Celebrating the life and art of Václav Havel
New York City, October through December 2006

Biographies: Festival staff

Henry Akona

Henry Akona
(Assistant artistic director, The Havel Festival; director, A Butterfly on the Antenna) Henry Akona was the assistant artistic director of NEUROfest which contained a piece that he composed and directed, Tabula Rasa. Other New York productions include The Architecture of Sight (director) and Pandora’s Box: A vaudeville (composer and director) for High Fidelity Theater. Before moving to New York, Henry was an assistant director at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis where he assisted Joe Dowling, Douglas C. Wager and John Miller-Stephany. More at henryakona.com.

Jennifer Boehm
(Publicity assistant) is thrilled to be working with Edward Einhorn and The Havel Festival. She can currently be seen in the new late-night show Helix 999 at The Looking Glass Theatre. Recent credits: Props (MITF), The Shape of Things (Radburn Players) and the NYC premiere of the one-woman show Red Rose (WabiSabi Productions). Originally from North Dakota, she is the Managing Director at Looking Glass and works as a freelance sportswriter.

Sara Canby
(Usher) Sara hails from Louisville, Kentucky, but is currently studying in New York City. She is pondering a major in political science or english, and enjoys theatre (despite a general ignorance of the subject).

David A. Einhorn
(Producing director, The Havel Festival and UTC61) David Einhorn was the recipient of the 2004 Encore Award for Business Volunteer of the Year. Mr. Einhorn is an intellectual property lawyer who regularly litigates and advocates for the rights of artists, writers, and directors. He is the Chairman of the New York Intellectual Property Law Association Copyright Committee and was the former chair of the ABA Committee on Broadcasting, Sound Recordings and Performing Artists.

Edward Einhorn

Edward Einhorn
(Artistc director, The Havel Festval; director The Memo and Audience) Edward Einhorn has been the Artistic Director of Untitled Theater Company #61 since he founded it in 1992. He curated the The Ionesco Festival, the first-ever festival of Ionesco’s complete works, and Untitled Theater’s 24/7 Festival. Perhaps most prominently, he wrote and directed the Off-Broadway production, Fairy Tales of the Absurd, which The New York Times called "almost unbearably funny."

He is the author of the modern Oz novels Paradox in Oz and The Living House of Oz (Hungry Tiger Press), The Golem, Methuselah and Shylock: Three Plays by Edward Einhorn (Theater 61 Press) and the upcoming picture book on probability, A Very Improbable Story (Charlesbridge). Most recently, he wrote and directed the puppet play Unauthorized Magic in Oz at St. Ann s Warehouse and the Looking Glass Theatre, which The New York Times called "exquisitely ingenious" and "truly enchanting."

Berit Johnson
(House manager, The Ohio Theater) Berit Johnson has been stage managing, building puppets and props, and generally assisting in the creation of theatre in any way she can for around 12 years. She has primarily worked with Daniel Kleinfeld/Year One Productions, Edward Einhorn/Untitled Theatre Co. #61, Frank Cwiklik/Danse Macabre Theatrics, The Brick Radio Crash Box, and most recently and often, Ian W. Hill and Gemini CollisionWorks (with whom she is also co-caretaker of the Two Best Cats in the World).

Antoine Lutens
(Icon photographer, The Havel Festival) Antoine was born and raised in Paris, France. At age 13 he moved to Switzerland and started studying and practicing photography. He moved to the USA in the early 90’s where he studied acting at Clark University in Worcester, MA. Photographing for the theater was a natural extension. He has shot images for several performance and dance companies in New York city. He lives in Hudson, NY.

Karen Lee Ott
(Dramaturg, The Havel Festival; dramaturg, The Memo and Redevelopment) curates a new play series for Nomad (founding member). Awarded the Presidential Scholarship for Dramaturgy by Columbia University, a grant by the French Consulate to study theatre in Paris, and JP Adler Memorial Scholarship (American Jewish Theatre), she is a NYTW usual suspect, adjudicates for FringeNYC and New Dramatists, and made her radio debut as a commentator (WNYC/NPR) in 2005. This is her fourth UTC#61 festival. Thanks to Carol, Gene, and Daphne.

Alexander C. Senchak
(Technical director at the Ohio Theater, set designer, The Memo and Audience) This is Alex’s third festival with UTC. He recently graduated from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. He is now the lighting designer and touring production manager for the Pascal Rioult Dance Theatre. Alex is a freelance production manager and designer having worked at the BAM, Lincoln Center Festival, Metropolitan Playhouse, Beacon Theatre. Alex is also a member of the WNYC programming board and a certified EMT.

A B C D E F G
H I J K L M N
O P Q R S T U
V W X Y Z
Sponsored by:
The Village Voice nytheatre.com