LAURA SHEEDY
Artistic Director
Director, Performer
Laura Sheedy is a performer and director from Melbourne, Australia, currently based in New York. Laura was a founding member of The Other Tongue performing in Face2Face (Melb. Comedy Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival) and Speaking in Thongs (Melbourne International Comedy Festival). She also co-founded physical clown duo A Scam and a Strongman, making the shows A Scam and a Strongman, Spoilt and Short Straw (Melboure International Comedy Festival and the Melbourne Fringe Festival Green Room Award nomination). Laura has trained with Anne Bogart and the SITI Company in New York since 2000 (Ian Potter Cultural Trust Grant) and has been teaching Viewpoints, both in Australia and New York, since 2001. She has a solo show, Undercover (Melbourne Fringe Festival) and has directed solo works by Kirsty Fraser, Miss Behave, Captain Frodo, Amy G and Kurt Braunohler. Laura has been a directorial advisor to such companies and artists as Circus Oz, La Clique, La La Parlour and Suitcase Royale, Kate Neal and Wally Gunn. Laura has performed with the Wau Wau Sisters both in NY and at the Sydney Opera House. In February 2012, Laura along with SITI Company’s Barney O’Hanlon, presented a creative development showing of a new work, Communication Over Distance, at the World Theatre Festival in Brisbane. In May 2012, Laura directed Chuck Mee Jr’s Big Love for La Trobe University and in December, performed in Ann Hamilton/SITI Company’s collaboration, The Event of A Thread at the Park Ave Armory. In 2012 and 2013, Laura performed in Adrienne Truscott’s Too Freedom at The Kitchen Theatre and Abrons Arts Center, respectively. Laura was Assistant Director to Anne Bogart for SITI Company’s newest work, Steel Hammer for the 38th Humana Festival.
SPENCER EVANS
Performer
Spencer Evans is primarily an actor. He is also an early morning writer, a rock star around a campfire, and an irreverent and ecstatic dancer when the mood strikes. His family has encouraged him to pursue a career in stand-up comedy but he has yet to be so bold, though he does often keep them in stitches during holiday meals. Developing characters in collaborative settings has been a long-held strength of his creative process. He thinks that some of our most powerful stories can be told without words and the intersection of movement, music and context can create the necessary framework for narrative to take form. He also likes fruit pies. And strong coffee. Spencer started to perform in school plays in southern California in the third grade and only looked back for a couple of years in his early thirties when it looked like he was on a crash course with starvation. Thankfully, he avoided an early departure from what Tennessee Williams once called ‘this unfathomable experience of ours’ and has since found a healthier balance between creative output and traditional income. Some of the institutions and individuals to whom he credits his personal development are: The University of California at Santa Cruz, SITI Company, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, James Aitken’s Invisible Circus, the mean streets of New York and San Francisco, The Z Space/Word for Word, ODC/San Francisco, T. Schreiber Studios, SENS Productions, Johanna Haigood, Sean Riley, and David Szlasa.
Laura Sheedy is a performer and director from Melbourne, Australia, currently based in New York. Laura was a founding member of The Other Tongue performing in Face2Face (Melb. Comedy Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival) and Speaking in Thongs (Melbourne International Comedy Festival). She also co-founded physical clown duo A Scam and a Strongman, making the shows A Scam and a Strongman, Spoilt and Short Straw (Melboure International Comedy Festival and the Melbourne Fringe Festival Green Room Award nomination). Laura has trained with Anne Bogart and the SITI Company in New York since 2000 (Ian Potter Cultural Trust Grant) and has been teaching Viewpoints, both in Australia and New York, since 2001. She has a solo show, Undercover (Melbourne Fringe Festival) and has directed solo works by Kirsty Fraser, Miss Behave, Captain Frodo, Amy G and Kurt Braunohler. Laura has been a directorial advisor to such companies and artists as Circus Oz, La Clique, La La Parlour and Suitcase Royale, Kate Neal and Wally Gunn. Laura has performed with the Wau Wau Sisters both in NY and at the Sydney Opera House. In February 2012, Laura along with SITI Company’s Barney O’Hanlon, presented a creative development showing of a new work, Communication Over Distance, at the World Theatre Festival in Brisbane. In May 2012, Laura directed Chuck Mee Jr’s Big Love for La Trobe University and in December, performed in Ann Hamilton/SITI Company’s collaboration, The Event of A Thread at the Park Ave Armory. In 2012 and 2013, Laura performed in Adrienne Truscott’s Too Freedom at The Kitchen Theatre and Abrons Arts Center, respectively. Laura was Assistant Director to Anne Bogart for SITI Company’s newest work, Steel Hammer for the 38th Humana Festival.
Performer
Spencer Evans is primarily an actor. He is also an early morning writer, a rock star around a campfire, and an irreverent and ecstatic dancer when the mood strikes. His family has encouraged him to pursue a career in stand-up comedy but he has yet to be so bold, though he does often keep them in stitches during holiday meals. Developing characters in collaborative settings has been a long-held strength of his creative process. He thinks that some of our most powerful stories can be told without words and the intersection of movement, music and context can create the necessary framework for narrative to take form. He also likes fruit pies. And strong coffee. Spencer started to perform in school plays in southern California in the third grade and only looked back for a couple of years in his early thirties when it looked like he was on a crash course with starvation. Thankfully, he avoided an early departure from what Tennessee Williams once called ‘this unfathomable experience of ours’ and has since found a healthier balance between creative output and traditional income. Some of the institutions and individuals to whom he credits his personal development are: The University of California at Santa Cruz, SITI Company, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, James Aitken’s Invisible Circus, the mean streets of New York and San Francisco, The Z Space/Word for Word, ODC/San Francisco, T. Schreiber Studios, SENS Productions, Johanna Haigood, Sean Riley, and David Szlasa.
WALLY GUNN
Composer
Wally Gunn is from a rural town in Australia's southeast. He first began making music in his early teens, writing on a Casiotone for his electronic dance band, which never played a gig. After high school, he moved to Melbourne to join rock bands, and spent several years writing songs and gigging around the country. A little later, he enrolled in the Victorian College of the Arts composition program. After graduating with honors, Wally worked with friends and fellow composers Kate Neal and Biddy Connor in Dead Horse Productions to stage concerts of their own and other contemporary composers' new music in warehouses, underground parking lots, cinemas, and other unusual spaces. He also composed original music for several Melbourne theatre companies, including The Eleventh Hour, The Shrimp Company, Itch Productions and Platform Youth Theatre, and contributed songs to cabaret star Wes Snelling's autobiographical show Kiosk. Wally moved to New York in 2008 to begin a masters in composition at the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Julia Wolfe. Since relocating, Wally has composed original music for Manhattan company The Actors Company Theatre and has become a company member of Brooklyn-based theater company Nothing To See Here, under the artistic direction of Laura Sheedy. Wally's concert music has been performed in Australia by The Dead Horse Ensemble, Three Shades Black, Speak Percussion, Atticus String Quartet and Silo String Quartet, and in the US by Riley Lee, Mobius Percussion Quartet, So Percussion, Dither Guitar Quartet, Roomful of Teeth, futureCities, and Red Shift. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University.
Composer
Wally Gunn is from a rural town in Australia's southeast. He first began making music in his early teens, writing on a Casiotone for his electronic dance band, which never played a gig. After high school, he moved to Melbourne to join rock bands, and spent several years writing songs and gigging around the country. A little later, he enrolled in the Victorian College of the Arts composition program. After graduating with honors, Wally worked with friends and fellow composers Kate Neal and Biddy Connor in Dead Horse Productions to stage concerts of their own and other contemporary composers' new music in warehouses, underground parking lots, cinemas, and other unusual spaces. He also composed original music for several Melbourne theatre companies, including The Eleventh Hour, The Shrimp Company, Itch Productions and Platform Youth Theatre, and contributed songs to cabaret star Wes Snelling's autobiographical show Kiosk. Wally moved to New York in 2008 to begin a masters in composition at the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Julia Wolfe. Since relocating, Wally has composed original music for Manhattan company The Actors Company Theatre and has become a company member of Brooklyn-based theater company Nothing To See Here, under the artistic direction of Laura Sheedy. Wally's concert music has been performed in Australia by The Dead Horse Ensemble, Three Shades Black, Speak Percussion, Atticus String Quartet and Silo String Quartet, and in the US by Riley Lee, Mobius Percussion Quartet, So Percussion, Dither Guitar Quartet, Roomful of Teeth, futureCities, and Red Shift. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University.
