Wild Duck, On The Verge, Joan of Lorraine, Much Ado About Nothing, Oedipus and Dona Rosita, The Spinster.

Angela Madden (Founder) is a former member of the Jean Cocteau Repertory where she first met and worked with her fellow Phoenix founders. Some of her favorite shows at JCR were "The Balcony," "Medea," "Night & Day," "The Importance of Being Ernest," "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man in the Moon Marigolds" and "The Wild Duck." Angela studied at The University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and with Stella Adler in New York. Averaging at least four shows a year since she started her career on the boards in 1981, Angela is now approaching her one hundredth show. In 1994 she moved to Prague and enjoyed a three year run there performing with Richard Toth’s ensemble theater company, Misery Loves Company. Favorite shows with MLC were "Angels In America", "Blue Window" and "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui." Also, while in Prague, she worked with director Peter DuBois in "Fat Men In Skirts" playing Phyllis Hogan, which remains one of her favorite roles to date. Having worked consistently with mostly ensemble repertory theater companies from Houston to New York to L.A. to London, Prague and back to New York, confirms her belief and faith in the necessity and importance of ensemble work. Being part of the creation of Phoenix has been a long time dream come true – artistic freedom. Lovely.

Rachel Crowl (Founder)

Amy Wagner (Co-Artistic Director) Already a part of the family, Amy joined the Phoenix staff in 2006. She has worked in some capacity on all of the company’s productions beginning with The Trial in 2004.  For the Phoenix, she has directed benefit performances of Under Milk Wood and The Physicists, a staged reading of In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel, and mainstage productions of The Lesson, An Enemy of the People, and The Man of Destiny. Prior to the Phoenix, she served as General Manager and Associate Director of Development, as well as Resident Stage Manager, at Jean Cocteau Repertory, where she met her fellow Phoenicians.  There she worked on productions of Edward II, The Butter and Egg Man, The Cradle Will Rock, Night and Day, The Misanthrope, Sus, Arms and the Man, The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, and Oedipus the King.  Amy is a former English teacher and has worked throughout New York City as a stage manager, stage electrician, and technician.

Brian Costello (Co-Artistic Director) is happy to be returning to the Phoenix both as an actor and a co-artistic director. He has been seen in such Phoenix productions as An Enemy of the People, The Lifeblood, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) and Antigone, as well as the staged readings of Bunbury, Under Milkwood and Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? Other roles include Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing at the Long Island Shakespeare Festival, Hal in Henry IV and The Minstrel in Once Upon a Mattress at the Texas Shakespeare Festival, and Jinx in Forever Plaid at the Cider Mill Playhouse. Brian has directed such shows as Twelfth Night and The Tempest (both at LI Shakespeare) and Forever Plaid (The Red Barn Playhouse).

Kelli Holsopple (Co-Artistic Director) Ms. Holsopple joins the Phoenix as a co-artistic director with eight years of experience as an actor and educator. She has acted regionally at the Limekiln Theatre and the American Shakespeare Center, as a member of the first company to act in the brand new Blackfriars Theatre in Staunton, Virginia. Favorite New York roles include, the Duchess in Duchess of Malfi, Viola in Twelfth Night, Natasha in Three Sisters (American Globe Theatre), and Mariana in Measure for Measure (Pearl Theatre). She also originated the role of Jane in the critically acclaimed Octopus Love Story at Center Stage. As an educator, she was a part of CLIMB Theatre in Minneapolis, MN and has worked with the award-winning Creative Arts Team (CAT) in NYC. With the Phoenix, she acted in the first Plays in a Pub series in Romulus LInney's Can Can. She also played Antigone in Anouilh's Antigone and Petra in An Enemy of the People. She has also brought to life Phoenix outreach and education programs. She directed the pilot program of Evolve Theatre Project, an intergenerational theatre program that was the subject of an award-winning full-length documentary called Stages. She is also the program director for InFlight, which brings theatre education into NYC public classrooms. As a long-time collaborator and fan of the Phoenix, she is thrilled to be joining them as a co-artistic director.

Kathy Menino (Co-Artistic Director) holds a M.A. in Drama from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville (Go Hogs!). As an actress she worked for many regional theatres including The Oak Creek Theatre Company, The Public Theatre of Maine and The Phoenix Theatre Ensemble of NYC. She was a company member of the Arkansas Arts Center's Children's Theatre. She was a founder of a children's touring company based out of the Sedona Arts Center. Ms. Menino has written and directed several children's plays at the Hudson Theatre Ensemble in Hoboken, New Jersey and for the Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, New York City. In addition to her acting and writing, Kathleen teaches theatre classes for elementary school students.

Joe Menino (Co-Artistic Director). Besides being part of the Phoenix's acting company, including roles in I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document..., An Enemy of the People, and Anouilh's Antigone, Joe was a member of the Jean Cocteau Repertory for nine seasons in such diverse roles as Macbeth, Iago, and Lady Bracknell, as well as Galy Gay (A Man's a Man), James Joyce (Travesties), Mick (The Caretaker) and Dr. Prentice (What the Butler Saw). In New York City, he studied with the National Shakespeare Company Conservatory and performed with their touring company; he has also appeared with The Production Company, New York Classical Theater, Abingdon Theater, Axis Theater, Serendipitous Productions and The Galley Players. Regionally, he has performed with Arkansas Repertory, The Public Theater (Lewiston, ME) and the Utah, Wisconsin, and Camden (Maine) Shakespeare Festivals. He learned most of what he knows about practical, collaborative, artist-driven theater-making at the Cocteau Rep and could not be more delighted about bringing his energies to cultivate and further that tradition at the Phoenix.