The Team

Playwright & Director

 

    • Robert Cohen

      Playwright

      Founding Chair of Drama at the University of California at Irvine, Robert Cohen now holds that campus’ title of Claire Trevor Professor. He is, in roughly equal measure, a director, playwright, translator, drama critic, acting theorist and acting teacher, but is most widely known as the author of a dozen-plus books and three dozen-plus articles on acting, directing and theatre — including Acting One, for the last two decades the best-selling acting text in the United States.

      In addition to his regular teaching at UCI, Cohen has served as master teacher at the Actors Center in New York City
      and at TVI Studios in New York and Los Angeles; he also speaks and conducts workshops regularly around the country and abroad, with recent residencies in Korea, China, Hungary, Finland, Estonia, Sweden, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Canada, Romania, Australia, and in at least half of the states in the U.S.

      UCI awarded Cohen its highest honor, the UCI Medal, in 1993, and conferred on him a Clair Trevor Professorship and Bren Fellowship in 2001. In 1999 he received the Career Achievement Award in Academic Theatre from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, and in subsequent years he has been awarded the Honoris Causa Professor degree at Babes-Bolyai University in Romania and the Polish Medal of Honor in Wroclaw.

      • Bryan Reynolds

        Director

        Bryan Reynolds is Chancellor’s Professor of Drama at the University of California-Irvine, USA. Raised in Scarsdale, New York, he received his BA at the University of California-Berkeley and his PhD at Harvard University, both in English and American Literature. He has held visiting professorships at the University of London-Queen Mary, University of Amsterdam, Utrecht University, University of Cologne, University College Utrecht, Goethe University Frankfurt, the University of California-San Diego, and the American University of Beirut; and he has taught seminars and workshops at Deleuze Camp, The Grotowski Institute, Live Lactic Culture (Laban Theatre), the Gdańsk International Shakespeare Festival, The Freedom Theatre, among other academic and arts institutions.

        He is the Artistic Director of the Amsterdam-based Transversal Theater Company, a director of theater, a performer, and a playwright, whose plays have been produced in the United States, Europe, and Asia, at such venues as the Gdańsk International Shakespeare Festival, the Romanian National Theatre Festival, the Sibiu International Performing Arts Festival, and the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU).

        His academic books include Transversal Subjects: From Montaigne to Deleuze after Derrida, Transversal Enterprises in the Drama of Shakespeare and his Contemporaries: Fugitive Explorations, Performing Transversally: Reimagining Shakespeare and the Critical Future, and Becoming Criminal: Transversal Performance and Cultural Dissidence in Early Modern England. And he is editor of Performance Studies: Key Words, Concepts, and Theories (forthcoming 2014), and coeditor of The Return of Theory in Early Modern English Studies: Tarrying with the Subjunctive, Volumes I & II, Critical Responses to Kiran Desai, Rematerializing Shakespeare: Authority and Representation on the Early Modern English Stage, and Shakespeare Without Class: Misappropriations of Cultural Capital. He is also co-general editor of a book series, Performance Interventions, from Palgrave Macmillan. He is currently writing a book, with Mark LeVine, on performance activism in the Middle East and Africa.

        • Anne-May de Lijser

          Choreographer

          Anne-May de LijserSince her graduation at the Rotterdam Dance Academy in 2004, Anne-May has been working with several dance and theatre companies, choreographers and directors, such as Elshout/Handeler, Jakob Ahlbom, Gerard Mosterd, Meekers, Theatergroep ZEP, The Dutch Factory and Dansmakers Amsterdam. In 2009/2010, after working for 6 years as a dancer/performer, she studied acting at the Acteursschool Amsterdam en the AHK, Mimeschool Amsterdam. Currently she works as a dancer on a dance duet of Dansmakers Amsterdam and as an actress with The Dutch Factory, performing ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and ‘Romeo and Juliet’, directed by Tim Carroll (Royal Shakespeare Company, The Globe Theatre).
          In 2013 she worked for the first time with Transversal Theater, performing ‘Railroad’. This year she will be creating a new version of ‘Fracatlicious’ with Bryan Renolds, to be followed by an international tour.
          Anne-May has acted in several televion series and films, such as ‘Soy Tu Fan’ (Argentina), ‘Smeris’ (The Netherlands), ‘Glass’ (The Netherlands), ‘Soof’ (The Netherlands). In september two films in which she acts will be shown at the NFF (Nederlands Film Festival): the One Night Stand film ‘Arezo’ and the short film ‘Hybris’.
          As a choreographer she has created pieces such as ‘Paradox of Oneness’ (2003) ‘Shine’ (2004) , ‘Naturaleza’  (2009) and ‘Infans’ (2011). An important part of her work are improvisations and co-creations with artists from different cultures and disciplines. She collaborated with artists such as Ron Bunzl (The Netherlands), Estas Tonne (Mexico), Pajarin Saavedra (Argentina) and Ernst Reijsiger. Anne-May also teaches Vyayam, an Indian vedic martial art.

           

          Production

           

            • Oscar Seip

              Producer

              Oscar Seip holds a bachelor in Theater Studies and two master degrees from the University of Amsterdam in Theatre Studies (MA) and Art Studies (rMA). He has worked on intercultural theater, rituals and cultural cognition; combining academic work with practical work. He is currently exploring the role of theatre in the development of early modern scientific, artistic and academic practices. For his research he has been awarded two scholarships by the Royal Dutch Institute in Rome, and a short-term fellowship by the Dutch University Institute for Art History in Florence. At this moment he is finishing his master Cultural and Intellectual History (1300-1650) at the Warburg Institute in London and will commence a PhD in 2015 at the University of Manchester in combination with the John Rylands Research Institute. Since 2008 he has worked with Bryan Reynolds on all European Transversal Theater productions and was an organizing partner in a two-year European funded Grundtvig theatre exchange project with partners from Belgium, Sweden, Italy and Greece.

              • Miguel Valle

                Head Stage Manager

                Miguel Vale, 23 years of age, graduated in Theatre (BA Acting) in ESAD.CR – IPL, in Portugal in 2013. He has been working in the Theater since he started his university studies and, in particular with TRANSVERSAL since 2012 – producing, directing and acting in Bryan Reynold’s “Fractalicious” and in an adaptation of Shakespeare´s “Titus Andronicus”. The past year, Miguel has worked on mostly performance/installation with KARNART C.P.O.A.A. (Lisbon) and experimental theatre with Primeiros Sintomas (Lisbon) as an actor, technical manager and stage manager.

                  • Lonnie Rafael Alcaraz

                    Lighting Designer

                    Lonnie Rafael Alcaraz is a Professor at UC Irvine in California and a professional lighting designer. He has designed at various regional theatres in the US, such as The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Repertory, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Sierra Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, Laguna Playhouse, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Pasadena Playhouse, The Great River Shakespeare Festival, Utah Shakespearean Festival, Syracuse Stage, Arizona Theatre Company and East West Players. Lonnie has a long standing relationship with Culture Clash having designed The Birds at both South Coast Repertory and Berkeley Repertory; Culture Clash in AmeriCCa at South Coast Repertory and San Diego Repertory; and their national touring show, Radio Mambo. Lonnie is an Associate Artist with critically acclaimed Cornerstone Theater Company which has given him the opportunity to create site-specific lighting designs throughout California. Lonnie is also the Resident Designer for Transversal Theatre Company where he has designed for international tours in Romania and Poland.  In addition to his theatrical experience, Lonnie designed for Universal Studios Islands of Adventure’s Lost Continent Island and for Universal Studios, Japan, where he designed the live shows Terminator 2 in 3D, and Monster Makeup, the attractions Jurassic Park the Ride and Snoopy Studios, along with exterior architectural facades throughout the park. He is a member of the United Scenic Artist /IATSE – Local 829.

                    • Teunis Ruiten

                      Set Designer

                      Teunis Ruiten, born in 1989 in the Noord-Oostpolder, grew up in Urk. When he was in high school he also studied to get a costumier degree. After this he moved to Amsterdam to study Scenography at the Theatre School. During his education he did internships in Belgium for the costume designer Marrit van der Burgt and later on for the Nationale Reisopera working for costume designer Rien Bekkers. Different projects during his four year bachelor education gave him the opportunity to work with the dance company Dansgroep Amsterdam and for the theatre festival Oerol. His work is more than once defined by a very thin separation between autonomous artwork and theatre. More or less his work represents profound aspects of his personal life, his own story. He translates this into poetic imagery that shows us his love for costume design.

                      • David Backovsky

                        Sound Design & Production, Video Design

                        David Backovsky is a Czech sound designer and filmmaker. He has been working for the Transversal Theater Company creating sound and video designs for several performances, including Romeo & Juliet (2011), Fractalicious! (2011-),Titus Andronicus (2012), Railroad (2013). He has also produced and directed several short films including an adaptation of Milan Kundera’s The Hitchhiking Game and is currently working on a film in-production entitled Feasting with Bryan Reynolds (2014-).

                          • Joel Zwaan

                            Sound Design, Music Composition & Production

                            Joël Zwaan studied philosophy, literature and music in Utrecht and Hong Kong. As a composer, musician and sound engineer, he has worked on several theatre and film productions.

                              • Shira Wolfe

                                Costume Designer

                                Shira Wolfe is an Amsterdam based American-Dutch costume designer, actress, associate producer, editor, event planner and translator. She graduated cum laude from University College Utrecht in 2013, majoring in Art History, Literature and Performing Arts. Since 2011 she has been collaborating with the Transversal Theater Company. She has participated on several productions with the company, including Romeo and Juliet (actress-Juliet, 2011), Titus Andronicus (costume designer, 2012) and Bzzap! (costume designer and actress, 2014). In 2013 she was promoted to associate producer of Transversal Theater.

                                  • Laila Burane

                                    Costume Designer

                                    Laila Burane is a Latvian theatre-maker based in Amsterdam. Since 2009 she has been collaborating with a number of theatre companies, most notably Transversal Theater Company (USA/NL) and Creative Association Nomadi (LV). Her work with Nomadi dates back as early as 2009 when she partook in the production of Battle by.., which was nominated as the Best Production for Children or Youth at the National Theatre Awards “Spēlmaņu Nakts”,as well as invited to participate in several theatre festivals in Latvia, and “The Golden Mask”festival in Moscow, Russia in 2011. Her début as a costume designer took place in 2011 with Sarah Kane. The piece was invited the same year to show at the “Tyden”festival in Olomouc, Czech republic, and a year later at the “Baltic Bubble” festival in Tallin, Estonia. In the winter of 2013/2014 Laila worked with Nomadi as assistant director for Road Map- one of the opening events for “Riga: European Capital of Culture of 2014”. Parallel to her work with Nomadi, Laila has been collaborating with Transversal Theater Company (TTC) since 2011 when she played the role of Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, and in 2012 as costume and make-up designer for Titus Andronicus. In the fall of 2013 Laila was invited to continue her work as costume and make-up designer for TTC, this time for a production of Railroad in Vaxjo, Sweden. Since October 2013 Laila has been working with TTC as an associate producer, designer and actress.

                                      • Anne Stoop

                                        Production Assistance

                                        Anne Stoop recently graduated with a Bachelor in Education at the Theaterschool in Amsterdam, and in 2009 she received her Bachelor in Theater Studies from the University of Amsterdam. While studying at the university, she followed one of Bryan Reynolds classes and got interested in the concept of transversal theater. She also directs her own plays, for instance a part of the production ‘Tuindorp Variaties’, which is shown at the Over het IJ festival and Grachtenfestival in Amsterdam this year. This is her first collaboration with the Transversal Theater Company, this time as a production assistant.

                                          • Hans de Blooy

                                            Assistant SM/Set Builder

                                              • Kelly Robin Mann

                                                Poster Designer

                                                  • Arturo Desimone

                                                    Artist-in-Residence

                                                    Arturo Desimone is a writer, visual artist and translator. He was born and raised on the island Aruba and is an Argentinean citizen based between the Netherlands and Argentina.

                                                      • Wouter Helmond

                                                        Technical & Design Support

                                                          • Beorn Nijenhuis

                                                            Set Builder

                                                            For eight years I performed as a professional and olympic speedskater, where I succeeded in becoming national record holder in the 1000 meter distance for four years as well as winning national/international titles. After my sports career I was admitted to the University College Utrecht where I received a bachelor of neuroscience and psychology with honours. After acting in Bryan Reynolds production of Romeo and Juliet at the University College Utrecht i’ve continued as a partner and friend in various projects that Bryan has asked me to be a part of. Also I have proceeded to work as a lecturer and teacher at the conservatory in Amsterdam focusing on motivational and performance psychology and neuroscience.

                                                             

                                                            Cast

                                                             

                                                              • Christopher Marshall

                                                                Morris Lieberman

                                                                Christopher Marshall is an actor, director, and teacher. Regional acting credits include: Romeo in Romeo and Juliet at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Caliban in The Tempest and Proteus in The Two Gentlemen of Verona at American Players Theatre, Jerry in Betrayal at Aurora Theatre Company (SF Guardian Best Cast, 2004), as well as lead roles at the Utah Shakespearean Festival, ACTTheatre Seattle, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Riverside Theatre, Pacific Repertory Theatre, and The Seattle Shakespeare Festival. His direction of with their eyes: the view from a high school at ground zero earned him a Critic’s Pick nod from the LA Times. Chris is an Associate Artistic Director of The Transversal Theater Company, and he has played lead roles and directed productions for the company in Los Angeles, Poland, Prague, and the Sibiu International Theatre Festival in Romania. He earned his MFA in Acting from the University of California, Irvine, under Robert Cohen, and is a member of Actor’s Equity Association and The Screen Actors Guild. He is the co-author of an article with Bryan Reynolds on Transversal Acting, published in the the Semiotic Review of Books, Canada, and has taught the craft with Bryan for seven years, most notably at the Grotowski Institute in Brzezinka, Poland.

                                                                  • Anouk Briefjes

                                                                    Miss Coldflower/Mrs. Lieberman/Dancer/Cleaning Woman

                                                                    Anouk Briefjes graduated in 2004 at ArtEZ theatre school. During school she worked as a production assistant for the movie ‘Pieter Bell Two’. After graduating she went to New York and followed master classes at The Actor Studio of Lee Strasberg and directed children’s theatre in New Jersey. Back in the Netherlands, she played in different theatre groups, television shows and films. In 2006 and 2007 she played in the opera films ‘Samson and Delilah’ (cinema, TV5 and Brava TV) and ‘God’s Videotheque’, directed by Corina van Eijk. She also played in different television shows (NET 5, SBS 6, RTL 4) like ‘De Club van Sinterklaas’ and  ‘ De Blauwe Bank’ and many more. In 2013 she played for the first time with Transversal Theater in the play ‘Railroad’ in Sweden, directed and written by Bryan Reynolds. And this year in the film ‘Plakband’, directed by Dick van den Heuvel. And it will be show at the film festival Filmpalooza in New Orleans.  She is also featured in the film ‘Op Slot’, directed by Thijs Verhoeven which will be show at the film festival in New Jersey. Anouk will also be playing in ‘A Midsummer night ’s dream’ by the Theatre group The Dutch Factory, directed by Tim Carroll (English Shakespeare Company, the Northcott Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe).

                                                                      • Niels Horeman

                                                                        Yusseldorff/Bartender/Nightclub MC

                                                                        ‘Niels Horeman (1973) has been part of Utrecht theatergroup Growing Up In Public for 12 years, since 1996. Besides that he worked with various directors, like Albert Lubbers, Bert Geurkink, Pieter Bouwman, Canci Geraedts en Gerard Cox. In recent years he has worked closely with Frans Strijards. He is also part of The Dutch Factory, a company that plays Shakespeares original lines in impovisational settings, led by Tim Carroll. In 2009 he played Joey in Reynolds’ Blue Shade, and Joel in Reynolds’ Railroad, with shows in Sweden, Germany, and Armenia.’

                                                                          • Anne-May De Lijser

                                                                            Cyana/Dancer

                                                                            Anne-May de LijserSince her graduation at the Rotterdam Dance Academy in 2004, Anne-May has been working with several dance and theatre companies, choreographers and directors, such as Elshout/Handeler, Jakob Ahlbom, Gerard Mosterd, Meekers, Theatergroep ZEP, The Dutch Factory and Dansmakers Amsterdam. In 2009/2010, after working for 6 years as a dancer/performer, she studied acting at the Acteursschool Amsterdam en the AHK, Mimeschool Amsterdam. Currently she works as a dancer on a dance duet of Dansmakers Amsterdam and as an actress with The Dutch Factory, performing ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and ‘Romeo and Juliet’, directed by Tim Carroll (Royal Shakespeare Company, The Globe Theatre).
                                                                            In 2013 she worked for the first time with Transversal Theater, performing ‘Railroad’. This year she will be creating a new version of ‘Fracatlicious’ with Bryan Renolds, to be followed by an international tour.
                                                                            Anne-May has acted in several televion series and films, such as ‘Soy Tu Fan’ (Argentina), ‘Smeris’ (The Netherlands), ‘Glass’ (The Netherlands), ‘Soof’ (The Netherlands). In september two films in which she acts will be shown at the NFF (Nederlands Film Festival): the One Night Stand film ‘Arezo’ and the short film ‘Hybris’.
                                                                            As a choreographer she has created pieces such as ‘Paradox of Oneness’ (2003) ‘Shine’ (2004) , ‘Naturaleza’  (2009) and ‘Infans’ (2011). An important part of her work are improvisations and co-creations with artists from different cultures and disciplines. She collaborated with artists such as Ron Bunzl (The Netherlands), Estas Tonne (Mexico), Pajarin Saavedra (Argentina) and Ernst Reijsiger. Anne-May also teaches Vyayam, an Indian vedic martial art.

                                                                              • Cinthia De Neef

                                                                                Tangier/Dancer/Waitress

                                                                                Cinthia de Neef is an actress, singer, theatermaker and presenter. She studied Musical Theatre at the Conservatory of Rotterdam and graduated with her self-written play ‘Exposé’ at the Amsterdam Theatre Academy. During her final year she worked as a singing teacher with ‘Jeugdtheater Hofplein’ in Rotterdam and just before finishing school she got the part of ‘Lorraine’ in the musical tour of ‘All shook up/Love me tender’,Joop van den Ende theaterproducties. She played in three editions of the musical parody show ‘Musicals gone mad’, sang in the dinnershow ‘Een avond met smaak’ and was one of the lead singers of the ‘Open combo’ in Theater de Engelenbak’.
                                                                                Since 2011 Cinthia is playing in ‘Lokaal G1.25′ with ‘Theater Aanz’, a piece about (sexual) diversity played in schools throughout the Netherlands more than 120 times per year.She sings in the band of stand-up comedian Roel C. Verburg and is also one of the presenters of ‘Het concours om de Wim Sonneveldprijs’ with the ‘Amsterdams Kleinkunstfestival’ since 2011. Together with Anne Aerts and Kristel Boon she is part of theatregroup ‘Blender’. They make musicaltheatre pieces including ‘Ssst, we’re singing Sondheim’s stories’, ‘Heisa’ and some more self-written projects in development.In the beginning of 2015 Cinthia will bring her first full-length self-written and composed song program in ‘Theaterstudio Amsterdam’ in Amsterdam.

                                                                                  • Pieter Van Nieuwenhuyze

                                                                                    Stronheim/Goldblatt/Newsseller

                                                                                    Pieter Van Nieuwenhuyze trained at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels in Acting and Musical Theatre.  After graduating he got the part of  Hank Hudson in The american movie ‘the curiosity of chance’.  He did several plays and musicals as The Snowqueen, Pinocchio, the Fairy Tale Show, The portrets of the king, Three little pigs, Starnights, West Side Story, Dora the explorer, Les miserables, Elisabeth, Beautiful thing, Dance of the vampires, A life without you, Die weisse Rose, Oliver!,Miss Saigon, Aspects of Love, Love Story, The seven lettres.  He wrote and played his own musical monologue  Hold me tight.  Besides that he has given his voice to many animated movies as Enchanted, Space chimps 1 & 2, Entangled, Yoohoo and Friends  and many other.

                                                                                      • Shira Wolfe

                                                                                        Dancer/Waitress

                                                                                        Shira Wolfe participated in several productions of the Transversal Theater Company, including Romeo and Juliet (2011), Titus Andronicus (2012) and now Bzzap!

                                                                                          • Laila Burane

                                                                                            Dancer/Waitress

                                                                                            Laila has been collaborating with Transversal Theater Company (TTC) since 2011 when she played the role of Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, and in 2012 particpated in Titus Andronicus. In the fall of 2013 Laila worked on a production of Railroad in Vaxjo, Sweden for the European Polytheatre ‘Grundtvig’ project that was funded by the European Union.