Doug Elkins began his career as a B-Boy, touring the world with break dance groups New York Dance Express and Magnificent Force, among others. In 1988, he founded the Doug Elkins Dance Company, which performed nationally and internationally for fifteen years before disbanding in 2003. Doug is a recipient of significant choreographic commissions and awards from the NEA, National Performance Network, Jerome Foundation, Choo-San Goh & H. Robert Magee Foundation, Dance Magazine Foundation, Metropolitan Life/American Dance Festival, Hartford Foundation, Arts International, The Greenwall Foundation and The Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts. In 1994, Doug received the Brandeis University Award in Dance, and in 1997, a New York Dance and Performance Award (a “Bessie”) recognized “For walking the walk as well as talking the talk, not to mention utterly tanking what’s left of post-modernist pretension, all the while fashioning a singular provocative poetics of dancing.” In 2006, he was honored in New York City by the Martha Hill Award for Career Achievement, and in September 2008, received a second BESSIE AWARD [for Fräulein Maria]. Doug has taught and choreographed extensively in the US and Europe and has created original work for Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company, Flying Karamazov Brothers, MaggioDanza, Pennsylvania Ballet, Union Dance and CanDoCo of London, as well as a number of university dance companies and the renowned Mini & Maxi of Holland. His theater work includes collaborations with Joanne Akalaitis and Philip Glass, Robert Woodruff, Pavel Dubrusky, Annie Hamburger, Molly Smith, Craig Lucas, David Henry Hwang, Michael Preston and Barbara Karger. Most recently he worked with Arin Arbus on her critically-acclaimed Othello for Theatre for a New Audience. At A.R.T., where Doug frequently consults, he worked on Cardenio (written by Charles Mee and Stephen Greenblatt and directed by Les Waters) and The Communist Dracula Pageant (directed by Anne Kaufman) in the 2008 season. A graduate of SUNY/Purchase, he received his MFA in Dance from Hollins University/ADF in 2007. He currently teaches at The Beacon School on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. His tenure there is the subject of “Where the Dance Is,” a short film by Marta Renzi.

Barbara Karger was born and raised in Vienna, Austria and received her MFA in Physical Theater at the renowned Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, Germany. She was a founding member of the theater company, Antagon, which toured throughout Europe. As a performer she has worked with various companies including a world tour with the Swiss Mask Theater Troupe “Mummenschanz.” Since the early 90’s she has been directing productions both in the United States and abroad, including “Peter and the Wolf” with Doug Elkins and Michael Preston. She is an Associate Professor of Theater and Dance at Trinity College, Hartford.

Michael Preston was a member of the Shaliko Company in New York City, founded by Leonardo Shapiro. He also worked with such artists as John Sayles, David Cale, Wynn Handman and Theodora Skipitares. From 1991 until 2000 he toured the world as one of the Flying Karamazov Brothers, which included three different runs on Broadway. With them he collaborated on and performed 9 different shows, ranging from the post-modern tragedy Le Petomane, to an update of Room Service (winner of an L.A. critic’s award in 1998). They were nominated for an Olivier award in London for Best Comedy in 1994. He directed their last show, Life: A Guide for the Perplexed. He co-directed Peter and the Wolf, with Barbara Karger, which was choreographed by Doug Elkins, in Amsterdam in 2001. He is currently an Associate Professor of Theater and Dance at Trinity College, Hartford.

James Latzel (Lighting Designer) is the Director of Performing Arts Production for Trinity College and is quite pleased to return to Fraulein Maria following his tryout at the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival in 2008. His recent design credits include productions at Trinity of Cloud Nine and Window to the Street (directed by Barbara Karger and Michael Preston) and The Adventures of Charcoal Boy and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (for the Dreamworks Puppetry Program at HERE Arts Center in New York). His experiences with dance include six seasons as Lighting Supervisor for Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival (at which he both met and married Lisa Niedermeyer), Production Stage Manager for THARP! and Production Manager for the Stephen Petronio Dance Company.