Melanie Keller (B.A. Drama University of Washington) began her theatre and dance training in Washington D.C. performing with her high school dance troupe at the deaf Gallaudet University. Melanie also studied theatre, dance and fashion at Cal State LA. Credits include Endgame (Clov) at CSULA, The Dining Room (North End Players, Portland), Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All For You (SETheatre), Bee Stings and Ding-a-lings (NoHo Actors Studio) and F*ck Me Love Me Leave Me. She is a member of the adventure rock band P L a N E T S and recently wrapped filming the web series "Flat." www.melaniereese.weebly.com
Tanya Kane-Parry directs and choreographs theatre, opera and dance and is the Artistic Director and co-founder of Opera del Espacio. Credits include Tosca Jumps!, a multimedia adaptation of Puccini’s opera (EdgeFest/LATC, Highways, Luckman Intimate); Supreme Being by Richard Foreman; Romeo and/y Juliet(a), a Spanglish Re-Mix with Quantum Theatre, and a touring production of Ubu Roi in Brazil. She has directed Carmen (Pacific Repertory Opera), The Coronation of Poppea (CSULA) and The Medium (CSULA). At Long Beach Opera she choreographed The Man from Atlantis, The Clever One and Moscow, Cherry Town. At Los Angeles Opera she was the Assistant Director on Madama Butterfly, The Barber of Seville, Carmen, The Broken Jug, The Dwarf and The Merry Widow. She was the Assistant Director to famed Spanish director, Joan Font (Els Comediants) on The Barber of Seville at Houston Grand Opera, which she then re-mounted at the Houston Miller Outdoor Theatre, and assisted on the remount at L’Opera National de Bordeaux. She returned to Houston Grand Opera to assist Mr. Font on L’Italiana in Algers, and to Los Angeles Opera with Mr. Font for Cinderella (Cenerentola). Later with Mr. Font she assisted in remounts at Opera Omaha and the Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona). With Opera del Espacio, she directed/choreographed I’ve Fallen/Clap Off! at Highways Performance Space; The Way Of Water by Caridad Svich at Cal State LA, Bootleg Theatre, Cal Poly Pomona, Hollywood Fringe 2012 and South Coast Rep’s SCRamble, May 2013; Meet Me @ Metro II and III (2011 & 2012) produced by Watts Village Theatre Company; Space: The Final Frontier presented at SOSE as part of the Company Creation Festival 2013; multiple site-specific performances at the Downtown Art Walk, Frogtown Art Walk, Brewery Art Walk, Echo Park Art Walk, The Series at the Standard and more. Most recent work includes the workshop production of The Wall: A Musical Misdeed, adapted from the short story by Jean-Paul Sartre, composed by John M. Kennedy with libretto by Dr. Alicia Tycer, in collaboration with Opera del Espacio, The Chamber Players of Los Angeles and guest artists bass-baritone, Nicholas Isherwood, Gayle Fekete (Urban Bush Women and head of dance at Cal Poly Pomona) and designer E. M. Giminez (LA Opera, Cirque du Soleil, The Industry) along with students from the Department, which was presented in the State Playhouse. Immediately following, Tanya directed an extracted semi-staged version of Don Giovanni with the Bakersfield Symphony, and a semi-staged concert of Robert Wilson's/Phillip Glass' Civil Wars with the LA Phil at Disney Hall, conducted by Grant Gershon. Tanya teaches theatre and dance at California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA). During her Fall 2014 Sabbatical, Tanya travelled Europe visiting theatre and dance programs, seeing productions and meeting artists. She taught Viewpoints workshops at Atalaya-TNT in Sevilla, the Superior School of Dramatic Art of the Islas Baleares Viewpoints Workshop with students presented to the entire school (this link as well). And the University of Islas Baleares – Viewpoints Workshop and post-workshop Interview Posted Online
Marcelo
Olivas (B.A. Theatre Arts and Dance,
CSULA). A native of
East Los Angeles credits include: Hamlet
as Hamlet at East Los Angeles Performing Arts Center, El Verde at Casa 0101 in Boyle Heights and TeAda in Santa Monica, Fallujah at The Lex Theatre, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All The
Met Theatre in Hollywood, and puppeteer in Too
Many Tamales at The Bilingual Arts Foundation. Additionally, he was lighting designer for Pinter’s The Lover at The Luckman Intimate and
co-wrote and co-directed a traveling show for children and pre-teens entitled The School of Hard Knox.
Alicia
Tycer is a member of Opera Del Espacio and has worked
with them on The Way of
Water and Meet me @ Metro. She wrote Space: The Final Frontier in collaboration with the company, which
was produced as part of Son of Semele’s Company Creation Festival and
South Coast Repertory’s SCRamble. Her adaptation Lysistrata: Re-Imagining was produced by The Unknown Artists
at the Grove Theatre Center. Her play The
Civil War: A Tragi-Comedy was selected for the John Lion New Plays
Festival, Dreaming of Women was
included in Moving Arts’ Mosaic Wonderland Project, and she collaborated with
the Circle Squared Collective on Embers. Most recently, her play H.U.A.C.
was included in The Paul Robeson Theatre Festival at the Los Angeles
Theatre Center. Her acting
credits include performing with Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Project in Last Summer at Bluefish Cove at the
Stella Adler Theatre, in TransMe at
the Los Angeles Theatre Center, in The
Laramie Project at CAP Studio Theatre, and The Vagina Monologues at Ensemble Studio Theatre. She is currently
working on an adaptation of Hedda Gabler
and will be performing in Camino Real
at the Luckman Theatre. Alicia
teaches in the Music, Theatre, and Dance department at California State
University, Los Angeles (CSULA). She received her Ph.D in Drama and Theatre
from University of California, Irvine focusing on contemporary British women
playwrights. She has her M.F.A. from CSULA in Television, Film, and Theatre
with options in Dramatic Writing and Performance. Publications include Continuum Modern Theatre Guide: Caryl Churchill's Top
Girls and an article on Sarah Kane’s work for Theatre Journal.
Jonathan C. K. Williams While a student at CSULA, he was
introduced to ensemble-based, experimental, physical theater while studying
with Tanya Kane-Parry. He had the honor of studying the Viewpoints with originator,
Mary Overlie, and then SITI company director, Anne Bogart, as well as SITI
members Barney O’Hanlon and Will Bond (aka Bondo), as part of the CSU Summer
Arts Viewpoints Intensive (Fresno) coordinated by Tanya Kane-Parry (2004). He
earned his membership into Actors’ Equity for his role as Amado in Eyes for
Consuela, directed by Stephen Rothman, at CSULA. Also while at CSULA, he
performed in Tanya’ Kane-Parry’s production of Susan-Lori Parks’ The America
Play. He later performed in Tanya’s movement-based multimedia adaptation, Tosca
Jumps!, which premiered at EdgeFest, and was remounted at Highways
Performance Space and the Luckman Intimate. Since his time at CSULA he has done
intensive training with LA’s Diavolo Dance Theater, and became a member of the
Son of Semele Ensemble, performing in their productions of The Mysteries,
Iphigenia (A rave fable), Tragedy: a tragedy, Wallowa, and a Center Theatre
Group workshop production of Fencerow to Fencerow. He Currently
works at the LA Natural History Museum/La Brea Tar Pits inside a full-suit
animatronic saber-tooth cat puppet built by the Jim Henson Creature Shop. He
was featured in said puppet in the April 2013 issue of National Geographic. His
puppeteer skills have also been seen at Disney’s California Adventure appearing
as Iago in the Aladdin Musical Spectacular. Other puppeteer
credits include promos for Assassins Creed III, The Dark Knight Rises, Pain
& Gain, and Don John featured on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim.
As an actor his credits include commercials for MTV, Yahoo!, Umami Burger,
Embraer Private Jets, and perhaps most recognizably for GameFly.
His most recent television appearance was Fatal Encounters on
iDiscovery. Recent stage appearances
include The Night Fairy at South Coast Rep, the premiere of the
avant garde opera The Wall (a musical
misdeed), and was a puppeteer in Clouded Sulphur: as part of RedCat’s Radar LA Festival and at
Automata in Concrete Folk. A long time member of Opera del Espacio,
productions include I’ve Fallen/Clap Off! at Highways Performance Space;
The Way Of Water by Caridad Svich at Cal State LA, Bootleg Theatre, Cal
Poly Pomona, Hollywood Fringe 2012 and South Coast Rep’s SCRamble, May 2013; Meet
Me @ Metro II and III (2011 & 2012 - director) produced by Watts
Village Theatre Company; Space: The Final Frontier presented at SOSE as
part of the Company Creation Festival 2013; multiple site-specific performances
at the Downtown Art Walk, Brewery Art Walk, Echo Park Art Walk, The Series at
the Standard and more. Occasionally he also uses his 10+ years of experience in
Viewpoints to teach others in small workshops. http://resumes.actorsaccess.com/jonathanckwilliams
