ASC Ensemble

Dani Bryant

Dani wears many hats at Adventure Stage Chicago. She's worked as as an actor, dramaturge and teaching artist, and currently works on staff as the Casting, Marketing and Sales Associate. Dani hales from Gatlinburg, TN, but has called Chicago home for 5 years. As a theatre maker, Dani uses real food and storytelling to explore relationships and the deeper meaning that food holds in our lives. Dani's solo show, Binge, was produced at the University of Chicago's Summer Incubation program, the Around the Coyote Festival, ChiFringeBinge, and StudioBE. Dani’s other foodie plays include Kitchen for Walkabout Theater, Molè for Adventure Stage and The Last Meal Man with Collaboraction. Dani is a proud founding member of Cabaret Vagabond, a modern variety show intended to foster community amongst Chicago artists. Dani's blog is www.pantriesinabind.com.

Sarah Rose Graber

Sarah Rose is a proud Adventure Stage Ensemble Member as well as a Teaching Artist. Sarah Rose is a proud Adventure Stage Ensemble Member as well as an Actress and Teaching Artist. She graduated from Northwestern University’s Theatre Program and received her acting certificate from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Sarah was the 2004 Circumnavigator Travel Around the World Grant Scholar and traveled to Britain, South Africa, Kenya, Mauritius, Australia, New Zealand, and Argentina studying theatre for social change and its educational role. She is also the recipient of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts grant and the Program in the Study of the Imagination grant for her creation of new work. She has been working as a professional teaching artist since 2005 and has taught classes, workshops, and directed camps and shows for youth at Adventure Stage, Northlight Theatre, Metropolis Performing Arts Center, the Chicago Humanities Festival, National High School Institute Theatre Program at Northwestern University, Neighborhood Bridges, ARTS Berwyn, Village Players, Clearbrook on Cue, Dream Big, Chicago Academy for the Arts and numerous schools in the Chicago area. At ASC, she is the lead teacher for the Trailblazers mentor program that pairs young people from the West Town neighborhood with Chicago Artists to make socially conscious theatre. Sarah has also written, directed, and performed throughout the city with many theatre companies including Northlight Theatre, Collaboraction, Pavement Group, Strawdog Theatre, the Factory Theater, Chemically Imbalanced Comedy and Second Story. She has appeared in the Adventure Stage productions The Giver, Ash Girl, The Blue House, and Six Stories Tall.

Laura Kollar

Laura hails from Atlanta, GA, but has lived and worked in the Chicago area since 2000. Laura attended Loyola University Chicago, where she earned degrees in Theater and Psychology. Design credits at Adventure Stage Chicago include The Giver, Walk Two Moons, And A Child Shall Lead, Ghosts of Treasure Island, Gossamer, Holes, The Blue House, The Cay, and Shakespeare Stealer. She co-designed Still Life With Iris with fellow ensemble member Jessica Kuehneu Wardell and helped create costumes for Katrina: The Girl Who Wanted Her Name Back and I Dream in Blues. Laura has also designed shows with Actor’s Theatre Co., Theater Wit, BackStage Theatre Co., Theatre Mir, Collaboraction, Serendipity Theatre, North Park University, Northeastern Illinois University, and Pegasus Players, among others. This Autumn, Laura and her husband opened Matty K’s Hardware in Lincoln Square, where she is exercising a different part of her brain. Laura’s favorite pastime is being with her daughter, Darlene.

Jessica Kuehnau Wardell

Jessica has worked for six seasons with ASC and is a proud ensemble member since 2009. Her previous designs for ASC have included sets for Eye of the Storm, Shakespeare Stealer, The Blue House and And A Child Shall Lead, and costumes for Still Life with Iris, Search for Odysseus and Katrina. A graduate of Northwestern University, Jessica received her MFA in both set and costume design. Her Chicago credits include Rivendell Theatre (Jeff recommended These Shining Lives), Steep Theatre, Lifeline Theatre, Griffin Theatre, Building Stage, Pegasus Players, MPAACT, Circle Theatre, and Metropolis Performing Arts Center. She is currently the resident set designer and design professor at North Park University and full time teaching faculty at Northeastern Illinois University. www.jesskdesign.com

Allison Latta Lashford

Allison's relationship with Adventure Stage Chicago began in 2004 when she performed in its inaugural production of Sideways Stories from the Wayside School. Since then, she has worked with the company as a teaching artist and performer, appearing in a number of productions including Holes, Still Life With Iris and Gossamer. In 2011, she worked as the project coordinator for the Innovation Lab with Adventure Stage Chicago and the Northwestern University Settlement House, which led to her current position as ASC's Associate Artistic Director, where she is in charge of community engagement and works with the other departments at the Settlement House to introduce artistic practice into the social services and strengthen relationships between the theater and neighbors in the community. In addition to her work with Adventure Stage, Allison continues to perform onstage and on-camera throughout Chicago. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Theater from Virginia Tech.

Brandon Wardell

Brandon Wardell is a member of the ASC Artistic Ensemble, as well as a freelance designer in Chicago. He is the Professor of Lighting Design at Northern Illinois University and an Artistic Associate with Steep Theatre Company. Brandon recently designed the lights for The Giver and Ghosts of Treasure Island at Adventure Stage.  He also designed the lights for The Great American Trailer Park Musical (Kokandy Prod.), The Count of Monte Cristo, The Moonstone, and the upcoming production of The City and The City (Lifeline), as well as Three Days of Rain with Backstage Theatre Company. Scenic Designs include Six Stories Tall and Holes at ASC, Baal and Maria’s Field (TUTA), The Chicago Landmark Project (Theatre 7), and In Arabia We’d All Be Kings (Steep).  Brandon holds an MFA from Northwestern University. www.brandonwardelldesign.com

Emeritus Company Members

Brian Bell

In addition to being a member of the ensemble, Brian is also a teaching artist at Adventure Stage. He is the artistic director of Cabaret Vagabond and has directed around Chicago for Collaboraction, Caffeine Theatre, Lincoln Square Theater, and Dominican University. He has toured nationally with the Chamber Theatre of Boston and acted and directed for the last two summers at the Theatre at Monmouth - The Shakespeare Theatre of Maine. Brian is a CAAP grant recipient and a directing fellow of the Goethe Institute's Young Theatre Artists in Germany program, where he assisted on a production of Danton's Death (dir: Nuran David Callis) at the Staatstheater Stuttgart last winter. He was also in Berlin last May for the national festival as a fellow of the International Forum of the Berliner Festspiele. Previous Adventure Stage credits include directing Gossamer and The Giver, acting in Ghosts of Treasure Island and serving as dramaturg for And A Child Shall Lead.