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ENSEMBLE BIOS
| Andrea Ariel (Dancer) |
 Andrea is the Artistic Director of Ariel Dance Theatre, based in Austin, TX. She has choreographed in many forms, from original, multi-disciplinary contemporary dance works to cabaret, theater, musicals, and film. A recipient of numerous grants and commissions, her work has been showcased in TX, CA, IL, AZ, NM, and NY. She has received eight nominations and two awards from the Austin Critics Table, two B. Iden Payne Award nominations, and has been voted Best Choreographer and Best Fine Arts Dancer by The Austin Chronicle. Her credits include work in NYC with The Walter Thompson Orchestra and The Flaming Idiots, in Austin with Austin Lyric Opera, State Theater, Zachary Scott Theater, St. Edwards University, Ballet East Dance Theater, Hyde Park Theater, Tapestry Dance Company, Austin Theater for Youth, and The Gilbert & Sullivan Society. Film/TV work includes: Waiting for Guffman, Wild Texas Wind, and a commercial for Time Warner. Andrea has an MFA in Dance from the University of Illinois, develops and teaches arts-in-education programs, is adjunct faculty at the University of Texas and Austin Community College and a Certified Personal Trainer. Her website is www.arieldance.org |
| Donna Bouthillier (Dancer) |
 Donna has been living and dancing in NYC since 1995. In addition to performing with Clare Byrne Dance for 7 years, she has danced with numerous downtown choreographers including Carrie Ahern and Jennifer A. Cooper as well as Imago Dance Theater and Veracity Dance. She has also worked with Walter Thompsons New York Soundpainting Orchestra. Donna spent two years working with the experimental theatre company, Terra Incognita, under the direction of Polina Klimovitskaya. She is a Licensed Massage Therapist with a practice in Brooklyn and Manhattan. She is thrilled to be working with Strike Anywhere! |
| Bob Bowen (Bassist) |
 BOB BOWEN, a NYC bassist originally from Dayton Ohio, has performed professionally with many noted performers including Clark Terry, Lee Konitz, James Moody, Mark Murphy, Art Lande, Vassar Clemens, Roseanna Vitro, Mike Clark, Joe Deninzon's Stratospheerious and the Tony Trischka band. Bob co-leads the MOB Trio with noted drummer Matt Wilson and tenorman Ohad Talmor. His collaborative group Slog, featuring Khabu Doug Young, Brian Drye, and Greg Joseph, released its first CD, Drew Field 45, of original music on the NCM East label inn 2005. Bob has been very active in jazz and music education. Since 2000, he has been the bass instructor and director of the Combo Workshop at Hofstra University on Long Island, NY. After leading and developing the jazz prep program at the Center for Preparatory Studies in Music Queens College (CPSM) from 1998 to 2005, Bob joined with several former members of his CPSM team to start the Manhattan-based Creative Music Workshop.
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| Brian Duguay (Actor) |
 Brian has had a very diverse career in the performing arts, ranging from acting on Broadway in Cabaret, dancing with the American Dancemachine at City Center, singing with the New York Oratorio Society at Carnegie Hall and playing saxophone with BETTY and Pleasure Dog. He has directed several plays in NYC; most recently Rain Delay for the Samuel French One Act Festival, stage managed for the Chamber Dance Project and Configuration, and hung electrics for over 100 shows. |
| Michel Gentile (Flute) |
 Flutist and composer Michel Gentile is an active member of the New York jazz scene. He received his Master of Music degree with distinction from the New England Conservatory of Music where he studied with Jimmy Giuffre, Dave Holland, Geri Allen, Mick Goodrick, and George Garzone. Michel has recorded and performed with Fred Hersch, Dave Kikoski, Bobby Previte, Jane Ira Bloom, Harvie Swartz, Michael Formanek, Kurt Rosenwinkle, and many others. He has just completed a new recording of original compositions leading a quartet featuring Ben Monder. Michel has worked extensively with dance, theater, and film. He is currently on the faculty of the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. |
| Rob Henke (Trumpet/Actor) |
 Rob is a trumpet player originally from Chicago. He records, works, and tours with many NYC bands, including Dr. Nerve, Marie McAuliffes Ark Sextet, Joe Gallants Illuminati, The Walter Thompson Orchestra, The Henke/Sturm Duo, and Diane Mosers Composers Big Band. He has four recordings as a leader- Footnotes, The Bride, White Paws, and A Tale of Trevor Nor. Mr. Henke also works as actor/co-director with Good Clean Fun, an educational theater company. Additionally, he has acted with The Likeable War Criminals at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in NYC. He recently wrote and recorded a one act radio play called Listening. |
| Nolan Kennedy (Performer / Lighting Designer) |
| Nolan is a recent B.F.A. acting graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University. Nolan trained and then worked for many years at The Improv Playhouse. He has also studied with Keith Johnstone, ComedySportz Chicago, & the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland. Further education: internships with Strawdog Theatre Company & The Neo-Futurists, both in Chicago. Working with former Irondaler Sven Miller on a controversial collaborative show called Into An Unlulled Sleep caught Artistic Director Jim Niesens eye, & thus Nolan made the trip east. Nolans other produced written work includes Death&or Something, A Gustytown Adventure, Earth: The Musical, and Soot. |
| Roxana Ramseur (Costume Designer, Board Secretary) |
 As resident costume designer and board member for Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble, Ramseur designed and built Ten Brecht Poems (2003), Finding One (2001), and The Vine Intervention (2000). Most recently, she worked with Brian Brooks Moving Company, designing and constructing Piñata (2005) and Acre (2004). Other New York credits include collaborations with performer/choreographer Sara Juli, Messenger Theatre Company and Black Moon Theatre Ensemble, as well as Austin, Texas' Ariel Dance Theatre. Fashion design credits include women's sportswear labels Equipment of New York and 100 Degrees Fahrenheit of Toronto. For the last three years, she has worked as a theatrical milliner for the Lynne Mackey Studio, and has hats featured in numerous Broadway shows. She also freelances in various design capacities for Womans Day, Victorias Secret, Anne Klein, and Anne Taylor. |
| Damen Scranton (Actor) |
 DAMEN SCRANTON (M.F.A. in Acting, UC San Diego, 1997. B.A. in Theater, U.C.S.D., 1994). Damen is giddy to be working with Strike Anywhere! For the last 11 years he has been an actor and teacher with the Irondale Ensemble Project in NYC. Damen is an artistic associate with blessed unrest, an nyc-based theatrical ensemble. At blessed unrest, Damen has directed Lying (which toured to Kosovo in 2006) and Burn, Crave, Hold: The James Wilde Project(Winner of the 2008 NY Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Production of a Play). As a playwright, Damen's plays have been produced at U.C.S.D. and in Ireland at the Dublin Fringe Festival and at the Granary Theatre in Cork. Damen currently teaches acting and voice & speech at Manhattanville College and a summer Shakespeare course in Oxford, Paris and Florence through the Putney Excel Student Travel Program. He has taught acting at the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, writing at Marymount College in Manhattan, and improvisation at the Portstewart Community Center in Northern Ireland.
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| Rolf Sturm (Guitar) |
 Rolf has toured and/or recorded with a wide variety of musicians including country singer Eddy Arnold, the Argentinean tango group NY Buenos-Aires Connection, the Tony Trischka Band, Loudon Wainwright, Billy Martin, David Johansen and the Grateful Dead Big Band: Illuminati. He leads his own NYC area bands, Feed The Meter and Just Cause. He has appeared on numerous film and television soundtracks as well as on dozens of CD's as a sideman. He has recorded his own music on the Water Street Music label (waterstreetmusic.org) which has been featured on NPR's "All Things Considered" and "All Songs Considered". Rolf graduated from Ithaca College with a BFA in Jazz Guitar and has studied with John Abercrombie, Jim Hall, Bill Frisell and Joe Pass. |
| Leese Walker (Artistic/Producing Director, Actor) |
 Leese is a Dartmouth grad who began her professional career as a member of the Irondale Ensemble, NYC. She was profoundly influenced by the improvisational methods and ensemble-based approach to developing material at Irondale. While with Irondale, she played Antigone in Antigone, Didi in Waiting For Godot, and St. Juste in Dantons Death. Leese has performed extensively with the Judith Shakespeare Company in NYC including roles as: Richard II, Cressida, Dromio of Ephesus in Comedy of Errors and Helena in Alls Well That Ends Well. She has danced, acted and played Lakota flute with the Wendy Osserman Dance Company (Dance Theater Workshop, UBU Rep, Union Square Park), and has been improvising as an actor with the Walter Thompson Orchestra since 1997, (Lincoln Center, NYC Jazz Vision Festival, HERE, Knitting Factory). In addition to all of her performance work, Leese freelances as a teaching-artist with the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Roundabout Theatre Company, and MCC Theater. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Network of Ensemble Theatres, a national consortium of ensemble companies. |
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