The PETE Ensemble

Founding Members:

Jacob Coleman

Jacob Coleman (Co-Artistic Director, Founding Member) is a director, performer, and teacher. Performances with PETE include roles in The Cherry Orchard, Fronteriza, Weather Room, How To Learn, Uncle Vanya, Procedures for Saying No, [or, the whale], Enter The Night, Three Sisters, and R3. Jacob directed PETE's Our Ruined House, Deception Unit, Drowned Horse Tavern, All Well, and Song of the Dodo. Jacob has also worked locally with Shaking The Tree, Imago Theatre, Liminal Performance Group, zoe|juniper (a crack in everything [installed]), Amber Whitehall (Near To The Wild Heart, On Killing), and in NYC with Jenny Vogel (Cruelty of Pirates). Jacob was an artistic director of Fever Theater from 2002-2009, acting in or directing each of their ten original performances. Jacob teaches with PETE at the Institute for Contemporary Performance, and in the theatre program at Pacific University.

REBECCA LINGAFELTER

Rebecca Lingafelter (Co-Artistic Director, Founding Member) is a performer, director, teacher and producer based in Portland, OR. Her work with PETE includes The Deception Unit, [or, the whale] (Ahab), R3 (Buckingham), Song of the Dodo (Dodo), and Three Sisters (Olga). Locally Rebecca has worked with Third Rail Rep where she is a core company member (Belleville, Collapse, That Hopey Changey Thing, Sweet and Sad), Profile Theatre (The Fifth of July, Knowing Cairo), and CoHo (DB,Grounded). Directing credits include Revolt. She Said. Revolt, Again, Lungs, The Angry Brigade,  and The Realistic Joneses (Third Rail), Bright Half Life (Profile) Peter and the Starcatcher (Portland Playhouse), and Procedures for Saying No (PETE).  In New York she performed at Classic Stage Company, PS122, The Ontological Hysteric Incubator, HERE Arts Center, The Bushwick Starr, The Chocolate Factory, Judson Church, Vortex Theatre Company, Target Margin Theatre, and The Metropolitan Opera. She has performed internationally in Korea, Germany, Italy, England and Budapest, Hungary. She was co-artistic director of experimental theatre ensemble Performance Lab 115 from 2005-2010, where she produced and performed in over 12 productions. In addition she was lead-artist for PL115’s six-month residency with Mabou Mines mentored by Ruth Maleczech in 2008. Rebecca is currently an Associate Professor of Theatre at Lewis and Clark College. In addition she has taught at the The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Art, The Public Theater, Classic Stage Company, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Portland Actors Conservatory.  Rebecca is a proud member of Actors Equity and SAG/AFTRA. Columbia University, MFA.

CRISTI MILES

Cristi Miles (Co-Artistic Director, Founding Member) is a native of El Paso, Texas. As a Portland-based artist she has been previously seen in many productions with PETE; Third Rail Rep; Portland Playhouse; Profile; Portland Shakespeare Project; and Teatro Milagro. Prior to living in Portland, she lived in Boston and directed and taught with numerous regional theaters throughout New England. She trained with Anne Bogart and the SITI company, Double Edge Theatre Company, The Roy Hart Theatre company and The Oregon Center for Alexander Technique. Cristi is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at George Fox University. Brandeis University MFA.

AMBER WHITEHALL

Amber Whitehall (Co-Artistic Director, Founding Member) is a performer, writer and teacher. Her work is a distinct synthesis of technique, concept and practice informed by extensive experience making original work in a collaborative way. She writes in time and space to share a likeness of lived feeling and to see the familiar anew. She believes in the utility of ambiguity. She believes in the power of metaphor. Her research and teaching includes creative compositional process, embodied awareness and expression, and the symbiotic relationship between composition and improvisation. She has produced work and taught in Portland, Seattle, NYC, and Europe. She is a dedicated practitioner of the Viewpoints and the Suzuki Method actor training, as well as Roy Hart Voice and extended vocal work. A student of Barbara Dilley, she continues to investigate Dilley's Maps of Space and Red Square vocabularies. Amber taught acting and movement in the BFA program at Naropa University; butoh dance at The Evergreen State College; composition at Conduit Dance; voice at Portland Actors Conservatory; Acting at Lewis & Clark College. She is currently faculty at the Institute for Contemporary Performance. She is also a Registered Yoga Teacher. MFA: Contemporary Performance.

Company Members:

KRISTINA MAST

Kristina Mast (Administrative Director) is a stage manager from Corvallis, Oregon. She received her training at Goshen College (Goshen, IN), the Guthrie Theater stage management internship program, and Portland Playhouse’s apprenticeship program. She has worked with Portland theatres such as Coho Theatre, Clackamas Repertory Theater, Third Rail Repertory Theatre, Portland Playhouse, and Portland Center Stage. She has worked with PETE on Drowned Horse Tavern, All Well, [or, the whale], Deception Unit, and Uncle Vanya.

JENNY AMPERSAND

Jenny Ampersand (Associate Artist) is a designer based in Portland OR.  Jenny has been making work with PETE since 2013 and during that time she has done everything from building extinct birds out of zippers and velvet, fashioning ocean creatures who work in an office, concocting the scent of an arctic ship, to turning Chekhov's Yelena into a disco ball.  In addition to PETE her work has been seen at Third Rail Rep, Profile Theater, Oregon Children's Theatre, Shaking the Tree, Liminal, Wobbly Dance, Phame, and Strawshop.  Other design highlights include creating lighted headdresses for local choir In Mulieribus' performance of Hildegard Von Bingen's Ordo Virtutum and collaborating with Wobbly Dance on oceanic costumes for their dance film Tidal.  She is often a guest designer at Reed College and guest teaches with ICP and Western Oregon University. 

ROBERT QUILLEN CAMP

Robert Quillen Camp (Associate Artist) is a writer and director whose work includes the Obie Award winning Chekhov Lizardbrain, a collaboration with Pig Iron Theatre Company. His work has toured nationally and internationally been published in a wide variety of literary journals and anthologies. He has taught playwriting and performance theory at Brown University, Lewis and Clark College, and the University of Californa at Santa Barbara. His collaborations with PETE include the texts for Procedures for Saying No (2016), Deception Unit (2016-2018), Our Ruined House (2019), and How To Learn (2018) which he also directed.

more at: robertquillencamp.com

Molly Gardner

Molly Gardner (Associate Artist) is a technical director and production manager based in Portland. She has toured internationally as a stage manager and technician and has worked in theatres all over the world, including On the Boards (Seattle), MCA (Chicago), BAM (New York), Teatro Guaira (Curitibia, Brazil) and the Lagos Theatre Festival (Lagos, Nigeria). Locally, she has worked with Third Rail Repertory, Boom Arts, PICA, Portland Playhouse, CoHo, Hand2Mouth Theatre, Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble, Northwest Children's Theatre, and Portland Center Stage. She holds a B.A. in Theatre from Lewis & Clark College. Recent technical director credits include Arlington [a love story] with Third Rail and Uncle Vanya with PETE.

Chris Gonzalez

Chris Gonzalez is a producer, director, and journalist based in Portland, Oregon. He currently produces and directs a TV show called  Diary of an Old Home, and Cabin Chronicles, both featured on HBO Max. As a journalist, his audio feature work has aired on Morning Edition and All Things Considered. He also produced for Oregon Public Broadcasting’s daily talk show Think Out Loud, as well as their science and environment TV show Oregon Field Guide. Chris’s by lines include Oregon Arts Watch, Willamette Week, the Portland Mercury, Street Roots, Oregon Public Broadcasting and The Oregonian. He also just finished writing a long form narrative podcast about corporate accountability and the Holocaust called Covering Their Tracks, for Blue Chalk Media. As a creator, Chris has been an Artist in Residence at CoHo Theater, where he wrote, directed and produced his first film OK ABNER. His second short film, which he produced, co-wrote and directed, Wren LaVelle, was commissioned by Portland Playhouse. He has taught devised physical theater at the School of Dance and Contemporary Thought as well as Portland Playhouse. He has also taught Writing for Devised Theater at the Institute of Contemporary Performance. Chris was the recipient of the James Baldwin Memorial Scholarship for Playwriting by the University of Massachusetts Amherst. As a PETE Company Member, Chris wrote the text for The Americans and Cardiac Organ: A Goth Cabaret.

MIRANDA K HARDY

Miranda k Hardy (Associate Artist) works as a lighting designer for PETE. Shows include R3 [Drammy Award], The Three Sisters, All Well, [or, the whale], Procedures For Saying No, and The Deception Unit, also designing scenery for Song of the Dodo and Drowned Horse Tavern. Her work in Portland has been with Profile Theater, Portland Playhouse, Laura Heit, Boom Arts, Lewis and Clark College, Reed College and Oregon Children’s Theater.  Prior to moving west she made work in NYC, Italy and toured nationally and internationally. Other company affiliations include Banana Bag & Bodice, Object Collection and Tiny Elephant.

Maggie Heath

Maggie Heath (Associate Artist) is a Portland-based installation artist whose work is heavily influenced by the intersection of performance and visual art. She likes to describe her practice as "crude tender moments." She holds a B.F.A. from Portland State University. Her work has been presented in Portland, Minneapolis, and Seattle. Being drawn to the playfulness of collaboration and preferring objects be activated instead of looked at, Heath has pulled herself out of the gallery to work alongside performance artists and theater companies.

PETER KSANDER

Peter Ksander (Associate Artist) is a scenographer and media artist whose stage design work has been presented both nationally and internationally. In 2006 he joined the curatorial board of the Ontological-Hysteric Incubator. In 2008 he won an Obie award for the scenic design of Untitled Mars (this title may change), and in 2014 he won a Bessie award for the visual design of This Was the End. He holds a MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, is an Associate Professor at Reed College. Previously with PETE, he has created designs for: R3, The Three Sisters, The Deception Unit, All Well, Procedures for Saying No, and [or, the whale], which he also directed.

Trevor Sargent

MARK VALADEZ

Mark Valadez (Associate Artist) has made work in New York, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Budapest.; with PETE: R3, Song of the Dodo, The Three Sisters, Enter the Night, Drowned Horse Tavern, All Well, [or, the whale], Procedures for Saying No, and Deception Unit.  He is also a core company member at Third Rail Repertory Theatre. Third Rail credits include: Midsummer; A Play with Songs, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Belleville, Or, The Realistic Joneses, Mr. Kolpert, The New Electric Ballroom, Annapurna, The Nether, The Angry Brigade, Lungs, Men on Boats, and Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again.  Other selected  Portland credits include Bo-Nita (Portland Center Stage), db (CoHo), Grounded (CoHo),  Bright Half-life (Profile).  In New York he made work at The Chocolate Factory, The Public Theater, HERE Arts Center, PS122, The Ontological Hysteric Theater, and was part of the Ground Floor Residency at Berkeley Rep.

Board Members:

Stephanie Arnold

Kelsea Ashenbrenner

Ashley Bronson

Jacob Coleman

Wade Hopkins

Peter Ksander

Rebecca Lingafelter (Treasurer)

Robert Lovitz

Sofia Marks

Cristi Miles (Vice President)

Maria Porter

Pancho Savery (Board President)

Isael Soto

Amber Whitehall

Dinah Dodds, Board Member In Memoriam