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Joshua Thomas
Let There Be Thistles
Joshua Thomas was born in New Zealand and spent the majority of his life in Australia where he trained as an actor at a performing arts college in Sydney. Since arriving in Saint Louis he has worked with St Louis Shakespeare, Stray Dog, The Orange Girls, Insert Name Here and Muddy Waters, where he currently serves on the board of directors.
His roles in Saint Louis have
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| included the Reverend Shannon in Night of the Iguana, Dr Frank 'n' Furter in Rocky Horror, Orpheus in Eurydice, and others.
He would like to thank the St Louis Writers group, Muddy Waters Theatre and especially First Run Theatre for helping to make this show possible. This is Joshua's first full length play.
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Courtney Kennedy
Don't Stop Believing
Courtney Kennedy is a Saint Louis native whose visual art has been shown in and around the Midwest for several years now. After studying Fiber and Video at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, her adventures continued and she found herself working, acting, and creating in a variety of materials and on projects as diverse as Community Theater, artistic quilting, production design for film, and watercolor. She continued her studies at Webster University, and has focused on creating new work that is both personal and accessible in varying mediums since. Currently on staff at Washington University, Ms. Kennedy spends her free time working on art projects and educating her cats.
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An upcoming show of her visual art is schedule for August of 2010, and new written work is also in development. This is her first play. She is not a big a fan of the band Journey as you may suspect.
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Mario Farwell
The Healing of Joey Padowaski
Mario Farwell has had his plays and musicals produced off-off Broadway in New York, in San Diego, CA, as well as in St. Louis. He graduated from the University of Missouri in Kansas City and is currently pursuing a degree in media communication at Webster University. Mario’s plays reflect the quirkiness of his own life. He has written several full-length plays, The Burning Lake, Life Among the Trees, The Last Days of Café Cafe, and The Seamstress of St. Francis Street
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| His plays have received awards from Emerging Playwrights in NYC, Scripteasers in San Diego, CA, and The Jungle Theatre in Minneapolis, MN. Mario has recently completed a new play, The Healing of Joey Padowaski and hopes to finish work on two musicals Across the Universe and Joan of Arc. Mario will also display his new series of photographs entitled Life As Drag. |
Bill Borst
A Moment of Grace
Born on Labor Day, 1943 in New York City, Bill Borst holds a doctorate from St. Louis University in American History. (1972) He has taught at several area colleges. In 1973 at Maryville College, he originated the 1st accredited Baseball History course in the Midwest, landing an appearance of the NBC Today Show with Gene Shalit in May of 1974. Because of his baseball expertise and his title as “The Baseball Professor,” a name given to him by Hall of Fame sportswriter, Bob Broeg, he became a regular guest on several radio and TV shows in the St. Louis area.
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His love of baseball history led him to write and edit several articles and books about baseball, especially the old St. Louis Browns. Baseball history was the original reason that he began 22 years as a talk show host on WGNU radio. The first two years he did sports and his Ph.D. helped him land his own weekly call-in show on every subject known to man for the following 20 years. He published two books, Liberalism: Fatal Consequences (1999) and The Scorpion and the Frog: A Natural Conspiracy (2005) that were inspired by his radio broadcasts.
But baseball was in his blood. His major claim to fame has been the St. Louis Browns Historical Society that he founded in 1984 after a visit to Cooperstown for the induction of boyhood hero, Pee Wee Reese, the old Brooklyn Dodger captain. In October it will hold its 25th anniversary banquet. The club allowed him to more deeply immerse himself and the legend and lore that were the perennial doormats of the American league throughout their 52-year history in St. Louis.
It was while reading the New York Times in June of 2007 that inspiration hit him again. In reading about “The Philly Fan,” a 70-year-old actor who did a one-man show about the Phillies history and culture, he knew he could do the same thing for the old Browns. However after starting his new project, the story transcended the pure history of the team and became more about an elderly man struggling with the beginning signs of memory loss. This everyman
character’s entire life paralleled the team’s losing historic performance on the field. A quarter century after their move to Baltimore, he realizes that his memory, and therefore his life are beginning to ebb away from him. The Last Memory of an Ol’ Brownie Fan is the result.
Two more inspirations closely followed, including A Perfect Choice, scheduled to be produced by The Theater of the Word in October at the Rigali Center, and his latest play, A Moment of Grace, which is still in development.
In his “spare” time he writes the monthly Mindszenty Report, devoted to cultural issues, (mindszenty.org), contributes regularly to the St. Louis Review and is a regular substitute for Phyllis Schlafly’s weekly program on KSIV radio. Most importantly he has been married to Judy his wife of over 42 years and they have three adult children* who really seem to like them and four grandchildren that make it all seem worth their trouble.
*Someone once wrote that insanity is hereditary. You catch it from your children. Perhaps his interest in the theater is like that. His daughter, Michelle Borst-Hand is one of the founders of the Orange Girls and a winner of the 1st Kevin for Best Actress for her 2005 role in Separate Tables.
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David N. Stein
Rebecca And...
David Stein grew up in St. Louis. After surviving three different high schools, he attended the University of Missouri in Columbia, earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism. He then moved to New York, where he learned that the real world of publishing had none of the glamour of its cinematic incarnations.
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He moved back to St. Louis. His play, After Midnight, was a finalist in the Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco’s 2002 Dramarama playwriting competition. It lost and hasn’t been heard from since. This staging of Rebecca and… is his first production and he is very grateful to First Run Theatre for this opportunity. Someday he hopes to be a guest programmer on Turner Classic Movies, where he will have an evening of films by his favorite underrated director, Mitchell Leisen.
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