Meet our team

Mark Armstrong is a Brooklyn-based theater director and the Artistic Director of The 24 Hour Plays. His production of Eric Bogosian’s Drinking in America featuring Andre Royo (NYT Critic’s Pick) enjoyed an extended run at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre and a live audio capture was released as an Audible audio play. Highlights with The 24 Hour Plays include annual productions of The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway, The 24 Hour Musicals, The 24 Hour Plays: Nationals, The 24 Hour Plays: Viral Monologues (which engaged millions of viewers worldwide beginning March 2020) + partner productions across the US. His acclaimed production of Will Arbery’s Heroes of the Fourth Turning marked the re-opening of the historic theater at the St. Louis County Depot in his hometown of Duluth, MN. Collaborators include Emily Mann (Execution of Justice), Christopher Shinn (Falling Away, The Coming World), Dan O’Brien (From Kandahar to Canada, The Angel in the Trees) and many others. Recent productions: developed and directed The Accident with drummer Kid Millions at Roulette and staged Jesse Eisenberg’s The Revisionist at The Depot Theater. Assistant professor, The New School for Drama; member, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society; UAW 7902 Joint Council.

Serena Berman is a writer, performer, and producer from LA based in NYC. A proud alum of The 24 Hour Plays: Nationals, she is thrilled to be running the program with Jake Beckhard. Serena and Jake were Co-Directors of Performance at Chinatown Soup, where they produced theater and organized artist-led political activism. As a writer, her work has been developed with Ars Nova, Westport Country Playhouse, Williamstown Theater Festival, The Hearth, Less Than Rent, and more. She was a member of Ars Nova’s Play Group, a finalist for the Princess Grace Award, a semifinalist for the Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship, and an honorable mention for The Relentless Award. She is repped by Writ Large Management for her screenwriting. As an actor, she’s been working professionally since she was a toddler. Favorite credits include “Set it Up” (Netflix), Diaspora (NY Premiere), Murder at the Gates (Steven Sater), “Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tales” (ABC), and “W.I.T.C.H.” (Disney). BFA in Drama (NYU Tisch). Check her out in all her multi-hyphenate weirdness at www.serenaberman.com.

Ivey Lowe is a director and producer whose work spans new play development, interdisciplinary performance, and civic practice. Her practice is grounded in the belief that theater is a public gathering space, where artists and communities meet to shape meaning, ask questions, and imagine new futures together. As a director, her recent work includes the world premiere Off-Broadway production of Ali Keller’s (un)conditional at SoHo Playhouse, Nancy Bleemer’s Providence at 59E59, Caryl Churchill’s Far Away at Hangar Theatre, and Jenny Stafford’s Beating a Dead Horse at Bloomington Playwrights Project. Her work has also been developed with Musical Theater Factory, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, The BRICK, Dixon Place, The Tank, and more. Alongside her directing, Ivey has built a producing practice focused on artist-driven and community-embedded work, including festival-scale programming and arts engagement initiatives through PS21 Center for Contemporary Performance and The Foundry at Hudson. She is an alum of the Drama League Directing Fellowship, Williamstown Theatre Festival Directing Corps, Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and the Mellon-funded Social Practice CUNY Fellowship.

Joe Westermann is a Fort Worth–raised, NYC-based teaching artist who recently earned his BFA in Dramatic Arts and MA in Arts Management and Entrepreneurship from The New School for Performing Arts. He is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Spotlight Cast & Crew, a tuition-free summer theatre program empowering Fort Worth–area students in grades 8–12 to direct, design, and perform works of musical theatre. Joe also created Creative Pathways, a curriculum for high school students that equips them with the tools and skills to pursue careers as teaching artists — a course that has been featured at Lincoln Center and presented at their annual Summer Forum.