EVOLUTION
Written & Performed by Patricia Buckley [bio]
Directed by Michele Chivu [bio]
Featuring Music by Marc Mellits [bio]
Scenic and Projection Design by Jim Findlay [bio]
Lighting Design by Thomas Dunn [bio]
Sound Design by Will Pickens [bio]
Costume Design by Anna Alisa Belous [bio]
Production Manager - Alex Mark [bio]
Producer Kristi McKay [bio]
Patricia Buckley is an international writer and performer. She is a founding member the three-woman theatre company, Gams On The Lam, (Franklin Furnace Emerging Artist Award) whose ground-breaking shows combining roughhouse slapstick, satire and dance toured extensively in the US, Canada, Latin America and Europe for 10 years and received funding and awards from NYFA, NYSCA and Arts International. In Europe, Ms. Buckley has toured and collaborated with the Spanish companies K de Calle and Nasu Theatre in creating street spectacle and outdoor performance for festivals and theatre venues. Her solo play Evolution, developed through fellowships at the Interart Theatre and readings and workshops at The Redhouse Multiarts Space, The Berkshire Theatre Festival and The Franklin Stage Company and artist-in-residence residencies at Gettysburg, Muhlenberg and LeMoyne Colleges, will be produced in New York City in 2012.
Ms. Buckley was a writer and performer with the Tony-award winning Minneapolis company, Theatre de la Jeune Lune. Her New York and US performance credits include regional theatres such as Portland Stage Company, LaJolla Playhouse, Coconut Grove, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Portland Center Stage, Walnut Street and Cleveland Playhouse, Papermill Playhouse and , and various venues in Montreal and Toronto. NYC performance venues include New York Theatre Workshop, The Irish Arts Center, and Potomac Theatre Project. Film and television credits include Law & Order, Death Of A President and regular collaboration with filmmaker Scott Prendergast on films such as Anna Is Being Stalked (Sundance), The Delicious, Saragossa and Kabluey (Sony).
Michele Chivu is a director in New York City. Most recently, she produced and directed a short film entitled American House - a satire about a young couple who respond to the economic crisis by moving into a retirement home. She has directed two works for LAByrinth Theater Company at The Public Theater, including a production of Pretty Chin Up by Andrea Ciannavei and 7 Captiva Road, also by Ms. Ciannavei for the LAByrinth Barn Series. Other directing credits include: The Maids by Jean Genet at the Chocolate Factory; Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco at Center Stage/NY; Dolores by Edward Allan Baker for The Collective at Center Stage/NY; Employees Must Wash Hands by Andrea Ciannavei for Vampire Cowboys at the Bowery Poetry Club; Feeder: A Love Story by James Carter and Tales from the Schminke Tub by Steve Danziger as part of TerraNOVA Collective’s SoloNOVA Festival; I Never Sang for my Father by Robert Anderson at Center Stage/NY; Shotgun by Jeff MacCulloch; Detours by Jeff MacCulloch; The Squeeze by Andrea Ciannavei. Michele has also been intensely involved as dramaturge and director in the development of new plays and has directed many staged readings including: 7 Captiva Road and Pretty Chin Up for LAByrinth; Blume in Atlantic City by Jeff MacCulloch at The Flea Theater and PS122; We.Self Identification by Konstantin Steshik, Pavel Rassolko and Pavel Priazhko for the Culture Project IMPACT Festival – Plays from the Free Theater of Minsk. In March of 2008 she was invited to La Caserne in Quebec City as an observer with Robert Lepage and Ex Machina during their collective development of LIPSYNCH.
Marc Mellits is one of the leading American composers of his generation. His music is performed throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe and has been identified with the postminimalist stylistic trend. Mellits' recent commissions include pieces for such internationally acclaimed artists as the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Assad Duo, Kronos Quartet, the Meridian Arts Ensemble, and has been arranged for the experimental music group Electric Kompany. Mellitts studied at the Eastman School of Music, the Yale School of Music, Cornell University and Tanglewood, studying composition with Joseph Schwantner, Samuel Adler, Martin Bresnick, Bernard Rands, Christopher Rouse, Roberto Sierra, Jacob Druckman, Poul Ruders, and Steven Stucky. In 2004 Mellits received the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award. He is a founding member of Common Sense Composer's Collective and is the artistic director and keyboard player in his own unique ensemble, the Mellits Consort. www.marcmellits.com
Jim Findlay works across specialties as a designer, director, performer and creator with a constellation of theater, performance and music groups. He lives and works out of a studio in Brooklyn, NY. He was a founding member and primary collaborator in both the experimentally ground breaking Collapsable Giraffe and the internationally successful music/media performance company Accinosco/Cynthia Hopkins as well as being an associate artist of The Wooster Group since 1994. He was a resident associate from 1995-2003, leading the technical team and designing sets for the internationally renowned company. Those designs have toured to over 40 cities worldwide including Berlin, Istanbul, London, Moscow and Paris.
Current projects-in-progress include an untitled commission for the creation of a non-text based work with director Phil Soltanoff for the Center Theater Group in Los Angeles, an independent production of Evolution by Patricia Buckley, and Sylvan Oswald's Nightlands with New George's Theater. He is also currently developing, writing, and directing an independent new performance project titled Botanica, due some time in 2012. www.jimfindlaynyc.com
Thomas Dunn designs lighting for architecture, dance, theater, and visual art venues in the US and abroad. New York City performance credits include works with; The Civilians, Gone Missing and Paris Commune, DD Dorvillier/human future dance corps, Coming Out of the Night With Names, No Change or “freedom is a psycho-kinetic skill,” Nottthing Is Importanttt (for which he received a 2007 Bessie Award) Choreography, a Prologue for the Apocalypse of Understanding, Get Ready!, Sens Production/Noémie Lafrance productions Noir, Agora, Melt, Rapture and Home, Trajal Harrell Notes On Less Than Zero, Before Intermission, Showpony, and Quartet for the End of Time. Thomas is the recipient of a 2009 Kevin Kline Award for Outstanding Lighting Design, The Little Dog Laughed, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. He was educated at Bennington College and Yale School of Drama. www.thomasdunn.7-arts.com
Will Pickens has recently worked on: Broadway: That Championship Season (Jacobs Theatre), Importance of Being Earnest and Present Laughter (Roundabout Theatre). Off-Broadway on: I Never Sang for My Father, Heroes, and Beasley’s Christmas Party (Keen Company), Through The Night (Union Square Theatre), That Hopey Changey Thing, Red and Brown Water, Brother Size, Marcus: or the Secret of Sweet, Why Torture is Wrong, and the People who Love Them, and Emergence-See (The Public Theatre), Burnt Part Boys (Playwrights Horizons), Something You Did (Primary Stages), The Overwhelming (Roundabout Theatre), Black Snow and Non-Play (The New Ensemble). Regional credits: Music Man (Geva Theatre Center), Richard III, Comedy of Errors, Cymbeline, and MacBeth (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), St. Nicholas, Merton of the Movies, The Hollow, and Marry Me A Little (Dorset Theatre Festival), Antony and Cleopatra (Hartford Stage Company). www.willpickens.com
She holds an MFA from the Art and Design Academy St. Petersburg, Russia and an MFA in costume design from Brandeis University, Boston.
Anna-Alisa lives in New York City and desins for dance, theatre and opera. Since 2001 she has worked as a costume designer for Rebecca Kelly Ballet, The Juilliard School, Actor’s Shakespeare Project (MA), Philadanco (PA), Portland Stage Company (ME), Manhattan School of Music Opera Department, The New School for Drama, LAB Theater, Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, Boston Playwrights Theatre and Modus Opera. www.aabelous.com
Alex works primarily as a stage manager. Broadway: Good People (MTC). Off-Broadway: Eightythree Down (Hard Sparks/Horse Trade); Territories, Lovesong of the Electric Bear, Plevna/Gary the Thief, The Europeans (PTP/NYC); MilkMilkLemonade (APAC); Missionary Position (Fringe). Regional: God of Carnage (Mile Square); Find and Sign, 42nd Street, Our Town, Twelve Angry Men, A Christmas Story, Is He Dead?, A Chorus Line (Pioneer Theatre Company); two seasons with the Peterborough Players. BA, Middlebury College.
Kristi McKay has a rich and varied background in theater arts. She began her career in theater as the resident costume designer for the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse in Auburn, NY, designing over 30 productions. In 1989 she moved to Syracuse and took an adminastrative turn with the Le Moyne College Theater Department. She now serves as General Manager of the W. Carroll Coyne Center for the Performing Arts as well as continuing to work in costume design, graphic design, event planning and campus-wide artistic consultation. Kristi has also served as Executive Producer for Contemporary Theater of Syracuse, and toured internationally as the production stage manager for Gams on the Lam. Other production management credits include: Syracuse Irish Festival, Empire State Brewing and Music Festival, the Syracuse Blues Festival, and most notably, the City of Syracuse Sesquicentennial Celebration.