2009 Fringe Reviewers

Introducing our Crew of Reviewers – Look for them around the Fringe

Anna Brungardt

Anna Brungardt is a recent graduate from the Catholic University of America, where she studied Theater and German.  Originally from Kansas City, Anna is the embodiment of the transplanted midwesterner; she adores big city living yet longs for a simpler life of picnics, pie-making, and neighborly gossip.  She loves to incorporate elements of the abstract and transcendental into her life, her performances as an actor, and her writing.

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Ben Demers

Ben Demers, a Baltimore native, has been a theater enthusiast since a young age. He studied drama and voice at Vassar College, performing in numerous plays, musicals, and operas. By day, he is a legal assistant in a DC law firm, and in his spare time, he enjoys debating the artistic merits of horror movies, tearing up the dance floor, and performing music on guitar and piano. He is thrilled to experience all the dynamic, exciting theater that DC has to offer.

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Caitlin DeMerlis

Caitlin is a graduate of the George Washington University where she received her BA in Dramatic Literature, with a minor in theatre and concentrated study in both Philosophy and creative writing.  At GW, Caitlin was very active in both music and theatre, and wishes to  continue to pursue those passions in DC.  As an aspiring playwright, Caitlin is looking forward to exploring the District’s theatre scene in any way she can, and additionally, hopes to discover new writing endeavors along the way.

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Christopher Jones

Christopher Jones is an actor, writer, and comedian roaming the streets of Baltimore, MD.  A passion for writing and reading fueled his degree in English while he is also an avid theater goer and participant.  At Dartmouth College, he was president of the improvisational comedy troupe the Dog Day Players, sang, and acted in numerous theater productions.  While pursuing a professional career in acting and writing for the screen and stage, he’s always on the lookout for exciting new theater experiences in the Baltimore and DC areas.

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Courtney Ulrich

Courtney Ulrich is a student at Georgetown University studying Theater and Performance Studies and Anthropology, with a passion for writing and directing. Having spent her formative years in London, she has finally returned to the motherland, finding a home and family in DC. She likes to explore the district through photography, food, and theater.

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Danielle Martin

Danielle Martin: teaches the creative arts around town, sees and makes theatre both here and in Philly, and is in between graduate school programs. Last year she finished up her MA in Theatre History and Criticism at CUA and is heading up to Boston very soon to begin an MA in Arts in Education at Harvard.

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David Winkler

David Winkler is a founding artistic associate of 1st Stage in Tysons Corner, and a recent graduate of Northwestern University, where he studied theatre and psychology.  Having grown up in the Washington metro area before living in Chicago, he is thrilled to be a new contributor to the theatre scene in DC, as well as to DC Theatre Scene.  In addition to acting and directing, David spends the brunt of his time armchair philosophizing, fabricating stories about himself, taking long walks on the banks of the river Seine, and combating gang violence in Thailand.

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Debbie Minter Jackson

Debbie Minter Jackson is a writer and performer in musical theater for 30+ years.   Originally from Chicago, she has performed throughout the Washington, D.C. area including the Kennedy Center in productions with the legendary Mike Malone.  Her scripts have been commissioned and produced by Source Theater, throughout Washington, D.C. and New York, and she is a member of Footlights and the Black Women Playwrights’ Group which is celebrating its 20th Anniversary this year.  By day she happily works in a federal public health agency as a Senior Program Analyst.

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Greg Marzullo

Greg Marzullo is an actor in the DC area and founding member of the Helen Hayes Award-winning Synetic Theater, which seeks to advance and enrich the theater arts through its unique performance style that fuses classical elements of drama, movement, dance, mime, and music into a distinct form of surreal theater. He recently completed his 200-hour yoga teacher training certification at Flow Yoga Center and now teaches yoga at several locations in DC and Maryland.  Greg also regularly studies bellydancing and practices Tarantella, an ecstatic dance tradition of Southern Italy.

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Hunter Styles

Hunter Styles returns for a second season of Fringe reviewing fresh from assistant directing gigs with Theater J (Theodore Bikel’s Sholom Aleichem: Laughter Through Tears), Georgetown University (Lysistrata, in collaboration with Synetic Theater) and Rorschach Theatre (1001). A graduate of Georgetown University’s Theater and Performance Studies program, Hunter is a staff member at The Studio Theatre and a founding member of the Angry Young Theatre Company. He hopes you enjoy Fringe as much as he will.

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Jessica Pearson

Jessica Pearson is a recent graduate of the CUA Drama program. As she hales from the Eastern Shore of MD, she loves boats and seafood, but always feels like there is nothing to do. This may explain why she writes, directs, acts, teaches, stage manages, and will do pretty much anything at least once.

not here

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Joel Markowitz

Joel writes the DCTS column ‘Theatre Schmooze’ and podcasts local, Philadelphia and NYC actors and directors. In 1990, Joel founded The Ushers Theatre Going Social Group  in the DC area and leads groups on theatre weekends to NYC.  Joel is a fan of Stephen Sondheim, William Finn, Jason Robert Brown and Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, and is a huge supporter of children’s theatre.

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Josh Fixler

Josh Fixler works as an educator at Temple B’nai Shalom, a Reform synagogue in Fairfax Station, VA.  He is also an associate for JFFixler & Associates, a consulting firm that provides volunteer engagement strategies to nonprofits around North America.  When Josh is not teaching or consulting, he loves exploring the DC arts scene, and he blogs about inexpensive DC arts and culture at www.districtbeat.com.  Josh is thrilled to have recently become a resident of the Truxton Circle neighborhood in Northwest, DC.

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Marcia Kirtland

Marcia Kirtland, originally from Chicago, has lived and worked in the DC area long enough to have enjoyed watching the DC Theater scene expand and mature.  As a theatre student, an actor, and someone who has been mesmerized by theater since experiencing her first live performance at about age eight, she is very pleased to be able to expand her own theatrical horizon by reviewing shows for the 2009 Fringe Festival.

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Miranda Hall

Miranda Hall is a student at Georgetown University studying Theater and Performance Studies, English, and French. A Baltimore native, she has come to love DC as a runner, poet, and cupcake scavenger. Her work as a performer and director fuels her writing. The Audible Group and the Capital Fringe really strike her fancy.

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Maureen O’Rourke

Maureen O’Rourke, or Mo as she is known to friends and foes alike, is a junior at the Catholic University of America studying Drama and English. She enjoys theater that is densely macabre and painfully hilarious in the same stroke. In addition, she possesses a particular fanciful fondness for alliteration.

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Philip Fletcher

Philip Fletcher, an actor in the DC area, just concluded his seventh season working with Synetic Theater. Through his work with Synetic, Philip has been nominated five times and won twice for Helen Hayes Outstanding Ensemble, and he received a Helen Hayes Outstanding Supporting Actor Award for his portrayal of a witch in Macbeth. Philip was also a featured artist for Community Dance Connection Theatre’s 2006 Love on a Shoestring production in Lexington Virginia.

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Steven McKnight

Steven McKnight is a recovering lawyer who now works in a lobbying firm
and enjoys the drama of political theatre on both sides of the aisle.
He admires authors, actors, athletes, teachers, and chefs, and has
dabbled in all of those roles with mixed (and occasionally hilarious)
results.

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Tim Treanor

He’s been writing for DCTS for nearly four years. Before that, he acted a bit. He’s got a play about Dracula and a novel in the works about population control through infectious diseases. By day, he’s a DC trial lawyer whose shoes are stuffed with Pablo Neruda poems.

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Tsvi Kahn

Tzvi Kahn is a writer and editor living in D.C. He drinks lots of coffee, makes excellent General Tso’s chicken, and likes to use the word “constitute.” When he’s not at the theater, he’s telling dreadful corny jokes to his very patient friends.