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She has also directed plays at the Abingdon Theater, The Gallery Players, the Hudson Stage and Penguin Rep.  She has taught acting, directing and improvisation at Fairfield University and Clark University, performs with Freestyle Repertory Theater in schools throughout the tri-state area, collaborates with America in Play, was one of the founders of Lucky Productions, and is a member of the Society of Directors and Choreographers and the League of Independent Theater New York.

NEWS 7/20/2012: Introducing Vernacular Productions: Yvonne has started a production company called Vernacular Productions. Vernacular Productions provides project management for startup not-for-profit arts groups engaged in the vernacular performing arts to help them make most of their resources, and everything that New York City has to offer.

NEWS 3/18/2012: The Metropolitan Playhouse's 20th Anniversary Gala, chaired by Yvonne Conybeare, featured a silent auction, food and drink donated by neighborhood business, a full program of entertainment including a staged reading of two 1940's radio plays by the Readers' Ensemble Company, and performances by the Aleman Sisters and the Evan Palazzo band and dancers. Click here for more information and images:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3497689919425.2163319.1186934199&type=1

http://metropolitanplayhouse.org/gala

NEWS 5/16/2011: Metropolitan Playhouse wins an Obie Award in recognition of outstanding achievement in Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway theater during the 2010-2011 season. here is the text from the ceremony. by Patina Miller:

"One theater's subjects this season included alcohol addiction, 

racism, the brutalization of women, homelessness brought on by mortgage foreclosures. Sounds like today’s news. But the special mission of this East Village company is to find the plays from America’s past that have most meaning in the present. And in between their past rediscoveries, they put on festivals of new works that explore East Village life today. For helping us see, theatrically, where we’ve been and where we are, the judges have voted an Obie grant and a check for $2500 to METROPOLITAN PLAYHOUSE."

NEWS 6/3/2010:  Dodsworth is playing at the Metropolitan Playhouse through June 6, 2010.  The play publisher prohibited us from inviting reviewers, but two bloggers wrote about the production anyway:

http://nohway.wordpress.com/2010/06/03/a-great-american-work-redone-with-greatness/

David Noh says Dodsworth is the best production of the New York season, on or off Broadway, calling the show "manna from Thespis' heaven" and the direction "cannily smooth and wondrously sensitive."

http://www.playbill.com/playblog/2010/06/sidney-howards-dodsworth-gets-a-rare-revival/

Harry Haun from Playbill's theater blog says it is a pity the show could not have reviews or publicity, "given the colorful vintage costumes and the creative multi-tasking cast (nine actors in 30 roles!) on display."

Yvonne's other interests include Lindy Hop dance, culture and education, and she is on the board of Harlem Swings.  She is certified as a fully certified Level 3 Franklin Method instructor. She helps movers, both amateur and pro, train more effectively and increase their longevity in the gym and on the dance floor. 

Stage Director

Yvonne Conybeare has been a frequent director and board member at the Metropolitan Playhouse, where she directed Dodsworth, and conceived and directed The Devil and Tom Walker (book by Anthony P. Pennino and music and lyrics by Robert Kendt). She also directed the 2012 edition of Alphabet City, and revivals of The Truth, Inheritors, Missouri Legend, The Devil’s Disciple, The City, The Show Off as well as festival works by Staci Swedeen, Trav S. D., Renee’ Flemings and Laura Livingston.  In winter of 2010, she  staged a reading of a new musical, Work: A Story of Experience based on the little-known novel by Louisa May Alcott, with her collaborators from Tom Walker, Dr. Pennino and Rob Kendt.