2007 OOTE Festival
press
All The Kings Men:
Bay Windows, March 15, 2007
Curve Award, December 1, 2006
All The Kings Men Bios:
All the Kings Men Press Kit and Bio
Katie Allen (ATKM Ensemble Member) Katie Allen moved to Boston with the simple goal of keeping herself happy. With a strong background in music, light dabblings but massive interest in theater, and a genius for web design, video creation, and sound engineering, life guided her to All The Kings Men. She is open for expanding her knowledge, and experiencing new and exciting things. Acceptance into ATKM and all the work involved has been a life changing.
Julee Antonellis (ATKM Ensemble Member) While in college, Julee performed an eclectic collection of work. Nominated for the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship, she became a National ACTF Region 1 Finalist and consequentially performed at the renowned Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. She has extensive experience with voice, movement, stage combat, improvisation, modern dance, hip-hop and ballroom. After her education, she became an instructor/Pro-Am dance competitor with Arthur Murray Dance Company. She also wrote, performed, and produced a one woman show, "[n]everclear", featured at Salem State College and both the Natick and Boston Centers for the Arts.
Leighsa Burgin (ATKM Ensemble Member) Formally trained in the performing and fine arts as well as an accomplished producer, director and choreographer, Leighsa has worked extensively in live performance with a number of theatrical and commercial companies. Her favorite stage credits include Mona in "Come back to the 5 & DimeÉ", Catherine in "A View from a Bridge" and May in Beckett's "Footfalls". She is proud to be a founder of the award winning company, All The Kings Men. Her impressive body of work extends across a wide range of genres in every medium from theatre, to television, to film.
Jill Gibson (ATKM Ensemble Member) Jill Gibson has been performing theatre onstage for the past 8 years and offstage since, essentially, she could walk. Her background includes 12 years of dance, experience in start-to-finish set build, musical theatre and choreography. Her main influence remains her ridiculous vaudevillian grandmother, who supported JillÕs early desire to be onstage, to create, to laugh and to explore with her audience.
Hannah Grey (ATKM Ensemble Member) Hannah does this for everyone that has been mistaken for a boy in the girlÕs bathroom. She attended a small art school for sign painting. Hannah loves riding her bike, skateboarding, her fellow kingsmen, listening to music of all kinds, thrift stores, making people laugh and not eating meat. Without you, she would be forced to dress up as a superhero or dental dam and just take it to the streets.
Maria Kogan (ATKM Ensemble Member) Maria got her start over 25 years ago in her living room rocking out to "Panama" and "Billy Jean" for her family. In college Maria first performed drag in bars around Hartford, CT. With some extraordinary people she founded All The Kings Men. Her teachers have been her troupe members and her training is in live performance. She never stops learning, and is driven to release that little kid inside her.
Karin Webb (ATKM Ensemble Member) Karin has been a professional Storyteller/Workshop teacher since age 11; got her BFA in acting from Boston University and Certificate in Physical and Ensemble Based Theatre from Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre. Karin acted in the 2004 ÒNorton awardÓ winning production of Collected Stories, toured the country for a year with Das Puppenspiel Puppet Theatre, and is a "BRA Certified" artist. She performed original work in the Capitol Fringe Festival (DC), and has experience with clown, mask, stage combat, dance, choreography, street performance, and playwriting.
Jen Winslow (ATKM Ensemble Member) One of the founding members of ATKM, Jen plays a wide range of characters, from Prince Charming to mad scientist to girl pop-star. When she hangs up her suit (or princely tights), Jen holds a modest, but science-y 9 to 5 job. She is creating a clothing company called Double Barrel Apparel with fellow king Hannah Grey. Jen also studies Boabom, a system of relaxation, defense and meditation through movement.
Artist Notes from All The Kings Men
We live on a planet that is structured in black and white. This dichotomy breeds an instinctive call for categorization where the people and things in this world must possess a title or label to be recognized.
We are eight artists who explore and exploit the grays in life. Together we stand on a blank palette and paint pictures in a range of femininity and masculinity that resides in all of us.
In any community there are people who explore art through the standards and masterpieces, and people who radically experiment, improvising with a form. All The Kings Men strives not only to pull from both these ends, but also to seek a middle ground where all notions and mediums can co-exist. A storytelling thru line - a meditation on gender or sexuality or humanityÐ is where we eat. Sometimes these characters are stereotypical, structured in the black and white. Stereotype is employed not to be gratuitous, but to break stereotype, explore stereotype, and sometimes to embrace and own stereotype.
We build our stage not only to entertain but also to speak to and play with the humor in life, the absurdity and the magic in life. Our characters are empowered with material to say, feel, and experience; our characters are born to share.
We are very lucky to have found each other, we are gratified to be on this stage tonight, but most importantly we are blessed to share our work, in this one moment, with you.
-All The Kings Men
Acknowledgments from All The Kings Men:
First, Thank YOU for being here and reading this. All The Kings Men has grown and flourished over the last five and a half years due to the generous support of Family, Friends, Volunteers, Venue Owners, Producers, Promoters, and Press. Thank you. We would also like to thank all of our amazing FANS, because without you we could not be where we are today! Thank you for the inspiration and energy to do what we love.
There are, of course, WAY too many people to put down on this page, so we want to take this moment to greatly thank those of you who cannot be named here - hopefully you know who you are!... To name a few, we extend our printed love to: Tiana Veldwisch for her tireless work and help in making our productions run as smoothly as possible, Dawn Killem for her generous donation of rehearsal space, Dyke Night and Kristen Porter, who gave us our first official start, Jess Dugan and Studio L for their lovely pictures, Curt Richardson and Tony at the Art House Theatre, Christine and Rachele Gray from the Dance Zone, all the people at the Milky Way and Machine, Sandra Valls, Beth McGurr, Pan 9, the Jorge Hernandez Center, and the many behind ATKM that keep our production company going strong and continue to have so many wonderful performances.
Huge and Brilliant thanks to our amazing Production Crew! Jeremy Gates, Duncan Jenner, Jess Kramer, Jon Bonner, The Theater Offensive for giving us this great opportunity and all your help along the way!
Hannah: Thank you Mom and Dad for continuously encouraging nothing but happiness, Holly and Ethan for accepting and loving me as the black sheep and thank you to all who have been by my side; without your support, tolerance and compassion my life would be much less fulfilling.
Jen: To my parents: Thank you for opening the door to this most interesting thing called life. To our audience: You continue to make this happen, one show at a time... please don't stop! Thank you Inspiration. Thank you Patience. Thank you Creativity.
Jill: I thank, very much, my parents, who treated every thought and inclination I had as a child to be smart and special and new. Additional thanks to my Dad, who always built me a stage before he painted the bathroom, which I think is a manly and beautiful thing to do. I thank my best friend Joseph for thinking I am capable and for punching me to audition. And I thank, finally, my brilliant and remarkable wife, who inspires me not only to stop going by the book, but to scribble and stomp and paste all over it. I am simply delighted to love you.
Julee: I give sincere thanks to my Parents, Tommy, Rosemary, and my brother Thomas for always supporting me as a woman and an artist. To Jeremy, who is always a constant friend and an inspiration to me. To all the people who have always supported my art; to my ATKM family. Finally, I wish to thank the love of my life, Leighsa, for each day with you I become more enriched. Thank you for your constant support, your wonderful spirit, and your love.
Karin: Mom, Dad, Ruth, Julia, Janet, Cousins! Without you and your endless patience and willingness to play how would I have ever known I was a performer?! Thank you Ronlin for asking me what I think, and everyone who listens to me figure it outÐ I learn more about the world everyday through our conversations. Thank you ATKM for welcoming me home. I am delighted and grateful Hubbymiss: thank you for today!
Katie: much thanks to my dad, mum, sis, bro; to Tiana; to Alana; to Zeke, to Kevin. Life presents us with limitless opportunity, however only a select few of us can acknowledge that it needn't be sensible, and that almost any of us can stand in a supermarket for almost 10 minutes throwing pudding cups at the cashiers before the police show up. Here's to the senseless few.
Leighsa: I give tremendous thanks to all those in my life who have believed in me, the work I do and helped to reinforce the strength and perseverance to continue to pursue all the opportunities in this industry. I sincerely thank my family; Julee, Mazzy, Veronica Burgin, Sara and Bob Almeida, ATKM, Gary and Margie Burgin, Rosemary and Tom Antonellis, the universe, all my aunts, uncles, grandparents and my BFF, Scotty. I would also like to thank all the teachers and mentors I have met along the way, in their many forms, for all their guidance and challenge. Lastly and especially, I want to thank my life partner and best friend for her love, passion, and undying support, without which, I may not be upon this stage tonight.
Maria: HUGE LOVE AND ENORMOUS THANKS TO - My little mishpooha: Momma, Poppa + Boolia. Tuty, Gina + Summer: for being there on stage with me for the very first time. Ali: with whom I started the bare bones of my Boston drag journey. Alex: my sexy german, my life monkey, my best friend. My ATKM family: what a trip.
Nut/Cracked:
"Hugely Entertaining Vaudeville-Inspired Send Up! Funny and Clever! Substantial Choreography and First-Rate Performances!"
"Immensely Talented! Dazzling! Superb Ballet Training! Riotous!"
"Impressively Executed--Squeamishly Suggestive!"
Dance Magazine May 2007
Boston.com
Nut/Cracked Bios:
TODD ALLEN, a native of Salt Lake City, Utah, began dancing at age three with Virginia Tanner's Children's Dance Theater. He received a B.A. in Latin American Studies from Brigham Young University, and in 1993 joined Utah's Repertory Dance Theater (RDT), where he danced for six years. Todd received his M.F.A. in Dance from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he was the recipient of the Dean's Fellowship. He has performed with ZviDance, The Mark Morris Dance Group, David Gordon's Pick Up Performance Group, Keigwin+Company, Cherylyn Lavagnino, Amos Pinhasi, Mark Dendy, Chris Yon, Ben Munisteri, Heidi Latsky and The Radio City Rockettes. He has taught at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and at The University of Utah. He is currently the featured guest artist/choreographer for RDT's 40th anniversary season.
CRISTINA AGUIRRE has been a member of The Bang Group since 2005. She began her modern dance career as a member of the Erick Hawkins Dance Company under the direction of Erick Hawkins and has also danced with the Nancy Meehan Dance Company, Dagmar Spain/Dance Imprints, Blue Wing Dance Company and Isadora's Dance Legacy. Ms. Aguirre also danced throughout the state of California as a member of Mark Franko's Novantiqua Dance Company. She has been dancing for Catherine Tharin since 1996, and also works for choreographer Jeanette Stoner.
KATE DIGBY is a dancer and choreographer who spent many years living and working in Boston. Since her apprenticeship with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company 1998-1999, Ms. Digby has performed with Prometheus Dance, Boston Dance Collective, and in works by Sean Curran, Alexandra Beller and Julie Ince Thompson. In 2000, she formed Digby Dance (www.digbydance.org) and has had work presented in New England, New York and Ecuador. She has been performing with TBG since 2005.
JEFFREY KAZIN is a founding member of The Bang Group. In addition to his slapping, thudding and pointe responsibilities he is further ensconced in TBG as the General Manger, sometime graphic designer, CFO, member of the Board of Directors, and factotum. In the world beyond TBG, Mr. Kazin, as a guest artist, has appeared in Italy in the title role of the Arena di Verona BalletÕs production of Dylan Dog choreographed by David Parker and as an evil step-sister in New York Theatre Ballet's Cinderella. Kazin is a board member of the Peculiar Works Project theater company and a graduate of Connecticut College and the National Theater Institute.
KATHY KAUFMANN has been happily designing lighting for David Parker & the Bang Group since its inception. Having designed numerous traditional Nutcrackers, Ms. Kaufmann is especially delighted to be working on this project. As a resident designer for The Danspace Project at St. Marks Church she has had the pleasure of lighting many wonderful artists including Reggie Wilson, Ben Munisteri, Guta Hedwig, Irene Hultman, Gina Gibney, Roseanne Spradlin, Cherilyn Lavagnino, Sally Silvers, The NY Baroque Dance Company & most recently the Meredith Monk celebration: Dances to Monk. She received a 2004 New York Dance & Performance (Bessie) Award for lighting.
DAVID PARKER David Parker grew up in Lynnfield, Massachusetts and began studying tap and ballet in Boston as a teenager. One of his first pieces, Bang and Suck was presented by Dance Theater Workshop on its Fresh Tracks series in 1992. It went on to win numerous awards and citations including a prize from the Fourth International Competition for Choreographers of Contemporary Dance in Groningen, Then Netherlands, a special citation from the jury of the Kurt Jooss Award in Germany (which included Pina Bausch), a citation for emerging choreographer at the Nijinsky Awards in Monaco and numerous ten-best-of-the-year lists. The latter half of this piece is now the final pas de deux in Nut/Cracked. Parker has been commissioned by the American Dance Festival, Arena di Verona Ballet Company, Anna Sokolow Players Project, The Juilliard School, Summer Stages Dance in Concord, MA and numerous colleges and universities throughout North America and Europe. His collaborative work with Dutch avant-garde designers Melanie Rozema and Jeroen Teunissen was awarded a New York Dance and Performance (ÒBessieÓ) Award in 2002. Parker serves on the faculty of the Alvin Ailey School, Barnard College, the board of directors of Danspace Project and The Field and is a member of the Bessies Committee. He is also a co-founder of The Pink Ribbon Project: Dancers in Motion Against Breast Cancer.
NIC PETRY holds a degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University and received his MFA in Dance from the University of Illinois. While in school he danced for Sara Hook, ZeÕeva Cohen, RenŽe Wadleigh, and in works by Mark Morris, Lar Lubovitch, Chamecki/Lerner and Bill Young, Nic first worked with David Parker and The Bang Group at Summer Stages Dance in Concord in 2002 and joined TBG in 2005 taking on several roles in Nut/Cracked as well as creating new ones.
AMBER SLOAN has been a member of The Bang Group since 2002. She has also had the pleasure of working with Keely Garfield, Sara Hook, Chris Elam, and Stephan Koplowitz. Ms. Sloan's choreography has been presented in Illinois, Virginia, Connecticut, and Massachusetts; and in New York at various venues including Danspace Project's Food for Thought at St. Mark's Church, Soaking Wet at The West End Theater, the DanceNow/NYC festival, and Dance Space Center's Raw Material. Originally from Northern Virginia, she received a BFA in Dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
EMILY TSCHIFFELY is a graduate of both the North Carolina School of the Arts and the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. She makes dances and songs that have been seen in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, and New York. She feels real lucky teaching dance and leading creative experiences with children and adults but has the most fun imaginable with David Parker, Amber Sloan and Jeffrey Kazin on a daily basis. Her mom is totally great.
Oedipus at Palm Springs:
The New York Times
The Boston Globe
Edge
The Boston Globe(review 2)
Edge(review 2)
Bios-Oedipus at Palm Springs (In Alphabetical Order):
Moe Angelos (Prin)has written and performed six plays with the collaborative theatre company The Five Lesbian Brothers. Tooting her own horn, she happily mentions that the Brothers have received an Obie and Bessie award. Moe has also written other stuff, including several plays and some mild criticism. She is also a scenic painter. Besides working with the Brothers for over 15 years, Moe has appeared in the work of many a downtown theatrical luminary. Moe has been working with The Builders Association since 1999 and is currently appearing in their production, SUPER VISION, which is "comical yet ultimately poignant", according to the Columbus Dispatch. The Builders are at work on a brand new piece, Continuous City that will be popping up in 2008.
Karen "Mal" Malme (Fran) is a co-founder, writer, and performer with Queer Soup Theater, which just celebrated its fifth anniversary with the well received July, 2007 production of "lost + found: the anniversary series" at Boston Playwrights' Theatre. Mal performed in three of the pieces, as well as contributing her original play "gutting" to the production, inspired by her experiences volunteering in New Orleans last November. Mal also currently tours her solo performance project "Still Married", which received a 2006 Artist Grant Award from The Cambridge Arts Council, to high schools, colleges, and conferences, in an effort to encourage dialogue and awareness around same sex marriage and LGBT issues. Other current projects include touring with Queer SoupÕs IRNE nominated play "Home" that explores the intersections of gender and queer identities with faith and family, and beginning work on a new multimedia theater project on gender and class, involving a trip to Graceland with fellow Queer Souper Renee C. Farster and filmmaker Kathy Wittman. When not with Queer Soup, Mal works at ChildrenÕs Hospital as a hospital clown for The Big Apple Circus Clown Care Program, and as an advisor and board member with the North Shore Alliance of LGBT Youth [NAGLY].
Linda Monchik (Joni): influences on my journey to this play: girls' schools, women's colleges, men's colleges, men in Shakespeare (our greatest European playwright) and women being marginalized, generally. The Vagina Monologues had a great influence on me, being a married women in America for 35 years, coming from a family of 4 girls, having 3 daughters, and seeing women's work and worth remaining largely underground.
Brigid O'Connor (Connie)is pleased to be working with Theater Offensive after appearing in their staged reading of Queer Theory. Brigid is co-artistic director of Threshold Theatre a company dedicated to promoting women artists where some of her favorite roles include: Connie in Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet, Bernie in Coming Soon and Beth in Purple Breasts. Brigid was recently seen as in TheatreZone's Top Girls and you might recognize her from various commercials. In addition to acting, Brigid is the Performing Arts Consultant for the PERCS program at Children's Hospital and a casting agent.
Vanessa Soto (Teri) is an actor and director who lives and and works throughout New England. Her most recent directing credits include, Assistant Director to Charles Newell in Long Wharf Theatre's production of Man of La Mancha. Acting credits include Shakespeare: The Remix (Collective Consciousness Theater), Swimming in the Shallows (Long Wharf Theatre's Next Stage), Kingdom (Bregamos Theater), and productions with the Theater Offensive at the Boston Center for the Arts and with TYG Productions at the Boston Playwrights Theater. In 2005 she made her NYC stage debut at Dixon Place's HOT! Festival. She graduated from Vassar College with a BA in Women & Gender Studies and Theater. She attended the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, the St Petersberg Theater Arts Academy and The Moscow Art Theater School's Stanislavski Summer Program, where she trained extensively in yoga, tai chi, biomechanics, and Droznin Technique. She is also a trained capoeirista.
VANESSA SOTO (TERRI) is an actor and director who lives and and works throughout New England. Her most recent directing credits include, Assistant Director to Charles Newell in Long Wharf Theatre's production of Man of La Mancha. Acting credits include Shakespeare:The Remix (Collective Consciousness Theater), Swimming in the Shallows (Long Wharf Theatre's Next Stage), Kingdom (Bregamos Theater), and productions with the Theater Offensive at the Boston Center for the Performing Arts and with TYG Productions at the Boston Playwrights Theater. In 2005 she made her NYC stage debut at Dixon Place's HOT! Festival. She graduated from Vassar College with a BA in Women & Gender Studies and Theater. She attended the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, the St Petersberg Theater Arts Academy and The Moscow Art Theater School's Stanislavski Summer Program, where she trained extensively in yoga, tai chi, biomechanics, and Droznin Technique. She is also a trained capoeirista.