The Irondale Ensemble Company

Michaelangelo DeSerio

A native of Brooklyn and lower New York state, Michael loves working with Irondale. He received his Double Bachelors from Manhattanville College, majoring in English and History, and his Masters in Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Long Island University Brooklyn Campus. Michael has six years of carpentry experience, including one year specifically in theater carpentry. He has over six years experience in the service industry, which includes event planning, space booking, coordinating, and execution of parties, productions, and events for a range of 30 to 250 people. Email Michaelangelo at IrondaleFacilities@gmail.com

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 The Cheshire Cat. in Irondale Ensemble Project’s alice...Alice...ALICE!

Terry Greiss

Terry Greiss (Co-Founder, Ensemble Actor, Executive Director), has been working in the theater for 34 years. He is an actor, director and co-founder (with Jim Niesen and Barbara Mackenzie-Wood), of NYC's Irondale Ensemble Project. He has performed in over forty roles with the company, and is a co-creator of most of Irondale's original works and education programs. He has conducted hundreds of workshops in public schools, prisons, theaters, professional training programs and community venues. He has been part of three Russian-American collaborations with the International Classic Center of St. Petersburg. Terry was the Founding President of the Network of Ensemble Theaters, a national consortium of artist-driven permanent theater ensembles. In April 2008 he was invited by the US Embassy to lecture and teach in Moscow and Yaroslavl and at the Golden Mask Festival. In addition to his work at Irondale, he has taught at the New School, the University of Wisconsin Drama Center and has performed at the Manhattan Theater Club. He is a graduate of the NYC High School for the Performing Arts and Sarah Lawrence College. Email Terry at Terry@irondale.org

Amanda Hinkle

Amanda Hinkle (Director of Education): Amanda’s first experience with Irondale was stage-managing a bi-lingual French/English production of Macbeth with soundpainting ensembles Strike Anywhere (NYC) and ANITYA (Paris). Her work with Strike Anywhere as Education Coordinator, event manager, and Teaching Artist has kept her close to the Irondale Family, and she is thrilled to become part of both. At Roundabout Theatre Company, Amanda served as Education Associate for School-Based Programs, managing school-wide and classroom partnerships in all five boroughs, reaching 171 classrooms in 20 schools. She has also worked administratively for New York State Council on the Arts' Empire State Partnership program and Brooklyn Youth Company.

Prior to coming to NY, she served as Assistant Director of Education at George Street Playhouse (New Brunswick, NJ), directing and booking productions for the Educational Touring Company reaching 80,000 students per year, managing year round Academy classes and workshops for children and adults, and creating curricula for in-school residencies. Amanda has taught theatre, photography, dance, and cultural exploration classes for Queens Theatre in the Park, Manhattan New Music Project, St. John’s in the Village, Salk School of Science, Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble, George Street Playhouse, Princeton Dance & Theatre Studio, East Hillside Youth Theatre, and numerous schools and arts organizations in NYC, NJ, and MN. Amanda is a graduate of University of Minnesota Duluth (Theatre & Art), and a member of the American Alliance of Theatre and Education. Email Amanda at amanda@irondale.org

Nolan Kennedy

Nolan Kennedye (Ensemble Member): Nolan Kennedy is an accomplished actor, musician and playwright. Hailing from Chicago, Nolan got his start in improv at age 11 at the Improv Playhouse where he continues to be an emeritus teacher. He also studied at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland, then received his BFA in Acting from Illinois Wesleyan University. Acting credits include NYC: Peter Pan, London Cries, The Great American War Machine, Macbeth Variations, and Same River; in Chicago: Private Lies, The Closeness of You, and Genius. An improv student of Keith Johnstone, David Stuart and Jim Neisen, Nolan has worked with many theaters and schools across the country. Some companies include The Neo-Futurisits (Chicago), Strawdog Theater Ensemble (Chicago), Irondale Ensemble Project (Brooklyn), Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble (NYC), and the Chicago Improv Festival. He is also the Artistic Director of his newly formed Letter of Marque Theater Co. Nolan is a master-teacher specializing in the creation of ensemble, improv, and acting. His playwriting credits include Prepared Fresh (Off-Broadyway and The Portland Fringe Festival), This Little Piece (Zoo Theater, Chicago), Into an Unlulled Sleep and Soot (Illinois Wesleyan University) and Generation Next (Improv Playhouse Black Box Theater). He moonlights as a rockstar with his band Whiskey First. Email Nolan at nolan@irondale.org

Maria Knapp

Maria Knapp began as intern at Irondale and has worn the hats of Stage Manager, Associate Director, and General Manager. Her current hat is starting to get too small. 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). Until August 2009, Maria also ran the administration of NET, the Network of Ensemble Theaters, a national service organization comprised of over 100 ensembles around the country. Email Maria at Maria@irondale.org

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

Scarlet likes to sum up her multi-faceted and broad range of skills by identifying herself as a professional collaborator and ensemble ambassador. She is now entering her 8th season with Irondale and in this time she has been given the opportunity to dabble in sound design in such productions as Wasted, explore movement direction in Peter Panic as well as expand her acting repertoire and teaching experience. She currently teaches at both Satellite Forsyth and Midtown high schools.

Scarlet received her MFA in Performance and Interactive Media Arts (PIMA) as a member of the first graduating class at Brooklyn College in May 08'. She is also proud to be a Manhattanville College graduate, where she studied Dance & Theatre, double-minoring in music and sociology. 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. Others interests may include bicycle riding or examining community in our increasingly wired culture, however, Scarlet has a particular interest in using ensemble methods for the creation of original collaborative works that experiment with the integration of performance technology in a human and transparent way. Email Scarlet at 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: University of California at San Diego, M.F.A. in acting, and B.A. in Theatre/Creative Writing. Damen was one of two U.S. recipients of a Princess Grace Award for Acting in 1996. Since 1997, he has worked as an actor and teacher for the Irondale Ensemble Project. He is also an artistic associate with Blessed Unrest (another award-winning NYC theater ensemble), and is a core member of Strike Anywhere (an NYC-based, improvisational jazz performance ensemble). As an actor, he has also performed at the Lincoln Center Theater, the La Jolla Playhouse, Sledgehammer Theater in San Diego and the Granary Theatre in Cork, the Republic of Ireland, among others. Notably, Damen played Creon in Antigone (directed by Athol Fugard) at the Firken Crane Theatre in Cork. As a playwright, Damen has had four plays produced in the U.S., Ireland, and Northern Ireland (including The Death of Cabaret, 2001 Dublin Fringe Festival). And as a director his plays have won numerous awards and honors, including Burn, Crave, Hold: The James Wilde Project (winner of the 2008 NY Innovative Theater Award for Best Production of a Play). He has taught courses in Shakespeare, acting and creative writing at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, UC San Diego, Manhattanville College, Marymount College in Manhattan, numerous NYC public high schools, the Riker’s Island juvenile detention facility, and the Port Stewart Community Center in Port Stewart, Northern Ireland. Damen was born and raised in Pasadena, California.

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.

Damen has taught with Irondale at numerous 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