The prospect of a madman obtaining the power that this potent metal can confer has led this country into at least one war, and threatens to involve us in others. As theater artists, we see ourselves as the custodians of spiritual uranium: through our command of our empathic and critical faculties, we have the potential to unleash chain reactions of personal and social transformation. We acknowledge the awesome responsibility this entails, and set ourselves the task of creating work that honors and harnesses this potential.
MADHOUSE:
Recognizing, at the same time, the poet's injunction that "much madness is divinest sense", we see the theater as a place for madness; that is, for passionate vitality, radical freedom from constraint, and the willingness to see what others cannot or will not. We see the actor as one who is ready to surrender her whole being to the passions, cares and extreme circumstances of another, effectively inducing a kind of madness in herself, a radioactive madness. Having entered this altered state, the actor lures her audience into temporarily abandoning their immediate personal concerns and following her into the space between habits, a centrifuge wherein new forms of life can be glimpsed. We further celebrate the destabilizing power of laughter, which can expose the rigid postures that a debased culture offers as models of fulfillment.
THEREFORE:
we see both the world and the theater as a URANIUM MADHOUSE, and seek to make a home for ourselves in both. To that end, we produce plays, both contemporary and classical, that attest to the challenge and difficulty of living in such a world. We produce plays that dramatize the bombardment of the fragile, unstable isotope that is human well-being and belonging by relentless rapaciousness, aggression and cruelty. In short, we produce plays that manifest the virtue of spiritual ambition, especially in the defense of the promise of civilization.
Artistic Leadership
Andrew Utter, Artistic Director
Andrew Utter has an MFA in directing from the Yale School of Drama and a Ph.D. in German Studies from Stanford University. In 2011 he directed the two plays that made up Uranium Madhouse's inaugural offering, Conversation Storm/The House of Cards. In 2004, he founded the Mother of Invention Acting School in San Francisco, and expanded it to Los Angeles in 2008. Andrew has directed at venues such as Syracuse Stage in Syracuse, New York, and at New York's Fordham University.
Theater companies and institutions for which Andrew has worked, in various capacities, include: the Magic Theater, the Yale Repertory Theater, Manhattan Class Company, Syracuse Stage, Mabou Mines New York, Schaubuehne am Lehniner Platz, Arc-Light Repertory Theater SF, Yale Summer School Acting Program, Northwestern University's National High School Institute, Emerging Artists (New York), The Flea (New York),Odyssey Theater Ensemble (Los Angeles), Fordham University, Fairfield University, and Clark University. He has directed productions of plays by William Shakespeare, Maria Irene Fornes, Peter Handke, Edward Albee, Eric Overmyer, Wallace Shawn, John Guare, John Webster, Kandor and Ebb, Liz Duffy Adams, Julie McKee, Robert Curtis, Jody McAuliffe and Brian Bauman, among others.
Erik Flatmo, Resident Designer
Erik Flatmo is a West Coast based set designer who works in theater, opera and dance. His designs have been seen on the stages of American Conservatory Theater, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, San Jose Repertory Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Yale Repertory Theatre, Opera Santa Barbara, and San Francisco Opera among others. He has designed scenery for the original productions of many new American plays, resulting in close relationships with companies solely devoted to the presentation of new plays such Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, The Play Company, Summer Playwrights Festival (SPF) and The Magic Theater. His work with choreographer Trajal Harrell has debuted in New York City at venues such as The Kitchen, Danspace Project, and Dance Theatre Workshop in addition to international presentations in Poland, France, Germany and Mexico. He designed scenery for Uranium Madhouse's productions of Conversation Storm and The House of Cards. He is a graduate of Columbia University and The Yale School of Drama. He teaches set design at Stanford University.
Formerly with the Business and Legal Affairs Department at Vin Di Bona Productions, Yolanda Seabourne facilitated the launch of the licensing division for one of primetime's longest running entertainment programs. Currently Director of Licensing for FishBowl Worldwide Media, Yolanda is responsible for licensing and strategic repurposing of television's largest library of user-generated content for use across various platforms, including feature films, national commercials and new media. A graduate of the Theater Arts program at California State University, Fullerton Yolanda currently studies with Andrew Utter at The Mother of Invention Acting School.
A founding member of Uranium Madhouse, Yolanda appeared in the company's inaugural production in Charles Mee's one-person show The House of Cards. Madhouse audiences will next see Yolanda as the lusty, entrepreneurial widow Leucadia Begbick in Uranium Madhouse's sophomore presentation, A Man's a Man.
Associate Artists
Brian Bauman
Brian Bauman is a playwright and the artistic director/founder of Perfect Disgrace Theater. His plays include: Atta Boy, Butane, Crack Baby Jesus, Elegy for A Midshipman, Hell's Kitchen, Motherhood in a Faucet, Porridge, Saint Cocker Spaniel, and Vanity Arsenal. His work has been performed in Boulder (Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Dairy Center for the Arts), Los Angeles (Broad Art Center at UCLA, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Company of Angels Theatre, Unhappy Hour at the Parlour), New York (Collective Unconscious, La Mama Galleria), and San Francisco (Poets Theatre Jamboree at CCA, RADAR Reading Series at SF Public Library). He is a MacDowell Colony Fellow. He earned an M.F.A. in playwriting from California Institute of the Arts.
David Bauman
David Bauman is an actor, writer, and teacher in Los Angeles. Originally from Wisconsin, he received his B.A. in Theater and Advertising from the University of Wisconsin, and his M.F.A from U.C.L.A. In Los Angeles Bauman has worked with the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, Evidence Room Theater, Buzzworks Theater, The Blank, Theater Company's Young Playwrights' Festival and Living Room Series, and Sacred Fools, in classic and contemporary productions. Bauman has taught acting at UCLA, StageCoach School at CrossRoads, YADA (The Youth Academy of Dramatic Arts) in Los Angeles, and is currently a member of the faculty at Idyllwild Arts Summer Conservatory, where he has been writing and directing original and adapted works for more than ten years, including his adaptation of Heinrich Hoffman's Shockheaded Peter, The Red-Legged Scissorman, his musical adaptation of A League of Their Own, and his original musicals Down the Block, and The Scrugg Sisters. Bauman is currently preoccupied with the group SomeComedyThing, creating short films and webisodes.
Rick Burkhardt
Rick Burkhardt studied music composition at Harvard University, the University of Illinois, and the University of California, San Diego, where he earned his Ph.D. in 2006.
He has received commissions, grants, and performances from organizations and performers such as the U.S.-Mexico Fund for Culture, the La Jolla Symphony, Ensemble Surplus, the Boswil Foundation, Janos Negyesy and Paivikki Nykter, Ensemble Ascolta, Red Fish Blue Fish, the NOISE quartet, the past(modern) duo, sfSound, Toca Loca, Mark Menzies, the Olympia Chamber Orchestra, the American Composers Forum, and Ensemble Chronophonie.
During the early 1990's, he toured the US, Germany, and Swtizerland performing new music and theater with the Performers' Workshop Ensemble.
In 1997, he began studying music with Chaya Czernowin and took classes in poetry from Rae Armantrout. He spent the following years inventing idiosyncratic methods for producing critical interactions of oddly integrated music and text.
His hobby, the satirical political cabaret duo the Prince Myshkins (with virtuoso guitarist, singer and lifelong collaborator Andy Gricevich), became a full-time job in 2002, once the "War on Terror" had provided an alarming overflow of material to satirize, and he began dividing his time between completing his studies and touring nationally, recording two CDs of his original political songs which have been covered and recorded by musicians across the US.
He is a founding member of the Nonsense Company, an experimental music / theater trio dedicated to new works and new venues. The Nonsense Company has performed in over 30 US cities, presenting new music and theater in unexpected combinations for a wide range of audiences. Their concert in Darmstadt in 2004 was hailed as "one of the most solid, free, and critical aesthetic propositions... of the festival." Their 2008 performance in NYC's Frigid Theater Festival was reviewed as "the must see show of the festival" and won Best Show and Audience Choice awards.
He lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Cris D'Annunzio
Cris D'Annunzio was raised in a traditional East Coast nuclear family -- in the sense that his grandparents, both Italian immigrants, lived in the house and there were always bombs going off! He survived to attend Princeton University, where he played football. Cris got his start in acting when he was 'discovered' by the John Houseman Acting Company while moving instruments for the symphony orchestra at Chautauqua Institute in upstate NY -- his summer job during college. The experience of riding his bike to the theatre and performing stuck with him. After a brief stint in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills, Cris embarked on an acting and writing career that has taken him from the stage to the screen -- both big and small. LA Stage appearances include Cobb at the Falcon Theater, award winning Cockroach Nation at LATC, and the World Premiere of Beth Henley's Sisters of the Winter Madrigal. NY credits include Miss Julie at Manhattan Theatre Club. Selected film credits include Ridley Scott's American Gangster and Chasing 3000 with Ray Liotta, which Cris wrote. Cris has had numerous TV roles which include appearances on Without A Trace, and Law and Order.
Jeff Gardner
Jeff Gardner is an actor/sound designer born and raised in Los Angeles. Acting credits include King Lear (The Antaeus Company); Hamlet (The Globe Playhouse); The Tempest (A Noise Within); Little Women (Kennedy Center); Skylight (The Studio Theatre); Becket (Olney Theatre Center); Henry V starring Harry Hamlin, Henry VI (parts I-III) and Measure For Measure (The Shakespeare Theatre); Other regional credits include Our Town starring James Whitmore and The Seagull starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Christopher Walken (Williamstown Theatre Festival). As a sound designer Jeff's credits include Juno & The Paycock (The Odyssey Theatre), Deathtroupe starring Fred Willard (The Grove Theatre), The Wives directed by the late Charles Nelson Reilly, Caryl Churchill's The After-Dinner Joke (The Antaeus Company: A2) in North Hollywood
and his very own one-man show, Kill Your Television for the Seattle and Hollywood Fringe Festivals. Jeff is currently acting and sound designing for the upcoming ClassicsFest 2011 for The Antaeus Company.
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Tyne Marie Gaudielle
Tyne Marie Gaudielle was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. She attended San Diego State University and majored in Theatre Performance. She studied acting abroad in Oxford, England, with the British American Drama Academy. From a young age, Tyne had a vivacious interest for creating and performing. Her family eagerly dismissed the idea of acting, though. Finally in high school, she was allowed to participate in her first play, Stepping Out. It was love! Past theatre work includes Mom, The Importance of Being Earnest, Ten Women, The Good Person of Szechwan, The Vagina Monologues, Letters From Home, Tough as Nails, and The Jungle Book. Past performance art work includes, Strings Attached and Chimera. Past short film work includes Broken Hearts, Thank You For Calling, My Sweetest Downfall, and Aim For the Heart: A Guide to Vampire Defense.
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William Haugse
William Haugse
An Oscar- and Emmy-nominated editor, William Haugse has
edited a dozen feature documentaries including "Hoop Dreams,"
"Sunset Story," "Stevie," and "No Impact Man," and approximately
50 hours of network and cable documentaries. He was
nominated for both an Oscar ("Hoop Dreams" Fineline) and an
Emmy ("The Last Days of Kennedy and King" Turner), and
received the American Cinema Editors Eddie Award among many
other prizes. He has worked with Orson Welles and John
Cassavetes, among others. His own film, "Breakfast
in Bed," starring John Ritter, was "finely crafted" according to the
Hollywood Reporter and received festival awards both here and in Europe. As a
director of short documentaries he has won several national prizes including Chris Gold
awards.
Starting during his days as a student at UCLA School of Theater, Film and TV he has
acted and directed in live theater, including works by Pinter ("crisp and tantalizing" Los
Angeles Times) and Albee. In the 1990s, he was a professor at the USC Department
of Cinema for five years. In recent years, another art form has come to the fore;
Haugse has had two-man shows and group shows of photography in Los Angeles and
Las Vegas.
Haugse has lived and worked principally in Los Angeles, but also in New York and
Chicago, where he engaged not only in filmmaking but also wrote, acted, and directed
live theater. He returned to Los Angeles in 1995, where he has been working ever
since.
Lucas Krech
Lucas Krech Lighting designer for opera, dance, theater, installation, and performance.
Opera: Soldier Songs and Aida (Dir, Yuval Sharon); Don Giovanni (Dir, Mark Streshinsky); and The Seven Deadly Sins: A Fire Opera (Dir, Roy Rallo)
Dance: Nicolo Fonte, Matthew Neenan, Sean Curran, Johannes Weiland, Donald Mahler, Sallie Wilson, Paul Sutherland, Keith Michael, Trebien Pollard, Anandha Ray, David Brick, and Viktor Kabaniaev.
Off-Broadway: Fate's Imagination (Dir, Hayley Finn); Becoming Adele (Dir, Victor Maog); Sake with the Haiku Geisha and The Last Word (Dir, Alex Lippard).
Regional Theatre: Desperate Hours and Of Mice and Men (Barter Theatre); Lovers & Executioners (MTC); House of Lucky (The Magic).
His work has been seen across the United States, Puerto Rico, Rumania, and the UK.
MFA from New York University.www.lucaskrech.com
Ben Miller
Ben Miller (BA, MFA, AmSAT) is the only AmSAT certified Alexander Technique teacher in Southern California who also holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Performance Pedagogy -- the art of teaching actors. As such, he is uniquely qualified to assist actors in developing their craft and increasing their emotional fluidity.
Ben resides and teaches the Alexander Technique in Los Angeles. In addition to his private teaching studio, he has taught the Alexander Technique in New York, London and Berlin. He has taught workshops for the Pasadena Playhouse's resident company, Furious Theatre, as well as The Five Willows in Lincoln, NE.
Ben has taught acting and/or the Alexander Technique at the following schools:
Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, Los Angeles.
Pomona College, Claremont, CA,
USC (assisting Babette Markus).
Point Park University, Pittsburgh.
University of Pittsburgh,
Ben recently served as Associate Producer in charge of casting and assayed the role of Don on the independent full-length feature, "American Macho Buddha" (www.americanmachobuddha.com). He was also the casting director and inhabited the character of Rowan in "The Resurrection Man" (www.resurrectionmanmovie.com).
Ben is also a member of Actors Equity Association and Screen Actors Guild. He served on the nominating committee for the Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2004 and 2009.
Ben currently serves as the Treasurer on the Executive Committee for the American Society of the Alexander Technique (AmSAT).
Travis Shakespeare
Travis Shakespeare started acting early on in theater as a teenager in his home state of Colorado. His first recognition as an actor came from his performance in Flowers Out of Season, a Williamsesque drama about a borderline psychopath in Waco, TX. The Denver Post called his work a "bravura performance," which gave him all the reason he needed to head to NY to try for the big time.
After college Travis studied acting with Susan Grace Cohen and at The Actor's Studio. He had a recurring role on The Guiding Light, and featured roles in Spike Lee's Malcolm X and Woody Allen's Celebrity. He appeared in many independent films & commercials, as well as over 20 New York stage productions. Ultimately he nabbed a leading role on Broaday in the Lincoln Center production C'est La Vie, in which he played a young artist vying for success in New York society.
That experience sent him on to Los Angeles in 2001. Critics singled him out in A Charlie Brown Commercial Xmas as "brilliant"(LA Weekly) and "outstanding" (LA Times). A year later Daily Variety, Access Hollywood & Extra! all featured Travis in the industry spoof hit Allyn McBeal.
In 2004 Travis started producing documentary television, which meant less time to pursue acting, but he never lost his love for performing. In 2008 he decided to start auditioning again, and was cast in the Swiss short Big Sur, which garnered much festival recognition and a Swiss Academy Award nomination. In 2009 Big Sur was remade as a feature film, set to debut in the Spring. He also signed with Innovative Artists for commercials.
Deidre Suber
Deidre Suber The Techie:
Deidre Suber's career in the theater arts began at Skyline High school in Oakland, CA with several stagecraft classes, where she honed her skills in set construction, then going on to become the lighting operator for many of the schools dance concerts. After graduating from high school, came a brief hiatus from school in general, but theater was in her blood and there's no escaping the hypnotic song of the stage. She answered the call by joining San Francisco State University's Theater Arts department in Fall 2001. Immediately, she was back to working as tech for several main stage productions for the department; set construction and stage crew for A Japanese Christmas Carol directed by Yukihiro Goto, assisting the lighting designer on Shakespeare's Julius Caesar by William "Bill" Peters, stage crew head for Danton's Death and tech for The Ibsen/Strindberg Project, both directed by Mohammed Kowsar.
The Stage:
But something happened that she did not expect, suddenly the shy techie felt a desire to be on stage performing as part of the show instead of being behind the scenes helping to run it. The world that she once knew had changed and now it brought new and exciting problems and pleasures to sort through. She dove right into a flurry of acting, voice and dialect classes, stage combat, mask work and the Suzuki Actor's training workshop, in and outside of SFSU's theater department. However, Brown Bag, a little black box theater in the Creative Arts building is where she made her acting debut. First, in The Land of Counterpane as Hildegard the witch by, Robert Louis Stevenson, followed by God in Pieces, an adaptation on the off-Broadway play, The Kathy and Mo Show: Parallel Lives by Kathy Najimy and Mo Gaffeny, where she played various characters. Then she starred as several characters in a four person ensemble play, The Age of Dragons, written entirely in verse and directed by River Jackson.
The films:
Many theater actors have ventured on to have their talents captured on film, and Deidre was right there with the rest. Student films is where she started, first as a hallway collision victim in Bushwhacked, then as a Pirate/Angelic dancer in Stealing a Burrito and Christmas Spirit. She played a supporting role in the independent film Things Done Changed by Joe Alonso and several roles as an extra in the films; Colma: The Musical by Richard Wong (credited), All About Evil by Joshua Grannell (uncredited) and Moneyball by Bennett Miller (uncredited).
Currently, she is working as a videographer and editor on several personal and professional video projects. Deidre has just completed two cycles of The Mother of Invention Acting School taught by Andrew Utter.
JB Waterman
JB Waterman has performed in plays and films in Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle. Most recently he performed Henry in a production of Henry V at Island Stage Left in Washington State. Recently he has performed in "Conquest of the South Pole", "The Bald Soprano", "Tape" (Smith&Martin Co.), and "What the Butler Saw" (Court Theatre, Chicago). Other Chicago Theatre credits include "Angels in America" (Hypocrites), "Three Sisters"(Ground Up), and "La Traviata" (Hypocrites). His Film Credits include "Dickie Smalls: From Shame to Fame" and "Witchunt". In addition to his training with Andrew Utter and Mother of Invention, he has trained at the School at Steppenwolf, Atlantic Theatre Co, at the Yale Summer Drama Program, and has studied Corporeal Mime with Thomas Leabhart. He lives in Los Angeles.
Stanton Wood
Stanton Wood is a dramatic writer in a variety of media. His play THE NIGHT OF NOSFERATU, produced by Rabbit Hole Ensemble and subsequently moved to Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, received 5 Midtown International Theatre Festival "Best of Fest" nominations as well as 6 New York Innovative Theatre Award nominations (including Outstanding Full Length Script) and was featured on a number of "Best of 2007" lists. Three of his plays, THE SNOW QUEEN, THE MAGICAL FOREST OF BABA YAGA, and THE BLUE BIRD, (co-written with Lori Ann Laster) were produced in NYC by Urban Stages Theatre Company over successive seasons, and he was the recipient of that company's Emerging Playwright Award in 2007. Other plays include THE TRAGIC STORY OF DOCTOR FRANKENSTEIN, CANDIDE AMERICANA, BIG THICK ROD (all produced by Rabbit Hole Ensemble), DOWN THE DRAIN (adobe theatre company), and MR. HOOVER'S TEA PARTY (Offworld Theatre Company), .
In addition to being a resident artist at Rabbit Hole Ensemble and Urban Stages, he has received developmental support from Algonquin Theatre Company, Manhattan Class Company, Playwrights Horizons, The Hangar Theatre, Primary Stages, New York Theatre Workshop, City Theatre in Pittsburgh, and the Carnegie Mellon Showcase of New Plays. His plays have been published in a number of literary magazines, by Original Works, and by Playscripts.
His credits in film and television include a stint as dialogue writer on South Beach Story, a daytime drama, and as screenwriter on Heart to Heart.com, an independent feature film comedy now distributed by the Starz Network. He has also done radio and stage comedy, appearing as a writer/performer on the BBC in England, on local NPR, and live on stages in the San Francisco Bay Area as part of the comedy troupe Reverend Gary's Church of Fun.
The proud contributing author to the screamingly funny Message Insertion System and Method (Patent Number 09/955,678), he has also worked extensively in the game industry, writing dialogue and designing characters for award winning projects at Zoesis Studios and Pandemic Studios, including Otto and Iris, Mr Bubb in Space!, and Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers. He has an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University.
Adminitrative Staff
Ron Ginsberg, Administrative Coordinator
Ron brings years of experience in property management and advertising sales to the Madhouse, in addition to deep expertises in Linux and Windows systems administration. He is a proud Buddhist and vegan. His eternal question: how can I help?
Andrew Utter has an MFA in directing from the Yale School of Drama and a Ph.D. in German Studies from Stanford University. In 2011 he directed the two plays that made up Uranium Madhouse's inaugural offering, Conversation Storm/The House of Cards. In 2004, he founded the Mother of Invention Acting School in San Francisco, and expanded it to Los Angeles in 2008. Andrew has directed at venues such as Syracuse Stage in Syracuse, New York, and at New York's Fordham University. Theater companies and institutions for which Andrew has worked, in various capacities, include: the Magic Theater, the Yale Repertory Theater, Manhattan Class Company, Syracuse Stage, Mabou Mines New York, Schaubuehne am Lehniner Platz, Arc-Light Repertory Theater SF, Yale Summer School Acting Program, Northwestern University's National High School Institute, Emerging Artists (New York), The Flea (New York),Odyssey Theater Ensemble (Los Angeles), Fordham University, Fairfield University, and Clark University. He has directed productions of plays by William Shakespeare, Maria Irene Fornes, Peter Handke, Edward Albee, Eric Overmyer, Wallace Shawn, John Guare, John Webster, Kandor and Ebb, Liz Duffy Adams, Julie McKee, Robert Curtis, Jody McAuliffe and Brian Bauman, among others.
Erik Flatmo is a West Coast based set designer who works in theater, opera and dance. His designs have been seen on the stages of American Conservatory Theater, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, San Jose Repertory Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Yale Repertory Theatre, Opera Santa Barbara, and San Francisco Opera among others. He has designed scenery for the original productions of many new American plays, resulting in close relationships with companies solely devoted to the presentation of new plays such Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, The Play Company, Summer Playwrights Festival (SPF) and The Magic Theater. His work with choreographer Trajal Harrell has debuted in New York City at venues such as The Kitchen, Danspace Project, and Dance Theatre Workshop in addition to international presentations in Poland, France, Germany and Mexico. He designed scenery for Uranium Madhouse's productions of Conversation Storm and The House of Cards. He is a graduate of Columbia University and The Yale School of Drama. He teaches set design at Stanford University.
Formerly with the Business and Legal Affairs Department at Vin Di Bona Productions, Yolanda Seabourne facilitated the launch of the licensing division for one of primetime's longest running entertainment programs. Currently Director of Licensing for FishBowl Worldwide Media, Yolanda is responsible for licensing and strategic repurposing of television's largest library of user-generated content for use across various platforms, including feature films, national commercials and new media. A graduate of the Theater Arts program at California State University, Fullerton Yolanda currently studies with Andrew Utter at The Mother of Invention Acting School.
Brian Bauman is a playwright and the artistic director/founder of Perfect Disgrace Theater. His plays include: Atta Boy, Butane, Crack Baby Jesus, Elegy for A Midshipman, Hell's Kitchen, Motherhood in a Faucet, Porridge, Saint Cocker Spaniel, and Vanity Arsenal. His work has been performed in Boulder (Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Dairy Center for the Arts), Los Angeles (Broad Art Center at UCLA, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Company of Angels Theatre, Unhappy Hour at the Parlour), New York (Collective Unconscious, La Mama Galleria), and San Francisco (Poets Theatre Jamboree at CCA, RADAR Reading Series at SF Public Library). He is a MacDowell Colony Fellow. He earned an M.F.A. in playwriting from California Institute of the Arts.
David Bauman is an actor, writer, and teacher in Los Angeles. Originally from Wisconsin, he received his B.A. in Theater and Advertising from the University of Wisconsin, and his M.F.A from U.C.L.A. In Los Angeles Bauman has worked with the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, Evidence Room Theater, Buzzworks Theater, The Blank, Theater Company's Young Playwrights' Festival and Living Room Series, and Sacred Fools, in classic and contemporary productions. Bauman has taught acting at UCLA, StageCoach School at CrossRoads, YADA (The Youth Academy of Dramatic Arts) in Los Angeles, and is currently a member of the faculty at Idyllwild Arts Summer Conservatory, where he has been writing and directing original and adapted works for more than ten years, including his adaptation of Heinrich Hoffman's Shockheaded Peter, The Red-Legged Scissorman, his musical adaptation of A League of Their Own, and his original musicals Down the Block, and The Scrugg Sisters. Bauman is currently preoccupied with the group SomeComedyThing, creating short films and webisodes.
Rick Burkhardt studied music composition at Harvard University, the University of Illinois, and the University of California, San Diego, where he earned his Ph.D. in 2006. He has received commissions, grants, and performances from organizations and performers such as the U.S.-Mexico Fund for Culture, the La Jolla Symphony, Ensemble Surplus, the Boswil Foundation, Janos Negyesy and Paivikki Nykter, Ensemble Ascolta, Red Fish Blue Fish, the NOISE quartet, the past(modern) duo, sfSound, Toca Loca, Mark Menzies, the Olympia Chamber Orchestra, the American Composers Forum, and Ensemble Chronophonie. During the early 1990's, he toured the US, Germany, and Swtizerland performing new music and theater with the Performers' Workshop Ensemble. In 1997, he began studying music with Chaya Czernowin and took classes in poetry from Rae Armantrout. He spent the following years inventing idiosyncratic methods for producing critical interactions of oddly integrated music and text. His hobby, the satirical political cabaret duo the Prince Myshkins (with virtuoso guitarist, singer and lifelong collaborator Andy Gricevich), became a full-time job in 2002, once the "War on Terror" had provided an alarming overflow of material to satirize, and he began dividing his time between completing his studies and touring nationally, recording two CDs of his original political songs which have been covered and recorded by musicians across the US. He is a founding member of the Nonsense Company, an experimental music / theater trio dedicated to new works and new venues. The Nonsense Company has performed in over 30 US cities, presenting new music and theater in unexpected combinations for a wide range of audiences. Their concert in Darmstadt in 2004 was hailed as "one of the most solid, free, and critical aesthetic propositions... of the festival." Their 2008 performance in NYC's Frigid Theater Festival was reviewed as "the must see show of the festival" and won Best Show and Audience Choice awards. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Cris D'Annunzio was raised in a traditional East Coast nuclear family -- in the sense that his grandparents, both Italian immigrants, lived in the house and there were always bombs going off! He survived to attend Princeton University, where he played football. Cris got his start in acting when he was 'discovered' by the John Houseman Acting Company while moving instruments for the symphony orchestra at Chautauqua Institute in upstate NY -- his summer job during college. The experience of riding his bike to the theatre and performing stuck with him. After a brief stint in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills, Cris embarked on an acting and writing career that has taken him from the stage to the screen -- both big and small. LA Stage appearances include Cobb at the Falcon Theater, award winning Cockroach Nation at LATC, and the World Premiere of Beth Henley's Sisters of the Winter Madrigal. NY credits include Miss Julie at Manhattan Theatre Club. Selected film credits include Ridley Scott's American Gangster and Chasing 3000 with Ray Liotta, which Cris wrote. Cris has had numerous TV roles which include appearances on Without A Trace, and Law and Order.
Jeff Gardner is an actor/sound designer born and raised in Los Angeles. Acting credits include King Lear (The Antaeus Company); Hamlet (The Globe Playhouse); The Tempest (A Noise Within); Little Women (Kennedy Center); Skylight (The Studio Theatre); Becket (Olney Theatre Center); Henry V starring Harry Hamlin, Henry VI (parts I-III) and Measure For Measure (The Shakespeare Theatre); Other regional credits include Our Town starring James Whitmore and The Seagull starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Christopher Walken (Williamstown Theatre Festival). As a sound designer Jeff's credits include Juno & The Paycock (The Odyssey Theatre), Deathtroupe starring Fred Willard (The Grove Theatre), The Wives directed by the late Charles Nelson Reilly, Caryl Churchill's The After-Dinner Joke (The Antaeus Company: A2) in North Hollywood and his very own one-man show, Kill Your Television for the Seattle and Hollywood Fringe Festivals. Jeff is currently acting and sound designing for the upcoming ClassicsFest 2011 for The Antaeus Company.
Tyne Marie Gaudielle was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. She attended San Diego State University and majored in Theatre Performance. She studied acting abroad in Oxford, England, with the British American Drama Academy. From a young age, Tyne had a vivacious interest for creating and performing. Her family eagerly dismissed the idea of acting, though. Finally in high school, she was allowed to participate in her first play, Stepping Out. It was love! Past theatre work includes Mom, The Importance of Being Earnest, Ten Women, The Good Person of Szechwan, The Vagina Monologues, Letters From Home, Tough as Nails, and The Jungle Book. Past performance art work includes, Strings Attached and Chimera. Past short film work includes Broken Hearts, Thank You For Calling, My Sweetest Downfall, and Aim For the Heart: A Guide to Vampire Defense. .
William Haugse An Oscar- and Emmy-nominated editor, William Haugse has edited a dozen feature documentaries including "Hoop Dreams," "Sunset Story," "Stevie," and "No Impact Man," and approximately 50 hours of network and cable documentaries. He was nominated for both an Oscar ("Hoop Dreams" Fineline) and an Emmy ("The Last Days of Kennedy and King" Turner), and received the American Cinema Editors Eddie Award among many other prizes. He has worked with Orson Welles and John Cassavetes, among others. His own film, "Breakfast in Bed," starring John Ritter, was "finely crafted" according to the Hollywood Reporter and received festival awards both here and in Europe. As a director of short documentaries he has won several national prizes including Chris Gold awards. Starting during his days as a student at UCLA School of Theater, Film and TV he has acted and directed in live theater, including works by Pinter ("crisp and tantalizing" Los Angeles Times) and Albee. In the 1990s, he was a professor at the USC Department of Cinema for five years. In recent years, another art form has come to the fore; Haugse has had two-man shows and group shows of photography in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Haugse has lived and worked principally in Los Angeles, but also in New York and Chicago, where he engaged not only in filmmaking but also wrote, acted, and directed live theater. He returned to Los Angeles in 1995, where he has been working ever since.
Lucas Krech Lighting designer for opera, dance, theater, installation, and performance. Opera: Soldier Songs and Aida (Dir, Yuval Sharon); Don Giovanni (Dir, Mark Streshinsky); and The Seven Deadly Sins: A Fire Opera (Dir, Roy Rallo) Dance: Nicolo Fonte, Matthew Neenan, Sean Curran, Johannes Weiland, Donald Mahler, Sallie Wilson, Paul Sutherland, Keith Michael, Trebien Pollard, Anandha Ray, David Brick, and Viktor Kabaniaev. Off-Broadway: Fate's Imagination (Dir, Hayley Finn); Becoming Adele (Dir, Victor Maog); Sake with the Haiku Geisha and The Last Word (Dir, Alex Lippard). Regional Theatre: Desperate Hours and Of Mice and Men (Barter Theatre); Lovers & Executioners (MTC); House of Lucky (The Magic). His work has been seen across the United States, Puerto Rico, Rumania, and the UK. MFA from New York University.www.lucaskrech.com
Ben Miller (BA, MFA, AmSAT) is the only AmSAT certified Alexander Technique teacher in Southern California who also holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Performance Pedagogy -- the art of teaching actors. As such, he is uniquely qualified to assist actors in developing their craft and increasing their emotional fluidity. Ben resides and teaches the Alexander Technique in Los Angeles. In addition to his private teaching studio, he has taught the Alexander Technique in New York, London and Berlin. He has taught workshops for the Pasadena Playhouse's resident company, Furious Theatre, as well as The Five Willows in Lincoln, NE. Ben has taught acting and/or the Alexander Technique at the following schools: Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, Los Angeles. Pomona College, Claremont, CA, USC (assisting Babette Markus). Point Park University, Pittsburgh. University of Pittsburgh, Ben recently served as Associate Producer in charge of casting and assayed the role of Don on the independent full-length feature, "American Macho Buddha" (www.americanmachobuddha.com). He was also the casting director and inhabited the character of Rowan in "The Resurrection Man" (www.resurrectionmanmovie.com). Ben is also a member of Actors Equity Association and Screen Actors Guild. He served on the nominating committee for the Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2004 and 2009. Ben currently serves as the Treasurer on the Executive Committee for the American Society of the Alexander Technique (AmSAT).
Travis Shakespeare started acting early on in theater as a teenager in his home state of Colorado. His first recognition as an actor came from his performance in Flowers Out of Season, a Williamsesque drama about a borderline psychopath in Waco, TX. The Denver Post called his work a "bravura performance," which gave him all the reason he needed to head to NY to try for the big time. After college Travis studied acting with Susan Grace Cohen and at The Actor's Studio. He had a recurring role on The Guiding Light, and featured roles in Spike Lee's Malcolm X and Woody Allen's Celebrity. He appeared in many independent films & commercials, as well as over 20 New York stage productions. Ultimately he nabbed a leading role on Broaday in the Lincoln Center production C'est La Vie, in which he played a young artist vying for success in New York society. That experience sent him on to Los Angeles in 2001. Critics singled him out in A Charlie Brown Commercial Xmas as "brilliant"(LA Weekly) and "outstanding" (LA Times). A year later Daily Variety, Access Hollywood & Extra! all featured Travis in the industry spoof hit Allyn McBeal. In 2004 Travis started producing documentary television, which meant less time to pursue acting, but he never lost his love for performing. In 2008 he decided to start auditioning again, and was cast in the Swiss short Big Sur, which garnered much festival recognition and a Swiss Academy Award nomination. In 2009 Big Sur was remade as a feature film, set to debut in the Spring. He also signed with Innovative Artists for commercials.
Deidre Suber The Techie: Deidre Suber's career in the theater arts began at Skyline High school in Oakland, CA with several stagecraft classes, where she honed her skills in set construction, then going on to become the lighting operator for many of the schools dance concerts. After graduating from high school, came a brief hiatus from school in general, but theater was in her blood and there's no escaping the hypnotic song of the stage. She answered the call by joining San Francisco State University's Theater Arts department in Fall 2001. Immediately, she was back to working as tech for several main stage productions for the department; set construction and stage crew for A Japanese Christmas Carol directed by Yukihiro Goto, assisting the lighting designer on Shakespeare's Julius Caesar by William "Bill" Peters, stage crew head for Danton's Death and tech for The Ibsen/Strindberg Project, both directed by Mohammed Kowsar. The Stage: But something happened that she did not expect, suddenly the shy techie felt a desire to be on stage performing as part of the show instead of being behind the scenes helping to run it. The world that she once knew had changed and now it brought new and exciting problems and pleasures to sort through. She dove right into a flurry of acting, voice and dialect classes, stage combat, mask work and the Suzuki Actor's training workshop, in and outside of SFSU's theater department. However, Brown Bag, a little black box theater in the Creative Arts building is where she made her acting debut. First, in The Land of Counterpane as Hildegard the witch by, Robert Louis Stevenson, followed by God in Pieces, an adaptation on the off-Broadway play, The Kathy and Mo Show: Parallel Lives by Kathy Najimy and Mo Gaffeny, where she played various characters. Then she starred as several characters in a four person ensemble play, The Age of Dragons, written entirely in verse and directed by River Jackson. The films: Many theater actors have ventured on to have their talents captured on film, and Deidre was right there with the rest. Student films is where she started, first as a hallway collision victim in Bushwhacked, then as a Pirate/Angelic dancer in Stealing a Burrito and Christmas Spirit. She played a supporting role in the independent film Things Done Changed by Joe Alonso and several roles as an extra in the films; Colma: The Musical by Richard Wong (credited), All About Evil by Joshua Grannell (uncredited) and Moneyball by Bennett Miller (uncredited). Currently, she is working as a videographer and editor on several personal and professional video projects. Deidre has just completed two cycles of The Mother of Invention Acting School taught by Andrew Utter.
JB Waterman has performed in plays and films in Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle. Most recently he performed Henry in a production of Henry V at Island Stage Left in Washington State. Recently he has performed in "Conquest of the South Pole", "The Bald Soprano", "Tape" (Smith&Martin Co.), and "What the Butler Saw" (Court Theatre, Chicago). Other Chicago Theatre credits include "Angels in America" (Hypocrites), "Three Sisters"(Ground Up), and "La Traviata" (Hypocrites). His Film Credits include "Dickie Smalls: From Shame to Fame" and "Witchunt". In addition to his training with Andrew Utter and Mother of Invention, he has trained at the School at Steppenwolf, Atlantic Theatre Co, at the Yale Summer Drama Program, and has studied Corporeal Mime with Thomas Leabhart. He lives in Los Angeles.
Stanton Wood is a dramatic writer in a variety of media. His play THE NIGHT OF NOSFERATU, produced by Rabbit Hole Ensemble and subsequently moved to Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, received 5 Midtown International Theatre Festival "Best of Fest" nominations as well as 6 New York Innovative Theatre Award nominations (including Outstanding Full Length Script) and was featured on a number of "Best of 2007" lists. Three of his plays, THE SNOW QUEEN, THE MAGICAL FOREST OF BABA YAGA, and THE BLUE BIRD, (co-written with Lori Ann Laster) were produced in NYC by Urban Stages Theatre Company over successive seasons, and he was the recipient of that company's Emerging Playwright Award in 2007. Other plays include THE TRAGIC STORY OF DOCTOR FRANKENSTEIN, CANDIDE AMERICANA, BIG THICK ROD (all produced by Rabbit Hole Ensemble), DOWN THE DRAIN (adobe theatre company), and MR. HOOVER'S TEA PARTY (Offworld Theatre Company), . In addition to being a resident artist at Rabbit Hole Ensemble and Urban Stages, he has received developmental support from Algonquin Theatre Company, Manhattan Class Company, Playwrights Horizons, The Hangar Theatre, Primary Stages, New York Theatre Workshop, City Theatre in Pittsburgh, and the Carnegie Mellon Showcase of New Plays. His plays have been published in a number of literary magazines, by Original Works, and by Playscripts. His credits in film and television include a stint as dialogue writer on South Beach Story, a daytime drama, and as screenwriter on Heart to Heart.com, an independent feature film comedy now distributed by the Starz Network. He has also done radio and stage comedy, appearing as a writer/performer on the BBC in England, on local NPR, and live on stages in the San Francisco Bay Area as part of the comedy troupe Reverend Gary's Church of Fun. The proud contributing author to the screamingly funny Message Insertion System and Method (Patent Number 09/955,678), he has also worked extensively in the game industry, writing dialogue and designing characters for award winning projects at Zoesis Studios and Pandemic Studios, including Otto and Iris, Mr Bubb in Space!, and Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers. He has an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University.
Ron brings years of experience in property management and advertising sales to the Madhouse, in addition to deep expertises in Linux and Windows systems administration. He is a proud Buddhist and vegan. His eternal question: how can I help?
