Nicholas Peterson, Director of Marketing, brings over 20 years of theatre experience both onstage and off, and has worked on web strategies for arts, non-profit organizations, and small businesses since the dot-com boom of the late 1990s/early 2000s. Since 2003, he has been based in Boston, working for New Repertory Theatre, the American Repertory Theatre, consulting, and working on his own projects, including ExploreBostonTheatre.com, an online-only media outlet dedicated to Boston Theatre. His website redesign for the Peterborough Players, a professional summer theatre company founded in 1933, earned New Hampshire Internet Awards for Best Entertainment site in 2003 and 2004. From 2001 through 2010, he consulted with the Board of Trustees Marketing Committee on integration of the Internet with their other marketing practices. Mr. Peterson is the former chair of the Theatre Arts Marketing Alliance (TAMA), a consortium of marketing professionals from theater companies in the Greater Boston Area. He has presented at TCG’s Annual Conference, the Boston Theatre Conference, the Annual Conference of the International Ticketing Association, Value Of Presenting – Arts Research in North America at Northeastern University, and presented to TAMA and Museums of Boston. He has also been on panels at Harvard University, Emerson College, and Southern New Hampshire University and been a guest lecturer at Simmons College. Currently he teaches Marketing and Audience Development in the Masters Program in Arts Administration at Boston University. He is a graduate of Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio and holds a M.S. in Internet Strategy Management from the Graduate Center of Marlboro College.

Cynthia Bargar, director of development is delighted to be at Central Square Theater, working with patrons and donors who support the growth of great theater that illuminates our shared sense of humanity. Prior to joining the staff in 2012, she had been a consultant to the theater for nine years, including during the capital campaign that helped make the dream of Central Square Theater a reality. Cynthia is a development professional who has worked with a variety of nonprofit organizations in greater Boston. For many years, Cynthia served on the Board of Directors of RESIST, a foundation funding activist organizing within movements for social change throughout the United States. She is a graduate of Brown University and has a master’s degree from the Boston University College of Communication.

Maggie Moore Abdow, Development Manager, began her tenure with Central Square Theater as resident company Underground Railway Theater’s  Education Director in 2004. Bringing 25 years of theater performance, direction, and teaching to CST,  Maggie has created, directed, and taught a wide range of URT’s award-winning programs, including Page to Stage, A Young Playwright’s Program, Youth Underground, Underground Players and residencies at MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics, Harvard’s Project Zero, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Institute of Contemporary Art. In 2014, Maggie transitioned from Education to Development. In her new role, Maggie works closely with CST leadership to nurture and cultivate donor relationships and coordinate all fundraising efforts. Maggie holds a BFA  and MA in theater education from Emerson College and is a Massachusetts certified teacher in K-12 theater.

Lee Mikeska Gardner*, she/her (Artistic Director, Central Square Theater) is in her 10th season CST. In the eight years she served as Artistic Director of The Nora, Lee crystalized The Nora’s mission to focus on the feminine perspective and created “That’s What She Said,” a program that developed and showcased the work of over 40 female artists, from plays to opera to magic shows. When The Nora and Underground Railway blended in 2022, Lee brought her broad experience in theatrical genre and rigorous storytelling to CST’s mission and message. Both an actor and director, Lee was last on stage in Summer, 1976 and Silent Sky. Prior performances include Marie Curie in The Half Life of Marie Curie, The Revolutionists, her Elliot Norton winning turn as Emilie in Emilie du Chatelet Defends Her Life Tonight (all by Lauren Gunderson), Marjorie Prime and Precious Little. Directing credits at CST include The Hound of the Baskerville, The Rocky Horror Show (with Jo Michael Rezes), Cloud Nine (Elliot Norton for Direction and Production, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, The Midvale High School 50th Reunion (with Gordon Clapp), Journey to the West, Homebody, Arcadia, Saving Kitty (with Jennifer Coolidge), The Edge of Peace (co-directed with with Maggie Moore Abdow), Grounded  and Her Aching Heart. 

Hailing from greater Washington, D.C., Lee was an Artistic Associate for ten years at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, directing every season; an Associate Artist with 1st Stage; the Managing Director for Washington Shakespeare Company and Rep Stage; Associate Artistic Director with the Shenandoah Playwrights’ Retreat; an Artistic Associate with Charter Theatre and Keegan Theatre and enjoyed a robust freelance career. Performances include Mary in A House in the Country with Charter Theatre (Helen Hayes Award), where she also performed the roles of Carla in A Taste of Fire (Helen Hayes nomination), and Fran in Short Order Stories, all of which were world premieres. Lee originated the role of Hettie in Julie Jensen’s Two Headed, which she performed at Washington Shakespeare Company and Mill Mountain Theatre. Other favorite roles include Terry in Sideman (Helen Hayes nomination) and Florence Foster Jenkins in Souvenir at 1st Stage, Patricia Preece in Stanley at Potomac Theatre Project (Helen Hayes nomination), Sandy Apple in Birth and After Birth at Woolly Mammoth, Kimberly Bergalis in Patient A at Freedom Stage (Helen Hayes Award), Clare in Tennessee Williams’s The Two-Character Play at Spooky Action Theatre, Gertrude in Hamlet, Luisa in A Shayna Maidel (Best Actress, Baltimore City Paper) at Rep Stage, Grete in Sight Unseen, Nina in Brooklyn Boy directed by Jim Petosa at The Olney Theatre Center, Tovah in Dreams in a Golden Country at The Kennedy Center, where she also directed Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie by Julie Jensen. She has directed over twenty world premieres, three of which earned nominations for the Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play. At Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Lee directed After Ashley (Helen Hayes nomination for Outstanding Direction); Fat Men In Skirts; Life During Wartime (Helen Hayes nomination for Outstanding Direction); Goodnight, Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) (Helen Hayes nomination for Outstanding Direction); Doug Wright’s Watbanaland; The Chinese Art of Placement; The Gene Pool (world premiere); Stop Kiss with Rhea Seehorn, and Fuddy Meers. Favorite credits include Blithe Spirit, The How and The Why, Humble Boy, the world premieres of Caesar and Dada and Learning Curves (both by long-time collaborator Allyson Currin), Equus, A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream (with seven actors), Angels in America at Washington, D.C.’s Signature Theatre; T.S. Eliot’s The Cocktail Party, (Theatre Lobby Award), Bad Dates, Golden Boy, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Butterfingers Angel…, Thom Pain (Based on Nothing), Stones In His Pockets, and Three Tall Women. 

During the Covid years, Lee became adept at Zoom theater and directed The Masque of the Red Death by M.J. Halberstadt with Flat Earth Theater, Shoe Leather Epidemiology by Amy Merrill as part of CST’s Women & Science Festival and the web series Inherit the Windbag, by Alexandra Petri with Mosaic Theatre. Lee is co-chair of the Professional Theater Network at AATA and as an educator, Lee has taught or served as a guest artist at schools and universities across the nation and founded the Acting Classes at Woolly Mammoth and Washington Shakespeare Company. Lee has a B.F.A. in the Performing Arts from George Mason University and an M.F.A. in Acting from The Catholic University of America.

Hatem Adell is thrilled to be back at Central Square Theater, having previously assisted Daniel Gidron on The Nora Theatre Company’s productions of Hysteria and Silver Spoon. He is a writer, translator, and director. Previous directing credits include Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story and Christopher Durang’s Beyond Therapy.