SecondStory Repertory (SSR) Executive Director Mark Chenovick has appointed Corey McDaniel and Samantha Holsworth as the theater’s artistic director and director of education, respectively.

An open house will be held Friday from 7-9 p.m. at SSR, located at 16587 N.E. 74th St. in Redmond Town Center, for the public to meet the newest members of SSR’s creative team.

McDaniel, who will also oversee marketing and public relations for SSR, has been working as interim education director since August 2011. Both he and Holsworth will work together to develop SSR’s education department and outreach programs, strengthening community and industry relationships and continuing SSR’s 12-year tradition of bringing quality live theater to Redmond.

“Both McDaniel and Holsworth believe in the same things that SSR is striving for: to be a place where creative visionaries can come together in a supportive and collaborative environment,” Chenovick said. “Instinctively, their personalities and similar work ethic encourage and fuel the creative and buoyant nature of the artists they work with.”

McDaniel is preparing to announce SSR’s 14th season in the coming weeks. As part of his agreement with SSR, he will direct three of the six mainstage productions next season. Within the current season (Season 13) McDaniel is slated to direct the Tony Award-winning drama, “Amadeus” scheduled to open April 6.

“I am humbled, honored and extremely thrilled,” McDaniel said about his new position. “SecondStory and her team is the perfect home for me. My passion for theater and working with other artists motivates everything I do…I want SecondStory to feel like home to our patrons who want to escape into the magic of the theater…To know that I can contribute to SSR’s vision of being that home is truly a gift.”

McDaniel is originally from Texas and began his career a dancer with the Lone Star Ballet. As an actor he has worked throughout the United States and internationally with credits ranging from stage to television and film. As a director, McDaniel has staged a wide variety of productions throughout southern California, Japan and the Puget Sound region. He has also aided in the creation of the professional actor training programs at The Actors Spot and Warner Laughlin Studios where he continued on as a staff instructor. McDaniel has spent numerous years overseas performing and sharing American arts educational programs with foreign countries. He has directed, performed and taught in Mexico, Canada, Italy, Japan and Brazil.

Since moving to Seattle, McDaniel has also worked with several local companies, worked in education, public relations, development and marketing. Prior to SecondStory he spent two and half years as the education director for GreenStage before stepping into the role of interim education director at SSR.

Holsworth grew up in the theater and has been performing since she was 8. She graduated from Florida State University’s School of Theatre and Dance in 2009 with a bachelor’s of art in theater. She is also a 2008 graduate of Theater Academy London, where she studied dialects, playwriting, and Shakespeare. From 2009-10 she was the education director of Pensacola Little Theater in her hometown of Pensacola, Fla. She spent the year teaching eight classes a week for all ages, developing new programs, and directing and managing the grant-funded Beyond Boundaries outreach program, as well as working with the Southeastern Teen Shakespeare Co. and the Lab Rats Junior Improv Troupe.

Since arriving in Seattle in August 2010, she has worked at Village Theater KIDSTAGE, Broadway Bound Children’s Theater, and Seattle Musical Theater. She directed SecondStory’s Youth Workshop production of “Dear Edwina, Jr.” last summer and will be directing “The Dancing Princess” this spring.

“Both of my parents are deeply involved in the arts. My father is a band director, so arts education was a natural path for me,” she said. “My role in the classroom is not to stand in front and say. ‘This is the correct way to make art.’ I’m not going to say I know it all because I don’t. What I do is teach skills, provide tools and create an environment where my students feel secure enough to be funny and brave and contribute to a piece of theater in a meaningful way…I want SSR to be a new generation of the family that I found as a child in the theater…I want SSR to be that place, where kids and adults alike can walk in and think, ‘This is my theater, I make a difference here, my ideas mean something to the people here.'”