The Jilline Ringle Solo Performance Program Alumni Updates

Since her Jilline Residency she has been busy being Artistic Director of CSz Philadelphia, home of ComedySportz. During her time as AD she created and directed numerous shows including; Hallmarkable, Murder Manor, Improvised Golden Girls, and Dun-Dun: Improvised Crime Unit. She is currently co-directing an improvised Twilight Zone/Black Mirror style show called The MirrorZone. After 6 years of being Artistic Director, she has recently handed over the reins so she could focus on scripted work/opportunities, including writing her soon to be finished one-woman show, called Ghostbusters Raised Me. Most recent theater credits include Sarah Jane Moore in City Theater Company’s Assassins, U/S Smee/Mrs. Bumbreak/Teacher in Peter and the Star Catcher with Delaware Theatre Company, and U/S Bernedette in the Arden’s upcoming POTUS. Kristin also works regularly for FanEXPO where she moderates/hosts celebrity panels/interviews across the US and Canada. She and her co-hosts are entering their 5th season of REMARK, a video podcast that reviews EVERY Hallmark Holiday movie each year. You can also see her as Hildegard on WHYY/PBS's The Infinite Art Hunt, and the voice on the animated series Art Regards from Hildegard! By day she can be found at the Tony Award-Winning Wilma Theater as the Marketing and Design Manager.

Bi Jean Ngo has appeared onstage at 1812 Productions, including a full production of her solo show In Search of the Kitchen Gods, which Bi developed through 1812's Jilline Ringle Solo Performance Program Residency and the Couple of Extra Bucks Fund. She also appeared in 1812's The Women in Comedy Project and The Way I Walk. Bi's additional credits include The Wilma Theater (The Good Person of Setzuan), InterAct Theatre Company (The Chinese Lady, The Great Leap, Caught), Theatre Exile (Babel, Among the Dead), Arden Theatre (Backing Track, Water by the Spoonful), Walnut Street Theatre (Shipwrecked), Theatre Horizon (An Infinite Ache), Delaware Shakespeare (Pericles, As You Like It), and more. She is a member of the Creative Core at 1812 Productions, a member of the Wilma Theater’s Hothouse Acting Company, and is a founding member of Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists. Bi has also directed productions for Delaware Shakespeare and Princeton University at the McCarter Theatre. She has an MFA in acting from The Actors' Studio Drama School at New School University and a Bachelor's of Science in Film & TV from Boston University and is a member of Actors' Equity. She additionally trained at Dell'Arte International, The Suzuki Company of Toga, Shakespeare and Co., and The Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski. She is a recipient of the Fox Foundation Fellowship Award administered through TCG, the Independence Foundation Fellowship Award, and the F. Otto Haas Emerging Artist Barrymore Award. Coming up, Bi will be teaching and directing at Princeton University culminating in a production of Naomi Iuzuka's Anon(ymous) this November at the Berlind Theatre at the McCarter Theatre Centre.

Domenick Scudera is Professor of Theater at Ursinus College where he has been teaching acting, directing, and theater history since 1997. As a director, he has directed 45+ plays at the college. Professionally, he has directed at theaters such as the Philadelphia Shakespeare Theater, Delaware Theater Company, the Uptown Knauer Performing Arts Center, and Historic Philadelphia Inc. As a playwright, Domenick has written full-lengths and one-acts that have been produced from Alberta to Tampa. His latest original full-length play, The Half of It, inspired by the life of Vauedeville drag pioneer Bert Savoy, received its premiere at Phillips’ Mill in New Hope, PA in the summer of 2024 (Inquiries about plays can be sent to: dscudera@gmail.com). Domenick’s Jilline Ringle Solo Performance grant helped to fund his one-man show, Festus the 3-Legged Wonder Dog, about his work with animal-assisted therapies. Domenick is still actively involved with pet therapy programs in the area, including at Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital, with his 2-legged dogs Cyrus and Deuce (You can follow his dogs on social media @2legdogs).

Jennifer Blaine’s original writing, characters, and comedy delve into serious and socially relevant issues and provides audiences the opportunity to unite in laughter. The Philadelphia Daily News said “her comic genius is like Lily Tomlin and Tracey Ullman.” Jennifer co-led the Showstoppers program at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts from 2013-2018, where she created four original plays on topical issues, from bullying to civil rights. She produced the 5,000 Women festival, showcasing women artists and activists, at Wesleyan University (2011 & 2012) and Philadelphia (2014). Some of her 20+ FringeArts solo works include Sorry, White Flight, Hearing Voices, and Ridiculous. Dirty Joke, a solo show about women activists (directed by Vashti Dubois of The Colored Girls Museum), was featured at PIFA, and showcased at The Annenberg Center for the Arts. A Jennifer Story and J.B. & Friends are currently on Philly Cam. The Vicissitudes of Travel which depicts a family traveling through brain surgery has been performed in museums, theatres, Wesleyan University, Tufts Medical School, and at Jefferson Medical College, bringing together medical staff and the general public to dialogue about loss and illness. Her musical Mannequin, about a defunct fur store in South Philly, its elderly Jewish owner, a teenager, a mafioso, and a political activist, explores whether we can truly be inclusive, despite the rise of intolerance and white nationalism since 2016. Her current show, Getting Creative, combines characters, stand-up, and interactive processes to spark each person's creativity and help break down our inner fourth wall.

• In Their Silence (formerly, They'll Neglect to Tell You) which was curated/written/devised as part of Jilline Ringle Solo Performance Program was a Frank Moffett Mosier Fellowship for Works in Heightened Language Semifinalist and a Dramatists Guild Foundation National Fellowship Finalist for 2024-25

• Won the Victory Foundation Award for Excellence in Theatre Education at the Barrymore Awards

• Was a Scholar in Residence at the UPenn LGBT Center for the 2023-24 academic year

• Commissioned to curate, write, and direct a new choreopoem for AngelPirate Productions titled the Are We Free Yet? project based on the book Are We Free Yet? The Black Queer Guide to Divorcing America by Tina Strawn. An elevated stage reading is scheduled for October 2024 at Theatre Exile. For more information, click here!

Tara Tagliaferro is a multi-hyphenate storyteller currently pursuing her masters in Information and Library Science! She has performed all across the country in regional theatre and on the road, including the Broadway National and International Tour of SISTER ACT, and began her post-college career as an acting apprentice at the Walnut Street Theatre. Though she now resides in Queens, NY, she will always be a Birds fan. Lastly, Tara is 1/2 of Down the Yellow Brick Pod, a podcast preserving and peeling back the curtain on the wonderful world of Oz with her best friend. Through the pod, she directs an annual retreat at the Land of Oz Theme Park in North Carolina and has performed at the Stonewall Inn and Books of Wonder in NYC. Please find the pod at @downtheyellowbrickpd and Tara @taratagtickles on IG!