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Stephanie M. Acosta: Artistic Director & Co-Founder
Stephanie M. Acosta is a performance director, visual artist, and founding Artistic Director of the Anatomy Collective since it’s inception in 2005. Currently working on a 3 part collaboration with Lucid Street Theatre (Lucid/Anatomy when combined), exploring mutation in it’s many forms Stephanie tackles the mind and identity in Gone or Who Is It That Can Tell Me Who I Am?, part 2 in the Zombies to Alzheimer’s Series; created with support from the Chicago Parks District for Chicago Artists Month (October ’09) in Douglas Park. The first installment Monster/girl, performed to full houses in January of ’09; an investigation of the Zombie as individual which will return in August for a series of encore performances.
Other works with TAC include director, I Haven’t Checked My Voice Mail Yet (But F**K You.) in February 2008; director & installation, Orphan Works: Dumpsterland w/ CUL October 2007; producer, …And a Lack Thereof , August 2006; director, The Prometheus Myth May 2006; director & installations for Many Things Are Destroying Me & MTADM(2) July 2005 & December 2005. As visiting director she has worked in Melbourne, Australia with Concrete Cloud Theatre Collective on the international collaboration waking, and Minneapolis, MN with Teatro Del Pueblo where she directed Real Women Have Curves. Continuing her work with the Chicago Underground Library where she is currently Programming Coordinator, developing their Orphan Works Series. Her interests in ritual and how they influence culture brought her to the Orpheus Hellenic Folklore Society where she was director of their 20th Anniversary celebration in April ’09. Acosta is currently in development for her first opera, working with composer Jeffery Thomas.
Stephanie received her BA in Directing from the Webster University Conservatory of Theatre Arts in St. Louis, Missouri where her strong interest in translation and adaptation of found texts was the driving force behind many of her projects including her adaptation and direction of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and her direction of a new compiled version of Georg Büchner's Woyzeck. After arriving in Chicago Stephanie quickly landed the role of Assistant Director on the world premier of Mariela in the Dessert at the Goodman Theatre just before the inception of the Anatomy Collective.
stephanie@anatomycollective.org
Christine Ferriter: Resident Designer, Collective Member since '05
Christine Ferriter has been an active member of TAC since its inception in 2005, including roles as resident designer, graphic artist and administrator. Most recently Christine was instrumental in co-creating TAC's Unintended Structures and Lucid Anatomy’s Gone or Who Is It That Can Tell Me Who I Am and is currently developing a multi-part series of lighting installations entitled I Live In A Light Box. Based in Chicago, her work as a lighting & scenic designer have been seen at a number of established and emerging theatres over the past five years. Besides being a core member of TAC she is also the resident lighting designer & an artistic associate at Raven Theatre Chicago and the Resident Lighting Designer for Circus Flora based in St. Louis, MO. Regionally, she has designed in Saint Paul, Nantucket, and at the Spoleto Arts Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. Christine was recently nominated for the 2009 Michael Maggio Emerging Designer Award and for a Black Theatre Alliance Award for Best Lighting Design for Congo Square Theatre’s production of The Saint James Infirmary. She holds a BFA in Lighting Design from The Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University. A slideshow of design work and photography can be viewed at http://picasaweb.google.com/christine.tac.
christine@anatomycollective.org
Kasey Foster: Actress, Dancer, Choreographer, Collective Member since '06
Kasey Foster is approaching her fifth year of living in Chicago. She moved here after getting a degree in theatre and dance from hometown, Fort Wayne, Indiana, and has put this degree to good use ever since her arrival. The majority of Foster's work in Chicago has been with Redmoon Theater, where she has performed in two Winter Pageants, The Golden Truffle, Once Upon a Time, The Princess Club, and Boneyard Prayer. She has also been seen with companies, Collaboraction, Red Tape, Make New Species, CSO, and of course, The Anatomy Collective. The Anatomy Collective's first production of Many Things are Destroying Me is where she first fell in love with the mission of the company. Soon after, Foster had a show of hers produced, And a Lack Thereof, by the collective. Foster has created and directed several original works, and will continue to do so until the world runs out of inspiration. Kasey hosts a variety night every six months at Martyrs' on Lincoln Ave. called Night of the Living Entertainers. Both nights are the two most fun nights of the year. Foster is also a rockstar. She sings for a Talking Heads tribute, This Must Be the Band, and a three piece jazz trio, ME.3. In her spare time, Kasey likes to eat, walk, and laugh.
kaseyfstr@yahoo.com
Rory Murphy: Sound Designer & Engineer, Collective Member since '10
Rory Murphy is a sound designer and engineer in Chicago. He has designed for WonderElastic, SpringLoaded, Phalanx, Emerald City, and Be the Groove. With the Anatomy Collective, he has designed The Prometheus Myth, I Haven't Checked My Voicemail Yet (But F**k You.), GONE or Who Is It That Can Tell Me Who I Am, and Unintended Structures.
Tara Smith: Performer, Puppet & Mask Designer, Collective Member since '10
Tara is from Northern California but thinks Chicago is way awesome-er. She designs things, performs in things, teaches things (i.e. kids). She takes some things very seriously, like hygiene, her ART and her pursuit of rock stardom. Everything else she doesn't take seriously, like her angry coffee shop patrons and Kevin Spacey. She is excited to be a new member of The Anatomy Collective because (and only because) the name sounds like a 70's prog-rock band that Peter Gabriel might have been in. And because (I lied, there are more reasons) all of the members are AWESOMELY talented and she feels more like a real artist by simply basking in their glow of giftedness. You may have seen Tara falling down in TAC's GONE or Who Is It That Can Tell Me Who I Am or washing her face in Unintended Structures.