Squonk Opera
Group Bio

“rust-belt dada” – Buffalo News

Squonk Opera created its first show in a gritty Pittsburgh junkyard, with roaring choreographed cranes and earthmovers, over a decade ago. A flexible interdisciplinary group of artists led by collaborators Jackie Dempsey and Steve O’Hearn, we were interested in a theater created from sound and image. We were also inspired by a rust-belt love of spectacle and humor - we were competing with football, catholic ritual, and beer-fed bar bands.

Since 1992, Squonk Opera has created nine original shows and has performed in more than 200 venues across the United States. In 1995, we were commissioned by Marc Masterson to create Night of The Living Dead: The Opera for Pittsburgh’s City Theatre. Bigsmorgasbordwunderwerk was an Off-Broadway hit in 1999, a show that Ben Brantley of The New York Times called “ingenious, hallucinatory, hypnotic.” The show was then transferred to Broadway in 2000, where it received an American Theater Wing Special Effects Design Award (previously won by Julie Taymor and Robert Wilson). Squonkumentary, a film about our time in NYC, was produced by independent filmmaker Peggy Sutton in 2005.

We have been touring internationally since 2003 - to Scotland, Belgium, Germany and South Korea, where we opened the Busan International Performing Arts Festival. Over 200,000 people have seen us around the world, and reviews include “insane majesty" from The Scotsman, and “…surreal and poetic” from USA Today.

Squonk Opera has received more than sixty grants and awards over the years, including national grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Jim Henson Foundation and three grants from the NEA. We have performed workshops and residencies at over fifty universities, middle schools and museums all over the United States.

Squonk Opera is currently touring two very different shows. (put your hometown’s name here): The Opera is a development of site-specific residency activities that we have done for years, judging pet parades at rural town halls and giving workshops at inner-city schools. This show combines a heartfelt toast of the host city with a vaudevillian roast, and is about the one subject that unifies the audience wherever we perform - their hometown. We have already created over a dozen site-specific versions, from Baltimore: The Opera to Albany: The Opera to Charlotte: The Opera.

Astro-rama is a large-scale outdoor event joining its audience in a festive attempt to contact far-flung galaxies. A UFO is "discovered" and the next day a 4-story radio telescope dish is erected to mount a planetary response. Squonk musicians rise in scissor lifts and cranes, squabble with a giant supercomputer, and finally transmit their message - a self-portrait as a species. This communal revelry is a witty and timely exploration of science and belief, made accessible with pop sci-fi references.

Artistic Directors Jackie Dempsey and Steve O’Hearn have an ongoing desire to make interdisciplinary work that is accessible to a broad and diverse public and have been working with a collective of between 10 and 20 performers, designers and artists at a time over the years.

Jackie Dempsey– Artistic Director/Composer/Pianist/Accordionist
Jackie Dempsey's music has been called "hypnotic" by The New York Times, "gloriously eccentric" by Time Out New York and was nominated for Best Broadway Score by The Friends of New York Theater. With Squonk Opera, a multimedia performance troupe she founded with visual artist and designer Steve O'Hearn over fifteen years ago, she has created nine new music theater pieces and has been touring nationally and internationally for over a decade. In addition to her work with Squonk Opera, she has been Composer-in-Residence with Pittsburgh's Quantum Theatre. Jackie has been awarded a Heinz Endowments Creative Heights grant, four Interdisciplinary Arts fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and a Meet the Composer Grant. With Squonk Opera, she has been awarded grants and commissions from the Rockefeller Foundation's MAP Fund, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, City Theatre, The Pittsburgh Foundation and the Heinz Endowments, among others. In addition to her composerly duties as a Squonker, she has produced all of the group's recordings, one of which was Squonk Opera's major label debut for Angel Records, a subsidiary of Capitol Records. Jackie studied piano composition and music theory at the University of Pittsburgh (B.A.) and Washington University in St. Louis (M.A.), earning several performance and academic awards.

Steve O’Hearn - Artistic Director/Artist/Wind Player
Steve O'Hearn's environmental and product designs, and theater productions, have been recognized with over 40 awards. He has recently received grants from the Rockefeller Foundation and four NEA Creativity Awards with Squonk Opera, which he co-founded with Composer Jackie Dempsey. Steve has received three International Design Awards, four Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowships and, for his work on Broadway, the American Theatre Wing's Hewes Design Award (previously awarded to Julie Taymor and Robert Wilson). His work has been published in magazines and frivolous coffee-table books, and has been exhibited internationally, including at the Prague Quadrennial twice. In addition to his Squonk Opera work, Steve has designed for a dozen theater productions, including a multimedia Macbeth with the Actors Theatre of Louisville's Marc Masterson. He has been Artist-in-Residence at the Andy Warhol Museum and recently completed a public art commission for Pittsburgh's David Lawrence Convention Center. At the Rhode Island School of Design (B.F.A.) and Carnegie Mellon University (M.F.A.), Steve studied art, design and theater. In the pubs of Ireland, he studied music. His work can be seen at his vanity website, www.steveohearn.com, which his mother often visits.

Kevin Kornicki - Assistant Musical Director/Sound Designer/Percussionist
Kevin Kornicki, who has been with Squonk Opera for nearly a decade, is a graduate of Philadelphia’s Settlement Music School. His credits include an appearance on the cover of the New York Times (art section), a run on and Off-Broadway, and a long list of national press reviews. He is unlike any other drummer. His animated theatrics during a performance create a unique auditory and visual experience. He intertwines the use of traditional, uncustomary and primitive styles of percussion fluidly. From his amazing talent of performing, combined with his skill in composing, he was named Pittsburgh’s Best in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Theater Awards for an original score he composed based on Orson Welles’ Moby Dick Rehearsed. Kevin continues to shatter boundaries by collaborating with top notch artists from various disciplines including his brother Steve Kornicki, an orchestral composer; the cutting edge dance company Attack Theatre; and cello/piano virtuoso Dave Eggar, to name a few. Kevin owns and operates a 5.1 surround sound recording studio where he has produced Squonk Opera’s multiple releases. Find out more at www.kevinkornicki.com.

David Wallace – Electric & Acoustic Guitar, Graphic & Web Design
David Wallace first worked with Squonk Opera as their Graphic and Web Designer.  Now, he’s managed to work his way into the band, playing the very instrument the Squonkers vowed to never add – the guitar.  Although the Squonkers have always said, “When Jimi Hendrix burned his guitar, he meant it to stay that way,” David has changed their tune with his soaring melodies and screeching textures.  As a visual artist, David has shown his collages and paintings in Pittsburgh, Nashville, St. Louis, Bethesda, Columbus and Brooklyn.  His work has been called “intelligent and impeccably crafted” by the Bethesda Gazette and has been said to “speak volumes about history, humanity or both” by the Tribune-Review.  He also collaborated with Buzz Miller, Squonk’s head Video Designer, on graphics for some of Squonk’s hometown opera videos.  As a musician, David has toured the U.S. with various indie rock bands. You can view David’s artwork at www.salaczar.com.

Autumn Ayers – Vocalist
Autumn is a singer/songwriter with a BFA in Theater from Point Park University. Her first solo album, Drunk, Again, was named one of the top ten local albums of the year by WYEP in Pittsburgh. She released the third of her studio albums, an EP titled Birds and Words and Strangers, in August 2009. Having performed theater and comedy with companies all over the country and abroad, she's had many opportunities to do strange and wonderful things. Since signing on as vocalist with Squonk Opera in late 2007 she's learned to sing while operating a crane from 40 feet in the air, gone on an all night karaoke crawl through the back alleys of Busan with a one-armed Korean stranger, and eaten all manner of dubious delicacies from fish heads and miniature candied crabs to pizza squeezings - all in service of the greater good that is Squonk Opera. It's among her proudest achievements and greatest pleasures to have been a part of creating Astro-rama with her fellow Squonkers in 2008 and now Mayhem and Majesty in '09-'10.

Ryan McMasters – Upright and Electric Bass
Ryan McMasters, the newest member of Squonk Opera, is a Senior Music Performance major at Duquesne University. Starting on cello at the age of nine and switching to bass in high school, Ryan's passion for music has led to performances with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Opera Theater, The 2007 Disneyland All-American College Band, and the Duquesne University Symphony Orchestra, Contemporary Ensemble, and Jazz Ensembles, to name a few. As a sideman he's performed with Sean Jones, Mike Tomaro, Phat Man Dee, Astral Project, Wayne Bergeron, Sal Lozano, Alex Iles, Gordon Goodwin, Gregg Field, Matt Neiss, the Airmen of Note, and Steve Houghton. He has world premiered several modern works, including a contemporary version of "The Snow Queen." Ryan's touring credits include the Boogie Hustlers and the Duquesne University Jazz Ensemble.

Bob Steineck – Lighting Designer
Bob has design credits spanning over 22 years that include concerts, ballet, modern dance, opera and theatre. He is currently resident lighting designer for Squonk Opera, Mercyhurst College Dance Dept., Lake Erie Ballet, Cleveland School of the Arts, Recording Artist, Maria Del Rey and H2O Contemporary Dance. He was recently appointed to the IUP faculty as lighting and sound supervisor for the Dept. of Theater and Dance where he is resident lighting designer. Mr. Steineck has toured throughout the United States with such Companies as Squonk Opera, the Lyon Opera Ballet, Sankai Juku, Phoenix Dance Company, Kirov Ballet Academy and the "America Tour" for Stars on Ice. As technical director, he has traveled to France, Italy and Iceland for Butoh dancer, Maureen Fleming. For Bill Shannon/Crutch Productions, he has traveled to France and Mexico with the production, Sketchy. Recent corporate contracts include the Beginning with Books Gala May ’09 and Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Gala Oct.’07. Television/Video/DVD credits include the Dizzy Gillespie Allstar Big Band for A&E Cable, the Spyro Gyra concert for PBS, Lindy & Loon for Maria Del Rey and Johnny A Trio by Warner Bros. Publications. His most recent lighting designs include 2009 Erie Festival of Dance, the 2009 Annual WV Dance Festival, Squonk Opera’s Astro-Rama, IUP’s Theatre by the Grove The Importance of Being Earnest and The Keeper of Beauty for IUP’s Dance Company.

Buzz Miller- Video Designer
Buzz Miller is a freelance videographer, editor, animator and adjunct faculty member at Pittsburgh Filmmakers. His short films and videos have screened at festivals throughout the USA and abroad. His video installations were part of the storefront window exhibitions of the 2003 and 2004 Three Rivers Arts Festivals. Buzz's recent focus has been integrating video into live performance. In addition to his collaborations with Squonk Opera, Buzz's video designs have been incorporated into Attack Theatre's This Ain’t the Nutcracker: The Fitting Room, Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre’s Henry, and Quantum Theatre's The Human Chair. He was recently awarded a Heinz Creative Heights grant to become Squonk Opera’s Artist-in-Residence, to explore emerging technologies in video design for both theatrical performance and video installations.

Rick Kemp – Stage Director
Rick has received numerous awards on both sides of the Atlantic for his work as an actor and director. He has performed with leading British companies Complicite, the Almeida, and The Oxford Playhouse, as well as touring his solo clown show Coming Home worldwide. He collaborated with Nobel Prize-winning playwright Dario Fo on the English language premiere of Mistero Buffo, performing the show at London’s Riverside Studios and Tricycle Theatre and on tour, subsequently receiving the French Government's CROUS Award for Theatre. As the Artistic Director of London’s Commotion Theatre Company from 1991 to 1998, he created seven original shows, touring in the UK and Europe, and winning The British Telecom Innovations Award. Resident in the USA since 1999, his directing work includes Hamlet and Riddley Walker at The Pittsburgh Playhouse, Shrew! and The Comedy of Errors for Unseam'd Shakespeare, A Flea in Her Ear, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, Citizen/Soldier, Boys’ Life, and A Servant of Two Masters at Theater by the Grove, IUP, as well as Squonk Opera’s most recent shows. As an actor, he has performed in numerous shows for Quantum Theatre and is the recipient of the 2004 Heinz Endowments Creative Heights Award for his clown show e-lectricity. In 2009 he co-founded 404 Strand, an international performance collective. Their first show, faustUS, was presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust in July 2009.

Denny Strauser – Sound Engineer
Denny Strauser began performing in bands in 1969. He earned a BS in Music Education from Penn State in 1975. As a performer, he has opened for acts such as Hall & Oates, Steve Goodman, Maynard Ferguson and Steve Martin. As a performer he has played: electric and acoustic guitars, saxes, flute, clarinet, bass, congas and percussion, keys, mandolin, harmonica, trumpet, recorders. Denny began mixing sound in 1980. After freelancing for the first twelve years with his own sound system, he has spent 24 months working for two regional sound companies and a total of 14 years as house sound engineer at four nightclubs: Scandals, Ocean City, MD; Cafe210 West, State College, PA; Club Café, Pittsburgh, PA; Rex Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA. He has had the pleasure of mixing live sound for such diverse artists as: Norah Jones, John Mayer, Christina Aguilera; Arlo Guthrie, Dr. John, The Flaming Lips, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dick Dale, Cracker, Project Object, Hot Tuna, Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, and hundreds of other bands. Denny has lighting credit on Jill Sobule’s “Live In Pittsburgh” DVD and camera credit on Adrian Belew & The Bears DVD. In addition, he has been given credits or special thanks on more than forty live & studio recordings. When not on tour with Squonk Opera, Denny is the current House Engineer for the Rex Theatre (rextheatre.com) in Pittsburgh. When he’s not Squonking, Denny is touring the world with Stars on Ice.

Heidi Nagle – Stage Manager
Heidi graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a dual Bachelors degree in Theatre Arts and Communications. In addition to working both on and off stage for many Pitt Rep productions, she also spent four months working with the English Touring Theatre in London, England. She has worked for Buena Vista Pictures Marketing in New York City and won a National Scholastic Silver award for scriptwriting. Heidi recently stage managed the world premiere of the musical comedy Only Me and travels to cities near and far as Squonk Opera’s resident Stage Manager.

Bonnie Bogovich – Video Designer
Bonnie has been a proud member of the Squonk team since 2006, jumping onboard as a video artist as well as stage manager (for the first two years of the Hometown: the Opera tour). Her multimedia and video creations, ranging from practical to theatrical, include multimedia backdrop design for the Red Rock Chamber Orchestra's performance of The Soldier's Tale, demo/training video development for KIT Solutions, soundtrack and FX composition for educational games, exhibit displays for the Heinz History Center, animation judge for the Great Lakes’ Film Association, the Run and Gun guerrilla filmmaking projects, short films, music videos, and many others. In addition to Squonk Opera, her stage management and technical credits include: Attack Theatre, Gargaro Productions/Pittsburgh Musical Theater, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, JCC Performing Arts Camp, and the Duquesne University School of Music. Find out more at www.BlackCatBonifide.com

Tanya Andrea Stadelmann – Video Editor/Operator
Tanya is a Swiss-Australian video artist and photographer who has been working in Australia and the U.S. for the last 13 years. Tanya began designing theater projections in the early 1990's for theater group: Genderfront using Super-8 films and handmade photographic slides on their multi-media shows which were performed in San Francisco. After moving to Sydney, Australia she completed her Bachelor of Arts in Film & TV at the Australian Film, Television & Radio School and worked as a freelance photographer and videographer, specializing in Publicity Portraits, Performance Documentation and Projection Design for Sydney's entertainment industry. Her work has been published in Australia, Switzerland and Norway and her videos have screened at festivals around the world. Since landing in Pittsburgh late 2008, she has performed at the Andy Warhol Museum with The Jilted Brides, edited and operated video projections for Squonk Opera, began teaching film production at Point Park University and has made promotional videos for Citiparks Pittsburgh. You can view some of her work on: http://www.youtube.com/tanyaandrea

Graphic & Web Design
David Wallace

Web & IT Support
Mike Cuccaro

Additional Video Design
Astro-Rama - David Wallace, Dean Mougianis, Bonnie Bogovich, John Landis and Nick Frankhauser
Hometown - Bonnie Bogovich, Dylan Stern, Jessica Fenlon, Paddy Driscoll, Jim Mueller, Dean Mouganis, Cara Thompson, Caroline Savage and Sara Haig
Rodeo - Dan McKosky, Caroline Savage, John Allen Gibel
Inferno - Chas Marsh

Choreography
BigWerk & Inferno - Michele de la Reza and Peter Kope of Attack Theatre

Artisans & Builders & Costumers
Nathan Bell, Michelle Carello, Chris Letzelter, John Teacher, Malcolm & Candy Callery, Wade Kramm, Gregory Hofstetter, Heidi Nagle, Nathan Jedrzejewski, Denny Strauser, Austin Osterhout, Lisa Leibering, Robin Letzelter, Demmler Schenck, Elizabeth Rishel, Ben McDonald, Rachel Myers, Lisa Hatcher, Matt Jackson, Matt Russell, David Ogle, Hallie Stern, Mary Vereshehenko, Jennifer Bailey, Susan O’Neill, Maura Morgan

Steve and Jackie would also like to thank Squonkers from the past who were a big part of BigWerk, Inferno, Rodeo, & Hometown:
Casi Pacilio
Jana Losey
Weldon Anderson
Brian Berkheiser
Jody Abbott
Nathan Fay
Joel Mason
Adelka Polak
Christina Acosta
Nathan Wilson

Board of Directors

Jackie Dempsey
Board Secretary
Artistic Director,
Squonk Opera

Carolelinda Dickey
Performing Arts Strategist

Charlie Humphrey
Executive Director,
Pittsburgh Filmmakers &
Pittsburgh Center for the Arts

Dan Iddings
Executive Director,
PA Academic
Library Consortium, Inc.

Gerri Kay
Former Foundation Executive

Susan McLaughlin
Board Chair
Marketing Consultant

Steve O'Hearn
Artistic Director,
Squonk Opera

Jimmi Sue Smith
Board Treasurer
Director of Corporate Accounting
EQT Corporation

National Advisory Council

Carol Brown
Former President,
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust

Veronica Corpuz
Director of Public Relations,
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust

Jeff Folmsbee
Executive Producer, WNET-TV

Anne LeBaron
Composer, Professor, California Institute of the Arts

Marc Masterson
Artistic Director, Actors’ Theatre of Louisville

Richard Parsakian
Owner,
Eons Fashion Antique

John Schaefer
Senior Producer, WNYC Radio

Thomas Sokolowski
Director, The Andy Warhol Museum