About Us

Matt Cahoon is a theatremaker who specializes in Direction and Production Design. He is one of the co-founders of theatre KAPOWand during his time withtKAPOW, Matt has directed over 30 productions for the company.  He has received multiple NH Theatre Awards for his work with tKAPOW including Best Director (3x) and Best ScenicDesign.  Matt has also directed at St. Anselm College, the Winnipesaukee Playhouse, Jean’s Playhouse, and LaMaMa Umbria.  He is a three-time recipient of the NHSCA Artist Entrepreneurial Grant Award and was named one of the Union Leader’s 40 Under Forty (back when he was under forty!). Matt has an MA in Arts Administration from Goucher College and an M.Ed. in Leadership and Management from Fitchburg State University.  Additional training includes work with Double Edge Theatre Company and the Tectonic Theater Project. After spending 18 years as the Director of Cultural Programming and Director of the Stockbridge Theatre at Pinkerton Academy, Matt became the Director of Theatre at New Hampton School. In July 2024, Matt was named New Hampton’s Academic Dean.

Carey Cahoon performs and creates regularly with theatre KAPOW in Southern New Hampshire. She won two 2017 NH Theatre Awards for Best Actress for her performances as Briseis in Living in Exile and as Queen Marguerite in Exit the King. For her performance in tKAPOW’s 3-person Macbeth as Lady Macbeth, Malcom, Witch and others, she won the 2014 NH Theatre Award for Best Actress. Carey has also performed and directed with the Winnipesaukee Playhouse, Boston Playwright’s Platform, Stage One Productions, and the Anselmian Abbey Players. She holds a BA in Classics from St. Anselm College, and trained at the Atlantic Acting School, Shakespeare & Co., and with SITI Company, thanks to support from the NH State Council on the Arts. She sits on the Board of Arts4NH.

Peter Josephson is in his fourteenth season as a member of the theatre KAPOW company and has performed in more than two dozen Kapow productions. An accomplished actor and director, he has been nominated for Seacoast Spotlight awards for both acting (Six Characters in Search of an Author) and directing (Long Day’s Journey Into Night), and has won two New Hampshire Theatre Awards for his roles in Penelope and Exit the King (both with tKAPOW). In addition to tKAPOW he has performed with the New Hampshire Theatre Project, the Winnipesaukee
Playhouse, and the Seven Stages Shakespeare Company, and has directed for theatre KAPOW, the New Hampshire Theatre Project, Threshold Stage, and Glass Dove Productions. Peter’s KAPOW productions include Hedda Gabler, Agamemnon, Buried Child, A Tempest Prayer, The Christians, Shipwrecked, Mr. Wolf, and Life Sucks. He leads occasional acting workshops in the Michael Chekhov technique.
Peter grew up in Alaska between the mountains and the sea, and in a culture still influenced by Yupik and Haida art and tradition. He was a member of Actors’ Equity from 1985 until 2009. He joined the Kapow company in 2010. His early training was in the techniques of Stanislavski, Chekhov, Grotowski, and Hagen. In the last decade and a half Peter has deepened his exploration of the Michael Chekhov technique, while incorporating elements of Viewpoints and clown and mask work. He is most interested in live art that broadens and deepens and thickens our shared experience of living.

 

Rachael Chapin Longo is a theater maker, educator, playwright and arts advocate. She received her BS in Theater from Skidmore College and her MA in Educational Theatrefrom New York University. Rachael grew up in rural Vermont before studying in upstate New York and then heading to New York City to pursue acting and her master’s degree. Throughout her career, Rachael has dedicated herself to educational theatre and advocating for the arts in educational and community settings. She has worked as a professional teaching artist and education director for several organizations, creating curriculum and teaching classes in acting, directing, playwriting and movement. Rachael returned to New England in 2012 with her husband and two children and since then has taught theater courses and directed student productions with schools, community theater companies and at the college level. In 2023, she became a council member of the Andover Cultural Council which is responsible for awarding state grant funding to local artists and recently became the Director of Programs for a nonprofit arts organization in Boston called Art Resource Collaborative for Kids (ARCK). As a resident of the North Shore of Boston, she loves being surrounded by nature, writing, reading, cheering on her kids in all their endeavors (especially hockey games), snuggles with their sweet pets and spending time with her extended family and friends. Rachael has been a dedicated company member, actor and director with theatre KAPOW for over 10 years. She was immediately drawn to the company’s commitment to choosing great works to explore and their love of the creative process. Most importantly, Rachael believes deeply in KAPOW’s dedication to uplifting all voices and promoting understanding and empathy through theater making.

Tayva Young has been with tKAPOW since 2011. tKAPOW is her theatre family and she could not have asked for a more talented, supportive and imaginative group of people to work with. She enjoys the collaboration process with so many talented individuals, bringing the magic of live theatre to all audiences. Her lighting design work can be seen across the New England region. When she is not bringing stories to life with light, she is helping others through her Massage Business out of her home in North Berwick, ME. She has been honored with two NH Theater Awards for best Lighting Design for Time Stands Still by Donald Margulies and Living in Exile by John Lipsky.

We pledge to be held publicly accountable in cultivating an anti-racist, equitable space for learning and creating. We will actively hold ourselves accountable if and when we are not doing our part to stand up against structural racism. We will promote a positive space for all, regardless of race, sexuality, gender expression, or ability. We will listen in order to understand, not to defend or deflect.

We recognize that, in addition to actively attending to this work in the rehearsal studio/theatre, the work also requires a long-term commitment to identifying and addressing racism, as well as ableism, genderism, sexism, other forms of discrimination. We understand that this entails making necessary policy changes, building equitable and inclusive workplaces, and remaining accountable. We pledge to insist that this creative space must actively pursue the work of anti-racism and equity.

We pledge to lean into difficult conversations with individuals and institutions in the industry who have not made these commitments or who are failing to live up to them.

We pledge to examine and dismantle our own learned biases. We will sit in the discomfort this brings, and will not let this discomfort render us silent or derail the necessary work.

We pledge to use our social, cultural, and financial capital to amplify institutions and productions led by people of color, and to call out those that do not involve this leadership.
Thank you for holding us accountable and joining us in this effort to foster an anti-racist, inclusive theatrical community that creates opportunities for all artists and audiences.

We pledge to lean into difficult conversations with individuals and institutions in the industry who have not made these commitments or who are failing to live up to them.

We pledge to examine and dismantle our own learned biases. We will sit in the discomfort this brings, and will not let this discomfort render us silent or derail the necessary work.

We pledge to use our social, cultural, and financial capital to amplify institutions and productions led by people of color, and to call out those that do not involve this leadership.

Thank you for holding us accountable and joining us in this effort to foster an anti-racist, inclusive theatrical community that creates opportunities for all artists and audiences.

tKAPOW’s work is based primarily on N’dakinna (En-DA-kin-ah), which is the traditional ancestral homeland of the Abenaki, Pennacook and Wabanaki Peoples past and present. We acknowledge and honor with gratitude the land and waterways and the alnobak (people) who have stewarded N’dakinna throughout the generations. This moment calls us to commit to continuing to learn how to be better stewards of the land we inhabit as well.

We do this to pay respect to the Abenaki, Pennacook and Wabanaki Peoples and their elders past, present, and emerging. We hope to inspire greater curiosity among non-Native peoples about the land on which they live, to halt the erasure of Indigenous history, and to encourage support of Indigenous communities both locally and globally

We encourage you to learn more about the Indigenous communities where you are currently. You can visit https://native-land.ca/.