Samantha blain
co-artistic director
Samantha is a Cuban multi-disciplinary artist. She has performed Off-Broadway, regionally, on National Tours, in numerous Broadway workshops, and TV/film. A few performance highlights include Ars Nova, New York City Center, York Theater Company, Drama League, BAM, New Victory Theater, NYC Children’s Theater, American Dance Machine, La Mama ETC., Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey, Theatreworks, and helped launch the Spanish adaptation premiere of "Red Riding Hood: The Musical" with Missoula Children's Theatre. Sam is Co-Artistic Director of Hit The Lights! Theater Co. based in NYC which was a Company in Residence at Ars Nova, nominated for an Off-Broadway Alliance Award in 2020 for their show at New York City Children’s Theater, and collaborated with Vogue Magazine for their 2020 March Cover Spread. She is part of the POC led Writers Room at Bay Area Children’s Theater where she recently co-created and published a children’s book "A Pocket Guide for Imaginary Friends". Samantha is an alum of Emerson College BFA Musical Theater Program and Atlantic Acting School (special merit award recipient). She is currently a sitting board member for the arts organization Broadway Bound Kids. Offstage she is a teaching artist, director, and mentor in NYC for several arts organizations and fellowships.
Claron Hayden
co-artistic director
Claron is an actor, composer, musician, writer, and producer. He has performed Off-Broadway, regionally, internationally at the Edinburgh Fringe, and NYC music venues such as The Bowery Ballroom, Pianos, and Rockwood Music Hall. Claron has been composing and creating with Hit The Lights! for over a decade with highlights include Ars Nova, NYC Children’s Theater, La Mama, Little Island, New Ohio, Dixon Place, and Gimlet Media. Claron is also the co-founder of 9th Path Productions, an independent record label and production company he built with Matt Wills. He has released a full length album and an EP under his own name and is the front man for his latest band, K!NG $LUT. He is currently working on his first novel Taking Off The Touch and is in a pre-production research frenzy for HTL!’s next original show, SUNK.
Casey scott leach
co-artistic director
A multi-disciplinary performing artist and teacher. He studied acting at Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music (CCM) Drama, and did intensive studies in performance and devised theater with SITI Company and Theater Mitu. Casey was the Company Manager for Artistic Abandon NYC, where he co-wrote, co-produced, and performed in their dance-theater hybrid the Blue Jar. Casey co-created the band Go Home, and co-created and produced the online comic Soft Reset from 2010-2015. He studied at Columbus Conservatory of Art and Design (CCAD) and is delighted by placing non-theater forms and ideas in theatrical contexts, as well as overhead projector puppetry, stage combat, and short-form animation.
mikayla stanley
co-artistic director
MIKAYLA STANLEY recently graduated from the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale with an MFA in Theater Management, where she was honored with the George C. Wolfe Award for Excellence in Theater Management. While at DGSD, she served as the Associate Managing Director of Yale Repertory Theatre, Executive Artistic Director of People + Culture at the Yale Summer Cabaret, a Yale President’s Public Service Fellow, and Associate Development Director of YRT. Before Yale, Mikayla founded Hit The Lights!, an award-winning multi-media theater company based in New York City. With HTL!, she collaborated with organizations such as Ars Nova (company-in-residence), the New Ohio Theatre, the New York Botanical Garden, Gimlet Media, and the New Victory Theater. Their work has even been featured on the cover of Vogue magazine.
Mikayla is also a dedicated arts educator, having taught at Yale, CCM, NYU, and Williams College. She spent a decade in retail leadership with lululemon, where she served as a training specialist, new store opening manager, and led the global flagship location in New York City. She earned her BFA in Dramatic Performance, magna cum laude, from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she also received the 2022 Julie Winter Cohen Career Excellence Award.
ROMAN SANCHEZ
ASSOCIATE COMPANY MEMBER
ROMAN SANCHEZ is a producer, director, and educator. Favorite directing credits include The Grown-Ups (Sunstone Theatre), Dance Nation, Hot & Cold Showers: An Evening of Grand Guignol (Yale Cabaret), Yet Another Non-Profit Christmas Carol (Longshadr Productions),Transitions (Linfield University), Radioman (Dell’Arte), Extreme Home Makeover (Teatro Espejo), Prodigal Son (Redwood Curtain Theatre), Every Brilliant Thing (Creative Type Productions), Gruesome Playground Injuries, Doubt: A Parable (Lime Arts Productions). Film: “CCC: Conflicted Cuties of Color” (Independent, 2025). Awards: Princess Grace Honoraria, SDC Abe Burrows Award, Yale’s Dexter Wood Luke Prize, Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival National Arts Impact Award, Herb Alpert Emerging Young Artist Award. MFA, David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. SDC Associate Member. @romansanchez001
MATT WILLS
ASSOCIATE COMPANY MEMBER
MATT WILLS began his directing career at the age of 16 while working with Theatre Workshop of Owensboro in Kentucky. He then attended Webster University where he graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Directing. After graduating, Matt moved to Chicago where he co-founded the company (re)discover theatre and acted as Co-Artistic Director from 2012-2017. During that time he directed and sound designed multiple productions. Productions he has directed include: The Tragedie of Hamlet: Prince of Denmarke, Chicago Reader Recommended An Evening of Beckett: Play-Not I-What Where, As You Like It, Fifty Shades of Shakespeare, The Wonderful World of Dissocia, For One: A Series of Plays Built for an Audience of One, and the immersive adaptation of Romeo and Juliet meets Tristan and Iseult - Farewell My Friend. After moving to NYC, Matt began working with Hit The Lights! He has been an Associate Company Member with HTL! since 2018 acting as a sound designer, lighting designer, and a pair of outside eyes with opinions. Productions with HTL! include: Horsetale, Whales, and Isla. In addition to theatre, Matt is also a musician and music producer. He runs his DIY company, 9th Path Productions, alongside his long time collaborator Claron Hayden. Check out his band K!NG $LUT who just released an EP on Bandcamp entitled Yankee Crank.