Bios from the fabulous TIGER collaborators.
SUSAN BECKER costume design
Susan Becker works as a designer, artist, and educator in the field of fashion and costume. For the past twenty years she has designed for traditional and experimental settings, from the fashion industry to collaborations on stage, film, and site-specific projects. Recent collaborators include artists Deke Weaver and Jennifer Allen (ELEPHANT, WOLF & BEAR),choreographers Tere O’Connor (Sister), Sara Hook (Bored Houseguest), Cynthia Oliver (Boom!, Virago-Man Dem, & Tether), and Jennifer Monson (Live Dancing Archive, bendtheeven, & ditch). Her work with Monson also includes investigations and performances with the collaborative in tow, which includes among others, D.D. Dorvilier, Nibia Pastrana, David Zambrano, and Zeena Parkins. In addition to her design work, Susan has taught at Rhode Island School of Design and currently holds an Assistant Clinical Professor position in the School of Art and Design, University of Illinois where she has taught since 2006. susanebecker.com
MELISSA POKORNY set design
Melissa Pokorny’s work focuses on the sense of place, and its role in structuring memory and identity. Her large-scale sculptures, mixed media tableaus, and installations incorporate fragmented images of landscape and nature that highlight contested spaces, edges and borderlands between human and non-human worlds. In recent years, travel and residencies have played a pivotal role in the development of her work. Pokorny walks as a way to explore landscape, history, use, reclamation, and biodiversity. In summer 2017, she had a month-long residency at the Ragdale Foundation, in Lake Forest, IL. The residency sits on a fifty-acre prairie, which she walked daily. Photographs taken on these walks amplify the act of looking, seeing, being-with, being-in, just being. She is a Professor in the School of Art + Design, at University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign. For more on Pokorny’s work, visit her website: melissapokorny.com
JACOB ROSS sound design
Jacob Floyd Ross began his sound and music career at Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago over 24 years ago. His sound design for film has been featured in many noteworthy festivals, including: Sundance, Cannes, Berlinale, and Rotterdam. He has had the privilege of working with distinguished visual and audio artists, such as Deborah Stratman, Califone, Anahita Ghazvinizadeh, Tirtza Even, and Mucca Pazza. Jacob continues to contribute to a wide variety of projects including film, live sound, music production, tour managing, and audio art. In addition, he has experience in audio education, studio management, and music retail. He also spent years touring with his previous band, Low Skies, and has extensive knowledge of the national indie music community. Jacob recently opened his own mixing studio, Beltline Sound, in Los Angeles and continues to perform and tour as Crumpler. jacobfloydross.com/studio-sound
JAYNE WENGER dramaturg and co-director
Jayne Wenger is a director and dramaturg whose exclusive focus is the development of new works for the theater. Her work includes opera, dance, solo performance, new music and site-specific collaborations. She is the past Artistic Director of the Bay Area Playwrights Foundation and Women’s Ensemble of New York. She has been collaborating with Deke Weaver for over 20 years. She is an alumna of Djerassi Resident Artist Program; a Guest Artist and Advisory Board member for The Last Frontier Theatre Conference; a member of the Dramatists Guild, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, and the League of Professional Theater Women. jaynewenger.theater