The Nightingale —
Behind the Scenes

Dana Tai Soon Burgess (Conceiver and Choreographer) was raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico by his parents who are both visual artists. He received his initial dance training from Tim Wengerd and Judith Chazin-Bennahum. Vital to his aesthetic was his training in the Michio Ito technique and repertoire as well as culturally specific dance forms and Martial Arts. Mr. Burgess’ Eurasian background has propelled him on a personal journey to Asia, Latin America, South America, the Middle East and Europe in search of images to create an aesthetic where his inner world can be actualized and be at peace. Mr. Burgess has received critical acclaim for his synthesis of Eastern and Western aesthetics.  His choreography has been presented and/or commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Dance Place, La MaMa, the United Nations, as well as in Canada, Bulgaria, Germany, Korea, China, Russia, Panama, Columbia, Venezuela among others. He has received the Mayor's Arts Award in 1994 from the District of Columbia and is the 2001 as well as the 2002 recipient of the Metro DC Dance Awards best Overall Production Award. Mr. Burgess has received two choreographic fellowships from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and has been an American Cultural Specialist for the United Stated State Department abroad. He has taught dance technique/set work at the Hamburg Ballet School, the University of Panama, King Sejong University, Korea, the Beijing Contemporary Dance Co. and the Xiamen Dance Co., China.  He is currently a professor of dance at the George Washington University from which he also holds a Masters of Fine Arts. Recent performances of his choreography include Helix and Gandhara - collaborations with Light artist Jennifer Tipton and sculptor John Dreyfuss. Recent theater works include The Trojan Women at The Shakespeare Theater under the direction of Joanne Akalaitis. In fall 2003, Burgess will premiere a new Smithsonian and Kennedy Center commissioned collaboration with Jennifer Tipton  at the Terrace Theatre which celebrates the Centennial of Koreans to the Americas.  His dance company, Dana Tai Soon Burgess & Co., celebrates its 10^th anniversary this season. Mr. Burgess would like to thank the Board of Directors of Moving Forward, The Cafritz Foundation, The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Dedi Gunawan and Dr. Wayne Hickory, The Meyer Foundation,  Aaron Modiano, The Morning Star Foundation, The Philip L. Graham Fund

Mary Hall Surface (Playwright) is one of the most widely produced playwright/directors specializing in theatre for inter-generational audiences in the United States. Ms. Surface's work has been featured at Seattle Children's Theatre, Dallas Children's Theatre, Arizona's Childsplay, Honolulu Theatre for Youth, as well as ten productions at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.  Touring productions of her plays Most Valuable Player (about the life of Jackie Robinson), A Perfect Balance (a fantasy about creativity inspired by the work of Alexander Calder) and Apollo: to the Moon (about America’s race for space) have been presented in every region of the US, as well as in Ireland, France, Peru, Germany, Italy and across Canada.  Smith and Kraus recently published an anthology of five of her plays, Most Valuable Player and Four Other All-Star Plays for Middle and High School Audiences.  She was awarded to 2002 Helen Hayes Award for her direction of Perseus Bayou (written with her collaborator composer David Maddox).  Ms. Surface and Mr. Maddox were also nominated for the Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play for their Sing Down the Moon and Perseus Bayou.   With David Maddox, she has also written Mississippi Pinocchio, Stories my Mother Told Me:  The Odyssey of Telemaca, which was featured at the Kennedy Center's New Visions/New Voices Festival in 2002, and The Nightingale (along with choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess) which will tour the US in 2003.  A national leader in her field, she was the director of New Visions 2000: One Theatre World, a national festival of theatre for young people and families, co-produced by the Kennedy Center and ASSITEJ/USA in May 2000.    She is a 2000 Aurand Harris Fellow of the Children's Theatre Foundation of America, a National Endowment for the Arts on-site evaluator and an advisor to American Theatre Magazine.

David Maddox (Composer) has produced three previous works in collaboration with Mary Hall Surface: Perseus Bayou (the Perseus myth, set in Louisiana), Sing Down the Moon: Appalachian Wonder Tales, and Mississippi Pinocchio. David has produced scores and sound designs for more than 60 theater productions across the US. Recent work includes the acclaimed Never the Sinner at the Houseman Theater in New York (Critic's Outer Circle Award), Side Man at the Guthrie in Minneapolis, La Malinche at the Arizona Theater Company, The Beauty Queen of Lenane at the Alley Theater in Houston, and Nijinsky's Last Dance at Signature Theater in Washington, DC, for which he won the 1999 Helen Hayes Award for Sound Design. David has received eleven Helen Hayes Award nominations in three different categories and has produced five albums of original music, including the recently released award-winning Original Cast Album of Sing Down the Moon: Appalachian Wonder Tales. In addition to his work in theatre, Mr. Maddox is an active composer of scores for TV and video.  Television credits include a series of nationally aired spots for the Nature Conservancy.  He is currently developing a new musical entitled Perfume River concerning the qualities of swamp water.  Mr. Maddox’s music spans a range of styles, resulting from a natural interest in diverse music from around the world and from the broad demands of work in theatre.  In addition to classical and rock scores, Mr. Maddox has produced music for Irish (Wicky Sears and Tuin) and African Bands (Carnival Night), musical comedy and “atmospheric music.”

Tom Donahue (Set Designer) has designed sets and lights for area theatres for more than twenty years.  In the Washington D.C. area he has designed for the National,  The Olney Theatre Center for the Arts, The Summer Opera Theatre Company, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts  among numerous others .  In Baltimore, he has designed numerous productions for the Baltimore Opera Company, The Young Victorians, the Peabody Conservatory of Music, and Everyman Theatre .  Recent and current designs include Rigoletto, La Traviata, Don Pasquale, Gianni Schicci and Suor Angelica  for the Shaker Mountain Performing Arts Festival in upstate New York and Blood Knot  for the African Continuum Theatre Company. He is also designing the settings for two new musicals, The Word and The Gift.  Tom is Chair of the Drama department at the Catholic University of America  and  a member of United Scenic Artists designers union.

Dreama J. Greaves (Properties Artisan) has served as properties artisan for many Kennedy Center Youth and Family Programs shows.  Her credits include such diverse productions as The Snow Queen; Little Women; Alice in Wonderland; The Nightingale; Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and others; many of which have toured nationally. She has a Master of Fine Arts from Northwestern University and free-lances throughout the metro area. 

Lynn Joslin (Lighting Designer)Ms. Joslin is delighted the Nightingale is touring again.  Other Kennedy Center Productions include Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day, Sundiata, and Angel's Voices.  Ms. Joslin also toured with Suzanne Farrell's Ballet Company. 

Jane Schloss Phelan (Costume Designer) , mixed media artist and arts educator, has designed productions in the Washington metro area for more than twenty years. Theatre costume design credits include Woolly Mammoth, Studio, Theatre of the First Amendment, and many other venues. For Kennedy Center Youth and Family Programs, Ms. Phelan's "baker's dozen" design collaborations range from The Sorcerer's Apprentice, to Dick Whittington and His Cat, to Revenge of the Space Pandas. Ms. Phelan, a graduate of Corcoran College of Art and Design, recently completed an MA in Education at George Washington University where she developed an individualized program focused on Arts Learning Across the Curriculum.

Marie Schneggenburger’s (Tour Costume Supervisor) designs have been seen in several Kennedy Center Youth and Family Programs productions, including Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse, Dreams, The Magic Rainforest and The Nightingale.  She also works for the Washington Opera, The Shakespeare Theatre, Arena Stage, and other organizations around town.

Cast

Elizabeth Coker (Courtier) graduated from the Washington School of Ballet and was a member of the Washington Ballet for three seasons.  She is currently teaching ballet and creative movement at the Alexandria Ballet and dancing with Train Wreck Dance company.  Elizabeth trained at American Ballet Theatre, Houston Ballet, and Chautauqua Dance Festival in addition to studying with Suzanne Farrell at the Kennedy Center.

Rachel Merga (Mechanical Nightingale/Death) Originally from Manchester, Rachel has spent the last twelve years living and dancing in Germany.  She was a soloist with the State Theater in Regensburg as well as with Malika Kusamis’s Renaissance de la Danse in Frankfurt, and performed under the direction of Frederick Flammand for the World Exposition 2000 in Hanover.  Rachel’s career spans not only ballet and modern dance companies, but also musical productions including Grease, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cabaret, and Fiddler on the Roof.  She has toured Southeast Asia with La Bouche, appeared on German and UK telelvision, and recently acted the role of Celia in the British farce Will you Still Love me in the Morning. Rachel currently performs with Train Wreck Dance Company in Washington D.C.

Rahmein Mostafavi * (Courtier) is extremely excited to be joining the Nightingale cast and looks forward to seeing audiences smiling all over the country.  He recently completed his third season in as many years with the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., where he has acted in 10 different shows.  His favorite role there was that of the dancing comic relief role of the First Outlaw in Two Gentlemen of Verona.  He has also been seen in several roles at BAPA’s Imagination Stage including Aladdin, Ferdinand the Bull and the Witch in Hansel and Gretel.  Rahmein thanks and loves his family and friends.

Miyako Nitadori (The Nightingale) studied the methodology of the Royal Academy of Dancing at Kimura Izumi Ballet Academy in Japan. There she obtained the title of ARAD (Advanced Royal Academy of Dancing) in 1994. While attending college in Japan, she studied many forms of dance with an emphasis on modern and Japanese dance. After working with the Japan Ballet Association and other dance groups, she came to the DC metropolitan area and has worked for Mr. Burgess since 1999, receiving critical acclaim for her interpretations of Burgess’s choreography. She has also danced for Train Wreck Dance Company and has taught dance for all ages around the DC metropolitan area.

Leonardo Giron Torres (The Emperor) is a dancer in the area. Previously before moving to Washington he lived in Greenville, NC were he attended East Carolina University and danced with DanceSpace Co. under the direction of Cindy Mancini and Joseph Carrow.  Leonardo now dances with several companies around the area such as Dana Tai Soon Burgess & Co., Train Wreck Dance Co., and Native Tongue Dance Collective under the direction of Reggie Glass.  He had also worked with choreographers such as Paul Sutherland, Brunilda Ruiz, and Helenius J. Wilkings of Edgeworks Dance Theatre. Leonardo wants to thank his family for all their support.

Lisa Woo * (Servant) is very delighted to make her debut in Washington DC, and thrilled to be performing at the Kennedy Center.  She was recently seen in the musical Stand by the River in Philadelphia. Other musical theater credits include, Johanna in Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Anderssen in A Little Night Music.  Trained as a classical singer, Lisa has also performed in many operas.  These roles include, Despina in Cosi fan tutte, Satarino in La Calisto, Nora in Rider's to the Sea and Giannetta in L'elisir d'amore.  Lisa holds a Master's degree in Vocal Performance from Eastern Michigan University.

Tour Technical Staff

Robert Humphrey (Technical Director/Sound Director) is extremely happy to be working with his friends at the Kennedy Center again after touring with My Lord, What a Morning: The Marian Anderson Story, the second national tour of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Harlem and this season’s A Light in the Storm.  His most recent handiwork can be seen in Phoenix, Arizona where he has spent the last four years working on productions for Arizona Theater Company, Actors Theatre of Phoenix, Ballet Arizona, Arizona Jewish Theatre Company, and Childsplay to name a few.  Mr. Humphrey is also the Resident Designer for Long Lake Camp for the Arts in Long Lake, New York.

David Paige (Lighting Director) After several years as a Technical Services representative for Barbizon Lighting and Product Manager for City Theatrical Inc., David is happy to return to an actual performance schedule.  A graduate of the University of Arizona, David has been in the lighting/technical field for over ten years.  He was recently the Master Electrician for Studio Theatre’s productions of The Shape of Things and Bat Boy – The Musical and is happy and excited to be a part of the Kennedy Center’s The Nightingale.

Elizabeth Wiesner * (Production Stage Manager)most recently stage managed Dreams in the Golden Country at the Kennedy Center. For the past three seasons, Ms. Wiesner has been the Production Manager with Project Y, working on such shows as In the Boom Boom Room, Italian American Reconciliation and Lion in the Streets.  She has also enjoyed working with local companies Cherry Red, Smallbeer, Source, Washington Shakespeare Company, and Woolly Mammoth as a stage manager, assistant director and assistant stage manager.  Ms. Wiesner is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts.

*The Nightingale is a professional production employing members of Actors' Equity Association