Production Staff and Participants

Production Staff

Sponsors
Diane Nester Kresh, Director for Public Service Collections
John Y. Cole, Director, The Center for the Book
Mary Eugenia Myer, Executive Director, The Washington Revels

Artistic Director
Roberta Gasbarre, The Washington Revels

Assistant Director
Kelly Gardner, The Washington Revels

Production Manager
Monica Mohindra, The Washington Revels

Coolidge Auditorium Manager
Michele Glymph, Music Division

Costumers
Kathleen Geldard, The Washington Revels
Le Vonne Lindsay, The Washington Revels

Chorus Manager
Terell Izzard, The Washington Revels

Technical Team
Elizabeth Miller, Network Development and MARC Standards Office
Beverly Brannan, Prints and Photographs Division
Colleen Cahill, Geography and Map Division
Diane Schugg-O'Neill, Geography and Map Division

Photographer
Marita Clance, Conservation Division

Library of Congress Staff

John Y. Cole is the Director of The Center for the Book. Created by an Act of Congress (Public Law 95-129) in 1977, The Center for the Book was established to stimulate public interest in books, reading, and libraries and to encourage the study of books and print culture. Mr. Cole has been with the Library of Congress for more than 30 years and is a recognized expert on the history of the Library of Congress. He was 2000 recipient of the American Library Association (ALA) Lippincott Award which recognizes distinguished service to the profession of librarianship.

Diane Nester Kresh is the Director for Public Service Collections at the Library of Congress. She directs a staff responsible for 15 of the Library's reading rooms including the historic Main Reading Room and for custody and security of more than 113 million items in the Library's general and special collections. Ms. Kresh has been employed by the Library of Congress for 27 years and has held a number of positions including Director of Preservation.

Adrienne Cannon is the African American History and Culture Specialist in the Manuscript Division, where she has worked for the past few years. Ms. Cannon came to the Library from a position as assistant curator of special collections at the University of Virginia.
Judith Gray is a coordinator of reference services in the Library of Congress's American Folklife Center. An ethnomusicologist, Ms. Gray has expertise in the earliest recordings of Native American music and contemporary cultural expressions. She has been with the Library since 1983.

Marvin Kranz is an American History Specialist in the Manuscript. A specialist in the American Presidency, Mr. Kranz is also a generalist with a vast knowledge of the Library's manuscript collections. He is the curator of the psychoanalytical collections and has been with the Library for over 30 years.

The Washington Revels

Performers
Andrea Jones Blackford
Harold Blackford
Leroy Campbell
Joicey White Granados
Terell Izzard
Curtis Jones
Lisa Leak
Brian Moore
Keith Moore
Milan Pavich
Riki Schneyer
Christina Speaks
Mary Swope
Michelle Terrell-Long
Charles Williams

Roberta Gasbarre is the artistic director of The Washington Revels and the director of the Smithsonian Institute's Discovery Theater. Some highlights from her incredibly varied career include choreography and directing at Studio Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, The Shakespeare Theater, Roundhouse Theater, and Washington Jewish Theatre. She has taught at Gallaudet University, George Washington University, University of Poznan, Poland and Montgomery College. Her dedication to educational theater is evident in her extensive experience with, among others Wolf Trap Farm Park, Living Stage Theatre Company a venture of Arena Stage, Kaiser Permanente Health Education Programs and the Hebrew Academy of Greater Washington.

Monica Mohindra is the production manager and publicist for The Washington Revels. Over the past eleven years there she has been involved in every aspect of production and administration including work as dramaturg, assistant director, and performer. Since graduating from college in 1998, she has worked with The Living Stage Theatre Company, a venture of Arena Stage, Round House Theater, Tribute Productions, Discovery Theater, and Adventure Theater.

Mary Eugenia Myer is the executive director of The Washington Revels. She has been involved with that organization since 1989, as board member, production manager and mask and props designer. Theater and education have always been a special concern. As a conservation, recreation and landscape planner, education of the public was a priority. Her board commitment has focused in those areas as well: United States Institute of Theater Technology (USITT), the Cambridge Montessori School, People for Riverbend Park, the National Carl Schurz Association to further German-American cultural exchange. She was also co-director of a Headstart program in Cambridge MA in that program's first trial summer.

The Washington Revels is dedicated, through performance, community outreach and education, to reviving, nourishing and promoting celebrations of the cyclical renewal of life that have drawn and bound people together through the ages, across all cultures and generations. Revels winter and spring performances of dances, songs and stories based on traditional material from varied cultures have been hailed as a unique cultural and educational contribution to the Washington region. Audiences agree, returning by the thousands each year to sing with us and appreciate the bonding power of tradition and community that is a central theme of the performances.