Meet Our Team
Hickory Playground is a 501(c)(3) organization with an all-volunteer Board of Directors that serve alongside the Executive Director as our fundraising arm. Donations we make are typically focused on Catawba County, North Carolina, and on individual projects presented to and worked on by our team. We are a networked collective of artists and workers dedicated to the mission of Hickory Playground: investing in the artists of tomorrow.
Dylan Tashjian
(Cofounder & Executive Director)
Dylan (he/him) is a human perpetually traveling between North Carolina and New York City. He grew up in Hickory and participated in the arts at Hickory High School and in the community. Dylan works for Eastern Standard Time, a theater fund that co-produces numerous Broadway and off-Broadway shows. Personal credits include: Alex Edelman: Just For Us (Broadway, NYT Critic’s Pick), Merrily We Roll Along (Broadway, NYT Critic’s Pick), Stereophonic (Broadway; NYT Critic’s Pick) and many other productions.
Dylan graduated from New York University in 2018 with a BFA in Drama from Tisch School of the Arts and a minor in Entertainment Business. Dylan received the 2018 Innovative Artists Grant, awarded by the United Arts Council of Catawba County.
Robert Fuller
(Cofounder & President of the Board of Directors)
Robert (he/him) is a human person in Queens, New York. He was born in Hickory, NC and graduated from UNC Asheville. A long time participant in community theatre, he co-founded Hickory Playground with Dylan & Jordan in 2016. Robert works for a public relations firm.
Jordan Makant
(Cofounder, Web Admin, Board Member)
Jordan (he/him) is a human hiding in the woods outside of Raleigh, North Carolina. He graduated from Lenoir-Rhyne University in 2017 with hundreds of hours of work experience as a stagehand and event manager pulling him toward the world of production and ultimately installation work. Jordan now travels the country as a lighting controls field technician and is an Authorized Service Provider for ETC. He is always happy to nerd out with you if you want to talk controls or entertainment technology.
Jordan received the 2019 Human Relations Award, given by the Hickory Community Relations Council.
Bill Morgan
(Artistic Director)
Bill (he/him) is a human in Hickory, North Carolina. He is the former Artistic and Executive Director at the Old Opera House Theatre Company in Charles Town, WV. While there, Bill directed a specially commissioned production of the John Brown play The Anvil for the 50th' Anniversary of Harpers Ferry National Park. His local directing credits include West Side Story, Little Shop of Horrors, A Streetcar Named Desire, and The Drowsy Chaperone for the Green Room Community Theatre as well as Romana Quimby and True West at the Hickory Community Theatre. Acting credits include Brother Jeremiah in Something Rotten!, Javert in Les Miserables, Alan in God of Carnage, and Arthur in Spamalot. He has been an actor in four Hickory Playground festivals, including in the audience favorite for 2021, You Be You.
Bill has served on several non-profit boards including those of The Apollo Civic Theatre, The Hickory Community Theatre, The Green Room, ALFA, and the United Arts Council of Catawba County. Bill practices law and mediation in Hickory with Morgan Law, PLLC. He and his wife, Michelle, are avid runners and devoted to their terrier, Augie.
Sam Parham Makant
(Chief of Staff / Project Manager / Team Member)
Sam (she/her) is a human in a tiny town just outside Raleigh, North Carolina. She graduated from Lenoir-Rhyne University in 2019 with significant experience in event planning and execution, and to this day works on events, fundraising, and development within a higher education setting. Sam’s first Hickory Playground was as an audience member in 2017, and ever since has been a key volunteer, advocate, FOH manager, and more.
Sam loves to garden, play with her two dogs (Molly the Pit/Boxer and Pippin the 100% purebred mutt), go hiking, and attempt DIY home improvement projects. Emphasis wherever you think appropriate.
Ally Bryant
(Team Member)
Ally is a human trapped in the tunnels of New York. She graduated from Boston University in 2019 with a degree in English, where she gained experience in editing, creative writing, and copywriting. Ally attended her first HPG in 2019 and had so much fun she came back in 2021, and has tried to come back every year since.
Ally currently works at a bookstore in Manhattan, often coordinating author events and signings around the city. She loves to talk books and give recommendations whenever needed!
Morgan Honeycutt
(Artist / Consulting Team Member)
Morgan is a human in Hickory, North Carolina. She is a painter and multidisciplinary artist, and she graduated in May 2020 from Virginia Commonwealth University with a BFA in Painting and Printmaking. Morgan is responsible for the original Hickory Playground logo.
Born and raised in Hickory, she has a passion for the North Carolina and Virginia arts communities and beyond. With experience in product development, public works, freelancing, and graphic design, Morgan looks forward to a continued relationship with HPG and the artist community at large.
Megan Clark
(Stage Manager / Team Member)
Megan (she/her) is a human in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is a 2022 graduate of William Peace University, where she earned her degree in Arts Administration. Megan has many years of experience in performing arts and live entertainment, including working in a variety of roles for multiple local NC theaters, as an Entertainment Costuming Cast Member in Walt Disney World, and the Production Manager for the Hickory Playground 48-Hour Theatre Festival since 2017. In 2016, Megan received the Foothills Performing Arts seasonal award for “Overall Promotion of the Performing Arts”, and is the youngest recipient of this award.
Jackson Shoe
(Event Photographer / Team Member)
Jackson (he/him) is a human in Hickory, North Carolina. He is a graduate of St. Stephens High School and Catawba Valley Community College (Class of 2020, theatre), and is currently a junior at Appalachian State University.
Jackson has been in 21 theatrical productions across the greater Catawba County metro community to-date, and he has been an event photographer and/or actor for Hickory Playground since the 2nd festival in July 2017. As a graduate of St. Stephens High School, Jackson has seen firsthand the support Hickory Playground is able to generate for public arts education in the local community.
Jessica Marie Fisher
(Host, Best Paper I Ever Wrote)
Jess (she/they) is a human in Los Angeles, California. She is originally from the Jersey Shore – home of The Boss. She trained at NYU Tisch Drama in the Playwrights Horizons Theatre School for her first two years, concentrating in devising, playwriting, and design, and transferred to The New Studio on Broadway for her last year and a half, concentrating in musical theatre. In March 2019, her play Welcome to Narnia made it to the final rounds of The Strawberry One-Act Festival and was published by Original Works Publishing under the title Rules for Coming Out When You’re in the Driver’s Seat of Your Mom’s Camry. In July 2019, Jessica had a wonderful time in Hickory participating in the HPG 48-Hour Festival when she wrote the play Couzinz Club!!!. You also may have seen her on the app Tik Tok, but she will deny any and all associations if asked about it.
Hickory Playground's Board of Directors
Robert Fuller - President
Ed Tashjian - Vice President
Steve Copulsky - Treasurer
Bess Fuller - Secretary
Kim Stinson - Member at Large
Jordan Makant - Member At Large