Our Ensemble

We are a cohort of seasoned, professional theatre-makers and teaching artists with decades of experience working in schools, communities, and leading theatres across the country.

  • Craig Maravich is a theatre-maker, actor, and teaching artist living in Bristol, Vermont with his wife and two daughters. As a teaching artist and theatre-maker, Craig is interested in bringing theatre into non-arts spaces and exploring the transformation that can happen in communities when we ignite creativity in the most unlikely of spaces. His work has taken him across the globe designing workshops and theatre pieces for schools, youth, teachers and cultural organizations of all kinds. As a professional actor and director, his career spans 25 years working with leading theatre across the US and has been a member of the Bread Loaf Acting Ensemble since 2010. 

    Craig is the Founding Program Director ofBeyond the Page (BtP) at Middlebury College. BtP uses the tools of theatre to create new pathways for learning, teaching, and civic engagement across Middlebury College undergraduate academic departments, programs, and the The Bread Loaf Teacher Network. Since 2010, Craig has also held various faculty appointments at Middlebury College with The Theatre Department, The Bread Loaf School of English, and The Department of Music. Outside of Middlebury, he has held teaching appointments with The University of Vermont, St. Michael’s College, Hofstra University, and The Academy for Visual and Performing Arts.

    In Vermont, Craig’s work includes the development of several classes and community initiatives with The Flynn Center for the Arts, The Town Hall Theater, and The Community Engagement Lab, and Courageous Stage.  Craig is a recipient of a Vermont Thriving Communities Grant; The 2021 A. Bartlett Giamatti Award for Professional Development: Bringing creative practices into Bread Loaf and Middlebury classrooms and, through that work, cultivating inclusive learning and teaching environments.

    Craig is passionate and forever curious to keep exploring how theatre and the arts can shape change in communities, transform the way we learn, and bring collective and individual joy.

Craig Maravich

  • Haley Dyana Schwartz is a New York–based actor, playwright, and educator raised by two self-proclaimed Northern California hippies. As an actor in theater and film, she has worked with artists and companies including Ruth Hendel, Lisa Peterson, New Georges, Clubbed Thumb, Curry Barker, Trinity Rep, The Bread Loaf Acting Ensemble, and Celebration Theatre, and has appeared in national and regional commercial campaigns.

    As a playwright, Haley writes plays centered on women and queer people in mythology. Her newest play, DEAD THINGS, premiered in New York City in October 2025. Her solo show BINDINGS received both the Popular Choice and Curator Awards at Irondale’s OnWomen Festival, and her play MOONBOX was selected for a produced reading at Brown University, earning her the David Wickham Prize for Excellence in Playwriting.

    Haley has worked as a teaching artist and artistic leader with the Beyond the Page program at Middlebury College and the Beyond Ensemble since 2020, partnering with schools to facilitate workshop engagements in New York, California, Vermont, New Mexico, and now Singapore! She is a published poet and tours on vocals and keys with folk musician Olive Klug. Haley holds an MFA in Acting from Brown University, where she received the Antonio Cirino Memorial Scholarship and a Shubert Foundation Award. She joyfully spins many plates.

Haley Schwartz

  • Madison “Mads” Middleton (they/them) is a non-binary theatre-maker, musician, and teaching artist based in New York City. At the core of Madison’s work is a profound interest in ecological philosophy, queerness, generational healing, and stories that explore the cyclical nature of time in playful, transcendent ways. As a teaching artist, Madison’s passions lie in how art can intertwine with justice, community building, whimsy, and envisioning utopian presents and futures. 

    Madison is the Associate Director at Beyond the Page (BtP), a Middlebury College-affiliated program that brings theatre practices into classrooms and communities. Mads is particularly proud of the BtP Undergraduate Teaching Artistry Fellowship, which they developed with Craig Maravich. They have served as an adjunct faculty and staff member for the Middlebury College Theatre and Music Departments. In 2024, they developed and taught a new Middlebury College music course, “Investigating Musical Theatre.” Madison is an intermittent member of the Bread Loaf School of English Acting Ensemble and served as the BLSE Theatre Manager in 2023. 

    In NYC, Madison co-founded and runs The Playground Collective, an intentional community of creative people who come together and explore their artistic curiosities. They work with companies and programs throughout the city, such as The Dogteam Theatre Project, The Verbatim Salon, and The New American Ensemble. They sing with renowned NYC choir, Choral Chameleon. Madison holds a BA in Theatre and Music from Middlebury College, where they graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Class Valedictorian. To learn more about their work, visit madsmiddleton.com.

Madison Middleton

  • Shelley Fort is an actor, writer, and producer. She was born in Wilmington, North Carolina and was raised in Connecticut and Nebraska. Her work has been seen in New York and regionally at theaters including: La MaMa Experimental Theater, The Bushwick Starr, The National Black Theater; Quick Silver Theater Co; The Fire This Time Festival, The Classical Theatre of Harlem, The Langston Hughes Playwright Showcase, Trinity Rep, Chester Theater, and more. She’s trained in St. Petersburg, Russia (Theater Arts Academy), Oxford (British American Drama Academy), and Connecticut (National Theater Institute). She has a BA from Kenyon College and an MFA from Brown University. Shelley’s dad, Charles Fort, attended the Bread Loaf Writers Conference years ago. She’s thrilled to bring it full circle as a member of the Bread Loaf Acting Ensemble and as a teaching artist with the Beyond Ensemble!

Shelley Fort

  • Jihan Haddad Jihan Haddad is an actor, theatre maker, and educator based in NYC. She has worked professionally as an actor at Trinity Repertory Company, The American Shakespeare Center, Woolly Mammoth, The Huntington, and other theaters around the country. Her teaching credits include working at Providence College, Johnson & Wales University, Trinity Rep, the National Criminal Defense Conference, and the Bread Loaf School of English. When she's not teaching or acting, Jihan can be hiking and camping with her dog Maverick or voraciously updating her Letterboxd . She holds a BA in Theatre and French and Francophone Studies from Willamette University and an MFA from the Brown University/Trinity Rep Acting Program.

Jihan Haddad

  • Ryan Kirby is a Texas-born director and educator newly establishing roots in the New York theatrical landscape. Ryan was a 2022 graduate of Middlebury College where he was also a Teaching Artist Fellow with Beyond the Page.  Ryan’s work is informed by a decade of teaching experience spanning high schools, workshops, summer camps, and most recently, the Boys & Girls Club of Metro Queens. When not in the rehearsal room, Ryan is a fitness coach and an avid enthusiast of legendary diva vocals. 

Ryan Kirby

  • Peyton Mader is an actor, writer, and producer based in Brooklyn. She was born in Seattle and holds a BA in German from Middlebury College, where she was also a Teaching Artist Fellow with Beyond the Page. As an actor, she has worked with off-Broadway companies including Clubbed Thumb and the Dogteam Theater Project, and regionally with Middlebury Acting Company. Peyton is currently the Director of Operations for New American Ensemble, an ensemble theater company located in NYC. As a teaching artist, she has worked with Vermont-based organizations such as Courageous Stage and Town Hall Theater. This spring, Peyton will be recording her first audiobook with Macmillan Audio.

Peyton Mader

Louis McWilliams

  • Matt E. Russell is a New York City-based actor and teaching artist. He has worked at The Public Theater, Roundabout, The Shed, Trinity Rep, Shakespeare Theatre Co., Studio Theatre, Northern Stage, and on Broadway. He has performed with Elevator Repair Service and the Bread Loaf Acting Ensemble. His TV and film work includes "Westworld," "FBI: Most Wanted," Working Man, and Some Freaks. He has taught acting, directing, and video editing at the Brown/Trinity Rep MFA program, NYU/Atlantic Conservatory, and Brown University. He holds an MFA in Acting from Brown/Trinity Rep and a BA from Vanderbilt University.

Matt Russell