Pop Up! Productions is a new theatre production company aimed at unifying individuals from all walks of life by providing them with an opportunity to perform on the world’s brightest stages.
We understand that the realities of professional theater often present difficulties when it comes to pursuing and maintaining a non-theatrical career, and we believe that people should not have to choose one or the other.
As such, we are committed to providing opportunities and accessibility for those with jobs and careers outside of the performing arts, as well as those fully dedicated to the craft.
To address the shortcomings of the industry, we created Pop Up! Productions, an organization with loose but far reaching roots in various cities across the country.
We aim to develop highly mobile networks of support and resource acquisition, so that we may produce high quality, full length productions whenever and wherever opportunity arises, and connect passionate individuals across all walks of life.
OUR STORY
Our founding members hail from a variety of backgrounds - from law to business, from technology to arts. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, each of us were deeply involved in theater-making at a time when the bounds of the medium were shattered, and the global artistic community was calling into question what theater could be in a remote landscape.
With our founding members based in Chicago, Washington D.C., and New York City, we are committed to applying these hard-learned lessons to increase the efficiency, efficacy, and ethicality of our productions, even as we return to a world of in-person art.
OUR COMMITMENTS
1
Produce high-quality in-person productions across the United States, with locally based actors, writers, and production staff
2
Ensure that our productions are financially sustainable without compromising on creating timely, culturally relevant, and thought-provoking works of art in-line with our mission
3
Maintain open dialogue with all members of our team to ensure that we are fostering an empowering, rigorous, and safe environment
4
We recognize that theater is politics and politics is theater
OUR TEAM
Hershey Suri
Artistic Director
Hershey Suri is an actor, musical theatre artist, director, and producer currently based in Chicago. Receiving her Bachelor’s in Politics and Theatre in 2021 from Pomona College, she moved to Chicago to juggle two careers: one in law and the other in performance. She likes to joke that she is a civil rights paralegal by day, an actor/director literally the rest of the time. Before starting law school in the fall, she decided to officially solidify her career in theatre by starting this production company with some of her closest multi-talented incredible pals and can’t wait to see the amazing things they are able to create together!
Nandini Mittal
Executive Producer
Nandini Mittal is an ESG consultant based in New York City and spends most of her free time either in a dance studio or trying to win the Broadway ticket lottery.
She grew up heavily involved in the performing arts community in Bangkok and then had the pleasure of sharing the stage with deeply talented peers during her time at Claremont McKenna College.
Having acted, directed, produced, and dabbled in set design, Dini is thrilled to be a founding member of the incredible Pop Up! Productions team.
Maxwell Fine
Executive Producer
Max Fine is a director and producer currently based in Washington D.C. Max received his Bachelor's degree in Government in 2021 from Claremont McKenna College while simultaneously pursuing his interest in theater and the arts. Prior to returning to school to pursue an MBA, Max decided to formalize his passion for the arts by launching Pop Up! Productions to produce provocative, innovative, and relevant shows with a group of incredibly talented individuals. Max has produced, directed, and written several shows, and is incredibly excited for the amazing season Pop Up! Productions has planned!
Hunter Lustberg
Technical Director
Hunter Lustberg is an actor, writer and lighting designer based in New York City. He received his Bachelors in Theater and Written arts from Bard College in 2021 and has continued his acting studies at John Strasberg Studios. In 2022 his play Roomies haunted the New York Theater Festival, earning nominations for Best Play and Best Director. Since then, he’s been hard at work on a novel about finding beauty in the things we can’t hope to understand. While that’s busy baking at 400°F for three thousand hours, he’s stoked to be joining the unbelievably talented tech team at Pop Up! and can’t wait to help light up the stage.
