Artist Bios for Blood/Sugar
Diana Wyenn, creator/writer/performer
Guy Zimmerman (co-writer) An award-winning writer, director, and producer, Zimmerman has served as artistic director of Padua Playwrights since 2001, staging over fifty productions of new plays, moving several to stages in Atlanta, New York City, Edinburgh, Prague, and Berlin. Recent directing credits include the acclaimed, full cycle of Murray Mednick's The Gary Plays with the Open Fist in 2017, The Black Glass, seen at Push-Push Theater in Atlanta and at Balhaus OST Theater in Berlin, and Fractalicious! by Bryan Reynolds at the Interferences Festival in Cluj, Romania. He recently completed a doctoral degree in Theater and Performance Studies in the joint UC Irvine/UC San Diego program. His critical work has been published in Theatre Journal, SubStance, Shakespeare Bulletin, Architecture in the Anthropocene, TheaterForum, and elsewhere. His own plays include La Clarita, The Inside Job, Vagrant, The Black Glass, The Hillary Game, The Royal and Clearwater.
John Zalewski (sound design) is happy to collaborate with Ms. Wyenn on her story. John’s worked at the Goodman, the Guthrie, Portland Center Stage, South Coast Repertory, Humana Festival, Perseverance Theatre, Alliance Theatre, Lewis Family, Disney Hall, Geffen, Center Theater Group, Broad Stage, Wallis Annenberg, Rattlestick and with companies in Los Angeles including Boston Court, Evidence Room, Antaeus, Padua Playwrights, Actors' Gang, amongst others. Awards include seven LA Stage Alliance Ovation Awards, seven LA Weekly Awards, three Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards, and ten Backstage Garlands. Recent work includes Destiny of Desire at Oregon Shakespeare Festival 2018. Hold These Truths at Arena Stage in DC; What Happened When at Atwater Village; Belleville at Pasadena Playhouse; Ripe Frenzy at Greenway Court and Jack Benny with Padua Labs. Upcoming: Vietgone at EWP and Macbeth at OSF.
Jason H. Thompson (projection design) Designs projections for opera, dance, theatre, theme parks, commercial, architecture and corporate events. Selected credits: Die Walküre (Karlsruhe, Germany), Tri Sestri (Vienna State Opera), Hopscotch, a live streaming multimedia mobile opera taking place in various locations around Los Angeles, A Trip to the Moon (La Phil), Young Caesar (LA Phil), Cunning Little Vixen (Cleveland Orchestra, Vienna Musikverein), Pelléas et Mélisande (Cleveland Orchestra), Grey Gardens (Ahmanson, Los Angeles), Cage Songbooks (Carnegie Hall, SF Symphony, and New World Symphony), Crescent City Opera and Invisible Cities new experimental operas directed by Yuval Sharon, Tarzan: Call of the Wild and Frozen A Sing-Along (Disney Shanghai Resort), Wingman a one-man multimedia clown show (Ars Nova), Re:Union (Vancouver and Ottawa), Fast Company and Tokyo Fish Story (South Coast Rep), Tales from Hollywood (Guthrie Theatre), The Steward of Christendom (Mark Taper Forum), Great Immensity and Venice (Public Theatre), Remember Me (Parsons Dance Company), Chavez Ravine (Kirk Douglas Theatre, Ovation Award), Stars on Ice (2007-2018), and Scott Hamilton CARES charity events in Cleveland. He’s also created four video installations for the Petersen Auto Museum in Los Angeles, and recently co-designed an exhibit with Yuval Sharon, Chagall: Fantasies for the Stage at LACMA. pxtstudio.com
Joey Guthman (lighting design) is a nationally recognized lighting designer, whose work has been seen on both coasts. He is pleased to collaborate with Diana Wyenn after successful productions of Neva (Theatre of NOTE); Tell Me I’m Pretty (REDCAT, Bootleg); Match (Inkwell Theatre) and all previous versions of Blood/Sugar. Other designs include: Woodboy Dogfish (Rogue Artists Ensemble); Clueless, Jurassic Park, Vote! the Musical, Home Alone, Hamilton’s 90s Mixtape, Hocus Pocus. (Rockwell Table and Stage); Until, Until, Until (Yerba Buena Center); Denim Doves (Sacred Fools); Naked in Alaska (Bootleg); The Wong Street Journal (REDCAT, Bootleg, Miami Light Project, Philly Int’l Festival of Art); Fortunate Son (Coin and Ghost) and many more. Joey is the Lighting Director for LA Dance Project, and his designs for the company have been seen across the United States, at the Theatre des Champs Elysees in Paris and many other venues in France. BFA: Emerson College.
Rebecca Carr (costume design) Theater Costume Design credits: Dead Dog’s Bone (Hollywood Fringe), God Is a Woman (NYC Fringe), What Happened To Where I’ve Been (Son of Semele), Blood/Sugar (Highways), Denim Doves (Sacred Fools), Match (Inkwell). Television Costume Dept. credits: Chance (Hulu), How to Get Away With Murder (ABC), American Horror Story (FX), Feud: Bette & Joan (FX), American Crime Story: Versace (FX), Barry (HBO). BFA Costume Design, Emerson College. For more, visit rebeccacarrdesigns.com
Lauren Campedelli (voiceover) is a long-time collaborator with Diana Wyenn, acting under her direction in BH Productions’ Becoming Human, Sacred Fools’ Bill & Joan, as well as numerous developmental projects. Lauren is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA, where her work as both actor and director was most recently seen this summer in The Second Coming and Evie, Duty Calls, respectively. Also a member of LA’s award-winning Evidence Room, she appeared in more than a dozen of its productions, including The Berlin Circle, Pentecost, Flow My Tears, and The Cherry Orchard. Other SoCal acting credits include productions at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, The Old Globe, and The Actors’ Gang, among others.
Laban Pheidias (stage manager)
Cassie Holzum (assistant stage manager) is a stage manager, Educational Theatre practitioner, and vegan in the New York area. She often manages shows, conferences, and events for NYU where she came into contact and fell in love with Blood/Sugar at the 2018 Educational Theatre Forum. She is so thankful to her family by blood and beyond and Diana who is an incredible woman and artist.