A live-art Installation October 7, 2011 7, 8, & 9pm (with reception and discussion at 9:30pm)
Vashon Island First Friday Gallery Cruise
The vacant Island Variety Store (next to Vashon Auto Parts) 17647 100th Ave SW Vashon Island, WA 
Info: artscrush.org

With the audience watching from the street, I project historic photographs of the 1950’s Civil Rights Movement onto vacant storefront windows, and climb into them as a shadow, highlighting stories of Emmett Till, Rosa Parks and Little Rock Nine. The performance runs between 20-30 minutes and will have three showings at 7, 8, & 9 pm with a reception and discussion to follow. The event is free to the public and open to all ages with parental discretion due to subject matter.

I am presenting SHADOWS during Vashon’s First Friday Gallery Cruise, a popular monthly Island Event. I have always felt the need for more ethereal art to adorn that “cruise”. Too often art means something hung on a wall and it is my intention to, not only highlight other art forms, but to show that we can interact and expand the definitions of art walks and the definition of ‘theatre’. We live in a global media of 24-hour news, instant mobile uploads and history boiled down to simple sound bites. Stories of Emmet Till, Rosa Parks and Little Rock Nine are fading. I am bringing these iconic images out of their thumb-sized confined, computer-boxed forms into a larger format to allow the impact of history and innovative thinking to resonate deeper into our bones and inspire all of us. And as with the movement itself, the performance is experienced on the street and will happen rain or shine so please dress appropriately.

"The Chase": The Sandbox Artists Collective's fourth episode of its wildly successful SANDBOX RADIO LIVE! to be recorded before a live audience on Monday, April 16 at 8:00pm at Fremont's newest theatre, West of Lenin.

Entirely new, fresh and locally grown, Sandbox Radio is written, produced and performed by some of Seattle's hottest stage talent. This latest episode, "The Chase" will include new original poems by playwrights Elizabeth Heffron and Scot Augustson, new short plays by Vincent Delaney, Ki Gottberg, Elizabeth Heffron and Juliet Waller Pruzan, plus Episode 4 of Paul Mullin's noir-angel serial "Markheim", original blues from Charles Leggett, and special guest chanteuse Joanne Klein.

Podcast available in iTunes and here: http://www.thesandboxac.org/podcast.html

UMO Ensemble - David Smith Warehouse, Seattle March 2009

Rubble Women seeks to explore, in a physical and visceral way, the strength of women throughout time, beginning with the question: what gives women the ability to keep hearth and home together under significant duress; what is that energy, what is that endurance? Inspired by the actual Rubble Women of post World War II Berlin, this world premiere play, written by Martha Enson and directed by Intiman’s Associate Artistic Director, Sheila Daniels, will use this particular event as one framing device for the piece. Through winter, famine and frost, these women picked up rubble and remade the city of Berlin, quietly and with tremendous perseverance. Rubble Women uses text culled from a deconstructed Trojan Women and original song and music to demonstrate strength and endurance. Rubble Women will use the warehouse of David Smith Furniture for the performance space and David Smith chairs for audience. Rubble Women marks the first full scale production that UMO Ensemble has embarked on in over four years and will include original music written by Gretta Harley.

UMO Ensemble - El Dorado (remount) @ ACT Theatre, Seattle November 2009

UMO created El Dorado in 1992 in the style of ‘Buffoon Theatre.’ Buffoons are fantastical, irreverent creatures, derived from the outcasts of medieval society. Much like the traditional court jester, buffoons play at humanity, mocking our follies, casting knowing glances at our obsession with power. El Dorado focuses on the Spanish conquistadors’ quest for the legendary “Kingdom of Gold” in the Americas. In the play, UMO’s buffoons direct their unbridled energies into a re-visitation of this quest, searching ruthlessly for the city of El Dorado, its secrets and treasures.† Marionne - original creator, Martha Enson

Palestinian National Theatre/Al Hakawati - Jerusalem, Spring 2010

Four American artists were selected for a Palestinian/ American Cultural exchange partially sponsored by the US Consulate General in Jerusalem and conceived/directed by the Palestinian National Theatre/Al Hakwati. Through an on-line audition process, I was one of the four artists selected and got to work side by side with Palestinian theatre artists who live and work in Jerusalem. For two months I lived in East Jerusalem, improvising, scripting, creating then touring a show with four Palestinian actors, a Palestinian director, playwright and technical team with three American actors and an American set designer. The show, From Jerusalem with Love…Naji set out to illustrate the Palestinian American relations in human terms. We succeeded quite beautifully due to an amazing director and theatre. The lead actor, Jamal Said, was hysterically funny. He brought a warmth and humor to such serious topics that the audiences filled the theatres with full hard belly laughs. We toured to several cities in the West Bank, most to standing room only, including Nablus, Hebron, Ramallah, Jenin, Bethleham, (Nazareth) and Jerusalem with an additional encore performance. Throughout this extrodinary journey I kept a blog as a way of staying connected to family and friends who hear about the region only in regards to political conflict in the Middle East and not about the people, the artists, the culture.

Palestinian Natuional Theatre/ Al Hakawati, Jerusalem, Spring 2011

Passages of Martin Luther King - Palestinian National Theatre/Al Hakawati, Jerusalem, Spring 2011 Director, Kamel elBasha invited me to return or another eight-week residency. This time for a play about Martin Luther King Jr. translated into Arabic, using an all-Palestinian cast, an American Gospel choir, and me. The text is by Stanford University scholar Clayborne Carson, who is also the editor and publisher of MLK’s papers. Kamel has decided to deconstruct the play by setting it as a rehearsal three days before the play’s opening in order to interject current issues that relate to the Palestinian's particular circumstances. So I play the role of the director inside the play, and will be the liaison for the other Americans joining us. There is a role of an assistant director who acts as my translator. http://www.tampabay.com/specials/2011/reports/passages-martin-luther-king-israel/flash.shtml

Split Second explores moments of split second decisions: isolated, identifiable moments in time that impact an individual or society. Split Second draws from works of literature, history, film, photography and personal experience. Projected images, spoken word, shadow, a ten-foot hanging coat, nine loaves of Wonder bread, live and recorded music are used to create a powerful evening of theatre. Included are short stories by Northwest writers: Raymond Carver and David James Duncan, as well as collaborations with choreographers: Sally Sykes and Donald Byrd. Originally developed through On the Boards and produced in Seattle through Scarlet productions Split Second is appropriate for audiences 12 and older and is currently available for bookings which can include workshops or residencies.