WHO WE ARE
Stephanie Hickling Beckman, Co-Founder
Stephanie Hickling Beckman moved to Asheville in 1997 from Atlanta, Georgia. As a refuge from corporate America, she enjoys a life full of Drama. She has been attached to theatre in one way or another for 25 years. She has acted, directed, or stage-managed with a conglomeration of theatre companies, and served on the boards of various local non-profit organizations. She is a recipient of the YWCA TWIN award as one of the top twenty successful women in Asheville, and the ACLU’s Evan Mahaney Champion of Civil Liberties award. Stephanie is the Founder and has been Managing Artistic Director of Different Strokes! Performing Arts Collective where she exercises her belief that theatre should be an act of social activism, through her selection of plays and partnerships with other marginalized community organizations and other non-profit organizations. Different Strokes! was founded in 2010 and operates on the foundation that theatre is an effective and provocative means for social change and transformation.
Aaron Snook, Co-Founder
Aaron is a theatre artist, teaching artist, and activist artist who calls Asheville, North Carolina his home. In 2016, he Co-founded the American Myth Center, where he adapts, directs, and curates. Aaron is an adjunct professor at UNC-Asheville, where he teaches Acting, Playscript Analysis, Directing, and Adaptation. Prior to Asheville, he was based in Chicago for over a decade by way of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Colorado and, originally, North Carolina. In Chicago, he worked at Signal Ensemble Theatre, where he was an ensemble member for twelve years, as director, actor, and dramaturg. Directing credits with Signal include The Dumb Waiter, The Birthday Party, Krapp’s Last Tape and Motion, while his favorite roles have been Vladimir in Waiting for Godot, Eddie in Fool for Love and Brian Jones in the world premiere of Aftermath. Other companies he worked with in Chicago include Steppenwolf Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, Lifeline Theatre, The RBP and Chicago Dramatists. Aaron received his BA in English and Drama from Duke University and his MFA in Directing from Northwestern University.