CURRENT & PAST COLLABORATORS
LISA BARCY
Animation
​
Lisa Barcy is an animator and artist whose films have screened internationally at festivals such as Slamdance and The Ottawa International Animation Festival. She’s been awarded the Director’s Citation three times at The Black Maria Film Festival, and Best Animation at both the Chicago Underground and Ann Arbor Film Festival. She’s also directed and animated the Anonanimal music video for Andrew Bird. Before she began teaching on a full-time basis she created animation and puppets for Chicago-based theater and dance companies such as Redmoon Theater and The Seldoms. When not animating she is usually creating collages, artist’s books and anything else she can do to keep her hands dirty and covered in glue. She teaches animation at DePaul University.
JULIE E. BALLARD
Lighting Design / Technical Direction
Julie E. Ballard, USA829, is in her 17th year with The Seldoms. A professional lighting designer, ETCP-certified electrician, and theatrical technician, she is affiliated with IATSE Local 2 and the Actors’ Equity Association. Additionally, Ms. Ballard is the owner/operator of OverlapLighting Productions, LLC, a freelance production company specializing in lighting design, production/stage management, and photography. She has designed for the Charlotte Ballet, Ballet West, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. She has freelanced for two decades in and around the Midwest, touring regionally, nationally, and internationally with Hubbard Street, Pilobolus, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, The Seldoms, and David Dorfman Dance, among others. Theatre audiences have seen her designs in the United States, across Europe, Siberia, and South Africa. Ms. Ballard holds degrees in theater (B.A., 1999) and lighting design (M.F.A., 2004) from Kent State University and the University of Florida, respectively. www.overlaplighting.com
SETH BOCKLEY
Text / Direction
Seth Bockley is a writer and theater director. With a career spanning genres and styles, he specializes in literary adaptation, design-driven projects and community-engaged works. Plays include Wilderness; King Gilgamesh, Rip van Winkle, February House (with Gabriel Kahane, Public Theater) and 2666 (with Robert Falls, from the novel by Roberto Bolaño) as well as adaptations from stories by George Saunders: Jon and CommComm. He wrote the screenplay for short feature The Cartographer, has published fiction and poetry, and collaborated on interdisciplinary projects such as YOU:MATTER by Marshmallow Laser Feast. With composer Russell Hepplewhite he created the international children’s choir project The World We Share as well as a forthcoming one-man opera, Les promenades extraordinaires de Basile. With The Seldoms, he wrote the text for Floe and Grass. Current projects include a musical about chatbots of the dead and a road-trip stoner theater/film hybrid Don Quixote. www.sethbockley.com
​
SOLOMON BOWSER
Ensemble 2019-2020
Solomon Bowser began his dance training in Atlanta, GA while studying at the Dekalb School of the Arts under the directorship of Zandra Taylor and later Dean Williams. In 2013 Bowser completed his undergraduate studies at The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago. Bowser has worked with J'Sun Howard, Winifred Haun & Dancers, Deeply Rooted Dance Theatre, Kalapriya Center for Indian Performing Arts, Momenta Dance Company and a multitude of emerging artists and been involved in many collaborative processes. He is the Marketing Manager for See Chicago Dance.
TIMOTHY DAISY
Percussion / Composition
Tim Daisy is a Chicago-based drummer and composer working in the fields of improvised and composed music. He has performed and recorded original music for modern dance, sound installations, film, and improvised music ensembles of various configurations since 1997 and has toured extensively throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Tim also owns and operates Relay Recordings, documenting much of the creative work he has been involved with in Chicago and abroad since 2011. Along with his performance and composing work, Tim has curated for Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago. timdaisy.wordpress.com
PHILIP ELSON
Ensemble 2008-2020
Philip Elson has engaged with various arenas of dance including performance, education, and experimental collaboration involving sound design, video documentation/editing, and web development. He served as Assistant Director for The Seldoms from 2019-2020, and delivered extraordinary, memorable performances in TS works including Power Goes, RockCitizen, and Floe. He has also worked with companies and artists such as Joanna Rosenthal/Same Planet Performance Project, tEEth, Colleen Halloran, Margi Cole/The Dance COLEctive, Jonathan Meyer/Khecari Dance Theater, Paige Caldarella, Liz Burritt, Matthew Hollis, Jyl Fehrenkamp, Laboratory Dancers, and Muscle Memory Dance Theatre. He holds a BFA in Dance from The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago.
BOB FAUST
Visual Design
Bob Faust is the principal and creative director for Faust, a cultural branding and communications studio whose work straddles the line between art and design. His collaborative and non-secular approach to his work results in functionally expressive visual experiences that inspire and instigate. He has been recognized as a design leader nationally and internationally and has received many awards from publications and institutions such as Communication Arts, Print and How magazines, the Society of Typographic Arts and the London Creative Competition. He also is the studio/special projects director for Nick Cave’s studio practice and currently serves on the Appleton Coated Design Council as well as the School of the Art Institute’s Fashion Committee. Bob was the inaugural honoree of The Seldoms' ARC Award for Achievement in Remarkable Collaboration. faustltd.com
MIKHAIL FISKEL
Composition / Sound Design
​
Mikhail Fiksel is an Assistant Professor of Instruction at Columbia College Chicago, in the School of Theatre and Dance, teaching Sound Design. He is a Tony Award-winning designer, composer, audio producer, and dj working in theatre, dance, film, immersive experiences, and audio-forward media. His recent work includes multiple productions on Broadway, numerous projects with Audible, and countless collaborations with Steppenwolf Theatre, The Public Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Signature Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, The Seldoms, The Goodman Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare, La Jolla Playhouse, The Fly Honey Show, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Albany Park Theatre Project and Make Believe Association, where he is Head of Audio. Other honors include 3 Lucille Lortel Awards, multiple Joseph Jefferson Awards and the 2020 Obie Award for Sound Design. He is a proud member of USA and TSDCA, and has a BA from the University of Chicago. www.mikhailfiksel.com
STUART FLACK
Playwright
Stuart Flack’s work as playwright had been produced at many of the leading theatres in the U.S. including: Southcoast Rep (Costa Mesa, CA), Culture Project (New York), Interact (Philadelphia), Victory Gardens (Chicago), and The Contemporary American Theatre Festival (Washington, D.C.). His plays include, “Sydney Bechet Killed a Man”, “Jonathan Wild”, “Homeland Security”, “For Eddie” and “Floaters”. He is the former Executive Director of the Chicago Humanities Festival, the largest festival of arts and ideas in the U.S. and the former Editor and Publisher of the McKinsey Quarterly, a journal of business, economics and policy. He is currently a fellow at the Invisible Institute.
BOB GARRETT
Music Performance & Composition
Musician & composer Bob Garrett creates and performs as ESCP, an electronic music duo, co-created with violinist/composer Chihsuan Yang, and writes for film and commercial (garrettsoundart.com). Bob composed and performed the percussion book for the world premiere of Sting’s ‘LAST SHIP’; toured with the national tour of ‘THE LION KING’ for 4 years; performed in house band for Alan Parsons studio lecture series; co-created (with Ronnie Malley) the score for ‘A Disappearing Number’, a Timeline Theatre production; toured and/or performed with Glen Hansard at Lollapalooza, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, and Victory Garden with director Gary Griffin; S.V. Balakrishna, Trinity Irish Dancers, John Elmquist and Hard Art Group, Redmoon Theatre, produced, plus accompanied and/or composed for dance companies/choreographers including The Seldoms, Randy Duncan, Alvin Ailey Dance, Urban Bush Woman, Joe Goode, Bill T Jones, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and Ishti dance company. Bob co-founded, with Nadine Lollino, Posterchild Art, a multi-disciplinary art company based in Chicago’s art district.
SARAH GONSIOROWSKI
Ensemble 2016-2022
Sarah is a dance artist, movement coach, and writer. She received her early training from the Milwaukee Ballet School and continued her education at the University of Iowa, receiving a BFA in Dance and a BA in English. During her time with The Seldoms, she collaborated in the creation of four new works and the Toolbox project. She has also worked with artists and companies including Harrison McEldowney, Carl Flink, The Moving Architects, Same Planet Performance Project, and Kristina Isabelle Dance Company. She is a strength coach at Defined Training, co-founder of The Lunge Ladies, LLC, and a fitness columnist for Uplevyl. She has recently completed her Masters in Communication at the University of Iowa.
CHRISTINA GONZALEZ-GILLETT
Ensemble 2004-2017, Assistant Director 2008-2017
Christina was a key member of The Seldoms for over a decade, leading technical training for the ensemble and acting as rehearsal director. She received a BFA in Dance at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and later moved to London to pursue her Master’s Degree in Dance Studies at the Laban Centre (now known as TrinityLaban Conservatory for Music and Dance). During that time she worked professionally with independent choreographers and danced for several companies including BlueWhite under the direction of Melanie Clarke. Christina remained in London to teach at Kingston University and continued to dance professionally until moving back to Chicago. Christina taught at The Dance Center of Columbia College from 2004-2012, is certified in Laban Movement Analysis, and is also a certified Pilates instructor. She moved to England with her husband and three kids in 2023. We miss her.
JEFF HANCOCK
Costume Design
Jeffery Hancock is a dancer, choreographer, costume designer and teacher, and Associate Professor of Instruction at Northwestern University. He has choreographed for the River North Chicago Dance Company, Hubbard Street II, the Edinburgh Festival, Princess Cruise Lines, the Pegasus Players, Same Planet Different World Dance Theatre, Chicago’s Next Dance Festival, numerous regional companies, and Northwestern’s Theatre and Interpretation Center. A founding member and former principal dancer for the River North Chicago Dance Company and a former Hubbard Street Dance Chicago company member, Hancock has been nominated for Ruth Page Awards and is a grant recipient from the Illinois Arts Council. He was a company member and co-artistic director of Same Planet Different World Dance Theatre. In addition, he has danced with Dance Kaleidoscope, Jan Erkert and Dancers, and guested with the Joe Goode Performance Group, among others. Hancock has designed and constructed costumes for River North Dance Chicago, Robert Battle, Columbia College, Same Planet Dance Theatre, Shirley Mordine, Ginger Farley, and many others.
AMANDA MCALISTER HOWARD
Ensemble 2006-2017
Amanda is originally from Nashville and returned there in 2017, where she is the owner of Native Pilates and mother to three. Over a period of 11 years, Amanda danced in TS productions including company favorites, Marchland (2010) and Power Goes (2015). Amanda's natural comedic talent delighted audiences in works such as Stupormarket. Amanda lived in NYC from 2006-2007 where she performed works by David Parsons, Labor Force Dances, and worked with the Dance Films Association. She received a BA in Dance from Columbia College in 2006.
JACKIE KAZARIAN
Painting / Animation
Jackie Kazarian is a Chicago painter, video and installation artist whose intense colors and complex surfaces explore utopian impulses in the face of emotional and physical upheaval. Her visually challenging and kinetic landscapes integrate different languages of painting and drawing with screen-printing, stamping, flocking and collage. Ms. Kazarian’s work has been exhibited in Chicago, New York, Miami, California, Armenia, Syria and Japan. Ms. Kazarian has been a frequent instructor at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and created public works for The U.S. Embassy and the City of Chicago. She received her graduate degree in painting and drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1989 and bachelor’s of science degree from Duke University in 1981. jackiekazarian.net
MICHAEL KRAMER
Dramaturgy
​
Dr. Michael J. Kramer works at the intersection of historical scholarship, cultural criticism, the arts, and digital technology. He is an assistant professor in the Department of History at SUNY Brockport, specializing in modern US cultural and intellectual history, transnational history, and public and digital history. Kramer is the author of The Republic of Rock: Music and Citizenship in the Sixties Counterculture (Oxford University Press, 2013; paperback, 2017). He has written for numerous publications, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Salon, First of the Month, The National Memo, The Point, Theater, and Newsday, blogs at Culture Rover, and has served as dramaturg and historian-in-residence for The Seldoms. michaeljkramer.net
ANNA KUNZ
Installation / Visual Design
Anna Kunz is an artist who makes works on paper, paintings, sculptures, installations and projects that seep out of the rectangle, often using materials that function to capture and manipulate light and color. These experiential works are often combined with objects or surfaces that add conceptual complexity and invite viewers to structure the space in time. Anna’s work has been included in numerous national and international exhibitions in NYC, Los Angeles, Houston, Brooklyn, San Antonio and the UK and Poland. Anna has also worked collaboratively with dancers and musicians to create Décor for theatrical and dance productions, namely for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in 2009. annakunz.net
MATTHEW KESSLER MCMUNN
Ensemble 2015-2019
Matthew's skills in theater and his uninhibited sense of play made him an extraordinary contributor in our creative process. While in Chicago, in addition to his work with The Seldoms, he also performed for choreographers Kristina Isabelle, Philip Elson, Peter Carpenter, and Chicago companies The Humans, The Dance COLEctive, Synapse, and Lucky Plush Productions, and his choreography was presented by Dance Chance Redux, Links Hall, Core Project, Blunt Objects Theatre, Red Tape Theatre, and The Leopold Group. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Cultural Studies from Columbia College Chicago.
JAVIER MARCHAN RAMOS
Ensemble 2010-2015
Javier Marchan Ramos is a dancer, performer, and bodyworker, currently specializing in therapeutic Thai massage and somatic education. He contributed to key repertory works of The Seldoms, including Stupormarket (2011) and Power Goes (2015). Javier was an exciting performer onstage, always delivering something a little unexpected. Javier earned a BFA in Dance with Dean's Honors from UW-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts in 2010. He is based in Philadelphia, where he maintains an active yoga practice.
FAHEEM MAJEED
Visual Designer / Installation
​
Faheem Majeed (b. 1976) is a Chicago-based artist, educator, curator, and arts administrator whose practice transforms overlooked materials, spaces, and histories into powerful platforms for reflection and engagement. Working primarily in sculpture and installation, he draws on his deep connection to the South Side of Chicago and a long-standing interest in institutional critique and community building.
Majeed received his BFA from Howard University and MFA from the University of Illinois Chicago, where he currently serves as Assistant Professor of Art. He is co-founder and co-director of Floating Museum, an interdisciplinary collective that creates site-responsive works connecting art, architecture, history, and civic dialogue. He previously served as Executive Director of the South Side Community Art Center (2005–2011). His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Centre Pompidou, the High Line, and Hyde Park Art Center. Majeed is a recipient of the Field and MacArthur Foundation’s Leaders for a New Chicago Award, Joyce Foundation Award, Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant, and the Harpo Foundation Award. In 2025, he was named a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight in the Order of Arts and Letters) by the French Ministry of Culture. faheemmajeed.com
LARA MILLER
Costume Design
​
Lara Miller has 20 years of experience in Fashion, Textiles and Fiber Arts, and earned her BFA at the School of the Art Institute Chicago. She designed her own line of sustainable women's clothing from 2002-2014. While still an undergraduate at SAIC, Lara’s garments electrified local audiences and her costume work for a number of the city’s dance companies was widely acclaimed. In addition to designing her label, Lara served as the Executive Director of the Chicago Fashion Incubator (CFI) at Macy’s on State Street. Her line was carried in over 50 stores throughout the world including the UK, Australia, and Japan. Lara created costumes for many TS projects, including Ode (2002),GIANT FIX (2005), and Marchland (2010).
LIVIU PASARE
Projection
​
Liviu Pasare has a Chicago-based practice creating works and visual experiences using new media and technology. He works as a video designer, cinematographer, editor, and animator, and has produced, directed and performed for live multimedia experiences. He has been affiliated with theaters and artists such as Luftwerk, Collaboraction, Redmoon, Manual Cinema, Victory Gardens, Blue Man Group, Lucky Plush, Claudia Hart, Maria Marshall, Takao Kawaguchi. He has worked with The Seldoms on Power Goes, RockCitizen, The Making, Floe, Superbloom, and two commissioned projects for ART on THE MART.
​
MARIA PINTO
Costume Design
Maria Pinto is a graduate of Chicago’s School of the Art Institute and attended New York’s Parson’s School of Design and the Fashion Institute of Technology. Soon after graduation, Pinto landed a coveted position working for legendary designer Geoffrey Beene. It was while working with Beene that Pinto learned the importance of ‘paying attention to detail’, the techniques of draping, and the art of editing. Pinto’s collections have been featured in major fashion publications, including Vogue, WWD, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar and InStyle. She has received many prestigious design and fashion accolades throughout her career, including the opportunity to design costumes for the Joffrey Ballet, the Best of Fashion Award, Chicago Magazine (2000), and the Gold Coast Fashion Award, previously awarded to Anne Klein, Donna Karan and Bill Blass (1998). In 2009, Pinto was honored by the Anti-Defamation League as the recipient of their Women of Achievement Award, and the School of The Art Institute’s Legend of Fashion Award. In 2013, she launched M2057, her successful ready-to-wear collection. m2057.com
CARA SABIN
Ensemble 2005-2018
​
An athlete all her life, Cara discovered dance while in her senior year of high school. She received a BFA from The Dance Center of Columbia College under Bonnie Brooks. Cara helped to create and perform (at least) 12 major projects of The Seldoms, a key voice in our collaborative process. Cara is now a full-time Strength & Conditioning Coach and General Manager at CrossFit Defined where she combines her love of movement and teaching, and the co-founder of Lunge Ladies, an all-female strength training collective, with TS member, Sarah Gonsiorowski. Cara serves on TS Board.
BRIAN SHAW
Guest Performer and Acting Coach
​
Brian’s work as a performer and director spans theater, dance, film and voice over/commercial work. He was a founding member of the physical theater company Plasticene, with whom he created and performed original work for 17 years. Brian has performed with numerous theaters in Chicago including playing Clov in Endgame with The Hypocrites, and appeared off-Broadway at the Barrow Street Theatre in The Strangerer by Mickle Maher. He directed the short film Four Monologues about Russian poets in the Stalinist period, written by Aram Saroyan. He has appeared in Chicago Fire, Boss and Detroit 1-8-7, as well as numerous independent films, commercials—and spots for The Onion. Brian is a Professor in the Theatre Department at Columbia College and runs international exchange programs in the UK and Ireland.
DOUG STAPLETON
Founding Member / Visual Art & Dramaturg
​
Doug Stapleton is an artist, curator and educator. He is an Associate Curator of Art with the Illinois State Museum Chicago Gallery. Stapleton’s work has been the subject of two solo exhibitions at the Chicago Cultural Center and Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago in 2012. A former Artistic Associate of The Seldoms, he worked on eleven evening length dance performances in the capacity of dramaturg and as a performer. In the 90s-00s, Doug performed in over forty solo and collaborative performances. He received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1989, and a BA in Anthropology from University of Delaware with a minor concentration in Art History and Ceramics.
FRASER TAYLOR
Video / Installation
Born in the UK in 1960, Fraser Taylor is an interdisciplinary visual artist who works with a range of media including, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking and animation. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts in printed textiles from Glasgow School of Art, Taylor continued his studies at the Royal College of Art in London where he earned a Master of Arts. Taylor co-founded The Cloth, a creative studio which lasted from 1983 to 1988. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world, including in Glasgow, London, Paris, Madrid, Sydney, Tokyo, Chicago, New York, Boston, Detroit, and San Francisco. He has collaborated with choreographer Rashaun Mitchell for Interface. His projects with TS include Marchland (2010) and The Making (2017). In 2017, Taylor and AD Carrie Hanson initiated Toolbox, an exchange between visual artists and dancemakers to share and translate tactics for making. frasertaylor.com
RICHARD WOODBURY
Sound Design / Composition
​
Richard Woodbury is a composer and sound designer working in theater, dance and media arts. His career has spanned a wide variety of musical endeavors including, in his early teens, a rock band in Pakistan; jazz bands, new music ensembles, and forays into electronic music while in college in Minnesota; over a decade as an accompanist for dance and, over thirty years as a Chicago-based composer and sound designer for theatre and dance. From 1985 to 2014 Richard served as Music Director and Associate Chair at the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago where he was an Associate Professor and “Distinguished Faculty Artist”. Since 2014, he has worked extensively with theater companies including the Goodman Theater, Steppenwolf, and Writers Theater in Chicago, and Second Stage Theater in New York. richardwoodbury.com
CHIHSUAN YANG
Performance and Composition
​
Born and raised in Taiwan, Chihsuan moved to the United States at age 15. As an eclectic and versatile violinist, erhu player, pianist, and composer actively engaged in the music scene around the globe, Chihsuan’s body of work spans a multitude of genres and reaches beyond borders. Chihsuan is a winner of the 3Arts Award in 2015 and the 2016 Carmargo Foundation Fellow in France. She has performed with artists ranging from Yo-Yo Ma and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, to Kings of Leon, Lana Del Rey, and Regina Spektor, and has even played for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. She is a member of the legendary, Chicago-based Corky Siegel’s Chamber Blues, and of the flamenco ensemble, Las Guitarras de España. In 2016, she started the electronic/world duo ESCP with Bob Garrett, and is currently recording her next studio album. chihsuanyang.com
