Staff

Director of the William Inge Center for the Arts

DEE BYRD-MOLNAR is the William Inge Center for the Arts program director as well as the Independence Community College Fine Arts programming manager. Though a native of the Midwest, Dee Byrd-Molnar lived and worked as a theatre artist in New York for 23 years. She has dedicated her work as a theatre producer, director, and performer in the development of new, classical, and contemporary plays over the past thirty years to making theatre and art available to everyone. Dee was the Co-Founder and Producing Artistic Director of South Brooklyn Shakespeare, a 501(c)(3) company. The company brought free Shakespeare to the streets and parks of Brooklyn for 6 seasons. They spearheaded an outreach program of Shakespeare in Schools- The program was developed for the purpose of taking Shakespeare into neighborhood schools in Brooklyn. The pilot program was at Sunset Park Prep, where they worked with 180 students for three months on text, movement, design, acting, and voice. The culmination was 3 fully designed and realized productions of Macbeth performed by the students for the school, teachers, and parents. Dee has been a successful business owner in New York, a manager at a multi-million dollar company and a Montessori Teacher. Dee joined the William Inge Center in 2020 as a coordinator for the William Inge Theatre Festival. From 2020-22, Dee was a coordinator and liaison to the Playwrights in Residence in Independence, Kansas. In 2022, she was the events manager for the William Inge Theatre Festival. Dee’s education and training includes a BA from the University of Houston where she worked as a performer in new play development with Mr. Edward Albee; A certified Montessori Teacher where she trained in the love of learning and the support of the creator. Dee is an advocate for the artist, a producer, and an artist.

If you would like more information about the William Inge Center for the Arts at Independence Community College, please visit www.ingecenter.org or contact: Inge Center Director, Dee Byrd-Molnar at dmolnar@indycc.edu

Technical Director, William Inge Theatre

JOEL WILLIAMS, a native of Kansas, has spent the last 7 years in Atlanta, GA as the Technical Director, and Instructor of Technical Theatre at Woodward Academy. Prior to that, Joel served as the Technical Director, Instructor, and Theatrical Designer at Ottawa University in Ottawa, KS. Joel’s specialties are in scenic design and construction, and Sound design and mixing. He has worked professionally as a Technical Director, Scenic, Sound, Projection, or Lighting Designer with Aris’ theatre in Atlanta, Central Missouri Repertory in Warrensburg, Imago Dei in Kansas City, and The Helen Hocker theatre in Topeka.  Among his favorite productions are Desdemona; a play about a handkerchief, Les Misérables, Radium Girls, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Playing for Time, Into The Woods, and Chicago. Joel holds a bachelor’s degree in Theatre from Ottawa University, and a Master of Theatre Studies from Southern Oregon University.