Our Team

Jess Kaufman, Producing Artistic Director

Jess Kaufman (she/her) is a playwright, dramaturg, producer and all-around theater artist making thoughtful, playful, ambitious theater for families. Her work invites young people and families to cross boundaries, in theaters and site-specific performance spaces. As a queer, Jewish artist, she is particularly interested in the intersection of social justice and identity. Jess was a 2019-2020 New Victory Theater LabWorks Artist, a 2020 NYFA "Emerging Arts Leader", and a 2021 New York City Artist Corps grant recipient.

Recent work: The Garden, inviting babies and their caregivers into nature in NYC public parks; Beyond the Wall || Más Allá del Muro (US/Mexico), building 15 foot tall puppets with kids living at the US/Mexico border wall (artbeyondthewall.com); ASSEMBLE, a guerrilla audio performance piece secretly staged in a Brooklyn store (projectassemble.com); Mathilda and the Orange Balloon (UK/US), a Deaf and hearing accessible play about identity adapted from the popular picture book.

As a practitioner-researcher, Jess researches at the intersection of young audiences, embodiment and participation in reception dramaturgy, and site-specificity. She is a frequent guest lecturer and conference presenter, with credits including: Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, Creative Interruptions London, NYU Forum on Educational Theatre, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, Theater and Dance for the Very Young Conference, TYA/USA, and the 2024 ASSITEJ World Congress. Her writing about theater has been published in ArtsPraxis and Theatre and Performance Design, and she co-edited Embodied Cognition, Acting and Performance (Routledge, 2017). She is on the theater faculty at Lucy Moses School.

MA Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (London); BFA University of Miami; Certificate, Moscow Art Theatre (Russia); Clown School, New York Goofs.

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Susanna Brock, Community Engagement and Outreach

Susanna Brock is a Swedish, New York-based theater maker, performer, director, administrator and educator who creates multi-sensory and interactive theater with and for young audiences. She aims to create spaces where young people can dream and play and critically reflect and comment on our world.

For the past 14 years, she has had the opportunity to work in many different parts of the world including Stockholm, Paris, Kampala, Nairobi and New York where she has facilitated and performed in school and community-based programs. In addition to her work at Flying Leap, Susanna is an ensemble member and administrator at the award-winning company Spellbound Theatre and has been a teaching artist and led professional development and trainings at places like ArtsConnection, The Children’s Museum of Manhattan, Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, Brooklyn College, Bank Street College of Education and NYU. In 2020 she graduated with a Master’s of Applied Theater from CUNY School of Professional Studies.

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Logan gabrielle Schulman, Associate Producer

Logan gabrielle Schulman [they/them] is a New York-based interdisciplinary theatrical director, educator, installation and social practice artist. A radical Jewish and genderqueer creator, their work revolves around mournfully neglected grief practices in America, the usurpation of contemporary communication via technologic mediation, and building community through the shared experiences of live performer and audience (in an age where we find ourselves further and further away from each other).

Recently directed works include Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat (Sarasota Orchestra), Sontag’s A Parsifal (Hangar Theatre), Sunday in Sodom (The FutureNow Festival), The Wives (Cellunova Theater), Waco Boy Club (The Drama League), A Children’s Ceremony [TYA] (Temple of the Stranger and Flying Leap co-production), Click Clack Moo [TYA] (Orlando Rep/TheaterWorksUSA), KEEPING ON (breathing) (Greensboro Contemporary Jewish Museum), The Fog [TYA] (Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Sarasota Art Museum), Time, Collapsed (Old City Jewish Arts Center), and Welcome to the Shiva House (Arthur Ross Gallery, Melbourne Fringe Fest).

Outside of their directing practice, they are currently a Solomon R. Guggenheim Teaching Artist, a company puppeteer with the Central Park Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre, and an associate producer with Flying Leap Productions.

Logan gabrielle is an alumna of the Drama League Directors Project, and former resident artist of Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab North, the Social Practice Institute at the Greensboro Contemporary Jewish Museum, and Chautauqua Visual Arts at the Chautauqua Institution. Their written dramatic work has been honored with a place on the 2020 Kilroys List, has been commissioned by the Walnut Street Theatre, The Neighborhood, and Reconstructing Judaism’s Ritualwell. Their dramatic works are held in the permanent collections of the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas Austin, the Brizdle-Schoenberg Special Collections Library at Ringling College of Art and Design, and Elsewhere Museum. Logan gained their degree in Theatre and Religion from New College of Florida, where they also recently served as an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-funded adjunct Theatre faculty in Spring 2022.

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Susy Abraham, Marketing

Susy Abraham (she/her) is a Queens, NY native who spent her college career working backstage theatre positions; name one and she’s probably done it! Her college career was cut short due to COVID and to keep herself busy during quarantine, she began a small art online business through Instagram which she managed while completing school. Susy discovered a passion and talent for digital marketing, and is developing Flying Leap’s online presence while working part-time as a substitute teacher in the NYC public school system.

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Collaborating Artists

Andrea Ang

Andrea Ang (she/her) is a NYC-based Singaporean theatre-maker and teaching artist. Her artistic practice includes devising and performing original theater, movement and puppetry.  In New York, she has worked with companies like New Victory Theater, Khunum Productions, Spellbound Theatre, SITI Company, Soledad Ensemble and AchesonWalsh Studios. Her independent work includes Whale, Come Home! (New Victory LabWorks and Little Island) and No Place (Square One Collective) which toured to and premiered at the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival. As a teaching artist, she has worked extensively with youths in both Singapore and NYC and loves uplifting others through the transformative power of imagination and play. Andrea is a co-founder of Square One Collective, an international theatre collective of artists committed to creating original theatre that responds to today’s globalized world. She holds a BA(Hons) in English Literature from the National University of Singapore and is a graduate of SITI Conservatory (NYC).

Ana Cantorán Viramontes

Ana Cantorán Viramontes (she/her) is a Mexican-born, Brooklyn-based Artist. She holds an MFA in Theater, Contemporary performance and a BFA in Dramatic Arts. Co-artistic director of Nekyia Theater, she has collaborated and performed in award-winning national and international works in devised theatre and performance art in America, Europe, Africa and Asia: Her devised works have been selected by Singapore fringe festival, New Victory Theater LabWorks, Barn Arts Collective, Time Out, “Rhinoceros” top 50 plays to see in NYC., The Quarry: Contemporary Arts International, Up close Festival United Solo, Poetic License Festival, Itinerant Performance Festival, Saint Louis fringe festival, Festival of the Death Miquixtli, Teatro en la Alacena, 11th and 12th Festival International du Théâtre Universitaire d’Agadir Maroc, and featured by The Tank, Dixon Place, IRT Theater, and more.  She is a teaching artist with numerous organizations across NYC, including The New Victory Theater.

Anna Mayo

Anna Mayo (they/them) is a Samoan creative based in NYC. Originally from Florida, Anna came to New York and studied theatre at Fordham Univerity Lincoln Center and now works primarily between acting and production assisting. Some recent credits include Indecent (Mendel), And This Is Where We (Alex), Interchanging (Apple).

Aubrie Ferris

Aubrie Ferris (she/her) is a director and devisor whose work has been seen internationally. Recent directing credits include Laura Pittenger’s 1 Bed 1 Bath presented in association with The Drama League, Northshore vs Westerberg: A Miscast Concert at Feinstein’s 54 Below, Fair Enough by Whitney Ryan Garrity produced by Bite Sized Theatrical and The Translator by Simone Stadler produced by Greenhouse Ensemble. Recent assistant director credits include The Division (dir. SRDA, National Queer Theater's Criminal Queerness Festival at the Lincoln Center), Into The Woods (dir. Cristina Angeles, 80 Greenwich, New York) and Image of an Unknown Young Woman (dir. Drew Mulligan, Teatre El Casal, Barcelona). Visit her at aubrieferris.com

Betty Kean

Betty Kean (she/her) is a jazz saxophonist and composer from Dallas - Ft. Worth, Texas, currently based in NYC. They earned a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Saxophone Performance from the University of North Texas, and traveled the world performing for Cunard Cruises before attending William Paterson University for a Master's in Jazz Arranging. Mx. Kean recorded saxophone and flute with the Yu Nishiyama big band on the album “Lotus in the Mud.” They have a new album out for a nine-piece ensemble entitled "Nonet", and they were recently featured on CBS Saturday Sessions as a saxophone soloist with Grammy-winner Bret McKenzie. They're an advocate for gender equity in both musical theatre and jazz in the NYC area, and they're currently under mentorship of Kristy Norter through Maestra Music's 2022-2023 Mentorship program.


Jacksubeli Gonzalez

Jacksubeli Gonzalez (she/her) is a native of Nogales, Sonora (MX) with a broad range of experience working with non-governmental organizations that promote the arts, culture and education. Jack is currently the Mexican Operations Director for Border Youth Tennis Exchange (BYTE) a multinational youth development organization in Nogales AZ/SON. She is a graduate of the National Pedagogical University with a bachelor of Educational Intervention and intercultural education. Jacksubeli helped facilitate the creation of the Municipal System to Prevent, Attend, Punish and Eradicate Violence Against Women and has been active in many municipal initiatives to empower women in Northern Mexico. Jacksubeli has also designed and deployed art curricula for the Mexican Ministry of Culture, where she has been recognized for leadership in community development.


Jiawen Hu

Jiawen Hu (she/her) is a New York-based theater maker originally from Hangzhou, China. Influenced by Fluxus art, Jiawen creates interdisciplinary performances about real people’s experience using everyday movements, real stories, objects, and games. She has been working on community-based theatre projects with underrepresented groups including Chinese females, English Language Learners, immigrants, and LGBTQ communities in New York and Shanghai.  Her credits as a performer, deviser, director, and stage manager take her to Whitney Museum, NBC New York, Judson Church, The Lark, Queens Museum, Dixon Place, and University Settlement. Jiawen was Artist-in-Residence at The Performance Project and grantee of LMCC’s Creative Engagement. She is also serving as a teaching artist with immigrant youth and multilingual learners in New York City and major cities in China.

José Noel

José Noel (he/him) is a freelance Director, Stage Manager, and Set Designer. He graduated with a BA in Theatre from CUNY Hunter College. As an undergraduate, he produced and directed, Every Brilliant Thing, as well as a virtual performance of The Last Five Years. José won the Arts Administration and Management award for Region 1 of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in 2017.  He is also a Co-Artistic Director Of Emit Theatre which is an immersive educational theatre company committed to creating theatrical experiences through which learners of all kinds have the freedom to explore stories through direct interactions.

Leslie Thompson

Leslie Thompson has worked with many theatres and youth focused organizations throughout New York City. Most recently, she was stage manager for the Creative Arts Team Youth Theatre show Between the Lines. She has previously worked in costume and wardrobe on and off-broadway, and teaches with the Children’s Museum of Manhattan and Service Learning Project. She holds a Masters in Applied Theatre from CUNY SPS, and works through play and a serious sense of silliness to help children discover and understand the world around them.

Lisa Kitchens

Lisa Kitchens (she/her) is a theatre artist and nature-based educator. with over ten years of professional theatre experience as a creator, actor, writer, and educator. She has a particular interest in the connections we share with the natural world and how those connections influence our lives. Lisa is the founder of Earth Stories Initiative, an initiative that uses storytelling and art to connect young children living in cities to the natural world. Lisa was a 2018 recipient of the Voices of the Wilderness Artist Residency through the USDA Forest Service in Alaska. From this residency, she created an original play, The Edge of the Earth, which was performed at the Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art and Storytelling. She has been selected to join The Arctic Circle Residency in Svalbard, Norway next April from which she will create a new play about the Arctic for Earth Stories. Lisa is an ensemble member with Spellbound Theatre. She’s a certified Forest School Teacher through the Eastern Regional Association of Forest and Nature Schools and teaches with Brooklyn Forest School. She holds an MFA in Acting from the American Conservatory Theater and a BFA from The University of Evansville.

Meghan Grover

Meghan Grover (she/they) works as an Advisor and Drama Teacher at the Brooklyn Free School where they facilitate student-created theater. They have also created dramas with the Creative Arts Team, Park Avenue Youth Theater, NYC Children’s Theater, Bluelaces, and Girls Leadership. Additionally, Meghan loves creating immersive theater experiences for young people to learn literacy skills. Meghan graduated from the Guthrie Theater BFA Actor Training Program and the MA Applied Theatre Program at CUNY. Deeply grateful to be working with Flying Leap! 




Martín Vejarano

Martín Vejarano (he/him) is a Latin Grammy-nominated producer, multi-instrumentalist, performer,  composer, and educator.  Based in NYC since 2000 as a freelance musician and educator, Martín holds degrees in Jazz and Music Theory from The Brooklyn-Queens Conservatory of Music and The City College of New York. As an educator and Colombian music instructor Vejarano is currently a staff member of the Flushing Town Hall's Teaching Artist roster and an artist/educator with the Center For Traditional Music and Dance. Besides performing and collaborating with a vast array of artists and sharing his knowledge with students in schools and universities in the United States, South America and Europe; Martín currently directs and leads four music projects: La Cumbiamba eNeYè, Cumbia River Band, Chia’s Dance Party and the NYC Gaita Club.


Oscar Lancaster

Oscar Lancaster (he/him) is a teacher and cultural promoter with more than 15 years of experience working in arts and education in the public and private sectors in Mexico. Born and raised in Nogales, Sonora, Oscar is passionate about bringing arts and empathy programs to underserved youth. He has a Licenciada (BA equivalent) in Communication and a Diploma in Theater from the Universidad de Sonora. He has experience in Mexican state and municipal cultural and education institutions, over 10 years experience teaching middle and high school arts, sports, and English, and he founded and manages a nonprofit art association producing original theater for young people in Nogales.

raychel ceciro

raychel ceciro (they/them) is an eco-anthro-archival performance artist, engaging the past with a preposterous present through urgent tenderness and radical responsibility. They have been presented along the east coast in New York and Philadelphia (The Brick, 954 Dance Movement Collective, the Annenberg Performing Arts Center, among others) as well as in many parks, museums, and cultural centers throughout Florida, such as the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens and the Ringling Museum of Art. They only recently started playing the theremin & they hope you enjoy its easy loopy vibes.