Dianna Cortez
Co-Producing Artistic Director
(she/her/hers)
Dianna Cortez is an Interdisciplinary Performance Artist (Actor/Singer/Director/Coach) based in New York City. Dianna has coached actors On and Off-Broadway and in Liverpool. At The New Group Theatre, she worked with Ethan Hawke, Ed Harris, Marisa Tomei, and Vincent D’Onofrio; also on Broadway-Sam Rockwell; and Kim Cattrall in Antony and Cleopatra directed by Janet Suzman in Liverpool. As an educator, she teaches voice, speech, and dialects at Circle in the Square Theatre School (Chair of Voice & Speech), Syracuse University/Tepper, Molloy/Cap 21, The Linklater Center, and in her private studio. Some InterArtworks include-“Hymn to Life'' by James Schuyler (poet) and David Skeist (composer/conductor), “Dans L’ombre: In the Shadows'', “A Fireside Celtic Christmas,” “Mi Amor, and The Queen Bee'', “A Riverside Tree,” “Chroma,” “Bugnik Advice,” and two Award winning Arthouse Films “My Chamber” Awarded Best Original Editing, “Plastic not Fantastic,” Awarded Best Physical Comedy. “A Safe House in Tenderloin” was performed in The Garment District in NYC. 2006-2010, she served as the Artistic Director of City Attic Theatre (C.A.T.). “Les Berceaux and The Lighthouse: Movement 1: A Mental Health Crisis” was performed at UNFIX NYC 2024.
Donna Ahmadi
Co-Producing Artistic Director
(she/her/hers)
Donna Ahmadi lives in the northern Bronx with a man, a small child, and two felines. Donna earned her BFA in Dance from SUNY, Purchase College in 2000 and an Associates Degree in Occupational Therapy from the Swedish Institute of Massage Therapy in 2002. She has performed for Steve Koplowitz, Alison Chase (Pilobolus and Apogee Arts), Andrew Marcus Performance, Brett Howard Company, Tarin Chaplin, Dianne Sichel, Michael Utoff, Red Hawk Indian Arts Council, Thunderbird American Indian Dancers and Third Rail Projects. Donna founded Mantis Dance Theater in 2003 while teaching at the Northern Rivers Conservatory in Australia as a site-specific and environmental dance company. More recently, her work has explored adoption, entomology, and the human body. As a practicing massage therapist for over 10 years, she has developed a compassion for the health of her family and clientele.
Baltazar Cortez
(he/him)
Luther Elliot
(he/him)
Derek J. Weagle(they/them)
www.derekjweagle.com
Musician/Educator/Wearer-of-Many-Hats Derek J. Weagle (they/them) is a Brooklyn-based artist and healer invested in the disruption of social and academic barriers around classical music, as well as the preservation of music-making as an act of joyful humanness. With a practice rooted in syncretism, Derek can be found equally comfortable in roles ranging from conductor to composer, performer to teacher. They hold a B.M. in Music Education from UMass Lowell and an M.M. in Composition with a minor in Choral Conducting from New England Conservatory, as well as a Certificate in Sound Healing from the Sage Academy of Sound in Woodstock, NY. Current engagements include work as an independent Sound Healing Practitioner; Associate Conductor of the Queer Urban Orchestra; Assistant Conductor of Choral Chameleon; Artistic Director of the Adelphi University Vocal Ensemble; Founding Artistic Director of Bloom Sound Collective; Composer & Owner at Risanare Music; Board of Directors for the Refugee Orchestra Project. Their work as a composer has received recognition both nationally and internationally, including the American Prize in Composition, The International Horn Society, and the International Composition Competition Harelbeke.