Who
Co-creator/Director
Charlotte Jayëlle Wheeler has a professional background in live theatre, where she has been a performer since the age of two and also focused her skills as a director, producer, writer, and carpenter. Over the years she has worked with many companies, among them Center Theatre Group, TheatreWorks, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and Teatro Zinanni. She began producing and directing at the age of 16, co-founding The Student Theatre of California (STOC 1996-2001). She graduated from The Los Angeles County High School for the Arts in 1998. After writing her first play, The Reading, which she then co-produced and directed at Fremont Centre Theatre in 2000, her interest in using theatre and entertainment as tools to effect social change became the driving force for her work. She attended The Clown Conservatory at the Circus Center of San Francisco in 2004, experimenting with the use of circus and spectaclism. In 2006 she got her BA in the Humanities with a focus in Activism and Social Change at the New College of California, using a blend of theatre, clowning and video documentary for her thesis work. Her focus on pure documentary film making in American Other is the continuation of her work of using art as activism.
Co-creator
DHIRA RAUCH creates new theatre exploring time, communication and performing the unsocialized body. In the interest of asking the questions with no marks, she has done physical research in Iceland and has consumed popcorn at 30mph in response to Godot. She holds an M.A. from the Experimental Performance Institute at New College of California in Creative Inquiry and a B.F.A. from the Experimental Theatre Wing at NYU Tisch.
Research Coordinator
NEISHA OPPER was born and raised by a family of artists and actors in Los Angeles, CA. She graduated as a theatre major from the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts in 1998 and spent many years as a theatrical jack-of-all-trades. Neisha’s interest in the intersection between the humanities and science lead her to receive her bachelors degree in research psychology from Reed College and her Masters of Public Health degree from the University of Southern California. She is currently employed as a research coordinator at the Keck School of Medicine at USC, educating new doctors about their roles and responsibilities in research and how to apply research in medical practice. Her interests have included asking provocative questions, study and questionnaire design, and the alchemy of translational research. Her assistance in designing search criteria and interpreting American Other’s survey data combine her love of art and research into one project.
Production Consultant
KATE COLTUN reads, writes and lives mostly in Los Angeles, though she is frequently spotted collaborating in other landscapes. She is currently finishing her collection of uncanny fiction titled ‘Little Hands & Other Stories.’ She is also an essayist, cultural critic, and devoted story developer, in all media and genre.