Creative Team

Benjamin Kunkel (Playwright) is the author of Indecision, a novel, and Utopia or Bust, a collection of political essays. He writes frequently for The London Review of Books and is a founding editor of n+1 magazine. Buzz was first produced in 2011, under a different title, at the theater La Tertulia in Buenos Aires. The play was published earlier this year by n+1 books and excerpted in the July 2014 issue of Harper’s.

Lian Walden (Director) is a theatre director specializing in experiential design and immersive storytelling. She ran a community theater program for several years in Buenos Aires, where she also directed the world premiere of Buzz. Favorite past productions include Wandering Whimsy, a performance installation staged in an abandoned mansion on Governor’s Island (FIGMENT festival); Artichoke Hearts: A Fabulous Destiny, an original adaptation of the film Amélie, staged in an outdoor tent (Hangar Theatre); With Two Wings (Hangar KIDStuff); The Precipice, an aerial and dance infused jazz opera produced by Grateful Dead founder Bob Weir (Z Space); Jose Rivera’s References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot (Yale OBT). Lian has worked at A.C.T., Berkeley Rep, and the Yale Repertory Theatre and is currently the Artistic Director apprentice for The Woodshed Collective. She is an alum of the Drama League Director’s Project and Yale University.

Christopher Ash (Scenic/Lighting/Projection Design). Recent credits: scenic/projections Testament of Mary (Chicago Victory Gardens), projections La Traviata  (Lyric Opera of Chicago), Marie Antoinette (SOHO Rep), scenery The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls (Yale Rep.), production and lighting design for Amanda Palmer’s music video Bedsong.  Awards and nominations: Joseph Jefferson, After Dark, LA Ovation among others. MFA Yale School of Drama.  www.ChristopherAsh.com

Seth Bodie (Costume Design) is a freelance designer and theatre educator who is very excited to be working on Buzz with this great group of collaborators. Recently, for Yale Rep: Owners by Carol Churchill. For Commonwealth Shakespeare Company: Coriolanus and All’s Well That Ends Well. A New England Yankee born and bred (by way of Reggio Di Calabria and Wales,) Seth has had the pleasure of designing and teaching for institutions like The Boston Arts Academy, New England Conservatory, Suffolk University, and most recently, Brooklyn Children’s Theatre; he has repeatedly worked with companies such as Actors Shakespeare Project, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Lyric Stage of Boston, Stoneham Theatre, The Boston Early Music Festival, The Handel and Haydn Society and Opera Boston. For more information, visit www.sethbodie.com.

Steven Brush (Sound Design) is an award-winning composer and sound designer working in theater, film and video games. He is a two-time winner of the Best Orchestration award at the Garden State Film Festival first for his score to the short animated film Wally and Zip in 2012 and again for his music in Star Trek Phoenix: Cloak and Dagger in 2013. His score for the short film Dolci was nominated for best music at the 2012 Action on Film Festival. His theatre credits include A Streetcar Named Desire (Yale Rep), The Cat and the Canary (Berkshire Theatre Festival), Hedda Gabler, Bird Fire Fly, Lottie in the Late Afternoon, and Iphigenia Among the Stars (Yale School of Drama); Radio Hour, Derivatives, Tartuffe, Ain’t Gonna Make It, Ermentrude and Esmerelda, The Ugly One (Yale Cabaret); The Last Witch, The Mystery Pays, and The Love Talker (University of Washington). He has his MFA in Sound Design from Yale School of Drama where he was awarded the Frieda Shaw, Dr. Diana Mason OBE, and Denise Suttor Prize in Sound Design.

Marthe Hoffmann (Associate Scenic Designer) is a third year MFA candidate studying Scenic Design at Boston University. She is interested in work that helps promote cross cultural healing through an appreciation of global citizenship, and is very excited to have been part of the team on this important project. Recent design credits: an original adaptation of An Enemy of the People as a site specific response to the chemical spill in Charleston, WV; and at Williamstown Theatre Festival: Mad Forest and Odile’s Ordeal. Boston University credits include Big Love, A Delicate Balance, The Penelopiad, Camille, and Antigone. In 2013, she was the Scenic Design Fellow at the Hangar Theatre where she was part of the team to devise and design new works. Also at the Hangar: A Year with Frog and Toad, With Two Wings and James and the Giant Peach.

Lanie Zipoy (Producer) is a Memphis-born, New York-based producer. Her site-specific and unconventional work includes Crystal Skillman’s Follow, performed in an East Village apartment; Rosemary Moore’s Side Street, performed in a recreated living room, and Mari Brown’s 23 Feet in 12 Minutes in a New Orleans’ church. Lanie’s other credits include Laura Marks’ Bethany, starring America Ferrera (Associate Producer, Women’s Project Theater, Two Lucille Lortel nominations); Mac Rogers’ Universal Robots (Manhattan Theatre Source, ITBA’s 2009 Best Off-Off Broadway Play and four New York Innovative Theatre Awards nominations, including Outstanding Production); Jelena Kajgo’s Realists (HERE, US Premiere); Martin Blank’s The Law of Return (4th Street Theatre, NY Premiere), Michael Niederman’s The Riverside Symphony (Planet Connections Theatre Festivity, nominated for 7 festival awards, including Outstanding Overall Production), and the Brooklyn premiere of Caroline, or Change (nominated for the New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Musical). For more information, visit www.laniezipoy.com.