Katie Bickford, they/them/theirs (Voice and Music Director) (Katie (or KB) is making their Central Square Theater debut as Music Director. Previous credits include Spring Awakening (Brandeis University; Music Director), Sweeney Todd, Legally Blonde, The Music Man (Andover High School), Children of Eden (Voices of Hope; Music Director); The Colored Museum (Umbrella Stage Company; Percussion Consultant) and Prayer for the French Republic (Huntington Theatre; Music Coach). KB is the PreK-12 Adaptive Music Teacher for Waltham Public Schools as well as an instructor for the Berklee Institute for Accessible Arts Education. M.M. Music Education (Autism Concentration), Boston Conservatory at Berklee College of Music; B.M. Music Education, Ithaca College. KB also plays keyboard and sings in Jean-Michelle @jeanmichelleofficial
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RJ (Richard) Knecht is a paleobiologist and evolutionary ecologist that focuses primarily on terrestrial systems of the Paleozoic with a primary emphasis on early hexapods and the evolution of flight in insects (pterygota). He earned a BS in Geology from Tufts University where he worked on several research projects including the paleoecology of a Late Carboniferous intermontane basin, paleoecology and paleobiogeography of Pleistocene glaciolacustrine fossils using varve chronostratigraphy, and the paleobiology of a Carboniferous sponge forest before spending the next several years working in the collections of the Invertebrate and Vertebrate Paleontology Departments at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology. He took a break before resuming his education and completed a MS in Geology from the University of New Hampshire, Durham. Knecht’s research at UNH used resurrection ecology and the recovery of subfossil ephippia (resting eggs) of freshwater zooplankton to examine the structure, drivers, and limits of competition and coexistence in natural systems. Knecht earned a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship before earning a MA in Biology at Harvard University. He is now in the final year of his PhD in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University where he has been focusing on the paleoecology of a 320 million year old site in Massachusetts and Rhode Island among other projects.
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Samuel Hackett (Assistant Director) is incredibly excited to be part of this process. They are a Boston based playwright and director currently studying Theater at Suffolk University. Previous credits include Career Man at Suffolk University (Playwright), A Nickel at Suffolk University (Playwright & Director).
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Jeffrey Song*, he/him (Khim Phan) is an actor, musician, composer, singer, visual artist, scientist and New England Foundation for the Arts grant recipient. His most recent theater performances include WILD GOOSE DREAMS at SpeakEasy Stage and ASSASSINS at Lyric Stage Boston. Other regional acting credits include work with American Repertory Theater, Fresh Ink Theatre, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Wheelock Family Theatre, Company One, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Central Square Theater, Revels, and the NPR storytelling podcast Circle Round. Credits as Composer/Music Director include VIETGONE (Studio Theatre, DC), Mary Zimmerman’s THE WHITE SNAKE (Baltimore Center Stage), and he was Music Consultant for Imagination Stage’s (DC) production of THE BALLAD OF MULAN. Jeff has performed at music festivals around the globe, and appears on over a dozen recordings – his original music featured on radio, television, and the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. As touring bassist for Ute Lemper, he performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Istanbul Jazz Festival, L’Opéra de Vichy, and The Palermo Festival Di Verdura. With over 25 years of research experience in drug-discovery, Jeff is also a co-author on four scientific patents, and more than fifteen peer-reviewed scientific papers. www.jeffreysong.com
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
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Thalles Lavinscky Pereira, he/him/his/ele began his journey in science as a 17-year-old undergraduate student, volunteering on a bat ecology project at his University’s Mastozoology Lab (UESC – Bahia – Brazil). Throughout his undergraduate studies, he also delved into ethnobotany (Project “Nossas Árvores” – UESC), and the ecology of soil invertebrates and ants (CEPLAC-Bahia). This experience later led him to pursue his Master’s research, studying ant guests and parasitoid flies (Phoridae), where he described two new fly species for the first time. He then graduated with a Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of São Paulo (Brazil), where his doctoral research focused on taxonomy, cladistics (using morphological data), and co-phylogeny of ant parasitoid flies (Diptera, Phoridae). Following his studies, he spent two and a half years as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks – USA. Currently, he is based at the Museum of Comparative Zoology – Harvard University, USA.
Thalles’ current research focuses on the diversity of flies (Diptera), utilizing both morphological and molecular data (barcoding with nanopore sequencing technology). He is strongly interested in natural history collections-based research, taxonomy, citizen science, systematics, and co-phylogeny, specifically with ant parasitoid flies (Apocephalus series: Phoridae: Diptera). While his previous publications and nine new species descriptions were based on neotropical specimens, his new project will focus on Alaskan and Beringian specimens (from +40°C to -40°C!). He will employ Large-scale Integrative Taxonomy to gain a deeper understanding of the diversity and distribution patterns of Phoridae in the Arctic and Subarctic Regions across Alaska, Canada, and Sweden. Throughout his Ph.D. and post-doctoral studies, he had the privilege of working in and visiting numerous invertebrate collections in Brazil (7), the USA (4), and Germany (1). Additionally, he has published over 20 manuscripts, including papers and book chapters, collaborating with researchers worldwide.
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