Meet the Company
Playback Theatre West is fortunate to have some of the best creative minds come together to form this dynamic and amazing company of performers:
Ed Cord has been a member of Playback Theatre West since 2006. He is also an Artistic Company Member at Curious Theatre Company where performances include O Li Room/Man From State in In the Red and Brown Water, Virgil in The Dead Guy and Stuart in For Better both world premieres by Eric Coble. Other roles include Father/ Ensemble in Failure a love story for Catamounts Theatre, Chivington/Ensemble in Rocks Karma Arrows for Motus Theatre, as well as productions for Aurora Fox, The Lida Project, and Paragon. Ed received his MFA in Theatre from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro and his BS in Theatre from Radford University.
Dee Covington comes to Playback Theatre West through her love for acting and her belief that theatre can be a powerful tool for positive change. An award-winning actress and trained therapist she possesses a wide range of skills vital to the creative process. She has been nationally recognized for her theatre work with teens and currently serves as the Education Director for Curious Theatre Company, where she is a founding company member, actress and director. She studied Theatre at Stephens College in Columbia, MO and Somatic Psychology at Naropa University in Boulder, CO.
Sam Elmore lives in Boulder, CO where he balances his pursuits as a performer, coach, consultant, and outdoor enthusiast. He has been involved in all aspects of theatre and is a seasoned director, producer, choreographer and performer. For the last 3 years Sam has been acting in a touring a production of 52 Pick-Up by TJ Dawes. In addition he has recently entered the world of film acting with roles in Busker’s Bounty (Buskerfly Productions), and Yellowbrickroad (Points North Films). To learn more about Sam you may visit www.onthebrinc.com.
Kevin Gray has loved performing with Playback Theater West, for him playback offers a deep creative connection that allows us to experience all aspects of our human condition… love and sorrow, laughter and pain, joy and… so much more. Kevin’s love for performing is balanced by his love for his wife Tricia, his two children, Mallory and Kai, and also his passion for his work as a corporate facilitator with Verus Global, a leadership development company. Kevin is passionate about equipping leaders with the tools to build and develop an engaged workforce in order to more effectively achieve their strategic goals. Kevin founded Playback Theater West in 1988 and holds a Masters in Acting from New York University.
Kirsten Wilson was the founder and artistic director of the Santa Fe-based, choreographed theater company, Friendly Fire. She taught performance monologue classes at the College of Santa Fe and Playback Theater through Bard College in New York. She teaches Letting the Body Speak, a personal writing and performance experience for adults. She is currently completing her MFA in Contemporary Performance at Naropa University. She jumped in with Playback Theatre West in 2005.
Brenton Zola uses the power of story to cultivate humanity. He is a first-generation writer, thinker and performance artist. Informed by an travel to nearly 70 nations, his writing and creative work blends narrative, philosophy and history to examine how we build ethical societies. His professional journey began at a meditation and martial arts school in Asia, which led to work disenfranchised populations in the region. Since then, Brenton has worked with the disenfranchised everywhere from the slums of Kenya to the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Brenton was an inaugural LinkedIn Creator Accelerator Member, an inaugural Playwright Fellow at Denver Center for the Performing Arts and an inaugural Fellow in the Lighthouse Writers’ Workshop Writing-in-Color retreat. His poem “Multiplicity” is one of the official poems of the City of Denver and his work has appeared in Newsweek, American Theater, LA Times, INC, PBS, Prism and NPR member-station WBUR Boston, among others. He also performed at UN Environmental Assembly, where the body passed “the most important resolution since the Paris climate accord.”
Deb Witzel acquired her BA in Dance and Theatre and her MA in Non-profit Management. She joined PTW in 1991 after touring with a couple national tours including the Chinese Acrobats of Taiwan (not as an acrobat). She has done all the things there is to do in theatre, on stage and off. She landed on improv for the longterm relationship because living in the moment, working as an ensemble and hearing people’s stories are three of her greatest loves. Deb also serves humanity through her work in restorative justice practices where those three loves also come into play. As a trainer, consultant, practitioner, public speaker and performer, her purpose is to bring people together and hold a safe container for connection, truth-telling and growth.
