Creative Team


Annie Loui
Artistic Director

Annie LouiAnnie Loui works as a director/choreographer, an educator, and creator of devised theater works. She trained with dancer Carolyn Carlson at the Paris Opera, and studied in France with physical theater masters Etienne Decroux, Ella Jarosivitcz and Jerzy Grotowski. Original physical theater pieces have been seen in France, Monaco, West Germany, and in the United States at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, among other venues. She has choreographed for the American Repertory Theater, Trinity Repertory Theater, and off-Broadway for the Signature Theater. Longtime member of the Brandeis Theater Arts Department; she also taught extensively for the Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard before coming to the University of California, Irvine, where she runs the Movement Program for the MFA Actor Training. She has received a Massachusetts Choreographer’s Fellowship, a Belgium Artist’s Abroad Award, a Beall Center for Art and Technology Grant and an NEA New Forms Grant. Favorite directing projects include two world premieres of Chuck Mee scripts; CAFÉ LE MONDE and WAR TO END WAR, and her devised theater adaptation of JANE EYRE created with Counter-Balance Theater and THE ILIAD created for UCI Drama. Intermedia performance creations include READING FRANKENSTEIN at the Beall Center for Art and Technology, and IN THE GRACE OF THE WORLD commissioned by the Orchestra of St Luke’s NYC. Her FALLING GIRL inter-active video installation with Scott Snibbe was exhibited at the Berkeley Art Museum and at the ArtRock Festival St Brieuc, FRANCE. Her book The Physical Actor is published by Routledge Press.


Lonnie Rafael Alcaraz
Lighting Design

LRA-Headshot-bwLonnie Rafael Alcaraz is a Professor at UC Irvine and a professional lighting designer. He has designed at various regional theatres, such as The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Repertory, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Sierra Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, Laguna Playhouse, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Pasadena Playhouse, The Great River Shakespeare Festival, Utah Shakespearean Festival, Syracuse Stage, Arizona Theatre Company and East West Players. Lonnie has a long standing relationship with Culture Clash having designed The Birds at both South Coast Repertory and Berkeley Repertory; Culture Clash in AmeriCCa at South Coast Repertory and San Diego Repertory; and their national touring show, Radio Mambo. Lonnie is an Associate Artist with critically acclaimed Cornerstone Theater Company which has given him the opportunity to create site-specific lighting designs throughout California. In addition to his theatrical experience, Lonnie designed for Universal Studios Islands of Adventure’s Lost Continent Island and for Universal Studios, Japan, where he designed the live shows Terminator 2 in 3D, and Monster Makeup, the attractions Jurassic Park the Ride and Snoopy Studios, along with exterior architectural facades throughout the park. He is a member of the United Scenic Artist /IATSE – Local 829. To view his complete professional portfolio please visit his website: www.lradesigns.com.


Mark Caspary
Sound Designer & Composer

Mark-Caspary-HeadshotMark Caspary is a sound designer and composer with a diverse background in a variety of arts. Mark is co-owner of Ears Up Sound Design with Matt Glenn. Ears Up produces and mixes soundtracks for museums, theme attractions, and large-scale events across the country and abroad. In addition to co-founding Ears Up Sound Design, Mark’s compositions and designs have been heard at South Coast Repertory Theater, The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, and as the underscore to numerous CounterBalance Theater productions. Mark has been designing and composing for CounterBalance off and on since 2013. His collaborations with CounterBalance are an invaluable creative outlet. He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Sound Design from the University of California, Irvine.


Morgan Embry
Projection Designer

Morgan Embry HeadshotMorgan Embry is a lighting designer, video designer, and dancer currently based in Los Angeles, California. She strives for incorporation of diverse and interactive technology into her works and her collaborative process. She received her BA in Dance from The University of Alabama and her MFA in Lighting Design at the University of California, Irvine. She is an active designer for dance and theatre, acting as resident LD for Willing Kompany and Festival Ballet Theatre, Video Designer for The Next Festival of Emerging Artists, and Projection Designer for CounterBalance Theatre. She is also a Lighting Designer for live music; Vance Joy, Bryce Vine, Tegan and Sara, Black Veil Brides, SHAED, and Allie X being among the list of wonderful collaborators she gets to regularly create with. “Having the background as a dancer often leads me to think of designs in terms of motion and pacing. How do bodies and/or light move through the world I am helping create?” For more information about Morgan’s work, visit www.morganembry.com