Artist INC Topic Experts

Lisa Cordes has been a member of the Kansas City arts community for more than 25 years, working as an artist, administrator, and educator. For the past decade she has served in administrative leadership positions at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey, and Heart of America Shakespeare Festival. In 2010, she was a recipient of a Charlotte Street Rocket Grant and an ArtsKC Inspiration grant for the development and performance of her play, “Prop 8 On Trial,” and was a resident artist at the Fishtank Performance Studio. As a playwright, her work has been produced by theaters across the country. Locally, she has produced many of her own plays and written several plays commissioned by The Coterie Theater, including scripts for their award-winning Dramatic AIDS Education Project that has now served over 100,000 young people.

Cordes has served on panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Missouri Arts Council and the Charlotte Street Foundation, and has consulted and written for the President's Committee on the Arts.

Currently, she considers herself a freelance theater artist, writer, and recovering arts executive.

Donald R. Simon is president of Simon Business Consulting, Inc., a firm concentrating in media- and arts-based entrepreneurship. He also teaches law, business, and communications courses at The Art Institutes International - Kansas City, Kansas City Kansas Community College, and Avila University. Don lectures and writes extensively on legal and business matters and has appeared in Billboard, DownBeat, and Screen. Before relocating to Kansas City, he concentrated his legal practice in entertainment and intellectual property matters. His clients included musicians, filmmakers, producers, and entertainment companies. Prior to becoming an attorney, Don worked for seven years in the broadcasting, cable, and publishing industries as an award-winning producer and director. He also played bass guitar in several bands. Don is a Master of Arts (Media Communications) Candidate at Webster University. He received his Juris Doctor and Master of Laws (Intellectual Property) degrees from The John Marshall Law School and his Bachelor of Arts (Communications) from Missouri Southern State University.

Jennifer Martin is a theatre movement specialist and has trained performing artists for 45 years. She holds an MFA from the University of North Carolina – Greensboro and a PhD from the University of Michigan. As a choreographer her work has been seen locally at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Heart of America Shakespeare Festival , The Coterie and The Unicorn Theatres as well as Seattle Rep, Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C., Connecticut Repertory Theatre and the Northlight Theatre in Chicago. Dr. Martin is CPO for MartinFour, a consulting firm specializing in face-to-face, nonverbal message delivery for professionals in the areas of law, medicine, business, education and the arts. For the past 29 years she has been on the faculty of UMKC’s Professional Actor Training Program and now holds a James C. Olson Professorship. She happily calls Kansas City her artistic home.

Dean Vivian is a graduate of Webster Conservatory and has been a working actor for 35 years. He joined Actor's Equity in 1981, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) in 1983, and the Screen Actors Guild in 1995. He was elected by his peers to represent them to Equity for eight years, and again elected by his peers to represent them on the AFTRA National Board (now in his 18th year) as well as the SAG-AFTRA Joint Board of Directors. Dean was also recently elected as one of the 11 Member-Trustees for the multi-billion dollar AFTRA Health & Retirement Fund. In 1985, he began helping his fellow artists with their taxes and finances, currently with 300 clients. In 2009 he was designated a Subject Matter Expert by the State of Missouri regarding The Arts and Taxes. He's also a recent recipient of a Life Award from KC's AFTRA Local, honoring 25 years of volunteer service. (photo by Larry Levenson)