Efraín Amaya (Music Director)
is an American composer and conductor who began his musical training in his native country of Venezuela. Continuing his studies in the United States, he earned two BA degrees in composition and piano from Indiana University, and an MA in conducting from Rice University. In 2004, Amaya received a Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. He was also a Meet The Composer Composer-in-Residence from 2001 to 2004. Amaya’s compositions have been selected for performance at major international festivals and ensembles. Amaya was the founder and Music Director of The Point Chamber Orchestra, and also was a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University for 16 years where he held the positions of Artist Lecturer in Music Theory and Resident Conductor. His debut CD A Sense of Time was released in 2001 by Élan Recordings. In 2004, Albany Records released the two cello version of “Silent Conversations” in a CD entitled Zoo of Dreams, featuring the Amici Chamber Players. Amaya’s two chamber operas: Clepsydra: An Operatic Installation with 13 Performers and Phantasmagorilla? No! Phantasmagoria, were also released by Albany Records in 2009 and received excellent reviews by the American Record Guide, Fanfare Magazine, and Pittsburgh Magazine. His opera La Bisbetica, commissioned and performed by the International Opera Theater in August of 2010 in Italy was then invited to participate in the Bergamo International Festival of 2011 at Bergamo, Italy. During the summer of 2012, he was invited and completed a residency at Yaddo, NY, where he worked on his latest opera Constellations, which premiered in December of 2015 at the Neighborhood House Theater in Philadelphia. In the Fall of 2015, Mr. Amaya joined the faculty at Minot State University and was named the Music Director to the Minot Symphony Orchestra in North Dakota. You may visit Mr. Amaya's Web page at: (www.efrainamaya.com)

Susana Amundaraín (Scenic Designer)
is a Venezuelan-born American artist. She has exhibited internationally in numerous solo shows and group exhibitions. Amundaraín is represented in museums in South America and the United States, as well as in many private and corporate collections, such as Minitab, Polar, PepsiCO, and ALCOA. Her work has continually developed towards the interdisciplinary forms, with a strong emphasis in scenic design and operatic narratives. Her production works include Clepsydra: an operatic performance, which was created in collaboration with Vanessa Briceño-Scherzer (filmmaker), Efraín Amaya (composer), and Carol Ciavonne (co-writer of lyrics) in 2000. In the fall of 2015, she and her husband, Efraín Amaya, premiered and recorded their new chamber opera Constellations, in Philadelphia. Amundaraín has also done award-winning designs for plays staged in Venezuela. She has been the scenic designer in residence with TanzTheater André Koslowski since 2005. Amundaraín holds an MFA degree, with a concentration in painting and performance art, from the University of Denver in Colorado. She has also been a Visiting Scholar in Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts, NYU.(www.susanaamundarain.com)

Vanessa Briceño-Scherzer (Video Designer/Media Management)
was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and currently works as professional photographer, graphic designer, and personal media manager for musicians and artists such as Time For Three, The Dali Quartet, TanzTheater André Koslowski, Adriana Linares (violist), Nicolas Kendall (violinist), and the Rodney Mack Philadelphia Big Brass. She has been very active in the marketing and development of music and performing artists, including image campaigns, artist media packages, and the production and post-production of music videos, electronic press kits (EPKs), and promotional videos for record labels such as eOne Entertainment. She has experience in both Spanish and English television production and promotion, having worked as a Senior Producer/Editor at WUVP (Univision 65), and as Writer/ Producer for WPHL (phl17). Briceño-Scherzer is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, and holds an MFA in Film and Media Arts from Temple University. (www.ilumediadesign.com)

Myra Bullington (costume designer)
is a technologist and costume designer for academic and professional theater and dance. Her work includes designs for Dance Alloy in Pittsburgh, PA, Playhouse Merced, CA, The Virginia Stage Company, and Clarion University of Pennsylvania. Bullington’s design work at Clarion University was frequently recognized with Certificates of Meritorious Achievement from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, which granted her a Faculty Design Fellowship in 2002. In addition to designing, Bullington has served as a book reviewer for Theatre Design and Technology Magazine, as an Associate Editor for Costume Research Journal, and as a draper for the Pittsburgh Public Theatre. Bullington earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, and a Master of Fine Arts in Theatrical Costume Design from the University of Southern Mississippi.

Naoko Nagata (costume designer)
started her career as a biochemist in Japan. Her evolution into costume making is a long story: With no formal training, Nagata’s first costume was created for Jeanine Durning in 1998. From that moment, Nagata has been creating non-stop for a diverse group of choreographers and dancers. She has collaborated with Kyle Abraham for Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, Amanda Loulaki, Bebe Miller, David Dorfman Dance, Doug Elkins, David Neumann, Ellis Wood, Gina Gibney, Liz Lerman, Nina Winthrop, Nora Chipaumire, Reggie Wilson, Tiffany Mills, Urban Bush Women, Zvi Gotheiner, and many, many others. Working closely with collaborators, Nagata helps bring to life what she herself calls “the creation of a shared dream.” Her work has been seen on both international and national main stages including The Kennedy Center (Washington DC), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (CA), Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (FL), PACT Zollverein (Essen Germany), Dance Theater Workshop (NY), Brooklyn Academy of Music (NY), The Joyce Theater (NY) and the New York City Center. Currently, she is working with Ralph Lemon for the Walker.

Scott Nelson (Lighting Designer/Stage Manager)
A native Atlantan, Scott Nelson is a lighting designer, stage manager, production manager, gardener, and novice chef. He has collaborated with PDT since 2010. His work has been seen across the globe, including the Sydney Opera House, Barbican London, Hellerau Dresden, Art Rock St. Brieuc, Sala BBK Bilboa, TransArt Bolzano, UOVO Milan, La Batie Geneva, WOMADelaide, Astor Theatre Perth, Town Hall New Zealand, and Teatro de La Abadia Madrid. Other companies include Spoleto Festival USA, Skirball Center in New York City, Paramount Boston, Celebrate Brooklyn, Caroline’s on Broadway, Theatre Building Chicago, Eureka Theatre San Francisco, TBA Festival Portland, Cleveland Museum of Art, and ArtsBank in Philadelphia. In Pittsburgh, PA, Nelson recently designed for barebones productions, Kelly- Strayhorn Theater, Quantum Theatre, Pittsburgh Playhouse, New Hazlett Theater, Jewish Theater, La Roche College Dance, LABCO Dance, Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, Slippery Rock University Dance, The Sprout Fund, and the Andy Warhol Museum, among others. He is a member of the Actors’ Equity Association, a graduate of Point Park University, and an instructor with Pittsburgh Public Schools.

Susan O'Neill (costume designer)
is the Costume Director for Seton Hill University, Greensburg PA, and a professional costume designer and a member of New York’s United Scenic Artists, USA 829 since 1985. Susan designs costumes for theatre, dance, and opera as well as being a published children’s book illustrator and studio artist. She has worked professionally under the world renowned designer Ming Cho Lee, at Yale University, and has studied teaching strategies and techniques with U.S. Institute for Theatre Technology, (USITT).  Susan was the resident designer for the Pittsburgh CLO from 2010-2014, and also designed the world Premiere of “Judge Jackie Justice” for the CLO Cabaret. Most recently, an appointment to the Board of Directors for the Pennsylvania Art Education Association, (PAEA) was received, and she serves there on the Learning by Design Committee. Having spent 11 years as the resident costume designer/coordinator for The Pittsburgh Opera, and 9 years as the resident designer for The Dance Alloy, her costume designs and builds have also been seen at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Santa Fe Opera, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Glimmerglass Opera, The Lincoln Center OUT-OF- DOORS Festival and Seattle Opera, as well as toured to three continents, and featured on major network television. Susan has been a guest faculty member and costume designer at the Conservatory of the Performing Arts of Point Park University and a guest lecturer at Gustavus Adolphus College, MN, Allegheny College, PA, and Slippery Rock University, PA.

Leonie Stein (Dramaturg/Artistic Collaboration)
was head of the Theatre Department at the Berne University of the Arts between 1996 and 2007 where she started work as a professor in 1977 and became deputy head in 1989. Between 2007 and 2013, she was head of the Y Institute at the same institution, where she also worked as full professor for trans-disciplinary courses and intercultural projects for migration and integration. Always committed to social topics in the arts, she was chair of the leading committee of the International Theatre Institute Centre Suisse, member of the Culture Committee for Dance and Theatre of the city of Bern, and first president of the Conference Theatre Universities Switzerland. She was lecturer for dance and acrobatics with a concentration on “Tanztheater,” where she promoted talented actors in their dancing careers. Stein was trained at the Royal Ballet School in London and worked at various prestigious theater houses such as the Arena in Verona, the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, the Teatro Comunale in Florenz, the Teatro Bellini in Catania, the Teatro del Balletto in Roma, and the State Theatre Kassel. In 1970, she danced for the Ensemble Ugo del Ara where she was involved with the opera Don Carlos, directed by Jean Vilar, which was the debut for Placedo Domingo and Monserrat Caballé. Between 1974 and 1989, she partnered with Beatrice Tschumi at Tschumi/Stein Ballet Studio to teach dance to children and young adults. She has directed her own dance productions since 1988, her latest piece being Warum können wir nie nie geliebt werden (Why can we never, never be loved) in 2004 as a mélange of jazz, lyric, theater, and dance. In her artistic and pedagogical work, Stein searches for a language of both body and image that introduces the audience to new ways of associating and thinking.