Leo Lion | Founder, Artistic Director
Leo is a NYC-based director, teaching artist, storyteller, and clown.

Since founding the company in 2013, Leo has directed twelve Firebird productions: Down the Chocolate River and Beyond, Expresso, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Treasure Island, Romeo+Juliet, Our Town, R.U.R., The Tempest, Julius Caesar, and An Enemy of the People, and Macbeth: Online, Rossum’s Universal Robots, and The Snow Queen. Leo also serves as the Associate Artistic Director of Phoenix Theatre Ensemble. Plays by Leo have been produced by Firebird, Downtown Art, WeAreActors, Fordham Theatre, and more.

Member of the Dramatists’ Guild and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Association.
www.leolion.com

Zoe Senese-Grossberg | Literary Director, Resident Dramaturge

Zoe Senese-Grossberg is a NY based director, playwright, dramaturg, and teaching artist. She has been the literary director of Firebird since Romeo + Juliet in 2017. Past directing credits include: Firebird’s The Seagull, At The End Of The World, Hamlet, Sarah Ruhl’s Orlando, and Twelve Ophelias. Zoe’s play Lay The Bent to the Bonny Broom was a 2023 semi-finalist for the National Playwright’s Conference.

Currently, Zoe is writing a solo show/pop music cabaret about the life of Bosie Douglas. If you know who that is please talk to her. www.zoesenesegrossberg.com.

Thomas Manfred Pflanz | Technical Director, Resident Production Stage Manager

Thomas stage managed every Firebird Youth Theater production 2014-2022, after joining the company as a stage hand and prop master in their first show. Other tech credits include work as a Venue Production Assistant in the 2015 NY International Fringe Festival, and continued lighting design/operation. Thomas’s most recent projects include Tales From Grevelon, a whimsical RPG storytelling podcast, Theater of the Apes’ 2017 Repertory Season, and Tales of Neverland, an original adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s Peter and Wendy, written by himself and Tinamarie Panyard. 

A techie by trade, he also acts when the occasion presents itself.
www.thomasmanfredpflanz.com