Beyond a Winter's Day

Rachel Wiese is an actor, devisor, director, dancer, and puppeteer. Her work as a LAB Artistic Associate includes A Story Beyond – A Musical Fable, Yellow Bird Chase, Irresistible, Beowulf (In collaboration with Poets’ Theatre), and Who Would Be King. Her newly formed for-Worcester theatre company, Heart Forward, launched in 2019 with Rachel’s one woman performance in Walking Toward America. Her independent project, Be Clean, is still touring after a 2018 launch and tour through Quebec. Select Austin, TX Acting credits include Metamorphoses, and Wildflowers (Zach Theatre), Lifelines and Hometeam (Vetworks), Sacred Space Redux, Circle the Wagons, and A Streetcar Straight to Hell (The Exchange Artists), Frankenstein, The Jungle, and The Head (Trouble Puppet Theatre), Marvelous Things, and People Will Talk About You Sometimes (Poison Apple Initiative), Oceana (The Vortex). Rachel teaches in the Visual and Performing Arts Department at Worcester State University and directs a bilingual theatre program for Texas A&M University in Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy.

Jason Slavick is the Artistic Director of Liars & Believers. For the LAB, he conceived and directed A Story Beyond, Who Would Be King, Yellow Bird Chase (commissioned by Outside the Box 2015), and ICARUS (honorable mention for book and design, NYMF 2013). He wrote and directed Le Cabaret Grimm: a punk cabaret fairy tale {sans fairies} (best featured performer, best design, honorable mention for choreography NYMF 2012) and Song of Songs: a LoveRomp. Jason directed 28 Seeds, a collaboration with the steampunk band, Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys, and he directed the LAB’s experimental projects, Talk to Strangers  and IRRESISTIBLE. With the LAB, Jason has toured throughout the Northeast. Jason was commissioned to write and direct Heaven & Hell: The Fantastical Temptation of the 7 Deadly Sins, at The Boston Conservatory in 2007. With Foreign Landscape Productions and Faye Dupras, Jason directed Cozy Corner, Mama Light Fisher, I Spy Butterfly, and The Great Red Ball Rescue. As a company member of Boston Theatre Works, Jason directed Othello (Elliot Norton Award nominated for Best Production and Best Actor), The Tempest, Antony & Cleopatra, and Macbeth. He developed and directed Emily Mann’s critically acclaimed Meshugah, Olga Humphrey’s Veronika Vavoom Volcanologist, and his own play J: a one-act improvised tragi-comedy. He also directed numerous developmental workshops and readings including Joyce Carol Oates’ The Tattooed Girl. Jason has directed throughout New England, in Tel Aviv, and in Philadelphia. Jason has also written and directed The Golem, Icaphish, and Alice: a Grotesque Turn in Twelve Scenes. Jason earned his MFA in directing from The Trinity Repertory Conservatory. He also studied at the Dell Arte International School of Physical Theatre, the Eugene O’Neill National Theatre Institute, and the Warsaw Theatre Academy in Warsaw, Poland.

For Liars & Believers, Kendra Bell has designed costumes for Yellow Bird Chase, Who Would Be King, Icarus, 28 Seeds, Song of Songs, and Le Cabaret Grimm. Kendra spends her daytime making beautiful things and teaching Costume Production and technology at Tufts University. Before settling at Tufts, she has worked for Costume Works Inc., Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Glimmerglass Opera, and Hubbard Street Dance. Some of her other design work includes The Kiss, Cabaret, and Alice in Wonderland for Berklee College of Music, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (Company One), and Peter (Braintree Films). She is honored to have received an Elliot Norton Award for the Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, a Best Design Award for Le Cabaret Grimm from the New York Musical Theatre Festival and an KCACTF Excellence in Costume Construction. In 2017, she participated in an Artist Residency Program in Korpo Finland. She holds a BFA in Studio Art from Millikin University and a MFA in Theatrical Design from Rutgers University.

Faye Dupras is a theater artist who began her puppet journey over twenty years ago when she met and apprenticed under her childhood hero, puppeteer Noreen Young.  Since then she has performed around the world and has worked as a director, designer and educator throughout Eastern Canada and the USA. She’s collaborated with Liars & Believers on Icarus and Yellow Bird Chase and A Story Beyond. When not devising with the gang at L&B, Faye creates and tours original puppet productions for all ages.  Critics have described Faye’s award-winning shows as “spellbinding,” “imaginative,” and “powerful.”

Rebecca Lehrhoff  is a visual, performing, and teaching artist whose work ranges from acting, devising and dance to scenic design, art installation and mural painting. Rebecca was part of the original devising cast of A Story Beyond, but stepped out of the cast to have ababy! A LAB artistic associate, Rebecca’s company credits include: Who Would Be King, Yellow Bird Chase, Irresistible, and Interference. Other performance credit include: The Weird (Off The Grid Theater Company), Winter Panto 2018: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Winter Panto 2017: The Princess & The Pea (Imaginary Beasts), Beowulf, King Arthur (Poets’ Theatre), Sacred Spaces Redux (Exchange Artists), Enigma Variations (Flat Earth Theater), Beck: Song Reader (Chimera Lab Dance Theater). Select scenic design credits include: Winter Panto 2018: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Imaginary Beasts), How Soft the Lining (Bad Habit Productions), The Farnsworth Invention (Flat Earth Theater- IRNE Award- Best Fringe Show), Penny Penniworth: A Tale Of Great Good Fortune, Polish Joke (Titanic Theater Company), From the Sea to Somewhere Else (Flotsam Productions), Chalk (Fresh Ink Theater). Rebecca holds a MFA in Contemporary Performance from Naropa University and a BS in theater from Skidmore College.

Becca Jewett joined the phenomenal design team of Liars & Believers with A Story Beyond as the Mask Designer. Her credits include New Rep’s production of We Will Not Be Silent and Heartland. She was also recently the costume designer Julius Caesar produced by Actors’ Shakespeare Project,  Steve Yockey’s Blackberry Winter produced by New Repertory Theater and A Taste of Honey produced by BCAP. Her other recent credits include Galt McDermot’s The Human Comedy, Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance, and John Shea’s Erin Go Bragh-less, for which the show won best production at KC/ACTF in 2012. Other recent credits include Hair and Makeup Designer in Residence Opera North from 2012-2014 and Crafts Department at the Glimmerglass Festival 2014-2017.  She looks forward to working on many new creative projects.

After graduating with a degree in Communications and Film Studies from UMass Amherst (Michael S. Roif Award Winner for Excellence in Film & Video), Sam became a director, cinematographer and editor working on commercials, music videos and films

Sam is the Video Production Manager at Triggerhouse, working with clients such as Harman, Kardon, JBL, Bissell, Ulta Beauty, Boston Beer Company, Ben & Jerry’s and Hisense. Sam continues to apply his passion for filmmaking to his work as an educator, mentor and facilitator for UMass Amherst’s Project 2050, the Boston Public Schools, Boston’s Press Pass TV, UMass Boston’s Native Tribal Scholars program, Gann Academy high school, Brandeis University Summer Programs, and Filmmakers Collaborative Summer Programs.

Carlos Odria, PhD, is a performer/scholar currently teaching as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Worcester State University. He has been a featured artist at the Florida Folk Festival, Worcester Jazz Festival, and has performed at several other festivals, concert halls, and more than fifteen universities across the US and his native Peru. With The Carlos Odria Trio (COT), as well as other musical projects, Odria has performed at Clark University, Jacoby Symphony Hall, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Ponte Vedra Concert Hall, UMass Boston, Middlebury College, Middlesex Community College University of Florida, St. Augustine Amphitheatre, Mechanics Hall, and other venues. Odria has been described as a “breathtakingly talented musician…with an immense technical skill” (Worcester Telegram) and as a “guitar wizard” (Gamble Rogers Festival). In 2014, the debut album of Omnimusica, a band in which he participated as the lead guitarist, was included on the official ballot for the 57th Grammy Awards, in the World Music category. COT has been nominated for Best Jazz Act at the Worcester Music Awards and International Artist of the Year at the Boston Music Awards.

In 2018, Odria composed and produced the original music for the documentary film “El Rio,” directed by Juan Carlos Galeano. This film won the 2019 Gaia Award and was officially selected for screening at the 2019 Ethnografilm Festival in Paris. 

Odria’s most recent trio album El Rio (2019), which music was inspired by Galeano’s film, has been praised as “gorgeous…stunningly, jaw-droppingly, trying-not-to-weep-at-work beautiful” (Worcester Telegram) and was included in Worcester Magazine’s top 10 album in New England in 2019. For more information, visit www.carlosodria.com

Rachel Wiese is an actor, devisor, director, dancer, and puppeteer. Her work as a LAB Artistic Associate includes A Story Beyond – A Musical Fable, Yellow Bird Chase, Irresistible, Beowulf (In collaboration with Poets’ Theatre), and Who Would Be King. Her newly formed for-Worcester theatre company, Heart Forward, launched in 2019 with Rachel’s one woman performance in Walking Toward America. Her independent project, Be Clean, is still touring after a 2018 launch and tour through Quebec. Select Austin, TX Acting credits include Metamorphoses, and Wildflowers (Zach Theatre), Lifelines and Hometeam (Vetworks), Sacred Space Redux, Circle the Wagons, and A Streetcar Straight to Hell (The Exchange Artists), Frankenstein, The Jungle, and The Head (Trouble Puppet Theatre), Marvelous Things, and People Will Talk About You Sometimes (Poison Apple Initiative), Oceana (The Vortex). Rachel teaches in the Visual and Performing Arts Department at Worcester State University and directs a bilingual theatre program for Texas A&M University in Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy.

Rebecca Lehrhoff  is a visual, performing, and teaching artist whose work ranges from acting, devising and dance to scenic design, art installation and mural painting. Rebecca was part of the original devising cast of A Story Beyond, but stepped out of the cast to have ababy! A LAB artistic associate, Rebecca’s company credits include: Who Would Be King, Yellow Bird Chase, Irresistible, and Interference. Other performance credit include: The Weird (Off The Grid Theater Company), Winter Panto 2018: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Winter Panto 2017: The Princess & The Pea (Imaginary Beasts), Beowulf, King Arthur (Poets’ Theatre), Sacred Spaces Redux (Exchange Artists), Enigma Variations (Flat Earth Theater), Beck: Song Reader (Chimera Lab Dance Theater). Select scenic design credits include: Winter Panto 2018: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Imaginary Beasts), How Soft the Lining (Bad Habit Productions), The Farnsworth Invention (Flat Earth Theater- IRNE Award- Best Fringe Show), Penny Penniworth: A Tale Of Great Good Fortune, Polish Joke (Titanic Theater Company), From the Sea to Somewhere Else (Flotsam Productions), Chalk (Fresh Ink Theater). Rebecca holds a MFA in Contemporary Performance from Naropa University and a BS in theater from Skidmore College.

Cynthia Hu is originally from Shenzhen, China and is now a New York based actor.  She holds a BA in Theatre from Stony Brook University and is currently in the MFA program with the Actors Studio Drama School. She also worked as a stage manager with multiple non-profit NYC theatre companies.

Carlos Odria, PhD, is a performer/scholar currently teaching as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Worcester State University. He has been a featured artist at the Florida Folk Festival, Worcester Jazz Festival, and has performed at several other festivals, concert halls, and more than fifteen universities across the US and his native Peru. With The Carlos Odria Trio (COT), as well as other musical projects, Odria has performed at Clark University, Jacoby Symphony Hall, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Ponte Vedra Concert Hall, UMass Boston, Middlebury College, Middlesex Community College University of Florida, St. Augustine Amphitheatre, Mechanics Hall, and other venues. Odria has been described as a “breathtakingly talented musician…with an immense technical skill” (Worcester Telegram) and as a “guitar wizard” (Gamble Rogers Festival). In 2014, the debut album of Omnimusica, a band in which he participated as the lead guitarist, was included on the official ballot for the 57th Grammy Awards, in the World Music category. COT has been nominated for Best Jazz Act at the Worcester Music Awards and International Artist of the Year at the Boston Music Awards.

In 2018, Odria composed and produced the original music for the documentary film “El Rio,” directed by Juan Carlos Galeano. This film won the 2019 Gaia Award and was officially selected for screening at the 2019 Ethnografilm Festival in Paris. 

Odria’s most recent trio album El Rio (2019), which music was inspired by Galeano’s film, has been praised as “gorgeous…stunningly, jaw-droppingly, trying-not-to-weep-at-work beautiful” (Worcester Telegram) and was included in Worcester Magazine’s top 10 album in New England in 2019. For more information, visit www.carlosodria.com

Singer Mali is a singer, songwriter, composer, and performer. Her music blends and juxtaposes aspects of pop songwriting with jazz, classical, musical theater, world music, and the avant-garde. For over a decade, Mali has been the primary songwriter, lead vocalist, and frontwoman for the avant chamber pop band Jaggery. Jaggery garnered national and international praise for their “exquisit, lush . . . audacious aesthetic” (Stereogum).

Veronica Barron creates physically exuberant visual theatre, using puppetry, dance, clown, music, and the human body. Her current works, Be Clean When We Die and Sound Shadows, blend shadow puppetry, dance, and traditional and original Americana music, and have earned support from the Casteliers Festival (Montreal), Maison Internationale des Arts de la Marionnettes (Montreal), Les Sages Fous (Trois-Rivieres, QC), Central Square Theater (Cambridge, MA), Puppet Showplace Theater (Brookline, MA), Dance Complex (Cambridge, MA), the Montreal and Cambridge Arts Councils, and the Apollinaire Theater/The Boston Foundation. Veronica tours domestically & internationally as a puppeteer for acclaimed DJ Kid Koala’s Nufonia Must Fall, which combines puppetry, live cinema, scratch DJing, and a string quartet to create a quirky, emotional love story. As an actor, Veronica specializes in new work development, and has appeared in world premieres with the Huntington Theatre Company, imaginary beasts, Fresh Ink Theatre, and others. A longtime collaborator with Liars and Believers, she helped create Who Would Be King and ICARUS, for which she was praised as “the cast’s best voice” (Scott Heller, New York Times.) Veronica holds a BFA in Theatre from Boston University, where her studies included visual & choreographic theater, classical Indian dance-theater, clowning, and playwrighting. You can find her at VeronicaBarron.com.