Creative Team
Stav Meishar (Writer and Performer)
Stav is a multidisciplinary performance maker and stage artist who bends and blends the limits of theater, circus, music and dance. She has spent the past two decades performing on professional theater and circus stages; on the ground and in the air; in Hebrew, English and Yiddish; in works devised by herself and in the works of others; all over Israel, America and Europe.
In 2012 Stav founded Petite Mort Productions, an alternative performance company committed to developing original multidisciplinary stage works. A home for the outsiders and the misfits, the company was created to provide an outlet for artists of every discipline whose works are innovative, unique and perhaps a bit strange. In 2013 Stav's company produced her play, The Dreamer and the Acrobat, at the NY Frigid Festival. That same year she had her Off-Broadway debut, performing on the aerial silks in the revival of The Megile of Itzik Manger.
When Stav isn't performing she educates families and children of all ages all around the NYC area under the umbrella of her award-winning organization Dreamcoat Experience, which uses Performing Arts as tools for teaching progressive Judaism.
Stav identifies as queer femme and prefers she/her pronouns. She is now based out of both New York City and Bristol, UK. For more see www.stavmeishar.com
Stav is a multidisciplinary performance maker and stage artist who bends and blends the limits of theater, circus, music and dance. She has spent the past two decades performing on professional theater and circus stages; on the ground and in the air; in Hebrew, English and Yiddish; in works devised by herself and in the works of others; all over Israel, America and Europe.
In 2012 Stav founded Petite Mort Productions, an alternative performance company committed to developing original multidisciplinary stage works. A home for the outsiders and the misfits, the company was created to provide an outlet for artists of every discipline whose works are innovative, unique and perhaps a bit strange. In 2013 Stav's company produced her play, The Dreamer and the Acrobat, at the NY Frigid Festival. That same year she had her Off-Broadway debut, performing on the aerial silks in the revival of The Megile of Itzik Manger.
When Stav isn't performing she educates families and children of all ages all around the NYC area under the umbrella of her award-winning organization Dreamcoat Experience, which uses Performing Arts as tools for teaching progressive Judaism.
Stav identifies as queer femme and prefers she/her pronouns. She is now based out of both New York City and Bristol, UK. For more see www.stavmeishar.com
Nicole A'Court-Stuart (Co-Producer)
Nicole is a circus artist and producer at Bristol’s biennial Circus City festival and Laura Murphy's Contra. When she’s not touring with a production or eating pastries at her laptop, she can be found teaching and training static trapeze, making pancakes and pickles with her friends and taking her dog on long rambles in the countryside. |
Jesse AlFord (Lighting Designer)
Jesse AlFord is the Resident Lighting Designer for both Theatre [502] and Pandora Productions and the Lighting Designer for Circus Flora since 2015. He also regularly designs with the Louisville Ballet, Kentucky Shakespeare, The Louisville Orchestra, Acting Against Cancer, The Va Va Vixens, and more. In the circus world, Jesse teach at juggling, acrobatics and more at Suspend Louisville, is the Head Coach at My Nose Turns Red Youth Circus, and is the Board President of the American Youth Circus Organization and American Circus Educators. |
Shoshana Bass (Director)
Shoshana Bass is co-Artistic director and ensemble performer with Sandglass Theater in Putney, Vermont. She grew up touring internationally with the theater founded by her parents and now performs their legacy work as well as her own devised work. Her training consists of a range of physical performance disciplines spanning across theater, dance, puppetry and circus. She works as a performer, teacher, director and choreographer around the world. www.sandglasstheater.org |
Sarah Jeneway (Tech Director)
Sarah is a circus performer, teacher and technician from the UK. She graduated with a first class BA hons in circus and physical theatre and went straight-on to join Bristol's Circomedia as an in-house rigger and technician. She has worked with Above and Beyond since 2016 as a performer and rigger, and designed the lighting for Glastonbury festival's 2019 circus and theatre outdoor aerial show. |
Nicola Lawton (Co-Producer)
A freelance circus producer whose credits include: 2017 - creation & premier of No Show by Ellie Dubois and subsequent Edinburgh Fringe run, creation of Fram & Dunt by Francesca Hyde. 2018 - No Show + Fram & Dunt presented at Circus Fest (Roundhouse, London), R&D for The Juggling Show - new work in progress by Ellie Dubois, full UK tour of No Show, producer of BRAW - The Scottish Circus Festival. 2019 - Fram & Dunt at Push Festival (Home, Manchester), No Show doing at Soho Theatre, London. Nicola is currently working on a new project with Zinnia Oberski to create Dreams of the Small Gods, a new one woman circus show. |
Chris Lincé (Projection Designer)
Chris has created video content for ENO’s ‘Iolanthe’ at The Coliseum, John Finnemore’s 2018/2019 national tour, the musical ‘Takeaway’ at Theatre Royal, Stratford East, Sam & Mark’s ‘On The Road Show’, and comedians Jess Robinson, Anna Morris, and Beth Vyse. He also provided animation for Channel 4’s ‘My Funniest Year’ with Chris Addison, and directed numerous music videos, including Pig With The Face Of A Boy’s ‘Complete History Of The Soviet Union, Arranged To The Melody Of Tetris’, shown as part of Adam Buxton’s BUG on Sky Atlantic. Chris is the co-producer of Hermetic Arts with writer/performer Carrie Marx, and co-created the shows ‘BADD: Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons’, ‘Unburied’, and ‘April’. |
Rada Manussen (Costume Designer)
With over 20 years experience as a professional costumier, Rada studied fashion design, pattern-cutting and clothing construction at Wollongbar TAFE, in the beautiful surrounds of Northern NSW, Australia. Graduating with a distinction, she has worked extensively in the costume industry ever since, from costume design to pattern-making and construction, and costume standby/ dresser on feature films and in the theatre world. During the past 12 years in the UK she has focussed on designing Costumes made-to-measure, predominantly for circus artists/ acrobats, allowing her the freedom to work at home and train the circus skills she loves to perform. www.missradida.com |
Valerie Meiss (Puppet Designer)
Valerie Meiss is an interdisciplinary artist / performer / builder based in a little mountain town in Appalachia. She builds and performs short vignettes of heart breaking sincerity or out of the box absurdity (sometimes one after the other or both simultaneously). She performs regionally and nationally as Tiny Wonder. She is an UNIMA Citation of Excellence 2014 winner, and received the UNIMA USA International Scholarship in 2018 which she used to travel to Japan to study Ningyo Joruri (bunraku) style with Japanese puppet master Koryu Nishikawa V. Kuruma Ningyo. More at: www.tinywonder.org |
Maria Pugnetti (Music and Sound Design)
Maria Pugnetti has spent the last decade exploring different creative mediums both material and digital. She works as a lighting, sound and projection designer and has served as a technical consultant, touring technical director and guest teacher for theater companies in and around Southern Vermont for the last six years. In her productions, Maria often incorporates projection, up-cycled fabric sets, intricate costuming and shadow puppetry to create lush scenes for her sonic folklore. Her original music braids together show-tunes, electronica, rap, and eerie animism. www.woolymar.com |
Lior Zalmanson (Dramaturg)
Lior Zalmanson is a researcher, new media artist and writer for stage and screen, whose works mostly focus on digital culture and the information society. His first play, Yingale, won the Haifa Fringe festival in 2009 and received a local production in Belgrade. His latest film Operator was screened in the official competition at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival. Other recent works were portrayed in the Israel Museum, Tzavta Theater, and the Jerusalem Film Festival. In 2011 Lior founded Print Screen Festival, Israel’s digital arts festival which connects thousands of artists, researchers and technologists, and explores themes of digital culture in audio-visual arts. Lior was a Fulbright visiting scholar to NYU. |
