Sidonie Garrett
Executive Artistic Director
Sidonie Garrett is the Executive Artistic Director of the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival where she most recently directed Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare in Love, and the previous five season’s productions, Much Ado About Nothing, The Winter’s Tale, King Lear, Twelfth Night and Hamlet, all awarded Best Play in Pitch Magazine’s BEST OF KC as well as 15 other Shakespeare plays. Her experience working with new plays took her to New York City, where she directed the off-Broadway production of Thanatos. Sidonie also assistant directed the off-Broadway premiere of the interactive Aunt Chooch’s Birthday Party. Locally at the Unicorn Theatre she directed The Sound Inside, Tiny Beautiful Things, The Effect, Disgraced, How to Use a Knife, The Whale, I’ll Eat You Last, Other Desert Cities, The Motherf**ker With the Hat, Time Stands Still, In the Next Room: the vibrator play, Faith Healer, Rising Water, Iron Kisses, Retreat from Moscow, Omnium Gatherum, the world premiere of Thanatos, SubUrbia, The Waiting Room, Desert Holiday, Spinning Into Butter, SantaLand Diaries and co-directed Light/Damage with Cynthia Levin. Sidonie directed A Streetcar Named Desire and ‘Night Mother for Kansas City Actors Theatre. At the Coterie Theatre she directed The Macbeth Project: In Spite of Thunder, the U.S. premiere of After Juliet, Mr. A’s Amazing Maze Plays, Little House on the Prairie, Little House by the Shores of Silver Lake, Of Mice and Men, Playing for Time and co-directed The Hobbit. Sidonie co-directed Tony & Tina’s Wedding (Kansas City and St. Louis) for Fourth Wall Productions. She directed The African Company Presents with the Black Repertory Theatre of Kansas City, Eleemosynary and Gruesome Playground Injuries at the Fishtank Theatre and has directed collaborations with KC Ballet, KC Symphony, and KC Chorale, and Script-In-Hand readings including The Beard of Avon and The Women, with KC Actors Theatre and The Tempest for JCCC’s Performing Arts Series. Previously with Elizabeth Suh Lane she co-created and directed Play On! a collaboration of music and words, and the second co-production in the series, The Marriage of True Minds. In 2020, she co-directed and produced two streaming productions, Shakespeare at Home and William Shakespeare’s Christmas Carol in addition to two live outdoor performances of Shakespeare’s scenes, Yard Bards and ShakesFEAR! She direct a filmed version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream for JCCC’s Performing Arts Series and Show-Me Shakespeare as well as three live events in summer 2021 in Southmoreland Park, titled Shakespearience. For HASF, she has directed collaborations with the Bach Aria Soloists, the Grammy Award-winning Kansas City Chorale, Kansas City Ballet, Kansas City Symphony, JCCC’s Performing Arts Series, Kansas City Actors Theatre, KC Rep, the Kansas City Museum, and many other partners.
Matt Rapport
Director of Education
Matt Rapport has been a performing arts teacher in and around Kansas City for over 20 years. His areas of expertise include Shakespeare, improvisation, and acting as well as physical skills including juggling, puppetry, and physical comedy. He has taught in a variety of settings including public schools, community centers, and art camps. Before assuming his leadership position with the Festival, Matt was a lead teaching artist here and for the Coterie Theatre, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Accessible Arts, and Theatre For Young America.
Some of Matt’s more rewarding teaching experiences have been with underserved students, including work with the Shakespeare Festival at ReStart, a homeless shelter in Kansas City, MO, and with Kansas City Repertory Theatre at DeLaSalle and Hilltop, both high schools for adjudicated youths. Matt also taught adults with Down Syndrome in a program offered through Accessible Arts. Matt is himself a professional actor and musician with many local and regional credits. He was an original member of the cast of the Festival’s Shakespeare to Go! and co-created and co-directed the Festival’s Romeo and Juliet to Go! Matt has been seen on the Festival stage numerous times. Favorite shows include The Taming of the Shrew, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, King Lear, and The Merchant of Venice.
Dee Byrd-Molnar
Operations and Community Relations Manager
Dee Byrd-Molnar, though a native of the Midwest, Dee grew up in Houston Texas, lived and worked as a theatre artist in New York for 23 years, lived in rural Kansas and now calls Kansas City home. She has dedicated her work as a theatre producer, director, and performer in the development of new, classical, and contemporary plays over the past thirty years to making theatre and art available to everyone. Dee was the Co-Founder and Producing Artistic Director of South Brooklyn Shakespeare, a 501(c)(3) company that brought free Shakespeare to the streets and parks of Brooklyn for six seasons. Dee has also been a successful business owner in New York and over the years managed a multi-million-dollar company. Dee joined the William Inge Center in 2020 as support for the William Inge Theatre Festival as a coordinator and liaison to the Playwrights in Residence in Independence, Kansas. She served as the events manager and was promoted to the Director of the William Inge Theatre Festival. For three years, 2023-2025, Dee produced this national theatre Festival in conjunction with Independence Community College, supporting playwrights, artists and students. Dee’s education and training includes a BA from the University of Houston where she worked as a performer in new play development with Mr. Edward Albee and as a certified Montessori teacher where she remembered her love of learning and humanity. Dee is an advocate for the arts, artists, playwrights, actors, designers, producers and students.
Taylor Smith
Director of Marketing and Development Associate
Taylor Smith is an accomplished designer, illustrator, and marketing and development professional. His work has been featured by iconic tastemakers such as Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, The Economist, Lincoln Center and The National Broadway League. For the past fifteen years he has worked with Kansas City area arts and cultural institutions, cultivating audiences through creative outreach. As the Director of Marketing and Development Associate for Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, he combines his passions for the performing arts, the preservation of public parks, and the works of Shakespeare to serve both an organization and community close to his heart.
