ANNIE LOUI works as a choreographer and director. She trained with dancer Carolyn Carlson (at the Paris Opera), and studied with Etienne Decroux, Ella Jarosivitcz and Jerzy Grotowski. Original dance/theater pieces have been seen in France, Germany, and in the United States at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, among other venues. She has choreographed for the American Repertory Theater, Trinity Repertory Theater, and off-Broadway for the Signature Theater. Longtime member of the Brandeis Theater Arts Department; she also taught extensively for the Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard before coming to the University of California, Irvine, where she runs the Movement Program for the MFA Actor Training. She has received several Massachusetts Council Awards, a Massachusetts Choreographer's Fellowship, a Belgium Artist's Abroad Award, and an NEA New Forms Grant. Favorite directing projects include her movement/theater adaptation of Ann Sexton's "Transformations" for the Working Group, NYC, and the premiere of David Grae's "Moose Mating" at Here in NYC (receiving a "Best Picks of the Year" commendation from Backstage). Her dance/animation video "Sympathetic Magic" has been seen at festivals in New Zealand and Wales, and her dance/theater/animation "Alice's Adventures" performed recently at the Monaco Danses Dance Forum after its premiere at the Irvine Barclay Theater. Annie Loui is an Associate Professor in the Drama Department at the University of California, Irvine.
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ANTOINETTE LAFARGE is an artist and writer with a particular interest in fictive and mixed realities. In recent works such as "The Roman Forum Project" ( March 2003), "Virtual Live" (2002), and "The Roman Forum" (2000), and she has been working at the intersection between net-based improvisation in multi-user worlds and realspace performance. She is the founder and artistic director of the Plaintext Players, an online improvisational performance troupe that has appeared at numerous international venues, including the 1997 Venice Biennale and documenta X. She is also the founder and director of the Museum of Forgery, a virtual institution dedicated to promoting an appreciation of the aesthetics of forgery. Her writing has appeared in several books as well as in such publications as Wired, Leonardo, and Gnosis. She is Associate Professor of Digital Media in the Studio Art department at the University of California, Irvine. Her web site is www.forger.com.
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PROFESSOR JAMES H. FALLON is an internationally acclaimed neuroscientist who has made some of the most important discoveries in brain research in the past twenty years. He was the first to discover a characterized growth factor (EGF) in the mammalian brain, a finding published in Science in 1984. With collaborator Dr Rod Shankle, they were the first to show (1998-9) that in the developing human brain, the number of neurons in the baby's cortex doubles from the second year onward. This discovery was recently hailed by New York Times (Jan. 4, 2000) as the most important neuroscience discovery of the decade. Other PET and MRI brain imaging studies in done in Dr. Fallon's lab have provided new insights into basic and behavioral mechanisms involved in schizophrenia, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, intelligence and personality, art and the brain, mania, depression, speech impairments, drug abuse, and Down Syndrome. Dr Fallon is also well known for his pioneering studies of the emotional, sensory, and motor areas of the brain, and the dopamine and endorphin systems. He is the recipient of the prestigious National Institutes of Health Career Development Award, and is a Sloan Scholar and a Senior Fulbright Fellow. He is actively sought out by the media for his expertise and elan, and has appeared on the Today Show, Discovery Channel, Turning Point, A+E, 20/20, CBS and NBC news. Dr Fallon is a full professor at the University of California Irvine, College of Medicine.
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MARK ZAKI (composer) is a musician with many diverse interests who has created works that range from traditional chamber music to new media and music for film. His music has been presented at the Seoul International Computer Music Festival, the SEAMUS National Conference, the NWEAMO Festival in San Diego, The SoundImageSound Series in Stockton, CA, the New Music Miami ISCM Festival, the Cycle de Concerts de Musique par Ordinateur in Paris, the Pulse Field International Exhibition of Sound Art in Atlanta, and in the Canadian Electroacoustic Community's CD project DisContact! III. Arnold Steinhardt. He has doctoral degrees in composition and music technology from Princeton University and in violin/viola performance from Rutgers University. Currently, Mark teaches electronic music at the University of California in Irvine and divides his time between Los Angeles and New York City.
LONNIE RAFAEL ALCARAZ (production designer) has worked as the lighting designer for South Coast Repertory, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Sierra Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage in Washington D.C., and the Utah Shakespearean Festival among others. Selected shows include South Coast Rep's La Posada Magica, Play Strindberg, Dimly Perceived Threats to the System, Sidney Bechet Killed a Man, BAFO, Later Life, and Three Viewings. Also designed Culture Clash's The Birds at both South Coast Rep and Berkeley Rep along with their national touring show, Radio Mambo, which has been seen in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Arizona, New York, Seattle, and Washington D.C. Designed Twelfth Night, Henry V, Pericles, The Comedy of Errors, Macbeth, and Henry IV, Part I for the Utah Shakespearean Festival. Most recently completed work at Universal Studios, Japan designing the lighting for Monster Makeup, Terminator 2, Jurassic Park the Ride, Snoopy Studios, and various architectural facades around the park. Lonnie has previously worked with Annie Loui as Lighting Designer for "Love of Three Oranges" at UCI.
MARIKA BECZ (Mary Shelley) is a professional actor, director, choreographer, voice/dialects coach, and teacher. Acting credits include Mark Rucker's Much Ado About Nothing at South Coast Rep, the world-premiere of Howard Korder's The Hollowlands (also for South Coast Rep), Midsjudgment in Paris with the Malashock Dance Co. at San Diego's Old Globe, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth for the Central Coast Shakespeare Festival, Bianca in Othello at Laguna Playhouse, Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest for Connecticut Rep, and the world-premiere of Jack/of All Trade for New York Performance Works, directed by James Callieri and featuring works by David Greenspan and Tony Kushner. She also recently starred in the premiere episode of Faking It for The Learning Channel, a series inspired by the International Emmy Award-winning show originally produced by the BBC.
NOEL IRIBE (The Creature) is in his final year of pursuing his MFA in Acting from the University of California, Irvine. His UCI credits include leading roles in Big Love, God's Country, Good Person of Szechuan, Victor Victoria, and Pedro Gynt. His professional credits include Reading Frankenstein, directed by Annie Loui (Beall Center of Art and Technology), Tortilla Moon (Actors Alliance), and Onion Skins and Angels (Centro Cultural Tijuana). Noel is also an accomplished guitar player and songwriter.
DUDLEY KNIGHT (television interviewer) is a founding member of the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut; his extensive stage career includes major roles with American Conservatory Theatre and Magic Theatre (San Francisco), Globe Theatre and La Jolla Playhouse (San Diego), Mark Taper Forum and Los Angeles Theatre Center, Colorado Shakespeare Festival (six seasons), Utah Shakespearean Festival and New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, along with hundreds of roles in film, television, radio, and voice-over. "Best Leading Actor" (King Lear) Orange County Register, 1989. "Best Director" (Mastergate) Los Angeles Times, 1991. OC Weekly Award (SubUrbia) 1999. Certificated as master teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework. A thirty-five year career as voice, speech and dialect teacher and voice director for professional theatre; conducts workshops and lectures on voice and speech for actors and voice teachers nationwide; published articles in journals and in the book, The Vocal Vision. 1993-1997: artistic staff of South Coast Repertory as resident voice and dialect consultant. 1996-1999: board of directors of VASTA (Voice and Speech Trainers Association); member of Actors' Equity, SAG, AFTRA, ATHE, VASTA, ADS, IPA.