Danae DeShazer (she/her/hers) is a professional director, actor, teaching artist, and choreographer with a varied career that has swept her all across the country.

As the Associate Artistic Director at McLeod Summer Playhouse in Carbondale, Illinois, she directed "9 to 5, The Musical," "The Drowsy Chaperone," "Once Upon a Mattress," and the Illinois Premiere of "Polkadots! The Cool Kids Musical." She has toured with several youth theater companies, including The National Theatre for Children, Prairie Fire Children's Theatre, and Lexington Children's Theatre. As an actor, some of her favorite roles include Donna in "Mamma Mia," Polly in "Crazy For You," Baker's Wife in "Into The Woods," and Violet in "Side Show." 

In addition to her life as a professional theater artist, she has worked in marketing & public relations for 10 years, most recently as the Director of Brand Strategy at Bradenton’s premier branding studio, Sokos Solutions. She has also served as an arts administrator at organizations like TADA! Youth Theater (NYC), Florida Studio Theatre, and the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County. 

It’s this incredible combination of marketing & operations, arts administration, and professional theater that will allow Danae to lead this new organization to be a theater for everyone, and a cultural thought-leader across the Suncoast.