David Lind is a local actor, director and playwright. Locally, he has worked with Mixed Blood Theater, Teatro del Pueblo, nimbus theatre, Theatre Unbound, Startinggate Productions, Theatre in the Round Players, Theatre Limina, Commedia Beauregard, and the Phipps Center for the Arts. David trained at Rutgers University and the Michael Chekhov Acting Studio in New York City. He is also the owner of TC Theatre and Film, one of the leading theatre industry websites in the Twin Cities. David is the Artistic Director of Zealots & Mystics.

Rick Fields is a local actor and director. He has worked in a variety of theatres in town over the years, most recently with the Phipps Center for the Arts where he appeared as George in Of Mice and Men and directed several of the Children’s Theatre Council productions. He is a Zealots & Mystics company member.

Eric Wood is a local actor. He has worked with The Phipps Center for the Arts, Startinggate Productions, the Jon Hassler Theater and The Y Show. He is a Zealots & Mystics company member.

Markell Kiefer (Director) is a writer, director, performer and producer. She has a MFA in Lecoq-based physical theatre from Naropa University, trained for two years at Circle in the Square Theatre School, and has been a student of European Clown master Giovanni Fusetti since 2003. Markell has toured, performed and directed nationally. She created The Buddha Prince, a play celebrating the life of the 14^th Dalai Lama, which has been produced in Minneapolis, Los Angeles and in New York City’s Central Park. Other directorial work includes: KIPO!, The Giving Tree, The Proposal, Fully Committed, Common Ground, Umba Umbra, The Brush Master, Thunderstorm, The Rabbit in the Moon, and The Life of Milarepa.

Shannon Forney (Ivan Ivanovich) is a puppeteer/ performer/ director who hankers for collaboration and live instrumentation. After admiring fellow physical theater actors for years, she took a much anticipated 3 week intensive workshop with Red Nose Maestro, Giovanni Fusetti at Bedlam Theater (May 07). She is proud of her recent (Nov. 07) Twin Cities puppet debut Instruments of Tortuga, an original shadow show at Heart of the Beast Theater. She hopes to show more puppet work and premiere a toy theater which her partner has loving assembled (including footlights!). Other credits include: One woman show, Lashings of Whipped Cream with 20% Theater Co. TC at Bryant Lake Bowl (Feb 07). Set designing for 20%’s After Ashley at Bedlam Theater in Feb 08. Grl Mainer-Puppeteer! and sidekick in Nina Rolle’s Zen Cabaret, Boulder Colorado (04-06). Performance internship with the Bread and Puppet Theatre Company, Glover, VT (1999). Shannon was a featured emerging artist for Colorado’s Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (BMoCA) 2003 performance season, directing Venus by Suzan Lori Parks. She is co-creator of Dreamland Fire Waltz, original puppet opera collaboration with Brooklyn artist Jesse Jarnow (BMoCA September 2002, July 2003). A proud graduate of Oberlin College (Ohio), she practices Bikram Yoga and lives with her partner and two dogs in zip code 55407.

Laura Purcell Gates (Dunyasha) has studied clown with Lecoq descendants Giovanni Fusetti, Philippe Gaulier and Jon Ferguson. Since discovering the form, she has transitioned from her classical theatre training, enamoured with the play that lies at the heart of physical theatre. Previous incarnations included training and performing with the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Shakespeare and Company, and Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company. She has also recently discovered puppetry and accordion, which make her very happy.

Christopher Lutter-Gardella (Uncle Sergei) has been making masks, puppets, costumes, sets, floats and various theatrical accoutrements out of waste materials for over ten years. He has taught the process of transforming trash into imaginative art to communities throughout the upper midwest and beyond. He has worked extensively in schools, libraries, community centers and other civic organizations as an artist-in-residence. He has presented training sessions and demonstrations at conferences and fairs and the like. He has guided communities in the development of art-making workshops and parades and theater productions. He has extensive experience in facilitating broad and diverse groups of people in the process of collaborative art-making, from conceptualization through to final presentation. He has also produced commission work for theaters, townships, institutions and television production companies. He was recently a recipient of the 2006 (Archibald) Bush Foundation (3M) Fellowship Grant, which provides artists with significant support to continue their work in their communities. He has traveled as far as Ajo, Arizona and New York City to spread the love and practice of imaginative trash-transformation. He has served on the staff of the Heart of the Beast's "May Day Festival" in Minneapolis Minnesota and serves as artistic director of Puppet Farm Arts, a small non-profit arts education and resource organization. Chris recently participated in a 3-week intensive Red Nose workshop led by European clown master Giovanni Fusetti at Bedlam Theatre.

Charles Lupia's plays have been featured at SABEL, Theatre Three, Armory Square Playhouse, NY Artists Unlimited and The Barnstormers. His radio plays have received broadcasts through KUSF-San Francisco and WRVO-Oswego. A graduate of Syracuse University, Lupia is currently at work on a book of short stories.

Bruce Hyde
Bruce Hyde's recent roles include Serge in Art, Juror 8 in Twelve Angry Men and Henry Drummond in Inherit the Wind (Fifty Foot Penguin Theater, Minneapolis, and Pioneer Place, St. Cloud), Willie Loman in Death of a Salesman (Starting Gate, St. Paul), Elwood Dowd in Harvey (Paul Bunyan Playhouse), and H.C. in The Rainmaker (Actors' Theater of Minnesota). At Theatre L'Homme Dieu in Alexandria, where he served as Artistic Director for four years, he has appeared in You Can't Take It With You (Grandpa), The Diary of Anne Frank (Otto Frank), Hello Dolly (Horace), and Of Mice and Men (Candy). In an earlier life he appeared on Broadway, and played Lt. Kevin Riley during the first season of Star Trek. Bruce is a Professor of Communication Studies at St. Cloud State University, and directs and teaches acting for the Department of Theatre, Film Studies and Dance.

Maggie Chestovich
Maggie Chestovich was last seen at The Guthrie in The Home Place. Other recent credits include Two for the Seesaw at The Jungle, Blood Wedding, Ten Thousand Things Theater, and The Miser and Tartuffe with Theatre de la Jeune Lune. She has also performed with The Children's Theatre Company, Frank Theatre, Illusion Theater, the sorely missed Eye of the Storm Theatre, Pillsbury House Theatre's Chicago Avenue Project, the Minnesota Fringe Festival, The Playwrights' Center, and Thirst Theater.

Chris Carlson
Chris Carlson was last seen at The Guthrie in The Pillowman. He has also appeared on several local area stages including the Jungle Theatre, the Brave New Workshop and Shakespeare in the Park. His film credits include Drop Dead Gorgeous, Here on Earth, and the recently completed local independent film Justice. He is one of the founding members of Thirst Theater and is also an attorney and adjunct professor.

Zach Curtis
Zach Curtis is the Artistic Director of the Paul Bunyon Playhouse. He has directed, produced, designed and/or acted in over 120 theatrical productions in the Twin Cities over the past 15 years, much of it as the Artistic Director of the critically acclaimed Fifty Foot Penguin Theater. Most recently he could be seen at Park Square Theatre in Of Mice and Men and in Torch Theater's A Thousand Clowns.

Eric Hockett
Eric Hockett is a playwright from Minneapolis. He is the author of the two act drama Blood and Thunder.

Bruce, Maggie, Chris and Zach are all members of the Actors' Equity Association, the labor union representing American actors and stage managers in the theatre.