Meet Invention Creators
Brandon Burk
Writer, Performer
Brandon is a professional actor with over 25 years of experience, currently residing in New York City. Notably, his acting credits include the Tony Award winning Utah Shakespeare Festival, Nevada Conservatory Theatre [NCT], and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He holds an M.F.A. from UNLV’s Professional Actor Training Program and a B.A. from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He has worked as an instructor and coach of acting, dialects/speech, and stage combat for numerous shows on the Las Vegas Strip, the Nevada Conservatory Theatre, the Las Vegas Academy of Performing and Visual Arts, as well as private students since 2004. He has also worked as a guest artist and adjunct faculty member at High Point University. Brandon is the former Artistic Director of The Onyx Theatre and Off-Strip Productions.
Ed Simpson
Writer
Ed's plays have been widely produced throughout the US and Canada and include Additional Particulars (LA Drama Critics Circle Award); Elephant Sighs; The Battle of Shallowford; The Comet of St. Loomis; A Point of Order (all published by Samuel French); Electric City Suite, and Periphery (both published by Dramatic Publishing); and the book for the musical The Amazing Goldin. Produced one-act plays include Tenderness, Carving Rocks, Hot to Spa, Standing Up V and E, Pratt Falls, and Dancing With Father. Film credits include the feature film Elephant Sighs (Director/ Screenplay/Producer) featuring Ed Asner and John Cariani; Connected (co-writer); Making Steam, and The Ghosts We Know (producer). Television credits include State of Grace (ABC Family Channel). He is currently Professor and Chair at High Point University Department of Theatre and Dance and is Professor Emeritus from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He is a proud member of Dramatists Guild, Actors’ Equity, and the National Theatre Conference.
The Invention Creative Team
Heather Anne Chamberlain
Executive Producer
Heather Anne Chamberlain has spent over twenty years as a theatre artist. After getting started in underground guerrilla-protest-type theatre in Detroit, she now is based in New York City. Chamberlain has directed/produced in L.A. and NYC, has sung Off Broadway and is a ballet dancer/physical actor with a previous residency in Las Vegas. She holds a BA in Theatre from UNLV and is alumni of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA). She is the founder and creative director of New York City Artists, a platform for all artists worldwide, where she supports, nurtures and promotes artists at no cost. www.heatherannechamberlain.com
Christopher Lash
Original Music
Christopher Lash has worked around the world as a musical director, rehearsal pianist and entertainer. He composed and musically directed a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Nevada Conservatory Theatre in Las Vegas. He was the resident musical director for The Reno Dance Company where he composed original arrangements and music for their productions. While teaching Musical Theatre at UNLV keeps him busy during the day, by night, Christopher performs as an entertainer on “The Strip” and Downtown Las Vegas. Notable positions include: Conductor for Jersey Boys - Las Vegas and cover for Million Dollar Quartet as Jerry Lee Lewis. Recently, he has been the Music Director & Conductor for Vegas' hottest new show, BAZ Star-Crossed Love at The Palazzo. Working with the For The Record company, he's also provided arrangements for their show, Scorsese: American Crime Requiem, which opened in Beverly Hills at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.
Arthur L. Ross
Movement
Arthur is from Costa Mesa, CA currently residing in New York is pursuing his Broadway Acting Career after Touring the Mid-West and East Coast with ELF the Broadway Musical. He was an Adjunct Faculty Member at Cypress College in the Theatre and Dance Department (teaching tap & hip-hop, choreographing for the Faculty Dance Concerts and Musical Productions). He has an M.F.A. degree in Acting from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, a B.A. in Communications (B.A.C.) degree specializing in directing /choreography from Bowling Green State University and has trained at the award winning South Coast Repertory Theatre’s Professional Acting Conservatory.
Sarah Norris
Director
Sarah is the Founding Artistic Director of New Light Theater Project. Her work has been seen both around the country (New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Fresno, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Maine & Alaska) and around the world (Australia, England, & Ireland). In New York, she has worked with: Playwrights Horizons, Theatre Communications Group (TCG), LAByrinth Theater Company, Disney Theatrical Productions, BAMA Theatre Company, The Flea Theater, Primitive Grace (with Paul Calderon and David Zayas), The Gallery Players, and The Glass Eye/Fresh Produce’d to name a few. She has an MFA in Directing from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and a BA in Theatre from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. She is a proud member of AEA and SDC. For more information, please visit her website: www.SarahNorris.org.
Production History
Invention was devised and developed through a Mikulay Fellowship funded collaboration with the Department of Theatre & Dance at High Point University.
Originally produced March 19th, 2016 as a staged reading at the UNLV Organic + Homegrown Playwrights Festival in Las Vegas. Directed by Christopher V. Edwards.
First Workshop Production was April 1st & 2nd, 2016 in The Empty Space Theatre at High Point University, Directed by Ed Simpson.
Writer and performer, Brandon Burk.