Who's Who In Room 41

A-C / D-H / I-M / N-S / T-Z / appendix


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CAROLYN "SPACE" JACOBSON - (playwright, actor) - [Grinnell]
email: cjacobso@english.upenn.edu
web: http://www.english.upenn.edu/~cjacobso/home.html

DAVID JAMES - (actor) - [Los Angeles]
email: davidmarkey@earthlink.net

JOSHUA JAMES (née TODD J. PETERSON) - (writer/director) - [New York City]
M.F.A (Acting) '94
Joshua is a New York-based playwright, author of the plays The Men's Room, Running In Place, Old Dog, Tallboy Walkin', Thicker Than Water, The Penis Papers, SPOOGE - The Sex & Love Monologues, 2 Very Dangerous People Sharing 1 Small Space Together, The Hot Naked Truth, The Beautiful One, The Elf - The Bunny & The Big Xmas Blow-up and Something Situation, in addition to many others. He also authored the original screenplays The Jones Party, PuppyDog Tales, Spinners and A Natural High. His plays have been produced across the United States, including Los Angeles, Chicago and all over New York City. In the spring of 2002 Joshua made his London debut when his play The Men's Room premiered at the Croydon Warehouse Theatre in the U.K. Additionally, Joshua is the co-founder (with Ato Essandoh) of the writing/performance group The Defiant Ones and co-author of the plays Close Encounters, Eat My Shorts and Defiant Ones: Revolution. Joshua is a product of the University of Iowa MFA Acting program. In addition to writing, Joshua directs and consults throughout New York City.
email: joshuajames99@yahoo.com

MATTHEW JANES - (actor) - [Chicago]
email: MattJanes@cs.com

DONNA JANOSICK - [Los Angeles]
email: ZsaZsaMatic@yahoo.com

VAN JENKINS
email: vjenk@yahoo.com

B. MICHELLE JOHNSON - (playwright) - [Cleveland]
I recently finished up 2 1/2 years in Cote d'Ivoire doing a number of things as a Peace Corps volunteer, including leading health trainings, collecting garbage and being chased by sacred masks.  I wrote and directed for UNICEF what became a summer smash in my town of Dabakala called Les Trois Petits Moustiques.  Before that I was a finalist in the Cleveland Public Theatre New Plays Festival with a play called Victorious Evening, Now.   I am still writing, still traveling and even working for a non-profit here in Cleveland.  If anyone passes through, be sure to get in touch with me.  It's a fantastic place.
email: mlemoko@hotmail.com

ERIC JOHNSON - (actor/accordionist) - [Los Angeles]
Eric Johnson was living in Chicago since Oct. '95 until his recent move to California.  Since then he's appeared in about 18 or 19 shows, including Scott Smith's Revenge of the Killer Fat Girl at the old European Rep space, Hidden Surprise Shows and P.Imps Show with Brett Neveu's Pup At Theatre, Strange Case: Jekyll & Hyde at Lifeline Theatre, and The Pitchfork Disney, Road to Nirvana, Audience, Some Things You Need to Know Before the World Ends, and Lebensraum (for which he won a 2000 Joseph Jefferson Citation - Actor in a Supporting Role) all at some other theater whose name he can't quite remember.  He's also appeared in the now cancelled Cupid on ABC, a yet-to-run-but-any-day-now-please-God national Midas commercial, and two or three indie movies made around town. Comin' up: The Duel with European Repertory, opening in October 2000.
email: mises@earthlink.net

JENNIFER KERN JOHNSON - (actor) - [Chicago]
University of Iowa student (actor) from 1988 to 1994 (BA)
Living in Chicago since '94. Will appear in The Invention of Love at Court Theater in Sept. Is a company member of European Repertory Company where she was last seen in Slavs!. Other ERC productions, Ivanov, Scenes from an Execution, Agamemnon, Stars in the Morning Sky, and Have You Anything to Declare?. Most recent non-ERC credits include Medea and The Threepenny Opera for American Theater Company (formerly American Blues), Real Classy Affair for Shattered Globe Theater, and Hellcab for Famous Door Theater. Has guested on Early Edition (bad CBS show), and will appear in the independent features, Betaville and Stricken if they ever see the light of day.
email: jenjkern@hotmail.com

MARK D. JOHNSON - (actor, director, playwright, SBO) - [Czech Republic]
University of Iowa student (actor) from 1986 to 1992 (BA) ... Currently living in the Czech Republic.
email: mdavjo@hotmail.com

KATY JONES - (actor) - Chicago
Student at the University of Iowa from  1999 to 2003 (BA) 
email: Katrinaj17@aol.com

SEÁN JUDGE - (actor, sound designer, composer) - [Houston]
University of Iowa student (Theater and French) from 1988 to 1994 (BA)
Seán moved to Houston after almost 5 years in Chicago and 4 years in New York.  In Houston , Seán became Managing Director of Nova Arts Project (http://www.novaartsproject.com ) and has performed in Oedipus3 (Oedipus, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone), as Claudius in Hamlet (re-imagined by alumni Brian Byrnes), and as Daddy in tempOdyssey,  as Sir Cyril Loveworthy in Jeff Goode's Love Loves A Pornographer (or Please As You Please) and most recently as Richard III among various other roles in The War of the Roses Cycle .  Seán has also performed at Stages Repertory in their production of Silence .  In New York,  he performed in productions of Brett Neveu's Eric La Rue, Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and Lehar's The Merry Widow.   In Chicago , Seán was seen in  The Silver Chair at Lifeline, playing Aslan and Prince Rilian, as well as Polpoch Marat/Sade, Malvolio in Twelfth Night, Botard in Rhinoceros,  The Prophet of Bishop Hill, Tell Me About Ireland, Tony n' Tina's Wedding,  Revenge of the Killer Fat Girl/I Was Like Wow,  The Eight: Reindeer Monologues,  The Ring Cycle: The Musical!, The Maids, and Audience: The Vanek Plays.  Seán has composed music for Jeff Goode's plays  The Eight, and Poona: The Fuck Dog, as well as Brett Neveu's Rough.
email: seanjudge1@gmail.com
web: http://go.to/seanjudge

SHEELA KANGAL - (playwright) - [New York]
Currently the Director of Information Systems at Theatre Communications Group (TCG)
email: shekan@earthlink.net

CHERYL L. KAPLAN - (director) - [Galveston]
[MFA '00]
Cheryl L. Kaplan is a director, writer, actor and teaching artist currently living in Galveston, Texas.  She is the Director of Theatre Outreach and Education at the University of Texas Medical Branch, where she uses theatre as a tool for education about UTMB's ongoing research for the classroom, the university and the community.  Some of her most recent credits are Unparalleled, a play about 5 different perspectives of one woman's struggle with breast cancer and The Theatre Troupe, a play development lab geared towards  creating original plays through improvisation about environmental health sciences for grades K-12.  If anyone in the Texas area (or beyond) has ideas for collaboration, please feel free to contact her at her e-mail address below!

email:  clkaplan@utmb.edu

CHRISTI KATHOL (actor) - [Omaha, NE]
[MFA '97]
kat1act@aol.com

GINA KAUFMANN - (director) - [Sacramento]
Gina has just joined the theatre department at California State University, Sacramento as a director and acting teacher after two years in the theatre department at The University of Louisville, where she directed a cabaret version of The Threepenny Opera, as well as directing Machinal at The Kentucky Canter for the Arts. In New York, she has directed for SoHo Rep, HOME for Contemporary Theatre and Art, Wings Theatre, and Dixon Place. She has worked extensively on new play development, including three years as a Guest Director with Paula Vogel and the New Play Festival at Brown University, directing Hot 'N' Throbbing in collaboration with Ms. Vogel, directing The Wall of Water in collaboration with playwright Sherry Kramer, and serving four years as the Artistic Director of The Unusual Cabaret in Maine. This past spring she was the Director of the Frost Festival of New Plays at Dartmouth College. She has also directed and taught acting at The Williamstown Theatre Festival and in numerous regional venues, most recently directing a new play for Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in Toronto, Canada. Gina is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and she holds an MFA in Directing from The University of Texas at Austin.
email: gina@csus.edu

MATTIE KENNEDY - (actor, writer, singer) - [New York]
email: kennedym@nfl.com

BEN KERNAN - - [New York]
email: choblo@aol.com

CHAD LARABEE - (Director) - [New York]
Chad Larabee moved to New York after graduating from Florida State University with an MFA in directing in 2006. Since then I directed the concert version of the new musical, AIN'T WE GOT FUN, in London, which we are now negotiating for productions in New York. I'm also exploring opportunities in television direction, hopefully more to come soon. My emphasis has been on new plays and musicals, thanks Iowa!  More information at www.chadlarabee.com .
email: chad@chadlarabee.com

MANDI LEE - [New York]
Mandi lives in NYC and writes plays.  She is looking for  partners in crime to create art..... or something like it.  No, this is not a personal ad.
email: mandialee@aol.com

MARK LOHMAN - (T.D., set / costume / lighting design) - [Chicago]
Resident Designer and Production Manager at the University of Chicago, teaches scenic and lighting design, stagecraft etc. Designs have also been seen at Writers Theater, Steppenwolf, Victory Gardens, and Lifeline Theater. Recent shows include “A Dybbuk”, “Booth”, “Orson’s Shadow” and “Jonathan Swift”.
email: mlohman@midway.uchicago.edu

JACK LYNCH (nee JOHN LYNCH) - [London, England]
[MFA '96] Since marrying in the fall of '96, Jack Lynch and Edie Campbell, moved to England and live SW of London near the town of Guildford, about 45 minutes by train into London Waterloo station. It has been tough going finding work, but Jack has been a guest tutor in movement, movement improvisation, and acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London for the past two years and teaching there again this autumn and spring. He teaches mostly in what is called the Advanced Theatre Practice course, which is about collaboration and devising new works. It brings together student performers, designers, directors, writers, puppeteers to practice working together, often in site specific venues. He's getting more and more involved there, hoping that the door continues to creek open. Also, Jack has been guest tutor in movement at The Circus Space, which was involved in training the performers of the Millennium Dome opening on New Years Day 2000. The Circus Space has just created a two year diploma course and it looks as though he is going to return there as guest tutor. Keep your fingers crossed.   Jack is also working with former students on small projects and doing acting coaching as well with students desiring to get into drama school. He has been also getting requests to get involved with other theatre artists to create new works and do workshops. Many of these are in the discussion/brainstorming phase but all is getting exciting and looking promising. Oh, and since moving to England, Jack has become licensed as a massage therapist.
Finally, Edie and Jack have just formed LynchPin Productions. They have their first show opening in Dec in Guildford, which is where Edie went to school years ago at the Guildford School of Acting. It will be at the Mill Studio (we can't ever seem to get away from "the Mill" :-) and is entitled My Life Has Stood, the journey of a portrayal. A newly devised work performed by Edie and directed by Jack, it is a one-woman show about an actress's attempt to create a one-woman show about Emily Dickenson. It delves into the creative process of writing and performing and the dilemma of creating a character, especially an historical persona... "when is a biographical portrayal not autobiographical." Wish us luck.
email: jeleac@waitrose.com

SUSAN LYNSKEY
email: DramaKids@aol.com

CAROL MacVEY - (director) - [Iowa City]
email: cmacvey@avalon.net

KAOIME MALLOY - (costume designer) - [Green Bay, WI]
[MFA 90]  I've spent a lot of the past few years designing costumes with Pip Gordon at Grinnell College, where she is a tenured faculty member.  After spending three years as an adjunct faculty member back at the old U of I, I landed a full time Assistant Professor job at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay, where I just finished my first year.  One of the highlights of  my year was attending the Costume Designers Guild Awards Gala in Beverly Hills last March, where I got to schmooze with my kind - fellow costume designers - as well as Tim Curry, Hilary Swank, Warren Beatty and Robert Downey Jr. (wearing a pink blazer and white pants!  What was his stylist thinking?!) Anyway, it was all very exciting!  My freelance career is still busy, so think of me if you need a costume designer!
email: malloyk@uwgb.edu

RUTH E. MARGRAFF - (Playwright/Librettist) - [New York]
Ruth is a founding member of HERE Arts Center's "Opera Project" and composer Fred Ho's Big Red Media, Inc. with which she has written VOICE OF THE DRAGON ..A MARTIAL ARTS BALLET which toured with Columbia Arts Management, Inc. Spring, 2003 to performing arts centers in 33 cities and a prequel to premiere at the Apollo Theater in 2004. Her other work has been developed and produced by the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Cooper Union Grand Hall, Lincoln Center, Public, Hourglass Group/PS122, Kitchen, NYTW, Guggenheim Museum, JVC Jazz Festival, La Mama Galleria, New Georges, GAle GAtes Company, Mabou Mines, Dixon Place@Vineyard, Mac Wellman Festival, Knitting Factory, etc. (New York); Red Eye, Walker Art Center (Minneapolis); Seattle Repertory (Seattle); Northeastern University (Boston); University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa (Alabama); Undermain (Dallas); Salvage Vanguard, Yacov Sharir's Danceworks, Deborah Hay Dance Company, Fronterafest, (Austin); Perishable Theater, AS220 (Providence); Iowa Playwrights' Workshop (Iowa City); Bottom's Dream, Audrey Skirball-Kenis, Overtone Industries (Los Angeles); Film Studio (New Zealand); Aymakent/Istanbul (Turkey); 2001 Beogradski Letnji Festival/Countess Ljubice Museum (Belgrade, Serbia), Bijenale Vizuelnih Umetnosti/Ukrstanja 10th Biennial of Visual Arts (Pancevo, Yugoslavia) 2002 Bolshoi Zal American Series and 2003 Novaja International New Drama Festival at the Moscow Art Theater (Moscow, Russia) 2003 Rembetika Music Conference/Melina Mercouri Hall (Isle of Hydra, Greece), Theater Nohgaku/National Noh Theater (Tokyo, Japan), etc. Ruth's work has been published in American Theater, Theater Forum, Contemporary Theater Review, Theater Topics, Theater in Crisis?, NuMuse Anthology, Epoch, Patterson Literary Review, Conjunctions: 28, Autonomedia, Smith & Kraus, American Theater, and several martial arts journals including Marcials Artes Y Algo Mas(Puerto Rico), etc. Ruth has received a Jerome Fellowship, McKnight Advancement Grant, two TCG/ITI travel grants (to Bosnia, Greece and Turkey), Bellagio artist residency (Italy), NYSCA Individual Artist Grant, NEA/TCG Playwrighting Residency with HERE Arts, 2003 Arts International U.S. Fund for Artists, and three Rockefeller Foundation commissions in new opera. Ruth has taught playwriting at Brown and UT Austin/Michener Center for Writers and Yale School of Drama and is a member of New Dramatists.
email:
Ruth.Margraff@yale.edu 

SHERRI MARINA - (actor) - [Iowa City]
Currently, MFA acting candidate at UI.
email: Divatox29@aol.com

DARLA MAX - (actor) - [Philadelphia]
Mark and I just celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary by going to Stratford for 10 days!  It was fabulous!  Last year we purchased an historic home built in 1742 in Philadelphia.  It is a beautiful stone colonial home.  We rent a couple of small one bedroom apts on the first floor and we live on the second and third floor.  We also have a theatre in our backyard.  SERIOUSLY!  The carriage house in the back yard was turned into a small chamber theatre back in 1933.  So currently I am renovating (really...personally putting up stud walls and dry wall and patching cement walls, etc) the theatre between acting/fight director gigs (just finished playing Kate and directing the fights for a great production of Taming of the Shrew)  Mark helps out with the construction when he has time between his full time job as Director of Theatre at Eastern College (suburban college), running a childrens theatre summer camp and doing the occasional professional directing gig.  (Last year he directed the world premier of a piece called Between Men and Cattle by Richard Kalinoski)  So our goals are to continue to make theatre and educate new theatre artists until we can have a full time theatre company running out of our back yard.  Maybe in a couple of years we will be able to start hiring all our chums to come out here and join us for a show or two.  In the mean time if anyone is in Philly, come stay for a while...we have plenty of room!
email: maxowl@aol.com

SHANNON MCCORMICK - (actor, director, playwright) - [Austin]
email: mccormsl@argold.com

BOB McEWEN - - [Hindale, IL]
Still trying to integrate creative and income-producing pursuits, but more often than not they tend to alternate.  Am working with Mark Bryan, author of “The Artist’s Way At Work,” on a wonderful methodology for driving organizational change.  Truly amazing to witness the transformative power of the exercises.    The past seven years I spent managing PR firms in Detroit and Chicago, most recently at Burson-Marsteller as president and CEO of the Midwest region, working with clients such as General Motors, Ford, Kellogg’s, Accenture, McDonald’s, Miller Brewing, CDW Computer, and K-mart.   I was on the board of Chicago Dramatists for two years, where I see playwrights Keith Huff and Carson Becker regularly, and I stay in touch with director Sandy Cavanaugh, who founded The New Heritage Theater Company in Boise, ID, and persuaded Anthony Hopkins, Olympia Dukakis and Hector Elizondo to join her advisory board.   Sandy is planning to produce my play “Son Of A Gonne” there in a wonderful, old, abandoned armory that the city council handed over to her for a song.  Also correspond regularly with Howard Stein in Connecticut , still the most insightful consigliere a playwright could ever hope to have.  

email:
mcewenr@comcast.net

ROB MCLEAN - (actor, combat choreographer, poster design/desktop publishing) - [Chicago]

TODD McNERNEY - (teacher,director, actor, fight choreographer) - [Charleston, SC]
Todd is still living in South Carolina.  Still teaching. Got tenure and became Department Chair.  Baseball has become an even more defining element in Todd's life, and his sons play it a lot of it.  If you are interested you can check out the Department web-site - http://www.cofc.edu/teatre/index.html from there you can link to Todd's very out-of-date personal page.
email: McNerneyT@cofc.edu

ELLEN MELAVER - (playwright) - [New York]
email: Elmelaver@aol.com

LAURA MILLER - (actor, stage manager, LBO) - [San Francisco]
University of Iowa student (actor) from 1986 to 1991 (BA)
email: elmilr@aol.com

STEPHANIE MILLER-LAMB - (stage manager) - [Berkeley, California]
MFA Stage Management '90
We've left the Bay Area and are back in the Midwest. I'm now Operations Director for the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra in Madison. Just moved to a great old Victorian in Portage WI with spouse Pat and two cats. Very happy.
email: steph@patandsteph.net

MICHAEL J. MIX - [Chicago]
I.A.T.S.E. Stagehand ( Local 690, Iowa City ), working in the jurisdiction of Local 2 (Chicago). for the past two years. Most of this summer one could find me working at Navy Pier, mixing sound (yes, that would be mic mix) on one of the outdoor stages or filling in as head carpenter or head electrician at the Skyline Stage. Related skills.....lighting designer, scenic designer, tech director, production manager, props, audio, also designs and builds jewelry in tropical hardwoods and fine or sterling silver. If you have a show in a union house, call me for advice, tips, reassurance, possible employment, tricks of the trade...
email: mjxdesign@aol.com

KAREN MOELLER - (actor) - [Madison, Wisconsin]
Undergrad: 85-88
I live in Madison, Wisconsin with my husband (Tony Trout) and two cats. Most of my time is taken up doing theatre, voiceover, and advertising work, though we bought our first house last year and I've started to get into gardening. So far, I'm still in the "is this a flower or is it a weed?" phase, but I've planted a couple of things and they haven't died yet, so I feel like progress is being made. 
email:
korkypanix@sbcglobal.net

MIKE MORAN - (playwright, director, actor) - [Mt. Vernon, Iowa]
Mike Moran has nothing new to say.  Except he's moved his family (wife Karla, kids Grace, Zak, and Luke) back to Iowa and has bought a lovely home in Mt. Vernon just twenty miles north of IC.  He's taken a job at Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids teaching Language Arts.  Mike still tends to stay quiet in large groups and get goofy as hell in front of his students and his family.  His work has been produced in Chicago and the chicagoland-area.  Contact him if you'd like an original monologue.  He's got scads on file and loves the challenge of writing for a specific actor.
email: mailto:ffwap@aol.com
web: http://tsatyr.tripod.com/

JEN MOSES - (actor) - [Chicago]
University of Iowa student (actor) till 1992. Founding member, producer and actor for Hidden Theatre (Chicago) ... Currently is in orbit from Chicago to the east coast to Austin, continuing to write, had a piece of erotica published in july in an anthology from Alyson Publications, and has her second screenplay entered in the Austin Heart of Film Screenplay Competition.
email: moses69@ibm.net