Dance! Music! Comedy! Tragedy! Absurdity! (Like a theatrical hotdog.*)
*No animals were harmed during the making of this play.***
***Well, there were some ants in our rehearsal space and we may have killed some of them.
About Us
Ivan Faute, Writer & Director
Awarding winning writer Ivan Faute's theatrical works have been produced in London, Houston, Chicago, and San Diego. His adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" won the City Lit Art of Adaptation Prize. THE DARLING CHILDREN, the story of the family Peter Pan left behind, was produced for the New York International Fringe Festival. His prose has been named a finalist for the Calvino Prize, and his play ELEPHANT: A COMEDY was a finalist for the Award of Excellence in Playwriting by the Association for Theater in Higher Education. He teaches creative writing of many kinds at Christopher Newport University in southeast Virginia. www.ivanfaute.org
Suzanne Wiltgen, Choreographer
Suzanne Wiltgen is a Newport News-based choreographer. Raised in Minnesota, she graduated with a degree in dance from Mount Holyoke College. She received a fellowship from the Luce Foundation to live and dance in Korea, with Laughing Stone Dance Theater, and in Malaysia, with RiverGrass. She moved to Minneapolis where she cofounded the collaborative modern dance company Three Dances with Brinsley Davis and Jamey Garner. After a decade in Minneapolis, she moved around a bit, choreographing Aida in Jacksonville, Alabama and working with Sanspointe Dance in Birmingham before arriving in Newport News, where she has been guest choreographing at Christopher Newport University and working in arts administration at the Newport News Public Art Foundation.
Krystal Hurr, Actor
Krystal Hurr is a Native American actress who has been studying and pursuing acting since middle school. This fall, she will be attending CNU where she'll be studying Musical Theatre and Business. Her past production and roles include Hodel in A Fiddler on The Roof, Andromeda in Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England at Ottawa University and Rory In Bare: a pop Opera at Peninsula Community Theatre. Her hobbies include, spending time with her dog, going to open mic-nights, drinking to much coffee, yoga, spending time at the archery range and horse back riding.
Sydney Jones, Actor
Sydney Jones is currently a Theatre student at Christopher Newport University. She was last seen in a production of Oresteia with Initiative Student Theater. She is thrilled to work on this piece, as she is a huge fan of fringe productions. This will be her first time performing in a festival setting, and she is excited for the experience.
Nitya Kalidindi, Actor
Nitya is currently a student at Christopher Newport University seeking a degree is Musical Theatre. Her past experiences includes playing ensemble roles in “Pericles, Prince of Tyre” and “King Lear”, and Hodel in “Fiddle on the Roof”. Before choosing to pursue a career in acting, Nitya wanted to be a doctor up until her 10th grade. She even attended a specialized program, The Academy of Health and Medical Science, before realizing how much she didn't enjoy it. Nitya would like to thank her late mother for always encouraging her to follow her dreams and teaching her that “the only way to be successful is to do what makes you happy.”
Joe Tapia, Actor
Joe Tapia is a film and theatre actor from Virginia Beach, Virginia. Some notable credits include performances in Of Mice and Men, The Drowsy Chaperone, and (his personal favorite) Addams Family: The Musical. This is his first time at Fringe, and he hopes everyone enjoys the hard work put in by the cast and crew.
Bonnie Newton, Stage Manager
Bonnie Newton recently graduated from Christopher Newport University where she majored in theater with a double concentration in directing and arts administration. While in school Bonnie worked on several TheaterCNU Productions as well as acted as the artistic director for Initiative Student Theater, President of the Improvocateurs, Vice President of Alpha Psi Omega, and the Social Media Manager for Laugh Out. Outside of school, Bonnie performs as a stand-up comedian and has studied comedy at The Second City in Chicago. She has also worked with The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as a Program Assistant for the JFK100 Open House and Finding a Line: Skateboarding, Music and Media, and as a guest producer for The 14th Annual Page-to-Stage Festival.
Quoc Tran, Lighting Designer
Coming Soon
Sadie Rose, Publicity Manager
Coming Soon
Eric Reda
Eric Reda is a composer and multimedia artist who has spent his career bridging opera and performance art. He studied Composition and Opera at Arizona State University and has worked with diverse artists including Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Ann Hamilton and Pina Bausch. Reda's song "ATRIPLA!" has been performed across the globe, and was sung by mezzo Jamie Barton on the album An AIDS Quilt Songbook: Sing for Hope. His other works include the operas REAGAN’S CHILDREN and THE SUITCASE. He is currently developing a new concert work titled THE DISASTERS OF 1986. www.EricReda.com
Kelly Rossum
Kelly Rossum is an international trumpet artist, improviser and composer. He has performed everything from lead trumpet at New York’s famed Birdland jazz club to natural trumpet in Bad Säckingen, Germany; and from cornet with the Birmingham Royal Ballet to improvised free jazz in Bangkok, Thailand. Kelly has released five albums as a leader and has appeared on over 40 recordings as a sideman. A steadfast champion of new music, he has premiered compositions by Dave Douglas, Denis Colin, Christopher Cook, Peter Knight, Stephanie Richards and numerous other musicians’ works. His own compositions, incorporating improvisational and contemporary avant-garde techniques, have been commissioned, performed and recorded by individual artists and large organizations alike. Kelly’s works have premiered at the Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Arts, the Society of Composers, Inc.’s conference and multiple International Trumpet Guild conferences, including Minneapolis, MN, Columbus, GA, and Sydney, Australia. He has provided original scores for both film and dance and has received support from the American Composers Forum and the Jerome Foundation. http://krossum.com