Leslie Streit is a writer, director, choreographer, and dancer. She received an M.A. in 1981 from San Jose State University where a combined program of visual art, dance, and theater led to her current work with film and multimedia. Streit worked with Mobius Stageworks, a pioneering experimental theater company from 1982- 1985 and founded New Name Performance in 1986. She has received numerous commissions and grants to create performances at Bay Area galleries, museums, and outdoor locations. She has also produced the work of other artists for the San Jose Fringe Festivals (1992, 1993) and the Experimental Films of Cinequest (1993). In 1994, Streit collaborated with Estelle Akamine and the San Francisco Arts Commission on the Market Street in Transit Project. During that same year, she wrote, directed produced and performed in Vlad Draculea in the Year 2000 for performances around the Bay Area and in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her films Messengers, The Visitor, Sacrifice (filmed on location in England), Hospital of the Mind, Eyewitness, and Lavinia's Dream are currently aired on television by PBS and exhibited at film festivals nationally and internationally. Her first feature length film, God Wears My Underwear, a story of reincarnation, the Holocaust and a sexual identity crisis, is scheduled for completion in 2001. Streit continues her work in dance and teaches Pilates at Pilates SF - the Leslie Streit Studio.
Robin McCain is a pioneer in applied multimedia, computer graphics, and theatrical productions. Her early work as a lighting and sound designer for Theater Memphis, led her to a B.A. degree in technical theater from Rhodes College in 1972. Her 1992 position as a multimedia integrator for Intel Corporation included providing technical support to executive staff throughout the USA and Europe. McCain co-incorporated the companyin 1989 at which time she came on as Technical Director and converted an industrial spece into the alternative Nouveau Theater. She is a member of USITT. McCain's skills with multimedia and her knowledge of marketing and technical production assisted her in developing an interface between Nouveau Performance and Microsoft Corp. 3M, Intel Corp., & Netscape Communications Corp. She has been involved in many consultancies throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, most recently at Project 180 and InnVision. McCain has co-produced over a dozen projects with Leslie Streit including The Ghost of Chloride Canyon (1993), Vlad Draculea in the Year 2000 (1994), Sacrifice (1995, filmed in England), Hospital of the Mind (1997), Eyewitness (1998), Lavinia's Dream (1999), and the feature film God Wears My Underwear (2001).
Jan Bernstein earned a B.S. from Cornell University in 1986 (Major Subject --Agricultural Economics...don't ask.) She continued her studies of art at the Arts Students' League in New York City and later in the Bay Area with Al Preciado, Phil Tiger, and others. From 1990-93, Bernstein curated exhibitions for Works, San Jose, West Valley College Art Gallery, San Jose Art League and the Citadel Gallery. She collaborated with New Name Performance on several publicly funded projects creating installations and performance environments for film and theater. Bernstein, along with conceptual artists Phil Tiger and Bob Maginetti, produced The 1991 Couches of San Jose Calendar which is still in publication. In 1993, she created JanskArt, an independent freelance graphics company and continues as owner and developer. JanskArt's specialty involves computer generated graphics and art both for private clients and exhibition purposes. Bernstein is will known for developing projects that combine artists and media such as Bay Area Animation (1991), Club Martini Performance Series (1991-92), Living with Art (1993), and the Bernstein-Chargin Wedding Reception (1994).
Born in Beirut, April 1, 1964, Tony Khalife attended the National Conservatory of Music and participated in the Berklee College of Music correspondence studies. In 1981 he joined The Marvels, an original rock group that became one of the pioneers of western music in Lebanon. In 1982, The National Conservatory named him Best Lebanese Guitarist. Tony spent his boyhood surviving the civil war, literally forging his unique sound during the lulls between Beirut street battles. He moved to California at the age of nineteen and finished his formal guitar education in 1986, graduating with honors from the Guitar Institute of Technology in Hollywood. He also studied yoga, mythology, and traditional Indian singing under the tutelage of Satguru Sant Keshavadas, and Tabla (Indian drumming) under Ustad Zakir Hussain. Tony taught at the Showcase Music Institute in San Jose and the Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View. He now teaches privately at his home studio in Palo Alto. He has been featured in Guitar Player Magazine's Spotlight, BAM magazine, Palo Alto Weekly, The Bay Guardian, Metro and numerous other local publications. In January 1999 he toured Egypt under the USIS cultural exchange program with Country of Origin. Recordings and Releases For the past fourteen years, Tony has worked primarily on integrating his Lebanese-Andalusian heritage and love of Indian music in a western context. His latest independent release, Fish Out Of Sea, marks a timeless dance of cultures. He recorded Pandhari, The City of Bliss in 1990, an instrumental jazz recording. Vitthala in 1992, an instrumental rock fusion. Solo Me in 1993, an Andalusian-flamenco project. This I Have Seen in 1994, melodic Eastern-Rock. Tony has composed original music for two movie soundtracks for New Name Performance, an independent production company, in San Francisco: Hospital of the Mind in 1997 and God Wears My Underwear in 1998 (CD released in 2000). In 1999, he composed original music for the short stories series/theater play of writer Elmaz Abi Nader entitled Country of Origin.
Jean-Ann Marshall-Clark received a master's degree from Ohio State University in 1985, and has taught at the College of Wooster and Otterbein College in Ohio. As a performer she has worked with DanceVisions, Rich Burrows / Works! & Co., the Chicago Moving Company, and the Moving Arts Company of Ohio. While at Ohio State University, Marshall-Clark studied with and choreographically worked one-on-one with Rich Burrows and Bebe Miller. A student of Bill Evans for several years, Marshall-Clark was also accepted into and attended his Professional Choreographers Summer Workshop. In addition to short residencies or workshops with Pilobolus, Cliff Keuter, and James Waring, Marshall-Clark was also a student for three years at the School of the Cleveland Ballet, and attended Hanya Holm's Summer Dance Institute.
Paul Vallerga received a B.A. in Theater Design from Santa Clara University in 1983. He is currently the resident designer of the California Theater Center in Sunnyvale. Vallerga's designs have been used at City Lights Theater in San Jose, Theaterworks in Palo Alto, and the Peninsula Center Stage. His set design for Purple Breasts toured to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. Additional set designs have toured to Lima, Peru and Nairobi, Kenya.
Sylvie Vray-Ent is an international lighting designer originally from the Fontainebleau area of France, now residing in Santa Cruz, CA. She has created designs for Actor's Theatre in Santa Cruz, Cabrillo College Theatre, Interkunst (a touring company) in Berlin, and New Name Performance in Northern California. Vray-Ent has also worked as the Master Electrician for world famous groups such as Tandy Beal & Company. She enjoys designing for contemporary theaters which produce meaningful and innovative work. This is Vray-Ent's second collaboration with NNP.
John Kannofsky has been producing artwork in several media since 1986. His most recent work has been the creation of mixed media environments and computer generated art. Kannofsky lives in Los Angeles where he has been involved in a number of collaborative projects, installations, interactive media, video pieces, and live performances. He recently completed an MFA thesis at UCSD on collaborations and the art underground. Kannofsky has acted in works by Shakespeare, Ibsen, and new original plays in the Los Angeles area. His performance as "Vlad" was videotaped and projected onto screens and monitors installed on the set. John has created two films for this production.
Bill Ireton is a composer and musician from San Jose. He has developed a unique progressive jazz fusion style which has been showcased in his own performance group, "Inertia". Ireton's talents include an interest in the technical aspects of music such as multi-track recording, programming, and video production. Ireton has performed with the "Redevelopment Blues Project". Ireton received a B.A. in jazz performance/theory from San Jose State University in 1989 and has been collaborating with NNP since 1991.
Estelle Akamine and Nouveau Performance have been collaborating since 1986. Akamine's trademark, wearable art fashions, are constructed of industrial and recycled materials. She has exhibited widely in the Bay Area and beyond. Her 1993 collection was created for an artists- in- residence project at Sanitary Fill Company, a Norcal Waste Systems, Inc. subsidiary in San Francisco. Akamine created alien costumes for NNP's 1993 production of The Ghost of Chloride Canyon. and in 1994, Akamine completed a grant from the San Francisco Art Commission for the Market Street in Transit Project.
Shannon Gomes is a multi-image designer from San Jose specializing in computer animation. His new company, Fourth Dimension Animation designs and produces instructional videos based on physical science themes. Gomes received a B.A. in Business Economics from U.C. Santa Barbara in 1991 and is currently pursuing a second degree in Electrical Engineering from San Jose State University. Vlad Draculea marks Gomes's first collaboration with NP and amply showcases his wide range of technical and artistic talents.
John Reilly is a filmmaker currently hovering about San Jose. He received a B.A. from U.C. Santa Barbara in printmaking and painting with an emphasis in animation in 1983 and an M.F.A. in printmaking and filmmaking from San Francisco State University in 1993. Reilly has exhibited a number of multimedia installations at galleries throughout the Bay Area which integrated visual art and film techniques. His collaboration with a group of artists known as Larval Modalities has centered on bringing life to machines through film and other media. Vlad Draculea is Reilly's second collaboration with NNP.
Adam Streit is an emerging filmmaker specializing in editing. Currently working in Los Angeles editing television series such as Hour of Stars for Fox, Unsolved Mysteries for Cosgrove-Meurer and Arrest & Trial for StudiosUSA , he began studying theater at age 10 and has performed with Northside Theater Company, Hoover Studio Theater, Lincoln Drama Tour Group, Mobius Stageworks, and NP. Streit attended film school at De Anza College with Zaki Lisha and others and graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in film. Received certificate from Avid Workshop, Portland, OR in 1999. He was also a computer science intern at NASA/Ames in 1996.
THOMAS CHARGIN, still photographer
Thomas Chargin studied photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology and with Ansel Adams and Minor White. He has been a professional photographer for over 20 years and has received numnerous awards. Chargin' s clients include: A.C.T., American Musical Theater, San Jose Repertory Theater, New Name Performance, and Classic Stage Company in New York City. He has also received commissions with corporate clients such as Apple Computer, International Paper, J. Lohr Wineries, and Amdahl. Chargin has been involved with a number of coneptual and multimedia projects in collaboration with other artists. He is currently creating a series of photos documenting the experience of the homeless in San Jose, CA., and a film series documenting the varied antics and opinions of artist Phil Tiger.
JOHN LYNN SANFORD, technical consultant
John Lynn Sanford received a B.A. in theatre, film, and television in 1972 and an M.S. in mathematics and computer science in 1993, both from University of Memphis. Further graduate studies include specialization in Artificial Intelligence at Vanderbilt University. He is a licensed architect and has worked all across the United States designing sound & television studios including the Grand Old Opery. He has served as director of engineering and consultant for numerous television stations including WNNE TV (White River Junction, VT), WCVB TV (Boston, MA), KVAL TV (Eugene, OR), and RKO General (Los Angeles, CA). He has also worked for NBC at several Olympic events.
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