Directors, Ping Chong & Ryan Conarro
Creators, Ping Chong, Ryan Conarro, Justin Perkins, Gary Upay鈥檃q Beaver
Puppet & Object Designer, Justin Perkins
Video & Projection Designer, Katherine Freer
Lighting Designer, Marika Kent
Sound Designer, Lucy Peckham
Costume Designer, Stefani Mar
Screen Designer, Seth Kirby
Yuraq Song, Music & Dance, Gary Upay鈥檃q Beaver & Wassilie Berlin, Sr. (驰耻辫鈥檌办)
Mask Design, Phillip Charette (Yup鈥檌k and French Canadian), Alaska Native Heritage Center
Qaspeq Costume Collaborator, Loni Hoover (驰耻辫鈥檌办)
Executive Director, Bruce Allardice
Ping Chong (co-director and co-creator) is an internationally acclaimed theatre artist and pioneer
in the use of media in the theater. Since 1972, he has created over 100 works for
the stage, ranging from large-scale multimedia works to intimate community-based oral
history projects. In 1975, he formed Ping Chong + Company (originally the Fiji Theater
Company) with a mission to create works of theater and art that explore the intersections
of race, culture, history, art, media and technology in the modern world. In 1992,
he created the first work in the Undesirable Elements series of community-based oral history projects of which there have now been over
50 productions. His puppet theater work CATHAY: Three Tales of China was commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for its Festival
of China in 2005 and was presented at the Seattle Repertory Theatre, New Victory Theatre,
the Vienna Festival and the World Puppetry Festival in Chengdu, PRC. His adaptation
of Kurosawa鈥檚 THRONE OF BLOOD, was presented at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Brooklyn Academy of Music鈥檚
Next Wave Festival in 2010. Theatre Communications Group has published two volumes
of his plays, The East - West Quartet and Undesirable Elements: Real People. Real Lives. Real Theatre. Other published works include Kind Ness, which received the 1998 USA Playwrights Award, Nuit Blanche, Snow, Undesirable Elements/New York, Gaijin, Truth & Beauty, Undesirable
Elements/Asian America, and Cocktail. Ping has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, a USA Artist Fellowship, two BESSIE
awards, two OBIE awards and 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. He is the recipient
of the 2014 National Medal of Arts, the highest honor specifically given for achievement
in the arts to an individual artist in the United States.
Ryan Conarro (co-director, co-creator, and performer) is a theater maker, arts educator, and a
facilitator of community engagement. At Ping Chong + Company (PCC), he is Artistic
Collaborator in Residence and Education & Community Projects Associate. Conarro moved
from New York to Alaska in 2001 as a journalist for Nome鈥檚 KNOM Radio, and became
a long-time collaborator with Alaska State Council on the Arts, the Alaska Arts Education
Consortium, the Department of Education State System of Support, the Kennedy Center
Partners In Education Program, KTOO Media, as well as Maine鈥檚 Deer Isle-Stonington
Schools. He鈥檚 a company member with Alaska鈥檚 Perseverance Theatre and is a Resident
Artist with international ensemble Theater Mitu. Ryan was a lead teaching artist for
Lower Kuskokwim School District鈥檚 7-year arts integration program, Project Pilinguat,
where he worked with Gary Upay鈥檃q Beaver as collaborator. Conarro received TCG鈥檚 Leadership
One-on-One Fellowship in 2014 which brought him to PCC. With Ping Chong and Sara Zatz,
he co-wrote PCC鈥檚 interview-based work 鈥Beyond Sacred: Voices of Muslim Identity.鈥 In 2018, PCC in partnership with the Juneau Arts & Humanities Council will create
a new interview-based work featuring local participants telling their stories of contemporary
and historical indigenous life in downtown Juneau. Ryan鈥檚 work has been seen at the
Kennedy Center; Dixon Place; the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian;
Oregon Contemporary Theatre; Stonington Opera House; Gainesville Theatre Alliance;
and several Alaskan venues. Recognitions include the Rasmuson Foundation Individual
Artist Award, Connie Boocheever Fellowship, Ann Shaw Fellowship for Arts Education,
and three Alaska Broadcasters Association Goldie Awards. www.ryanconarro.com
Justin Perkins (co-creator, puppet designer, and performer) is a puppet artist and performer who
has appeared in works by David Neumann, Tom Lee (Shank鈥檚 Mare, LaMama, Ringling International Arts Festival), Lake Simons, Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew,
Patti Bradshaw, Puppet Cinema, Unitards, imnotlost, as well as multiple works at Swedish
Cottage Marionette Theater, Cosmic Bicycle, PuppetBloc at Dixon Place, Sinking Ship
Productions鈥 Puppet Playlist and more. As a puppet designer and maker, he has built
for BAM (The Hard Nut promotional videos), Basil Twist (Sisters鈥 Follies, ongoing studio work), regular performances for Friends鈥 Seminary鈥檚 theater program,
TheaterWorksUSA, New York Musical Theater Festival, New York Children鈥檚 Theater Festival,
Swedish Cottage, Unitards. He created and directed a puppet and live video adaptation
of Gulliver鈥檚 Travels during St. Ann鈥檚 Warehouse鈥檚 Puppet Lab 2014. Justin studied theater at Vassar and
Sarah Lawrence Colleges, and is a teacher of puppetry, theater and filmmaking in schools
and community centers around New York.
Gary Upay鈥檃q Beaver (驰耻辫鈥檌办) (co-creator, musician and choreographer, and performer) was born in Bethel,
Alaska and raised in his family鈥檚 village of Kasigluk. He began learning yuraq (Yup鈥檌k drum and dance) as a child at Kasigluk鈥檚 Akiuk Memorial School. He credits
four elders as his primary teachers: Kalila Slim, Wassilie Berlin, Wassilie Nicholas,
and Alexie Nicholas. Gary is leader of the Kasigluk dance group and has taught yuraq at schools throughout southwest Alaska, including Akula Elitnaurviat, Akiuk Memorial
School, Yupiit School District, and for the village of Akiak. He was lead drummer,
singer, and dancer for the multidisciplinary event 鈥淭his Is Who We Are鈥 in 2011 at Bethel Cultural Center, a performance of traditional Yup鈥檌k stories as
songs, dances, theatrical pieces, and digital stories, a year-long project directed
by Ryan Conarro. He has performed traditional and contemporary work in Bethel at the
annual Cama鈥檌 Festival and Mink Festival; in Anchorage at the Alaska Federation of
Natives convention; on Quyana Alaska television; and in villages throughout the Yukon-Kuskokwim
region.
Lucy Peckham (sound design) lives in Anchorage, Alaska, and is a composer/arranger, live engineer,
and field recordist, as well as sound designer. Her work is characterized by her musicality,
and her delight in recording and utilizing unique sounds in her designs. Some of her
favorites have been collected at museums such as the Spark Museum of Electric Invention,
the Antique Vibrator Museum, and the Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum. Lucy has
recorded environmental and human-made sounds on three continents, but Alaska remains
her chosen aural home. As an engineer, she recently live-mixed the first opera ever
produced in Nepal (Arjuna鈥檚 Dilemma) for One World Theatre, Kathmandu. Regional theatres
include Perseverance Theatre, Intiman, and the Old Globe Theatre. Documentary work
includes Alaska鈥檚 Marine Highway. Lucy is a recipient of an L.A. Critics Circle Dramalogue
Award.
Katherine Freer (video installation and projections) is a multimedia designer working in theater,
film, and installation. Her work is driven by the love of storytelling and the desire
to turn her wildest imaginings into reality. Her background in film and computer science
combine to generate work that is not only aesthetically beautiful, but pushes the
boundaries of conventional theatrical video. Frequent collaborators include Tim Bond,
Liz Lerman, Ping Chong, Kamilah Forbes, Stein | Holum Projects, Kamillah Forbes, Andrew
Scoville, and Tamilla Woodard. Katherine is a Helen Hayes nominee and an Innovative
Theater Award nominee. In addition to designing video for the stage, her installation
work has been presented nationally and internationally. Venues include the National
Building Museum, the Hammond Museum, 3LD Art & Technology Center, Front Room Gallery,
and the World Wide Words Festival (Denmark). Her early video work includes Beatbox
Flute Inspector Gadget Remix, a simple yet popular video with over 28 million views
on YouTube and People鈥檚 Choice Award nomination. Kate has taught master classes at
Harvard University, Syracuse University, New York University, University of Iowa,
and Albany High School. She is a member of United Scenic Artists Local USA 829 and
a founding member of Imaginary Media.
Marika Kent (lighting) is a New York City based Lighting Designer of new and classic plays, musical
theater, dance, experimental theater, puppetry and site-specific performance. Her
work has appeared in venues including HERE Arts Center, The Barrow Group, New York
Live Arts, The New Ohio Theater, Abrons Arts Center, The National Black Theater, New
Jersey Performing Arts Center, LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, The Brick, Theater
for the New City and Harlem School of the Arts. As an Assistant Lighting Designer,
she has worked in venues including The Pershing Square Signature Center, New York
Theater Workshop, Dallas Theater Center (TX), CenterStage (MD), The Public Theater,
The Cutler-Majestic Theater (MA), Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theater Club, The
Acorn Theater at Theater Row and Lincoln Center Theater. BFA: New York University,
Tisch School of the Arts.
Stefani Mar (costumes) is an artist, textile designer & costume designer based in New York City.
She has had the pleasure of designing costumes for Ping Chong for a variety of different
projects since the 90s, including the re-mounting of Angels of Swedenborg (La Mama);
Throne of Blood (Oregon Shakespeare Festival, BAM); Cathay (Seattle Repertory Theatre; New Victory Theatre, Kennedy Center); Reason (Market Theatre); Edda (Lincoln Center);
Pojagi (La Mama and DMZ 2000, Korea); Curlew River (Spoleto Festival); After Sorrow (La Mama). She has also designed for dance companies including Urban
Bush Women, Alvin Ailey & Muna Tseng & Co. She was nominated for the Henry Hewes Design
Award for Cathay. She is currently Senior Textile Designer for Eileen Fisher, Inc.