Sheryl Stoodley  - Artistic Director/ Co-Founder Serious Play Theatre Ensemble has directed, performed and taught for the past 30 years with regional and academic theatres throughout the USA. She trained and performed in ensemble theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts with Stage One Theatre Lab under the direction of Kaleel Sakakeeny. She holds an MA in Theatre from Smith College. As part of her M.A. degree program, Stoodley conducted a 3year program of theatre workshops with incarcerated women, published two books of the inmates' writings, and developed, produced and toured an original play, Ain't No Man Dragged That Moon Down Yet. She has directed five presentations of “Celebrate the Children of Resistance” for the Rosenberg Fund for Children working with Angela Davis, Susan Sarandon, Ossie Davis, Eve Ensler, David Strathairn among others.  Sheryl leads workshops in the ensemble approach to developing theatre through the Serious Play Intensive Theatre Training process incorporating the methodology of Tadashi Suzuki, Anne Bogart’s Viewpoints, and other ensemble-oriented physical acting techniques. She developed and directed the original play, Milosevic At The Hague, examining the issue of power and political corruption. This production toured by invitation to the JoakimInterfest in Serbia, where it received an international theatre award and a write up in American Theatre magazine. Stoodley received the Jane Ahlfeld Award for Dynamic Impact in the Arts from the Northampton Arts Council and a BJ Goodwin Award. Serious Play creates and presents new ensemble theatre, and has started the Serious Play/Edinburgh Fringe Performance Exchange, taking new  ensemble theatre work from the Pioneer Valley to the Edinburgh Fringe, and presenting compelling original productions from the Edinburgh Fringe to Valley audiences.