Jay Stern has 17 years' experience directing and producing for stage, screen, and radio in New York City. He is a founder, producer, and host of the Iron Mule Short Comedy Film Festival, screening monthly in NYC since April, 2002. Stern has produced and directed more than 30 short films. His work has won awards from the Montreal Film Festival and the National Educational Media Network, as well as screened in festivals across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. His first feature film, The Changeling, opened in May, 2007, and his second feature, Spirit Cabinet, will shoot in early 2010.

Stern recently produced two projects with writer/director/stand-up comic Victor Varnado: Roboto Supremo, (a short featuring a giant robot and Michel Gondry) and the feature The Awkward Kings (which recently sold to Comedy Central).

In addition to his film work, Stern is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab and has directed and produced more than 20 theatrical productions, from classical theater to world premieres by emerging American playwrights. He is also the director of Quicksilver Radio Theater's award-winning radio dramas which have been syndicated internationally.

Stern was a producer of improv comedy with Chicago City Limits from 1996-2003. He is a PhD candidate at the European Graduate School, where he studied with Peter Greenaway, John Waters, Siegfried Zielinski, Claude Lanzmann, Jacques Derrida, Agnes Varda and Volker Schlöndorff.

Jay Stern has been invited to lecture on ultra low budget filmmaking at Parsons School of Design in New York City and the Non Grata Arts Center in Tallinn, Estonia. He has programmed short film screenings for Comedy Central, Mass MoCA, Non Grata in Tallinn, Estonia, and the Woods Hole Film Festival.

Alan McIntyre Smith is a cinematographer and filmmaker with over a decade of experience working around the world. He honed his craft by lighting and shooting a variety of features, television programs, commercials and music videos. Previous features as cinematographer include The Changeling, Out of the Fog, Jocasta, Fog Warning, and the upcoming Spirit Cabinet. Besides The Changeling and Spirit Cabinet, Smith's collaborations with Stern include several shorts such as the award-winning The Ring of Ultimate Power and the music video Check This Out! for the band The Mighty Five. Smith is a professor of cinematography at the Conservatory of Theatre Arts and Film at Purchase College, State University of New York.

Eric began his career collaborating at New York Theatre Workshop with Jonathan Larson for the widely popular and award-winning musical, Rent. He continued in theater working with such companies as Manhattan Class Company and Naked Angels. Eric moved into the wonderful world of film with the award winning short Gardening Tips for Housewives. Since then he has produced feature and industrial films, and commercial spots for Ely Lily and Merck, U Direct NYC, and Lumina Films. He has worked with talent including Al Pacino, Farrah Fawcett, Isabella Rossellini, Fisher Stevens and Anthony LaPaglia.

Zach Abramson was raised in New Jersey, where he was influenced by a wide variety of musical styles through playing piano, bass guitar and percussion. He holds a Masters in Composition from the Manhattan School of Music where he studied with Richard Danielpour, Nils Vigeland, Darren Gage and Tom Parente. Abramson's music has been performed by TACTUS, the Claremont Ensemble, the Manhattan School of Music Composer's Orchestra, Yes is a World, and the Transit New Music Collective, which he co-founded in 2004. Presently Abramson is the bassist for both Kindergarden and Urban Sun, and is a writer, performer, and producer for the funk-electro band Mighty Five.

Robert Eggers has created sets, costumes, wigs, makeup and puppets for film, television, theater and dance, designing for Sesame Street, Comedy Central, Lincoln Center, La MaMa E.T.C. and many others. He is currently designing a new Tamar Rogoff dance piece premiering at the Kennedy Center next year. His adaptation of Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart is currently screening in the international film festival circuit and premiered at the 23rd Mar Del Plata IFF. He won a New York Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Costume Design for Othello in 2005.

Paul Herbig’s film credits include Alone on the Dark II, Fears of a Clown, and Unnatural Selection. New York theater credits include Medea (Jason), Affluenza (Eugene – originated role), For the Good of the Nation (Younger), and El Conquistador vs. the Invisible Man (Masked Wrestler). Regional credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lysander) and The Tempest (Ferdinand). Paul has a BA in theater from the University of Albany.

Films include the feature Love on Ice, The Sent, Fair Weather, and the music video, Likely to Stray, in which she played the lead. Regional work includes Kate in The Taming of the Shrew, Juliet in The Eternal Romeo and Juliet, Marie in Woyzeck, and Reggie Fluty in The Laramie Project. New York stage credits include 4.48 Psychosis, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, and A Comedy of Errors. Marian has extensive experience in improvisation and is a company member of the National Comedy Theatre.

Craig Wichman studied with Stella Adler, and has since worked in all media. Film: The Devil You Know (title role), The Changeling (Alonzo de Piracquo). Television: One Life to Live, All My Children, Law & Order, Kojak. Online: videos for the AMC SciFi Dept. and the Unemployed Philosophers' Guild. Audio: Founder of Quicksilver Radio Theater (Scrooge, Frankenstein's Monster, Sherlock Holmes); Twilight Zone: The Radio Series (opposite Adam Baldwin and Bruno Kirby). New York Theater: Off-Broadway, (The Flashing Stream, Julius Caesar); The Lark (Warwick), The Beggar’s Opera (Macheath), “Fra Lippo Lippi” (National Arts Club). Regional: Twelve Angry Men (Juror #8), Showboat (Steve), Tecumseh! (Lt. Ross).

James Prendergast was most recently in this season's highly acclaimed off-Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's Incident At Vichy. Other New York theatre credits include productions at Playwrights Horizons, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Directors Company, New Georges, Lark, and The Actors Company Theatre (TACT) where he is a company member. He has co-starred with June Allyson and Gig Young in national companies of My Daughter, Your Son and Harvey respectively and has appeared with major regional theatres across the country from San Diego's Old Globe to Dorset Theatre Festival in Vermont. Leading roles include those in The Cherry Orchard; Three Sisters; School For Scandal; Born Yesterday; Inherit The Wind; ART; The Marriage of Bette and Boo; Edward Albee's “Seascape;” “The Immigrant;” “Death of A Salesman; Mr. Roberts; The Woman In Black; Don't Dress For Dinner; Blithe Spirit; and An Inspector Calls among many others. Television work includes his roles on “As The World Turns” (Eric Masterson); Guiding Light (Darryl Hotchkiss); All My Children (Sam Solsky); Izzy and Moe (James J. Walker); and eight appearances on The Late Show With David Letterman. Films include Quiz Show directed by Robert Redford; Moscow On The Hudson directed by Paul Mazursky; The Purple Rose of Cairo directed by Woody Allen; Stonewall directed by Nigel Finch; and The Changeling directed by Jay Stern.

Films include Woody Allen's The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Jingle Hell, I'm No Stud, and Crime of Passion. TV credits include Law & Order, Wall Street and Third Watch. Floyd has also appeared in numerous web videos, including MoveOn.org’s 10 Weeks (directed by John Sayles) and two videos for The Onion News Network. Ramona’s off-Broadway credits include the title role of Medea, and Pygmalion and The Maids (Jean Cocteau Repertory), The Monument (Clockwork Theatre) and Shaw’s Arms And The Man. Regional Theater includes Candida, In Chains, La Ronde, Blue Window, Rhinoceros, and The Balcony. Floyd has also appeared in over 50 regional/national commercials and voice-overs.

Derek Lively is a playwright, actor and screenwriter. His solo show, Welcome To My Soul, was performed at HERE as part of PSNBC's talent showcase for NBC executives; the Henry Street Settlement/Abrons Arts Center; and Chicago City Limits. He appeared in the Off-Broadway production of I Count The Hours, playing all the male roles, as well as over thirty productions in NYC. His screenplay, The Nigga, was the winner of the 2008 Hollywood Black Film Festival Storyteller Competition and was subsequently optioned. His play, Two Realities, was the co-winner of the Around the Block 2006 Short Play Reading Series. He is working on a new solo show and is currently a faculty member of the All Stars Projects' Youth Onstage! program.

Recent projects include What You Can Do, a series for PBS letting Americans know what they can do to help change the world in only a minute’s time. She can also be seen in the web series The Sexually as a psychic turned therapist. She has appeared in the independent films Belly, The Changeling and Aesops’ Diner. She has performed in most black box theaters and comedy rooms in the New York City in projects ranging from Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Classic Stage Company to sketch comedy at Caroline’s. She has been heard on NPR as part of the award-winning Union Signal radio theater company. Mary has also performed in numerous pharmaceutical industrials almost entirely in Orlando.

Dance Reconstruction for the Broadway hit FOSSE (Tony Award, Best Musical). Choreographer: Marriott Theatre - Hot Mikado (Joseph Jefferson Nomination); Penguin Rep - Syncopation; Jimmy Buffett - Daydreamin' In Havana Tour; Television & Motion Picture Fund - Edith Head, A Retrospectacular; SSDC DanceBreak 2004. Director: Peter Jay Sharp Theatre - A Train (re) Plays "Hal & Joann". Director/Choreographer: Neighborhood Playhouse - A Train Plays Volume XVI. Co-Choreographer: Marriott Theatre - Damn Yankees (Joseph Jefferson Award); Pittsburg CLO Tour - Casper The Musical. Performer, Broadway Original Casts: Chita Rivera The Dancer's Life, FOSSE, Flower Drum Song, The King & I, Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public. Proud member of Stage Directors & Choreographers Society.

Stefanie Koseff is a Brooklyn-based video artist, filmmaker and editor. Her work has been shown in the Coney Island Film Festival, Chicks with Flicks Film Festival, Lundabio International Film Festival in Reykjavik, Iceland, and at the Open Source Gallery and the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center in Brooklyn, NY. She holds a Masters degree in Philosophy from the European Graduate School and her essay on Cinema and Exteriority will be published by Atropos Press in 2010.

Polina Roytman started her career in Fashion Design and Styling working for companies such as Myth and Ritual and Donna Karan. A desire to branch out led her to designing costumes for Roboto Supremo, a short starring Michel Gondry and written and directed by Victor Varnado. She was head costume designer for the Off-Broadway hit, Viva Patshiva, written by David Jenness and directed by Lincoln Center’s Paul Smithyman. She has worked with Emmy award winning Sally Lesser on costumes for Lincoln on Hester Street, written by Lu Hauser and directed by George Ferencz. She most recently wrapped on Victor Varnado’s feature, Laser Gun. Other works include costumes for Aaron Bollinger’s documentary, Clothes Minded; as well asassisting with productions for Lincoln Center, Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College and Theater for the New City.