American Addict: A Devised Piece

Cast

Bridgette Dove*, Daniel Martinez*, Skye Palmer, Jessica Peterson*, Hallie Schwartz, 

Joan Sperry, David Walker*, Kian Way*, Lisa Wolf

* denotes current member of the Visionbox Ensemble

Staff

Writer/Director............................Jennifer McCray Rincon

Assistants to the Director..............Aaron Kuper, Sydney Quanz 

Documentary Film.......................................Aaron Kuper

Design Team...........................Brian Miller + Philip Baldwin

Original music composed and performed by................El Javi

Jennifer McCray Rincón received her BA in Theatre Studies from Yale University and an MFA in Directing from the Yale School of Drama. She was recipient of an NEA Directing Fellowship at Playwright’s Horizons in NYC and a Fulbright Teaching Fellowship in Bogota, Colombia. After many years in New York, Ms. Rincón came to Denver as the Head of Acting at the National Theatre Conservatory, where she remained from 1991 through 2008. At the DCPA Ms. Rincón taught acting in the 3-year MFA Acting program and directed over 100 productions including Equus, Othello, The Laramie Project, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, The 365 Project, Monte Carlo, and Expedition 6 by Bill Pullman. Locally, Ms. Rincon has directed for El Centro Su Teatro, Shadow Theatre, The Historic Old Elitches Theatre, and was Founding Artistic Director of the Lizard Head Theatre Company in Telluride.

Since founding Visionbox Studio Theatre in 2010 Jennifer McCray Rincon has taught acting to Denver student and professional actors in five week sequences culminating in  performances. She has also developed and directed a number of workshops and productions for Visionbox including: The Wild Hunt by Bill Pullman, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea by John Patrick Shanley, Lydie Breeze by John Guare, After the Fall by Arthur Miller, 2xTENN by Tennessee Williams, A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas with William Youmans, The Othello Project, an adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello, My Two Sisters, an adaptation of Chekhov's Three Sisters, and Orpheus Descending by Tennessee Williams.

Phillip Baldwin, MFA Yale, Associate Professor, Stony Brook University. Over 30 years of integrating the arts and design, with technology. Is a scenographer, designer, author, educator, UX/UI consulting, business person, art and technology installation artist, associate professor of design and digital media, and immersive environment designer. He devotes equal effort to Academic/Professing fields as well as in the for-profit IT research fields. Has current research and authorship in the relationship of space to telematics and telepresence, virtual reality and 'spaces of shared experience'. He designed for Film, the stage, Modern Dance, Events, and public projection mapping commissions. Recipient of four international awards in Design including the Rome Prize, Japan foundation prize, Korea foundation award, and Korean industrial development in STEAM and the creative tech curriculum Co-Pi of 700k from the Korean Minister of Culture.

El Javi, out of Mexico City, joins the spirit of flamenco with the heart of rock producing the unparalleled experience of Rock Flamenco.  Through his distinct sound, he paints an auditory portrait composed of strength and intimacy, reflecting his experiential existence as both human and artist. Collaborations color his compositions as he endlessly evolves his music, warranting his title. The King of Rock Flamenco.
Highlights of his career include Festival of the Arts in Coahuila Mexico, The Jazz and Blues festival in Santa Clarita, CA , the Denver International Festival, The International Music Festival in San Jose del Cabo, Mex, the Salmon Arm Festival in British Columbia, Canada. and opened for today’s biggest voice of flamenco, Diego el Cigala, during his Noche Tacumana world tour in San Miguel de Allende, Mex.
Currently, EL Javi tours North America with his powerful live performances as he promotes the 2nd part of the Gypsy Journey trilogy “El Refugio.”

Brian Miller has designed and/or built close to 350 productions in the Denver Metro area over the last twenty-plus years, after studying at Cornell University and New York University, and emigrating here from the East Coast. His design work has received four Henry nominations, and he has won the award for both lighting and scenery. He recently designed lighting for "Sense & Sensibility" at OpenStage, scenery and lighting for “The Little Dog Laughed” at Bas Bleu, and lighting for both “Lizzie" and "The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes" for Forge Light Theatreworks, and will design lighting for “Ann” at Cherry Creek this month. He is a certified AACT theater adjudicator, and proudly serves as Treasurer on the Board of Directors of the Colorado Theatre Guild. Website: www.brianmiller.biz

Bridgette Dove has loved storytelling since she was old enough to talk. Growing up, she was active in community theatre, musicals, one act plays, and speech. She took a hiatus from performing to pursue her nursing degree and to be a caregiver to her grandmother. She then found Visionbox at a time in her life when she needed it the most. Acting has always been Bridgette's passion, but this last year, it has a life-force. Bridgette currently works as a registered nurse at Denver Health and she is in the process of auditioning for professional acting conservatories in New York and Los Angeles.

Daniel Martinez is a young actor who recently graduated from East High School. As a senior, Daniel explored the world of professional theatre and established an experienced and technical base, with the wonderful and very motivating support of Visionbox. Daniel is a fairly new actor, but a long time veteran with athletics, and has come to a very passionate and monumental realization that acting is his natural pursuit. Daniel has performed in productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Something Rotten, It’s A Wonderful Life, The Amish Project and Red. Daniel has very much sealed his passion and latent abilities in the arts as a writer, actor and musician, pursuing purpose and meaning with initiative, technique and heart. All things given support and assistance by Visionbox. 

Jessica Peterson fell in love with the stage in third grade through performing in The Wiz and Fame with her favorite elementary school teacher—and has been doing theatre ever since. She’s also a trained dancer, singer and voiceover artist. She majored in French and Italian literature at Wesleyan University, and holds a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University. Her career outside of the theatre has included work as a TV, newspaper and radio reporter, PR practitioner, professor of communication, writer and editor. Her theatre work in Colorado has included shows with the Cabaret Dinner Theatre and The Theatre Project (both in Grand Junction), Theatre Company of Lafayette, Longmont Theatre Company’s Taste of Shakespeare, Englewood Summer Drama and Northglenn Players. She is thrilled to become a part of the Visionbox ensemble and is eager to continue learning with her new theatre family.

Hallie Schwartz received her BA at The University of Colorado. After training with Visionbox Studio, Hallie moved to New York City where she received her MFA in Acting at The New School for Drama. Hallie was most recently seen on the screen of Times Square in Projection Napping, a site-specific video installation project in collaboration with Times Square Arts, the public art program of the Times Square Alliance, and Optical Animal, Brooklyn-based digital arts collective: http://arts.timessquarenyc.org/times-square-arts/projects/midnight-moment/projection-napping/index.aspx. Hallie is extremely grateful for her family, the ensemble, and Jennifer. Stage: REDUX - Seeking Charlie Russell by Bill Pullman (Sarah Beth), King John (Bastard), Middletown (Cop), Roberto Zucco (Mother/The Lady), Futura (Grace), Birds of Paradise (Emma). Independent Film: Somewhere West. 

David Walker has been a member of the Visionbox Studio Ensemble since 2017 and serves as the organization’s Managing Director. David trained in New York with John Costopoulos of the Actor’s Studio, and with acting coach Barbara Spiegel. His experience includes multiple roles with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival and intensive performance work with Frank Georgianna at Boulder’s Stage Door Theatre. He earned a BA in Communication cum laude at the University of Colorado-Boulder with a minor in Theatre. His most significant role: father of four children (one of each). As a wealth manager, David helps clients to achieve financial security, using strategies designed to ensure that clients retain and grow their assets long-term—despite inflation, taxation and volatility. He represents Lebenthal Financial and Raymond James & Co. Previously, over 10 years, he led multi-million-dollar projects for human capital firm DBM, where he teamed with leaders at INTEL, JPMORGAN CHASE, MICROSOFT and dozens of other major companies. He has 15 years of executive search experience on Wall Street, as well as with McAleer Gray, PRIME Consultants, and at Coors Brewing Company (now MolsonCoors). A former President of the Denver-Cherry Creek Rotary, he was the club’s first Foundation President.

Kian Way is a student at the Colorado Film School studying acting and directing. Kian is proud to be a new member of the Visionbox Ensemble, and has been studying with Jennifer since fall of 2022. Kian has performed with Red Rocks Community College, Community College of Aurora and directed multiple short films.

Lisa Wolf is a native New Yorker where she received formal training in classical ballet on scholarship at the Joffrey Ballet School. In her teens she began studying acting and theatre arts.  She appeared in numerous off & off off Broadway productions as well as in film.  When Lisa’s daughter was born in 2004 she decided to quit the business and devote herself to being a full time mom. In 2018 Lisa performed the role of the nurse in Colorado Ballet’s production of Romeo & Juliet at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. That experience reawakened her passion for performing.  In the fall of 2021 at the brink of being an empty nester, Lisa began looking for a place to hone her skills and was extremely fortunate to find a home at Visionbox under the extraordinary tutelage of director Jennifer McCray Rincon.

• Website: www.visionbox.org
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Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Theater

119 Park Ave W, Denver, CO 80205

Entrance: The main doors are on the southeast side of the building

Parking: Parking is allowed in the Safeway parking lot across the street

Accessibility: ADA access at the west doors of the building, elevator to the theater level, six (6) ground level seats with access to bathrooms.

Admission: You must show your ticket confirmation or purchase a ticket at the venue; all seating is general admission, audiences will wait in a queue before entry to the show