Home Again, Jiggety Jig

Christopher McDougall (René, Piotr, Charlie, Hermes)

Christopher McDougall

Christopher graduated from East 15 Acting School in 2018 and has been working in various sectors of the industry since. He has much previous experience as an actor, as well as a singer, writer and musical director.

Recent acting credits include Aladdin in Aladdin, Dugdale Centre, Enfield; Davie McD/Sam/Tobias Grenfell in Tell Me A Story, produced by Kibo Productions for Zoom; Squire Bogey (and others) in Jack and the Beanstalk, with M&M Theatrical Productions; God in It’s Aboot Adam, at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe; Various characters in The Sherlock Holmes Experience, at Madame Tussaud’s, London; and Fairy G/Sugar Plum in Bad Cinderella, at the Cockpit Theatre, in December 2018.

In April 2021, alongside fellow producer Mark Hunter, he co-wrote, co-directed and was Musical Director on Robin Hood: A Virtual Pantomime, which took place on Zoom, and was very well received.

Christopher has also written a new musical – Star Streaker: The Musical – which he hopes to revive in the not so distant future.

Ira Seidenstein, PhD (Mischa, Freddie the dog)

Actor

Ira Seidenstein has worked in over 140 live productions. After working in Cirque du Soleil's Corteo he created such projects as: The Madness of King Lear (Avignon, Edinburgh); The Book of Clown (Adelaide 2017), Commedia Toto (Italy); Cubist Clown Cavalcade (Paris): A Flower of the Lips (Sydney); and directed 18 actors in the uncut Antony & Cleopatra (Sydney). He has worked in 20 Shakespeare productions including 10 of the plays such as directing Henry the Fifth with 12 women; and, 10 adaptations including his comedy A Girl's Guide to Hamlet. In 2012/13 Ira was in Slava's Snowshow in Europe and Australia. As a veteran performer he trained 6 years in Suzuki Actor Training Method and worked in ten Suzuki style productions. He has portrayed over 75 clown characters including: Corteo's White Clown, and, Dead Clown; and playing "Harlequin" over an 8 years span. He trained as an Iyengar yoga teacher, was a tumbling and comic acrobat, mime, slapstick comedian, classical actor, director, playwright, and choreographed over 200 comic sketches and slapstick acts. His Masters Degree is in "Visual and Performing Arts", and his Doctorate is in Education. Recently he performed for the first time in a full scale ballet as a centraI character. Ira Seidenstein's workshops are practical and creative use of body-mind-spirit. The practical base is physical using "The Four Articulations for Performance" (see Method). He is the Founder of ISAAC - International School for Acting And Creativity and personally mentors clowns, teachers, choreographers, and directors internationally.

Flloyd Kennedy

Author, Actor

Flloyd Kennedy (aka Fairy Bessie), Australian-born actress, performance poet, singer-songwriter, director and voice/speech/accent coach, took part in the British folk revival in the late 60s, performed street theatre, cabaret and fringe theatre in Scotland throughout the 1980s and 90s, returned to Australia where she undertook research into the performing voice (specifically Shakespeare) for her doctorate. She has performed, directed, and taught voice and acting skills at colleges and universities in the UK, US and Australia. Now resident in Liverpool, UK, Flloyd tours her one-person versa plays with music around the world, performs her songs and poems at open mics in and around Liverpool. She also coaches student and professional actors, private individuals and community and corporate groups through her private studio Being in Voice. She is artistic director of Thunder’s Mouth Theatre (theatre of poetry, passion and philosophy), a Certified Teacher of Knight-Thompson Speechwork and is an Associate Artist with ISAAC (International School for Acting And Clown), She has now published two collections of poetry, songs and essays, Sunsets & Kites and Home is Where I Hang My Hat. Her songs are available on Bandcamp, as well as all major online streaming services.

John T LaBarbera

Composer/Guitarist

John T. La Barbera, film score composer, producer, guitar and stringed instrument virtuoso and concert artist, has won several awards and commissions from The Jerome Foundation, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Martin Gruss Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, Meet the Composer, UMass-Dartmouth, and ASCAP.

His film scores include: Children of Fate (Academy Award Nomination 1992); The Old Guitarist starring Dominic Chianese; The Bounty Hunter; Sacco and Vanzetti ; Sister Italy; Pane Amaro; What's up Scarlet; Neapolitan Heart ; Finding The Mother Lode: Italian Immigrants in California; La Festa and Tarantella .

His silent film scores include Assunta Spina, (1915, Naples), ‘A Santa Notte (1922, Naples), Chaplin’s The Immigrant (1917) and The Adventurer (1917), The Black Hand (1906), The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) and The Adventures of Lieutenant Petrosino, (1912), Regeneration (1915)

In Theater, his expertise as composer, arranger and musical director was valuable in the off-Broadway productions of Souls of Naples, (Theater for a New Audience) starring John Turturro and the stage adaptation of Sicilian playwright Luigi Pirandello's short stories in Kaos, (New York Theater Workshop) directed by Marta Clarke. Folk Opera, Stabat Mater-Donna di Paradiso, was commissioned and performed at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

He has appeared on recording and performance projects with many great artists including folk singer Judy Collins, actor Dominic Chianese (Uncle Junior- Sopranos), Hollywood film soundtracks, Walt Disney Productions, TV and Radio jingles, Broadway actress and star of The Lion King, South African vocalist Tsiddi Le Loka and the famed Italian American - Neapolitan singer, Jimmy Roselli.

As a producer he has recently produced I’m a Typical New Yorker for actor Dominic Chianese and worked for several labels including: Shanachie records, Meadowlark, Rounder Records, Lyrichord Disks, Ellipsis Arts, and Bribie Records.

He appears in the film When in Rome (Touchstone Films) as the wedding scene mandolinist/band leader and in the Bounty Hunter (Sony-Columbia) as the cocktail guitarist performing his own composition Cavatina Blue.

He is the author of the first and foremost book published in the U.S. on the Italian mandolin called Traditional Southern Italian Mandolin and Fiddle Tunes and Italian Folk Music For Mandolin, with Mel Bay Publications.

Since 1973 he has performed in concert halls around the world with classical music, jazz and traditional world music (as composer, solo guitarist and chamber music), throughout Europe, South America, Canada and the US and is the co-founder of I Giullari di Piazza, Inc., traditional southern Italian folk music and theater company in New York City since 1979 and artist in residence at The Cathedral of St. John The Divine.
He is an adjunct faculty professor of music at Bergen Community College and conducts workshop in Italy. His music can be found on: Bandcamp, DistroKid, YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud , CD Baby and his own website.
www.johntlabarbera.com