Lara Bruckmann is a versatile performer whose career has spanned the operatic, theatrical, and concert stages as well as cabaret. She has been credited with “vibrant, on the money performance” (SF Weekly), and “characters that steal the show… should win an Oscar for this” (Oakland Tribune), and Opera News recently praised her performance in West Bay Opera’s Die Zauberflöte for “vividly underscore(ing) words with her fine, strong voice and cabaret-honed acting abilities”. Her operatic roles include Dido, Arsena in The Gypsy Baron, Aldonza in Man of La Mancha, and Minnie Belle in Weill’s Johnny Johnson. On the concert stage, she has served as soprano soloist for works including Rossini’s Messa di Gloria, Bruckner’s Requiem, Bach’s St. John’s Passion, Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, and Orff’s masterwork Carmina Burana. Bruckmann’s cabaret career has included nearly one hundred appearances at San Francisco’s famed Plush Room, the premiere of her one-woman show divagation: an internal cabaret at the San Francisco Fringe Festival, and ongoing work with the trio Girlkuture. Lara is co-founder and Board President of Arts First Oakland, and she holds degrees from Rice University (BM) and The New England Conservatory.

Leigh Crow

Happy/L.A. Hyder, DIVAfest Visual Artist, makes her solo singing debut with the Cabaret. “In 1956, my song’s year, I was nine years old. I remember watching variety shows and especially loving those torch songs, and now I have one of my own!” Wander into The Exit Cafe to interact in her installation “back seat,” an exploration of desire, and into the Exit Theater lobby to see some of her intricately exquisite images. When you get back home, visit www.lahyderphotography.com for more.

Denmo Ibrahim is a founder and Co-Artistic Director of the award winning performance company mugwumpin in residence at EXIT Theatre. As a director, creator and performer she has co-built Rabbit Causes Dog -“Best New Play Award –SF Fringe ’04, Symphony of Frogs, (furyFACTORY Festival ‘04 - EXIT Theatre ’05), and Frankie Done It 291 Ways produced by Shotgun Players . Denmo’s commissions include directing and co-creating The Mandala Olive Project for DIVAfest 2005 and Into the Shadows of 9/11 for Zawaya. As a performer, she has been nominated for the Irene Ryan Acting Award (Boston) and a Joseph Jefferson Award (Chicago) for Best Actress in a Lead Role. She has studied commedia dell’arte with Antonio Fava at the International Stage in Italy. Denmo is a graduate of Boston University College of Fine Arts and holds an M.F.A. in Lecoq-Based: Actor Created Physical Theatre from Naropa University.

Amanda Ortmayer (DIVA) has been the Production Manager of EXIT Theatre for three years. She has worked with several companies all over the bay area. None of which she sang for but, she is has always been a technical Diva. You can see Amanda sing in various tech rehearsals, in various theatres, usually while atop a ladder, with some sort of tool.

Mia Paschal is absolutely delighted to be part of DIVAfest and “On the Sixes”! See her in September in “This Lily Was (Fontana)” in the 2006 SF Fringe Festival.

Janet Roitz has performed at ACT in The Black Rider, with The Magic Theatre in Zacharia Mosley’s Neon Blues and with Art Street Theatre in Io - Princess of Argos! (alongside her fellow diva, Beth Wilmurt.) Her A Tingle Tangle Cabaret was part of the 2004 DIVAfest. She currently travels around with her new act, Fabulous Forgotten Film Songs of the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s.

Sharon Walton does have an M.F.A in Acting, but she has not appeared on stage in a very long time. Instead, she’s been directing plays that have been produced in San Francisco, Oakland, Minneapolis, Louisville, Los Angeles, and San Diego. She directed the world premiere of Sean Owens’ Tincture during DivaFest 2003, and the Midwest premiere of Tracy Scott Wilson’s The Story in Minneapolis last year. Her day job is as Director of the Cowell Theater at Fort Mason Center.

Beth Wilmurt has performed at numerous theaters throughout the Bay Area, including Word For Word, Shotgun Players, Magic Theatre, Campo Santo, Crowded Fire, Encore Theatre Company, EXIT Theater, Center Rep, Willows Theater, and Art Street Theatre, of which she is a founding member. Her cabaret act, Cabaret Rebel, was first produced by EXIT Theatre as part of DIVAfest. She spent last year in Berlin studying theater and dance, also choreographed a production of The Death of Meyerhold at The Studio Theater in Washington, D.C. and is pleased to be back in San Francisco.

Don Seaver & Sean Owens have been working together for the last decade on projects as diverse as the award-winning film noir parody The Big Drag, to Owens’ one-man musical Girlesque, and the recent EXIT success, Odd By Nature: An Evening in Sean Owens’ Shorts. Independently successful as composer and playwright respectively, Seaver and Owens are an unbeatable songwriting team, dedicated to intelligent and meaty lyrics, paired with an artful, impassioned score. Critics find their work “first rate,” “generously salted with fine original songs,” and a great example of “how wonderful a show can be.”

Otto Huber (drummer)

Curtis Overacre (lighting designer and technician) Curtis hails from the land of where the wind comes sweeping down the plain. Growing up rurally, he had a lot of spare time to create a fantasy world to live in, which drew him to the theatre. He began by volunteering to help with costumes and make-up for the Tulsa Opera and Moves Dance Co., The Fat Bottom Revue, and Vile Jelly Theatre. Last year, Curtis O. went with the S.F. Buffoons to the New York Fringe Festival, where he met the Banana Bag and Bodice folks and worked with Sandwich for the 2003 S.F. Fringe Festival, and again as a technician for Sandwich in their co-production with EXIT in 2004.

EXIT Theatre (Producer) is a 23-year-old theater dedicated to helping artists develop their craft by providing opportunities to perform and by building an audience for that performance. We commission and produce plays, provide production support and low cost rentals at our four stage theatreplex, host theaters-in-residence, and produce the annual San Francisco Fringe Festival and DIVAfest.

EXIT Theatre and DIVAfest 2006 are supported by the Rockfeller Foundation Multi-Arts Production Fund, San Francisco’s Hotel Tax Fund Grant for the Arts, the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, the San Francisco Art Commission Cultural Equity Grants Program, the Mary Wohlford Foundation, the Zellerbach Family Fund, the Bernard Osher Foundation, San Francisco’s Voluntary Arts Contribution Fund, the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, the Damatists Guild Fund, the Puffin Foundation, Individual Contributions and other donors.