Hello!
First things first, yes, that is how you spell my last name. And, yes, it’s easier if you just pretend that the G is silent. (There’s a bigger story there, read more if you like.)
Ok, glad we got that out of the way!
Now, thank you for wanting to take a moment to get to know me better. I’m a consultant and non-profit professional who is passionate not only about the arts, culture, and education - but about the ways in which arts, culture, and education can make our communities better.
There are few places left in the world where people with wildly different backgrounds can sit (literally) shoulder-to-shoulder and share a common experience. The arts provide us one of those few remaining spaces. I have found through my 20+ year career that once people in our communities have shared one common experience, it is infinitely easier for those same people to discover what else they share in common. It becomes infinitely easier to see that the things we share in common far outweigh the things that might make us different. Through working in the arts, we have the power to build not only great art, but also stronger communities - communities with a greater power for empathy, communities more capable of dialogue than debate, communities we all would want to live in.
That’s why I do what I do.
How did I get here? I have had the privilege to lead or support marketing, communications, community engagement, civic impact, fundraising, research, and strategy for a host of brilliant organizations, large and small, in both my professional life and in my volunteer work. Some of these organizations include the Alliance Theater, the American Repertory Theater, the Gateway Men’s Chorus, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and 7 Stages Theater.
I also spent about ten years of my career working as a professional stage director, bringing to life regional and world premieres, as well as new takes on classic plays and musicals - staging works by Anton Chekhov (Uncle Vanya), Caryl Churchill (A Number), Stephen Dietz (Dracula), Christopher Durang (Miss Witherspoon), Michael Frayn (Copenhagen), Richard Greenberg (The Violet Hour), David Mamet (Boston Marriage), Addae Moon (Notes from the Bottletree), Peter Sinn Nachtrieb (boom), William Shakespeare (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Stephen Sondheim (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Form), Mark St. Germain (The God Committee), and more.
I currently teach marketing for the arts in Webster University’s Arts Management & Leadership masters degree program, and previously taught acting at Clark Atlanta University, Berry College, and in the Acting School at the Alliance Theatre. I have dedicated time to learning as much as teaching - participating in both LEAD Atlanta (at 24, one one of the youngest selected for that program) and Leadership St. Louis. I have given back to both over the years as a program chair, mentorship chair, and selection committee chair (in Atlanta) and as a member of the selection committee (in St. Louis).
My backgrounds in administration, artistic, and education combine to provide a unique perspective in all the work that I do. I’m that rare breed that loves telling stories as much as I love translating the numbers that help explain those stories. I’m equally excited by the research that goes into understanding an audience or a community as I am by the research that goes into preparing for a rehearsal. It thrills me to see the impact of a great campaign just as much as it thrills me to feel a sung note of music flutter in the air, keeping a room full of strangers captivated for as long as the note can last. I love finding the things that make colleagues, audiences, artists, and communities excited and tapping that excitement to make us all richer, better humans.
In 2019, I launched consulting services to help support a wider array of non-profit organizations making an impact in their communities. My commitment in this space is to help organizations build capacity (be it financial, infrastructure, or community capacity). I am drawn most closely to those organizations serving the arts, equity and inclusion, health and social services, and social justice.
For the last 8+ years, I have been based in St. Louis, MO. When I’m not knee deep in the arts, I love to travel (I’ve been to all 50 states and all 50 state capitals), study languages (my German and French are getting better every day; my Italian is still atrocious), write (both words and music), and spend time with my wonderful husband Kraig and our two dogs, Sprout and Emmit.
If we don’t know one another yet, but the essays on this site are of interest or my work sparks an idea for a collaboration on a project, please don’t hesitate to be in touch. I also love to meet new people, particular those who share a similar passion for the arts and community.
Headshots by Christopher Bartelaski. Dog photos (Sprout above, Emmit below) are my own.
select accomplishments
Led 57% growth in Gen X and Millennial audiences and 46% growth in audiences of color at OTSL.
Improved ROI from 2:1 to 5:1 in two years on 7 Stages’ signature fundraiser.
Launched and maintained annual national New York press luncheon for OTSL.
Secured anonymous challenge gift and introduced competitive social fundraising to secure match for GMC, resulting in nearly 200 new individual donors.
Recipient of the St. Louis Business Journal’s Diverse Business Leader Award.
Twice achieved highest subscription renewal rate (89.2%) at OTSL in at least two decades.
Led strategic planning processes for Gateway Men’s Chorus, resulting in organization’s first two years without an operating deficit in nearly a decade.
Achieved unmatched ethnic diversity in audiences at the Alliance Theatre, with 32% of ticket buyers people of color.
Developed and produced Opera Tastings at OTSL - nationally recognized for results in case studies from the Wallace Foundation and WNET Television.
Built OTSL’s Engagement + Inclusion Task Force to strengthen organizational capacity for impact in the areas of equity and diversity.
Developed what was the Alliance Theatre’s highest grossing single ticket sales campaign to date for the pre-Broadway run of Come Fly Away.
Cultivated board leadership for 7 Stages from among Atlanta’s most significant corporate stakeholders
Recipient of the Apex Society (Atlanta)’s Power 30 Under 30 Award.
Served as program co-chair for LEAD Atlanta, organizing support from close to 50 volunteer community leaders to manage a 9-month training program.
Invited as speaker, moderator, and facilitator by organizations including as Emory University, OPERA America, Missouri History Museum, Diversity Awareness Partnership, Webster University, OCA-St. Louis, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, and Hands on Atlanta.
““Director Joe Gfaller and his first-rate team of actors and designers have turned A Number into one of the most essential and electrifying tickets of the fall season… As we have come to expect from Gfaller, every “t” is crossed, every “i” dotted. He’s a young director with exceptionally smart taste.” ”