Matt is in his fourth season as Artistic Director of Shakespeare Behind Bars.  He is Director and Facilitator of the program at Luther Luckett Correctional Complex, where he is currently directing Romeo and Juliet and previously directed the last three seasons of Merchant of Venice, The Winter's Tale, and Macbeth. He is also Program Director and Facilitator of the SBB Multidiscipline Juvenile Arts Program at the Audubon Youth Development Center and the new SBB program at Louisville Day Treatment Center, Department of Juvenile Justice. Matt was recently recognized by the Louisville Courier-Journal Velocity 2011 Generation Next Issue as a Louisville Leader to Watch, and the Kentucky Council on Crime and Delinquency awarded him the 2010 Volunteer of the Year Award for Outstanding Service and Commitment to the Kentucky Criminal Justice System. 

As an Artistic Associate with Kentucky Shakespeare Festival for nine years, Matt performed in seven main stage productions in the park, toured/taught throughout the state, and directed in Central Park (Hamlet, Twelfth Night, 50th anniversary production of Richard III).  In Chicago, he served as Artistic Director of Dolphinback Theatre Company where accomplishments included the world premiere rock musical The Sound of One, the US Premiere of Anna Weiss, and bringing in Pulitzer Prize and Tony nominated playwright Lee Blessing to workshop and premiere his play Rewrites.  Matt was also Booking Manager and Company Member with Chicago’s HealthWorks Theatre, working in HIV/AIDS prevention and violence prevention theatre for several years.  Louisville area directing credits include Stage One and many productions with Derby Dinner Playhouse, where he is Director of Children’s Theatre. 

As an actor, Matt has performed professionally at Chicago theatres, across the Midwest, and throughout this region for twenty years.  Film and TV credits include roles in the Oscar-winner Forrest Gump, Clancy, The Perfect Gift and recent films The White Box and 1 Message.

As an educator, Matt has also taught with the Children’s Theatre of Charlotte, the Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts, Horse Cave Theatre, and the Bellarmine University Veritas Society.  He has been judge and respondent for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, Illinois Theatre Association, Kentucky Thespian Society, and English Speaking Union Shakespeare Competition.  He had a journal published in Shakespeare Magazine, has had work produced professionally by multiple theatres, and will have three new plays produced professionally this year.  He has studied with Second City Chicago and Shakespeare & Co. and holds a BFA in Regional Theatre from the Webster University Conservatory of Theatre Arts in St. Louis.

Holly has been working with the Shakespeare Behind Bars team for over 10 years. She grew up on free Shakespeare and began volunteering and apprenticing with Kentucky Shakespeare Festival as a teenager. From 1999-2010, she worked full-time in administration as the Director of Technology & Design, specializing in Computer Systems Information, Technology & Training, Graphic & Web Design, Marketing and general administration of the organization.

Holly studied art and theatre at the Youth Performing Arts School/duPont Manual, is an alumni of the Young Actor's Institute, and attended Wright State University’s Theatre Design and Technology Program, emphasizing in scenic painting and stage management. Holly has also worked with many other Louisville theatres including the Pleiades Theatre Company, Stage One Children’s Theatre, University of Louisville and Music Theatre Louisville.  She served on the Board of Directors for Dayton Theatre Guild in Dayton, OH and has volunteered with Actors Theatre Louisville, The Kentucky Center, Conrad-Caldwell House Museum and Bunbury Theatre.

Aside from her life-long career of working with Shakespeare, Holly is a freelance artist, designer, and photographer through her company ilex.lapis. She and her husband Peter are proprietors of The Salvage Emporium, which specializes in vintage and retro knicks knacks, jewelry, junk and other curiosities hand-made from salvaged items and materials.

Kate Thomsen, Co-Facilitator

Kate joined the Shakespeare Behind Bars/Michigan circle as a facilitator-in-training in 2011. She brings with her a passion for both Shakespeare and outreach theatre and is thrilled to be able to combine her theatrical loves as she learns the SBB process. Kate first learned of SBB when she saw Curt L. Tofteland give a presentation at a 2005 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Region III event; the experience inspired her to keep using theatre as a tool for social and individual evolution. Her work has taken her to North Miami to establish free theatre camps for ‘gang-risk’ youth and to nursing homes in Southern California to create life-story performances. Kate received her BA in Writing and Theatre Performance from Western Michigan University and her MFA in Acting from University of California, Irvine.   

Joseph Byrd, Facilitator-in-training

Joseph joined Shakespeare Behind Bars/Michigan as a facilitator-in-training in 2012. His love of the interior process, and of how the arts and social justice collide, has happily led him toward working with Shakespeare Behind Bars/Michigan.

While living in Berlin, Germany, Joseph was a member of Open Forum, a traveling discussion group which engaged former East Berlin high-school students in conversations including Euthanasia, Religiosity in America, Sex, Love, and Prayer. As an intern at Fr. Richard Rohr's Center for Action and Contemplation, Joseph worked with the women and children of the Centro Santa Catalina in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Joseph holds Masters degrees from the Eastman School of Music in both voice and conducting, as well as the Performer's Certificate in voice. His original music compositions are published by earthsongs.

In 2011, Joseph received the Doctor of Ministry in Spiritual Direction from the Graduate Theological Foundation in South Bend, Indiana and was awarded the Charles Wesley Prize in Sacred Music and Liturgy for his work with Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Morning Prayer, a contemplative worship liturgy taken from the posthumously published Letters and Papers from Prison, written while Bonhoeffer was incarcerated under the Nazi regime during WWII for participating in the resistance movement against Hitler.

Joseph is co-facilitator of the Center for Mission and Ministry's Spiritual Direction Practicum in DeWitt, MI, and is the animator of The School for Contemplatives in Action in Holland, MI, partnering with those interested in learning, and living, the riches of the inner life.

Since 1998, Joseph has served as Director of Celebration Ministries at Zion Lutheran Church in Holland, MI where he founded and built the Upper Room Theatre, a black-box performance venue dedicated to helping raise support and awareness for the work of Shakespeare Behind Bars/Michigan. He is chaplain for the Order of Lutheran Franciscans, a religious community of vowed Lutheran brothers and sisters committed to living in the simple ways of Francis of Assisi.

Since 2009, Joseph has worked with the Hope Summer Repertory Theatre as a member of the Acting Company, as Music Director for the Children's Performance Troupe, and as the theatre's Assistant Music Director.

Donna Lawrence-Downs, Costume Designer

Donna joined the SBB team in 2010. She designed costumes for The Winter's Tale and is designing costumes for the upcoming SBB production of The Merchant of Venice.

Donna has been part of the Louisville Theatre family for 18 years. She was costume shop manager, draper and resident designer for 18 seasons. She has also been costume shop manager and resident designer for Music Theatre Louisville for 15 seasons. She has been lucky enough to work with many theatres in town, including Pandora Productions, Centre Stage, Walden  Theatre, Louisville Ballet, Kentucky Opera, Assumption High School, Bunbury, Actor’s Theatre and Derby Dinner Theatre. This past spring, Donna had the wonderful experience of designing Shakespeare Behind Bar’s The Winter’s Tale.

Included among the over 280 shows that Donna has designed  are: Alice in Wonderland, Sideways Stories from Wayside School, The Jackie Robinson Story, The Diary of Anne Frank, A Year With Frog And Toad, Jesus Christ Superstar, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Hello  Dolly, Schoolhouse Rocks Live, Oedipus Rex, Take Me Out, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, Cabaret, The Full Monty and The Secret Garden. Donna’s designs for The Great Gilly Hopkins were seen on the Broadway stage at  the New Victory Theatre. Donna has also had the chance to work with award-winning costume designers Jane Greenwood, Martin Pakladinez, Marie Ann Chimet and Andre Barber as a draper for Opera Theatre St. Louis. Donna has also designed and built several local school mascots and done several commercials  for Kentucky Lottery and Caesar’s (now Horseshoe) Casino.

Donna has  recently opened her own costume shop and is a professional baker for local outlets in Louisville.