Offending Shadows Theatre

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  • Productions
    • So You Want to be a Vampire >
      • Creatures of the Night Con XXIII
    • The O'Shadowfest
    • Adapted
    • The Colour Out of Space
    • The O'Shadowcast
  • Submissions
    • O'Shadowfest Submissions
  • TICKETS
  • Contact
  • Home
  • About
    • Members
    • Become an O'Shadow!
  • Productions
    • So You Want to be a Vampire >
      • Creatures of the Night Con XXIII
    • The O'Shadowfest
    • Adapted
    • The Colour Out of Space
    • The O'Shadowcast
  • Submissions
    • O'Shadowfest Submissions
  • TICKETS
  • Contact

OSTC Members

Staff

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Natasha Troop - Artistic Director
Natasha grew up in Southern California and received her Bachelor’s degree from UCLA in Comparative Literature. She also holds a Masters’ Degrees in Secondary Education and Creative Writing. Since moving back to Los Angeles in 2014, Natasha has produced, directed, and/or designed close to a dozen plays, including a critically acclaimed production Richard III in the summer 2015. She is also the Director or Theatre and Film Studies for Larchmont Charter School, a published novelist, and sometime designer of things.
You can discover more about Natasha at www.lakebridgecycle.com

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Marni L.B. Troop - Literary Director
​Marni L. B. Troop has been a writer, editor, and story consultant for authors, academics, and scriptwriters for over twenty years. A member of the prestigious Coronet Writer’s Lab, her growing portfolio consists of original television pilots, features, and stage plays. She was a quarterfinalist of Austin Film Festival’s Original 1-Hour Pilot competition and a nominee by Women in Film for the Fox Writers Intensive. She is a proud member of the Grammar Police, a binge watcher, a Celtophile, a worshipper of autumnal decorations and owls, and a quantum physics nyerd. Her favorite phone app is Storm, the most amazingly spectacular weather app ON THE PLANET!

​You can discover more about Marni at www.marnilbtroop.com


Members

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Carrie Bell-Hoerth - Actor
Carrie Bell-Hoerth was born and raised in Maine, where she was involved in the local theater community, including the PortFringe Theater Festival. Favorite roles include Judith in the New England Premiere of Equivocation, Margo in The Terrible False Deception, and Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream. She's thrilled to be acting once again in Los Angeles!

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Tim Chizmar - Writer/Producer/Director/Actor
When Tim Chizmar was a child he lost himself in evil, scary stories. One day, a morally righteous librarian refused to let him take out his books. Reading about demons, beheadings, and cannibalism wasn’t the norm in Linesville, Pennsylvania. When Tim brought his mother to the library, she insisted that her son be allowed to read whatever he wanted. This upset the librarian so she looked his mother in the eye said, “Your son is going to grow up to be a great horror writer one day… or a serial killer.” As of this writing, Tim hasn’t killed anyone, just yet. Since graduating from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in 2005 with his BA in Communications, he has written and sold many short stories and screenplays. As a member of the prestigious Horror Writers Association he signed a 3 book deal with Omnium Gatherum in 2014. When he’s not burying bodies, Tim is a film director, comedian and producer living in Hollywood, CA. What drives Tim’s success is knowing that somewhere in Pennsylvania a librarian is praying for his soul.  Learn more about Tim at timchizmar.com

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Emily Donn - Writer/Actor
Emily is a graduate of the theater program at SUNY Brockport. At Offending Shadows, she has played Asenath Waite in The Thing on the Doorstep and Georgette in So You Want to Be a Vampire. She has also written and performed in every O'Shadowfest. Her first one-act play, Spiderpocalypse: A Low-Budget Horror Film for the Stage premiered in the 2015 Hollywood Fringe Festival. Emily is also an entertainment reporter for Screenrant.com, her articles can be found at screenrant.com/author/edonn

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​John Edwards - Writer/Producer
John Edwards graduated from Carnegie Mellon with a degree in professional writing before relocating to Los Angeles. As a member of the renowned Coronet Writers Lab, he spent the next several years developing plays, scripts, and short films while getting hands-on experience in just about every area of entertainment industry. Proud to be returning to O'Shadowfest to present a new work, John has also published children's books, written for the internet, animated television, and recently optioned a script that is currently being developed into a musical.

John is a father of three and lives in the Bay Area.

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Jon Gutierrez - Writer/Actor
Jon Gutierrez is a writer and actor from Groton, Connecticut. He got his start writing on the comic strip Twisted ToyFare Theatre for ToyFare Magazine and is a longtime writer/performer with the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. He’s worked as a comedy writer for NBC, CBS, Fuse TV and TruTV. He’s currently writing on two webseries: MTV’s Decoded and Marvel Comics' Marvel Superheroes: What The--?!, where he also voices Doctor Strange.

​You can see his stuff at 
jongutierrez.com. 

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Michael Goldstein - Writer
Michael Goldstein is a playwright and journalist based in Encino, California. He holds an MFA in Playwriting from Brooklyn College, where he worked with Jack Gelber, author of THE CONNECTION. An early play by Mr. Goldstein, THE HUMILIATION OF MALCOLM, was produced by the Brooklyn Jewish Theatre Company. In 2012, a staged reading of his one-act JUDGES DECISION, about the life and death of an Olympic sprinter, was held as part of the Ensemble Studio Theatre’s WINTERFEST program in Atwater Village, (Los Angeles) California. In 2016, JUDGES DECISION was selected for a staged professional reading in the New Play Lab of the 35th Anniversary William Inge Theater Festival, to be held in Independence, KS, in April, 2016. According to the awards citation, “Only 35 scripts were chosen this year, from a crowded field. Your play scored higher in most categories (i.e. original concept, compelling story, dialogue, structure, pacing, producing potential, etc.) than many submissions.” JUDGES DECISION will be performed at the Inge Festival by The Living Room Theatre of Kansas City, MO. Mr. Goldstein’s play SEASONS, a full-length drama with comic elements about an unrepentant 80-year old Jewish communist and his long-suffering daughter, has been read and informally developed at the Sunday Best program of Ensemble Studio Theatre LA, located at the Atwater Village Theatre in Los Angeles. A professionally staged reading of SEASONS was held as part of the Ensemble Studio Theatre’s WINTERFEST theatre festival on March 26, 2016 In February 2016, Mr. Goldstein’s ten-minute play MAIL had its first reading at the EST Sunday Best program. MAIL was then accepted for The 5th Annual Short Play Festival held at Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, CA on May 12, 2016, a paid commission for playwrights that also provides remuneration to the director and the performers. Michael Goldstein is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and the Association of Los Angeles Playwrights. Mr. Goldstein is also a successful and widely-published journalist. His work has appeared in American Way, The Los Angeles Times, The NY Daily News, The LA Weekly, The OC Weekly and Southwest Spirit. In 2014, Mr. Goldstein won first place for best Investigative Story in the Los Angeles Press Club’s 56th Annual Journalism Awards for his OC Weekly story “Blood Money.” Mr. Goldstein also won first place in the 2007 Southern California Journalism Awards for his LA Times story “The Other Beating,” on George Holliday, the man who videotaped the Rodney King beating.

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Eliot Hochberg - Writer/Producer/Director/Actor/Technician
Eliot Hochberg is a comedy and music improvisor, having performed with Upfront Comedy in Santa Monica, The Empty Stage in West L.A., ACME Comedy, and Impro Theatre. He is currently a member of Fraudway LA (fraudwayla.com), home of Camenot and Music in the Key of Murder, both narrative improv musical comedy shows. He is also a cast member and the video producer for Never Not Funny: The Jimmy Pardo Podcast.

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Amanda James - Producer/Actor

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Jesse Leighton - Writer/Actor
Jesse Leighton is a writer, actor, and bassist who is also a member of the Coronet Writer's Lab. You can check out one of his stories here: http://writeoutpublishing.com/products/in-another-world. Originally from Portland, Maine, he is also, like so many, an unpublished novelist.

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Jon Mullich - Actor
Jon Mullich has played a wide range of classical roles including Richard III, Hamlet, Angelo in Measure for Measure, Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Touchstone in As You Like It, Abel Drugger in The Alchemist, Thomas Diaforus in The Imaginary Invalid, Gloucester in King Lear and Malvolio in Twelfth Night as well as appearing in original plays (Timeshare) and musicals (Man of La Mancha, The Apple Tree). He wrote and directed U.S.S Pinafore, a long-running mash-up of Gilbert & Sullivan and Star Trek that was nominated for a Saturn Award, and wrote an adaptation of the Italian farce Servant of Two Masters set in Prohibition era Chicago in which he played the lead role of Truffaldino in its world premiere.

​His website is www.madbeast.com.

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David Pinion - Actor
David Pinion was raised in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwestern Virginia and the suburbs of Washington DC. His recent stage appearances include Spoon River: The Cemetery on the Hill, Richard III, Timeshare, and Don Juan In Hell at the Eclectic Company Theatre. Adept at drama, comedy, sketch comedy, long-form improv, and musical comedy (watching him dance is hilarious), he’s voiced numerous characters in the hit animated web series SPURS: Special Forces, and starred in the web series Romantically Hopeless. David studied Theater at Frostburg State University, improv at the Hothouse in NoHo, and voice-over with Bill Holmes, Bob Bergen, Joyce Castellanos, and Charlie Adler, to name just a few.

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Megan Reynolds - Producer
Megan was born and raised in Southern California graduating from Canoga Park High School in the San Fernando Valley. She developed a love for movies and theater at a young age and her favorite genre is horror with a particular fondness for supernatural thrillers. Megan is hoping to complete her horror script one day - which she constantly daydreams about while working her 9 to 5 day job (which, happily, includes production coordination for instructional and industrial videos). She is very excited to join the OSTC and is looking forward to working with everyone.

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M.Z. Runyan - Technician

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Dana Schwartz - Writer/Director/Actor
Dana Schwartz has been involved in the Los Angeles theater scene for many years, performing at the legendary Cast Theater, Actor's Gang, Moving Arts, LATC and more.  She has written and directed theater at The Secret Rose, Moving Arts, La Jolla Playhouse, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, REDCAT, MADLab and others.  She is thrilled to be a part of Offending Shadows, and thanks you for supporting small theater!


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Graham Skipper - Writer/Actor

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Glenn Simon - Writer/Director/Actor
Glenn Simon is excited to be part of the Offending Shadows family.  He directed Spoiler Alert by Emily Donn for the first O'Shadowfest.  In the past, Glenn performed in the first  seven seasons of Nevada Shakespeare in the Park appearing as Orsino in Twelfth Night, Orlando in As You Like It, and Antipholus of Ephesus in The Comedy of Errors.  Glenn also worked at the Globe Playhouse/LA as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, and Lucentio in The Taming of the Shrew.  Other favorite roles include Jack in Doric Wilson's Street Theater at Sparks in Seattle (his home town) and Edward in The Drunkard with The Virginia City Players in Montana.  Glenn has also spent the last few years hosting (and co-producing) The Golden Raspberry Awards (aka The Razzies, or The Anti-Oscars).  He has also written, produced, directed, and acted in several video projects for
​Manka Bros. Studios (
www.mankabros.com).  Glenn studied at Washington State University (Go Cougs!) and The American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

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Susan Stangl - Director/Actor
Susan has spent much of her life acting, directing, singing, writing and playing music, fiddling around with sound and anything else that can translate into live performance. She has designed sound for 100 shows and directed the Scenie-Award winning Becky’s New Car at Theatre Palisades. Favorite roles include Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Mrs. Lyons in Blood Brothers, Timothea in Sea Marks, Rosemary in Picnic and Elena in the interactive haunted play, Delusion: Lies Within. 

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David Michael Taylor - Writer/Director/Producer/Actor
David Michael Taylor graduated from the BFA Acting Program at The Ohio State University and studied in the MFA Acting Program at the University of Washington. NYC productions of his plays include FEAST OF FOOLS and FUN CITY at Center Stage and his award-winning ten-minute one-acts A PERFECT MANHATTAN and TIBET WEST. His play ALMOST HEAVEN received a reading in NYC at The Dramatists Guild. He was co-founder and Artistic Director of Studio a la Koo Koo, a non-profit theatre company in NYC. Highways Performance Space produced his play CRADLE TO GRAVE in Santa Monica, CA.
The LA Weekly gave his Hollywood Fringe Festival solo show, MIXED PERSONALITY DISORDERS, a “GO!” and said “Taylor’s comedic timing and confessional style becomes seductively compelling, eventually drawing you in with his wry, ironic observations and sparks of mild sarcasm. He gets you laughing harder than you’d imagine at a guy who flirted with insanity.”

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Rom Watson - Writer
Rom Watson is the author of the full-length plays MANIFESTO OF SILENCE, THE NORMA CONQUESTS, IMAGE AND LIKENESS (winner of a $150 honorarium and a reading at Celebration Theatre), PICKLE JUICE, LYING BENEATH THE SURFACE and PINOCCHIO IN THE BRONX. He has written 16 short plays including THE TEST (production by Fancy Pants Theatre), THREE SYLLABLES OF SHAME (production by 3 Roses Players), and MR. CUDDLES (production by ALAP).  His plays have had readings at The Road Theatre, The MET Theatre, Unknown Theatre, The Laura Henry Studio, Celebration Theatre and the ALAP festivals Dramapalooza, Dramapocalypto and Dramakaze.  He is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America and
​                                                                  The Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights.

                                                                  Learn more about Rom at http://www.romwatson.com/.
                                                                  You can find his blog at http://www.romwatson.com/category/blog/

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Micah Watterson - Actor
Micah was raised by bears and marmosets in the San Diego Zoo.

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Holly Witham - Director
Holly was co-founder of The Moveable Theatre Company and for TMTC, has directed and produced Don Juan in Hell, ART, Two Times Three, Later Life, the World Premieres of Peter Adum and Joyce Fante's Evenings With the Boys in the Backroom and Joe Musso's TheLogophile. She also produced TMTC's World Premiere of Mary Casey's Surprise Valley.  She has done costumes, props, sound and stage managing with a variety of local theatre groups including The Basement Theatre, Room For Theatre and Theatre Americana.  On stage, she has appeared in productions of A Streetcar Named Desire, Best Wishes, The Bad Seed, Independence, Morning’s At Seven, Shakespeare vs.Shaw, A Bad Year for Tomatoes and The Creature Creeps, among others.  She studied acting with Director Norman Cohen at Room for Theatre in Studio City. She is currently Treasurer of The Eclectic Company Theatre and is Secretary/Treasurer of Pasadena Shakespeare Company. She has been in accounting for nearly 38 years and has had her own free-lance accounting business, focusing on small, non-profits for the past 26 years.

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Diana Lee Woody - Writer/Actor
Diana Lee Woody is a playwright/physicist/actor. She has written several plays, radio plays, and award winning screenplays. Her plays have been performed in New York, Canada, Pennsylvania, Maryland, California, and Michigan. Diana is a member of the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights, The Dramatist Guild, and The American Physical Society. She is a native of the east coast, hailing from Silver Spring Maryland.

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