Last Castrato - Artists

About the Artists

THE LAST CASTRATO

Andy Eninger (playwright) lives in Chicago. He is the creator of “Sybil,” an improvised solo form. He has performed and taught “Sybil” across the country, in London, and in Toronto – ‘Now Toronto’ magazine selected his performance as one of the Top 10 Comedy Shows of 2002. Andy is a founding performer with GayCo Productions, where he has performed in 9 fabulous comedy revues, and with the Chicago Comedy Company, which focuses on corporate comedy and training. Andy teaches improvisation and comedy writing for The Second City Training Center in Chicago, and teaches the yearly “Sybilization” solo improv program for the Playground Theatre. He also teaches a Solo Performance class for both the Chicago Comedy Company, and the Metropolis center for the Performing Arts, and coaches or directs several solo performers each year. Mr. Eninger holds an MA in Playwriting, and studied directing and writing for film at the Hungarian Academy of Film and Theater. His writing/directing credits include BEDLAM for the Playground Theatre, TENNIS for the Bailiwick Theatre, and music and direction for LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PARODY. This past summer 2004, Mr. Eninger performed in the very first cast of IMPROVARCADIA in Bar Harbor, Maine.

Brad McEntire (co-producer/director) is native-born Texan and Artistic Director of north Texas based Audacity Productions. He holds a BFA in Theatre and Performance Arts from the College of Santa Fe and a MA in Playwriting from TWU in Denton, Texas. Mr. McEntire is an experienced actor, solo performer, director, producer, designer, educator as well as a published cartoonist and an internationally produced playwright. Mr. McEntire has lectured in, lead workshops and taught various theatre arts-related courses and workshops at community colleges, high schools public and private, various theatres and institutions in the U.S. and abroad. He performed his original one-man show THE LUNATIST (AND RELATED TALES OF WOE) in October 2004 at Chicago’s third annual Single File Solo Performance Festival where he came across Andy Eninger and THE LAST CASTRATO. He is currently at work developing an original solo improvisational format called "Dribble Funk." He is currently spending the bulk of 2007 teaching drama as part of an innovative ESL program for Chinese youth in Hong Kong. His original musical shadow puppet adaptation of RAPUNZEL, for which he designed all the puppets, world-premiered in Hong Kong last fall.

Jeff Swearingen (performer) is a native of Montana, but has been working professionally as an actor in the north Texas area since 1999. He first performed THE LAST CASTRATO at the New York International Fringe Festival in 2005 and then subsequently in Dallas. He returned to Fringe NYC in 2006 playing multiple roles in Steve Barney's PUPPET GOVERNMENT. His most recent stage appearance was in THE GNADIGE FRAULEIN (Dallas) and as the lead in SCROOGE the musical (Plano) Next up: A one man EINSTEIN and THE VICTIMS in NYC.

I SAW YOU

Steve Barney (playwright, director, actor) has had two of his plays (WADE, 2005 and Puppet Government, 2006) performed at the New York International Fringe Festival. In 2003 he wrote and performed the one-man, sixteen-character show RADIO FREE DAVE at the Hyde Park Theater in Austin, Texas. Three of his short plays were FronteraFest "Best of the Fest" winners. Steve also spent two years acting with the Shanandoah Shakespeare Express, a touring company based in Harrisonburg, VA.

photo coming soon

SALLY ALT (actor) is a writer living in Austin, Texas. She and husband/writer/co-star Steve Barney first performed I SAW YOU in fall 2006 for Yellow Tape Construction Company and are reprising it for this RedHouse Arts production.

CHALK and VALENTINE'S DAY

Greg Romero (playwright) is a writer, performer, and dramaturg, originally from Louisiana. Currently based in Austin, Texas, Romero’s works have been presented off-off Broadway by Boomerang Theatre Company, City Attic Theatre, and Einstein’s Bastards, and across the country by Kitchen Dog Theater, Theater In My Basement, Bug Theatre, Specific Gravity Ensemble, City Theater Company, TBA Theatre Company, and Audacity Productions. Romero also collaborated on the text, RETURN TO THE UPRIGHT POSITION (edited by Caridad Svich) seen in New York, Seattle, Austin, Portland, Providence, Cambridge, and Glasgow, Scotland. He is a member of Austin Script Works, the Playwrights’ Center of Minneapolis, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, and The Dramatists Guild of America. Romero received an MFA in Playwriting from the University of Texas-Austin where he held the James A. Michener Fellowship.

Chris Humphrey (director) is an actor, composer, writer and director living in Austin, TX. She has has appeared in over a dozen films including Richard Linklater’s seminal work WAKING LIFE as well as Alex Holdridge’s critically acclaimed SEXLESS, and in theatrical performances such as Eve Ensler’s VAGINA MONOLOGUES and David Rousseve’s LOVE SONGS. The multi-media piece LUCY DIES IN FIVES, for which Chris wrote the original score, was “Best of the Fest” in Frontera Short Fringe 2004. Chris was an original cast member of A RIDE WITH BOB: FROM AUSTIN TO TULSA, and toured with the show in 2005. In 2006 she directed PUPPET GOVERNMENT for the New York International Fringe Festival. Most recently she appeared on NBC's FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS and is currently rehearsing for a role in Yellow Tape Construction Company's I AM NOT TARTUFFE.

Liz Brown (actor) combines an unusual array of skill sets. A classically trained ballet dancer, (having performed as the black swan in SWAN LAKE, as well as other roles), Liz just recently received her discharge from the US Army where she was, among other things, an expert marksman. She is thrilled to be making her RedHouse Arts debut in this production of CHALK.

Chris Doubek (actor) -- If you're reading this, that probably means you're not in France watching Chris in REPETITION WITH VARIATION, one of three American entries in this year's Clermont-Ferrant International Short Film Festival. Chris also appeared in Zach Scott's ART (B. Iden Payne Award), Rebecca Beegle's DON'T DROWN and MAN ENTERS HOUSE as well as Julie Taymor's JUAN DARIEN off-Broadway -- not necessarily in that order.

Melissa Ann Rentrop (actor) is thrilled to perform her first ever one person show in this performance of VALENTINE'S DAY. Since moving to Austin two years ago, Melissa has been involved in theater, film, commercial, voice-over and print work. Her best memories so far are with her friends at the Yellow Tape Construction Company playing the uni-browed gym teacher in I LOVE MY DEAD GAY SON: THE MUSICAL! and the dance epic WE ARE NORMAL CHA CHA CHAAAA.