The School of Theatre and Dance hosts a number of directors, choreographers, designers, dramaturgs, and guests offering workshops, talks, and masterclasses. These artists offer a broad range of practices, methods, identities, and outlooks to JMU’s Theatre and Dance students.

 Gretta Daughtrey (Lighting Design) has designed with several local theatre companies, area schools, and universities. Recent dance projects include several performances during the VCU 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 academic years including both site and theatre work (Pathfinders, TWO TRUTHS: Truth 1, DanceNOW 2024, Enouement), Gretta has also designed for KDance at Firehouse Theatre and University of Richmond University Dancers Concert 2024 (Moving Bodies/Bodies Moving). Past theatrical designs for Richmond Shakes (Quill) include Hamlet, Uncle Vanya, and An Iliad.  She has also designed several productions for Henrico Theatre Company and the Festival of Arts at Dogwood Dell. Gretta works in Systems Integration for Barbizon, specifying lighting and control systems.

 Eamonn Farrell is a New Jersey-based video designer and theater maker whose work focuses on investigations of how innovative technologies can support and elevate the work of live performers to create unforgettable experiences. With his company, Anonymous Ensemble, he has created dozens of original, media-infused shows, installations, and live webcasts in New York City and around the world. For two decades, Eamonn collaborated closely with the late Lee Breuer of Mabou Mines. Other design credits include: Sarah Michelson, Big Dance Theater, TFANA, B3 Dance (Bessie Nomination), The LA Phil, Parsons Dance, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Portland Center Stage, Palacio de Bellas Artes, and Megaron Musiki. Eamonn has taught projections design at Princeton, City College of New York, JMU and UVA.

 Or Matias is an Obie award-winning composer, lyricist, music director, and content developer. Since graduating from Juilliard, Or has led projects and collaborated with some of the most dominant leaders of the entertainment industry, ranging from multi-platinum artists Josh Groban and Trans Siberian Orchestra to Tony Award winning director Rachel Chavkin, broadway composers Dave Malloy and Anaïs Mitchell, and countless other Broadway writers, directors, musicians and actors. Or's musical, The Wave, was the grand winner at the 2021 German Tony Awards (Deutscher Musical Theater Preis) and was awarded "Best Musical", "Best Composition", and "Best Book". Or has managed large creative teams through Broadway productions and has developed creative content from inception through multi-million dollar productions. He has worked on both the creative and operational sides, collaborating with artists and producers alike, from helping navigate budgets to selecting creative content and leading it to production. Or’s original compositions traverse media styles and genres, including pop music albums, musical theater and film, and he has generated substantial content for children, including an original children’s album and an animated 12-part children series in development.

 Brian Josiah Martinez embarked on his dance journey at Davidson High School in Mobile, AL, guided by the esteemed Angie Brocato Dussouy. At The University of Southern Mississippi, he excelled as the Teaching Assistant for Advanced Choreography and assumed the role of President of the Student Dance Organization, showcasing his leadership acumen in overseeing student engagement. Graduating summa cum laude with honors in Dance Performance and Choreography, Brian guest-performed with Hub Dance Collective, contributing to the vibrancy of Hattiesburg, MS's dance scene. Venturing to Chicago, Brian enriched his skills in Hubbard Street's Professional Program under the mentorship of Alexandra Wells. During his tenure, he graced the stage in works by choreographic luminaries such as William Forsythe, Rena Butler, Jonathan Alsberry, and Ryan Mason. Brian later joined PARA.MAR Dance Theatre, making a notable debut during the challenging times of COVID-19, collaborating with renowned choreographers Stephanie Martinez, Robyn Minekos Williams, and Helene Simoneau. In his choreographic pursuits, Brian has created captivating films for Chicago's New Dances and New York's Future Dance Festival, namely "Next to the Portrait of a Red Haired Lady" and "Breaking Mundane." Stepping onto the grand stage of the Lyric Opera in Carmen marked a pinnacle in his performance career before redirecting his focus to Boykin Dance Project, which he founded in 2022. Brian's choreographic ethos revolves around "contemporary, full-bodied theatrical gesture," a distinctive movement preference infusing dynamic performance with swift, purposeful movements. His most recent work, "Nonsense!” (2023), premiered at Boykin ONE in Spring 2023, exploring the whimsical essence of dreams through a multi-generational lens inspired by an aural landscape spanning the 1940s to the 1990s. Currently, Brian is immersed in developing "Real People, Not Paid Actors," his most seminal exploration of this movement practice to date, set against the backdrop of a fictional family dynamic and accompanied by Ravel's “Bolero”. This eagerly anticipated piece is slated for its premiere at Boykin TWO in Spring 2024.

 Kia Smith is a dance-maker whose work fuses contemporary ballet and jazz dance. Also involved in Stage Direction for Opera, Kia is a newly appointed Assistant Director for Chautauqua Opera. Her work as the Founder of South Chicago Dance Theatre (SCDT) includes serving as the organization’s Resident Choreographer, Executive Director, and Artistic Director. Kia is the founder of an enduring Choreographic Diplomacy™ project that began in 2018 and presently spans the creation and presentation of new work with artists in Seoul, Korea; Arnhem, Netherlands; and Columbia, South America. Here, art making is a tool she uses to engage with diverse people to build collective experience, develop empathy in cross-cultural relations, and understand the importance of global citizenship. In 2022 Kia was named the “South-Side Diplomat of Dance” by the Chicago Reader. She is the daughter of a celebrated Chicago-based saxophonist. While she and her father were estranged for much of her life, she sees herself reflected in reviews written about his work and the ways in which he’s described as a composer and performer. In her dance making, she always had a vested interest in rhythm and musicality, and her creative process centers around an exploration of how to create both dissonance and harmony with sound. Showcasing form, energy and architecture, Kia's work derives from her subconscious, exploring disparate ideas from multiple vantage points such as movement invention, investigation of emotion, irony, and showmanship. Though Kia's work stems out of her experiences of living in the Black, female corporeal body, she is ultimately interested in the deconstruction and transcendence of race and in employing movement to build community. Using contemporary dance, Kia wishes to reflect upon the human condition, challenge notions of perspective, and increase opportunities for interconnected sensibilities throughout the global community.

 Daniella Toscano is a costume designer and visual artist with an MFA in Costume Design from the University of California, San Diego. She hails from Las Vegas, Nevada where she received her BA in Studio Art and Theater at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Alongside costume design projects, she’s also worked extensively in costume shops around the country in a variety of roles from stitcher to designer, and has explored and developed skills in multimedia design as a way to further explore theatrical storytelling in the digital landscape. Recent design credits include Branden Jacobs Jenkins’ Everybody (UCSD), Sophocles’ Elektra (UCSD), and the world premiere of Elephant (Benchmark Theatre).