Who We Are

Dr. Jonathan Drahos
Artistic Director

Dr. Jonathan Drahos is thrilled to be part of the wonderful community of artists at the Rubicon Theatre Company. Although new to the post as Artistic Director, Jonathan has been active with the Rubicon’s education program for over 10 years as a director and dramaturge.

His career in the theatre spans over thirty years. As an actor in NYC: Roundabout Theatre (Scapin with Bill Irwin), The Public Theatre (Twelfth Night and A Doll’s House directed by the legendary Zelda Fichandler), The Judith Anderson Theatre (At The Threshold). Regional theatre: Portland Stage (Private Lives), Great Lakes Theatre Co. (As You Like It), Williamstown Theatre Festival (Big Men, Small Rooms and As You Like it with Madeleine Potter), Berkshire Theatre Festival (Hay Fever with Joanne Woodward), Pasadena Playhouse (Biloxi Blues), Papermill Playhouse (The Prisoner of Zenda) and Television credits include a recurring role on his mother’s favorite soap opera (“Another World”), “The Norm Show,” “American Dreams,” and “NCIS.” Film credits include “Trim” with Bruce Dern, and “Circuit” with William Katt. Directing credits include Captain Louie (Rubicon Theatre Company), The Government Inspector (ATA in NY), and the Shakespeare plays Hamlet, Macbeth, Richard III, Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, and Richard II for Shakespeare in the Pines – Uprising Theatre Company NC. Dr. Drahos is proud to have the directorship of the Native American (Lumbee Nation) outdoor historical drama Strike at the Wind at the Lumbee Tribe Cultural Center Amphitheatre in NC. He has directed and produced the play for over ten years.

Jonathan holds a BA, and MFA in Acting and Directing, and a PhD in English and Drama from the prestigious Shakespeare Institute – University of Birmingham UK. Before taking up the post as Artistic Director at the Rubicon, Dr. Drahos spent the last decade as full professor (with distinction and tenure), and the Director of Theatre at the University of North Carolina, Pembroke where he produced and directed over 30 plays. In 2025 he received the national University Resident Theatre (URTA) teaching award for excellence in undergraduate acting training.

Jonathan credits all of his students – spread across the nation – who have enriched his life beyond what words are capable of describing.

A special thank you to Karyl Lynn Burns, and to the Director of the Rubicon Education Program Joseph Fuqua, for his enduring friendship, compassion, and guidance.

Karyl Lynn Burns
Rubicon Co-Founder/Producing Artistic Director

Karyl Lynn founded Rubicon with husband James O’Neil in 1998 and has overseen more than 175 productions for the company, including the World Premieres of Daddy Long Legs (which traveled to 15 U.S. cities and 4 countries and had a successful run Off-Broadway); The Best is Yet to Come: The Music of Cy Coleman (NY Drama Desk Award); Lonesome Traveler (which transferred Off-Broadway and was nominated for Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards); Conviction (co-premiere with Bay Street Theatre); and Cheri Steinkellner’s Hello! My Baby. She also produced the West Coast BeckettFest, which brought international artists to Ventura for a month-long celebration of the works of Samuel Beckett. For over a decade prior to starting Rubicon, Karyl Lynn was CEO of State of the Arts, an arts management and marketing firm. Clients included Ventura Music Festival, New West Symphony, Ensemble Theatre Company, PCPA Theaterfest, Theatre League, Broadway Producer Normand Kurtz, and Tony Award-winning playwright Dale Wasserman. Karyl Lynn worked with students from Oak Meadow School who received the United Nations “Global 500” Award for their work on environmental issues. For The Dream Foundation, she produced a PSA directed by Mimi Leder and starring Jeff Bridges. As an event planner, Karyl Lynn and her staff coordinated the 10th Annual “Cool Comedy, Hot Cuisine” with Robin Williams, Howie Mandel and Bob Saget, emceed by Bob Costas. She managed and promoted a charity concert for Scleroderma Research with singer Sheryl Crow at the Santa Barbara Bowl and coordinated several charity film premieres. For Capps for Congress, she managed a luncheon with Hillary Clinton as keynote speaker. Karyl Lynn is also an award-winning sound designer and actor.

James O’neil
Artistic Director Emeritus/Co-Founder

James is the Author/Director of the recent Off-Broadway hit Lonesome Traveler, A Journey Down the Rivers and Streams of American Folk, which received both Drama Desk and Outer Critic’s Circle Award nominations. Lonesome Traveler premiered at Rubicon in 2011 and began a National Tour in the Fall of 2016. Lonesometravelermusical.com Jim’s Rubicon directing credits include Man of La Mancha, Fiddler on the Roof (Independent Award), Jesus Christ Superstar, A Delicate Balance, The Diary of Anne Frank (Independent Award), The Night of the Iguana, A Streetcar Named Desire (Independent Award), Driving Miss Daisy (NAACP Award), All My Sons (Ovation Award), Sylvia and Gem of the Ocean. Under Jim’s artistic leadership, Rubicon accepted the 2012 Drama Desk Award for The Best is Yet to Come: The Music of Cy Coleman. Other directing credits include The Lion in Winter, The Petrified Forest, Inherit the Wind and regional premieres of A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking and Drood! While on staff at Landmark Entertainment Group, Jim directed a multi-million dollar animatronics/special effects show in Japan, supervising all aspects of production and creative direction for themed attractions in Sanrio’s Harmonyland. As an actor, he received rave reviews as Pontius Pilate in the 1992-94 National Tour of Jesus Christ Superstar starring Ted Neeley, Carl Anderson and Irene Cara. Other roles include Dr. Prospero in the American regional premiere of Return to the Forbidden Planet at the American Heartland Theatre in Kansas City, John Adams in 1776, The Duke/Dr. Carrasco in Man of La Mancha, Adam in the first reading of Dale Wasserman’s Western Star and Claudius in the Rubicon’s production of Hamlet. He can be heard as Czar Nicholas II on the concept album Rasputin, written by Michael Rapp and starring Ted Neeley, John Hurt and Amanda McBroom; and as Quasimodo on Mr. Rapp’s Quasimodo, Prince of Fools.