Student Profiles

MFA Class of 2009

Garrett Ayers is a theatre artist from Three Rivers, Michigan.  He comes to Boulder from New York City where he spent the last five years working both for The Wooster Group and with his own company, Project: Theater.  Garrett also trained and was a participant in the 2002 work-team selection at The Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards in Pontedera, Italy.  He holds a BA in Theatre Performance from Western Michigan University. (Garrett Ayers headshot.jpg)

Margot Bassett is a dancer, singer, actor, yoga instructor, and baker.  She received her BFA in Dance from Wesleyan University in 2001 and was a 2002 recipient of the Jerome Fellowship for Performance Art in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Margot has performed with Rosy Simas Dance Projects, Katsura Kan, Hijack, and Body Cartography Project, to name a few.  Her original work has been shown at the Walker Art Center, Bedlam Theatre, Intermedia Arts, and the Bryant Lake Bowl Theater, among others.  In addition, Margot co-founded the collaborative performance group, Bright Eye Productions, and often performs as her alter-ego, Karyn, of the legendary lesbian folk duo Karyn & Sharyn. (Margot Bassett headshot.jpg)

Kyra Bowman started as a technician at Actor's Theater of Houston and a student at Chris Wilson's Studio for Actors while in high school.  From there she graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota with a degree in theater.  While at Macalester, Kyra had the opportunity to study abroad at the Moscow Art Theater in Russia.  After a brief stint in Scotland, she moved to Chicago.  There she trained with Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and The Actor's Gymnasium and worked on original pieces. (Kyra Bowman headshot.jpg)

Lauren Brenner is thrilled to be training with the MFA community at Naropa University.  Before moving to Boulder she worked as an actress and performance artist in Chicago, Illinois, where she co-created and performed in several productions with Big Theatre, of which she was a founding member.  In Chicago she also worked with About Face Theatre doing education and outreach, and performed with other companies such as Redmoon, Blind Faith, and Backstage.  She is a graduate of Northwestern University with a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre, and is a certified yoga instructor. (Lauren Brenner headshot.jpg)

Téana David grew up in Victoria, Canada, but lived most recently in San Francisco where she created and performed many works as a company member of FoolsFURY. Committed to telling necessary stories by using the entire body as an instrument, she is a co-writer and performer in The Wonders with Traveling Jewish Theatre, which received a Steven Spielberg Righteous Person’s Grant to tour to under-represented communities throughout the United States in 2007.  Other acting credits: California and Napa Shakespeare Festivals, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre where she understudied and performed the role of Laura in the Glass Menagerie (w/ Rita Moreno; dir. Les Waters).  Téana also directs short films and designs video projections for the theatre. She holds a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre with an emphasis in Movement from The Boston Conservatory and has trained extensively with SITI Company. (teana david headshot.jpg)

Sally Seagull Foster is an actor, educator, and writer with experience in Theatre of the Oppressed, writing center administration, primary and higher education, and community and academic theatre. She comes to Naropa from the University of Missouri where she directed the Online Writery, trained writing and learning center tutors, taught courses in creative writing, composition, and learning strategies, performed as Mrs. Wire in Tennessee Williams’ Vieux Carré and Catherine Petkoff in Shaw’s Arms and the Man, and belonged to MU’s Difficult Dialogues performance ensemble. She also wrote and performed The World is Right Wild, a one-woman show based on fragments from Sappho. (Sally Foster headshot.jpg)

Michael Frayne received his B.A. in music composition and guitar from University of California at Santa Cruz in 1995. As a sound designer at LucasArts Entertainment, he designed and produced soundtracks for dozens of games, including Escape from Monkey Island and Knights of the Old Republic. Over the past 10 years he has practiced ritual, poetry, traditional storytelling, song and the Bardic tradition with teachers such as Doug von Koss, Michael Meade, Elizabeth Ellis, Robin Williamson, Malidoma Some, and Robert Bly. In recent years he has performed as a storyteller and singer at men’s gatherings in California and at the Minnesota Men’s Conference. (Michael Frayne headshot.jpg)

Audrey Nadia Jajich began making solo work while she was at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This led her to pursue the solo form, and work and perform with the Rachel Rosenthal Company in Los Angeles.  There, she worked in ensemble and created original work.  She later lived and worked in New York City where she was affiliated with the Franklin Furnace Art Archive and performed in the NYC downtown avant-garde art and butoh genres.  Prior to Naropa, she lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico for three years where she studied with Alan Arkin and Ruth Zaporah.  She was most recently seen as a dancer in Metamorphosis at Wise Fool New México and as a solo monologue artist in Carol Kessler's Vagina Monologues during Spring 2007. (Audrey Jajich headshot.jpg)

Meyung Kim hails from New York City.  She is a director, writer, singer and performer.  This year she performed original songs at Het Bethanienklooster in Amsterdam, Netherlands and at Cornelia Street Cafe and the Open Center in Manhattan. She has directed and performed original shows in NYC at the American Living Room Festival and the NY International Fringe Festival.  She has collaborated and performed with Synaesthetic Theater, Immigrants Theater Project and with Richard Caliban's Cucaracha. She has also performed in NYC at The Culture Project, La MaMa, The Vineyard Theater, Here, NADA, Dance Theater Workshop and Theater for the New City. (Meyung Kim headshot.jpg)

Luke List is a proud Hoosier from Indianapolis, Indiana. In 2006, Luke celebrated the completion of his BA in Theatre from Butler University, while Butler celebrated its sesquicentennial year. While at Butler, Luke had the opportunity to study theatre and ethnomusicology in New Zealand as a Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholar. From this experience he went on to serve in Ukraine with the United States Peace Corps. He has performed with The Susurrus Performance Group, The Indianapolis Civic Theatre, The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, and most recently in the Boulder Fringe Festival. (LukeListHeadshot.jpg)

Nita Mickley, a Boulder native, is an actor, violinist and visual artist who received her undergraduate degree in theater at Barnard College in New York City with a year spent in London at BADA along the way. She has performed and designed works in London, NYC, San Francisco and most recently Los Angeles in theater, film and television. Her interests and training lie in creating theater and performance that is supportive of the actor as fully embodied artist. Teaching, performing, directing and designing are current passions that she plans on continuing into the future with an emphasis on inspiring creativity and expression in others. (nita mickley headshot.jpg)

Barrett Ogden has worked in theatre, film, television, and voice-over. He is a teacher of the Feldenkrais Method and acting.  Barrett haunted English castles with his Shakespearean troupe, trained in Denmark with Odin Teatret, appeared at New York City’s HERE (with Nicolai Kinski) in Nosferatu and as St. John the Divine in Barrabas, at XM Studios in a live commemorative broadcast of The War of the Worlds.   In 1999 Barrett cofounded Handcart Ensemble, a NYC theatre company.  He is thrilled to be attending Naropa’s Contemporary Performance program, and is looking forward to further developing as a collaborative/solo performing artist, director, and teacher. (Barrett Ogden headshot.jpg)

Kathryn Elizabeth Ross was born October 8, 1973 in Kingston, Jamaica.  She earned her BA in English in 1995 from Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire and completed additional training at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Kathryn is licensed as a Professional Educator at the middle and high school levels by the state of Colorado.  Her primary interests lie in areas of directing, dramaturgy, and design for the stage. (Kathryn Ross headshot.jpg)

lisamoyadeva (lisa adeva samoy) comes to boulder by way of new orleans where she danced with ann burr and company, studied contact improvisation with jean jaubert, and was introduced to butoh by vanessa skantze.  lisa is a director, performer, dancer, musician, cook, poet activist.  she has directed and performed in independent theatre in orlando, new orleans, boulder, and is a three-time producer/director of v-day worldwide campaign productions of the vagina monologues by eve ensler.  lisa is also an anti-capitalist and therefore writes in predominantly the lowercase. (lisa samoy headshot.jpg)

Taavo Smith has been variously a sketch comedian, actor, playwright, butoh dancer and clown, but these days is most interested in collaborative original work between forms.  He grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, earned his BA at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and subsequently moved to Chicago, Illinois where he co- founded the performance duo One Continuous Mistake.  Favorite productions include a two-man adaptation of The Three Sisters, an ensemble-directed Endgame, and a collection of his short plays produced in Melbourne as Have/Hold and in Chicago as Many Things Are
Destroying Me. (taavo smith headshot.jpg)

Bradley Spann is an actor and writer. He earned his B.A. in Journalism from Humboldt State University in California. He was a member of the Open Fist Theatre Company in Los Angeles for five years and has worked with The Evidence Room, The Met Theatre Company and The Bookshop Theatre Company. Favorite roles include: Diouf in The Blacks (The Evidence Room); Philoctetes in Philoctetes, Orestes in Song of Joy and Destitution and Armstid in As I Lay Dying (The Open Fist Theatre Company). (Bradley Spann headshot.jpg)

Sharon Stern received her BA from the University of Miami in 2001, and has been performing in South Florida ever since. She appeared in the Florida premiere of the Off-Broadway show, Jewtopia, and performed in the critically acclaimed Stop Kiss, named Best Show of 2004 by the New Times Miami. Sharon also performed for Cirque Productions as a clown and character actress. She was a founding member of Leave ‘Em Laughing Improv Comedy Troupe. Her most recent role was as Pierrot, the sad clown in The Steadfast Tin Soldier, written and directed by Slava Dolgachev of the Moscow Art Theatre. Sharon is also an advanced certified yoga instructor and an avid swing dancer. (Sharon Stern headshot.jpg)

Ben Stuber creates work for the stage that combines acting, modern dance, clown, Ankoku butoh, and capoeira to support the body as both a tool and a palette. Ben's work examines the boundaries between various aesthetics through hybridization and exploration of root commonalities. After receiving his BA in Theater and Dance from Oberlin College, Ben moved to Chicago, Illinois where he worked as a performer and designer with companies such as The Anatomy Collective, Wing and Groove, and Collision Theatre as well as co-founding the performance duo One Continuous Mistake and working as a 2007 Spareroom Artist-In-Residence. (Ben Stuber headshot.jpg)

Chaunesti Webb Lyon is a proud native of Durham, North Carolina where she performed with regional theater companies and worked with a children’s theater.  In addition to performing, Chaunesti is a founding member of New Traditions Theater.  She received her BA in Communication Studies from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.  Favorite roles include: Varya in The Cherry Orchard, Leah in Beautiful Thing, Yvonne in The Story and Karenjune Sanchez in Sonnets for an Old Century.  (Chaunesti Webb Lyon headshot.jpg)