Artistic Engineers: Our Artistic Staff

Megan Donovan, Artistic Director
Megan Donovan received her BA from Fairleigh Dickinson University. Since then she has been training at the Actor’s Playground in Eatontown, NJ and at the HB Studios in NYC. For just as long Megan has acted in countless theatrical and film productions in NYC and NJ. Some of her favorite credits include Perdita in A Winter’s Tale, Samantha and Mrs. Plumm in Uncommon Women, Gloria in Wait Until Dark, and Katurian in The Pillowman. She is currently studying stage combat from Swordplay, Combat Inc. and various other combat schools.

For the past six years Megan has been teaching at the Actor’s Playground educating students in anything from improv, scene study, and beginning to advanced acting techniques, as well as the Assistant Artistic Director there. She is also an educator at the Count Basie Cool School, teaching Acting on Film classes and Theatrical acting. The Algonquin Arts Theater and Dance Theatre Project are two other schools you can find Megan in. She is also an artist-educator for Youth Stages in Princeton, NJ. As a founding member of the New Mystics Theatre Company, she took over as the Managing Director of the NJ company in 2007, as well as continuing to act. When Playground Theatre Project was formed in 2011, Megan was named Artistic Direcotr. She is also a member of the Local Artist Network at Two River Theatre Company, an equity theatre in Red Bank, NJ.

Ralph Colombino, Company Director
Ralph Colombino has been a performer and educator for the past twenty four years. He received a BFA degree from Mason Gross School of the Arts Professional Actor Training Program at Rutgers University. He has studied acting with some of the theatre’s most renowned teachers, including; Pierre LeFevre, Victoria Hart, William Esper, Maggie Flanigan, Edward Stern, Harold Scott, Lloyd Williamson, Mai Loughran, Peter Nels, and Joseph Hart. Mr. Colombino has performed in nearly forty professional productions. Most notably, Ralph was in the award-winning Shoestring Players 1989 company which began its American tour at The State Theater in New Brunswick NJ and ended it five months later at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. Ralph’s main contribution to theater has been teaching the craft of acting to young people. His classes are designed to continuously challenge the young artist, to instill confidence as a performer, and to give his students the most advanced training for young people anywhere. Some of his teaching credits include; Actor’s Heritage in NYC, The Children’s Cultural Center in Red Bank NJ, Hoboken High School in NJ, Dance Theater Project in Spring Lake NJ, The Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank NJ, Fairleigh Dickinson University and presently, New Jersey Arts and Education Center, and Monmouth University where, as an adjunct professor, Ralph teaches acting, theater appreciation, and directs mainstage shows.Mr. Colombino is also the lead singer and guitarist in the Remnants, an alternative rock outfit > that was established in 1990. They have played to sold out crowds at nearly every major rock venue in the Tri-State Area. The Remnants have also received airplay on Q104.3 in NYC, WHTG 106.3 in NJ and countless college radio stations.

Mr. Colombino’s students have been accepted to the most prestigious and elite universities for theatre that exist, some of which include: The TISCH School at New York University, Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, Harvard, Northwestern, Emerson College, Brown University Catholic University, and USC. Mr. Colombino’s students’ professional credits include, Broadway; The Lion King (Young Simba). Feature Films; Doubt, Donnie Brasco, The Wrestler, Cop Out, Brooklyn’s Finest, Wanderlust, and School of Rock. Television; The Late Show with David Letterman, Saturday Night Live, The Sopranos, Law & Order, The Today Show, Sesame Street, MTV specials, Blues Clues, The Naked Brothers, Nickelodeon programming, Mercy, Man V Food, Life On Mars, As The World Turns, and countless national commercials.

Dan Cooley, Producing Director
Dan Cooley is a director and actor based out of New Jersey. A graduate of The Actors Playground School of Theatre; Dan has studied various forms of acting technique and directing extensively with Ralph Colombino and Joey Madia.

The majority of Dan’s work has come in the form of social issue theater. For 6 years, he served as the Resident Director of New Mystics Theatre Company North; responsible for directing and touring all shows. Subject matter for these shows ranged from drug abuse and domestic violence to civil rights. Dan was also the Asst. Director of the premiere touring cast of "Bang Bang You’re Dead", a piece that tackled the sensitive topics of school shootings and suicide. Theses shows have reached hundreds of schools and thousands of children.

Dan teaches acting and directing at Actors Playground School of Theatre in Freehold, NJ. He is also a teaching artist at the Count Basie theater, Algonquin theater, Ranney school, and Arts Middle School of Monmouth County.

Becky Ellis, Literary Manager
Becky Ellis is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in Dramatic Writing. She has had readings of full-length plays "Son of Judas", "Dizzy" and "Father, Hear My Prayer" and several shorter works at NYU, in Ireland, in West Virginia, at the Cherry Lane Theatre, and at the Center Theater in Norristown, PA where she teaches playwriting. She also teaches playwriting at Actors Playground School of Theatre in Freehold, NJ. Her short play "Thrown" was produced by the 2008 Pittsburgh New Works Festival. "Dizzy" was a finalist for the 2010 Woodward Newman Drama Award. Along with her consistent involvement in theater, she is a PA Certified English Teacher and is currently on the staff of Chester Community Charter School in Chester, PA.