Artist Biographies (as of Spring 1993)

Paul Dresher (Artistic Director/Composer)

Dresher performs with live tape processing system and electronics and composes for chamber, orchestra and opera/musical theater ensembles. Recent commissions have included works for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Kronos Quartet, the San Francisco Symphony, a Nonesuch Commission Award from the American Music Center and the Olympic Arts Festival. He has worked with director Robert Woodruff on two productions at the La Jolla Playhouse and has twice collaborated with the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company and the ODC-San Francisco. Since 1979 he has performed throughout the U.S. and Europe, including performances at the Munich State Opera, Festival d'Automne in Paris, San Francisco Symphony, Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival, London International Festival of Theatre and the New York Philharmonic. He formed the Ensemble in 1984 and has been the Artistic Director and Composer for WAS ARE WILL BE, SLOW FIRE, and POWER FAILURE. Recordings of his works have been released on the Lovely Music, New Albion and Minmax labels.

Rinde Eckert (Writer and Director) is a performance artist known primarily for his remarkably flexible voice and inventive vocal techniques. He writes and performs solo pieces and also collaborates with composers, dancers and musicians.

As writer and performer with the Paul Dresher Ensemble, Eckert wrote the text and collaborated in the creation of SLOW FIRE, POWER FAILURE and PIONEER. With Paul Dresher, he received an Isadora Duncan Award for their score of SHELF LIFE, a collaboration with the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company.

Eckert has composed sound and music scores for Contraband, The Dance Brigade and the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. He wrote and directed NOT FOR REAL for Leonard Pitt, wrote and performed SHELF LIFE, and wrote, composed and performed a solo radio musical called SHOOT THE MOVING THINGS which was featured on the New American Radio series of National Public Radio.

Eckert created the solo piece, DRY LAND DIVINE, which was commissioned by Cal Performances and later presented at the Dance Theater Workshop in New York. SHOREBIRDS ATLANTIC, a duet with Margaret Jenkins, was featured on PBS' "Alive from Off Center." He also recorded an album entitled IN SLEEP A KING with bassist Clark Suprynowicz on the Sound Aspects label.

In the Fall of 1990 Eckert appeared on "Alive from Off Center" in a video by director John Sanborn. WOMAN WINDOW SQUARE, a collaboration between Eckert, Jenkins and Sanborn premiered in September 1990 at Theater Artaud in San Francisco. "Finding My Way Home", a new recording of Eckert's music has been released on DIW records.

Spence Stephens, Jr.- Arlyss (Baritone and Tenor)

A recent graduate of UC Berkeley's Dance and Music Departments, he has performed in opera, dance and film.

Amanda Moody - Jane (Mezzo Soprano)

Awed Behavior marks Amanda Moody's return to the stage in over three years. During this hiatus, Ms. Moody pursued a career as a broadcast commercial producer. She spent her time in studios writing and recording new collaborative musical works with Joël Lindheimer and Rob Holland. She also performed vocals on albums with composers Daniel McCarty and MCA Narada recording artist Michael Pluznick among others. Previously, Ms. Moody has been seen in productions of Come back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean; It's Fascination; and The Bald Soprano. She has played in Hyena Cabaret and made appearances in other cabaret and performance art collectives. Ms. Moody received her theatrical education at Sarah Lawrence College and American Conservatory Theatre.

Alexander V. Nichols (scenic and lighting design)

Born in Berkeley, Ca, Alex grew up watching his mother, sister and brother all perform professionally as classical ballet dancers. Although he has not joined the ranks as a dancer, Alex has remained in the dance and theater world as a scenic and lighting designer. Currently he is resident lighting designer for the Pennsylvania Ballet under the direction of Christopher d'Ambois and for the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. His work has been seen on many performers and performing groups including the Berkeley Ballet Theater, the Joe Goode Performance Group, the Magic Theater, Rinde Eckert, the Pennsylvania Opera Theater, the Z Collective and the Off Center Ballet. Alex has received two Isadora Duncan awards for visual design. Presently he is working with Rinde Eckert and Paul Dresher on Breath Normally, a new dance project by Margaret Jenkins.

Sandra Woodall has worked in collaboration with choreographers and artistic directors of the San Francisco Ballet,, Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, ODC/San Francisco, Oakland Ballet, Marin Ballet, American Conservatory Theater, Eureka Theater, California Shakespeare Company and the Kronos Quartet. She has also designed costumes for the Joffrey Ballet, Ballet Metropolitan, Ballet West, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Washington DC Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet and Hong Kong Ballet. Woodall worked with designer Robert Israel in realizing costumes for Philip Glass' AKHNATEN and for Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival's presentation of MIRACOLO d'AMORE by Martha Clark. Her work has been honored with a Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for the ACT's production of ST. JOAN. She received the Dance Bay Area's Isadora Dincan Dance Award for Sustained Achievement in Design. Recent work includes ANGELS IN AMERICA at the Eureka Theater, MID SUMMER NIGHTS DREAM at California Shakespeare Festival, and CARMEN at the Oregon Ballet Theater.

Phil Aaberg- (Keyboard)

After touring with Elvin Bishop, John Hiatt, Peter Gabriel and others, he began doing solo concerts of his own music and has recorded four albums on the Windam Hill label and on for the Nature Company. He was a member of the East Bay New Music Ensemble where he premiered Dresher's THIS SAME TEMPLE and has participated in the Marlboro Chamber Music Festival in Vermont. A native of Montana, Aaberg has a AB in Music from Harvard University and has studied with Margaret Ott, Leon Kirchner, Louise Vosgerchian and Kenneth Drake.

Gene Reffkin (Percussion)

Reffkin received a B.A. in Music in 1968 from New York University, where he was principal percussionist with the NYU Orchestra. Since moving to the San Francisco area in 1969, he has played both jazz and rock and has been a member of various contemporary music ensembles. He has been performing with Paul Dresher since 1972, and in 1984 was the percussionist in the George Coates Performance Works production, SEEHEAR.

Paul Hanson (Clarinet, Saxophone and bassoon)

A Bay Area native who has recorded with Eddie Money, Toni Childs, Kotoja, and Keta Bill. Currently he performs with Peter Apfelbaums' Hieroglyphics Ensemble, the Klezmorim and Boz Scaggs. He has worked with Don Cherry, Randy Jackson, Tom Coster, Steven Smith, the Flying Karamozov Brothers, Zulu Spear, and many others as well as touring the United States and Europe. His bassoon credits include work with Camber Music West, George Coates Performance Works, the Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival and soloist with the Napa Symphony.

Melissa Weaver (Production Director)

Co director of THE GARDENING OF THOMAS D. by Rinde Eckert. Also directed Rinde Eckert in DRY LAND DIVINE, a solo performance which premiered at Cal Performances and was presented at DTW in New York; John Duykers in Henze's EL CIMARRON which received the L.A. Times Beckmesser Award in 1983 for best contemporary performance and created A.GA.PE., premiering at San Francisco's Life on the Water in 1990. She has worked as Production Director for the Paul Dresher Ensemble since 1987 and for the George Coates Performance Works from 1981-1986. Ms. Weaver and Mr. Duykers recently formed AGaPe Performance Group to develop new works and have been commissioned by the San Francisco Earth Drama Festival 1992 to work with Barney Jones to create a piece focusing on the spotted owl controversy.

Wendy Rogers (Choreographic Consultant)

Ms. Rogers performed in New York City with Carolyn Brown and Sara Rudner before forming the Wendy Rogers Dance Company of Berkeley, 1977-90. Her dances Winter Green (1982), surveillance (1984-85) and film Standing By (in progress) feature original sound scores by Paul Dresher. The company performed extensively in northern California and on tour in Hawaii, New York, Europe and the Middle East. In 1991 she initiated the ten year project MAKE SHIFT in artistic partnership with composer John Luther Adams, choreographer Sara Rudner and other long-term collaborators. Roger's awards include a 1988 Guggenheim fellowship, a 1991-92 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a current grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, Inc.

Justin Hersh (Technical Director)

Hersh has worked in and out of theater as a technical director and designer. His recent credits include technical director for George Coates Performance Works 1988 and technical director and lighting designer for Tandy Beal Dance Company. Currently he is a co-owner of Delphi, a Bay Area production company.

Oriol Galofre - (Sound Designer) is originally from Barcelona, Spain and works as a sound designer and engineer for numerous Bay Area organizations, theater and musical groups. He studied Telecommunications Engineering at the "Universidad Autonoma" and music at the Municipal Conservatory in Barcelona. In the 1970's he was involved with the "Musica Layetana" movement. During 1988-89 he did the sound design for some of the more important musical theater groups in Spain. He also worked as musical Producer for different recording labels.

Paul Dresher is performing on a Zeta Mirror 6 MIDI guitar

The development of AWED BEHAVIOR is made posible through the generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Opera America, the James Irvine Foundation, the AT&T Foundation the Zellerbach Family Fund, the Bernard Osher Foundation, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, and the California Arts Council. Individual supporters include Martha Dresher, Dr. Bryan Andrews, M. Melanie Beene, Robert and Elizabeth Fisher, Richard and Marcia Grand, John Heller, John M. Relph, Marilyn Shaw, and Stephen Singer, and Alta Tingle.. The Paul Dresher Ensemble would also like to thank San Francisco's Grants for the Arts/Hotel Tax Fund, the San Francisco Foundation, and Jacoba Atlas, Arthur Berliner, Don and Clay Breuner, Robert J. Cohen, Steven De Hart, Rene and Veronica Di Rosa, David R. Dupont, Robert and Doris Eckert, Gordon M. Garb, E. Leighton Grant, Ann Hatch, Rob Jaffe, Kathy Kueneman, Kermit Lynch, Cecile McCann, Theodore H. and Marjorie E. Plant, Penny K. Righthand, David Roe, Daniel and Susan Rothenberg, Elaine Sperber, Gary R. Stitt, Suzie and Melvin Swig, , and P Brien Wood.

Special Thanks to: John Sanborn, Ellen McLaughlin, Sarah Cahill, Jean Aldeman and the California Shakespeare Company

Paul Dresher Ensemble Board of Directors (as of 1993):

Melanie Beene, Paul Dresher, John Heller, Robin Kirck, Marilyn Shaw, Dean Suzuki