Artistic Staff

AudreyCrabtree-

(Writer/Video Director/Development)is co-director of Ten Directions Productions, with which she co-produced and performed in Bouffon Glass Menajoree (winner of 2007 NY Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Production), the Commedia play Saint Arlecchino at the Lucille Lortel Theater, and is currently in post Production with the film “Dirty Twin”, a modern version of The Bacchae.  Audrey has performed & directed with short, long, musical & ongoing character-based forms of improvisation, touring all over North America. Crabtree co-founded and performed with the funk improvisation troop The Bad Mamma Jammas, and wrote and performed with The Brave New Workshop, NPR and in ComedyCentral’s Let’s Bow!.  Audrey was a Collective: Unconscious Board Member for four years where she co-created and performed in 8 original ensemble works including the Drama Desk Award winning Charlie Victor Romeo.  She also directed Graham Willoughby’s Animal Confessions at HERE and three one-man shows with performance artist Steve Bird.  Audrey appears as her clown in the NY vaudeville scene, and in Big Bad Hour of Fun.  With the John Brown Clowns, she co-developed and performed in The Great Show Show Show!, Frankenclown and the mask show John Brown’s Body.  This year she was a co-director of the NY Clown Theatre Festival.  

 

Aimee “Minnie” German- (the Nurse) studied dance at UCLA, Stanley Holdens and the American Academy of Dance in Los Angeles where she assisted legendary Sadler's Wells dancer Margaret Hill.  In London, she received a Post Graduate degree at Mountview Academy of Dramatic Art. Aimee also studied at Circus Space where she focused in physical comedy and acrobatics.  Currently she teaches gymnastic and circus skills in New York and worked with Ten Directions for their 2004 production of Saint Arlecchino at the Lucille Lortel.  Aimee is also on a house team at the Peoples Improv Theatre where she is considered the fall girl.  http://www.thepit-nyc.com

 

Miriam H. Daly- (Accompanist) is a composer and

music director living in Brooklyn.  She received her Bachelor of Music at Eastman School of Music and her MFA from the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU. She currently is the music director of the long running off-Broadway smash, Tony ‘n Tina’s Wedding. She recently completed her Project 365, taking a photograph and writing a new song each day for one year-okay we admit she has will power! 

 

Eric Davis- (Director/Development) has directed and taught mask work, clown and physical comedy in Ireland and England as well as the United States. Recent works include the direction of Saint Arlecchino (a 14 member commedia play) at The Lucille Lortel, and Woman with a Parasol at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theater.  He is co-founder of John Brown Theatre, producing and directing a dozen original clown shows. He currently teaches at the PIT Theater and coaches improv working with such celebrated groups as Mother and Neutrino. Davis is revered throughout the circus and vaudeville communities for his bouffon work as Red Bastard. Visit www.redbastard.com

 

Lynn Berg- (Video Director, Dramaturge and Development) has worked with Audrey in the past co-writing and performing their play …and the fear cracked open.  Featured in the Minnesota and NYC Fringe Festivals, the Soap Factory Festival and winner of the City Pages award for Best Musical Score for a Play in 1998.    He was a board member of Collective: Unconscious for two years where he regularly wrote and performed his multi-media work.  He has written book and lyrics for an original rock show, Viva Knievel, depicting the career of Evel Knievel.  He is writer and director of Tribeca Lab Films’, “un Pote Nain,” a faux French vision of the American Dream, currently featured in festivals internationally,  and in post-production of “Dirty Twin,” a feature film inspired by Euripides’ The Bacchae.  Last summer, his Commedia play, Saint Arlecchino was performed at the Lucille Lortel Theater.  www.tendirections.net

 

Travis Ploeger- (Musical Director/Composer) shortly after working with Ms. Nast he recently moved from NY to Washington DC and has not been heard from since.  In NYC he served as the company music director for CHICAGO CITY LIMITS, New York City's venerable home for comedic improvisation, and has been performing musical improv in regional theaters and universities all over the country from 1998-2006.  He is also a founding member of I EAT PANDAS!, a musical improv group that took 2nd place at the 2004 UCB 3X3 Improv Competition, and is making appearances on the improv festival circuit   He has performed and directed his own show, THE MONDAY NIGHT MUSICAL, an improvised musical that ran at the People's Improv Theater and with the Del Close Marathon at the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theater in 2004.  He is also particularly proud of his stints as the music director/pianist/superhero for KA-BAAM!!, the improvised comic-book show that has played numerous places throughout NYC.  Travis has performed and music directed "non" improvised music theater all over the country, including such theaters as the Forestburgh Playhouse (Forestburgh, NY), the Great American Melodrama and Vaudeville (Oceano, CA) and the now defunct Hampton Playhouse (Hampton Beach, NH).  He has performed at the Off Off Broadway Awards show, and his children's musicals have been performed in New York and New England.   He was the resident composer at the Watkinson School (CT) for 2 years, and has taught and coached Music Theater there and elsewhere, including the Parker School (MA) and the Hartford Conservatory of Music (CT). He is addicted to No Limit Texas Hold 'Em Poker. Please visit his website: http://www.travisploeger.com

 

Donetta Riley- (Anti-age Vocal Coach to Ms. Nast) has an M.F.A. in Theatre Arts from the University of Louisville. She has worked the last 10 years in the Musical Theatre and Improv world. Credits include Disney MGM Studios, the McLeod Theatre, Upright Citizens Brigade, ComedySportz, Ten Directions and Collective Unconscious. Currently, she teaches voice and dance through the Music Together program and has her own Theatre Arts program for 1st and 2nd graders in Pelham, New York. She can also be seen as the New Jersey Lottery Lady.  www.tendirections.net

Dan Krumm- (Publications) has worked with Ten Directions since 1999 creating striking images, and even performing on stage.  Samples of his other work at:   www.tendirections.net, www.glide-inc.com, www.saintarlecchino.com, www.unpotenain.net

Brian Kelly- (Puppeteer and Puppet Construction) began his inadvertent acting career with ComedySportz Twin Cities in 1992.  He began working and performing improv and sketch with Audrey at CSZ, and Jump Up and Run, as well as collaborating on Brian’s original radio play Exit the Jackal.  Brian has since been seen in Tony & Tina's Wedding, Mystery Café, and Comedy Central's Let's Bow!.  With composer friend Todd Price, he wrote and directed the musical comedy The Temp, and children's CDs for Target stores. For the last three years he has performed in ‘Triple Espresso’, which has taken him to exotic locales, from Dublin, Ireland to Des Moines, IA.

Bram Muller- (Photography) Bram is an unstoppable photo taking machine.  He has worked with Deenie throughout her career as her photographer and re-toucher.  Bram works with artists and performers, creating dynamic portraits and artwork.  http://www.brammuller.com

Darien DaCosta- (Photography) Darien specializes in headshots and event photography.  Darien first met Deenie in the mid-eighties when he was just starting out and she was down on her luck.  He created the now famous images used for Crociere Cruise Lines, as well as her perfume line, NASTE’.  He also snapped Deenie’s most recent photos for her upcoming show Without Regret, Deenie Nast, and charges more each time he is convinced to work with her again.  http://www.dacostaphotography.com