AMWS Board
Sarah Griswold, Board President
is a consultant for small and mid-sized history museums, historical societies, libraries with historical collections, and other non-profit organizations. She works primarily in board development and strategic planning. In addition, she works with organizations and organizational communities in developing their capabilities through improving communications and structure. She has worked as museum curator, historic house executive director, researcher and program manager. She has led workshops in aspects of museum exhibits and management. She has led visioning, planning, and governance workshops. She has served as a mentor to nine organizations as part of the Steps-CT programs and has been a peer reviewer and advisor for both the Museum Assessment Program and Connecticut Peer Advisor Network (PAN). She currently serves on the boards of the Arthur Miller Writing Studio, The Institute for American Indian Studies, and the Freeman Center for History and Community.
Stephen Marino
is the founding editor of The Arthur Miller Journal and past president of the Arthur Miller Society. He taught at St. Francis College in Brooklyn. He is the author of A Language Study of Arthur Miller’s Plays: The Poetic in the Colloquial and Essential Criticism, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and The Crucible. His essay collections include Arthur Miller’s Century, Essays Celebrating the 100th Birthday ofAmerica’s Great Playwright (2017) and Arthur Miller for the Twenty-First Century, Contemporary Views of His Writings and Ideas (2020). His most recent work is the Methuen Student Edition of Miller’s A Memory of Two Mondays (2022). He has completed the manuscript for his upcoming book, Arthur Miller's New York: The Playwright's Vision of the City.
Julia Bolus
is director of the Arthur Miller Trust and worked as Arthur’s literary assistant for a decade. She helped prepare his archive now housed at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas. She also helped photographer Inge Morath with her book and exhibit projects and continues to work closely with the Inge Morath Estate. She directed the international Kent School Summer Writers Camp for a dozen years and worked for many years as a visiting poets and writer in public schools. She studied painting with Barkley Hendricks and writing with Honor Moore.
Daniel Bresnihan
was raised in Lexington, MA. He served on the Board of Directors of the Mattatuck Museum. After a career in visual merchandising for Filene’s and Gap, Inc., he is now retired in Washington, CT.
Marc Olivieri
is a master carpenter, mason, builder, construction manager, and has been responsible for major historic, residential, archeological and industrial restoration projects in Germany, Italy and the United States. A long time Roxbury resident and member of the board of directors at the Roxbury Land Trust, he is construction manager in Connecticut for the Calder Foundation. Marc’s relationship with the Studio and Arthur dates from 1981.
Christopher Yelding
grew up in Roxbury. He graduated from Babson College with an BS in Business Analytics. He served on the Executive Committee of the Mattatuck Museum, and is retired from a family-owned printing company, residing in Washington, CT.
Sana Manzoor
is the Estate Representative of the Magnum Photos photographer Inge Morath and manages the yearly Inge Morath Award Grant at Magnum Foundation. Beginning her work with the Estate in 2010, she supported the acquisition of Inge’s Photographs and Papers to the permanent collection at Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. Sana also manages archives for various artist estates and studios, including special projects. She is a graduate of the Documentary Photography and Photojournalism program at the International Center of Photography. Outside of work, she volunteers with organizations focused on environment, sustainability, health and deeply cares about animal welfare. Born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan; she now lives and works in New York.
Dayve Verstanding
was a lecturer in English and Creative Writing at the University of Connecticut. She retired in June 2020 after 25 years, where she was the Director of The Litchfield County Writers Project (archived at the Dodd Center, Storrs). She gives writing workshops at Wisdom House Retreat Center in Litchfield, CT and Camp Washington Episcopal Retreat Center in Morris, CT. She is Poet Laureate Emerita of Washington and has performed her work throughout New England and New York. She is a Justice of the Peace as well as a writing consultant. Her work is included in the following anthologies: Sex and Sexuality if a Feminist World, Laureates of Connecticut: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, and Waking Up to the Earth: Connecticut Poets in a Time of Global Climate Crisis.
Marc Olivieri, Committee Head
Peter Talbot, AIA
Peter Talbot AIA Architects is an award-winning general practice of Architecture based in Washington CT specializing in residential, commercial and institutional projects including planning, historic preservation, restoration and renovation, new construction, and environmentally sustainable architecture and planning. A graduate of the Architectural Association in London & Pratt Institute, Peter Talbot worked for architects John Johansen, Ben Baxt & James Stewart Polshek prior to starting his own firm in 1989 in NYC and CT. The Firm has won awards from the New York City Landmark’s Preservation Commission, NYS AIA Excellence in Design Award, Historical Commission- Metropolitan, Nashville, TN and served as a commissioner on the Historic District in Washington, CT for over 17 years. Mr. Talbot was President of the Washington Art Association which was co-founded by his father, sculptor Bill Talbot, and served on many boards & local committees benefiting the community.
AMWS Site Committee
A member of the American Institute of Architects, Mr. Talbot is a licensed architect in NY, CT, MA, TN and is NCARB certified. The Firm has been recognized by The New York Times, Architectural Digest and others.
The Talbot family, all artists, were life-long friends of the Millers, living within the unique enclave of a myriad of talented writers and artists, many of whom migrated from New York to this rural community. As a child, Peter worked for Inge and Arthur on Tophet Road as a gardener and carpenter, later as an architectural consultant. The two family’s mutual interests in writing, art, photography, architecture, politics and nature created lifelong bonds.
Joseph Matto, AIA
is an award-winning architect and designer, having designed over 400 custom homes and buildings throughout New England since 1979. Before entering architecture school in 1986, Joe received design awards from HUD/DOE and the State of Connecticut for his innovative work in solar home design and energy efficient housing. He began his architectural studies at RISD and graduated from Pratt Institute while also managing a small architectural office in New Canaan. He also holds degrees in Industrial Design and Interior Design from the University of Bridgeport where he taught courses related to architecture and design science. He has received awards from the American Institute of Architects for design excellence. At his core, Joe is an Intuitive Artist,
Designer and Form Giver, with a strong interest in beautiful design, building/site integration and solar design. He currently lives in the Litchfield Hills while continuing to design homes mostly in Fairfield & Litchfield Counties.
Sarah Griswold, Committee Head
Kimiye Corwin
is an actor/choreographer/movement coach/teaching artist. She earned her BFA in dance at The Juilliard School and danced with the Jose Limon Dance Company for a few years before she earned her MFA in acting at Brown/Trinity and began her acting career. In addition to her dance, theater, film and tv experiences, Kimiye is forever exploring and expanding her skill sets (yoga, Pilates, Lucid Body, mask work, intimacy and consent practices for theater) and bringing them in to her collaborations and work with professional artists and students. Kimiye is a member of the National Alliance of Acting Teachers and is on faculty at Stella Adler Center for the Arts in New York City. She resides in Roxbury, Connecticut with her husband and two daughters.
Marla Truini
moved to Roxbury, CT and began teaching theatre after a career as an actor, singer and songwriter in New York. A member of SAG and Actor’s Equity, she studied acting with Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagen and voice with Patsy Rodenburg. With Lenka Peterson, she co-founded the Young Angels Theatre at Seven Angels Theatre in Waterbury, CT and has directed and taught workshops across the US. She was the recipient of the ASAP Frank McCourt Prize for Excellence in Teaching and was the Director of Drama at Westover School in Middlebury, CT for twenty-five years. She holds a Masters of Theatre in Production and Design from Southern Oregon University, is a PhD candidate in Transformative Studies at California Institute of Integral Studies studying empathy through the lens of theatre.
Julia Bolus
Dayve Verstanding
Shennen Flannery
Programming Committee
is a veteran educator and children's author from New Hartford, CT. As an Arthur Miller advocate in public education for nearly 20 years, she initially became an admirer after reading The Crucible during her early working years in Woodbury, noting the proximity to the amazing man himself and relishing in the chance encounter as she worked away behind a bakery counter. Upon arrival to a teaching career, Death of a Salesman stood as the signature play of her American Literature classroom, transforming students who united over the common threads of humanity and empathy, thanks to Miller's authentic language and heart.
Jessica Durdock Moreno
is on staff at Long Wharf Theatre, where she is a member of the Artistic Team. She is the Artistic Director of The Sherman Players in Fairfield County. She formed Pale Horse Craft, a Neurodiversity and Learning Disability centered theater company in 2019. A Neurodiversity Consultant, Jessica collaborated with director Chay Yew on New York City Center's Encores! production of "The Light in the Piazza" in 2023. An award-winning and published playwright, Jessica has developed, workshopped, and premiered her plays with the Chain Theatre, the Workshop Theater, the Road Theatre Company, Echo Theater Company, TEDx Asbury Park, Full Circle Theatre Collaborative, and the Boston Theater Marathon. She was a Theater Masters Take Ten 2020 Festival finalist, a semifinalist for the Athena Project’s 2020 Plays in Progress Series, and a 2023 Dramatists Guild Foundation National Fellowship semifinalist. She began her writing training at Los Angeles City College, where she won the 2019 Cinema and Television Department’s Best Screenplay Award, and she received her MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU Tisch where she won the John Golden Playwriting Prize awarded by the faculty. BA Columbia University
Christopher Bigsby
Cashel Day-Lewis
Ronan Day-Lewis
Jessica Hecht
Patrick Herold
Dustin Hoffman
Kate Miller
AMWS Honorary Board
Rebecca Miller
Honor Moore
Robert Moses
Wendell Pierce
Michael Rohatyn
Cindy Tolan