Donor Breakfast :: Artist Bios

PJ Powers (Artistic Director) was a co-founder of TimeLine Theatre Company in 1997 and became Artistic Director in 1999. Since then, he has overseen the production of more than 80 plays, including 12 world premieres and more than 38 Chicago premieres. During his tenure, TimeLine has garnered 60 Jeff Awards, including 11 for Outstanding Production, as well as awards for excellence in arts management, including the 2016 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. PJ was instrumental in establishing TimeLine’s home on Wellington Avenue in 1999; expanding the company’s programming to include productions in numerous other venues, including the Broadway Playhouse; creating the TimePieces play reading series and First Draft Festival of new work; launching the Living History Education Program in Chicago Public Schools under the direction of TimeLine co-founder Juliet Hart; and planning for TimeLine’s new home in Uptown.

Mica Cole (Executive Director) was named TimeLine’s Executive Director in April 2022. A Chicago native raised on the South Side, she has worked as an arts administrator and changemaker for nearly two decades. Most recently, she has been a national consultant providing executive coaching and strategic planning for cultural institutions working to embrace an antiracist leadership paradigm. Mica is a consultant with artEquity, a nonprofit organization that provides tools, training, and resources for individuals and organizations working at the intersection of art and activism. She co-led its BIPOC Surviving Predominantly White Institutions Series and the BIPOC Leadership Circle—both aimed at providing resources and mentorship to leaders of color. Prior to her work as an organizational consultant, Mica served eight seasons as the Repertory Producer at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. As a senior leader at OSF, she played a key role in guiding the company’s equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives, many of which now serve as foundational organizational models for institutions around the world. Mica has produced more than 80 shows, including a dozen transfers and national co-productions of new plays with theatres such as American Repertory, Seattle Repertory, South Coast Rep, Arena Stage, Portland Center Stage, and Berkeley Repertory. She worked in Chicago as the Executive Director of Free Street Theater and as the Director of Education and Engagement at Writers Theatre. Mica served on the advisory committee for the Latinx Theatre Commons and is a founding member of the Black Theatre Commons. She is a graduate of The Theatre School at DePaul University.

Nick Bowling (Co-Director, THE LEHMAN TRILOGY) was the founding Artistic Director and is now Associate Artistic Director and a Company Member of TimeLine Theatre, where he has directed more than 30 productions. He is the recipient of eight Jeff Awards for Outstanding Direction (The History Boys, The Normal Heart, Fiorello!, This Happy Breed, and The Crucible at TimeLine, Ragtime at Marriott Theatre, Sondheim on Sondheim at Porchlight Music Theatre, and Another Part of the Forest at Eclipse Theatre) and also received Jeff Award nominations for Oslo, Blood and Gifts, The Farnsworth Invention, Hauptmann, and The Lion in Winter at TimeLine; Closer Than Ever at Porchlight Music Theatre; and The Sound of Music, City of Angels, The King and I, and Man of La Mancha at Marriott Theatre. Other recent credits at TimeLine include the Chicago premiere of J.T. Rogers’ Oslo at Broadway In Chicago’s Broadway Playhouse, Campaigns, Inc.; Master Class; The Audience; A Disappearing Number; The Last Wife; and Blood and Gifts. Other Chicago credits include Marriott’s Oliver! and The Bridges of Madison County, Paramount’s A Christmas Story, Northwestern University’s Guys and Dolls and Cabaret, Porchlight’s A Catered Affair, Writers Theatre’s Bach at Leipzig, and Shattered Globe Theatre’s Time of the Cuckoo and Frozen Assets. 

Mechelle Moe (Director, THE LIFESPAN OF A FACT) is a Company Member at TimeLine, where her credits include directing Rutherford and Son, Cardboard Piano and In the Next Room or the vibrator play. She also has appeared on stage in many TimeLine productions, including Boy, The Apple Family Plays, My Kind of Town, The Front Page, The Children’s Hour, Not Enough Air, and Paradise Lost. Other directing credits include Milk Like Sugar, The 4th Graders Present an Unnamed Love Suicide, and columbinus. Moe is a Jeff Award recipient for Actress in Principal Role for her performance in Machinal (The Hypocrites) and received a Jeff Award nomination for Actress in Principal Role for Stage Door (Griffin). She is an artistic associate of Griffin Theater. Moe graduated with honors from the University of Illinois Chicago with both a bachelor’s degree in Theater as well as Anthropology.

Dolores Díaz (Playwright, BLACK SUNDAY) is a Chicago-based Chicana playwright originally from the border city of Laredo, Texas. In fall of 2022, Stage Left Theatre produced Man of the People at Chicago Dramatists; it was recommended by the Chicago Tribune as a top event in November. In fall of 2021, the Goodman Theatre produced Zulema in partnership with Sones de México, the Chicago Park District, the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Chicago Latino Theater Alliance (CLATA), and the National Museum of Mexican Art—the show toured the Chicago Parks District with a finale in Millennium Park. Díaz is a resident at Chicago Dramatists and has developed and produced work with a diverse array of companies. She has taught students at Columbia College Chicago, Texas Tech University, Northwestern University, and various Chicago public schools. She is a graduate of Northwestern University’s MFA Program in Writing for the Screen and Stage and serves as a Dramatists Guild Representative for the Chicago Region.

Sandra Marquez (Director, BLACK SUNDAY) is an award-winning actor, director, and educator as well as a longtime ensemble member of Teatro Vista, where she served as Associate Artistic Director for many years alongside Artistic Director Edward Torres. Marquez is the first self-identified Latinx artist to join the storied ensemble at Steppenwolf Theater Company, where she most recently appeared in Chekhov’s Seagull and directed the SYA production of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter. Her work has also been seen at the Goodman, Court, Victory Gardens, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival, amongst others. Film and television credits include Chicago Med, Prison Break, Boss, and the Amazon original series Night Sky. She is Co-Director of Graduate Studies for the MFA in Acting program at Northwestern University, where she enjoys teaching and mentoring.