Matt M. Morrow
Executive Artistic Director
(He, Her, They)
Since joining the organization in 2014, Matt has helped to grow Diversionary Theatre’s operating budget by 100%. Under their leadership the theatre has been nominated for 29 San Diego Critics Circle Awards, winning two Outstanding New Play Awards in 2017 and 2019. Alongside Diversionary’s Board of Trustees, Matt led the Securing Our Future campaign, a $2.5 million renovation project for the theatre’s home in University Heights, slated to reopen early Fall 2021.
Notable productions Matt has directed and/or produced with Diversionary include the 20th Anniversary production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Winner, 2019 Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical, SDCC Award), Miranda Rose Hall’s The Hour of Great Mercy (Winner, 2019 Best New Play, SDCC Award), the World Premiere of Gordon Leary and Julia Meinwald’s musical The Loneliest Girl in the World, Georgette Kelly’s Ballast (Winner, 2017 Best New Play, SDCC Award), Justin Huertas’ Lizard Boy The Musical (Winner, Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical).
Matt was honored with the inaugural Larry T. Baza Arts & Culture Award from San Diego Pride, and was a Creative Catalyst Fellow with The San Diego Foundation and La Jolla Playhouse. He has developed new work with The Sundance Theatre Institute, The Old Globe, The Banff Centre, Center Theatre Group, American Conservatory Theater, Lincoln Center, PlayPenn, and Page 73 Productions in residence at the Yale School of Drama.
Matt served as The John Wells Professor of Directing at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama (Graduate & Undergraduate Directing programs), and is a member of the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab. Matt is currently adjunct Professor of Directing at UCSD's Graduate Directing program. He holds a BFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University. www.mattmmorrow.com
Jenny Case
Managing Director
(She/Her/Hers)
Skyler Sullivan
Director of Arts Education and Outreach
(He/Him/Theirs)
Skyler Sullivan is an actor/director/ and arts educator transplanted from New York. While in NYC, he worked with The New Victory Theatre for ten years as a veteran teaching artist, where he honed his skills as a curriculum developer and facilitator. Other NYC teaching credits include: The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, the Professional Performing Arts School, and on-set coaching on two P.B.S. shows: Sesame Street and The Electric Company.
Skyler is thrilled to be working with Diversionary Theatre as it continues its tradition of arts education and outreach. Currently, in San Diego, he also teaches for The Old Globe and The La Jolla Playhouse. Skyler also works as a therapeutic clown with Healthy Humor, a nonprofit serving chronically and terminally ill kids and their families. Education: B.F.A. in acting Emerson College, M.F.A. in Acting Brooklyn College.
David Romero
Director of Production
(He/She/They)
Peggy Ryan - Peggy Ryan Designs
Director of Marketing
(She/Her/Hers)
Andréa Agosto
Marketing Associate
(they/she)
L.B. Lujan
General Manager
(she/he/they)
Originally hailing from Los Angeles, L.B. offers over 15 years of experience in theatre and event production and holds certification in Audio Recording Technology and Film/Video Production. Combined with a professional background in marketing and office management, L.B. dedicates her skills to growing small businesses, including her own video production company 8Web Productions.
Dedicated to the passion of life and the art that exists in and all around us, L.B. is in constant search of unique opportunities and new challenges. She believes that through art and entertainment we can heal the world. www.lbharo.com
Joanna Prieto-Blackaller
Business Associate
(She/Her/Hers)
Joanna, an identical twin born and raised in Virginia made San Diego her new home in 2009. Not long after settling into the vibrant town did she and her husband open Cueva Bar, a tapas style restaurant in University Heights. Weathering the storm of COVID-19, Cueva Bar was rebranded as De Nada Kitchen and Market in 2020.
While Joanna has enjoyed operating her own business she was excited to bring the knowledge and wisdom she has garnered over the years to Diversionary Theatre. She has been received with open arms and looks forward to growing with the theatre.
Derrol Murphy
Bar Manager
(He/Him/His)
Derrol grew up in Maine and at the age of eighteen decided to defer from college for a year and try his luck in the theatre world out in California. He had done many a church play and was involved with Kids on the Block, a puppet troop teaching kids about disabilities as well as a few years in improv.
After moving here and getting settled he got his first gig at 6th @ Penn Theatre, in Torch Song Trilogy right at the one-year goal he gave himself. From there, in 1999 he went on to do some work with Diversionary theatre…and it stuck. Derrol has been a proud member of Diversionary Theatre since that day. Starting with a small writing group, then onto the stage, in a play called Handsome Men. From there he was House Manager, Stage Manager, Dresser, ran the lights and sound, and stepped into a few roles as an understudy and now, in his current position behind the Bar!
When not at the theatre he hangs out on his little urban farm with his critters and pursues his artistic side by participating in photography shoots, is a character in the graphic novel series, PURE, and creates art in several different forms.
Cambria Herrera
Artistic Fellow
(they/them/she/her)
Cambria is a Xicanx director based in San Diego, California completing an MFA in Directing at UCSD’s Department of Theatre and Dance. All of their work rises from their core inspiration: queer and female artists of color from the past and present. In Portland, Oregon they co-founded and facilitated The AGE Theatre Collective and mentorship program to empower the resiliency of female and non-binary theatre artists of color. Recent credits include: Teen-Versionary at Diversionary Theatre (Assistant Director) Fandango for Butterflies (And Coyotes) at La Jolla Playhouse (Associate Director) Fifty Boxes of Earth at UCSD (Director), In The Red and Brown Water at UCSD (Director), Intergenerational Audio Project at Oregon Children's Theatre (Director), a queer adaptation of Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare at UCSD (Director), World Premiere Adaptation of King Arthur at Long Beach Opera (Assistant Director).
Jesse Marchese
Donor & Patron Services Manager
(He/Him/His)
Jesse Marchese is a theater administrator, writer, scholar, director, and dramaturg whose research and production work exists at the intersection of queer theory and performance studies. He is currently a PhD student in the Department of Theatre & Dance at UC San Diego. Previously, Jesse served as Executive Director of Astoria Performing Arts Center (APAC) in Queens, where he produced acclaimed productions of Follies and Caroline, or Change, and premiere productions of Madhuri Shekar’s Queen and Monet Hurst-Mendoza’s Veil’d. Prior to APAC, Jesse served as Associate Director of Off-Broadway’s award-winning Mint Theater Company where he helped to produce nearly fifteen productions, two of which he also directed: The Lucky One by A.A. Milne and The Fatal Weakness by George Kelly (nominated for two 2015 Drama Desk Awards). His work has also been seen at The Civilians, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, New York City Children’s Theater, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, York Theatre Company, New World Stages, Theater for the New City, Gallery Players, Village Light Opera Group, and Marymount Manhattan College. He received his BA in Theatre Arts at Marymount Manhattan College and his MA in Theatre at CUNY Hunter College.
Ezra Bronwyn Adkins
House Manager
(They/Them/Theirs)
Mx. Adkins is a queer trans nonbinary theatre artist and poet. They are a renaissance employee; house manager, associate electrician, handy crew member and carpenter, host and producer of Queer Poetry Night, occasional office assistant, and budding assistant director. Their many passions and interests culminate in a wide variety of skills that are employed in all areas of their life. They studied theatre arts, with a concentration in directing, at Grossmont College and UC Santa Barbara, earning degrees from both institutions. Ezra grew up in San Diego, and has a penchant for drastically changing their hair color every six months. They savor the opportunity to create and grow in a queer friendly environment.