MAY JOSEPH, Artistic Director, Harmattan Theater: Tanzanian born Joseph is the founder of Harmattan Theater and a member of the Penny Jones Early Childhood Puppet Theater which performs for young audiences in New York City. Her playwrighting, directing and dramaturgical credits include Dead Heat directed by David Henderson at the Ontological Hysterical Theater, St. Marks Poetry Project; Beginner at Life by Alana Free staged at Times Square Arts Center in New York City; as well as in York University and Sheena’s House in Toronto; Indian Ocean Reverie, a staged reading of Illiterate Heart by Meena Alexander at the Asian American Writer’s Workshop in New York City; A Tempest by Aime Cesaire at the Producer’s Club, NYC; Shock of Arrival by Meena Alexander at Asian American Writer’s Workshop; Joseph dramaturged On Caring for the Beast by Shishir Kurup at the Currican Theater, NYC.
Her acting credits include Carmen Rockette by Patricia Hoffbauer at the Joyce Theater; The Rope Dancers by Morten Wishengrad at the Chowdiah Hall, Bangalore; Tea and Sympathy by Robert Anderson at the Museum Theater, Madras; The Bell Jar: An adaptation of Sylvia Plath, at the Museum Theater, Madras. Joseph trained in Directing and Playwrighting at U.C.Santa Barbara’s Department of Theatre and Dance. Joseph’s directorial interests lie in bringing together ritual, movement, mime, voice, images and text. Trained as a Bharata Natyam dancer, Joseph’s work draws upon the Indian environmental dance theater traditions of the Jatra, Chautu Nadagam and Indian street theater movements, Kalaripayyati, Kathakali, Kyogen and the experimental techniques of Arianne Mnouchkine, Marina Abrarmovich and Christo. Joseph teaches theater, film and visual culture at Pratt Institute, New York.
NANDINI SIKAND, Associate Director/Choreographer: was born and raised in New Delhi, Sikand trained in Odissi dance for several years. She was the co-founder and co-director of the Odissi dance company, Trinayan Collective from 2003-2008. During this time she created and performed in several evening-length productions which were funded in part by LMCC (Lower Manhattan Cultural Council), the Asian American Arts Alliance and Joyce Soho (subsidized rental program). Some of her other performance credits include Lincoln Center, Joyce Soho (multiple presentations), the United Nations, Danny Kaye Playhouse, (Hunter College), Brooklyn Museum of Art, Pace University, John Jay College, Manhattan Ensemble Theatre and The Graduate Center, CUNY. Nandini Sikand is also a filmmaker and a doctoral candidate in Cultural Anthropology at The Graduate Center, CUNY.
DAVID VAN LEER Dramaturg, Composer: is Professor of English and Gay Studies at the University of California, Davis. An accomplished pianist, vocal coach, and choral and orchestral conductor, he made his television musical debut at seven. Since then he has been involved in many productions of musical comedies and operas. Writing widely on American culture for both academic publishers and magazines like The New Republic and The Times Literary Supplement, he is the author of Emerson’s Epistemology: The Argument of the Essays and The Queening of America: Gay Culture in Straight Society. He is the editor of Edgar Allan Poe: Selected Tales and book review editor of the Journal of Bisexuality. Van Leer is currently completing a book-length manuscript called “Notable Selves: Personal Identity and Music.”
JAMES CASCAITO Dramaturg, Performeris an Italian-American poet and translator, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is the chairperson of the Department of Foreign Languages at the Fashion Institute of Technology of S.U.N.Y. in Manhattan. James received his Ph.D. in Italian literature at Columbia University, with a dissertation on the gay love poetry of Sandro Penna. His most recent publications are: the English translation (with Bertoletti and Casson) of Multitude: Between Innovation and Negation by the Italian political philosopher, Paolo Virno (2008); and a collection of his own poetry, respite (2009). He is a member of the San Miguel de Allende (Mexico) Center of International PEN and he serves on PEN’s International Committee on Translation and Linguistic Rights. James is also the Commissioner for Linguistic Rights of the Chicago Network for Justice and Peace.
SHARMILA DESAI, Choreographer: Sharmila Desai comes from a family of dancers, most notably her great aunt Menaka and her grandmother Hima Devi, who were legendary exponents of dance. Similar to her predecessors in pushing traditional forms of movement and art, Desai has intermingled martial art, yoga and Indian dance to explore ancient ideas in the realm of the contemporary. Notable recent performances include the Venice Biennale, Deitch Projects, ICA London and the opening for the Yves Klein Retrospective at the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt.
VICTORIA MARSHALL, Landscape Architect/Urban Designer:
Victoria Marshall is the founder of TILL, a Newark based landscape architecture and urban design practice. Originally from Sydney, Australia, Ms. Marshall's work engages the practice, performance and potential of drawing as a tool for situated action. Her work builds upon her education of landscape as a process rather than a picture; this is also called Landscape Urbanism. More recently, her work has been informed by the concept of Matter-Flux as introduced in Brian McGrath and Jean Gardner's book Cinemetrics as well as the urban ecological framework of Patch Dynamics. Her projects have been published in AD Magazine, NY Times and PaiseaDos and exhibited at Aljira: A Center for Art, Newark, NJ and the Van Alen Institute NYC. Ms. Marshall is a collaborator in the Baltimore Ecosystem Study Urban Design Working Group and the US Forest Service NYC Urban Field Station. Ms. Marshall is also an Assitant Professor of Urban Design at Parsons the New School for Design.
JOSE DE JESUS, Sculptor, painter, designer
LISABETH DURING is a philosopher at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. She was educated at Wesleyan University, Kings College London, and Trinity College Cambridge, where she wrote a doctoral thesis on Hegel. After 18 years teaching at universities in Sydney, she returned to New York and is writing a book abut chastity. Her only other experience in the performance field was as a Director of the Performance Space, Sydney, Australia, and a 'player' in Tino Sehgal's 'This Situation' (Marian Goodman Gallery NY, 2008).
PUMA PERL is a poet and fiction writer who believes strongly in the transformative power of the creative arts. Her work has been published in over 100 print and online journals and anthologies. Her first chapbook, Belinda and Her Friends, was published in 2008 and recently was awarded the Erbacce Press 2009 Poetry Award; a full length collection, knuckle tattoos, will be published early in 2010. She performs her work in many venues, in and out of New York City. Recent features include Stain Bar, Cornelia Street Café , the Riverwood Poetry Festival, Middleton CT – Outlaw Night, and the HOWL Festival.. She lives and writes on the Lower East Side and has facilitated writing workshops in community based agencies and at Riker’s Island, a NYC prison.
ADAM KURUVILLA is a young actor and model in New York City. His training includes a classical education at the Manhattan School of Music under Neil Rosenshein, stagework at Brown University, Horton Technique at the Ailey School and mentorship from the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. He is proud to be part of this new work and thanks May, Geoffrey, Celine and all of his beautiful family.
MARTIN GAK Composer, Musician. Argentinian born Martin Gak is a philosopher and Tango Accordian player. Gak has a PhD from the New School and released a new music album this summer. Gak composed the original arrangement for Harmattan Theater’s Henry Hudson’s Forgotten Maps production at the FIGMENT festival in Governor’s Isand, 2009. Gak teaches Continental Philosophy at Pratt Institute.
MARJORIE TESSER is a poet. She is editor of Bowery Books, an independent poetry press, and publisher and editor of The Mom Egg, a journal. Her work has appeared in anthologies, journals and ‘zines, and is forthcoming in Future Earth 2. Her manuscript, The Important Thing Is… was the winner of the inaugural Firewheel Chapbook Award, and will be published by Firewheel/Sentence in 2009. She produced the Bowery Women: Shoot the Poem!, with assistance from the Center for Experimental Television, and her videopoems have been shown at the Howl Festival of East Village Art. She is on the board of trustees of Four Way Books.
LATHA RAMPERSAD is a trained Carnatic classical vocalist. She sings light music in Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and Malayalam. Rampersad recently performed Bollywood songs in NYC at the Sakhi Annual Fundraiser. She teaches Carnatic Classical basics and also does stage performances and voice-overs. Rampersad has done radio commercials for a South Asian radio station. She is a member of the Harmattan Theater group of New York City. Rampersad’s light music demos are uploaded at: myspace.com/latharamprasad and basketchance.com and her carnatic music profile is at: musicalescapades.com/budding-artist-india/latha-carnatic-vocalist.htm. Her voice over demos are at: voice123.com/latharamprasad.
GAVIN HARPER Musician, Composer: As a jazz trained guitarist living in New York City, Gavin is involved in several projects as both a leader, sideman, and composer. As a solo musician, Gavin plays numerous pieces from his own composed ideas linked through improvisation allowing for freedom and growth from the surrounding energy. Gavin also works with other composer's pieces arranging them into a similar outfit.