October 13 Guests

BELLA MERLIN, Deviser/Performer
Bella is an actor, writer and UC Davis Department of Theatre & Dance Professor of Acting. Recent theatre credits include The Permanent Way, She Stoops to Conquer and A Laughing Matter, as well as leads in numerous British theatres. She has worked extensively in television and radio, for the BBC and commercial networks. Bella’s publications include Acting: The Basics, The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit, and With the Rogue’s Theatre: Henry IV at the National Theatre. At UC Davis she has appeared in Sideshow Physical Theatre’s production of Elephant’s Graveyard and Chekhov’s The Seagull. Bella is a member of British Equity.

MILES ANDERSON, Director
Miles has just returned from the Old Globe Theatre, San Diego, where he received great acclaim for his performance of King George in The Madness of George III, and where he will be returning next year to play Salieri in Amadeus and Prospero in The Tempest. Anderson has been acting for over 40 years, primarily in the UK. Television appearances include “Criminal Minds” and the award-winning “House of Cards.” Theatre credits for the Royal Shakespeare Company (Stratford & London) include his Olivier Award-nominated performance in The Witch of Edmonton, Mother Courage with Judi Dench, and the title role in Macbeth. West End credits include The Rehearsal, The Unknown Soldier with Peter Ustinov, and the role of Bill Sykes in Oliver! with Jonathan Pryce. He appeared as the first ever male Peter Pan in Trevor Nunn’s production for the Royal Shakespeare Company, claiming a place in the Guinness Book of Records. Film credits include Cry Freedom with Denzel Washington and Kevin Kline. Directing credits include No Man’s an Island for the Royal Shakespeare Company Youth Theatre and The Revenger’s Tragedy at James Madison University, Virginia.

DAVID ROESNER, Composer/Sound Designer
David works as an academic and practitioner of theatre music. He teaches and researches at the Drama Department of the University of Exeter, has published the book Theatre as Music (2003, in German) and numerous articles on the manifold relationships of music and theatre, which won him the Thurnau Award for Music-Theatre Studies in 2007. He has devised music for a range of productions and context–form applied theatre, to practice-as-research, from children’s theatre to contemporary drama.

DAVID ORZECHOWICZ
Sociologist David Orzechowizc is winner of the PSA Graduate Student Award at UC Davis for his paper, ‘Elite Emotion Managers: The Case of Novice and Semi-Professional Actors.’ David’s research addresses the way in which actors manage their feelings, and thus create and shape their onstage and social identities.

CLAIRE BLACKSTOCK
Claire is a PhD candidate in Theatre and Dance, as well as a researcher into religion and performance. Claire investigates intersections between theology/theatricality, liturgy/the language of performance, spirituality/performance practice, and ritual/reality.

MANI IYER
Mani Iyer is CEO of Kwanzoo, a multi-channel marketing platform that drives more leads and sales by engaging users and serving targeted offers that get propagated virally via email and social media. Kwanzoo campaigns run inside email newsletters, on websites, Facebook, LinkedIn and community pages, affiliate sites and paid advertising channels. Kwanzoo’s innovative “smart” poll, quiz, social share, and opt-in content units are highly effective at converting visitors into customers. Clients include SAP, Oracle, Green Dot, and Payment Data Systems. Mani was previously a marketing consultant to VC-backed start-ups, and founded a software business acquired by Oracle/PeopleSoft. Mani is a serial entrepreneur, industry speaker on social media, online customer acquisition and interactive marketing, and startup advisor. Mani has spoken at leading industry conferences including Leadscon, Adtech, Social Email Marketing, and TiEcon. Mani is a Charter Member and Co-Chair of the Internet Special Interest Group (SIG) at TiE Silicon Valley, the world’s largest organization of entrepreneurs.