Emily Windler joins us from her artistic home in Portland, Oregon where she has been conducting creative sessions over Zoom with her far-flung collaborators Susan Stroupe (Baltimore, MD) and Jessica López-Barkl (our mutual friend and collaborator here in Sullivan County, NY). They are convening in person at NACL to work, along with Nick López and Brian Kuwabara, on The Cave Play, an original clown performance.

The play is a reflection on pandemic isolation situated in the context of a documented historical event involving a family that moved into a cave in Central Park, Manhattan during the Great Depression.

Emily Windler has an MFA in Ensemble Based Physical Theatre from Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre. In 2011, with fellow Dell’Arte grad, Brian Kuwabara, she co-founded GRUMBLE Productions, a physical theater company devoted to the serious art of comedy, touring original works across the Canadian Fringe Festival Circuit. Emily was an initial member of In Strange Company in her hometown of Albuquerque, NM, with director Jessica López-Barkl and Susan Stroupe.

Jessica López-Barkl is a founding member of In Strange Company and is currently the Associate Professor of Theater and Speech/Theater Program Director at SUNY Sullivan. She is also a freelance actor, director, dramaturg, playwright, and designer.

Susan Stroupe is a generative theater maker based in Baltimore, Maryland. She is primarily a director, ensemble deviser, and teaching artist, specializing in interdisciplinary, devised, and immersive theater. She is a founding member and Core Creator of Submersive Productions, Baltimore’s award-winning immersive theater collective, and a teaching artist for Baltimore Center Stage. She currently teaches Theater History and is a regular guest director at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).