About MIFA

MIFA's cultural programming adheres to its founding vision as a showcase for worldwide innovative and directional arts. MIFA also functions as a vehicle for community reclamation and historic and architectural preservation in the Connecticut River Valley Region.

MIFA presents an annual festival of the performing, visual and literary arts and spearheads community development projects, focusing recently on Holyoke, specifically the restoration and reopening of the historic Victory Theatre in downtown Holyoke. A key feature of MIFA is its Education Program (MIFA EP) that introduces elementary, secondary and higher education students to the arts.

Mr. Sanders graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. and was awarded a Thouron Fellowship. He received a Certificate in Drama (C.I.D.) from the University of Bristol, England, and an M.F.A. in Directing from the Yale School of Drama where he was assistant to Nikos Psacharapoulos and drama master of Stiles College. As a director Sanders is known for his stage adaptations from novels, direction of new plays and classics. His professional career began at Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival/ Public Theater, which presented his Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs and Old New York by Edith Wharton. New Jazz at the Public presented his 33 Scenes on the Possibility of Human Happiness and Thomas Cole, A Waking Dream, two music theater works both with scores by Henry Threadgill and Dubrovsky the opera by William Russo with a libretto by Sanders. Other New York Shakespeare Festival/Joseph Papp Public Theater credits include The America Pig, an Anti-Imperialist Vaudeville and The Owl's Story by Ted Hughes. Off-Broadway directing and producing credits include Aesop’s Fables, a rock opera by William Russo, book by Jon Swan, and The Seven Deadly Sins by Kurt Weill, libretto by Berthold Brecht and new plays From the Memoirs of Pontius Pilate by Eric Bentley, The Party by Arnold Weinstein and The Red Robins by Kenneth Koch with sets by Roy Lichtenstein, Red Grooms and Alex Katz. In 2009 Sanders directed Stella in the Bois De Boulogne by Tara Prem and Jane Wood with Paul Sorvino and Mira Sorvino.

In New York City Sanders is director of theatrical productions for Ensemble for the Romantic Century (ERC). For ERC Sanders directed Seduction, Smoke and Music by James Mello, starring Jeremy Irons and Sinead Cusack at the Tuscan Sun Festival, Cortona Italy. Mr. Sanders has received awards from the NEA, New York Sate Council of the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Kathy McKean, Managing Director
Ms. McKean Ms. McKean has been the Managing Director of MIFA Victory Theatre for 3 years. She has thirty years of administrative experience in not for profits throughout the Commonwealth and New Hampshire. She has a B.A. in Sociology and Education from Hampshire College and an MEd in Human Service Administration from Antioch University. A resident of Holyoke, her involvement with community development began in the 1970’s as Founding President of Girls Inc. of Holyoke overseeing the redevelopment of the former Tommy Taxi horse barn into a new home for the organization. Subsequently, she was the director of Human Services and Community Participation Coordinator for the City of Holyoke Office for Community Development. Ms. McKean was the Vice President of Agency Relations for the United Way of the Pioneer Valley and Executive Director of the United Way of Franklin County. She also served as an educator in the Holyoke and Chicopee Public School System.

Olivia Mausel, Festival Manager
Ms. Mausel has been with MIFA since 2006. She received a B.A. from Oklahoma State University, an M.A. from the University of Oklahoma and an M.S. from Westfield State University. Ms. Mausel has been heavily involved in the Holyoke Community for a number of years through her work as a Holyoke High School Special Education teacher and participant in Community Development. She was a piper in the Springfield Kiltie Band, member of the Council for Human Understanding, a commissioner and present chair of the Holyoke Historical Commission and a full citizen of the Muscogee Nation.

Emily Mann, Communications Officer
Ms. Mann is a ‘08 graduate of Simmons College, Boston with a B.A. in Communications and a minor in Arts Administration. She began volunteering with MIFA in October 2009, assisting in office and festival operations and the design and distribution of promotional materials. Ms. Mann served two terms as MIFA’s AmeriCorps*VISTA Volunteer from 2010 – 2012 and continues at MIFA as the Communications Officer.