OctaviaButler.net A fan blog for Octavia E. Butler, writer.

Cast & Crew Bios

Alfre Woodard - "Dana"
Alfre Woodard most recently starred in last year’s Holiday Heart, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe. She also starred in Love & Basketball, Mumford, and Down in the Delta, directed by Maya Angelou. Her additional credits include Passion Fish and Grand Canyon and television’s Gulliver’s Travels and The Member of the Wedding. She has also voiced the character of Pile the Lemur in Disney’s animated film Dinosaur.
A three-time Emmy award winner, Ms. Woodard’s most recent recognition was for her performance in Miss Ever’s Boys, for which she also received a Golden Globe Award, a Cable Ace Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She was nominated for an Academy Award in 1984 for her performance in Cross Creek.

Lynn Whitfield - "Sarah"
Lynn Whitfield has been seen most recently in It’s a Girl Thing. Other television credits include USA Network’s The Color of Courage, The Wedding and The Josephine Baker Story, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe and a Cable Ace and for which she won an Emmy Award and the NAACP Image Award for Best Actress in a Miniseries. Ms. Whitfield’s film credits include Eve’s Bayou, Gone Fishin’, Stepmom, In the Army Now and A Thin Line Between Love and Hate.

Michelle Hurd - "Alice"
Michelle Hurd is known to television audiences as series regular Detective Jeffries on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as well as series regular Simone on Malcom & Eddie. She has had guest starring roles on The Practice, Players, NY Undercover, NY News, The Cosby Mysteries and most recently as Tim Daley’s love interest on The Fugitive. Some Off-Broadway credits include AMI, Hot Keys, Hamlet, 900 Onearta, and The Constant Couple. Michelle made her Broadway debut in Getting Away with Murder.

Thomas Lyons - "Rufus"
Thomas Lyons made his Broadway debut last season in A Moon for the Misbegotten with Gabriel Byrne and Cherry Jones. Off-Broadway, he has appeared in This Lime Tree Bower, Y2K, District of Columbia, Flight, Getting In, and, as playwright/writer, Hell's Kitchen Sink. His film credits include Death to Smoochie (with Robin Williams), Last Ball, Mad Dog Coll, and Doug's First Movie. Television credits include Law & Order and Spin City. Mr. Lyons is the voice of Doug in ABC's Saturday morning cartoon Doug.

Leo Burmester - "Kevin"
Leo Burmester’s film credits include Limbo, The Devil’s Advocate, Lonestar, Perfect World, The Abyss, The Last Temptation of Christ, Passion Fish (with Afre Woodard) and Broadcast News. Mr. Burmester’s extensive Broadway credits include The Civil War, Ah Wilderness, Big River, and Buried Child, (directed by Gary Sinise). He also originated the role of Thernadier in Les Miserables. He will next be seen in City by the Sea with Robert De Niro and Frances McDormand.

Ruby Dee - Slave Narratives
Ruby Dee has extensive experience in theater, television, film and literature. She has been seen most recently in Having Our Say and Passing Glory. Additional film roles and projects include Ruth in A Raisin in the Sun, Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing and Stephen King's The Stand. Ms. Dee's theater credits include Fugard's Boesman and Lena (Obie Award), Wedding Band (Drama Desk Award), and Long Day's Journey Into Night (Ace Award). Ms. Dee and her husband Ossie Davis were given the Silver Circle Award by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and in 1995 they were recipients of the National Medal of Arts Award.

 

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JOHN COLUCCI - Sound Designer
John Colucci has been with the Seeing Ear Theatre troupe since the beginning and is instrumental in creating a high-quality audio experience for nearly all Seeing Ear Theatre works. Additional sound design credits include promos, program segments and original music for the likes of NBC, CBS, IBM, Oxygen Media, the SCI FI Channel, USA Network, HBO, Cinemax, Cartoon Network, Comedy Central and Lifetime Television.

TONY DANIEL - Writer
Tony Daniel is a Hugo-nominated fiction writer, as well as a producer and story editor for Seeing Ear Theatre. His new book, Metaplanetary, will be out this year from Harper Collins. Daniel went to USC film school in Los Angeles before dropping out to live in a bus off the coast of Seattle to write. Daniel has also lived in Prague, Barcelona and currently resides in New York City, where he is one of a handful of full-time audio dramatists on planet Earth.

LAURISSA JAMES - Producer
Laurissa James has been involved with Seeing Ear Theatre since January 2000. Before joining SCIFI.COM, Laurissa developed on air programming for the SCI FI Channel. For SET, she directed and produced "Titanic Dreams," starring Gigi Edgley and Clancy Brown. She co-directed the voice actors for SCIFI.COM's original animated series Maatkara and Chi-Chian and served as lead producer for the animated series Eclipse. In addition to directing and producing Laurissa develops scripts for other SCIFI.COM projects. When not producing for the Internet, Laurissa directs legitimate stage theatre in New York City.

DAVID SHINN - Foley Sound Effects
David Shinn is an audio engineer and sound effects artist. Over the past three years he has created live sound effects for numerous Seeing Ear Theatre productions as well as helped to post produce projects. He has created sound effects for national award winning audio drama productions. Prior to moving to New York in 1997, he produced and hosted a radio theatre show on station KMUD. David also currently co-produces the nationally syndicated Radio Works series.

BRIAN SMITH - Director, Producer and Executive Producer
Brian Smith founded Seeing Ear Theatre in the spring of 1997 as a home for new (and old) forms of audio storytelling on the Internet. Smith also holds the titles of executive producer and lead director of most Seeing Ear Theatre productions and has recently produced and directed J. Michael Straczynski's City of Dreams, a 10-episode series. Some of Smith's recent directing and producing credits include "An Elevator and a Pole," starring Kyra Sedgwick, Oliver Platt, Stanley Tucci and Peter Gallagher. Smith grew up listening to audio dramas on tape during long, hot nights in his native Florida. He later moved to New York City, where he taught high school in the Bronx before founding Seeing Ear Theatre. Smith currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.

JAQUELINE CUSCUNA - Co-Director
Jaqueline Cuscuna is thrilled to have been involved in the development and production of "Kindred." Jackie can be heard acting in such Seeing Ear Theatre productions as "Feel The Zaz," "Breakaway Backdown," and "Kindred." After graduating from Cornell University, where she focused on human relations training and education, Jackie moved back to her native New York City to teach high school. Her curricula includes courses such as history, meditation, peer counseling and Spanish language and culture. Jacqueline is currently teaching at City-As School and studying acting.

OHAD TALMOR - Composer
Originally from Israel, Ohad Talmor started his career in Geneva, Switzerland where he received his piano Diploma in 1989. He moved to New York in 1995 for his BA in Composition at the Manhattan School of Music. He has an active career both as a composer and as a performer, playing saxophone and clarinet. He has written music for pianist Martha Argerich, the Lucerne String Quartet, the Brecker Bros, Lee Konitz (with the Axis String 4tet-Palmetto Records). His projects include the downtown-oriented The Other Quartet (Knitting Factory records), the Jazz trio M.O.B. (Omnitone Records) and Seven Deja-Vu, a septet featuring Lee Konitz.

SUE ZIZZA - Foley Sound Effects
Sue Zizza has been producing national award-winning audio drama for more than 15 years. Her audio theatre series, The Radio Works, is heard nationally on almost 60 public radio stations. A writer, director, producer, and sound designer, she specializes in live (manual/foley) effects for audio and live theater. In addition to owning SueMedia, a media consulting company and recording studio on Long Island, Sue teaches audio production workshops throughout the country and is Executive Director of the National Audio Theatre Festivals (www.natf.org).