Peter Nickowitz - playwright

Peter Nickowitz is a playwright, screenwriter and poet.  The Alice Complex premiered at the 2005 Dixon Place HOT! Festival in New York City and was produced at the Blank Theatre in Los Angeles in January 2006 along with his new play, Backgammon at the Louvre.  This production starred Tony Award-winner Harriet Harris and Kate Mara.  Peter’s poems have appeared in a number of literary magazines including The Paris Review, Barrow Street, Third Coast, and Slope.  He has been a finalist for the National Poetry Series, Barrow Street Book Award, and Levis prizes and a participant in the Bread Loaf Writers Conference.  He is the author of Rhetoric and Sexuality: The Poetry of Hart Crane, Elizabeth Bishop, and James Merrill (Palgrave Macmillan 2006). Lulu, the screenplay Peter co-wrote with Bill Oliver based on the life of silent film star Louise Brooks, was selected for the FIND/LA Screenwriters Lab and optioned by Neve Campbell’s First Snow Productions.  Peter and Bill’s latest screenplay, The Obit Writer, is a contemporary noir thriller that has been optioned by producer Susan A. Stover and HeadQuarters.  Peter is a graduate of Brandeis University and New York University.  He currently teaches at the University of Southern California.

Bill Oliver - director

Bill Oliver is a theater and film director.  He graduated from Princeton University, studied film and performance at the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York City and was a Directing Fellow at the American Film Institute.  His short films have played in festivals worldwide and won several awards.  His most recent film, Guilt, based on a short story that appeared on This American Life, is the first-prize winner of the Christopher Wetzel Award from the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago.  In addition to directing The Alice Complex and other new plays in New York, he is currently developing his first feature film, The Obit Writer, with producer Susan A. Stover. 

SHIRAZ BIGGIE (Producer) - has done a little bit of everything in the theatre world. Producing credits have included The American Clock (dir. Austin Pendleton) and the 9th Annual Short Play Festival The White House Plays both at the HB Playwrights Foundation, where she was the full time production/stage manager for several years. General Management credits include Suddenly Summer! (dir. Cailin Heffernen) part of NYMF 2007. Shiraz is a member of the production department of the New Victory Theatre and has done production and stage management as well as scenic design throughout New York and Washington DC.

Tania Bijlani (set designer) - Recent design credits include sets for Rabbit Hole, NYU Graduate Acting, directed by Cigdem Onat, Ballad of Sad Young Men, DUTF, directed by Andrew Russel, production design for A Refugee, directed by Sania Jhankar and the upcoming feature film Watching TV with the Red Chinese, directed by Shimon Dotan. MFA: NYU

TILLY GRIMES (Costume Design) - Tilly’s work in London , Dublin and Paris includes ‘Caligula’, directed by Connor Hanratty in ass. with Rough Magic’s Seeds at The Project, Dublin [Best Costume Design 2007 Irish Times Theatre Award];’Vinegar Tom’, directed by Tom Creed at the Beckett Theatre, Dublin; ‘Dressing the Television’ Jessica Cunningham, Draiocht Theatre, London. ‘Angela’s Place’, Sarah Ashert-Hart, The Studio Space, London and the Paris Chocolate Fashion Show 2006. Tilly is also co-artistic director of the London/Parisean theatre company ‘Savage’ (whose work includes ‘Tubed’, which Tilly co-wrote), Columbia Productions, L’ouest, Paris. Forthcoming projects inlcude Williams’‘Summer and Smoke’ [Theatre Row, Aug 08] Langfors Wilsons’ ‘Hot L Baltimore’ [Schubert Theatre Septmeber 08]. Tilly is currently studying for her M.F.A in Design for Stage and Screen at Tisch.

JOYCE LIAO (Lighting Design) - Based in New York City, Joyce Liao has designed operas, musicals, dance and plays here in New York and across the country. Her lighting design Caucasian Chalk Circle has won the USITT Peggy Ezekiel Award for Outstanding Achievement Lighting Design and has been included in the World Stage Design 2005 Exhibit in Toronto. Joyce’s recent projects include: The Stronger at ArcLight Theatre, directed by Stephen Wadsworth and Handball at Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. Joyce holds an M.F.A. in Theatrical Lighting Design from Ohio University. Contact: joyce_liao@hotmail.com

DINA ALEXANDER (Sound Design) - Dina is a native-NY sound designer, composer, orchestrator, and musical director. She has sound designed and scored projects that featured such notables as: David Bowie, Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Kathleen Turner, Candice Bergen, Sam Waterston, and Samuel L. Jackson. Dina sound designed, scored, and conducted the Off-Off Broadway production, Child of the Universe, which sparked the award-winning Dare to Dream Inner-City Project. She recently sound designed two plays for CAP21, Evidence of Things Unseen and Safe Home. Dina has musical directed various productions, including Hello Dolly, Carousel, Camelot, South Pacific, Sweet Charity, and Funny Girl. Her studio is on the Upper West Side, where she is currently composing the score for a new musical fantasy.

LINDSAY STARES (Stage Manager) - Recent Productions Include: WONDER:lust (Theater LILA), Des Moines (Evenstar Films); Oh, The Humanity and other exclamations, I.E., In Other Words, and Back of the Throat with The Flea Theater. Lindsay has also worked with Playwrights Horizons, The Shakespeare Theatre
Company, The Studio Theatre, and Berkshire Theatre Festival. She is a graduate of Hampshire College.