COMPANY BIOGRAPHIES

Vivan Beer is a furniture designer/maker/sculptor based in New England. Her sleek, abstracted metal and concrete furniture combines the aesthetic sensibilities of contemporary design, craft, and sculpture to create furniture that alter expectations of and interface with the domestic landscape. With a strong foundation in contemporary furniture design, her recent research into the history of American industry, architecture, and transportation—supported in part by a 2014 Research Fellowship at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum—adds intellectual rigor and specificity to her work. Her Infrastructure, Streamliner, Anchored Candy and upcoming aeronautic series are physical manifestations of the cultural and industrial history of her materials even as they serve as intellectual bridges for their users, bringing them to a new way of conceiving the built world through a luxurious deployment of the senses. Her work is included in the collections of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Metals Museum, The Currier Museum of Art and the Museum of Arts and Design, NYC and public art in the cities of Portland, Maine and Cambridge, Massachusetts. She holds an undergraduate degree from Maine College of Art and a Master’s of Fine Arts from Cranbrook Academy. Beer has held numerous residencies including at the Penland School of Crafts, the State University of New York at Purchase, and the San Diego State University. She was a 2014 recipient of an Artist Research Fellowship at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Elizabeth Daily Professor Emerita of theatre at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire, taught acting, voice/speech and American Sign Language.  She holds an MFA in Acting from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and an M.Ed. in Rehabilitation Counseling from the University of Missouri; she is also an Alexander Technique teacher, having trained at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee.  In 2022-23 she served as Interim Director of the Abbey Players at Saint Anselm College, and taught Beginning Directing. For Articine, she has provided audio and video content for their Health Care Resiliency programming.  Most recently, she worked as Script Supervisor on Articine’s newest project, the film DOTTIE.  Other recent directing credits include: The Diviners, The Little Mermaid, Quilters, Mary Poppins, Merrily We Roll Along, Dottie, and Dracula.  Professional acting credits include roles at The Barnstormers, Winnipesaukee Playhouse, Jean’s Playhouse/NCCA, New Hampshire Theatre Project, Advice to the Players, Stage One Productions, Canterbury Shaker Village, the Belknap Mill Society and Little Church Theater.

Cheryl B. Engelhardt is a GRAMMY®-nominated composer and songwriter. She started her career as an advertising and film composer in New York City, creating scores for several nationally-airing commercials and short films before hitting the road with her pop band. Her music has been heard on dozens of TV shows including “So You Think You Can Dance” and “All My Children”, meditation apps like Insight Timer, and on airlines. Engelhardt also composes for social justice choirs and was recently featured in People, Harper’s Bazaar, and Forbes Magazines for her collaboration with Martin Luther King’s goddaughter, Donzaleigh Abernathy, in her song “The Listening”. Her newest release (and seventh record) is her GRAMMY®-nominated New Age/Ambient album “The Passenger” where she was the first person to create a full album, from start to finish, on a cross-country Amtrak train journey. Cheryl is a certified trauma-informed master coach and provides a variety of resources at her site www.InTheKeyOfSuccess.com. She is the facilitator and coach for the popular musician mastermind, Amplify. www.cbemusic.com

Ori Harris is an interdisciplinary artist and recent graduate from Boston Conservatory at Berklee with a BFA in Contemporary Theater. While at the conservatory, he received a certification in unarmed stage combat and flourished from his training in Grotowski and voiceover work. Growing up in Chicago, he found a love for performance and movement through gymnastics, working with his dad as a clown, taking circus classes and acting out scenes with his siblings. Currently, Ori is a company member at VLA Dance and HYBRIDMOTION, assists in intimacy and consent direction and enjoys drawing and producing videos in his free time. He has also performed with the Ridiculous Project in Pandemic Plays as well as the Boston Pops Orchestra in Boston Pops in Love.

​Bobby Kelly, MD, MPH, FAAFP is triple-boarded in Family Medicine, Preventive Medicine and Addiction Medicine and has worked in primary care, physician leadership and public health in New Hampshire over the last decade. After completing medical school at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia where he received the Academy of Family Physicians award, he trained at the NH Dartmouth Family Medicine Residency at Concord Hospital. Dr. Kelly completed his Leadership Preventive Medicine fellowship at Dartmouth-Hitchcock and received his MPH degree at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. He is currently a physician in the NH Seacoast area where he sees patients as a per-diem hospitalist and consultative physician in LGBTQ Medicine and Addiction Medicine. Additionally, Dr. Kelly serves as Medical Director of Quality Improvement & Innovation on the Population Health team at Core Physicians. In all of his work, he is dedicated to health equity and is passionate about community partnerships and creative collaboration opportunities.

Ben Kutner is a composer, arranger, and Artistic Director based in New York. A musician with a ‘wild’ and ‘wistful’ tone (LA Times), his work has appeared at performance venues across the United States. He currently serves as the Artistic Director of New Parnassus. Ben’s music has been heard at the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Morgan Library & Museum, the National Opera Center, Dixon Place, Manhattan Movement & Arts Center, Son of Semele Theater, Brown University’s Granoff Center for the Arts, Jack Crystal Theater, St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery, Jersey City Theater Centre, the Queens Museum, and San Francisco’s Brava Theater Center and NY Fashion Week. His work “Duet for Audience and Ensemble” appeared at the LA Philharmonic’s 2022 Noon to Midnight Festival, and incorporated live-recorded music from the audience alongside the musicians of New Parnassus. In 2023, Ben created “Beethoven’s Next Quartet”, a project presented in partnership with New Parnassus and the Morgan Library & Museum which commissioned four new works based on Beethoven’s manuscript sketches, including composers Raven Chacon, Shara Nova and Laura Kaminsky.

C. Robin Marcotte is a physical theatre artist and educator. He is an Associate Professor of Theater at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Robin has served as the Executive and Co-Artistic Director of the award-winning Hotel Obligado Physical Theatre Company and was a company member of Mum Puppettheatre, both located in Philadelphia. In his 20 years of working in the professional world, he has toured nationally and internationally, performing, teaching and creating works of theatre. Robin has formal training in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction from UMass Medical School and is a certified Standardized Patient Educator. He holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College and is a graduate of the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre. www.robinmarcotte.net

Leslie Pasternack is a theatre maker and the owner of Lemon Punch Theatre Lab in Amesbury, MA. Leslie holds her Ph.D. in Theatre History from UT Austin and graduated from the Dell’Arte School of Physical Theatre. Prior to opening her studio, Leslie taught theatre history and acting at Northeastern University and Muhlenberg College. Recent directing credits include The Revolutionists; Make Sure It’s Me; A Number; and Tragedy: a tragedy. In addition to such acting credits as Major Powell in NHTP’s Men on Boats, Leslie has played across New England and in NYC in her award-winning solo show, Clean Room.

Janelle Abbott Staley is a dancer and educator based in southern Maine. She has performed nationally and internationally with dance companies, in theatre and film. In NYC, Janelle performed on Broadway stages, in Elton John’s The Red Piano, in Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Twelfth Night, with dre.dance, Slam, and Terra Firma, among others. Recently, she has worked with Boston-based artists Peter DiMuro, Lorraine Chapman, and Kat Nasti Dance. Janelle began her career with Michigan’s Grand Rapids Ballet and received a BFA in Ballet from the University of Utah. A certified Pilates instructor, she trained celebrity clientele at top studios in NYC and Boston, and has led dance and mind-body master classes around the country, including workshops for Audible and Amazon in Seattle. Janelle is a faculty member of The Dance Annex Studio for the Dance Arts, and serves on the board of Lila Dance Festival, an annual event showcasing New England-based dance artists. www.janelleabbottstaley.com

​Amanda Whitworth is a cofounder of Articine and a teaching artist with an M.Ed in Integrated Arts Education who leads and consults on interdisciplinary projects across sectors. She served as the 8th NH Artist Laureate as confirmed by the Governor’s Executive Council and now serves as an Arts Councilor for the NH State Council on the Arts. She is an Associate Professor of Practice at Plymouth State University dedicated to the Habits of Mind Experience Program that serves all students. In her teaching and service Amanda has integrated interdisciplinary thinking and collaborative performance into curriculum and spearheaded networks of growth, service and advocacy across New England through innovative cross-sector partnerships. Named one of NH Union Leader’s “40 Under 40” in 2019, and awarded a Vermiel Medal from the Academy of Arts, Sciences and Letters in Paris, France, Amanda assumes the alias of Lead with Arts, working as a performer of dance and physical theatre nationally and internationally. She also collaborates on experimental, design-forward works of moving sculpture with Unrestrained Gesture. www.leadwitharts.com #unrestrainedgesture

JAZZ TRIO BIOGRAPHIES