Thanks to the City of Los Angeles, I will be teaching a workshop for women of color.

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Guest Artist Bios:

Uyen Huynh:  Member of Club O’ Noodles (Vietnamese American Theater Ensemble) since establishment 1993. Performed and co-wrote "Laughter From the Children of War", "Missing Miss Saigon", "Stories From the Nail Salon". Directed short video, "Scent of Green Cucumber".  Participant of Rad Asians Workshop Series and performance 2001 and 2002. Collaborated with TEADA Core Artist Summer 2003.Current Artistic Director of Club O’ Noodles. Created, produced, and directed "Ghost Stories" 2002 and "Love Stories" 2003 10-week workshop series and performance.

Shyamala Moorty:  holds an MFA in dance from UCLA‚s Department of World Arts and Cultures and is trained in ballet, Bharata Natyam (disciple of Malathi Iyengar and Medha Yodh), modern and post-modern dance, Indian folk dances, theater and visual art.  She recently co-founded the Post Natyam Collective and has performed her work in venues across the U.S., as well as in Canada and Germany.  Her interdisciplinary solo show, “RISE,” was acclaimed as a “tour de force” by the LA Times and is featured on the Artist Roster of TeAda Productions.  As a performer, Shyamala was a soloist and principal dancer with the Aman International Music and Dance Ensemble from 1997 to 2003 and she has been a member of Malathi Iyengar’s Rangoli Dance Company since 1994.  As an educator, Shyamala has contributed to the design and implementation of the AMAN Creative World Dance Curriculum, she has taught “Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Performance” at UCLA's World Arts and Cultures Department and is currently sharing her craft with students at Cal Poly Pomona.

Reina Alejandra Prado published her first collection of poetry Santa Perversa and Other Erotic Poems (San Diego: Calaca Press, 2001) under the pen name of alejandra ibarra. In the midst of the monsoons of Arizona, Prado carved out her poetic niche affirming that sexesmiotroerótico. Through her poetry she challenges the taboos imposed on Latina women by delving into the realm of the erotic.The aridness of the Sonoran desert delivered her to the foggy landscape of San Francisco, and now lives in the smog concrete milieu of Los Angeles. Prado has read to audiences throughout the U.S. Southwest and Mexico. She has collaborated with L.A. Coyotas, an intergenerational, multi-genre, Chicana art collective (1998 – 2000). As a Neo-Spinster (Dora McQuaid, Pat Payne & Reina A. Prado), she premiered "Second Wind" in Stirling, Scotland in July 2004. Prado earned an M.A. in Art History from the University of Arizona, after completing a B.A. in Humanities from San Francisco State University. She is a doctoral candidate in the Program of American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. Awarded a Smithsonian Institution Latino Studies Fellowship, Prado will complete research at the Archives of American Art (2004-2005). Her earlier research interests focused on the bi-annual Ateliers at Self-Help Graphics and other modes of Chicana/o cultural production. As a cultural activist, she has curated exhibitions, organized arts education events, and taught Chicano Studies, Women Studies, and Mexican Art History course in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Tucson, Arizona.

Paul Zaloom: Called “one of the most original and talented political satirists working in the theater” by The New York Times, performance artist and puppeteer Paul Zaloom has written, designed and performed 11 solo spectacles, including Fruit of Zaloom,Velvetville. and his latest, Mighty Nice. He’s performed his work on nine tours to Europe and in 42 of the states, including shows at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, the Walker Arts Center, and King Tut's Wah-Wah Hut. He has been awarded four National Endowment for the Arts grants as well as an OBIE, a BESSIE, an American Theater Wing design award, an L.A. Weekly Theater Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Since 1992, Zaloom has also appeared on TV’s Emmy winning Beakman’s World and the stage’s Beakman Live! as Beakman, the wacked-out, weirdo scientist who answers viewers’ questions about science, nature, and various bodily functions.