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Deny We Were Creative Team


Joe Moe (Playwright)

Joe Moe, Playwright Born and raised on the island of O'ahu to a royal family of Hawaiian entertainers, Joe spent his childhood immersed in the beach and exotica, while dreaming of making movies and theater on the "mainland." He studied theater with Laird Mayhew and puppetry with Kermit Love of The Muppets. Joe did end up living in Hollywood where he's worked as a makeup FX artist (Don Post Studios), screenwriter (Red Velvet), studio singer for Van Dyke Parks, Disney, and many others (solo CD: Mainland), and designer of dark rides for international theme parks with high school bestie and Deny We Were designer John C. Goss. Joe's written the book for musicals Killah Vanilla, Space Opera, and Porn Musical with composer/lyricist, Brian Woodbury. Joe is a figure in the horror community, having been caretaker to the late, great, Forrest J Ackerman, editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, curating "Uncle Forry's" museum of Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Horror. Through Forry, Joe was mentored by heroes like Ray Bradbury, Ray Harryhausen, and Kenneth Anger. Joe is a three time Rondo Award winner, hosts horror conventions and edits an annual series of short story "Fanthologies" discovering and publishing new horror writers. His day job is as Hollywood & Music Memorabilia Specialist at Heritage Auctions. Joe thanks his family for the show-biz blood, dramaturg Elise Dewsberry, Fresh Fruit Fest, Wild Project Theater, and his team, mostly lifelong friends, who showed up to contribute their talents and resources to what you see on stage. Joe dedicates a bit of each performance, "to the one who let it happen by letting me go." www.gojoemoe.com


Marcus Gualberto (Director)

Marcus Gualberto, Director Born in Manila, Philippines, Marcus Gualberto is an advocate for equity, diversity, inclusion, and intersectionality for theatre artists on and off stage. A Co-Founder of Regeneration Theatre, Marcus directed Michael Cristofer's Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning play The Shadow Box (The Gene Frankel Theatre); William M. Hoffman's As Is (Workshop Theater); and co-directed Tennessee Williams' Small Craft Warnings (13th Street Rep). Marcus recently directed Nélida Tirado's Dime Quién Soy? (Hostos Center for the Arts, Main Theatre) -- a reflective dance theatre piece on politics, race, and identity told through live music and flamenco dance. Other NY credits include: Fallen Man (Players Theatre); Still Life on Campus (Chain Theatre); Quiet Enjoyment (world premiere, Playroom Theater) and Dead Zone & Lunch with Your Editor (NY Lives Festival @ Producer's Club); and the workshop production of ETHER: The Strange Afterlife of Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (IRT Theater). For four consecutive seasons, Marcus produced and directed a series of Alfred Hitchcock Radio Play Double Features (Actors Conservatory Ensemble / TreePeople @ S. Mark Taper Foundation Amphitheatre, Los Angeles) starring Hans Tester and Academy Award nominee Robert Forster, among others. Upcoming NYC projects include: Sonam's Gift (New York Theater Festival); The Ladies Room (development reading, La MaMa); and Senseless (development reading). Marcus lives in The Bronx and currently serves as the Deputy Director for BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, whose programming empowers women, POCs, and the LGBTQ+ community. www.MarcusGualberto.com


John C. Goss (Production Designer)

John C. Goss, Production Designer Raised in Hawai'i and living in Asia/Pacific most of his life, John works collaboratively and individually on a wide variety of projects using traditional and electronic media. After gaining his Masters Degree from CalArts, he became active in the Los Angeles perfomance art scene, where his works explored male desire, body image, and subverting masculine stereotypes. The Los Angeles Herald Examiner examined/heralded his work in the 7th Annual Los Angeles Choreographer's Showcase as "an exercise in profanity and homosexual excess." He was a member of the iconoclastic anonymous collective of L.A. creatives who staged unforgettable guerilla street performances for ACT-UP/LA public protests, most infamously the Stiff Sheets Fascist Fashion Show on the grounds of LA County Medical Center and The Altered Boys angelic choir that sang safe seXmas carols outside local Catholic churches during the AIDS crisis. His landmark queer video works have been exhibited at museums and film festivals around the world. A pioneer in computer art, he created early queer selfies using the Apple II in the late 70s and the first gay hyper text novel in 1992. His special effects designs have been seen at three international Expos and on concert tours with George Michael, Neil Diamond, Rush, and Deep Purple. A National Endowment for the Arts Fellow and nominee for the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, his work has been seen on the cover of TIME magazine and his photographs feature in the best selling pop culture book, Very Thai. John and Joe Moe created several haunted theme park dark rides together in Shanghai, Taiwan, and a cornfield outside Sacramento. John was also Art Director, Director of Concept Design for Joe Moe's feature horror film, Red Velvet. John currently lives in Palm Springs where he hosts epic Halloween parties and dances hula to help perpetuate Hawaiian culture. www.siamorama.com


Maarten Cornelis (Lighting Designer)

Maarten Cornelis, Lighting Designer Maarten is an entrepreneur and an entertainment veteran with over two decades of experience in the industry. He is a Producer, Light Designer, Actor and Film Festival Manager. Over the last 20 years, Maarten has worn multiple hats. His interest in the technical world of entertainment spiked after studying at The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in Los Angeles. At the age of 21, he led their theater group as producer and director of their shows, and eventually assumed the role as the Institute's Technical Director. Maarten went on to work as a Technical Director at various venues and has had the honor of designing the lights for numerous live events, working for Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Landau, Mark Rydell, Dino De Laurentiis, Ennio Morricone, John Legend, Common, Jerry Seinfeld, and many more. He is a frequent guest Light Designer at the exclusive Carnegie Hall in New York City. He has won several awards for his light design work, as well as being published in international design magazines. Maarten is the CEO of Gatehouse Entertainment (www.gatehouse-entertainment.com), a company focused on film and theatre productions. He is also co-owner of Cinematory (www.cinematory.com), a company maintaining and operating 6 major film festivals in North America. Maarten is founder of Producer's Night (www.producersnight.com), an exclusive yearly VIP event for new filmmakers to introduce their work to world renowned producers and directors. Most recently, Maarten was selected as one of the regularly invited panelists to help support and determine allocation of grants given out by the New York State Council on the Arts. Maarten was born in Belgium and grew up in Los Angeles. Maarten is currently based in New York City, and divides his time between both NYC and Los Angeles. www.maartencornelis.com


Adam Hamdy (Lighting Design/Operator)

Adam Hamdy is a New York and New Jersey-based Lighting Designer. His most recent work includes Mandela for The American Theater for Actors, DaVinci and Michelangelo for Soho Playhouse, Little Christmas Miracles at The Actors Temple, and The Bronx Babe for The Actors Temple. The Deny We Were team is proud to have Adam illuminating our show.


Sara Minisquero (Assistant Director/Stage Manager)

Sara Minisquero, Stage Manager Sara Minisquero is a stage critter of multiple talents, including acting, crooning, crafting, stage management, and production design. They put on every hat plus the community Contessa apron for over 15-years. Formerly Stage Managed the hybrid immersive company FutureProof and was the SM in residence for Funhouse Philosophers at Coney Island, USA. Pandemic catastrophe halted a very promising start to Marshmallow Minxes Presents: a performance art production company founded with their counterpart Celia Foxglove and Boodoir : A monthly variety show, which will hopefully return in the coming months. Recent credits include Death in the Family at Dixon Place and #SoSadSoSexy at the Tank. Sara would love to extend deepest thanks to Jay, Marcus and Joe for bringing them on board.


Jay Michaels (Producer/Publicist)

Jay Michaels, Producer/Publicist With a specialty in communications and promotion, Jay has been a fixture in the independent theater and film movement since 1977 and was part of Lincoln Center's Tribute to Caffe Cino and the original off-off Broadway movement in 1985. Jay has worked as an actor and director of stage and film, garnering accolades for new plays and musicals and a wildly successful series of Shakespeare plays featuring unique production schemes. Jay began as a member of the production staff for Hard Times, 1984, and Romulus Linney's Holy Ghosts at the Joyce Theater's American Theater series, which won a 1986 Drama Desk Award. He also served on the production staff of events featuring Eliot Feld, Meredith Monk, Pilobolus, and the Nicholas Brothers. He served as a national tour manager for Les Misérables, Cats, Oliver, and Edwin Drood and production associate at PBS for the special series, Increase the Peace. As a stage and film producer, Jay has worked with David Canary, Tovah Feldshuh, George Morfogen at the Pearl Theater; Adrienne Shelly and the Missing Children Theater, and at venues including the Perry Street Theater, Theater Off-Park, The Wild Project, LaMama, American Theater of Actors, and much of Theatre Row. He directed the final company of LINE at the 13th Street Playhouse. Jay's career as a promotional executive began on Broadway with Guys & Dolls (1992) continued with Damn Yankees (1994), The Vagina Monologues (2005) and with Beginnings (2017). He served on the promotional staff for the Daily News, producing events at Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, and Atlantic City. He served as copywriter for Bob Hope at Carnegie Hall. As senior marketing executive for an international philanthropy, he produced and was a speech writer for large scale events with dignitaries including James Earl Jones, Jon Stewart, Hillary Clinton and others. Marketing and promotional campaigns include social media, web content composition and management, and graphic design for Luxury Universal Experience, Diamonds.net, Novoe Russkoe Slovo, and more. In 1997, Jay opened: Genesis Repertory, a nonprofit arts and education organization, founded with Mary Elizabeth Micari, dedicated to creating opportunities for young and emerging artists on stage, in film, and TV. Jay also fostered its promotional arm: JMC: Channel I – a network of programs featuring – and dedicated to – independent artists. Jay lectures around the tri-state area in theater, communications, public relations, and media culture. A noted genre film and television historian, Jay hosted programs including Terror Talk, In the PassionPit, Nocturnes, and The Fourth Folio. He can be found producing and hosting conventions including Phoenix FearCon and Boston Sci-Fi Film Festival. Jay is also a published writer, reviewer, and a voice over artist, creating the character of "Shadrack" in the Video Game, Kings Quest: Silver Lining. www.jaymichaelsarts.com


Ida Nau-DeLuke (Executive Producer)

Ida Nau-DeLuke, Executive Producer Fledgling philanthropist and self-proclaimed "culture hoarder," Nau-DeLuke has facilitated a number of projects as a good old-fashioned patron of the arts and for her friends. Other productions, produced abroad, include Your Baby's On Your Car! for the Curry Mallet Theater in Somerset, and Aroma van Fijnere Kaas at the Sorø Municipality, Denmark. An extremely private person, Nau-DeLuke shies away from the spotlight, but is "thrilled" to be a part of the journey of Deny We Were. When pressed for personal details, Ida smiles, "I will only tell you that I have been fluid myself, since before the discovery of liquid!" Ida also tells us she declares her pronouns to be, she/her/hers and would like her partner in life and art of 40-years, Florence Behntnec, to take a bow. When asked her views on Deny We Were, Ida says, "It's interesting to consider conflicts arising from lessening stigmas and a more accepting mainstream, as opposed to traditional obstacles of rejection and ostracization." She laughs, "Mostly, I think Joe Moe is funny - his words and his name." The entire Deny We Were team thanks Ida for her support and unconditional belief in this project. If not for Ida, what you see on stage might have never left the page. www.idalikeyoutoclickthis.com


Glen Phipps (Associate Producer)


Contributing Producers

Jaymie Mo’e, Marie C. Lecrivain, Robin Moe, Adam Robitel, Glen Phipps, Mary M. Martin, Mike Drake, Kelli Madden, Klaus Rusch, Becky Scott-Jensen, Julian David Stone, Sean Fernald, André Øvredal, Kathleen Edwards, Charles Edward Williams, Karen Robey Karn, Carol Carbone, Martin Aguilera, Doug Devita, Kathryn Strinic, Debbie Painter, Marc Doten, Paul Lantz, Brian Woodbury, William Davis, Lynn Hobson, Robert Welch, Felix Schroeder, Ernie Cooper, Kevin Lacey, Jennifer Nikolaus, James Comisar, Marilyn Moe, Daniel Moe, and Garnette Faircloth.


Special Thanks

Sue Stiefvater, Ricardo Hernandez, Christopher Blake English, Sean Fernald, Peter Wafer, Bo Tyler Knudsen, Jolene Kim, James Kerr, Sarah Fuller, Brian Woodbury, Adam Robitel, Martin Aguilera and Jay Michaels.