High School Improv Comedy Workshop

Although he only began working with AFYP last spring, Josh Bickford has over 35 years of directing and teaching experience. Josh began his directing journey when he was only 16 years-old while working at Adventure Theatre Summer Workshops. Josh is the Co-Director of the AFYP Aventures Cast in our Saturday Showcase programs. In addition to his work with AFYP, Josh is a retired FCPS Theatre Arts teacher. Josh is a also former teacher with Fairfax County Public School’s Institute for the Arts and the Director of Performer’s Corner. Josh is currently a Director with Arena Stage’s Voices of Now Program where he works with teen artists to create devised theatre performances based on the artists’ personal experiences. This year, Josh also began working with the International Schools Theatre Association (ISTA) where he gets to teach Theatre Arts in different countries. On a personal note, Josh is the proud father of two sons, Lucas and Graham, who have both been involved with AFYP for many years and are now “Red Shirts” (AFYP Teaching Staff).

A graduate of University of Maryland, College Park with a Bachelor of Arts in Theater and Speech Communications, Mary has been working professionally as an actor in the metropolitan Washington-area, Los Angeles, and New York since 1985. She has worked at Washington area theaters including Theater of the First Amendment, Arena Stage, Studio Theatre, and Source Theatre. Television, radio and film credits include ABC’s All My Children, Barry Levinson’s Avalon, Diesel Films’ Dracula’s Mother, the MGM/Lionsgate thriller Hit and Run, and several spots for NPR’s Morning Edition.

Mary founded AFYP in 1997, and has seen the company grow from being its only teacher with a sporadic program schedule in rented spaces to where it is today: a year-round program with a full staff, working in conjunction with Potomac Arts Academy, for which she is Associate Director.

She is a longtime member of Mason’s School of Theater faculty in the areas of Performance and Theater Education. She was named a 2013 “Teacher of Distinction” and was a 2014 TEDxGeorgeMasonU speaker (“Magic Moments: the Transformative Power of  Theater“). She previously taught at the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Her professional memberships include The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, Actor’s Equity Association, and the Educational Theatre Association.

Mary’s directing credits include An Experiment with an Air Pump and Shakespeare in Hollywood (George Mason University); Still Beating Hearts and A Godless Man (Theater of the First Amendment First Light Festival); Happy Holidays, Charlie Brown, 101 Dalmatians, It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play; Willy Wonka, Jr.; Peter Pan, Jr.; A Seussified Christmas Carol; Alice in Wonderland, Jr. (AFYP).