Who We Are

Daryl D. Brooks  is a Chicago based Director, Writer and producer. Daryl has been with the Black Ensemble Theater for over 20 years and is currently the Producing Managing Director. His musical revue, You Can’t Fake the Funk: A Journey Through Funk Music, premiered at Black Ensemble Theater and earned him an African American Arts Award, Black Theater Alliance Award, and the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best  Musical/Revue. His production Men of Soul also received multiple awards and nominations including the Chicago BroadwayWorld nomination for Best Director for a Musical/Revue, a Jeff Award Nomination for Best Director of a Review, and was selected for production at The National Black Theater Festival. He has directed over fifty productions and some credits include; Black Pearl: A Tribute to Josephine Baker, Women of Soul, Time Machine: A Tribute to the 80’s, HITT Records (Black Ensemble Theatre), Memphis!, Pump Boys and Dinettes (Porchlight Musical Theatre), Million Dollar Quartet (Theatre At the Center), Akeelah and the Bee and Fast Food Chain (Adventure Stage and Northwestern Settlement) Color Purple, Dreamgirls (Phoenix Theater Company) Assassins (Theo Ubique) Sunday In The Park With George, Pippin! (Columbia College Chicago) and many, many more! Daryl is a proud member of the Sarah Siddons Artistic Council. In 2019 Daryl received the Chicago Defender’s Men of Excellence Award for building diversity and equity within the Chicago theater community. He was also named one of New City Stages 50 Players in Chicago in 2022 and 2024. His most important role to date is being a father to his wonderful, TikTok loving daughter Maya!

Melissa Carsten is Senior Vice President Operations & Administration for PTG Consulting, a division of Preferred Travel Group. In her role, she is also Preferred’s Ambassador for the GIFTTS Program (Great Initiatives for Today’s (Tomorrow’s) Society), created to inspire members of the global hospitality industry to foster a commitment to philanthropy, community, sustainability and education. Season of Concern is the perfect marriage of Carsten’s love of theater and her desire to inspire and drive altruistic efforts within the local community.

David Fink started his career in manufacturing at Allied Metal Company in Chicago.  He worked in sales, as the company treasurer, and finally served as president. In 2003, along with a partner, David opened The Acorn Theater in Three Oaks, Michigan.  David booked the performance space for 12 years and finally sold it to a non-profit in 2022. David has served on the board of Harbor Arts (including serving as board president) for 24 years. He was also president of the board of The Poetry Center of Chicago and of Chicago Improv Productions (who produced the Chicago Improv Festival as well as other programs.) He has also served on the board of Big Questions (EMMY winning producer of documentaries.) and Friends of the Chicago River. David has served for many years as a community advisor to WNIT public television in South Bend. David also is co-founder, starting curator, and current Artistic Director of Outpsoken LGBTQ+ stories, which is being inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame. David graduated from the University of Michigan with a liberal arts degree and holds a master’s degree in business from Northwestern. David is a lifelong lover of the arts.

Martin (Marty) Grochala is the Associate Director of Development/Senior Director of Major and Planned Gifts at Goodman Theatre, where he began his fundraising career in 1993. In 2004, Grochala joined Hubbard Street Dance Chicago as Director of Development. In 2010, he was recruited by The Chicago Academy for the Arts, an independent arts high school, as Director of Institutional Advancement. He has a B.A. in Theater/Dance from St. John’s University/College of St. Benedict (1983) and has completed the coursework for a Masters in Arts, Entertainment and Media Management from Columbia College Chicago. He has been a volunteer with the Arts and Business Council of Chicago, and has served on the boards of Dignity/Chicago and DignityUSA, the advocacy organization for LGBTQI Catholics. He sits on DignityUSA’s National Convention Committee and co-chaired the 2019 DUSA 50^th Anniversary Conference in Chicago.

Charls Sedgwick Hall (Actor, Movement and Shakespeare Text Instructor, Director) is based in Chicago. Acting credits include performances as Touchstone in As You Like It, Trinculo in The Tempest, Gremio in The Taming of the Shrew with Thin Air Shakespeare; Boyet in Love’s Labour’s Lost, Recruting Officer in Mother Courage and Her Children, Charlie in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged, Revised), Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet, A Comedy of Errors, Philostrate in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Shakespeare and Company; Preacher/Ol’ Mister, Ensemble in The Color Purple (The Musical) Los Angeles Ovations Award winning production, Mirror in The Next Fairytale, Father in The Escape Artist’s Children, and Pops in Follow with Celebration Theatre; Ghost. Player King & Queen and Grave Digger in Hamlet, Feste in Twelfth Night, Leonato in Much Ado About Nothing with Southern California Shakespeare Festival. Directing credits include Other World Lover and Afrocentricities with MPAACT, OUTStories and The Red Train Café with Celebration Theatre. During his many years of performing and studying with Shakespeare and Company, Charls toured with the School’s Program, trained as a Movement teacher in the discipline of Trish Arnold teaching as a Guest Professor in Movement at the National Institute of Performing Arts in Sydney, Australia and Guest Artist performing in Angels of Lemnos and Guest Professor in Movement at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. Charls, a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association, SAG/AFTRA, holds an MFA from the NYU-School of the Performing Arts Graduate Acting Program, teaches and continues to study Black History, other Movement disciplines, as well as Shakespeare’s Text, Rhetoric and Sonnets.

Leavell Javon Johnson (Javon) is a versatile and dedicated professional with a strong foundation in education, theatre, and labor advocacy. Armed with a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Florida, Javon has honed his skills as an instructor, director, and union organizer, leaving a positive impact on each role.

After completing his graduate studies, Javon pursued his acting career on the East Coast, working at renowned theaters in Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. His engagement with the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey provided him with invaluable experience both on stage and as a teaching artist. Javon’s work in Shakespeare helped him to cultivate young students’ communication skills and empower them to speak their minds.

In 2019, Javon relocated to Chicago and quickly secured a position at the Actors’ Equity Association. During his tenure, he has contributed to various departments, including Auditions, Contracts, Communications, and Organizing. His involvement in the Organizing department has been instrumental in securing significant contract wins for numerous Chicago-area theaters, including the newly organized Drunk Shakespeare.

Currently serving as the Director of Education and Member Value, Javon is committed to empowering members in their communities by expanding their union benefits and educating them about the advantages of joining a labor union. With Seasons of Concern’s strong ties within the Chicago theater community, Javon aims to leverage his passion, momentum, and energy to advance the organization’s initiatives.

Mark David Kaplan is the recipient of three Joseph Jefferson Awards for his work in Les Misérables, Ragtime and Forbidden Broadway, the latter with which he has toured internationally and performed off-Broadway. Other credits include The Mystery of Love and Sex (Writers Theatre), Mary Zimmerman’s Wonderful Town (Goodman), Little Shop of Horrors (American Blues), Hairspray (Syracuse Stage), Amadeus (Indiana Rep), We Three Lizas (About Face Theatre), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (James Lapine, dir.), Man of La Mancha (Montana Shakespeare in the Parks), and countless premieres with Chicago Shakespeare, Marriott and Skylight Theatres. Mark spent 5+ years in the National Tour of The Lion King. As a proud member of Actors’ Equity since 1986, Mark has served as a National Councilor in the union, and presently sits on the Central Regional Board.

Bridget McDonough was employed in arts management from 1978, when she graduated from Northwestern University, until her 2019 retirement as general manager of Music Theater Works, which she co-founded (as Light Opera Works) in 1980 with Philip Kraus and others. Prior to founding Light Opera Works she worked for The Organic Theater Company in Chicago, The Troupe in Colorado Springs and Actors Equity Association.

She has served on the boards of many arts and civic organizations both nationally and locally in the Chicago area.  She is past president of the Rotary Club of Evanston and the North Shore International Network, where she still holds memberships. She served on the boards of the Evanston Convention and Visitors’ Bureau, Evanston Chamber of Commerce, Evanston Arts Alliance, National Alliance for Musical Theatre, Chicago Music Alliance, Around the Coyote, as well as the School of Communication Alumni Board at Northwestern University and the tourism committee of Chicago’s North Shore Convention and Visitors’ Bureau.

Ms. McDonough was honored by the Evanston YWCA with their “Women on the Move” Award in 1991 and by the Evanston Chamber of Commerce with their 2009 Public Service/Nonprofit Person of the Year Award.  In 2024 she was presented the William H. Logan Jr. Legacy of Service Award by the Rotary Club of Evanston and the Joyce Ruth Saxon Award for Excellence by Music Theater Works.

She is currently on the board of the Musicians Club of Women and Season of Concern in Chicago, the Tubac Nature Center in Arizona, and Write 4 Art in Los Angeles. She is a member of the advisory board of the Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre in Montana.

Bridget served as an international judge at the Second Vladimir Kurochkin International Competition of Young Artists of Operetta and Musicals in Yekaterinburg, Russia, and VIBE (Vienna International Ballet Experience) in Missoula, Montana. She currently is serving as an international juror for Ballet Beyond Borders.

Prior to her career in arts management, she studied dance and theater in Milwaukee and Chicago.

Bridget retired from Music Theater Works at the end of the 2019 season.

Doug MacKechnie, BS, MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; MFA from The Theatre School at DePaul University. AEA Central Regional Board 2012-2020, AEA National Council 2020-present. 32 years in Chicagoland, now back home in Vermont. Season of Concern Marketing Chair and Board “Tech Guy”.

Joan Mazzonelli has produced, directed, and designed for the theater in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City. She has written Border Crossing, a short play, with Marianne Kallen; the musicals Reasonable Terms with Marianne Kallen and Karena Mendoza; Bottom’s Dream with James L. Kurtz, an adaptation of All in the Laundry by Fred Rogers of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood; and the operas High Fidelity and The Proposal with Philip Seward. She has happily served in leadership roles with City Lit Theater, ShPIel Performing Identity, Griffin Theatre, Midwest New Musicals at Light Opera Works (now Music Theatre Works), Athenaeum Theatre, Theatre Building Chicago, New Tuners Theatre, Illinois Theatre Association, National Alliance for Musical Theatre, Chicago Dance and Music Alliance, Child’s Play Touring Theatre, League of Chicago Theatres, Season of Concern, On Stage Productions, Opera Shop at the Vineyard Theatre, and National Shakespeare Company. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild. She has taught as an adjunct instructor at Columbia College Chicago and lectured at DePaul University, Fordham University and Roosevelt University.