Bora “Max” Koknar (Director) - Max is a Turkish-born actor, director, writer, educator, producer and the Co-Artistic Director of Dragon Productions. Over a professional career of 15 years, Max has entertained over a half million people as a performer; produced a touring program serving over 100,000 children a year across the west coast; founded an education program designed to increase language fluency and communication skills of at risk youth in partnership with The Ohio State University; created sold-out immersive experiences with Epic Immersive; and collaborated with international tech giants such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Box, Intuit, Genentech, and Paradox Interactive as performer, executive coach, training facilitator and experience designer.
Samantha Ricci (Assistant Director) - is a performer and teaching artist from the Bay Area. She began her career with the Missoula Children’s Theatre, directing kids across the US, Canada, and Southeast Asia. Sam first went mad for Shoggoths on the Veldt when she saw its premiere while touring with the California Theatre Center; she is thrilled for the chance to be working on the show herself with this amazing team, reunited with fellow California Theatre Center alums director Max Koknar and actor Alika U. Spencer-Koknar. Sam’s latest directing projects (Hatikvah and Vichy’s Garden) were part of the 2017 Lights Up festival at City Lights Theatre Company in San Jose. When not onstage or backstage, she can be found facilitating improv-based workshops in California state prisons with the Red Ladder Theatre Company.
Austin Barnes (Assistant Stage Manager) - is terribly pleased to be returning to The Dragon Theater. After helping with the previous year’s Star War Holiday Special: Live! and The Revolutionist at the beginning of this season, he is horribly excited to be a part of bringing Shoggoths to life and also to be assisting Betsy in her big debut on The Dragon stage (she has bright future ahead of her)!
Melinda Marks (Stage Manager) - is a longtime Bay Area actor and director, and the editor and casting director of San Jose-based production company Play on Words. This is her first time Stage Managing at Dragon Productions, but she was the dialect coach on last season's Equivocation and will direct Anne of the Thousand Days here later this year. She was last seen onstage in Shakespeare in Love (Palo Alto Players), and in Theatro Visions' world premiere of Departera.
Mike Fatum (Fight Choreographer) - was trained by Eben Young of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and has been choreographing stage combat for more than a decade. Prior to Shoggoths,his work could be seen in the film Star Wars Uncut, and on stage with The Lamplighters and Pacifica Spindrift Players. He hopes to one day be half as good as Bob Anderson, who you know for choreographing every single sword fight you love. Seriously, Google him.
Nathanael Card (Scenic/Lighting Designer) - Nathanael Card, Wizard of the Theatre Arts, is proud to take the form of lighting designer, scenic designer, and painter for Dragon. His past scenic designs include: The Revolutionists, Three Days of Rain, and Cirque Exotique du Monde at Dragon; Godspell, Carousel, and A Chorus Line, with Youth Musical Theater Company; and Southern Lights, with 3 Girls Theater at Z Below. He designed lights as well for his last three shows at Dragon, and often crews as an electrician with Smuin Ballet and Berkeley Rep.
Jonathan Covey (Sound) - has been making noise with Dragon for a few years now. This is his eighth production with the theatre, the other six being Miss Reardon Drinks a Little, Rich & Famous, Caeneus & Poseidon, Insignificance, Three Days Of Rainwith Meredith Hagedorn and this past summer’s Equivocation for Jenny Hollingworth. Covey also did sound for Hillbarn Threatre’s productions of The Elephant Man and Noises Off and even tried his hand at acting, recently playing Malcolm et. al. in Dragon's Macbeth, as well as Detective Sargent Trotter in Crystal Springs Players production of Agatha Christie’s The Mouse Trap. However, he still enjoys being alone in a dark room with a microphone, a guitar, and maybe some celery.
Kate Martin (Puppet Designer/Properties Master) - is extremely honored to join Dragon Productions for the first time for Shoggoths. She also designs and creates costumes and props, and performs with Epic Immersive and Hubba Hubba Revue, as well as teaches elementary school science and engineering during the week. In her free time she performs immersive comedy with her girlfriend and creates all sorts of strange things.
Kathleen Qiu (Costume Designer) - is a Bay Area costume designer returning to Dragon for her third season. Previously, she designed The (Making of the) Star Wars Holiday Special: Live!, The (Curious Case of the) Watson Intelligence, Equivocation, Insignificance, and Cirque Exotique du Monde. Other selected credits include Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (West Valley College), Honky, All My Sons (Role Players Ensemble), All in the Timing (Tomorrow Youth Repertory), She Kills Monsters, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Foothill College), Two Mile Hollow (Ferocious Lotus), Universal Robots (Quantum Dragon Theatre), The House of Yes, How I Learned to Drive(Custom Made Theatre Co), and You Mean to Do Me Harm (SF Playhouse). She graduated from the University of Chicago with BAs in Chemistry and Psychology and is working on an MFA in Costume Design from the Academy of Art. She would like to thank the production team for this opportunity and her family and friends for their continued support.
Jacob Vorperian (Projection and Animation Designer) - is proud to be joining the creative team of Shoggoths on the Veldt as Projection and Animation Designer. He studied computer science at Willamette University before moving on to his current roles as House Technician for Dragon Productions, Head of Technology for Epic Immersive, and Projectionist for Viberation Visuals. Jacob also has over a decade of extensive experience in acting, singing, and dancing, with his most recent role being that of Short John in Epic Immersive's production of The Changeling: a Neverland Story. He would like to thank Marilyn Izdebski for introducing him to the wonderful world of theater and Max and Alika for bringing him to Dragon.
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