Our Team — Silencio

ARtistic staff

Michael Rogerson (Artistic Director)

Michael is a Brooklyn based director and producer. For Silencio, he directed Enda Walsh’s Disco Pigs and the Chicago premiere of Marius von Mayenburg’s The Dog, the Night, and the Knife — he also produced the Chicago premiere of Christopher Chen’s Home Invasion. He recently directed his first short film — All the Way Down This Time — which was written by Silencio founding member Sophie Neff. At Northwestern University he directed site-specific productions of Jean Genet’s The Maids and Phillip Ridley’s Mercury Fur, as well as Kori Alston’s Pledge of Allegiance (The History of America), which was part of the Agnes Nixon Playwrighting Festival. He is a graduate of Northwestern University, where he received a dual degree in Theatre and English Literature.

(photo by Ella Pennington)

frequent collaborators

Tom DeFranciso (Actor/Founding Member)

Tommy DeFrancisco is an actor, musician, and amateur astronomer. He graduated Northwestern University in 2016 along with many other members of the Silencio community. His work with Silencio includes performances in both productions of *Disco Pigs*, as well as *The Dog, the Night, and the Knife*. He currently lives in Portland, Maine and is pursuing certification to become a pilot. He likes to play tabletop roleplaying games, practice traditional archery, and dabble in classic Italian cooking.

Sean Gundersen (Designer/Founding Member)

Sean Gundersen is a Chicago area actor, director, designer and founding member of Silencio. He designed space & lights for Silencio’s productions of *The Dog, the Night, and the Knife* and *Disco Pigs (v. 1/2)*. At Northwestern University he directed world-premiere productions Moon & Back, Concentric, and Next Level--which he took to the Georgetown Theatre Festival in Penang, Malaysia. You can find him slung in a hammock in Humboldt Park during the summertime or bundled up next to a bonfire in the wintertime.

Sophie Neff (Actor/Founding Member)

Sophie is an actor, filmmaker, and founding company member of Silencio. Recent company credits include the Chicago production of Disco Pigs and All The Way Down, This Time, Silencio’s first film project and her first foray into screenwriting. Since then she’s started an ongoing filmmaking lab based out of Los Angeles. She’s thrilled to return to the stage, so to speak, in the upcoming site-specific production of Gundog.