The Irondale Ensemble Company 2007-2008
Thea Brooks
Thea is extremely excited to be working with the Irondale Ensemble Project on this amazing piece of theater. New York credits: Londoners (workshop),directed by Di Trevis at the Irondale Center, Lobby Hero (reading) at the Marjorie Little Theater. Regional: Yeast Nation (workshop) with Pittsburgh CLO. Film: Divo Brown (Poison Apple Pictures), Here in Babylon (NYU student film). She can also be seen in a commercial for the 2008 Chevy Cobalt, playing in D.C. and Baltimore. Thea is a recent graduate of the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, where her favorite roles include The Actress in Hello Again, and Bananas in The House of Blue Leaves. She is grateful to her family, Irondale, Don Buchwald and Associates, and Greenlight Management, and AEA.
Peter Duffy
Peter Duffy is Irondale Ensemble Project's Education Director. Email Peter at Peter@irondale.org
Michael-David Gordon
Michael-David Gordon began work with Irondale as an actor and workshop facilitator of Irondale Ensemble Project’s AIDS Team in 1990. He was a team leader and a senior teaching artist involved with the planning, training and teaching on all of Irondale’s AIDS programs through 1997, when DOH funding ended. These programs included the AIDS team and Irondale’s Adolescent AIDS/HIV Prevention Workshop Program in locations at Job Corps, the Off-Site Education Services branch of the Alternative High Schools, and other sites with At-Risk youth. When the AID projects ended, Mr. Gordon taught at continued as a teaching artist at other sites such as Camelot and Riker’s Island. He also helps to plan and teach staff development workshops. Mr. Gordon continued his work with health education outside of Irondale including: GMHC - "HIV - The Basics" - Facilitator Training (1994); NYC Dept. Of Health - "Aids 101 Facilitator Training (1996, 1997) (Certificate); The Door - HIV Prevention Facilitator Seminar (1997) (Certificate); Body Positive - Facilitator Workshops (1998). Mr. Gordon has performed in all of Irondale’s Off-Broadway productions since becoming a member of Irondale. He is also a member of Actor’s Equity. His roles have included Barrachio in Much Ado About Nothing, The Stage Manager in Our Town and the title role in Danton’s Death. Most recently, Mr. Gordon portrayed Sam Slate. in Irondale Ensemble Project’s Wasted!
Terry Greiss
Terry Greiss (Executive Director/Actor/Workshop Leader) co-founded
the ensemble in 1983 with Jim Niesen. He manages the daily operations of Irondale, serves
as the primary fund-raiser and conceptualizes educational programs and special projects.
Terry has been a professional actor for more than 20 years and has been a member of the
following companies: The Long Wharf Theater, Horse Cave Theater in Kentucky, the State
Theater of South Carolina and CMDA in Lake Placid. He was the Artistic Director of The
Chocolate Cove Theater in Canada. Terry has taught theater game workshops to students,
teachers and professional actors throughout the US and in Russia. He initiated and
organized Irondale's historic collaboration with the St. Petersburg Salon Theater and the
2 subsequent Russian tours, on which he also performed as an actor, (including Irondale's
award-winning appearance at the International Drama Festival). Major roles with the
Irondale Ensemble include: Creon (Antigone), Astrov (Uncle Vanya Show), in
NYC, Russia and in the short film version directed by Jonathan Demme, and as the combined
Walt Disney/Walter Cronkite (Peter Panic: Flying Underground). Terry also serves as
a consultant for the New York State Council on the Arts, the NY Foundation for the Arts
and as a member of the Chancellor's Advisory Council for Arts in Education Policy for the
NYC Public School System. He trained at the High School of Performing Arts, Sarah Lawrence
College and Stella Adler Studios. He is a recipient of the Shubert Foundation award for
playwriting. Email Terry at
Terry@irondale.org
Nolan Kennedy
Nolan Kennedy crashed into New York in August of ’07, leaping head first into the bouncy house that is Irondale. Nolan is a recent graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University where he earned his B.F.A. in acting. Nolan’s other interests vary widely from photography to writing to lighting design to improvisation and beyond. Nolan trained and then worked for many years at The Improv Playhouse, where he swears he learned everything he knows. He has also studied with Keith Johnstone, ComedySportz Chicago, and the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland. Further education came from his internships with Strawdog Theatre Company and The Neo-Futurists, both in Chicago. Nolan’s work with former Irondaler Sven Miller on a controversial collaborative show called Into An Unlulled Sleep caught Artistic Director Jim Niesen’s eye, and thus Nolan made the trip east. Nolan’s other produced written work include Death…or Something, A Gustytown Adventure, Earth: The Musical, and Soot. Nolan is currently working a new play, This Little Piece.
Maria Knapp
Maria Knapp is currently the Managing Director at Irondale. She
graduated from Towson University with a MFA in Theater in 1996. Her graduate studies
included stage managing the graduate program's inaugural production Iago's Plot,
an adaptation of Othello conceived and directed by Kabuki Master Shozo Sato. This
production traveled to an international experimental theater festival in Cairo, Egypt.
Maria later focused on her graduate thesis on the stage management of small ensembles
which led to working with Touchstone Theater (Bethlehem, PA), The Independent Eye
(Philadelphia, PA), Irondale Ensemble Project, Bloomsberg Theater Ensemble (Bloomsberg,
PA), and Cornerstone Theater (Santa Monica, CA). Maria is also the Theater
Guide for About.com (www.theater.about.com). Email Maria at
Maria@irondale.org
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph McCarthy is Director of Development at Irondale. He has worked for many years in the communications business. Early in his career, he served as Director of Development for the Spoleto Festival, and in several roles in numerous political campaigns. He was a longtime partner in the Glyn Group, and was Senior Vice President at Edelman Public Relations, where he was responsible for corporate communications and video projects worldwide. After founding McCarthy Communications in 1992, he advised clients and produced communications programs for almost a decade before establishing, in 2002, a sister company, Townhouse Media LLC. There he served as president and publisher of BKLYN magazine for three years. He is the writer, producer and director of The Brave Man, a short dramatic film about the Battle of Brooklyn. He received a BA in English Literature from the University of Washington and an MFA from NYU's Institute of Film and Television.
Sarah Merkel
Sarah
Merkel is a recent graduate of Eugene Lang College at the New School, where she
performed in many productions including The Laramie Project, Oh What A
Lovely War, and as Lydia in Big Love. Since graduating she has worked
as assistant director to Diane Paulus on productions at the Ohio Theater and
Joe's Pub, participated in the creation and performance of No Sir! with
The Living Theater and performed with the all-God-all-gal improv troupe "The
Olympians" as Aphrodite and Ares. For the past two summers Merkel has taught
playwriting to high school students at the University of Virginia's Young
Writers Workshop. She also spent this past summer playing the title role in the
independent film Missel. She has studied at the British American Drama
Academy and Michael Howard Studios. Merkel is thrilled to be working with
Irondale this year.
Patrena Murray
Patrena
Murray began her training as a participant in the Irondale AIDS prevention
workshop program at Gateway Job Corps in 1995. After graduating from Job Corps,
she chose to become an intern with Irondale Ensemble Project and later was
offered a full-time position with the company. As an Irondale teaching artist,
Patrena worked with inmates on Riker’s Island, students in the Alternative High
School System and taught in our Empire State Partnership with P106 Middle
School. Although she is a professional actress and a member of Actor’s
Equity, Patrena took off from Irondale for several years to earn her BA in
Acting from SUNY Purchase, but she has returned this season.
Jim Niesen
Jim Niesen is a co-founder who has guided the
creative aspects of the company's work since 1983. He has directed most of the Irondale
repertoire, including 5 works by Brecht: Good Woman of Setzuan; Galileo; Threepenny
Opera; St. Joan of the Stockyards; and the American premiere of Conversations in
Exile. He conceived the scenarios and directed Irondale's radical reinterpretations of
such classics as Uncle Vanya; Peer Gynt; As You Like It; The Inspector General; Ubu
Roi; and Peter Pan. Prior to founding Irondale he performed and directed at
several regional theaters, including: The Long Wharf; GeVa; Horse Cave and the Center for
Music Drama and Art in Lake Placid; State Theater of South Carolina; Carnegie Mellon
Theater Company, in addition to serving as Stage Manager at the Roundabout Theater in NYC.
Jim has had articles published in GESTUS, the Magazine of Brechtian Studies and THEATER
THREE. He has taught Master Classes in theater games and improvisation at the University
of Maine, Drew, and SUNY Plattsburgh, and Carnegie Mellon University, among others. Jim
directed the production of You Can't Win, which took the Grand Prix at the
International Drama Festival in St. Petersburg Russia in 1994. He also co-authored the
script for the piece. Email Jim at Jim@irondale.org
Scarlet Maressa Rivera
In Fall of 04',
Scarlet moved to Brooklyn, where she simultaneously joined with Irondale and
enrolled at Brooklyn College in the Performance and Interactive Media Arts
(PIMA) graduate program. She will graduate with her MFA in Spring 08'! In true
ensemble fashion, Irondale has given her the opportunity to dabble in sound
design in such productions as Wasted. The company has also let her
explore movement direction in Peter Panic as well as expand her acting
repertoire and teaching experience. She loves it there.
In Scarlet's past life she fantasized about being a musician, and still to this day fancies singing ditties and playing guitar, saxophone, and a few other instruments. She prides herself on making a sound out of whatever is given to her. Scarlet is proud to be a Manhattanville College graduate, where she studied Dance & Theatre, double-minoring in music and sociology. Scarlet is also busy creating and directing original collaborative works conjured from the parts of the brain that frighten her, and she and her collaborators will be devising a piece exploring technology in the ensemble theater world in Spring 08'. Email Scarlet at Scarlet@irondale.org
Ken Rothchild
Ken Rothchild 's first scenery design for the Irondale Ensemble Project was for an adaptation of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, the second production of Irondale's inaugural season. Twenty-plus years later he has designed every production since, including The Good Woman of Setzuan, Antigone, St Joan of the Stockyards, Ghost Sonata, Danton's Death, Irondale's productions on both Russian tours (Uncle Vanya, Sacrifice, and You Can't Win), and the original productions of Peter Pan-ic (Flying Underground) and Outside the Law / As You Like It: over fifty designs at this point. During this same period of time he designed for regional theaters, regional opera, NYC dance companies; designed and toured productions in Israel, Sri Lanka, and India; and assisted on various Broadway productions and National tours. Other “mainstream entertainment business” roles have included a stint as an Art Director at the daytime drama Guiding Light on CBS; and as a designer and Project Manager for Design Etc., Inc. (a display design firm) where he was responsible for displays for Hasbro and Playskool at the annual NY Toy Fair. And in a role that seemed to exist somewhere between Art and Commerce, he was the Production Designer for two documentaries for WNET-Channel 13. One of these was None Without Sin, an exploration of the relationship between Elia Kazan and Arthur Miller that aired in the Fall of 2004.In the education field he has been a member of the faculty at Bennington College and at Jersey City State College; and is currently Resident Designer and adjunct faculty at Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY. At JCSC he presented a one-man show of his designs at the college’s Courtney Gallery. He served as Irondale’s Director of Education for 12 years. While continuing as the Company Designer, and acting as the production manager for its Off-Broadway productions, he also fills the role of Artistic Associate, advising and assisting the Company’s directors in determining the Company's goals and direction in its artistic and social endeavors. Most recently he has been elected to serve on Irondale’s Board of Directors. He is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts - Design Program, and a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829. Email Ken at Ken@irondale.org
Damen Scranton
Damen Scranton is an actor, playwright, director and teacher, and
is proud to be in his ninth year with the Irondale Ensemble Project. As an actor, he has
performed at the Lincoln Center Theater, the La Jolla Playhouse and at the Firken Crane
Theatre in Cork, Ireland, among others, and has worked with directors such as Michael
Grief, Marion McClinton and Athol Fugard.
As a playwright, Damen has had four plays produced (most recently The Death of Cabaret, 2002 Dublin Fringe Festival), and worked extensively with Athol Fugard, Mac Wellman and Jose Rivera. As a director, he has numerous credits in New York, California, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Most recently, Damen’s production of Chocolate in Heat was selected one of the 2001 NYC Fringe Festival’s "top eight picks" by Time Out Magazine.
This is Damen’s fifth year leading Irondale's residency at the NYC Museum School, and, with Irondale, he has taught at numerous other NYC schools and community groups. He has also taught writing at Marymount Manhattan College and acting and public speaking at the University of California, San Diego. He has a B.A. in Theater and an M.F.A. in Acting, both from U.C.S.D., and thanks you for your support and patronage of Irondale and similar arts organizations. Email Damen at Damen@irondale.org