Justin Wade has been the Executive Director of React since 2005, after years of creating alongside React's founder, Charlotte Kaufman. Justin started taking React (then known as Young Actors Theatre) classes in seventh grade when his family moved to Indianapolis in 1987. Justin says the most important part of his education was being Charlotte’s apprentice. Into early adulthood, Justin was an active poet, rapper, punk musician, and theatre practitioner, all while actively using heroin (read about Justin's story of overcoming addiction here). He is an anti-establishment artist interested in pushing boundaries and innovation, and brings this world to React through his pedagogy. Justin has spent over 20,000 hours in the classroom teaching and learning theatre education. Under Justin’s direction, React has increased its operating budget over 40 times, has grown from serving 60 to 1500 students annually, and has structurally evolved into our current model.

Justin’s favorite thing to do in his free time is walk the trails at Fort Ben (without technology) with his wife, React's Artistic Director, Georgeanna Smith Wade, and their four children.

Georgeanna (or Janna, as you'll often hear it) is React's Artistic Director. Over her 10-year career at React, she has had a huge impact in shaping the way we create theatre. She created and implemented The Court, a social-issues troupe that performed all over the state. She has been the Artistic Director since 2017, where she manages the day to day operations and artistic programming. A cum laude with high honors graduate of the Jordan College of the Arts at Butler University and the Phoenix Theatre’s Meisner Training Program, Janna's passion for unique theatre has been a guiding force on the company's mission and vision.

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She is the former Executive Artistic Director of the award-winning organization NoExit Performance, which NUVO has called “Indianapolis’ most adventurous theatre group.” When Georgeanna took the helm of NoExit, the company grew from two members to nine, increased the annual operating budget from $5,000 to $50,000, began producing full seasons, and boasted some of the most critically acclaimed of any performance group in Indianapolis. She is also a co-founder of Summit Performance Indianapolis, Indy’s first professional women focused theatre company. She recently became the Executive Director of NoExit and continues to work as a freelance actress and playwright throughout the city.

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She was named one of IndyStar's Top 15 to watch in 2015, as well as being named as on of 2013’s “Most Compelling Performance Artists” by The Examiner. She was a recipient of the Indiana Arts Commission’s Arts in the Park grant in 2016. She received numerous collegiate awards and studied in St. Petersburg, Russia, with internationally renowned director Alexander Anisimov. She was formerly a lead actor/interpreter at the Children's Museum. She has studied with Brian Bedford, Dan Kamin, Anne Bogart, Kristin Linklater, Joe Goode, and more. A former dancer, she has trained at the Academy of Dance Arts, the Jordan Academy of Dance, Gary Geis Dance Company, and Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre.

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Georgeanna has been seen onstage at the Children's Museum, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, NoExit, Q Artistry, Eclectic Pond, Defiance Comedy, SiteLines, Susurrus Dance, among others. She is a published author on the topic of creating museum programming for actors (IMTAL journal), as well as a featured presenter at the International Museum Theatre Alliance conference. An experienced director, Georgeanna’s work has been praised by critics citywide. She has previously worked with students at Pike High School, Fishers High School, Heritage Christian School, the Project School, Christel House Academy, and Herron High School. Georgeanna is also a certified Pilates instructor, a second-degree Black Belt in Taekwondo, a mother of four, and can do a one-handed cartwheel.

Ryan is React's Technical Director, and teaches classes at our Central State location. He's been part of the company since 2016 and balances his time between working with us, being the Artistic Director of Indy's "most adventurous theatre company" NoExit Performance, collaborating with a hefty handful of other local theatres, and trying his hand at urban homesteading. Believe us, anyone with the patience and drive to keep chickens within city limits is someone you want keeping the stages set and the rehearsals running.

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As a professional in site-specific theatre and the Bouffant style of clowning, Ryan is a maestro at creating wonder and humor– whether that's through his playwriting, through his award-winning lighting design, or through his teaching technique. If you're looking for a masterclass on how to get a group of students razzled-and-dazzled to create awesome theatre, or if you're interested in an informative tangent about earth science or the ice age, come find Ryan in a React rehearsal room.

As the recipient of a Midsouth Regional Student Production Award in her junior year of high school, Gara can technically put in all bios for the rest of her life that she is an Emmy-award winning writer. More to the point, she is React's Outreach Director. Over her nearly five years with React, Gara has extensive experience with the business and artistic sides of the company. When she isn't devising theatre with K-3rd graders, Gara can usually be found managing communications and registration, connecting with donors and sponsors, and handling React's social media presence (please like and comment). She also serves as a managing director for NoExit Performance, and independent theatre company in Indianapolis that specializes in site-specific work.

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If you're on the lookout to discuss heist movies, the truly impressive creativity of young kids, or the musical stylings of Hozier, feel free to find Gara. Her name rhymes with Sarah.

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Gara teaches with React thanks to the Christel DeHaan Teaching Artists Program.

Before working at React, Fiona was a React student who loved devising and being the center of attention. In the time between her education and employment, she worked as a teaching artist for theatres in Pennsylvania and Delaware, earned a bachelor’s degree in devised and ensemble based theatre in marginalized communities from Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, and a master’s degree in collaborative theatre making from Rose Bruford College in London. She thinks about community and theatre and how the two influence each other.

Saige teaches with React thanks to the Christel DeHaan Teaching Artists Program.

Alethea is a performer and playwright. She works with One Year Lease Theater Co. internationally, provides communications support for Kaimera Productions, and serves as the Development Director at React. Her semi-autobiographical one woman show, Phantasmagoria, premiered off-Broadway in the Downtown Urban Arts Festival in 2022, and her play, This is Your Computer on Drugs, premiered at Columbia University alongside the course she co-taught with Prof. Mark C. Taylor titled Hippie Physics, Counterculture, Cyberculture. Currently living in: Paris, France.

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