Gian Marco Lo Forte (librettist, concept & direction) is the Artistic Director of PgEc ~ Pioneers go East Co. Gian Marco is originally from Italy and has worked as a writer, director, actor and set designer in NYC and Italy for the past ten years. Gian Marco is artist-in-residence at La MaMa where he founded in 2005 Pioneers Go East Co. which has developed original projects with music. Currently PgEc is performing I Fioretti in Musica – Opera in Danza. Its previous production was Caravaggio Chiaroscuro, an operetta with original libretto based on the Roman years of Caravaggio (libretto both in Italian and English, concept and design) in 2007. Gian Marco’s directing and design credits include Bastiano e Bastiana by Sovrintendenza Beni Culturali di Perugia, Italy and a dance adaptation based on The Seagull in 2003.  He wrote, designed and directed Butter Melts Away, a dance theater piece at La MaMa in 2005. He has collaborated with visual artist Sam Samore on Love, Beauty - Pitti Immagine, Firenze and designed for SLANT, Watson Arts, Magis Co, Pan Asian Rep. and for The Great Jones Repertory Co. at Biennale di Venezia. He has appeared in productions of Ping Chong, Elizabeth Swados, Federico Restrepo, and Roberta Nicolai and toured to Poland, Austria, Croatia, Serbia, Italy and US. Graduated in Theatre at Centro Universitario Teatrale di Perugia, Italy, 2000; MFA in Design, Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. Award: NYU Graduate Assistantship 2007-2008. Opera America Award Director –designer showcase 2010. Recently Gian Marco was awarded a LMCC grant for I Fioretti in Musica. 

Adam Cuthbert (sound design/ composer in residence PGEC) Adam’s pieces involve acoustic instruments within an electronic setting, like trumpet with break beats, piano with sound scapes, and percussion with pipe wrench clangs. In 2008 Adam co-founded and produce the audio-visual Sight/Sound concert series. The ongoing series features collaborations with art from all disciplines, bringing new music to a wide audience in the greater Grand Rapids area. To date over 60 musicians, dancers, video designers have participated. The series' fifth installment is now in production. During the first four Sight\Sound concerts, 24 new works were premiered, most of which written or co-written by Adam. Also active as a trumpet performer, Adam has performed with the GVSU New Music Ensemble for the In C Remixed project, which featured performances in New York City’s Le Poisson Rouge and Grand Rapids’ St. Cecelia Music Center alongside performers eighth blackbird and composer/DJ Dennis DeSantis.  Also attending the National Trumpet Competition in Farifax, VA, Adam has performed in the  as a soloist and won two 3rd place finishes with the GVSU trumpet ensemble. In 2011, Adam performed on the conch shell trumpet in the outdoor urban premiere of John Luther Adams’ Inuksuit for 99 percussionists in New York City’s Morningside Park, Alongside So Percussion.  Adam continues to compose for new collaborative arts projects as well as the Sight/Sound series, and will be featured as a composer/performer with Daniel Rhode at the 2012 London Olympics. 

Maura Nguyen Donohue (choreographer / PGEC artist in residence) was born in Saigon, Vietnam and raised in Rhode Island. She founded her performance troupe, Maura Nguyen Donohue/inmixedcompany in 1995 following her first appearance at Dance
Theater Workshop (now New York Live Arts) as part of Fresh Tracks. Her work has toured extensively across the US and to Canada, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Japan, Vietnam, and Thailand.  In NYC, she was commissioned and produced several times by DTW, and has been commissioned and presented by Danspace Project, Performance Space 122, and Mulberry St. Theater (now Chen Dance Center) and was artistic
advisor for DTW’s Mekong Project, for which she facilitated residencies in the US, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. This past spring strictly a female female (her first full-length work in 9-years) was presented by The Bang Group's Soaking Wet Series at the West End Theater for which the New York Times called her "a more
mature artist who nevertheless remains as cynical and bold as ever." As a member of La Mama’s Great Jones Repertory Company she has performed in NY, Italy, Austria, Greece, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea in
Andrei Serban and Elizabeth Swados’ Fragments of a Greek Trilogy experimental operas: Medea, Electra, and Trojan Woman and was part of the Great Jones Repertory and Ping Chong & Co. remount of his Angles of Swedenborg at La Mama this past fall. She is also collaborating with Gian Marco Lo Forte on S-16 Luna Nera which will have workshop performances in La Mama’s Club April 6-8 and will premiere a new duet in May for the La Mama Moves Festival. She writes for Culturebot, served as guest editor for Critical Correspondence's University Project, served as advisor and Asian Bureau Chief for The Dance Insider from 2000-2009 and has also written for Dance Magazine, American Theater Journal and HK Dance Journal. She served on DTW's
Board of Directors from 2003 - 2011 and currently serves on the board for the Congress on Research in Dance, the Artist Advisory Council for Movement Research and the New York Dance and Performance Awards (The
Bessies). She was a teaching fellow at Smith, Hampshire and Mt. Holyoke Colleges, an Assistant Professor of Dance at Queens College, and is an Assistant Professor of Dance at Hunter College. Her BA in Anthropology and Dance ('92) and MFA in Dance ('08) are both from Smith College. She is the mother of 2.

Angela Wendt (costume designer/ PGEC - artist in residence) Angela’s award-winning work includes the costume design for Rent. Her design for the Tony award-winning show garnered Wendt, an American Theatre Wing Design Award for Best Costume Design. Angela’s design has moved effortlessly across media, styling crisp cutting edge music videos and commercials with directors including Marcus Nispel. Her film credits include gems like Adrian Lynne's "Jacob's Ladder" and Uli Edel's "Last Exit To Brooklyn." Angela's theatre credits include Barry Edelstein's "RACE" at CSC and "Julius Caesar" at NYSF and Michael Greif's "Marisol" at the NYSF. (www.angela.wendt.net)

Mark Tambella (Painter/ PGEC - artist in residence) Solo Exhibitions: 2010 & 2008 painting shows, John Davis Gallery, Hudson, NY; 2005 Marmara Manhattan Gallery;

2001 LaGalleria /Paintings 6 E 1st St, New York, NY;

1997 LaGallerial/Paintings, New York, NY;

1990 LaGalleria /Paintings, New York, NY. Group Exhibitions: 2004 LaMama Group Exhibition at LaGalleria, New York, NY;

2003 LaGalleria/Dieter Hall and Mark Tambella /Flowers and Nudes, New York, NY;

1991 Portrait Show/ PS122, New York, NY; 

1990 Benefit Show for St Vincents Hospital, New York, NY; 

1990LaGalleria/ 4on4, New York, NY. Published Art: Bomb Magazine/Absolut Tambella

Poster for Festa della Cilegie, Bazzano Supieore, Italy

Illustrations for Poems by Richard George-Murray Illustrations for "Lilac Cure"/poems by Richard George-Murray 

drawings Gay Sunshine/ 

drawings. Mark Tambella paintings: (www.johndavisgallery.com)

Abby Felder (Puppet Designer/ PGEC - artist in residence) Puppetry credits for which she has served as director, designer and builder include ELEKTRA, that she adapted for the puppet stage; SLUG AND SNAIL, a children’s solo-show she wrote and has performed in Kindergartens and festivals nationally; ALICE IN WONDERLAND (Co-director); and is thrilled to be collaborating with Cathy Shaw during this production.  She has worked as a puppeteer for the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater, as an assistant director for Concrete Temple and Stage Manager for EST and Czechoslovak American Marionette Theater in New York City.  She holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College where she studied puppetry with Dan Hurlin, and completed an apprenticeship with renowned puppet artist, Frantisek Watzl and woodcarver/puppet builder Vaclav Krcal in Prague, Czech Republic.  She is currently the Producing Associate for Pan Asian Repertory Theatre where she is working on the upcoming VIETNAM PROJECT II: Past and Present, and Marketing/Development Assistant for Pioneers Go East.  She will produce a US tour of solo-puppetry performance from the Czech Republic in summer/fall of 2012.   

Ji-youn Francesca Chang  (lighting design/ PGEC - artist in residence) Stairs to the Roof at A.R.T. Institute; The Blue Room at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre; Durang/Durang in Edinburgh’09/London’10; Duke Maeng's Wedding Plan-MyeungDong Theatre -Seoul (Korea); Women at Four –Edinburgh Festival. New York credits in her recent works include: The Country and the Happiness; Ching Chong Chinaman at West End Theatre; Kafka Project/The Rain Machine; Lifetime Fairytale;Bully To You at Soho Rep;Glass Menagerie Schapiro Theatre; Turkey Day at One Act Play Festival, Unfiltered -Ensemble Studio Stage, Obama Drama -Creative Destruction; FestivalO'ClockDanton's Death-Rumi’s Mathnavi at LaMaMa Annex.  Illyria by Prospect Theatre Company; Ballerina meets Bboy at 37 arts. Awards in Theatre Design: Opera America Director/Designer Showcase'09 Finalist /Donald and Zorka Oenslager Fellowship Award in Design '08 / Stanley McCandless Scholarship. MFA in Design at Yale School of Drama. (www.Jiyounchangdesign.com).

Rocco D’Santi (projection design / PGEC - artist in residence) is a New York City based projection and lighting designer.  Broadway productions: Time Stands Still (Video Editor) and Collected Stories (Projection Designer) by Donald Margulies. Off Broadway: Metamorphosis at the Atlantic Theatre Second Stage, A Second Chance by Ted Shen, Imelda for Pan Asian Rep, Inner Voices for Premieres and Primary Stages, and many more. D'Santi is the current projection director for Shen Wei Dance Arts.  D'Santi recieved his MFA in 2008 from The University of Missouri Kansas City.  He can be contacted at DiSantiLighting@gmail.com.  

Katherine Yew (singer/ songwriter) Ms. Yew is a musician and performing artist originally from Seoul, South Korea, who has lived in New York City since the age of four.  She began her formal classical voice studies as an undergraduate at Barnard College and Manhattan School of Music with Madame Natalie Bodanya from the Metropolitan Opera Company.  A member of the Great Jones Repertory Company, Ms. Yew has been with La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club since 2001.  She has performed in numerous La MaMa productions in New York, Spoleto, Venice, Rome, and Tapei.  Her voice has been featured in such films as Dummy, with Oscar-winner Adrien Brody, and the critically acclaimed Man Push Cart, directed by Ramin Bahrani.  Her music compositions for the stage include Question of Solitude, a mini-opera based on the James Bond legacy, and Love Cripple, an original dance piece for three dancers, which premiered in Variations at the Ellen Stewart Theatre at LaMaMa in 2010.