WHO WE ARE
Kara Strait
Co-Founder / Artistic Director
Kara Strait is a New York-based director and teacher. After graduating from The New School's MFA program, she co-founded Torn Out Theater with Alice Mottola in 2016. Prior to directing Torn Out's debut production of The Tempest, she has directed numerous works by William Shakespeare, Caryl Churchill, and Don Nigro. Her film work includes directing Words & Actions, a short film written by Allan Staples; and co-writing the story for Alexis and Bodine Boling's feature film Movement + Location, winner of Best Screenplay at the 2014 Brooklyn Film Festival. Kara's education work includes both graduate and undergraduate classes at The New School, as well as Concordia Language Villages' French immersion programs.
Additionally, she hosts a regular livestream on Twitch for an international audience of primarily queer viewers, and is a regular cast member on The Film Reroll, an improvised storytelling podcast.
Diana Levy
Managing Director
Diana Levy has worked as a Producer, General Manager, Company Manager, and Press & Marketing Director for a number of projects, including: The Tempest, Hamlet, and The Rover (Torn Out Theater), Henry IV, The Tempest, Richard III (Smith Street Stage), All the Rage (piece by piece productions & Rising Phoenix Rep), Emotional Creature (by Eve Ensler), Murder for Two (New World Stages), Othello, HamletGhosts, Meet Murasaki Shikibu (The Brewing Dept.), Portrait and a Dream, Chemistry, Coping, Cracks (FringeNYC), Pains of Youth (Cake Shop Theatre Co), About Face (Brick Theater). Diana holds an MFA in Theater Management and Producing from Columbia University, and she works as a Data Analyst at Jujamcyn Theaters.
Britt Berke
Associate Artistic Director
Britt Berke is a New York-based director with roots in dramaturgy and devising. Recently, Britt directed Promenade in concert in The Public Theater’s The Rest I Make Up Marathon and Bertolt Brecht’s A Respectable Wedding in the Barnard College Senior Thesis Festival. Britt was the SDCF Directing Observer on Lileana Blain-Cruz's Fabualtion, or the Re-Education of Undine (by Lynn Nottage, at Signature Theatre). Britt has also directed for the Glicker-Milstein Summer Theater Festival and the Columbia Musical Theatre Society, and has assistant directed with Pitr Strait (Torn Out Theater), Kara Feely (Object Collection), Jean Wagner (Mabou Mines), Shannon Sindelar and Alice Reagan. She worked as the Editorial Assistant at The Drama Review and has interned with WP Theater, Theatre Communications Group and New Georges. Britt is a proud alumna of Barnard College.
Andrew Repasky McElhinney
Producing Artistic Associate
Andrew Repasky McElhinney is a film, TV and theater director. His feature films include Magdalen (1998), A Chronicle of Corpses (2000), Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye (2003), Animal Husbandry (2008), Christmas Dreams (2015), and the forthcoming Causal Encounters: Philadelphia True Crime Confessions. His cinema work is in the permanent collection of MoMA-The Museum of Modern Art. McElhinney is also an author and educator and his history of 20th Century cinema, Second Takes: Remaking Film, Remaking America is available from McFarland and Company. For more information visit: ARMcinema25.com.
Elizabeth Weitzen
Associate Artist in Residence
Elizabeth Weitzen is a theatre artist - designer, performer, producer, activist, and emcee. At NYU Tisch, she trained at Atlantic, Stella Adler, ETW, and in Mary Overlie's Viewpoints, as well as with Kitty Leech and Erin Slattery Black in costume design. Elizabeth performs regularly at private parties, corporate events, and fundraisers all over the east coast. Prior work includes: founding/directing Shag Playhouse, a performing company in residence at a sex shop/art space in Brooklyn; company member and resident designer with The DLP, a radically experimental Shakespeare troupe; and shows with 3LD, Amos Eno Gallery, FringeNYC, Radiohole, New Perspectives, as well as regional theaters across the country and black boxes across the city. Much of Elizabeth's work is rooted in her advocacy for bodily autonomy and exploration of site specific performance for nontraditional spaces. Elizabeth lives in Jersey City with her partner and their amazing cat, and she is delighted to be working in residence with TOT to create this fervently exciting new work!
Alice Mottola
Co-Founder
Alice Mottola is an actor, director, writer, and software engineer. Before co-directing Torn Out Theater/OCTPFAS's The Tempest in 2016, she wrote and directed Brightness, an interactive play staged on the boardwalk of Asbury Park, NJ. She trained in acting at Barnard College and at T. Schreiber Studio's One-Year Conservatory. Alice holds a degree in Biology from Barnard College.