DC Theatre Scene’s 2012 Fringe Crew

Here’s who’s writing this year’s Fringe reviews.

	Amrita Khalid is a film school dropout who moved to DC from Southern California to become “a serious person”–it’s a work in progress. She has covered the local theatre beat for the AU Eagle and the Washington City Paper. She’s made a living as a researcher for Government Executive and National Journal. When she’s not consuming art or news, you can find her at your nearest bikram yoga studio or the Columbia Heights Target.
	Annie Causey is a student at Goucher College. She studies Philosophy and Creative Writing. She reviews books for Goucher College and interns at Writopia Labs. She has directed 2 one-act plays and has previously reviewed high-school productions for the Cappies. She likes The Graduate and Tom Petty.
	Ben Demers is a DC area writer, performer, and sometime communications manager. He has been an avid theater fan since his first terrifying role in a middle school production of Oklahoma. He nurtures his creative urges by playing music on guitar and piano at various DC venues and acting in occasional local productions. When not onstage or sitting in the audience, he works in the legal field, while mulling a career in either public relations, teaching, or cartoon voiceovers.
	Breena Claire Siegel is a DC transplant who has been working in and writing about the local art scene since her arrival. She is a film festival and performing arts festival junkie having worked for two local film festivals, Silverdocs and the Washington Jewish Film Festival. When not writing about amazing local theatre she’s usually munching on some fresh greens and biking on her blue bike.
	T. Chase Meacham Chase is a junior at Georgetown University, studying theatre and government. He is a writer, director and performer, with a penchant for activism and unfortunate interest in American politics (the close cousin to American drama). Outside of the theater, Chase enjoys coffee and Apple products.
	Christian Barclay is a writer, editor, and recovering drama major. She has a B.F.A. in Drama from Syracuse University and an M.A. in Arts Journalism. She enjoys dancing in dive bars, meandering through museums, and eating her way around the city.
	Debbie Minter Jackson is a writer and has been a 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.
	Hunter Styles is the Artistic Director of Artists’ Bloc, a DC-based non-profit hosting workshop events for theatre and dance projects in development. He has worked closely as both a director and playwright with Forum Theatre, Rorschach Theatre, Studio Theatre 2ndStage, Factory 449, Theater J, Synetic Theater, Georgetown University, American University, and others. He received a 2012 Helen Hayes Awards nomination (Outstanding Director of a Resident Musical) for his work on POP! at Studio Theatre 2ndStage. He is a staff member at The Studio Theatre, a company member with Factory 449, and writes for American Theatre magazine.
	John Bavoso is a DC-based journalist, copywriter, editor, and blogger who writes on topics ranging from politics and celebrity to queer issues and international affairs — often in the same day. He earned an MA in gender, human rights, and African studies from American University to make his BA in English and Government from The College of William & Mary look practical. His favorite non-Ryan-Gosling-themed Tumblr is Animals Talking in All Caps, he enjoys making unnecessarily long and excessively random themed playlists, and people who don’t enjoy sweets mildly terrify him.
	Julia Katz is a theatre student at Virginia Tech. This year, she’ll be directing and producing “freshman 15/life in transition” at the Fringe and trying to juggle a few different jobs as well, leading to quite the nomadic summer.
	Kelly McCorkendale is an international development professional, avid quilter, and occassional creative writer. After college, she realized poets weren’t in demand, so she shipped off to Madagascar. Since then, she’s found a niche working on malaria, nutrition, and health systems projects but has a long-list of life tasks yet to be fulfilled–such as perform blackmail, learn a trade, and become a competitive eater. She has an MA in International Education, and, in high school, won the best supporting actress honor for the state of Missouri.
	Larry Bangs has both a B.A. and an M.A. in Theatre and many years of experience acting and directing in church basements, retrofitted art galleries and such — including The New Playwrights Theatre which performed during the 70’s in the space currently occupied by the Keegan Theatre Company. His life as a theatrical critic is about to come to a screeching halt as he has taken a very exciting consulting position that will entail a relocation to Cape Town, South Africa. Good-bye DC Theatre Scene, Hello big adventure in Africa!
	Lisa Chiu is a DC based journalist and writer and a first-time reviewer of Capital Fringe. She holds an MA in China Studies from the University of Washington and an MA in journalism from American University. She had the experience of a lifetime witnessing Quentin Tarantino at work as an extra on the set of “Kill Bill Volume 1,” and was part of the long tracking shot in the ‘House of the Blue Leaves’.
	Michael Beeman is a writer, reviewer, and theater-goer who holds an MFA from the University of Southern Maine. His book reviews appear regularly in Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and ForeWord Reviews. He has recently placed short fiction in the Sewanee Review, Necessary Fiction, and the South Carolina Review, among other journals. He is also a prose editor for DC’s own Big Lucks magazine. Originally from New England, he now lives in Washington, DC, where he is an enthusiastic volunteer at Dave Eggers’ non-profit tutoring center 826DC.
	Missy Frederick is a freelance theatre critic for Washingtonian. She was previously the founding theatre critic and arts editor for DCist.com, where she spearheaded the site’s comprehensive Fringe Festival coverage. Her work there earned her the National Endowment of the Arts fellowship in theatre journalism in 2008. Missy is also a reporter for the Washington Business Journal, where she covers arts business, restaurants, retail, hotels and tourism. Her obsessions include swordfights, elaborate cooking projects, Aaron Sorkin, and “Chess” the musical.
	Peter Timko is a copywriter from Charlottesville, VA. He occasionally writes about music for the internet and hosts a show on community radio called 20,000 Leagues Under DC. His theater career peaked playing the role of Tom Snout in a 6th-grade production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Reviews were mixed.
	Rebekah Nettekoven Tello is a DC area theatre practitioner in dramaturgy, costumes, education and new plays. She has a B.A in Theatre from Cedarville University and a M.A. in Theatre History and Criticism from The Catholic University of America. Her extra-theatrical loves include repurposing just about anything into clothing or accessories and dancing the nights away.
	Robert Duffley is a rising senior at Georgetown University, studying English, Theater, and Japanese. He is the associate producer of Georgetown’s Nomadic Theatre company. His favorite plays include “The Flu Season,” “References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot,” and “Therese Raquin.”
	Rosalind Lacy Rosalind Lacy MacLennan, who hails from Los Angeles, has enjoyed writing for DCTheatreScene since 2006. A 20-year journalism veteran, with newspapers such as the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette, Rosalind won a MD-DC press award for the Montgomery Journal in 1999. Since Rosalind’s heady days training and performing professionally in summer stock out of New York City, Rosalind has taught drama in high school, directed and acted in community theaters, and is the proud mother of three young adults. Still an avid theater nut, Rosalind is a former board member of www.Footlightsdc.org, and an aficianada of Spanish theater history.
	Ross Preston returns for his second year of reviewing Fringe plays … and this time it’s personal. When he is not taking the blogosphere by storm with his incisive reviews, Ross is a copywriter for a new start-up called TroopSwap. A 2010 graduate of Grinnell College with a degree in English, Ross is living proof that you can do many fun things in life by saying that, while you don’t exactly have the most formal training, you did major in English at Grinnell College.
	Stephanie McGill is currently working on her B.A. in Drama from The Catholic University of America where she participated this past spring in several productions, including The Crucible. She lives in McLean Virginia and enjoys horseback riding, reading, and attending shows.
	Steve Hallex has covered various elements of art and culture since 1997. He joined DCTS during the 2011 Fringe Festival and has been enjoying it ever since. When he’s not reviewing plays, he tries to make a living as a freelance writer in Falls Church.
	Tim Treanor, Senior Writer, member, DCTS Board of Directors. Since 2005, Tim has written over 400 reviews and numerous news articles, features and interviews for DCTS. He has been a member of the American Theater Critics Association since 2009 and sits on its Executive and New Plays committees. He is also a fellow of the National Critics Institute, run by the O’Neill Theater Center. His interactive murder mystery,Murder in Elsinore, enjoyed a brief run in 2003. By day he is a trial lawyer for the Federal government. He lives with his dear bride, Lorraine, in a log house in the woods of Southern Maryland.
	Travis Andrews is a weekend editor of NBC’s DVICE.com, work with the Washingtonian and Brightest Young Things and prefer my bananas on the green side. My life put simply: David Foster Wallace is my hero, The Hold Steady is my band, the New Orleans Saints is my team, whiskey is my drink, running is my sport, AP is my style and writing fiction is my hobby. There’s an underground pool going on how long until I get carpel tunnel from all my time spent behind a keyboard. Painfully annoying paragraphs like this are my specialty.
	Victoria Durham is a DC-based writer, spoken word poet and graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia where she earned degrees in Film and African-American Studies. She’s worked as a production coordinator on a ton of artsy fartsy indie flicks, but has also worked for companies you’ve heard of like Fox and BET. She’s a self-proclaimed foodie, aspiring thrill-seeker and is currently hard at work on her first full-length play.