Arden2
U.S. Artists Initiative Core Participants
The World as a Place of Truth International Theatre Festival
June 14-30, 2009
Scroll down for participant biographies.
The U.S. Artists Initiative has been designed primarily for theatre directors, though a few participants do represent other roles in the theatre-making process. All were selected and invited by Joanna Klass in consultation with a panel of senior advisors from the international theatre community. The group is comprised of both seasoned leaders and emerging professionals – a colorful mix of generations, backgrounds, levels of experience – from across the United States. While these artists are coming to Poland for a unique international experience, Arden2 also looks forward to bridging together some of the different professional theatre circles within the U.S. while bolstering support and building momentum for the next generation of leaders.
Jesse Berger: Artistic Director, Red Bull Theater: New York City, NY: As founding artistic director of Red Bull Theater, Jesse has adapted and directed four critically acclaimed Off Broadway productions and produced the OBIE Award-Winning “Revelation Reading” Series. Jesse has also taught and directed in New York and across the country. www.redbulltheater.com
Bryan Brown: Theatre Practitioner and Co-founder, American Russian Theatre Ensemble Laboratory/ARTEL and [via]Corpora Performance and Research House: Los Angeles, CA: Deeply influenced by American experimental theater and dance practitioners, Bryan has spent the last two years investigating the contemporary theater practices of Eastern European and Russian laboratories through his relations with the Grotowski Institute and the Song of the Goat Theatre. Consistently teaching in Los Angeles, Bryan also has lead workshops in Poland, New Orleans and NY. www.arteltheater.org; www.viacorpora.com
Martha Demson: Artistic Director, Open Fist Theatre Company: Los Angeles, CA: Receiving her principal theatrical education from Yale University and Sanford Meisner, Martha has held the position of Artistic Director at Open Fist Theatre Company for the past decade. Martha has directed at Open Fist, USC and Off-Broadway, as well as produced the multi-award winning The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union (Grieg). www.openfist.org
Jeremy Louise Eaton: Training Leader/Core Ensemble Member/Actor, Double Edge Theatre: Ashfield, MA: Jeremy has worked with Double Edge – the oldest and most renowned American laboratory theatre founded by Stacy Klein 27 years ago – since 2004, and has performed in three company and four Summer Spectacle performances. She manages the company’s student programming and leads training for the theatre’s student and university training programs, including the company’s 2007 performance residency at Brandeis University. www.doubleedgetheatre.org
Brian Fairley: Music/Second Stage Director/Dramaturg, Double Edge Theatre: Ashfield, MA: Brian is the Music Director and Dramaturg for Double Edge Theatre and directs its Second Stage program, which produces new work by emerging artists. He holds a degree in ancient Greek literature from Harvard College and is a multi-instrumentalist and singer. www.doubleedgetheatre.org
Stephanie Gilman: Independent Director: New York City, NY: Stephanie has directed and taught all over the Northeastern US. She was the co-founder and co-artistic director of Collision Theory, an award-winning ensemble company that created and produced interdisciplinary, physical theatre. Stephanie continues to develop and teach the movement work of the late Beatrice Lees, as a training system as well as to create original, movement-based performance.
Beth Hogan: Associate Artistic Director, Odyssey Theatre Ensemble (OTE): Los Angeles, CA: In addition to being the OTE artistic director – a theatre company that for over 30 years has been devoted to experimental work influenced by Eastern European theatre and Grotowski’s training – Beth is also a member of OTE’s process-oriented resident ensemble, KOAN. www.odysseytheatre.com
Giti Jabaily: Education Director, Single Carrot Theatre: Baltimore, MD: Giti is a founding member and Education Director of Single Carrot Theatre. www.singlecarrot.com
J. Buck Jabaily: Artistic Director, Single Carrot Theatre: Baltimore, MD: Buck is the founding artistic director of Single Carrot Theatre. Single Carrot operates in a 45 seat flexible configuration black box with a variety of scripts, from classics to new works to original ensemble created productions. www.singlecarrot.com
Stephen Legawiec: Co-Artistic Director, Ziggurat Theatre Ensemble: Los Angeles, CA: Stephen founded the White River Theatre Festival in VT in 1988. In 1991, he founded the Invisible Theatre Project, an ensemble theatre exploring the origins of theatre using ritual as a dramatic form. Stephen has worked under the direction of Eugenio Barba and founded the Ziggurat Ensemble to explore the relevance of myth and ritual to a contemporary audience. www.ziggurattheatre.org
Mimi Lien: Set Designer, Pig Iron Theatre Company: Philadelphia, PA: Mimi is a designer of sets/environments for theater, dance and opera. She studied architecture at Yale and the Glasgow School of Art, then spent a year in Italy making paintings, installations and objects. Her work has been recognized by a Barrymore Award, two Barrymore nominations, an American Theatre Wing Hewes Design Award nomination. She is a current recipient of the 2007-2009 NEA/TCG Career Development Program. www.pigiron.org
Rob Melrose: Artistic Director, Cutting Ball Theater: San Francisco, CA: A co-founder of The Cutting Ball Theater, Rob has directed at The Cutting Ball Theater, The Gutherie Theater, The California Shakespeare Theater, Yale Summer Cabaret, Princeton Summer Theater, and others. He has an M.F.A. in directing from the Yale School of Drama and is currently a 2007-2009 recipient of the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Directors. www.cuttingball.com
Katharine Noon: Artistic Director, The Ghost Road Company: Los Angeles, CA: Katharine is co-founder and artistic director of The Ghost Road Company, where the company’s projects include Elektra-La-La, Resa Fantastiskt Mystisk, The Clytemnestra Project and others. Katharine is on faculty at Loyola Marymount University. Ghost Road is a proud member of The Network of Ensemble Theatres and The LA Stage Alliance. www.ghostroad.org
Brooke O’Harra: Director/Co-Founder, The Theatre of a Two-headed Calf: New York City, NY: In addition to directing all Two-headed Calf productions, Brooke works as a free-lance director with an interest in new and experimental texts. She is the recipient of the NEA/TCG Developing Directors Grant, a Harp Artist in Residence, and a Drama League Directing fellow. Brooke has studied and made theatre in Japan, Czech Republic, Poland, Indonesia, and Ghana and is full time theatre faculty at Mt. Holyoke College. www.twoheadedcalf.org
Olya Petrakova: Theatre Practitioner and Co-founder, American Russian Theatre Ensemble Laboratory/ARTEL and [via]Corpora Performance and Research House: Los Angeles, CA: Originally from the former Soviet Union, Olya came to the US from St. Petersburg, Russia in 1991. Since 1999, she has produced and created a number of critically acclaimed stage and street events. As a co-founder of ARTEL, she trains, creates and performs with the company, as well as leads sessions and research in vocal development. www.arteltheater.org; www.viacorpora.com
Rubén Polendo: Artistic Director, Theater Mitu: New York City, NY: Rubén has written and directed several works with his company including Canticle, Moonchild, and Ahraihsak, plus others developed across the nation. Rubén holds a Biochemistry Degree, an MFA in Directing and an MFA in non-Western Theatre. He is director of Theater Mitu’s Bangkok Artist Intensive and South India Intensive, as well as Artistic Associate at NYTW where Theater Mitu is presently Company-in-Residence. www.theatermitu.org
Tali Pressman: Managing Director, Cornerstone Theater Company: Los Angeles, CA: Cornerstone is a multi-ethnic, ensemble-based company that commissions and produces new plays, both original works and contemporary adaptations of classics, combining the artistry of professional and community collaborators. Before coming to Cornerstone, Tali was the Director of Special Projects at Progressive Jewish Alliance (PJA), where she created the Jeremiah Fellowship, a year-long program that educates emerging social justice leaders. She studied theater and literature at University of California, Santa Cruz. www.cornerstonetheater.org
Paige Rogers: Associate Artistic Director, Cutting Ball Theater: San Francisco, CA: A co-founder of The Cutting Ball Theater, Paige has directed and acted numerous times for the Cutting Ball stage. She has also performed at The Kennedy Center, McCarter Theater, Trinity Rep and The Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Last year, Paige was voted Best Actor/Actress in the Bay Area by San Francisco Weekly’s annual poll. www.cuttingball.com
Mark Seldis: Producing Director, The Ghost Road Company: Los Angeles, CA: Mark has been creating and producing theatre in Los Angeles for over twenty years and occasionally works in film as well. In 1999, Mark co-founded The Edge of the World Theatre Festival and in 2000 co-created the L.A. History Project for Edgefest. www.ghostroad.org
Jon Lawrence Rivera: Artistic Director, Playwrights’ Arena: Los Angeles, CA: Jon most recently directed The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown. He is the recipient of a NY Fringe Festival Award for Outstanding Direction, the recipient of two Ovation Award nominations for directing, and his productions have garnered over 80 local and international awards. www.playwrightsarena.org
Dan Rothenberg: Co-Artistic Director, Pig Iron Theatre Company: Philadelphia, PA: Dan is a director and creator of experimental performance. He has directed almost all of Pig Iron’s original performance works, including the OBIE Award-winning Hell Meets Henry Halfway. Dan co-directed Shut Eye with legendary ensemble director Joseph Chaikin, and he directed Pay Up, a 30-person site-specific installation about buying and selling. Dan teaches physical theatre for Pig Iron and at Princeton University. www.pigiron.org
James Sugg: Company Member, Pig Iron Theatre Company: Philadelphia, PA: “On a dare,” James was asked to make music for Pig Iron’s Gentlemen Volunteers. Consequently, he has sound designed for Seattle Rep, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, and others and has toured to Peru, Poland, Lithuania, Romania, Ukraine, and more. James is a ten-year member of Pig Iron whose work starts from that initial dare, “What have you never done?” Philadelphia Magazine named James the “Theater Talent” of the year in ’05. www.pigiron.org
Mark Valdez: National Coordinator, Network of Ensemble Theaters (NET): Los Angeles, CA: Prior to working with NET, Mark served as the Associate Artistic Director for Cornerstone Theater Company. He is a guest lecturer at UC Riverside, where he directs and teaches Latino Theater and Film, and Theater for Social Change. Mark is the recipient of both a Princess Grace Award in Directing and Special Project Grant. www.ensembletheaters.net
Valeria Vasilevski: Independent Director/Writer/Performer: New York City, NY: Valeria has her roots deep in the theater, dating back to original work with Jerzy Grotowski (’74) and evolving through performance art, dance theater, music theater and “concert theater.” Her article on concert theater “Pioneering a New Form or Putting a Dress on a Tree?” appears in the Yale Theater Review. Valeria is the recipient of numerous fellowships, including a Kosciuszko, Fulbright and IREX to Poland. She is a seven time ASCAP Awards Recipient. home.earthlink.net/~reduta/
Meiyin Wang: Associate Producer/Co-Artistic Director, Under the Radar Festival (UTR)/Quality Meats: New York City, NY: In her three years at UTR, Meiyin has managed 47 productions, applied for artist visas from 11 embassies, and hosted over 550 artistic directors and presenters from 20 countries. Born and raised in Singapore, Meiyin served as resident playwright and associate artistic director of Singapore Repertory Theatre before earning her M.F.A in directing from Columbia under Anne Bogart. www.undertheradarfestival.com
Dara Weinberg: Independent Director/Writer: Chicago, IL: Dara specializes in the theatrical interpretations of the Greek Chorus. She is a co-founder of the Indy Convergence, an annual conference of experimental artists held in Indianapolis each February. She has extensively directed in Los Angeles, and recently, has been experimenting with the writing of choruses, both theatrical and poetic – studying playwrighting at Chicago Dramatists, and preparing to begin a poetry M.F.A. at Johns Hopkins University. weinberg.wordpress.com
Garth Whitten: Training Leader/Performer, American Russian Theatre Ensemble Laboratory/ARTEL and [via]Corpora Performance and Research House: Los Angeles, CA: After more than a year of training both with members of ARTEL as well as developing methods of practice through his own solo work, Garth began to research the works of Daniil Kharms with Olya Petrakova, which culminated in the production The Kharmful Charms of Dani Kharms. Garth plans to continue leading ensemble training, as well as building a series of workshops through [via]Corpora based on physical approaches to performance and the continued development of his own methods. www.arteltheater.org; www.viacorpora.com
Dana Wieluns: Co-Artistic Director, Ziggurat Theatre Ensemble: Los Angeles, CA: Dana has contributed to nearly every Ziggurat Theatre Ensemble production as a performer, movement coach/choreographer, mask performance coach or assistant director. She is responsible for leading mask and physical theatre training for the Ensemble, and also teaches mask and yoga professionally. www.ziggurattheatre.org
Guy Zimmerman: Artistic Director, Padua Playwrights: Los Angeles, CA: A playwright, director and filmmaker, Guy has been the Artistic Director of Padua Playwrights since 2001. He has overseen award-winning productions of new plays by numerous contemporary playwrights. He has moved two plays to Off-Broadway stages in New York City to critical acclaim. He recently completed his second feature film, Gary’s Walk, and has directed short films based on texts by Paul Bowles, Sissy Boyd and his own plays. www.paduaplaywrights.net
