Artist Biographies
Christina Aushana (Carpe Minuta Prima) is a transnationally-focused artist/scholar working at the
intersection of theories of embodiment, somatic engagements and performance. Her performance
ethos engages with the political and cultural entanglements of lives constituted by global South and
trans-border politics. She has participated in many art praxis projects in San Diego, including the crossborder consortium “Political Equator 3” and UCSD's “Knowledge-Exchange Corridors.” A Ph.D.
candidate in UCSD’s Department of Communication, she studies performance, border politics and
alternative, emergent practices of un/knowing.
Stephanie Aston (La perfezione di uno spirito sottile), soprano, (D.M.A., UCSD; M.F.A., California
Institute of the Arts; B.M., U. North Texas), has performed classical music, including Early Music, Opera
and contemporary works, including American and world premieres, at such venues as REDCAT, Walt
Disney Concert Hall, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Stanford University’s Campbell Recital Hall,
UCSD’s Conrad Prebys Music Center and LA’s Hammer Museum.
Jennifer Barclay’s (Counterweight) plays have been developed and produced by Steppenwolf, The
Old Globe, International Theatre of Vienna, Moving Arts, RedCat, Edinburgh Fringe and the Kennedy
Center, among others. Her play The Carpool was commissioned by La Jolla Playhouse as part of The
Car Plays: San Diego in 2012. As an actor, she has performed in Austria, Scotland, Chicago, California
and New York, and has toured her one-woman show, Clearing Hedges, around the world. Her many
awards include the Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award and Kennedy Center National Science Playwriting
Award. She is a graduate of Northwestern University and UC San Diego.
Alicia Peterson Baskel (Pause (for world creation)) has been making dances in San Diego since 2003
and received her M.F.A. in Dance Theatre from UCSD in 2011. Her work has been presented locally by
Sushi Contemporary Performance and Visual Art, MCASD, Patricia Rincon Dance Collective and
Tijuana’s Instituto de Cultura de Baja California. As a dancer, she has performed with choreographers
Yolande Snaith, Lionel Popkin, John Malashock and Nancy McCaleb. She holds a B.F.A. in Dance from
the University of Arizona.
Flutist Rachel Beetz (La perfezione di uno spirito sottile) has performed in the SoundSCAPE Festival in
Maccagno, Italy, the Ojai Music Festival, LA’s Monday Evening Concerts, and as a guest artist/lecturer
at Santa Clara University. An affiliated artist of San Diego New Music, Beetz holds a B.M. from Indiana
University and an M.A. from UCSD, where she is currently pursuing her D.M.A. in contemporary music
performance.
Adam Burgasser (Our Star Will Die Alone) is an observational astrophysicist specializing in very low
mass stars, brown dwarfs and exoplanets. He has published over 150 papers in his field and is best
known for defining the “T” spectral class of brown dwarfs. He earned his B.S. in Physics from UCSD in
1996 and his Ph.D. in Physics from Caltech in 2001. He was previously a Hubble and Spitzer
postdoctoral fellow and faculty at MIT, where his name lives on in the AJB-Endowed Chair of
Astrophysics. He is currently faculty in the Physics Department at UCSD.
Dustin Donahue (La perfezione di uno spirito sottile) is a percussionist residing in San Diego, where
he performs regularly with the percussion group red fish blue fish under the direction of UCSD’s Steven
Schick. As a soloist, he has appeared at the John Cage Centennial Festival in Washington D.C., the
Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the Carlsbad Music Festival and the soundSCAPE Festival
in Pavia, Italy.
Tom Dugdale (Our Town) recently directed in New York’s La MaMa ETC, the Hollywood Fringe,
Chagall at La Jolla Playhouse with John Malashock and Yale Strom, and Cry Old Kingdom at the 2013
Humana Festival. He also directed Death of a Salesman and Diary of a Madman at the Hungarian
Theater of Cluj, Romania. Upcoming: 21c Liederabend for B.A.M.’s Next Wave Festival. A recipient of a
2012 Princess Grace Award in Theatre, Dugdale holds degrees from UCSD (M.F.A.) and Dartmouth
(B.A., Theater and Music) and lectures in Theater and Graduate Directing at UCSD. He will participate
in the prestigious Theatre College workshops at the 2013 Venice Biennale.
Sean Estelle (Carpe Minuta Prima) is a recent graduate of UCSD with a B.A. in Theatre with a Visual
Arts (Studio) minor. He has shown work in the University Art Gallery, gallery@Calit2 and the Mandeville
Annex Galleries at UCSD, and just finished training in Athens, Greece, with La Pocha Nostra. UCSD
Theatre credits: acting: Spring Awakening, reasons to be pretty, Phantom Band, WIgs/Animal
Animal, The Seagull; directing: Dawning Pupils, The Thugs (AD), Butterfly In China, Radical Acts of
Desire - Poster of the Cosmos, A Man, His Wife, And His Hat (AD), Muzungu (AD).
Kate Gilmore (Off the Old Block) is an acclaimed installation, video, and performance-based artist
whose work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions at the 2010 Whitney Biennial, San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, The J. Paul Getty
Museum, Istanbul Museum of Art and Haifa Museum of Art, among others. A recipient of several
international awards and honors such as the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome and the
New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, her work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern
Art, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art, and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. kategilmore.com
Kristin Idaszak (A Willow Grows Aslant: An Ophelia Story) has had her work produced and/or
developed in Chicago at the DCA Incubator Series at the Studio Theatre, Steppenwolf Garage (with
Caffeine Theatre), Chicago Dramatists and Collaboraction, among others. Her work has also been
seen at Perishable Theatre (Providence, RI), The InkWell Theatre (Washington, DC) and Westmont
College (Santa Barbara, CA). A finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival and the M.F.A.
Playwrights Workshop at the Kennedy Center, Idaszak has served as Associate Artistic Director at
Collaboraction and Associate Artistic Director/Literary Manager of Caffeine Theatre. She is currently
pursuing her M.F.A. in Playwriting at UCSD.
David Jacobi’s (Cornerstone) plays have been produced throughout the U.S. and in Beijing, China.
His work has been presented or developed at such places as Peter Jay Sharp Theater, Clemson
Brooks Center, Penghao Theater, 798 Dashanzi Art District, JAW, WordBRIDGE and Great Plains
Theatre Conference. His plays include The Monster Below, Widower, Mai Dang Lao, Battlecruiser
Aristotle and Ex Machina. Jacobi received a B.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from Purchase College and is
currently a 2015 M.F.A. candidate in Playwriting at UCSD. He is co-founder of Monster Down! Theatre
Company, a collaborative theatre group in Beijing, China.
Kate Jopson (A Willow Grows Aslant: An Ophelia Story) is a third-year M.F.A. directing candidate at
UCSD, where credits include Casagemas, Elizabeth I, Cry Old Kingdom, The Storm (AD), Spring
Awakening (AD), Tonight We Improvise (AD). Bay Area credits include Marin Fringe Festival, Play
Cafe 8 Shorts, Subterranean Shakespeare, among others. Assistant Directing credits: Sideways (La
Jolla Playhouse), Bad Apples (Circle X Theatre), Pastures of Heaven and A Midsummer Night’s Dream
(California Shakespeare Theatre). As Associate Artistic Director of the all-female company Woman’s
Will, she directed Blood Sisters and Jewish Roots. She holds a B.A. in Anthropology and a Theater
minor from UC Berkeley.
Through improvisation, street theatre techniques and non-verbal communication, the Spanish theatre
company Kamchàtka creates their own clear and sensitive language in performances that include
audience participation. Their shows share reflections on immigration, exile, the function of art in public
space and socially accepted codes of communication. Founded in 2006 in Barcelona, Kamchàtka is a
multidisciplinary artist collective of 16 people: Adrian Schvarzstein (Artistic Director), Cristina Aguirre
Maïka Eggericx, Sergi Estebanell, Claudio Levati, Andrea Lorenzetti, Judit Ortiz, Lluís Petit, Albert
Querol, Josep Roca, Edu Rodilla, Santi Rovira, Gary Shochat, Ada Vilaró, Prisca Villa, Albert Vinyes.
kamchatka.cat
Natalie Khuen (A Willow Grows Aslant: An Ophelia Story) is a Southern California-based scenic
designer. Upcoming projects include A Doll House at UCSD. Recent design credits include Ex
Machina (FringeNYC), Becoming Sylvia (Willamstown Theatre Festival), Tonight We Improvise,
Elizabeth I and Hookman (UCSD). Recent assistant credits: Sideways and His Girl Friday at La Jolla
Playhouse, Far from Heaven and The Blue Deep at Williamstown Theatre Festival, and the 2010/011
season at PCPA. Awards: 2013 Rose Brand Scenic Design Scholarship Winner, 2011 USITT Regional
Design Expo Competition Winner. She is a 2014 M.F.A. candidate at UCSD and received her B.A. from
Macalester College. nataliekhuen.com
Tara Knight (Our Star Will Die Alone) is a filmmaker, animator and projection designer. Her short films
and animations have screened at "The Future of Storytelling" Time Warner Media Lab in NYC, the Mori
Art Museum in Tokyo, and have received Director's Citations from the Black Maria Film Festival. The
Floating World, a project she co-created with Malashock Dance at the San Diego Museum of Art,
earned an Emmy Award. You can find her recent Discovery Channel feature at taraknight.net. She
received her B.A. in Film Theory and Production from Hampshire College and her M.F.A. in Visual Art
from UCSD. She previously was Associate Director for Culture, Art and Technology at UCSD’s Sixth
College and joined the Theatre & Dance Department faculty in 2009.
Brian Lobel (Carpe Minuta Prima) creates performances about bodies and how they are watched,
policed, poked, prodded, and loved by others. The New York-born, London-based Lobel has shown
work internationally in a range of contexts, from cabarets to museums, marketplaces to forests,
blending provocative humor with insightful reflection. Major works include BALL & Other Funny Stories
About Cancer, Purge, Hold My Hand And We're Halfway There and Cruising for Art, which have been
presented in London, New York, Bangkok, Tokyo, Paris, Chicago, San Diego and beyond. A recipient
of commissions from the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, Arts Council England and others, Lobel is a
Senior Lecturer in Performing Arts at University of Chichester and an Associate Artist with Clod
Ensemble's Performing Medicine. blobelwarming.com
James Luna’s (Futuristic Retro Ritual) work has been collected by museums nationally and
internationally, and he was commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution to represent the National
Museum of the American Indian at the Venice Biennale in 2005. His work has been presented at The
Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe; LA County Museum of Art; The National Gallery of
Canada; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Whitney Museum of American Art; Nippon
International Performance Art Festival, among others. His numerous awards include the Joan Mitchell
Award for Sculpture; Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art from Indianapolis’s Eiteljorg
Museum of American Indians and Western Art; Best Live Short Performance at the American Indian
Film Festival; and a Bessie Award from the Dance Theater Workshop of New York. jamesluna.com
Sam Mitchell (Hedda’ing), a second-year UCSD M.F.A. candidate in Dance Theatre, is fascinated with
the collision of dance, theatre, movement, text, film and design. He is motivated by the desire to create
and sustain a training practice that activates the performer on stage and in life and finds that the
ephemeral experience of dance and theatre can be one of cathartic transformation, liberating the
hidden stories that exist deep within the body. Mitchell has danced with Santa Barbara Dance Theatre,
Malashock Dance, Patricia Rincon Dance Collective, as well as numerous artists, poets and musicians.
A Yaqui Indian, Mitchell was recently invited to join in the creation of a new choreographic work as part
of the Banff Summer Arts Festival.
MOXIE Theatre is a professional non-profit theatre founded by the critically-acclaimed group of
performers and directors: Jo Anne Glover, Liv Kellgren, Delicia Turner Sonnenberg and Jennifer Eve
Thorn. Their mission is to expand the idea of what is feminine by using the intimate art of theatre to
create more honest and diverse female images for our culture. MOXIE fans know that each distinct
MOXIE production will always share one similar quality – moxie, defined as “courage, pluck, gumption,
perseverance, guts." MOXIE Theatre has garnered numerous local awards since its inception in 2004,
including five San Diego Critics Circle “Craig Noel” Awards, among them the Des McAnuff New Visions
Award for MOXIE Theatre Artistic Director Delicia Turner Sonnenberg.
Conceived by Paul Stein and produced by Moving Arts, The Car Plays is "adventurous theatre packed
into a Jeep or a Jetta or an Audi" (Huffington Post). For Stein, who lives in L.A., his car was a haven of
solitary moments of reflection, long talks with friends, an occasional breakup or two and more. Drawing
on those memories, Stein collaborated with playwrights to create an experience that engages audience
members in a new “performance model” of voyeuristic intimacy. Moving Arts is dedicated to the
production of original works and continues to show a remarkable versatility and commitment to the craft
of theatre. movingarts.org
Polyglot (We Built This City) Polyglot Theatre is Australia’s leading creator of experiential, interactive
and installation theatre for children and families, encouraging kids to turn the simplest things into
extraordinary creations. Inspired by the artwork, play and ideas of children, we create imagined worlds
where audiences actively participate in performance through touch, play and encounter. For over 30
years, Polyglot has ignited children’s imaginations from tiny Australian country towns to the world’s
leading arts centres. polyglottheatre.com
Project Planetaria (Our Star Will Die Alone) is a collaboration of UCSD faculty and graduate students
from the Departments of Physics, Theatre & Dance and Visual Arts. Founded in December 2011 by
Adam Burgasser, Tara Knight and Michael Trigilio, the group is investigating ways of exploring
astronomical phenomena and information outside traditional modes, by engaging multiple senses,
embodying experience, exploring social analogs, breaking down time and space barriers, and
incorporating participatory behaviors. Data-driven performance, trans sensory transformation,
architectural mapping, and metaphor are all tools we are using to better understand the Universe and
our place within it.
Germany’s Rimini Protokoll (100% San Diego) has exerted a powerful influence on the alternative
theatre scene as leaders and creators of the theatre movement known as “Reality Trend” (Theater der
Zeit). They have attracted international attention with their dramatic works, which take place in the
colorful zone between reality and fiction. Since 2000, Rimini Protokoll has brought its "theatre of
experts" to the stage and into city spaces. Their awards include the National German Theatre Award
DER FAUST, the European Theatre Prize in Thessaloniki (category New Realities) and the Silver Lion
of the 41st Theatre Biennale of Venice. rimini-protokoll.de
Patricia Rincon (The Myth Project: Altar), Head of Dance at UCSD’s Theatre & Dance Department,
has performed, directed, choreographed and led workshops and performances in Mexico, Argentina,
Europe and California. As Artistic Director of Patricia Rincon Dance Collective, she has continued
developing the popular annual Blurred Borders Dance Festival and the Myth Project: American Dream
dance-theatre series set in San Diego each year. The company completed a performance tour to
Buenos Aires in 2012 and has been invited to perform in the TANZINOLTEN International Dance
Festival in Switzerland. Rincon has been awarded numerous UCSD grants for research and
development on the documentary series Latino Now: Landscape of Desire, about the American Dream
and the immigration debate.
Jacolby Satterwhite received an M.F.A. from University of Pennsylvania and a B.F.A. from the
Maryland Institute College of Art. His work has been included in group exhibitions such as Radical
Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art at the Contemporary Arts Center Houston; Shift:
Projects | Perspectives | Directions at The Studio Museum in Harlem; Fore (the fourth iteration of the
“F” series including Frequency, Freestyle, and Flow) at The Studio Museum in Harlem; First Look: New
Art Online: Aboveground Animation: 3D-Form at the New Museum, New York; and he was a contributor
to Clifford Owens’ Anthology project at MoMA/PS1. The recipient of a 1st- and 2nd-year Fine Arts Work
Center Fellowship in Provincetown, MA, he will be featured in the 2014 season of New York Close Up,
Art21’s documentary film series devoted to artists in the first decade of their professional career, living
and working in New York City.
Jay Scheib (Platonov) is a director, designer and author of plays, operas and live art events. He is at
the forefront in developing new forms in theatre, known for “mixing multimedia with deadpan-cool”
(Time Out New York). Named by American Theater Magazine as one of the 25 Artists who will shape
the next 25 years of American theatre, he is internationally renowned for works of daring physicality,
genre-defying performances and deep integration of new technologies. A Guggenheim Fellow and
recipient of the Edgerton and Richard Sherwood Awards, Scheib is a regular guest professor at
Salzburg’s Mozarteum and is Professor for Music and Theater Arts at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. jayscheib.com
Delicia Turner Sonnenberg is the founding Artistic Director of MOXIE Theatre, where she has
directed many award winning productions, including San Diego Critics Circle “Craig Noel” Awards for A
Raisin in the Sun. Other San Diego credits include The Car Plays: San Diego (2012), Mo`olelo
Performing Arts Company, San Diego REP, Cygnet Theatre, New Village Arts, Diversionary, Eveoke
Dance Theatre and Playwrights Project. Honors: TCG’s New Generations Program: Future Leaders,
San Diego REP; SD Critics Circle’s Des McAnuff New Visions Award, Women's International Center
Living Legacy Award; Drama League’s Directors Program, NY; and a Small Business Leader of the
Year awarded by Senator Christine Kehoe.
Michael Trigilio (Our Star Will Die Alone) is a UCSD faculty member and multimedia artist with a
special focus on sound art. His work in video, sound and radio has been presented in many venues
nationally and internationally, including the New York’s Anthology Film Archives, Southern Exposure in
San Francisco, Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain in Strasbourg, the Contemporary Museum in
Baltimore, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles County
Museum of Art (LACMA). He earned his B.A. in Humanities from the University of Texas at San Antonio
in 1999 and his M.F.A. from Mills College in 2003.
Internationally-renowned puppetry designer Basil Twist (Seafoam Sleepwalk) continually expands the
realm of puppetry by creating new works that have been described as “joyful, “kaleidoscopic, romantic,
haunting and hallucinogenic.” The sole American graduate of France’s Ecole Superieure Nationale des
Arts de la Marionnette, he is the recipient of an Obie Award, two Drama Desk Awards, a Guggenheim
Fellowship and five UNIMA Awards for Excellence in Puppetry. Twist is the director of The Dream
Music Puppetry Program at HERE Arts Center. In addition to his Broadway credits, The Pee Wee
Herman Show and The Addams Family, his La Jolla Playhouse credits include Yoshimi Battles the Pink
Robots, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Dogugaeshi and Mabou Mines’ Peter and Wendy. basiltwist.com
Wallpaper Performance Company (Pause (for world creation)), is a San Diego-based dance theatre
company under the artistic direction of Alicia Peterson Baskel. Its mission is to create performance that
leaves the audience and performers feeling more connected with themselves, to their immediate
surroundings, and to the possibilities that exist in their imagination.
Sarah Wansley (Cornerstone) is currently pursuing her M.F.A. in directing at UCSD. Upcoming
projects include Ex Machina by David Jacobi at FringeNYC and Drums in the Night by Bertolt Brecht at
UCSD. New York directing credits include Woyzeck (Access Theater), Follow Me Down (The Flea
Theater), Here Comes Tomorrow (Youngblood/EST), #serials@theflea (The Flea Theater) and What
the Future Awaits (McCarter Theatre Center Youth Ink Festival). She graduated summa cum laude
from Columbia University and was a member of the 2011 Lincoln Center Director’s Lab.
The nationally acclaimed, Tony Award-winning La Jolla Playhouse is known for its tradition of creating
the most exciting and adventurous new work in regional theatre. Founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck,
Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer, the Playhouse is one of the most well-respected not-for-profit theatres
in the country. Numerous Playhouse productions have moved to Broadway, including the currentlyrunning hit Jersey Boys, as well as Big River, The Who’s Tommy, How to Succeed in Business Without
Really Trying, A Walk in the Woods, Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays, the Pulitzer Prize-winning I Am My
Own Wife, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Farnsworth Invention, 33 Variations, Memphis, Bonnie &
Clyde. Peter and the Starcatcher, Chaplin and Hands on a Hardbody. Located on the UC San Diego
campus, La Jolla Playhouse is led by Artistic Director Christopher Ashley and Managing Director
Michael S. Rosenberg. LaJollaPlayhouse.org
Founded in 1941, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) is the preeminent
contemporary visual arts institution in San Diego County. The Museum’s collection includes more than
4,000 works of art created since 1950. In addition to presenting exhibitions by international
contemporary artists, the Museum serves thousands of children and adults annually at its varied
education programs, and offers a rich program of film, performance, and lectures. MCASD is a private,
nonprofit organization, with 501c3 tax-exempt status; it is supported by generous contributions and
grants from MCASD Members and other individuals, corporations, foundations, and government
agencies. Dr. Hugh M. Davies is The David C. Copley Director and CEO at MCASD. Institutional
support for MCASD is provided by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture. mcasd.org
At UC San Diego, innovation and creativity are central to who they are and what they do. Students
learn that knowledge isn’t just acquired in the classroom – life is their laboratory. UC San Diego is an
academic powerhouse and economic engine, recognized as one of the top 10 public universities
by U.S. News & World Report and ranked number one in the nation for public service by Washington
Monthly. Celebrating its 40th anniversary, UC San Diego Theatre & Dance has been one of the topranked theater programs in the country for more than a decade. Training is imaginative, eclectic and
interdisciplinary. The department does not believe there can be – or should be – one approach to
making work. UC San Diego shapes minds, changes lives, launches industries and builds the
future…one student, one discovery and one achievement at a time. theatre.ucsd.edu
The James Irvine Foundation is a private, nonprofit grantmaking foundation dedicated to expanding
opportunity for the people of California to participate in a vibrant, successful and inclusive society. The
Foundation’s grantmaking focuses on three program areas: Arts, California Democracy and Youth.
Since 1937 the Foundation has provided over $1 billion in grants to more than 3,000 nonprofit
organizations throughout California. With nearly $1.7 billion in assets, the Foundation made grants of
$67 million in 2012 for the people of California. irvine.org
DonorNation is the online Marketplace with a Heart™. The company’s philanthropic fundraising
platform is an e-commerce solution that allows individuals and businesses to buy and sell products,
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