Production
Megan Weaver is a theater director specializing in devised work and new play development. She hails from Portland, Oregon, where she earned her BA in Acting and Directing from George Fox University. She is an alum of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Theater Institute, and has trained with The Wooster Group, SITI Company, Sojourn Theatre and Balerung Dance. She is a recipient of the Northern Trust/Virginia Piper Enrichment Award, and her works have been recognized by the AriZoni Awards, New York Innovative Theater Awards and the Connecticut Council on Culture and Tourism. Her original play Cause of Failure was recognized by NYTheater.Com as one of the Best of the New York International Fringe Festival 2012, and is published by Indie Theater Now. She will complete her MFA in Directing from Arizona State University, where she holds a Herbert Smith Graduate Fellowship, in May 2014. She is a founding member and Executive Artistic Director of FullStop Collective, a New York theater collaborative currently in its seventh season.
Adam L Vachon was born and raised in Maine, and earned his BA in Theatre Performance, Creation and Technology in 2009 from Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. During this time Adam trained in many performance disciplines including Skinner Releasing Technique, Open Source Forms, Fitzmaurice Voice training, aerial dance, contact and movement improvisation. After graduation Adam moved back to Maine to complete an Electrics and Sound internship at Portland Stage, where he began designing lights for small studio shows. During the summer of 2011 Adam moved across the country to Arizona to pursue his MFA in Performance Design at Arizona State University in the Cohort Program for devised ensemble theatre. Recently Adam has designed lights for the World Premiere of Soot & Spit by Charles Mee, POVV and Fall of the House of Escher, two original works by the MFA Cohort company Punctum, Sparrow Song, Memory Room, and Asylum. Currenttly Adam is working on his applied project WonderDome.
ana stacia hails from Montreal where she studied Design for the Theatre at Concordia University. In her third year of Performance Design at Arizona State, her fibre art focus overlaps into the realms of costumes and set. Recent work includes designs for Rising Youth Theatre's Finding Family, First Stories & Adobe, co-designs for costumes on Emerge (ASU cross-disciplinary event, 2012 & 2013), textile design for Memory Room (Influx, 2013), costume/MUH design for Sparrow Song (2013), costume design for The Fall of the House of Escher (ASU Mainstage, 2013) and costume design for Asylum (2013).
Elizabeth resides in Phoenix, AZ after receiving her Masters in Music Composition from Arizona State University (2010). At ASU, she studied with Rodney Rogers, Roshanne Etezady and Glenn Hackbarth. Elizabeth attended Baylor University where she received her Bachelors in Music Composition (2008) and studied with Scott McAllister. She has also studied with Christopher Theofanidis, Gabriela Lena Frank and Forrest Pierce.
Elizabeth’s works have been heard around the greater Phoenix area, coast to coast in the U.S. and in Italy. She has attended and/or her music has been performed at the 2010 Cortona Sessions for New Music, 2010 and 2011 highSCORE Festivals, 2009 Oregon Bach Festival Composer’s Symposium, 2010 New Dischord Festival, 2011 Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival, and the 2012 and 2013 soundSCAPE Festivals. Several of her works have been heard on WHUS 97.1 FM’s show Pushing the Envelope. Elizabeth is the winner of the AZ Centennial Composer Competition and the 2009 winner of the Cambridge Chamber Singers’ Annual Choral Composition Competition. ohmyears.com.
Elizabeth’s works have been heard around the greater Phoenix area, coast to coast in the U.S. and in Italy. She has attended and/or her music has been performed at the 2010 Cortona Sessions for New Music, 2010 and 2011 highSCORE Festivals, 2009 Oregon Bach Festival Composer’s Symposium, 2010 New Dischord Festival, 2011 Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival, and the 2012 and 2013 soundSCAPE Festivals. Several of her works have been heard on WHUS 97.1 FM’s show Pushing the Envelope. Elizabeth is the winner of the AZ Centennial Composer Competition and the 2009 winner of the Cambridge Chamber Singers’ Annual Choral Composition Competition. ohmyears.com.
Daniel Cariño (media designer) just graduated from Arizona State University with his BA in Theatre with a concentration in Production and Design. He has designed several shows at ASU, his most recent shows were Dog Act, The Tenement, and Anamika. You can see more of his work on his website danielcarino.com
Chelsea Pace is a Phoenix-based fight choreographer, performer and creator of devised work, educator, and movement specialist pursuing her MFA in Theatre Performance at Arizona State University. Chelsea has created a number of ensemble and solo pieces with her performance group, Brokenleg Collective. She is currently working on a book project about her methodology and the ethics of staging intimacy and sexual violence with particular attention to working with students in university environments. chelseapace.com
Elizabeth Peterson is excited to be working with such a creative team on such a unique project. She has designed costumes for many Valley theatre companies including Arizona Jewish Theatre Company, Phoenix Theatre, Red Thread Theatre, Space 55, and Scottsdale Community College. In addition to costuming she has worked with some of the best professional instructors and institutions in the Southwest and in the Netherlands, within a variety of artistic fields including drama, dance, music, production, and design. She holds BA in theatre with a minor in design from Arizona State University where she is currently an MFA candidate in arts entrepreneurship and management.
Jenny Strickland is a transfer student from CalArts and a senior at Arizona State University studying Theatre and Gender Studies. She is the Project Assistant for Performance in the Borderlands and the Marketing Director of The Seven Layers of Bastian Bachman. She is thrilled to be a part of this process and is grateful to the whole 7 layers team for all of the work put into this production. She most recently worked on Asylum with Vessel, and is currently working on her piece "Ladies Room" to be premiered later this year.
Cast
Katie Sample majors in classical guitar performance and mathematics at ASU. She has performed in dozens of theater productions in the Valley, earning ariZoni and National Youth Arts awards and nominations for lead and supporting roles. She co-composed and played lead guitar for the original musical Merry Christmas Frankenstein (earning an NYA for Outstanding Youth Orchestra), and has co-composed and recorded another new musical, The Flying Trunk, to debut at Spotlight Youth Theatre in May. She would like to thank her teachers, her parents, her brother Connor, her great friends, and the wonderful Josh.
Heidi Francis Hearter (Nurse) is a junior theatre major in the stage and screen acting concentration. She was most recently seen in Binary’s The Haunting of Hill House as Mrs. Montague and in ASU’s MainStage performance of Fatboy as Clown. In addition to acting, she has danced and choreographed for Alice Cooper (and guests) at Alice Cooper’s Christmas Pudding for multiple years. She has also recently found a love for choreographing and directing a wide range of children at Phoenix Theatre’s Summer Camp.
Sarah Todd Stansbury is a sophomore at Arizona State University studying English Literature. While she is not actively studying theater she spends most of her free time participating in shows whenever she can. She recently performed in "Orange Flower Water", a show for the advanced directing class at ASU. Sarah is very excited to be part of the Seven Layers cast, and hopes to work with all of her cast and crew again in the future. Sarah would like to send love and thanks to her wonderful parents and brother for supporting her.
Colton Robertson is a third year theatre and arts entrepreneurship student at Arizona State University. Colton has started acting when he was 7 years old in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, where he grew up. Colton was last seen in The Black Art on the ASU MainStage as a part of the TheatreLab 2.1 series. Earlier this year, Colton has performed in Los Santos with ASU MainStage, COMMONS with The Brokenleg Collective, and The Girl Who Fell Through a Hole in her Sweater at Binary Theatre Company. At ASU, Colton is a member of the Dean's Advisory Board and was elected as the Junior Theatre Representative for the Herberger Undergraduate Advisory Council. He works as a Community Assistant for ASU, where he lives and works with first-year art and design students.
Sarah Downey is a sophomore majoring in theatre with a concentration in Design and Production.
Rina Hajra is a senior at Arizona State University, studying both Theatre and Justice Studies. She was last seen as Alice Bloomfield in Zoot Suit (ASU), and Pancha Garcia in The House of the Spirits (ASU). She also teaches drama to K-6th graders through Drama Kids Inc. She is thrilled to be a part of this collaborative devising fugue, and feels fortunate to work with an exceptionally creative cast and crew. She hopes that audiences will leave more knowledgeable, more sympathetic, and perhaps even transformed.
Franc Gaxiola has performed with professional and community theaters in the valley since 2002. Founder & Artistic Director for The Sic Sense Sketch Comedy Troupe, he has also directed numerous productions in the valley including Phoenix Theater's 24 Hour Theater Project. Represented by the Ford/Robert Black Agency, he has experience in voiceovers, print modeling, industrials and has been featured in local, regional and national commercials. Franc would like to thank Megan for her support, the cast & crew for their awesomeness and Chelsea for turning him on to this project. Much adoration to you all for coming!
Tammy. This world is but a canvas to our imagination. Henry David Thoreau
Original Art by Anastasia Schneider