BoxFest Detroit is an annual festival to support women-identifying directors, run by alumna of the festival! Read more about our passionate and talented team.
Amanda Grace Ewing
Artistic Director
Amanda is a multidisciplinary theatre artist who’s goal is to create productions that serve as a catalyst for social change, both in and outside of the rehearsal and production. Amanda is also an Intimacy Choreographer, collaborating with directors and performers to create repeatable, specific, affirming, and consent based intimacy. In addition, Amanda is the Director of the University of Michigan’s Educational Theatre Company where she produces, directs, and programs the company’s academic and summer performances. She is also a core ensemble member of A Host of People, a Detroit-based ensemble theater company creating original work that celebrates complexity, imagination, and the synthesis of seemingly disparate elements – at once epic and intimate, political and personal, poetic and approachable. She has a Master of Arts from King’s College, London in Theatre & Performance Studies and a Bachelor of Arts from Alma College in Theatre and English. Amanda made her debut as an actor and directed for the first time through BoxFest Detroit festivals.
Kelly Rossi
Executive Director
Kelly has made an artistic career out of helping jump start other artists’ careers. She is a playwright that has seen considerable success in the metro Detroit area, and has also been the Executive Director of BoxFest Detroit, a festival that showcases and creates opportunities for local female identifying directors, since 2005. Through this festival, creating spaces for female directors and connecting them with other artists, she has been able to produce her own work and find her voice as a comedic playwright. Her focus is women, their dialogue, and their unique stories. Kelly is also the Y Arts Outreach Programs Director at the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit.
Molly McMahon
Producer
Molly is a theatre artist, producer, and social worker based in Detroit. As a theatre artist, she has worked professionally for over 15 years throughout southeastern Michigan. As a director, she has worked with Planet Ant Theatre, Magenta Giraffe Theatre Company, Matrix Theatre Company, Tipping Point Theatre, and BoxFest Detroit. As an actor, she has performed for young and adult audiences in more than 30 resident and touring productions with many theatre companies including Magenta Giraffe Theatre Company, Planet Ant Theatre, Abreact Performance Space, A Host of People, Elizabeth Theater, The Ringwald Theater, Breathe Art Theatre, and Wild Swan Theater. She was also a resident puppeteer for two and a half years with PuppetART Detroit Puppet Theater. She currently serves as a producer of BoxFest Detroit, and from 2010 until 2017, she served as the festival’s Artistic Director. In 2018, she graduated with her MSW degree from University of Michigan, and since then, she has served children and families throughout Wayne County as a therapist within a community mental health organization. She also consults with local theatre arts organizations on branding, communications, fundraising, program development, and program evaluation. She combines her social work lens with her knowledge of, and skills in, performing arts and nonprofit administration to help organizations increase their community impact to affect greater change.
Kennikki Jones-Jones
Producer
Kennikki is a multi-award winning theatre and film director. Born and raised in Detroit, she obtained her BFA in acting from Wayne State University and her MFA in Film from Florida State University. In 2014, she co-founded Dramatically Richer Productions, with whom she produced children’s theatre, an off-Broadway play, and published a book. Inspired by the many obstacles she has overcome as a teen mother, her experience and perseverance informs her art. Her recent short horror film, “Knock Knock” has been accepted into twenty film festivals and garnered eight awards. She uses urban horror as a means to examine psychic energy and generational curses that plague many inner city communities. Currently, she works many jobs, does many things but as a BoxFest Detroit Alum she is super stoked to be a part of the BoxFest Detroit team.
BoxFest Detroit 