Eric Anderson
I'm an actor who currently lives in New York City. Originally from Cumberland, RI, I graduated Boston University with most of the Speed Theatre participants. When I'm not acting, I spend my time writing and riding my bike around NYC (trying not to get hit by cars). So far so good. I think that theatre is important because the experience can unite both performer and audience member in a uniquely human way that provokes thought and positive change.
Jeremy Gates
I'm an artist currently living in the Boston area splitting my time between theatre and film work. I got my degree like a bunch of these hooligans from the Theatre Dept. at Boston University. Since then the work has found me piece by piece and eventually led me into the world of cinema where I have been working as a camera operator and lighting designer for the past few years. Participating in ensemble-based, inspired work with this group of artists has re-awoken muscles that have been sleeping since we were together at University. I love storytelling, and the theatre is where I get to speak and work in communion with an audience to make the story what it is. It's good to be back.
Daniel John
I live 20 minutes away from B.U. in the same place I lived in when I met everybody who went to the B.U. theater class that began in the fall of 1997. I was 48 then. I'm 58 now. If anyone remembers my kids from way back then--I had a passel of four, close in age-- two of them are in university now. I still make flower gardens for residential clients. I'm doing pretty well getting poetry and essays published in literary journals and periodicals. I write monologues and short plays and have been performing on stage once or twice a year. I'm on the board of a tiny theater company, TYG Productions, with my best friend Vincent. In our latest show, this August, I was in two memoir pieces I had written, one about talking to a ghost and another about becoming a comic stripper: two women confided they were on the edge of peeing their pants right from the beginning of the piece. For the last year I've been taking Meisner acting classes which are a riot. The concept of performing the same role differently every time because your aliveness and your reality are different every time is thrilling: it doesn't feel like acting. It feels like being real, and is immensely satisfying, because it's a real that you create. I love theater because I get to make a pure, intense creation out of nothing. I'm both Creator and Created.
Matthew Johnson
This project marks my return to Denver after living there from the ages of 1 to 4; I look back fondly on my memories of the city from that time and am excited to be back! I went to Boston University with most of these crazy kids, and now I live and act in New York. I just got back from performing in summer stock theatres in Pennsylvania and Kentucky, and I am happy to add Denver to the list. I love theatre because it gives me the chance to be people and experience things I would never get the chance to in my everyday life.
Tammy Minoff
I am a Los Angeles-based actress who started out doing theatre. I started acting when I was six and worked in New York, where I grew up doing Broadway, regional theatre and the occasional commercial and film. I moved to Los Angeles after attending NYU and have continued my passion for theatre by producing and co-producing three shows that were some of the best experiences of my life. I also teach acting to kids which is amazing and so rewarding.
Andrea Moore
I am a photographer and theatre artist living and working in Denver, Colorado; I also serve on the Board of Directors and work as a camp counselor for Adam's Camp, an organization serving the special needs community. After graduating from Boston University's theatre conservatory, I discovered a passion for business, education, and community involvement. Though I still love and seek out opportunities for performance, I have developed an interest in arts administration and activism, and I enjoy fostering connections between artists and their communities. I love the process of putting on a play - working with other artists, exchanging ideas, and creating new material. I love theatre because it feels like magic, and I really love magic.
Gregory Richane
I live in the bay area, and spend my days coordinating not-for-profit organizations, individuals, and representatives from the (land) development community in advocating for policies and developments that stimulate mixed income, healthy, diverse and vibrant neighborhoods. In my spare time, I like to ride my bike and watch the Buffalo Bills. I have worked professionally and as a volunteer on a variety of electoral, advocacy and fundraising campaigns as well as side gigs as a salesman, landscaper, mover and Public Affairs Coordinator. I’ve lived and worked in Boston, New York City, Atlanta, St. Paul and the Bay Area. I love theatre because it is like life without the boring stuff.
Jeni Rinner
I live here in Denver, and work in audience development and patron relations for the Colorado Children's Chorale. In my free time I write poetry, listen to bluegrass music, play in the mountains, grow giant zucchini, and go to many, many weddings. I have worn (and continue to wear) varied hats in my professional life, having worked in education, real estate, prevention science, writing workshops, web marketing, coffee shops, and even a country music station, but the common thread running throughout is a passion for words and expression. My theater career has been on hold since a black box performance of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Memphis, Tennessee, although friends would say that was just the last time I acted "on stage." I love theater for its unique ability to connect people through an immediate, time-based medium where anything you imagine might (and will) happen.
Susanna Schell
After living in NYC for 8 years, I moved to Berkeley, CA a year ago for a better quality of life. Though poetry writing has become my general artistic endeavor (having studied it in college and practiced it thereafter) I spent four wonderful high school years at Walnut Hill School for the Arts studying stage management and theatre arts. I'm currently working in the non-profit world in San Francisco, but am hoping to transition into first grade teaching. Poetry has a very similar sub-textual quality to theatre for me--a way to see our lives the way we wish we could, or to, perhaps, safely see them as they really are. I have always cherished my exposure to theatre for it allows me to see the vocal dramatization of words that typically would only thrive in my head.
Dan Stowell
I'm a New Yorker now (a Brooklynite to be specific) and grew up in Connecticut, where I cut my teeth on high school musicals. After attending Boston University's conservatory acting program where I met Andrea, Ben, Matt, Ashley, Jeremy, Eric, Daniel, Greg, and David, I took off to France for a year. In France, I worked as an au pair and learned to speak the language. Oo la la! (See?) Recently, I got back into acting after working for an entertainment lawyer for a couple years. Entertainment lawyers get to participate in many of the facets of show business at once (unlike most, who are confined to their part of the pie) so I learned a lot, which I'm proud of. I'm a Shakespeare lover, and I also dabble in filmmaking. Now, I'm back in acting class. I audition for everything I can. Ideally, I'll be a guest star on Law & Order before Sam Waterson kicks it. Oh, and why do I love theater? Can you name me another place where reality shifts before your eyes? I didn't think so.
Nicolette Vajtay
After ten long years in Los Angeles, I moved to Boulder, Colorado about a month ago in hopes of creating a gentler and more fun-filled life. I graduated from the ART Conservatory Program at Harvard University in 1990 and worked as an actress regionally for numerous years. About five years ago, a new creative focus emerged leaning me towards directing and especially writing, so I studied playwrighting under Leon Martel at UCLA. My first full-length play, Maggie's Magical Midnight is a prize-winner in the Writer's Digest Stage Play Competition, 2006. I have written eight other short plays and am currently researching my next full length play about my grandfather's heroic deeds while escaping Hungary during WWII. My passion for the theatre is how it may be a tool that evokes social awareness and perhaps affect social change.
Tania Verafield
I live in Los Angeles, where I was born and raised. Right now, I'm working in film and television, but am so lucky to also be in a touring production of "Beneath the Veil," which is a poignant play about the oppression of women in the Middle East. My favorite project so far was the privilege of working with Christian Bale in the film "Harsh Times". My love for the theater stems from our ability to affect people's lives and promote change in the world; I feel blessed to be able to have a voice through the pursuit of what I love. Outside of acting, I work at an antique store, learn to fix up my '85 Mercedes, and spend time with my beautiful friends and family. Thanks to the organizers of this Speed Theater event for doing an incredible job and for welcoming me!
David Wayne
I live in Los Angeles and manage an accounting firm. I have no idea how that happened either. I look forward to playing with old friends and meeting new ones. I love theatre because doing it stresses me out it all the right ways. Speed theatre has always been a dream of mine since I decided to go two days before it started.
Ben Wiedermann
I began life as a little boy in Texas, and not much has changed. Once upon a time, I was an acting student in Boston. I learned how to portray reality on stage. Now I avoid reality as a graduate student in Austin. I have proudly earned my ABD (All But Degree) in computer science. One day soon, though, I hope to graduate and become a professor. In my spare time I like to compose symphonies, design public architecture, and clip coupons. I look forward to the time when I can torment the younger generation with rambling stories of how things were "back in aught-seven."
Ashley Williams
I live in Santa Monica, California. I just finished working on a show called "Side Order of Life" this season on Lifetime. When not doing that I spend my time walking my dog, Phillip, trying to prevent and apologizing for his affection for biting nice people. We are working on it; I'm so sorry. Before all of this I tried being an actress on a show on NBC called Good Morning Miami, and then aborted that plan. I took a year-long respite from LA, firing my agents and tossing my gym membership, only to discover that there is more than one way of being an actress. After protectively landing back in LA, I have worked nonstop, with glee, as president of a tiny-parts-in-things-career. The kind of actress I am now changes daily but all incarnations feel like home. I am almost sure that my new career will prevent me from ever actually having the money to BUY a home, but maybe I'll marry up. I have a ball doing theater and feel so lucky to be in this group.