CREATIVE COLLABORATORS
Torry Bend
Torry Bend is a set designer, puppet artist, and Assistant Professor of the Practice at Duke University. Set design credits include: Are They Edible (La Mama), Pygmalion (Southwest Shakespeare Co), Stephen Wadsworth's Agamemnon (Getty Villa), References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot (Empty Space Theatre Seattle), A Tuna Christmas (Oregon Repertory Theatre), and Brilliant Traces, for which she received a Drammy. She created and directed the toy theater piece The Paper Hat Game as well as Loser, which traveled to Prague, New York, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles. Her most recent work, Love’s Infrastructure, is a collaboration with the band Bombadil performed as part of Duke Performances. As a puppeteer she has performed in Alison Heimstead’s The Ronald Reagan Love Story and The Saint Plays.
Howard Craft
Howard L. Craft is a father, husband, poet, playwright, and arts educator. He is the author of a book of poems, Across The Blue Chasm. His poetry also appears in Home is Where: An Anthology of African-American poets from the Carolinas, edited by Kwame Dawes. His plays include Caleb Calypso and the Midnight Marauders, The House of George, Stealing Clouds, and a children’s musical entitled Indigo Blue, presented in December 2013 at Walltown Children’s Theatre of Durham. Craft’s 2010 play, Jade City Chronicles, sparked Craft and WUNC host Frank Stasio to create the first African-American Super Hero Radio Serial entitled The Jade City Pharaoh, currently in its second season.
Bonnie Gould
Bonnie Gould has been involved in theatre for over 35 years. Until 2006 she was a member of The Clarence Brown Theatre Company and a professor at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, where she was head of the undergraduate acting program and taught all levels of acting and special interest courses. She developed inter-departmental courses in Spanish, French, and Russian Theatre and was instrumental in forging international ties with theatre companies, training schools, and festivals in numerous nations. In 2005, Gould worked in New York City to create theatre internships for her students. She continues working freelance in theatre and film, most recently in the short film About Time from Harland’s Creek Productions and in Shiloh Rules for the Center for the American South. She has become a passionate advocate of “going green, going local” and has been involved in community outreach and education through her business, The Emerald Earth.
Russell Greene
Russell Greene made his writing and directorial debut with his award-winning film Easy Street. Since graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1997, he has made his living as a film editor. He has served as Editor of seven feature films including Famous Nathan of Nathan’s Famous and Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction, as well as numerous commercials and corporate films. He was one of the principal creatives behind the acclaimed series, Made HERE about New York City artists, and the First Assistant Editor for the Oscar nominated, Emmy award winning film The Betrayal – Nerakhoon. Russell lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Heather, and two children, Carter and Harper Lee. He is currently working on pre-production for a feature film to be shot in North Carolina.
Derrick Ivey
Derrick Ivey has worked as director, actor, producer, instructor, and designer for various theater companies and arts organizations throughout the Triangle area of North Carolina. He has performed extensively as an actor, receiving regional Best Actor recognitions for several roles. Directing credits include: The Glass Menagerie, Rough Crossing, Deathtrap, Chicago - A Musical Vaudeville, The Zoo Story, The Diary of Anne Frank, Lady Windermere’s Fan, and Oliver; as well as several original stage adaptations. Derrick is a company member of Manbites Dog Theater in Durham and Artistic Director for the Durham Savoyards. During most of the 1990s, Derrick was Director of Theater Programs for The ArtsCenter in Carrboro, NC and served as Producing Artistic Director for The ACT (ArtsCenter Community Theater) and the Director of Marketing and Publications. In addition to his ongoing theater projects, Derrick works as a freelance design coach, assisting clients with interior, exterior, and garden design.
Jeanmarie Higgins
Dr. Jeanmarie Higgins received a PhD in Theatre History, Theory, & Criticism from the University of Washington, an MFA in Playwriting from the University of Virginia, and a BA in Theatre Arts from Drew University. Before joining the UNC Charlotte faculty, Dr. Higgins taught critical theory and playwriting at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle where she was also a resident dramaturg. Her recent dramaturgy projects include choreographer Kim Jones’s reconstruction of Martha Graham’s lost 1935 solo, Imperial Gesture, for the Martha Graham Dance Company, and a new bilingual Spanish/English children’s play, Mamá Goose, by Irania Patterson and Beth Murray for UNC Charlotte. Dr. Higgins is an artistic associate for the Process Series in residence at UNC Chapel Hill and a member of the Southeastern Women’s Studies Association, and the Dramatists Guild.
Tim Scales
Tim Scales has been a professional arts marketer for five years. His experience ranges from a Broadway producing house to a London black box, and much in between. He has worked in arts marketing at the Ensemble Studio Theatre and Roundabout Theatre in NYC, the Gate Theatre in London, PlayMakers in Chapel Hill, and on a freelance basis throughout the Triangle; in general management at the Berkshire Theatre Festival in Massachusetts; and as an Artist in Residence teaching playwriting to elementary school kids. He founded Wagon Wheel Arts Promotion in 2011, aimed at expanding the reach of the arts and artists in North Carolina through marketing, fundraising, and producing support.
Ann Corley Silverman
Ann Corley Silverman is a paper artist currently expanding her papermaking studio in Chatham County. She has pursued the study of hand papermaking in New York, North Carolina, Southeast Asia, and the University of Iowa. Silverman completed an MFA at The Ohio State University in 2003. She has received an Artist Fellowship from the Women’s Studio Workshop, a travel grant from the Ohio Arts Council, and has been a Teaching Artist for both the Greater Columbus Arts Council and the Ohio Arts Council. In 2006 Silverman received a Community Arts Grant from the Greater Columbus Arts Council to make a book in conjunction with an urban community garden and she is a 2014 recipient of an Emerging Artist grant from the Durham Arts Council. Silverman also cooks professionally. Her artwork has been displayed in group shows nationally as well as in solo shows in New York, Ohio, and North Carolina.