Makaela is a graduate of the Brown/Trinity Directing Program. She grew up in California, where she began her theater training by studying with Shakespeare Santa Cruz and founding a youth-run community theater. She moved on to work and study with Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Trinity Repertory, Steppenwolf, The Writer’s Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre, Summer Repertory Theater, and Annex Theatre. Favorite productions include: A new musical adaptation of Figaro, Frank Wildhorn’s CivilWar, Twelfth Night, Richard III, The Learned Ladies, A Mouthful of Birds, Waiting For Godot, Marat/Sade, Betrayal , 365Plays/365Days:week26. She also was lucky enough to be a part of Paula Vogel’s Brown MFA New Plays Festival for 3 years; premieres include What Once We Felt by AnnMarie Healy, House of Gold by Gregory S. Moss, Sixty Miles to Silver Lake and Bruise Easy by Dan Le Franc. With a background in music she has assistant directed The Fantasticks and A Christmas Carol at Trinity Rep, and The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World at Lookingglass.  She holds a BA in Drama from Vassar College and an MFA from The Brown University/Trinity Rep Consortium.