FOUNDERS
Chance D. Muehleck is a creator of play texts, theatre assemblies, and concepts for performance. His work has been developed or produced at Theatre Artists of Marin in California, and at Circle Repertory Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and The Present Company in New York. Primary Stages commissioned him to write a short play on the American experience, which was then presented Off-Broadway. He is the recipient of the John Golden Award for Excellence in Playwriting and was a finalist for the Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Heideman Award. His multimedia performance installation The Attendants was developed while in residence at chashama. He is Co-founder of The Nerve Tank, an independent theatre based in New York that produces collaborative art for the twenty-first century. His physical theatre piece In the Heart of a Chinese Curse was workshopped at Dixon Place. Chance has taught playwriting at Hampshire College and Point Park University, has written reviews for The New York Theatre Experience, and served as an adjudicator for the New York International Fringe Festival. As a dramaturg he assisted Tammy Ryan with her play Baby’s Blues at the Pittsburgh Playhouse. Two of his monologues appear in the Audition Arsenal series published by Smith & Kraus. In 2008 United Stages published his short play Tagging April in the collection En Avant Playwrights. His memberships include The Dramatists Guild, Inc. and Circle East.
Melanie S. Armer is the Co-founder of The Nerve Tank, where she developed and directed Chance D. Muehleck’s In The Heart of a Chinese Curse at Dixon Place as a part of their “Under Construction” series in 2008. She also developed and directed Mr. Muehleck’s The Attendants at chashama in the fall of 2007. Past collaborations with Muehleck include directing the 10-minute version of A Gathering, created for Open Stage's Play-In-A-Day and remounted by Dog&Pony in Pittsburgh, and Tagging April for FLUX and in Valdez, Alaska. She is the Co-founder and Artistic Director of LIVE Theater Company, where she has produced and directed the world premieres of Muehleck's The Honeypot Redux and Jane Shepard's Eating the Dead. Work with other NYC theatre companies includes The Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Women's Project & Productions, New Georges, Theater for the New City, the 2002, 2005 & 2007 NYC Fringe Festivals, and over 25 plays for Circle East. In Pittsburgh her work includes As Bees In Honey Drown and Sympathetic Magic at The Open Stage Theatre (where she also served as Managing Director), and The Cay at Prime Stage. Ms. Armer assisted Leonard Foglia on the Broadway revival of Wait Until Dark and director Michael Warren Powell on Lanford Wilson's A Sense of Place. Ms. Armer is a member of SSDC, a proud alumnus of The Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and has taught at Marymount Manhattan College and Point Park University in Pittsburgh. Her current focus is on developing non-traditional theater in collaborative environments.
MEMBERS
Solomon Weisbard (Resident Lighting and Scenic Designer) Originally from Oregon, Solomon now lives in Manhattan where he rides his bicycle as much as possible. For The Nerve Tank, Solomon had the pleasure of designing The Attendants as well as both incarnations of In the Heart of a Chinese Curse. Other New York collaborations with Alethea Adsitt Co., Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance, Brooklyn Mecca, Cardium Mechanicum, danscores by Ofelia Loret de Mola, Ryan J. Davis, Ditch, Evolve, Fresh Ice, House Dance International, Lincoln Center Director’s Lab, Frank London, Small Pond, T. Lang, UTC #61, and White Wave Dance. Regionally: The Herson Group, Kitchen Theatre Company, Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Tri-Cities Opera. He holds a BFA in Theatrical Design from Ithaca College. www.solweisbard.com
ASSOCIATED ARTISTS: Devon Berkshire; Jennifer Boehm; Chanda Calentine; Reyna de Courcy; Jesmille Darbouze; V. Orion Delwaterman; Craig Dolezel; Shawn X. Duan; David Fraioli; Justin Hosek; Anna Konkle; Emily Lippolis; Sandie Luna; Donnie Mather; Ryan Metzler; Candida K. Nichols; Sophie Nimmannit; Nichol C. Rosas-Ullman; Andy Sapora; Bruce Steinberg; Julie Troost; Victor Villar-Hauser
Jason Howard (Performer) has been acting in the NYC area for the past 15 years. He has performed with the Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Theater for the New City, LaMama, ManhattanTheatreSource (founding member), the Ontological, EST, Circle Rep, the Ohio, HERE, Judith Shakespeare, and the Adobe Theate, et al. He has toured internationally doing puppetry with Drama of Works. His short film “The Launch” will be premiering at film festivals later this year. TV/Film credits: “3rd Watch,” “Solar Vengeance,” “Soldier in the Shadows,” “Baseball Trilogy,” “Pandora Machine.” www.jasonhoward.org
Karen Grenke (Performer) The Attendants, LIVE/FEED. New York theatre includes performances at The Public, Women's Project, the Ontological Theater, The Chocolate Factory, HERE, chashama, Theater for the New City, GAle GAtes et al., BAX and Aisling Arts. She currently appears in Polly Frost's The Fold webseries. Film: Matt Lambert's “Rockville.” Regional: Hangar Theater. She co-wrote the 80's teen dramady Wuthering High. Karen graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and trains with The SITI Company. She is a founder of Cagey Productions: www.cageyproductions.com
Stacia French (Performer) Favorite NY theatre roles include: Mishima’s Hanjo, Witkiewicz’s The Pragmatists & The Water Hen, Ionesco’s Rhinoceros, Euripides’ The Trojan Women, Brecht’s Baal, Ian Hill’s Hamlet, Elmer Rice’s Adding Machine and Vaclav Havel’s The Increased Difficulty of Concentration. Original works she is especially proud of include LIVE/FEED (Dixon Place/Brooklyn Lyceum), Shiva/Proper (NY Fringe), ROACH (Philly Fringe), World Gone Wrong (The Brick’s Sellout Festival), Macbeth Without Words (The Brick’s Pretentious Festival), and Yehuda Duenya’s One Million Forgotten Moments. Film & TV include: “Guiding Light,” “Can You Tell,” “Frequency,” and “The Darkening.” She is a founding member of ONTIK and has studied with Anne Bogart.
Kevin Lapin (Performer) has enjoyed making things up for almost as long as he can remember. Over the years, he has helped produce and perform in many new works, some of which were created in his very own living room. After attending the Lecoq school in Paris, he co-created the absurdly fun Mad Maths (over 350 performances and counting!). Recent projects include Fapets, a multi-digital, hand-puppet performance experience, and Floating Brothel. Kevin has traveled extensively, teaching theater workshops in Europe, Africa and Asia. He currently hangs his hats in Brooklyn and is thrilled to be getting stuck in there as a member of The Nerve Tank. www.kevinlapin.com
Brian Barefoot (Performer) has had the great fortune of being seen on stages all over The United States, in Canada and Europe. Favorite experiences include the national tour of Hal Prince's Kiss of the Spider Woman: The Musical, Oedipus the King with the Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Henry IV with Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theater, the internationally acclaimed Dog Face with Quantum Theater, and the critically lauded Durang vs. Ives with Confluence Theater, for whom he served as a Co-Director for 8 years. Brian has also spent much of his time serving as coach, teacher, director, musical director and Co-Artistic Director of two successful not-for-profit theater companies in NYC and Pittsburgh. He holds degrees in theater and music from Point Park University.
Irene Hsi (Performer) studied dance at the University of California in San Diego, where she also earned a BA in Political Science and History. She has danced with Allyson Green Dance for La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest (Elegy: Snow in June), in San Diego Dance Theater's Trolley Dances (Concourse Dance, John Diaz), and for Sushi Performance and Visual Art’s New Wave Showcase (oculus sensate, Moriah Evans). Her movement influences include ballet, modern and post-modern dance, contact improvisation, yoga, Butoh, and West African Dance. Upon moving to New York she fell in with The Nerve Tank and, so far, is still falling.
Stephan Moore (Resident Sound Designer) is a composer, audio artist, and sound designer in New York City. His creative work centers around the collection and use of real-world sound, the creation and perception of sonic environments, and technological manifestations of improvisation and interactivity. Recent performances and installation artworks make use of a large multi-channel array of his Hemisphere speakers. He performs regularly with Scott Smallwood in the electronic duo Evidence, and with a variety of musicians, live-video artists, and dancers. He has created custom music software for a number of composers and artists, and has taught courses in sound art and electronic music at several institutions. He is currently the Sound Engineer and Music Coordinator of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. www.oddnoise.com
Jennifer Caster (Resident Stage Manager) is delighted to be a member of The Nerve Tank and a collaborator on the development and production of A Gathering. Recent stage management credits include Waxing West with East Coast Artists/LaMaMa and Plasticine with Studio 6 Theater Company. Jennifer is a company manager and member of Conni’s Avant-Garde Restaurant, and has worked on productions with TBG Theater, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and extensively with Bard College’s Fisher Center for Performance Arts. Jennifer received her BA in Art History from Bard College and resides in Manhattan.
Robin Kurtz (Performer) Robin has worked with such companies as Theater Simple, Book-It Repertory, and Theater Schmeater’s production of John Lennon’s Gargoyle, directed by Jerry Manning. Additionally, she's collaborated with choreographer/dancer Alethea Adsitt on her dance/theater works Jalopy, Empty Room, and many others. Robin has toured Russia with New York’s Irondale Ensemble Project and throughout Europe with Insight America’s True West. Film credits include Mayor Diane Reamed in the indie feature A Nuclear Autumn and Ronnie in Clonehunter. She's worked in education programs in the New York City public schools teaching HIV/AIDS education and improvisation. With The Nerve Tank: bauhaus the bauhaus, LIVE/FEED. Ms. Kurtz received her BFA in Acting with honors from Carnegie Mellon University.
Mark Lindberg (Performer) is a multidisciplinary theater artist living in Astoria, NY. Acting/dance credits: And They Built A Crooked House (Becky Radway Dance Projects), Oph3lia (Aya Ogawa/HERE Arts Center), productions with Tomi Tsunoda and breedingground productions including Brass Ring and A Mouthful of Birds. Credits as playwright: Kitchen Scenes with Nightmares (EndTimes Productions, Serling Award winner-Best Script, Drama), Self-Portrait as Schiele (NY Fringe). Mark works and plays in a multidisciplinary improv form known as Soundpainting and is a founding member of the Brooklyn Soundpainting Company. Mark teaches for the Playwrights Horizons Theater School at NYU and directs and teaches for the Powerhouse summer training program at Vassar College. BFA with Honors from NYU/PHTS.
James "Face" Yu (Performer) began moonlighting as a theater performer while attending the University of Texas at Austin with Silk Mangos Asian American Theater Troupe. After graduating with a BS in chemical engineering and working several years under his degree, he felt the strong desire to pursue theater and music. He relocated to New York where he has trained under SITI Company as well as Human Theater with Zen Zen Zo in Vancouver. He has performed in several NY theater pieces: bauhaus the bauhaus and LIVE/FEED with the Nerve Tank, After the Rehearsal at The Tank, and The Screens at The Riverside Theatre. By some crazy twist of fate, he has found himself working with The Nerve Tank and has been loving every moment of it.