Julia Cuccaro is recent Penn grad, a dance therapist in training at Drexel, and a dancer/choreographer. She enjoys massages, isms, Bernini, being involved in all kinds of art, and meeting new people. Ergo, say hi if you see her at a show! Check out her very own Philly Fringe performance, Formed Declarations!

Anna Drozdowski’s experience with the Live Arts Festival includes the shows Cell, Explanatorium, Wandering Alice, Oedipus at FDR, and Several Witty Observations along with The A.W.A.R.D. Show!, STORE, TM&TM, and more. She noodles on dance with words and bodies. Her movement musings recently earned the name Ladybird, and Anna functions as instigator and matchmaker. annadrozdowski.com almost works. Photo credit JJ Tizioujjtizou.net.

Kenneth Finkel is Distinguished Lecturer in Temple University’s American Studies Program.  He’s been a curator at the Library Company, a program officer at William Penn Foundation and the executive director of WHYY’s Arts and Culture Service.  Finkel’s work includes seven books, six national broadcast specials and several blogs about Philadelphia.

Charlotte Ford is an absurdist theater artist living somewhere near the King of Jeans in South Philly Yo. Live Arts Festival credits include: Flesh and Blood and Fish and Fowl, Flamingo Winnebago, and Dog Art among other luminary productions. Check her out in this year’s Welcome to Yuba City and next year in her own Chicken. Google her.

Nick Gilewicz is the '09 Festival Blog Manager, a graduate student at Temple University, and a freelance writer and producer. His work has been featured on MSN.com, New York Public Radio, and Philadelphia's WHYY-TV. He also once managed to get paid to co-author a book about the Sony PlayStation Portable.

Lisa Kraus is an independent dance artist who also writes and coordinates the Bryn Mawr College Performing Arts Series. She moved to Philly after stints in New York, Colorado and the Netherlands. Check out her weblogs on Red Thread, a new piece premiering in March 2010, and Writing My Dancing Life.

Mark Lord has directed several projects for the Live Arts/Fringe including Endgame, Across, The Ride Across Lake Constance, and Zone, and has worked as dramaturg on Headlong Dance Theater's Hotel Pool, Explanatorium, and (currently) more.. He is Professor of Theater at Bryn Mawr College and Academic Director of HPI, a semester-away and post-bac program institute in Performance (www.headlongperformanceinstitute.org). His writing often appears in the pages of THEATER, which he serves as Contributing Editor.

Brett T Mapp has left the world of retail after 25 years. He was most recently (9/1/09) the Marketing Specialist/ Community Liaison for Whole Foods Market South Street and before that co-owner of Inferno at 618-620 South Street. Brett is an Arts and Culture Advocate and is on the board of The Mural Arts and Young Advocates of Mural Arts (YAMA), Flashpoint Theatre Company, Dance/USA Philadelphia Advisory Committee, Theatre Alliance Promotions and Awareness Committee plus other organizations. Brett is in the process of starting Making A Progressive Philadelphia (M.A.P.P.) a foundation whose goal is to give Micro-grants to individuals committed to progressive change in the Philadelphia area. Stay tuned to www.phillymapp.com for more details.

Eric Mathew has been described as a mix between Rosie O'Donnell and David Sedaris. He is an avid theater fan and knows how to dish criticism. He has worked on such high profile tv shows such as American Idol (Season 7 and 8) and ET/ The Insider... but if you really want to see him, stand across from 30th Street Station, as he is the new face of Drexel University.

Reza is a junior Theatre Arts major at Penn, and has a fiery passion for musical theater and conceptual, out-there dramas.  He spends his free time acting (check out the NCT production of Throughly Modern Millie!) and directing, and he is the musical director of Penn's premiere a cappella group, The Penn Pipers.

Dan O'Neil is a senior at the Brind School of Theatre at UArts, where he was most recently seen in Bat Boy. He can currently be seen in Realm of the Unreal: The Vivian Requiem with Parallax Theatre Company, and come October will be performing in The Dining Room at the Brind School.

Jessica Rizzo is an aspiring theater artist from San Francisco. She is currently studying English and Theater at Bryn Mawr College, and most recently spent the summer working with the Ontological-Hysteric Theater in New York.

Marc Piscitello is a theater major at Temple University, studying technical theater and focusing on stage management.  He's looking forward to staying in Philadelphia after graduation and joining the extremely diverse Philadelphia theater community.  His latest theater gig was as an Assistant Stage Manager for Temple's production of Cabaret this past spring.  You can check out his blog at http://shoeforthecity.blogspot.com.

Serena Pomerantz is a senior musical theater major at the University of the Arts, where she will play Jenny Hill in Major Barbara in November. She also loves to write and keeps a Broadway blog where she discusses current theater issues. www.serenasfiercebroadwayblog.blogspot.com.

Wendy Rosenfield is a freelance writer and has been covering life in and around Philly for 15 years. She was theater critic for Philadelphia Weekly from 1994 to 2001, and has been a theater critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer since 2006. The Live Arts/Fringe Festival is, hands down, her favorite time of year.

Nick Stuccio is the Founder and Producing Director of the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe. He created the organization to support the work of risk-taking contemporary performing artists. Nick’s curatorial vision and entrepreneurship have elevated the reputation of the Live Arts Festival as a renowned platform for presenting premier national, international and Philadelphia-based artists.

Jackie Vitale. Programming Intern by day, Philly Fringe artist by night! Whether she’s formatting programs, collaborating with her company, Matchbox (see Preparations for Departure!), picking up taxidermy for the bar, or desperately trying to catch a glimpse of the Pig Iron rehearsal as she brings them their supply of toilet paper, Jackie lives the Festival 24/7.

Stacy Lipson is a journalist and freelance writer. Her work has appeared in the Philadelphia Metro, 215 magazine, Where New York Traveler, Natural Health magazine, and Sprig.com of the Washington Post. Newsweek Interactive.

Whit MacLaughlin. is the OBIE and Barrymore Award-winning Artistic Director of New Paradise Laboratories. He has conceived, directed, and designed 13 original performance works with the company since its inception in 1996, including this year’s FATEBOOK: Avoiding Catastrophe One Party at a Time. NPL’s work has been presented at the Ontological Theatre and PS 122 in NYC, at the Walker Art Center and Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, at the Humana Festival of New American Plays, the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, as well as in residency in a variety of colleges and universities all over the country. He is a recipient of a NEA/Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Artistic Advancement Grant, several Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship Awards, and a 2002 Pew Charitable Trust Fellowship in Performance Art. Coming up from NPL: FREEDOM CLUB, a collaboration with the Riot Group, and MORT, the third part of a trilogy of pieces about American Parties.