The Chance Theater - Inventing Van Gogh

Oanh Nguyen (Director)

In 1999, Oanh co-founded The Chance Theater, where he is currently Artistic Director. His most cherished projects as a director are Undeclared..., Is Pepperoni a Vegetable?..., The Stroop Report, But I Don't Feel Grown Up, Three Days of Rain (O.C. Register's Top Ten of 2002 and Best Directors of 2002), Bash, Lee Miller: The Angel and The Fiend (commissioned by and performed at the Getty Museum), The Fantasticks, Lord of the Screen. ( O.C. Weekly Nominee - Best New Play), Goodnight Children Everywhere (Nominated for 6 OC Weekly Awards, including Best Production and Best Director), Tape, Closer Than Ever (L.A. Times Critic's Choice), Porcelain (2006 GLAAD Media Award Nominee - Outstanding L.A. Production, Back Stage West Critic's Pick, O.C. Register's Top Ten of 2005, Nominated for 3 OC Weekly Awards, including Best Production and Best Director), Cabaret (Back Stage West Critic's Pick), The Laramie Project (Recipient of 2005 Arts Orange County Grant), The Last 5 Years and Into The Woods (Back Stage West Critic's Pick). Among a number of national commercials, Oanh's television and film credits include "American Dreams", "Party of Five", "The Beast", "Andy Richter Controls the Universe", "The Closer", Jonathan Frakes' "Clockstoppers", third billing in Jean Jacques Annaud's "Two Brothers" starring Guy Pearce, the feature film "All In" starring Michael Madsen, and the upcoming "Rush Hour 3" with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. Special thanks to Kelly, Masako, Casey, Alex, The Chance Company Members, Staff and Board, and, of course, his lovely and wonderful wife Erika for their inspiration and his sanity. He would also like to thank his immensely talented cast and design team for their dedication, professionalism and generosity. [top]

Masako Tobaru (Set Designer)

Masako has been a proud company member for 2 years. In 2006, she designed the sets for Anaheim Home Companion, The Lying Kind, The Eight: Reindeer Monologues, with their eyes (LA Times Critic's Choice) and Never In My Lifetime (BSW Critic's Pick) and previously designed lighting for The Eight, A Christmas Story, The Rover, Closer Than Ever (LA Times Critic's Pick), It's A Wonderful Life, and Grand Night for Singing. She has also stage managed Into The Woods (BSW Critic's Pick), The Last 5 Years, Cabaret (BSW Critic's Pick), and The Eight (OC Weekly Theater Award Nominee - Best Production). Elsewhere, she has designed lighting for Working, Seussical, the Musical, Joyful Noise, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, and received a Kennedy Center award nomination for her lighting design for Medea at Concordia University, Irvine, where she received her BA in Theatre and Communications. Masako would like to thank her family for their support, and her friends for their understanding. And as always a special thanks to Oanh, Erika, Casey, Alex and Jeff for everything they do to help her succeed. [top]

Jeff Brewer (Lighting Designer)

Jeff Brewer is excited to be making his debut with The Chance Theater. Originally from Dallas, he has designed lighting for productions from the East Coast to the West Coast and in between. In addition to designing lighting for theatre, he also designs for dance, special events, and industrial shows. Some of his favorite designs include The Grapes of Wrath, My Life with the Kringle Kult, Down the Road, Jesus Christ Superstar, Jeffrey, Pentecost, Training Wisteria, and What's Inside Here. Jeff received his MFA in Lighting Design from Boston University's College of Fine Arts in 2004. [top]

Dave Mickey (Sound Designer)

Recently Dave was the winner of the Robert E. Cohen Sound Achievement Award, a national award in sound design sponsored by USITT. Since 1995 Dave has been a theater sound, interactive, and lighting designer in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas. Dave was Sr. Audio Tech for Caltech for 6 years, before returning to school to start his MFA in Sound Design at CalArts. At CalArts Dave studied sound design and interactive design. While working as an assistant exhibit designer for the Nixon Library. Dave has been a guest lecturer on the topics of lighting and sound design, and technology. Designed and installed complete sound systems, smart systems, interactive systems and lighting systems. Worked as a sound engineer for two shows in the Edinburgh Fringe Scotland, and music CDs. Dave was the founder of Mickey Designs/MTSaS a sound, interactive, lighting theater design and sales company, Associate Sound Designer for The Chance Theater, Lighting Designer for Institute of New Dance & Cultures since 1999, and recently a Co-founder for RIDGE Integrated Systems RIDGEiSYS.com an interactive design company which Dave is the Director of R&D. Sound engineer for President Bill Clinton address on Science and Technology. Dave is also a member of USITT. [top]

Rachel Stivers (Costume Designer)

Rachel is in her third year at University of California Irvine , where she is studying costume design. She recently completed her fifth season at California Music Circus. She has also designed for California Musical Theater and Garbo's Dinner Theater in Sacramento. This is her second show at The Chance. Last season she designed Hot 'N' Throbbing. She would like to thank the staff at The Chance for being so wonderfully helpful, and also her friends and family for their love and support. [top]

Glenda Morgan Brown (Dialect Coach)

Glenda began her dialect coaching career by assisting actors in shows she was directing, and then shows directed by her husband, David Colwell, and it grew from there. Some of the shows she has coached are Hay Fever, Don't Dress for Dinner, Dangerous Obsession, and Shadowlands (all Standard British); The Sum of Us (Australian); Taking Sides (German); and, Dracula, requiring no less than seven different accents! Glenda's previous work with Chance includes Cabaret, The Lying Kind, and the challenging Porcelain, requiring seven distinct British Isles sounds. Glenda is also a professional actress, seen last season as the Vice President's wife on "Commander in Chief", and co-stars on "Close to Home", "The West Wing", "Boston Legal" and "Monk". She's happy to be back with The Chance Theater "family". [top]

Alisa Duffey (Stage Manager)

Alisa is thrilled to be working with such a fun and talented cast and crew. Her previous stage management credits at The Chance includes The Laramie Project, The Diary of Anne Frank, Spring's Awakening, Tape, and A Grand Night for Singing (revival at The Curtis). Other credits include The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged (director), You Still Can't (lighting designer/ assistant director), and A Doll's House (assistant director), all at a Concordia University, Irvine where she received her B.A. in Theater. She would like to thank Masako and Tanae for the opportunity to work on this show and Jason for all of his love and support. [top]

Alex Bueno (Asst. Stage Manager/Light Board Operator)

This is Alex's 2nd time operating the booth since 2002. She has been the Paint Captain at the Chance for the past 3 years. She feels very fortunate to be involved in a show like Inventing Van Gogh and to be able to work with the talented cast. Alex was last seen on stage in The Eight: Reindeer Monologues and LA Times Critic's Choice production of with their eyes. Alex would like to thank Oanh for this great opportunity, Alisa for showing her the ropes, the cast for their talent and friendships and Casey for his love and support. [top]

David J. Dalton (Vincent van Gogh)

David's debut performance was in Bali Abba and The Thieves of Barbose, at the Costa Mesa Civic Play House when he was ten. From then on he was hooked; acting throughout high school and college performing in plays, repertory companies, and traveling shows. From there, convinced that he should get a "real" job, he found his way into several "really bad" jobs before waking up one day and realizing that he had walked away from the one thing he loved to do most. After a 17-year hiatus, David returned to the stage last summer were he was seen playing Oberon and Theseus in A Midsummer Night's Dream, at the Irvine Community Theater, and Adam and Corin in As You Like It, at the San Juan Capistrano Shakespeare Festival. He has studied under Alex Golson at Orange Coast College and Hal Landon Jr. at South Coast Repertory's conservatory. This is David's first show at The Chance Theater and would like to thank Oanh Nguyen, the Director, for giving him the chance to work with such a talented and fun group of people. [top]

Sean Hannaway (Miller/Gachet)

Sean has been seen at The Chance in Oedipus at Colonus as Thesius, Lee Miller: The Angel and the Fiend as Roland Penrose, Trail of Tears in a dual role as Barth and Chancellor Sperry, the company's sketch comedy show Cup of Ha Ha, and most recently as Snelgrave in One Flea Spare (Back Stage West Critic's Pick). Sean began his career as an improvisational actor in the Troupes' A Work in Progress and April's Fools. [top]

Jonathon Lamer (Bouchard/Gauguin)

Inventing Van Gogh marks Jonathon's second show with The Chance (third, if you count understudy performances in The Eight) following the world premier of Anaheim Home Companion. Just over a year ago he played Patrick in another production of Van Gogh at the Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis, TN. Regional credits include Ralph in Frozen, Kippy in Take Me Out, Martin in The Goat, or Who is Sylvia, Slim in Of Mice and Men, Hal in Proof, Heisenberg in Copenhagen and Joe Pitt in Angels in America, just to name a few. He has also appeared in numerous industrial films and regional commercials. Film credits include "Soul of the Game" and "Truman," both for HBO, and the independent features "Eli Parker is Getting Married" and "Lovely By Surprise." Jonathon is seeking representation at this time and is a member of SAG and AFTRA. [top]

Casey Long (Patrick)

Casey has been a proud Chance Theater Company Member since 1999, when he appeared in the third show produced at the Chance. Most recently, Casey has appeared in Coyote On A Fence (Back Stage West Critic's Pick), with their eyes (LA Times Critic's Choice), Cabaret (Back Stage West Critic's Pick), and Porcelain (GLAAD Media Award Nominee - Outstanding Los Angeles Theatre; Back Stage West Critic's Pick; and OC Weekly Theater Award Nominee). He would like to thank Oanh for this opportunity, his fellow cast and crew for making this journey such a joy, his company members for being his support through it all, and Alex for just about everything else. [top]

Aubrey Saverino (Hallie/Marguerite)

This is Aubrey's second time working at The Chance and she is happy to be back. She was first seen here in The Imaginary Cuckold and Creep in The First Chance Fest two years ago. Since that time she has performed in theaters throughout Los Angeles and Orange County. Highlights include playing Juliet in Romeo & Juliet at The El Portal, Desdemona and Anne Page in Othello and Merry Wives with Shakespeare by the Sea, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing with The Haven Theater Company, Madeline Bray/ Madame Mantilini in Nicholas Nickleby at The Complex and Hillary in Climbing Everest at The Colony Theater. Aubrey has a BA in Theater from Occidental College and has also studied abroad at the London Dramatic Academy. She would like to thank her family for their constant support. [top]

Alex Bueno (Hallie/Marguerite Understudy)

Alex has been a Chance Theater Company member for 5 years now and she feels so lucky to be involved with such a talented and passionate group of people. You might have seen Alex in past productions such as One Flea Spare (Morse), The Laramie Project (Ensemble), Hot 'N' Throbbing (Voice Over), Big Love (Thyona), with their eyes (Ensemble) and most recently The Eight: Reindeer Monologues (Blitzen). Her one and only television credit (and she's darn proud of it) was Florinda in The Rover. Alex would like to thank her friends and family for the constant support, the cast and crew for their amazing talent, Casey for his love and support and finally Oanh for his guidence and this wonderful opportunity. She will always hold it near and dear to her heart. [top]

Lewis R. Crouse II (Miller/Gachet Understudy)

Lewis has been associated with live theatre and live entertainment in Southern California for over 30 years. He has appeared on stage and worked backstage on just about every type of entertainment conceivable - large and small. Along with his sainted wife, Marty, they operate Showcase Benefit Productions, whose mission is to mount musical theatre and donate the money to non profit arts organizations. Lewis feels that it is a profound honor to appear on The Chance Theater stage alongside this cast and crew. Thanks to Oanh for his faith, and Marty for her love. [top]