Michole Biancosino (Co-Founder and Producer, Tiny Barn) is an outside-the-box director, writer, performer, deviser, dramaturg, producer and teacher. She is one of the Co-Founding Artistic Directors of Project Y Theatre, an award-winning company that has launched world premieres in NYC, regionally, and internationally. She produces NYC’s Women in Theatre Festival, now in its 7th year. The festival yearly showcases and develops new work by women playwrights; commissions works by women writers that contain women or girl protagonists in addition to 50% or more women in all roles; and sets itself up as a model for creating gender parity in our industry by going “beyond parity” now. During COVID, she co-created Tiny Barn Theatre in Vermont with Andrew W. Smith. She was the recipient of the SDC Gielgud Fellowship for Classical Directing. BA Middlebury College: Double English and Theatre. MFA in Directing: Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts. She is Assistant Professor of Theatre at Middlebury College.
Seema Lisa Pandya (WAVES OF GRAVITY, Artist and Animator) is a self-taught Brooklyn based multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the intersections between sustainability, geometrical forms, and her South Asian/ Indian American cultural heritage. Her work is also influenced by her many years work as a sustainable building consultant emulating nature-inspired form and environmental sensitivities. Her artistic work ranges from painting, sculpture, and public art to kinetic sculptures and video animations and has been shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art- Long Island, Pioneer Works, Greenwich Art Society, 440 Gallery, Brockport College, BRIC, New York School of Interior Design, FIT SUNY, Leon Gallery, Park Slope, Governor’s Island, Lincoln Center, Culture Hub, and most recently in a 2022 Super Bowl Commercial. Vogue India and Fine Wood Working Magazine have featured her art works with more extensive profile features in GB&D Magazine, Mood of Living, and others. She has made works for recipients such as Khizr Khan and Chelsea Clinton. Her early career curatorial gallery achievements included featuring artists such as Shepard Fairey and was awarded Best Alternative Art Space - Top of the Rockies Colorado in 2004, and Best Gallery Award, Go-Go Magazine in 2001. Pandya has served as a mentor for the NYFA Immigrant Artist program, and has extensive public speaking history including being a panelist at the Asian Arts Alliance “Art, Environment, and Justice in a Changing World” in 2019. She also currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Brooklyn Raga Massive, a contemporary South Asian music organization. Pandya earned her BFA with a concentration in Sustainable Design from Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design and currently teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in sustainable building at NYSID. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Neel Murgai (WAVES OF GRAVITY, Composer and Musician) is a multi-instrumental performer, composer and teacher, and co-founder of the Brooklyn Raga Massive, a raga inspired musician's collective. His journey into sitar and Indian classical music began with Pundit Ravindra Goswami in Banaras, in 1994. For the past 18 years Neel has studied with his guru and mentor, Pundit Krishna Bhatt. His interest in music began at a young age with trombone and guitar. While obtaining a degree in Civil Engineering, Neel worked as a radio DJ, hosting an international music program. This fostered in him an abiding interest in music from around the world. He went on to live in India, immersing himself in the music and culture of his parent’s homeland. Upon returning to the U.S., Neel began a career in music. In addition to sitar, he has since learned to play daf (Persian frame drum) with Soheil Zolfonun. He has studied overtone singing with the Buriyat performance group Uragsha and Harmonic Choir member, Timothy Hill. Western composition, Neel studied with Edgar Grana. In 2013 Neel joined the orchestra of the hit musical theater production of the Jungle Book, directed by Mary Zimmerman. Neel has toured around the world with the Bill T. Jones Dance Company, performing and collaborating in their multi-media show, “Blind Date". Neel has performed on Late Night with David Letterman with Wyclef Jean, Cyndi Lauper and DJ Rekha. He has performed at venues ranging from the Lincoln Center and Kennedy Center to jazz clubs such as the Blue Note and at festivals around the U.S including Art Wallah, Arts Plosure, Masala! Mehndi! Masti! and many others.
Lia Romeo (Playwright, STILL) is a 2021-2022 fellow in the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at Juilliard. Her play The Forest was developed at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, and was scheduled to receive a National New Play Network rolling world premiere this season (postponed due to the coronavirus). Her play Sitting and Talking, starring Dan Lauria and Wendie Malick, premiered at Mile Square Theatre and has subsequently been presented by Laguna Playhouse, New Jersey Rep, Seven Devils New Play Foundry, and other companies. Other plays have been produced off-Broadway at 59E59 and regionally around the country, and four of her plays have been recognized by the Kilroys List. She was the winner of City Theatre’s National Short Playwriting Award, and was an Individual Artist Fellowship winner in playwriting from the New Jersey State Council for the Arts. Her plays are published by Broadway Play Publishing, Playscripts, Dramatists Play Service, and Smith & Kraus. She is the associate artistic director with Project Y Theatre Company, and she teaches playwriting at Primary Stages/ESPA and in the M.A. program in creative writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University. She earned her B.A. from Princeton and her M.F.A. in playwriting from Rutgers/MGSA.
Dana Jacks (Playwright/performer) comes from Sacramento, California and she has worked in New York Theater, film & television for over twenty years — including an acclaimed Off-Broadway production of Our Town directed by David Cromer and a featured role in Netflix’s The Incredible Jessica James. She’s written, produced, and performed in Fall Risk — a solo show chronicling her recovery from a Traumatic Brain Injury sustained in a cycling accident in Prospect Park, Brooklyn in 2011 — that’s been performed for doctors and residents at NYU Langone and received the inaugural Penny Marshall Award from the Brain Injury Association of New York State (BIANYS). The piece was conceived through a workshop led by Michole and the Project Y Theater family. She is excited to be here in this Tiny Barn and share a tiny piece with you. Thank you Michole, Andrew, Zack, August, and both the Project Y and Tiny Barn community for your support and willingness to explore everything. www.danajacks.com
Peter Michael Marino (Writer/Performer) is a NYC native who’s worked extensively as a producer, director, writer, teacher, and performer. Pete was one of the first American artists to present live, interactive digital content during lockdown and was named “Creative of the Year” by the Young-Howze Theater Awards. He livestreamed over 150 performances of his solo shows "Desperately Seeking the Exit," "Show Up, Kids!,” and his toy theater experience, “Planet of the Grapes Live,” directed by Michole Biancosino. His production company PM2 Entertainment has presented festivals and original comedy works everywhere from NYC to Australia, Canada, and the UK. Off-Broadway, he appeared in “STOMP” and played the villain Joules Volter in the immersive family hit “Pip’s Island.” He’s currently developing educational content for The Kennedy Center and is the script supervisor and the clown/host for the immersive circus, “MoonRise NYC.” More info at petermmarino.com
Melissa Lourie (Actor, STILL) received her M.F.A. in Acting from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. She was an equity actress for many years and is the co-founder of the the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in 1987 with friend and colleague Terry O'Brien. Lourie served as Producing Director of that company until moving to Vermont in 1993. Lourie founded Middlebury Acting Company in 2001 where she serves as Artistic Director. She has directed many MACo productions. As an actor, Melissa has acted at Northern Stage, Vermont Stage Company, Middlebury Acting Company and in several independent films. She was an adjunct instructor of acting and theater at the University of Vermont for over 20 years and currently teaches acting at St. Michael's College.
Alex Draper (Actor, STILL) is an actor, director, professor, and chair of Theatre at Middlebury College, where he has directed productions of Mr. Burns: a post electric play, Middletown, Clickshare, Cinders, Twelfth Night, Saint Crispin’s Day, Eurydice, US. Drag, and Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls. He is also a founding member and the Associate Artistic Director of PTP/NYC, appearing in 22 productions over 35 seasons. New York credits include A Map of Virtue (13P); Terrorism (New Group/Play Company); Get What You Need (Atlantic); Rose’s Dilemma (MTC); Endpapers (Variety Arts); Saint Crispin’s Day (Rattlestick); The Pitchfork Disney (Blue Light); and Oedipus (CSC/Blue Light). Film and TV: The Witch in the Window, Hairbrained, Yellowbrickroad, Joshua, Hysterical Blindness, Simply Irresistible, The Photographer, Kalapani, Hard Shell, Chicago Med, Taken, The Good Wife, John Adams, Sex and the City, Law and Order, Law and Order SVU, and Law and Order: CI. BA in Theatre and English from Middlebury, and MFA from the Yale School of Drama.
Michael P. Kin (Visual Artist/Animator) is an illustrator/artist living in Middlebury, Vermont. His work with kids during time spent as a naturalist educator for the Audubon Society of Portland, Oregon along with a position as artist/art director at Aqua Vitea Kombucha inform his colorful and playful illustrations, paintings and animations. A self taught artist, Michael utilizes incessant curiosity and leverages a broad spectrum of interests to explore the world of ideas and things while also working to awaken the inner awe of others in the world around them.
Laurel Jenkins (I'm Alive!) is a dancer, choreographer, educator, and mother. Her choreography emerges from a desire to reimagine our collective human experience. Jenkins’ work has been presented by Lincoln Center, Disney Hall, REDCAT, Automata, the Getty Center, Show Box LA, Danspace, Berlin’s Performing Presence Festival, Tokyo’s Sezane Gallery, and Paris’ Cité Internationale des Arts. She choreographed Bernstein’s MASS with the LA Phil and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. In addition, she has choreographed for LA Contemporary Dance Company, The Wooden Floor, California State University, Long Beach, University of Vermont, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Jenkins was a member of the Trisha Brown Dance Company from 2007-2012 and developed original roles in Brown’s final works. She danced with Vicky Shick and Sara Rudner and performed solos by Merce Cunningham in the Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event. This spring her new work, The Wilds, created in collaboration with Jesse Fleming and Lewis Pesacov, will premiere at the Lied Center for Performing Arts in Lincoln, Nebraska. Jenkins is the recipient of a Vermont Arts Council Grant, an Asian Cultural Council Grant, a French Institute Fellowship, holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence, and an MFA from UCLA. She is a certified Skinner Releasing teacher and an Assistant Professor of Dance at Middlebury College.
Matthew Evan Taylor (I'm Alive!)
Composer and improviser Dr. Matthew Evan Taylor (1980) has been hailed as a composer of “insistent and defiant…envelopingly hypnotic” music (Alan Young, Lucid Culture). Dr. Taylor’s work is sparked by his curiosity about the surrounding world and the inherent social bonds built through music. Whether he is addressing issues about the nature of time or the bounds of the human breath on musical performance, Dr. Taylor writes music that is engaging, surprising, and unmistakably human. His aesthetic is typified by vibrant instrumental colors, mercurial juxtapositions, and an affinity for groove. Innovative projects such as Life Returns, Say Their Names, Postcards to the Met, and The Unheard Mixtapes were created as new templates for composition and performance in the wake of the pandemic. His ongoing series The Living Score aims to decolonize the compositional process by democratizing the most precious Western musical artifact – the musical score.
Dr. Taylor’s music is available through New Amsterdam Records.
Sarah Leddy (I'm Alive!) is a Los Angeles-based choreographer, educator, and community engagement practitioner whose work draws upon experimental dance and theater practices as well as community building and equity training through dialogue and action. She is a member of the Gold Collective, and teaches in the Department of Dance at Cal State Long Beach. sarahleddydanceproject.com
Tom Moose (I'm Alive!) is a musician and composer based in Los Angeles. He collaborates with choreographers and filmmakers, and is a member of the bands Cuñao and Ikes Creek. When the pandemic locked everything down, he started posting daily music videos (on Insta and FB). The Sequester Sessions concluded after 444 consecutive days. @tommoosemusic http://tommoose.com/
August Siegel (Student Artist) is a design-focused Theatre major at Middlebury College (Class of 2025). Hailing from the Lower East Side of New York, they love being involved in theatre in any way, but especially more tech and management-oriented roles. Their Middlebury stage management credits include Which Way is Up? (First Year Show 2021), We’ll Name This Later (24-Hour Play Festival 2022), and Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play. August is the incoming Treasurer for the Hepburn Zoo Theater and Middlebury’s Creating Art Together club, both of which are major creative organizations on campus. August is looking forward to working for Tiny Barn this summer, and can’t wait to see all of the projects come together.
Zack Maluccio (Student Artist) is an Economics and Theatre student at Middlebury College (Class of 2023). Raised in Indianapolis, Zack has now lived in Middlebury, VT for a second straight summer, making it two years since he has called any other place home. Previously an intern for the Town Hall Theater, he is elated to be a part of the Tiny Barn this summer as a student artist! His Middlebury acting credits include Company (Robert), She Kills Monsters (Orcus), Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again (Member), and Working (Delivery Boy). Middlebury directing credits include Until I Do and Big Fish.
Andrew W. Smith (Co-Founder) is a professional Artist whose work has been seen regionally and internationally. Last summer he co-founded Tiny Barn with Michole Biancosino as a way to produce theatre during the COVID pandemic. He is also the Co-Founding Artistic Director of the award-winning Project Y Theatre Company. Selected regional acting work includes: Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Pittsburgh City Theatre, Quantum Theatre, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Roundhouse Theatre, Potomac Theatre Project, Ars Nova, Studio Theatre, and Olney Center for the Arts. Filmwork includes Lucid, Shooting Script, Death of a Nation, Under-Ground. Television work includes GONE, Law and Order: Criminal Intent. Andrew is currently an Associate Professor of Acting at the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. www.smithandrewwilliam.com.