ALEJANDRO ACOSTA (Sound Designer) has worked with Intersection and Campo Santo on the last two year’s productions.
AMBROSE AKINMUSIRE’s (Composer) conceptual extension into a new musical language is never to the exclusion of beauty. As one who listens intently, he values the fertility of a pause, of communication, and of tension. His music restructures accepted notions of jazz in a way that reflects his ability to recognize nuances, multiplicities, and patterns. First playing piano at the age of three, his familiarity with music began long before putting his mouth to a trumpet. Before he was eighteen, Akinmusire had already performed with famed musicians including Joe Henderson, Joshua Redman, Steve Coleman, and Billy Higgins. After high school he studied on scholarship at the Manhattan School of Music with Vincent Pinzerella, Dick Oatts, Lew Soloff, and Laurie Frink. Throughout his studies, Akinmusire continued to tether audiences to his concepts and his sound, performing publicly with Lonnie Plaxico, Stefon Harris, Josh Roseman, Vijay Iyer, Charlie Persip, the Mingus Big Band, and the San Francisco Jazz Collective. His exposure to dynamic modes of playing and to musicians with accumulated experiences only promoted the development of his own distinct musical style. Akinmusire is a recent graduate of the master’s program at University of Southern California and also the Monk Institute, his instructors include Terence Blanchard, Billy Childs, and Gary Grant. In the past year, he has worked with artists Jimmy Heath, Jason Moran, Hal Crook, Bob Hurst, Terri Lynne Carrington, Ron Carter, Wallace Roney, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter. Most recently Ambrose Akinmusire is the winner of both the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition and Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition.
is one of America’s vital voices in performance, arts education, and artistic curation. In 2007, Bamuthi graced the cover of Smithsonian Magazine after being named one of America’s Top Young Innovators in the Arts and Sciences. He is the artistic director of the 7-part HBO documentary “Russell Simmons presents Brave New Voices” and an inaugural recipient of the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship, which annually recognizes 50 of the country’s “greatest living artists”. After appearing on Broadway as a young actor, Joseph has developed several poetically based works for the stage that have toured across the U.S., Europe, and Africa. These include Word Becomes Flesh, Scourge, and the break/s, which co-premiered at the Humana Festival and the Walker Arts Center in 2008. Mr. Joseph’s next project, red black and green: a blues performatively documents the eco-equity movement towards green collar jobs in Black neighborhoods. A gifted and nationally acclaimed educator and essayist, he has lectured at more than 200 colleges and universities, been a popular commentator on NPR, and has carried adjunct professorships at Stanford, Mills College, and the University of Wisconsin. Bamuthi’s proudest work has been with Youth Speaks where he mentors 13-19 year old writers and curates the Living Word Festival for Left Coast Leaning. He is the co-founder of Life is Living, a national series of one day festivals designed to activate underused parks and affirm peaceful urban life through hip hop arts and focused environmental action. Lifeisliving.org
Livingwordproject.org
EVAN BISSELL (Scenic Designer / Visual Arts Installation) is a Bay Area artist and educator whose work comes primarily through collaboration. He has worked on public collaborative projects with schools, individuals and organizations throughout the Bay Area, including Youth Speaks, Leadership Preparatory Academy, Martin Luther King Jr. Academy, and Tam High School. Currently, he is working with Community Works on a public project about the impact of incarceration on families in the Bay Area. This is his first set design and he is thankful to be working with so many great people. In the last three years he has collaboratively created and publicly installed over 40 original paintings of and with living Bay Area residents. His work has been exhibited at public transit stations, on schools, in the San Francisco Botanical Garden and anywhere else there is a public space with a willing host. In addition, he has had solo exhibitions at Intersection and Marcus Books and has exhibited work at Southern Exposure and with Amnesty International. He is a two-time recipient of the Individual Artist Commission award through San Francisco’s Cultural Equity Grants program, which supported his work on this project. Evan’s most recent project, somewhere in advance of nowhere*: youth, imagination and transformation is a multi-faceted documentation of the power of art education that includes public installations, a free workshop series and a collaborative gallery installation. In 2007, he completed a series of 29 publicly installed portraits along the 22 Fillmore Bus line. The project was an investigation of love through the words and eyes of individuals who worked, rode or lived along the bus line.
RAY DIAZ (Lighting Designer) has played many roles behind the scenes over the last few years. Alumni of San Francisco State University, Ray had served as Lighting Designer, Master Electrician and Stage Manager for many main stage and student productions. Ray plays a new role behind the scenes as an Audio Visual Technician for a corporate production company. First time player at Intersection, Ray is so thankful to have worked with such an amazing, innovative and inspiring group.
BENNETT FISHER (Assistant Director, Prop Homie) is thrilled to be back at Intersection again after assistant directing The Future Project last year. As an actor, writer, director, or assistant, he has collaborated with CalShakes, Campo Santo, The Cutting Ball Theatre, Three Wise Monkeys, Threshold Theatre, The Pear Avenue Theater, AtmosTheater (where he is an associate artist), Off-Broadway West, NCTC, Playwright’s Center, No Nude Men, Stanford Summer Theatre, and is a co-founder of the SF Theater Pub at the Café Royale. Bennett received his B.A. in Theater and English from Connecticut College in 2008, and has studied at the National Theatre Institute of the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center. He has taught dramatic literature and writing courses at The Nueva School, Crystal Sprigns Uplands School, and the African Leadership Academy in South Africa. His one act play Query is currently running in the BOA Festival (www.threewisemonkeys.org) and he is directing Vaclav Havel’s Audience for the San Francisco Theater Pub, opening in April (www.caferoyale-sf.com).
MICAELA FLORES (Co- Costume Designer) A San Francisco Native, she attended Lowell High School and graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in Liberal Studies/Communications. She has had a life long interest and appreciation for the arts and fashion. Micaela has studied dance and is currently a member of Sambamora Dance group where she performs and designs costumes. Micaela recently returned from Brazil after participating in dance and costume workshops.
DAN HAMAGUCHI (graphic designer, Campo Santo) has worked with Campo Santo and Intersection since 1999, designing all the Campo Santo work in that time.
TANYA ORELLANA (stage manager, Campo Santo) is a mission theatre artist. A graduate of SF State, Tanya holds a B.A. in set design and a 2nd B.A. in Dance. Her experience has ranged in varying aspects of technical theatre. Besides being part of Campo Santo, she has spent the last year working as the Technical Coordinator for Intersection, and designing sets and lights throughout San Francisco.
JOAN OSATO (Photographer) is a self-taught photographer, who dedicates most of her professional life to supporting individual artists, the development of their projects, and producing their work for stage. After a 25-year hiatus she picked up a camera again in 2009. Since then she has been considered for prestigious photography awards such as the Prix de la Photographie, and was chosen out of field of over 280 Bay Area artists for the annual juried exhibit, Bay Area Currents 2009. She works exclusively in medium film format, preferring to work with existing light, hand held. www.artslant.com/global/artists/show/85485-joan-osato.
KATE PURNELL (asst. stage manager) is an actress, dancer and all around lover of the arts who was born in San Francisco and raised in Oakland. She has always had a passion for performance. After she the UC Santa Barbara where she earned her B.A. in Dramatic Arts and Global Studies, she returned to the Bay Area in June of 2008. Through the Arts Training Internship Program, where she has been working for the past year, Kate has facilitated workshops for youth focusing on both visual and performance art. She continues her work in this field currently as choreographer in the upcoming production of Urban Healing. Kate is very excited to have worked as a member of the collaborative team for this powerful work, Mirrors in Every Corner, at Intersection for the Arts and is looking forward to furthering her participation and experience in the world of theatre!
RICKY SAENZ (production team) is new to the Campo Santo Familia and is part of Intersetion’s professional traning program Ricky is also an actor most recently appreaing on the TV show Trauma and a workshop for Paul Flores’ new play Wounds of Izote.
His attraction to IFTA began through Campo Santo and its relentless pursuit of energy, wisdom and sacred practice.
ALIYAH DUNN-SALAHUDDIN and FATIMAH SALAHUDDIN (Co-Costume Designers) are Bay Area Natives born, who were both born in San Jose. Moving to Oakland for the first years of their lives and then to San Francisco in grade school where they first became introduced to the artistic community through theater and dance at school, non-profits, and after-school programs. Since then both remain fans, participants, and supporters of the arts. Currently both are students; Aliyah a graduate history student at San Francisco State University and Fatimah at City College of San Francisco working towards transferring to Mills college.
Created with and for Intersection for the Arts, resident theatre company, Campo Santo and the Living Word Project (Youth Speaks’ theatre company)
This production is made possible with support from: The Rockefeller MAP Fund, National Endowment for the Arts, San Francisco Arts Commission/ Organizational Project Grant and Individual Artist Commission, the San Francisco Foundation, San Francisco Grants for the Arts/Hotel Tax Fund, Theatre Bay Area New Play Fund, Intersection’s Artists Residency Program, and numerous individual contributors.
