TJAŠA FERME, Cofounder and Artistic Director
Tjaša is the Founder and Artistic Director of Transforma Theatre Inc., dedicated to creating interactive theatre experiences at the nexus of science, consciousness and ritual. She is the creator of The Female Role Model Project blending interactive theatre with neuroscience produced on Off-Broadway at the premier Art and Tech Center 3-Legged Dog, in New York in November 2018. They were also featured at the Ammerman Biennial of Arts and Technology 2018. She is the creator of a short film Ophelia’s Flip (Cannes Film Festival, 2012), a farce hit Cocktales-Confessions of a Nymphomaniac (The Cell, Abingdon Theatre, Art Basel Miami), an interactive solo show, Wild Child in the City, and a new play My Marlene. Wild Child In The City premiered in NYC (TheaterLab), filled houses on European Tours and received an Audience Choice Award at 46th TSD-Week of Slovenian Drama. Wild Child won a grant from Trust for Mutual Understanding for a tour at ITI-UNESCO MonoAkt festival in Kosovo, winning a Special Jury Prize, and “Northern Meetings” in Siberia. In Dec 2016 Ferme created a devised theatre piece about migrations West to West through the lens of the current refugee crisis in coproducion of Skogen, Sweden and Maska, Slovenia. Tjaša Ferme is a Slovenian National Film Award and Stane Sever classical stage award recipient. Interview on Huffington Post Arts & Culture huff.to/1DgoZ1Q New York Times review: nyti.ms/1J9yBEh more on her website tjasaferme.com. Currently her BCI video game on gender identity is being developed at City Tech, CUNY as a Tech Spring Production.
JACQUES SEBAG, Cofounder and Executive Director
Jacques Sebag was born in Marrakech, Morocco and moved to the United States as a teenager. Although always a passionate student of acting, the realities of life interfered and he became a successful lawyer and devoted father. While stage and film have always been his passion, until recently he honed his theatrical skills in court. Jacob has been practicing law for thirty years. Prior to forming Jacob Sebag & Associates, P.C., Jacob was the founding partner of the Law Firm of Ochoa & Sebag, P.C. (1983-2005). As a seasoned attorney, Jacob brings his entrepreneurial skills and business perspective to his U.S. based and international clients' real estate and corporate ventures. His fluency in five languages greatly enhances his ability to help his culturally diverse clients realize their goals. An innovative and pragmatic problem solver, Jacob counsels his clients on all legal aspects of building and growing a business. In corporate matters and in the hospitality industry, Jacob specializes in acquisitions and business development. In residential and commercial real estate, he advises clients throughout the planning, financing and development phases of the transaction. In addition, Jacob is a licensed Real Estate Broker in New York and Florida. In 2005, Jacob portrayed the French Ambassador in Sidney Pollack's worldwide film release “The Interpreter” which opened the Tribeca Film Festival. Mr. Pollack found in Jacob a certain look, talent and passion and cast him for his last film. Jacob’s featured role is in the only scene in film history shot in the United Nations Security Council. Jacob merges his artistic, business and legal experience to bring a unique competence to his negotiating and drafting contracts specific to the needs of artists and professionals in the entertainment industry. He is also a proud member of SAG/AFTRA and a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
DESIDERIO GABRIELE BERDINI, Treasurer
Des currently works at JP Morgan Chase in the markets division where he’s been exposed to many different international transactions. He’s been involved in raising funds for nonprofits since a young age through his family nonprofit organization. He’s passionate about redefining the idea of capital as a nurturing tool for creative ideas rather than a need without purpose, and has become one of the largest angel fund investors in Wavepaths; a UK based startup facilitating transformative journeys with the help of self-generating music. Des is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Johns Hopkins university with a double degree in Economics and Statistics.
ANA MARGINEANU - Director, Female Role Model Project
Director - Called “one of the reigning queens of New York’s highly intimate, one-shot-only, conceptual-based theater” by the NYC critic Randy Gener, Ana Margineanu is a Romanian-born theatre director based in New York and a co-founder of PopUP Theatrics, an acclaimed group developing and presenting site-specific and immersive work throughout the world. The trademarks of her directorial approach are close cooperation with the local communities who are audiences for her work, highly metaphoric visual style, and ability to draw raw, visceral performances from her actors. Ana’s shows received numerous international awards, including: New York Innovation Theatre Award (The Window), Best Play Relationship Drama at London Fringe Awards (The Sunshine Play), Best Show at Romanian Drama Festival (Eighty nine), The Jury Award for Innovation at the Contemporary Drama Festival (Eighty Nine, Our Daily Hunger, Inside). She is a founding member of DramAcum( directors collective that supports young Romanian playwrights), an alumna of Lincoln Centers Directors Lab and founding member of PopUP Theatrics.
NATALIE KACINIK, Advisor, Cognitive Neuroscientist, Science Director of Transforma Theatre Inc.
Kacinik is an Associate Professor in Psychology at Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate Center. She has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Western Ontario, and completed her Ph.D. at the University of California, Riverside. Prior to her position at Brooklyn College, she also worked as a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the University of California, Davis. Her research examines how the mind and brain process language, ranging from individual words, to sentences, discourse, and figurative expressions like metaphors, idioms, and irony. She is also particularly interested in studying how our conceptual representations and processes are grounded in perceptual, motor, and cultural experiences (i.e., embodied cognition). Her work has been published in the Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, Neuropsychologia, Brain and Language, Psychological Science, Emotion, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, in addition to coverage by the media (New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Scientific American, Huffington Post, Psychology Today).
VICTORIA ZAVYALOVA, Advisor, CEO of V Startup Agency
Victoria is an international media professional, with more than 15 years of experience working for various media in Europe, including the Financial Times and BBC. She is the CEO of V Startup Agency, the communications consultancy for international tech startups and innovative organizations in the U.S. During three years before co-founding the agency Ms Zavyalova has been working as the science & tech editor, covering startups, new AI developments, blockchain and space exploration. In this position, she was also responsible for the startup rating, featuring 50 most promising young tech companies. Ms Zavyalova obtained her MA in Creative & Media Enterprises from the University of Warwick in the UK.
Ms.Nazarova is a media professional with an extensive background in journalism,specializes in Digital Marketing, Partnerships, Content Marketing, and PublicRelations. Irina is currently working as Director of Marketing, MemoryMD Inc.
Heidi J. Boisvert-Advisor, Creative Technologist
Heidi Boisvert is an artist, scientist and creative technologist. Heidi is currently an MIT research affiliate and an Assistant Professor of AI and the Arts: Immersive Performance Technologies at the University of the Florida, College of the Arts, School of Theatre and Dance. She has previously been a TED Resident, and is currently developing the first media genome: an open-source biometric lab and AI system to isolate the narrative ingredients that move us to act. She is also a member of the New Inc’s 6th and & 7th cohort in the Creative Science track, and has been working with David Byrne and Mala Gaonkar on Theater of the Mind, an immersive theater piece for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, as a Technology Designer.
ANNE-KATRIN SPIESS, Advisor, Land and EcoArtist
Anne-Katrin Spiess Is a land artist and creates temporaryinstallations in wide open landscapes, mostly of the American West. She oftenaddresses environmental issues with her work. Founder of Residency 108, anartist’s residency program upstate New York, and co-founder of Shamandome, acamp for shamanic healing at Burning Man.
NANCY MANOCHERIAN, Advisor, Artistic Director of The Cell
Founding Artistic director of The Cell. Nancy is a lyricist, playwright and producer. Writing credit include: Sin!; Rio, a Brazilian musical novella (Theatre for the New City); and Dinner and Delusion, an opera co-written with composer Michael Sahl (The Center for Contemporary Opera/New York city Opera’s VOX Festival). Her passion is for the arts and her dream is the cell, a 21st century salon.
Oliver Zeller-Transforma’s In-House Designer
Formerly Partner/Creative Director at design & architecture firm NAU - selected Adweek'sinaugural Talent 100 (adNAU) - and at tech startup Blackbox AI. Oliver has worked as aproduction designer on events and commercials for clients including Fiat Chrysler, Mercedes,Syfy, T-Mobile, Nike, Disney, Universal Studios and the world's leading event and experiencemarketing agency GPJ. His stage visuals have appeared in Madonna's Reinvention Tour andbeen projected onto the ceiling of Grand Central Terminal for Häagen-Dazs & Creative Time'sHoliday Light Show. His film credits include Sr. Digital Set Designer on Disney's Prince of Persia,Ast. Art Director on Netflix's The Woman in the Window & A24's After Yang and Oliver oversaw psychedelic design for Amazon Studios on Birds of Paradise. A Scenic Design member, Tech & Innovation Committee Chair, at United Scenic Artists, I.A.T.S.E. Local 829, Oliver has written extensively on the intersection of architecture and media for MARK Magazine and was guest speaker at the AEDES Architecture Forum in Berlin.
BRIAN PORZAK, Advisor, Director of Archon Trust Foundation, Spiritual Healer
Writer/director/producer Brian Porzak is a filmmaker who, also,has a background in theatrical film and TV distribution and marketing, both foreign and domestic. Mr. Porzak is a Past Life Regression facilitator/therapist and a practitioner of Angel channeling and energetic healing arts. He is,also, a student of plant medicines from the Peruvian Amazon rain forest and currently in the process of setting up his own foundation Archon Trust for arts and spirituality.
MEGGAN DODD - Collaborator/Cast
Having recently retired after 30 years working as a prosecutor with the Manhattan DA’s Office, Meggan is now actively using her CUNY MA in Applied Theatre to create theatre for social change. She has been part of The Female Role Model Project since its inception. Meggan is also an ensemble member of Honest Accomplice Theatre, a company dedicated to devising theatre through the lens of women and trans people, and an ensemble member of PopUP Theatrics, performing in their site-specific immersive works Broken City: Wall Street and Inside. In addition, she writes, directs and devises with EPIC Players, a neuro-inclusive theatre company whose participants are primarily individuals with developmental disabilities.
GINA SIMONE PEMBERTON - Collaborator/Cast
Collaborator/Cast - NYC by way of St. Kitts/Nevis, has a degree in music education, and vocal performance, from Clarke University, in Dubuque Iowa. Her theater credits include; Off Broadway: Users(imsohot@gmail.com), Treasure Island the Musical (Meg, pirate). Regional: Priscilla Queen Of The Desert (Diva), Henry Box Brown (Nancy), Queen Kunka Bunka and the Rotten Royal Rascals (Chatterina), The Nun Before Christmas (Sr. Wendy), The Full Monty (Estelle), Little Shop Of Horrors (Crystal), High School Musical (Taylor McKessie) Oklahoma (Vivian/ensemble), Why Do Fools Fall In Love? (Sally), Jesus Christ Superstar (ensemble), and Grease (ensemble). Gina is delighted to be a part of this amazing project, and honored to work with such an inspiring group of women. Thanks so much to MCS theater, and to my family, and close friends for their constant encouragement, and support.
SABRINA SNG 孙雅皪- Collaborator/Cast
Sabrina Sng is a physical performer and performance maker from Singapore. As a recipient of the Undergraduate Arts Scholarship by the National Arts Council of Singapore, she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honors) in Theatre Arts from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 2016. The focus of her training was in the Experimental Theatre Wing, where she was awarded the Outstanding Studio Award by the Tisch Drama Department. She continued her training at the SITI Conservatory 2016-2017. My practice wrestles with the intricacies of cultural identity, as well as with what it means to be a woman in performance and performance making. I wish for the work's accessibility within its unconventionality, and aspire to collaborate with people with whom we can navigate together.
ROC MORIN, Advisor, Media
Roc Morin is a journalist, photographer, and filmmaker based in San Francisco. He is the curator of the World Dream Atlas, a collection of dreams from around the globe, and a dedicated lucid dreamer. Roc was a former EMT for the Fire Department of New York, a psychology professor at The City College of New York, a war correspondent in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Ukraine/DPR. His most recent work includes a role as the producer for a Werner Herzog film based on a story of his.
John Gnazzo - Artistic Intern
John is a New York based actor with a degree in International performance art from Pace University. John grew up in Downtown Manhattan and has been acting since he was 10 years old. His interests gofar beyond just acting; however, John also enjoys writing, creating digital art, and streaming with his friends. John would like to thank Tjasa Ferme, Helene Gnazzo, and Adobe Software products for all their love, support, creativity, and aid.
