Solo performer and playwright Jim Loucks began his theatre career in summer stock at the Highlands Playhouse in North Carolina.  After earning his MFA in Acting at the University of Georgia, Jim moved to Los Angeles where he has appeared in several plays and independent films. He has performed his first two solo shows Cemetery Golf and The Biscuiteater at Beyond Baroque and The Electric Lodge in Venice, CA; the United Solo Theatre Festival, The Drilling Company and 78th Street Theatre Lab in New York City; Hudson Opera House (Hudson, NY), SoloFest at the Filling Station (Albuquerque, NM), the Solo Performance Festival at theatre off jackson (Seattle, WA), SoloFest at the Whitefire Theatre (Sherman Oaks, CA), Piccolo Spoleto Festival (Charleston, SC) and FronteraFest (Austin, TX). He has also toured his shows to Fringe Festivals in Boulder, Oahu, Hollywood, San Francisco, Orlando, San Diego, Cincinnati, Chicago, Scranton, Tucson and Ottawa. He received a Citybeat “Critic’s Pick” for Cemetery Golf and won "Best Solo Performance" at the Tucson Fringe for The Biscuiteater. His new show Booger Red was developed as part of an Artist Residency with the City of Madisonville, KY and the Mahr Park Charitable Trust, and premiered at their Bacon, Blues and Big Stories Festival. 

Director Lisa Chess is an actor, acting instructor and director. As an actor, she co-starred in the award-winning independent films Frankie and Johnny Are Married, Ladies In Waiting, and The Hollow. She guest-starred on several television series, including Picket Fences, The Practice, Family Law, The Division, Diagnosis Murder and Chicago Hope. Theater credits include The Catskill Sonata, directed by Paul Mazursky, Legacy, Bridge Over Land, and Pineapple (Lincoln Center Theater Lab). She taught acting at the School of Visual Arts in New York and at NYU in the School of Professional Studies and currently teaches at UCLA Extension. As a director, she developed and directed Mina Samuels’ solo shows Do You Know Me? at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York as well as Hazards, which premiered at the Toronto Fringe Festival and won the award for Best Avant-Garde play at United Solo Theatre Festival (NYC). Booger Red is her second show with Jim, having previously directed and developed The Biscuiteater.

 

Producer Deb Loucks earned her MFA in Production Management from UCLA’s School of Theatre, Film and Television and her BA in Theatre Arts from the University of Pennsylvania. She has worked in Production at the Mark Taper Forum, the Geffen Playhouse, PRT and the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles, among many others. She was the Company Manager of the Atlantic Crossing Theatre Project and the Managing Director and Producer of Venice Visionary Performing Arts. She is also a painter and co-owner of Small World Books in Venice, CA, where she is also the curator of their gallery for the Venice Art Crawl.