CLOSE-UP: Company Manager, SOL CRESPO

We're super stoked to introduce you to the amazingly talented SOL CRESPO who has joined us as Company Manager - you'll be seeing more of her on and off stage as we prepare for an amazing season of new works and more...

SOL CRESPO

Originally from Puerto Rico, Sol Marina Crespo graduated from New York University in 2002 earning a BFA in Drama and a BA in Latin American Studies.  She trained at Tisch School of the Arts’ Experimental Theatre Wing where students were encouraged to explore all acting methods, as well as creating and producing their own work with a focus on physical theater and ensemble. Since 2002, Sol has been steadily working in theatre and film.  For her performance of Griseldi in The Missteps of a Salsa Dancer (L.E.F.T) she was awarded the 2005 HOLA Award for Outstanding Performance of a Featured Female Actor.  Recently Sol has worked with Flux Theatre Ensemble appearing in Ellen McLaughlin’s Ajax in Iraq; Corey, the lead in Erin Browne’s Menders; and Mindy in August Schulenburg’s Deinde. She is also a Friend of Flux, serving most recently as part of the Benefit Committee. As a company member of Pregones Theatre she has appeared in: Aloha Boricua, Las facultades, Game Over, The Red Rose with Danny Rivera (2006 HOLA and ACE Award winner for Best Musical Production), Medea’s Last Rosary with Lupita Ferrer (2007 HOLA Award for Best Dramatic Production), The Beep (2007 HOLA Award for Best Ensemble), Brides (in conjuction with Sering Theatre, Belgium and Divadlo z Pasaze, Slovak Republic), 365 Plays in 365 Days by Susan Lori-Parks (in conjunction with The Public Theatre), the Asunción Playreading Series and Pregones in Motion: Community Outreach Program as actor/educator working in senior centers during the Spring of 2007.  As a result of her work with Pregones, she was awarded a Ford Foundation Fellowship for Career Advancement in 2007.  In the summer of 2008, Sol was commissioned by Pregones Theatre to develop and write “Texting 4 Life” a forum theatre piece aimed at teen dating violence prevention. In 2009 she was commissioned again to write “El cheque”, a play focusing on elder abuse prevention. “Old Maid,” her first play was a finalist in American Globe Theatre’s 15 Minute Play Festival 2008. 

         Aside from acting, Sol has also produced Jon Ross’s Walking in Memphis; produced and directed John Patrick Shanley’s Danny & the Deep Blue Sea, and an all female cast of Miguel Piñero's Short Eyes.  Always working on her craft, Sol attended LAByrinth Theatre’s Fall 2008 Master Class; trained at Dell Arte (Blue Lake, CA) with Jesser de Souza from Lume Teatro (Brazil) and recently completed a Choreographic Theatre workshop in Paris with Pantheatre’s Enrique Pardo and Linda Wise.

         She is also a recording artist and a teacher. www.solmarina.com

CLOSE UP: newest Artistic Associate, RAYE CYPHERS

We welcome our newest Barefoot Artistic Associate!!!  Here's a closer look at RAYE CYPHERS!!!  

RAYE CYPHERS
A native New Yorker, completed the 2-year Meisner training program at the William Esper Studio under Barbara Marchant. She recently performed in a reading of The Vote in Orange (as Jaquí) as part of an awards ceremony for the insignia of Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres on Playwirght Israel Horovitz from the Cultural Counselor of the French Embassy, with Kevin Kline, Bobby Cannavale, Judith Ivey and Angelina Fiordellisi. Raye is an Artistic Associate of the Barefoot Theatre Company and has performed with Barefoot in staged readings at the Cherry Lane Theatre as part of the BareNaked Reading series including Parkslope and Pound for Pound. She performed with Bruce High Quality Foundation in a production of The Flowers of Washington Square Park at the Ray Smith Studio and as a lead dancer in the Height's Players production of Brigadoon. She earned her BArch at Cooper Union, trained at the Joffrey Ballet School and is a longtime member of the Ice Theatre of New York with 10+ years of competitive Figure Skating.  She is the creator and co-producer of the anti-hydrofracking campaign to raise awareness of the need protect NY water supplies entitled “ANYBody of Water”.

Barefoot Artistic Associates include: Gillian Rougier (Ensemble Member), Michael Pierre Louis, Jennie West (Ensemble Member), Eric Vigdorov, Lisa Anderson, Mark von Sternberg (Ensemble Member) and Minna Taylor.

Close-Up: New Ensemble Member, CRISTINA PITTER

We're thrilled to give you a closer look at one of our newest Ensemble Members that you'll definitely be seeing and hearing more of:

CRISTINA PITTER

Cristina is an actor. singer, dancer, and writer who hails from Long Island, New York. She did a stint in Deltona, Florida for high school where she competed at both District and State level for the International Thespian Society. Cristina has a BFA in Acting from Brooklyn College, and a AS in Theatre from Suffolk County Community College where she also participated as an Irene Ryan Nominee for Odysseus Died From AIDS, and Into The Woods. She is also a member of The Flea Theater's resident acting company, The Bats. Theatre: Cardenio (Brooklyn College, Steve Kaliski), The Eden Project (The Dream Up Festival- Theatre for the New City, Stable Cable Lab Company), Hamlet (Boomerang Theatre Company, Tim Errickson), Gi60: International One Minute Play Festival (US Ensemble, Rose Bonczek), The Demolition Downtown (Brooklyn College, Jason W. Rost), Tallgrass Gothic (Brooklyn College, Justin Ball), The Thugs (Brooklyn College, Welker White), The Trojan Women(Brooklyn College, Elysa Marden). Cristina is very blessed and honored to be a part of the Barefoot familia. 

Artist Statement:

I believe that Barefoot is a great place to nurture all my creative needs as an artist. There is a great sense of family and collaboration, which is the most important element is creating theatre and telling stories. The work produced with Barefoot has always been thought provoking and engaging, and leaves me with a great feeling of completion as a human being. I also appreciate the commitment to not only bringing to light lesser known and existing works, but supporting the new works of playwrights as well.