Downtown Youth Ensemble
Opening the doors to your future
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Stig Zeiner
Instructor
Stig Zeiner (MA RADA) is a performer with more than 14 years of professional experience as an interdisciplinary actor, artist, director and professor from venues world wide.
Stig spent his youth performing in musical theatre productions with a youth ensemble (BBT) performing for thousands until he ’retired’ at the age of 18.
After a year of service as a corporal in His Majesty’s Royal Guard, Stig pursued his acting career by graduating the acting program at The Nordic Institute of Stage and Studio in Oslo.
After graduating a highly competitive program with honours, Stig enjoyed a highly successful career as an actor, musical theatre performer and dancer which included roles with major institutions in productions like ’Les Miserables’ - Oslo New Theatre, ‘Dead Beat Escapement’- The National Opera and Ballet and the title role of ‘Peer’ in Ibsen’s Peer Gynt at the National Theatre which toured internationally through countries like Sweden, India, China.
Stig since wanted to explore his own artistic voice which led him to graduate with a masters in devising theatre from The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London.
He went on to co-create several groups (Improv Neuf International, 16:9) and to perform with the internationally acclaimed theatre troupes ‘The Theatre of Cruelty’ and ‘Theatre Joker’ which specialised in devising ensemble pieces based on expressive physical forms of theatre. This has led him to tour to perform throughout the world, (Norway, USA, Iran, China, India, France, Italy UK, Poland, Japan, West Africa ++).
Throughout his performative career, Stig has held workshops for participants ranging in experience from full fledged professional performers of interdiciplinary arts , to children ranging in ages 8-18. (BBKS, OKS)
Stig’s long and exciting career also includes work as a Motion Capture Artist (Funcom), Voice Artist (Disney, Nordubb++), several national commercials (McDonalds, Betsson, Telenor) and as a film/TV actor (Disney, Hotel Caesar, Union Film).
Stig recently moved to Las Vegas because he is expecting his first child with ‘Absinthe’ performer and clown Kasey Wilson.
Heidi Rider
Instructor
Heidi is a visual and performing artist, director and educator with over sixteen years of professional experience. She is a proud graduate of CUNY Hunter College and Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre. She has performed traditional and devised theatre and dance works in NYC, California, Washington, Japan and Bali. Heidi is a co-founder of the Las Vegas based arts collective, The Weft in the Weave. She was the Artistic Director and Co-creator of Small Space Fest, a fully immersive art and performance experience produced by Weft in the Weave at Emergency Arts in downtown Las Vegas. She has had the pleasure of performing at the Clown Theatre Festival at the Brick Theater, Theatre for the New City, LaMaMa, Abingdon Theater Company, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Harlequin Productions, with NW Playwrights Alliance and in the Mad River Theatre Festival. As a teacher, she has designed and taught performance and art making workshops and classes for groups ranging from kindergarten to seniors, from 2 participants to 150 participants. Heidi has taught coast to coast in the USA, and in Japan, where she also had the pleasure to perform original performance art and theatre works in Tokyo, Kobe, Hiroshima, Onomichi, and Awaji. At Hunter, Heidi was granted the Kossak Painting Fellowship from the Art Department and awarded a substantial post-graduation scholarship through the Theatre Department for Excellence in Acting. Her artistic perspective is influenced deeply by a uniquely nomadic upbringing rooted in working class culture. She explores art making around non-traditional materials and emerging/undefinable fusions of performing and visual elements. Heidi’s big dreams envision art and theatre frolicking as an exhilarating and cohesive pair.
Nina Yasick
Instructor
Coming Soon..
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Adriana Chavez
Instructor
Adriana is an actor-creator, interdisciplinary performer, director, educator and image maker seeking to collaborate on compelling, innovative projects that take risks and give voice to the various perspectives of the human condition. She is committed to creating works of theatre that are visceral, provocative, physically engaging, challenging to herself, her ensemble and audiences. Adriana is a founding member of Weft in the Weave Collective, the group that created and produced Small Space Fest in Las Vegas, NV. Adriana received an MFA in Ensemble-based Physical Theatre from Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre and a BFA in Theatre Performance from Chapman University. Currently based in Las Vegas, you can find her performing in the local theatre scene with Majestic Repertory Theatre, The Lab LV and others. Outside of Las Vegas credits include, New York City: Homunculus Mask Theater (Innovative Theatre Award), Palissimo Dance, NYC Clown Theater Festival, Collective Opera Company, Elke Rindfleisch Dance. California: Naked Empire Bouffon Company, Dell'Arte Company. Massachusetts: Shakespeare and Company. Washington: Theatre Artist of Olympia (TAO). In her life as an educator she has taught and directed theatre projects in the New York City Public Schools, elementary schools in California, and for the Academy of International Education in both Washington State and Japan.
Elizabeth Colon Nelson
Instructor
Elizabeth has been a professional performer, collaborator, and director for over 15 years. Living in artistic hubs such as Chicago, Los Angeles, Northern California and Louisville, KY., Elizabeth has had the pleasure to work with The House Theater, The Bailiwick Theater, The Dell’Arte Company, Shakespeare Behind Bars, The Grand Guinolers, Wet the Hippo, and The Actor’s Gang. While in LA, she had the honor to perform at the Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art (LACMA)with her mentor, Alicia Martinez Alvarez, in conjunction with the female surrealist exhibit “In Wonderland”. Elizabeth holds an MFA from Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theater. With a passion for community based arts, she created a radio play with 63 inmates living in the secured housing unit at Pelican Bay State Prison that was broadcast live on the local NPR station. Elizabeth was invited by Western Kentucky University to direct their theater students in the creation an ensemble devised theater piece inspired by interviews with residents at a local nursing home. In addition to performing, Elizabeth worked at FOXTV Animation as the office manager for Family Guy, American Dad and the Cleveland Show. While working at FOX, Elizabeth wrote a one act play, Cambiar, that was performed at the Broadway Center for Performing Arts in Tacoma Washington. Elizabeth moved to Las Vegas in 2014 and is excited and inspired by this city bursting with possibility.