CURRENT ENSEMBLE

BOB BRADY

Graphic Design

Bob has designed for Grottesco since 2002, including publicity material for The Angels' Cradle, Fortune,The Richest Deadman Alive! A Dream Inside Another , Wenomadmen, Keyholes, Winter One Acts, Grottesco's 12th Night, Shorts V,and The Moment of YES!. His other clients include TwelveTrees Publishers, The Lannan Foundation, The Santa Fe Opera, Cafe Pasqual's, Luminaria Films, Pie Boy Films (The Lark Snare), and Wumbic Productions (The Burden Carriers).

MYRIAH DUDA

Ensemble Member

Myriah Duda is currently a dance major at the University of New Mexico with an English minor. She has been performing for over ten years, focusing on dance, music, and theatre, performing in contemporary and classical theatre productions including Rosaline in Love’s Labour’s Lost, the title role in Lysistrata, and Scapino in A Company of Wayward Saints. A theatre graduate from New Mexico School for the Arts in Santa Fe, Myriah has trained in Commedia Dell’arte, Mask work, Stanislavski, and other theatre forms, as well as in film acting. She has studied classical ballet for years but her passion lies in Modern and African dance. She has specialized in improvisation and ensemble work, performing as an interactive artist at Meow Wolf Santa Fe and a dance and theatre teacher and director at Acequia Madre Summer Camp.

JOHN FLAX

Founding Artistic Director

John Flax is a co-founder of Theater Grottesco. He has worked with the Theatre de la Jeune Lune in Minneapolis and Paris, The Paris Circus, London’s Theatre Complicite, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Choreographer Della Davidson, the Sundance Playwriting Laboratory, the Out of Context Orchestra, the Sevda Balkan Choir and most recently in Godfrey Reggio’s latest film: Once Within a Time. Flax has taught at theaters and colleges internationally along with 8 years as a National Endowment for the Arts artist-in-the-schools. He is a graduate of the Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris where he also studied with Phillipe Gaulier. He holds a BA in Environmental Studies from Prescott College and an ABD Ed.D in Anthropology and Philosophy.

KENT KIRKPATRICK

Artistic Associate

is an actor, director and writer worked mostly in theater before following an academic career teaching in the graduate theater programs of the University of California--San Diego, and Oxford University among others. Before tenure set in, he migrated into the world of film writing, production and directing. Credits include Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, an original play which he developed and directed; a multi-lingual adaptation of The Odyssey which he wrote and directed; a multi-media stage productionDivining the Tapestry: Stories of Living and Dying Well which he wrote, produced, directed and developed; and The Legacy of Letters, a reading of important letters from New Mexico history for the New Mexico State Historian's Office which he researched, wrote and directed. He also recently directed Sam Waterston, Marsha Mason and Joan Allen in a reading of Georgia O'Keeffe/Alfred Steiglitz letters for the 10th Anniversary celebration of Georgia O'Keeffe museum entitled O'Keeffe: Speaking with Friends and Lovers. He wrote and directed the short film, Ride, which was awarded the best film award in the DigiFest Southwest Film Festival. Most recently, he has written, produced and/or directed commercial and narrative films. He is the Director of Development at Luminaria, a new film production company based in Santa Fe. Kent has created and performed with Grottesco since 1999 working in Fortune, Grottesco Shorts II, This is Life as We Know it... The Richest Deadman Alive! Keyholes, and Wenomadmen. He was co-director of The Moment of YES! and the outside eye of PIE.

ALEXANDRA NOWAK

Media And Administration

Alexandra Nowak is the newest member of the Grottesco team. Known for being a nomad, she lived in seven different states before turning 25. Nowadays she considers Colorado to be her home. After being a part of every show she could at Boulder High School, she attended Santa Fe University of Art and Design to pursue Acting and has since spent time as an Acting & Marketing apprentice at the Portland Playhouse in Portland, OR. As a lifetime fan of storytelling, she also works as an aide at her local library.

MARIAH OLESEN

Media And Administration

Mariah is an actor, director, and writer who studied musical theater at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design. In Santa Fe, she has performed with The Adobe Rose Theatre, Santa Fe Playhouse, and Shakespeare in the Gardens. Regionally, she has worked for the WYO Theater, Wyoming Theater Festival, Sheridan Civic Theatre Guild, and the Southeastern Summer Theater Institute. She is now the Media & Public Relations Coordinator at the Santa Fe Opera.

JANEY POTTS

Administration

Janey Potts is a consultant for arts organizations and other not-for-profit entities. With more than 25 years of experience in non-profit management, Potts consults in the areas of finance, administration, marketing, development and event planning and execution. Past experience includes Managing Director of Shakespeare in Santa Fe and Sacramento Theatre Company, Development Director for Sacramento Opera and the Odyssey Theatre (Los Angeles). Current and previous clients include the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Theater Grottesco, Institute for Spanish Arts, Monte del Sol Charter School, Santa Fe Opera, New Mexico School for the Arts, and the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market. Janey has been working with Theater Grottesco since 2004.

KOPPANY PUSZTAI

Ensemble

Koppany Pusztai was born in Kaposvár Hungary and moved to the U.S. with his family in 2005. He received a BFA in act- ing at SFUAD and has since worked with many Santa Fe theater companies, including Theater Grottesco, Adobe Rose Theatre, Santa Fe Playhouse, Shakespeare in the Garden, Just Say It Theater, and most recently appeared on an episode of Roswell, NM. He was seen in Everybody at the Santa Fe Playhouse this summer.

DANIELLE LOUISE REDDICK

Ensemble

Danielle Louise Reddick is from New York City where she worked as an actor, solo performer, puppeteer, percussionist and in the international touring company of STOMP. She has worked with Shepard Sobel, founder of the Pearl Theater in New York City and with Jon Jory, formerly of the Actor’s Theater of Louisville. In New Mexico she has performed with Ironweed Productions, Theaterwork, Mother Road Theatre Company and Santa Fe Performing Arts. She performs two solo shows: Ask Louise and Hypnopompic. She is an immersive theater artist at Meow Wolf, and a facilitating artist for Littleglobe. Danielle has worked as an actor in film, television and new media, is a member of the Baumann Marionette Puppet Troupe and participated in the 2019 National Puppetry Festival at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. She is a nationally certified fitness instructor, has developed a system of individualized movement training called SoHyp, and has been the curator of the RedQuyn Space. Danielle graduated magna cum laude from Santa Fe University of Art and Design with a B.F.A. in theater/acting and is currently a MFA graduate student at Goddard College’s Multidisciplinary Arts program

JULIE SHAPIRO

Ensemble

Julie Shapiro is a New York native who grew up immersed in the performing arts with a focus on voice, acting and dance. Julie has a BFA in Musical Theatre from SUNY Fredonia where she received training in Stanislavsky, Meisner, Laban and Commedia Dell’arte. Since 2019, Julie has been traveling and connecting with creative work around the country from grassroot regional companies to Off-Broadway theatre. She has been developing original work including a web series titled “Asymptomatic.” Julie moved to Santa Fe in September and has collaborated with Tri-M-Productions playing Sally Bowles in Cabaret and Joanne in Godspell.

SUSAN SKEELE

Ensemble

Susan Skeele is a performing artist and certified Action Theater teacher. She holds a masters degree from Antioch New England Graduate School in dance/movement therapy, and an undergraduate degree from Naropa University, where she studied dance, Butoh, interdisciplinary performance, contemplative movement, somatic psychology and dance therapy. Susan has been involved in the performing arts for over thirty years as a choreographer, dancer, actor, writer and director, including as an artist-in-residence in schools, with Ursa Theatre in Vermont, at Teatro Paraguas, Museo Cultural and the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe, with Ecotone Physical Theater in Albuquerque, and most recently, with Theater Grottesco where she has immersed herself in mask-work, buffoonery,
clowning and ensemble performance over the past three years. For over a decade, Susan has studied the rigorous improvisation form Action Theater with its founder, internationally known performer Ruth Zaporah.

AFFILIATE MEMBERS

APPOLLO GARCIA

Ensemble

is an international performer, producer, collaborator, and educator. His work features a fusion of circus, theatre, music and dance - aiming to push the boundaries of what is possible on stage and transcend the reality of the everyday. He is a co-founder of the Paris based underground cabaret-cirque duo, Les Douleurs Exquises, and has worked as both an educator and performer in refugee camps on the borders of Turkey, Iraq, and Syria with the Her Yerde Sanat Social Circus as his clown alter ego, Socks (of Salade & Socks). He is a graduate of the two-year professional training program at l'École Internationale de Théåtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, France, and has also trained with NoFit State Circus (Cardiff, Wales), and at Les Noctambules École de Cirque (Paris). He joined the core ensemble of Theater Grottesco in 2015 and has co-created The Moment of YES! and PIE.

SKIP RAPOPORT

Lighting Designer

Skip Rapoport has designed lighting in New York, Los Angeles and many points in between; at NY’s American Place Theater and Dance Theater Workshop, LA’s Vanguard Theater and Schönberg Hall, and Chicago’s Body Politic Theater. His clients have included The Acting Company, Mark Taper Forum’s New Theater for Now, Donald Byrd and the Group, and Nevada Dance Theater. In Santa Fe, he has designed for The Lensic, and Theaterwork, among many others.Recent work includes Death of a Salesman, The Moment of YES!, Bus Stop, Welcome to Arroyo’s, Theater Grottesco's PIE, and the inaugural season of New Mexico Actors Lab.

MARC ROMANELLI

Company Photographer

Marc has been a professional photographer his whole adult life. He was the youngest photographer, at the age of 24, signed to the international photo agency Image Bank in 1982. For the past 12 years he has managed to move seamlessly between the worlds of still photography and motion. Highlights of his editorial career include a number of photo assignments for Life Magazine, Outside Magazine, Modern Photography and Popular Photography. He has traveled extensively throughout the world, a partial list of locations include: Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Thailand, Bali, Italy, Peru, Guatemala, South Africa, Senegal, Morocco, Botswana and Swaziland where he documented landscapes,cities and peoples. A native-New Yorker, in 1989 Marc left the concrete canyons of the city and headed west for the brilliant blue skies and light of the high desert of New Mexico.

KARYNA SWING

Lighting Designer

Karyna earned her BFA in theater from the University of New Mexico in 1987. Her lighting and design includes work with Tom Moore, David Schweizer, Susan Jayn Weiss, Herbie Mann, Branscombe Richmond, the Bellamy Brothers, St. Petersburg Ballet, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, The Red Thread Collective, ThaMuseMeant, The Gluey Brothers, Los Lobos, Judas Priest and Iron Weed Productions. Karyna has been in the Grottesco ensemble since 1999 running tech in The Angels' Cradle, This is Life as We Know it..., Fortune, The Richest Deadman Alive! Shorts II! A Dream Inside Another, Wenomadmen and Keyholes. She designed lights forWinter One Acts.

ELIZABETH WISEMAN

Former Associate Artistic Director

has been a principal creator and performer with Theater Grottesco since it's founding in 1983. Elizabeth studied at Whitworth College in Spokane, the Cornish Institute for the Arts in Seattle, with Phillip Gaulier in Paris, and is a graduate of the Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris France. She taught voice at Arriane Mnouchkine's Theatre de Soleil in Paris and has taught at theaters and universities throughout the U.S. She has been an ensemble member with the Sundance Playwriting Laboratory, has developed 6 children's librettos for the Santa Fe Opera's Outreach Program, and taught with the NEA Artist-in-the-Schools program for 8 years. Elizabeth has performed in numerous regional theater productions and several independent films. She recently completed her first full length adult opera, Ciconia Ciconia, and has begun research on a second project. Elizabeth recently started Real Life Rituals, and works with people in transition to create personalized ceremonies for important life events.

OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Ulrike Campbell

Dana Chodzko

John Flax

Loie Fecteau

Craig Hansen

Alex Herrera

Cris Moore

Mariah Olesen

Michael Zeilik