DIRECTOR. PRODUCER.

Melanie Stewart creates darkly absurd movement-driven theatre focusing on the nuanced, weird, and vulnerable side of American culture. From 1984-2016 she was the Artistic Director of Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre producing over 50 original works of dance and movement driven theatre for the concert stage, in dance/film/video, and in education, both nationally and abroad. Through the integration of movement, text, and image, she investigates the ability of the body to carry meaning in original narratives. Her creative work reveals the emotional undercurrents that drive the body to action, resulting in compelling dance theatre that is often ironic and intensely human. As a critically acclaimed choreographer and director, Stewart’s awards include numerous grants and fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts, Dance Advance/Pew Charitable Trusts, The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the New Jersey Council on the Arts. She is also a Leigh Gerdine Distinguished Alumna Award winner from Webster University. Her recent productions include; Small Gifts (2020), In America, That is to Say No Where (2019), A Soldier’s Tale (2019), Interactive Wizard of Oz (2019), Credo in Us (2018) and, Interactive Alice in Wonderland (2018).

WRITER. COLLABORATOR.

John Clancy is an OBIE award winning director and the founding Artistic Director of The New York International Fringe Festival He has directed six Scotsman Fringe First winning productions at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and two Best of the Fringe Award winning productions at the Adelaide Fringe. He is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect and was awarded The New York Magazine Award in 1997 for “creativity, enterprise and vision”. In 2002 he received a Glasgow Herald Angel for excellence in direction at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In 2007 Clancy Productions was awarded the inaugural Edinburgh International Festival Award. He served as the Executive Director of the League of Independent Theater and Board President of the Independent Theater Fund in New York City. He now lives and works in Mt. Carmel, IL and is the President of Little Pharaoh Enterprises, an arts consultancy firm dedicated to celebrating the Art in the Heartland.

PERFORMER. COLLABORATOR.

Kylie Westerbeck is a musician, actor, and photographer based in the Tri-State area. Kylie is a graduate of Rowan University where she obtained a B.A. in Theatre Arts with a concentration in Acting, and received the Ann B Ward Medallion for the Performing Arts for her work across several artistic mediums. In addition to Rowan University, Kylie also studied clown/Le Jeu with Philippe Gaulier at his private school in Étampes, France. Kylie has written and produced theatre including: Complexity, an original musical (DC Fringe) and Peg! a one woman clown piece (Philly Fringe). Her clown piece received great accolades and remarks deeming her ‘refreshingly hilarious and unpretentious’ and ‘ridiculously clever and irreverent’. Currently Kylie has two original singer-songwriter/folk albums released onto the world. Professional acting credits include: Nocturne, The Lydie Breeze Trilogy, Curse of the Starving Class, and Company (EgoPo Classic), Witness for the Prosecution (BRT), Under the Moon (Jersey Fringe), Lavender Life (Ultra V Theatre CO.) and Our Town (People’s Light).