Maggie Conroy
(Co-Artistic Director)
Co-Artistic Director, founding member. YoungLiars credits include The Dispute– A Spectacle for Lovers and Fighters, Titus Androgynous, The Phaedra Phestival: A Classical Experiment, and Whammy. Maggie is a Saint Louis native and has worked with ERA, SATE, Upstream Theater, Metro Theater Co., West End Players, St. Louis Shakespeare, OnSite, and Hotcity. She is a 200HR certified yoga instructor and received her BA in Performance from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville.
Chuck Harper
(Co-Artistic Director)
Chuck is a professional director and actor who has practiced and taught Suzuki for the past twenty years. He training includes intensives with master teachers of the Saratoga International Theatre Institute and Pacific Performance Projects East. He has led Suzuki workshops both in the US and overseas. He is Head of Performance at SIUE and Co-Producing Director of YoungLiars. He served as director/translator for YoungLiars inaugural production of The Dispute – A Spectacle for Lovers and Fighters.
Jef Awada
(Creative Core)
Jef is a theatre artist and teacher who has studied with master teachers Ronlin Foreman at the Dell’Arte School of Physical Theatre, Philippe Gaulier in France, and Chicago’s 500 Clown. As a director and actor, Jef has explored the clown’s place in comedy and beyond. He has taught movement and clown at Webster Conservatory for the last 15 years and in workshops in New Delhi, Portland, Oregon, and Pittsburgh, PA. Jef is a Core member of YoungLiars and served as Movement Coach for YoungLiars 2016 productions of The Dispute – A Spectacle for Lovers and Fighters., Burrow, and Titus Androgynous, and Whammy.
Jeff Skoblow
(Creative Core)
Jeff Skoblow is an Emeritus Professor of English Language and Literature at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville where he taught for three decades before retiring in 2018. He has been active in local community theater all these years as well, first and foremost with the Arts League Players of Edwardsville, as well as in SIUE Theater Department and Student Experimental Theater Organization productions, and in recent years has found a happy home with YoungLiars, of which he is a Core Member, and where he has appeared to date in The Dispute: A Spectacle for Lovers and Fighters, Burrow, Titus Androgynous, and Whammy.