PAST ARTISTS

July 2016 // Elizabeth Ardent (née McSurdy) is a performer, curator and theatrical designer. She has been an artist-in-residence in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Portland, rural Germany, rural Argentina and the Florida Keys — she is thrilled to add Atlanta, Idaho to the list. Elizabeth is a member of SALTA, a collective of dancers who organize a roving series of experimental performance on both coasts. Elizabeth works as the production manager for the Dance & Theater Department at Mills College. In addition to her work in and around live art, she is dedicated to cultivating permaculture land projects and anti-oppression community actions. Elizabeth holds a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. She is grateful for her beginnings with Balance Dance Company and its web of strong alumnae the world over.  

July 2016 // Emma Ayers is a writer, interdisciplinary storyteller, and dramaturg. She has worked for the Idaho Shakespeare Festival and ISF Drama School. Her most recent endeavor has been as a writer and producer for the national nonprofit law center Justice in Aging, raising awareness of senior poverty. This past winter, Emma was an artist-in-residence at Sugarloaf Women's Village in the Florida Keys. Emma assisted dramaturgically with a year-long James Dolliver project on the works of playwright Suzan-Lori Parks and pedagogy. Her present inquiries are into: myth making, coastlines and global climate change, aging, gender expansiveness, landscape as mirror, and Idaho's fecund potential to hold these explorations in synthesis. Emma graduated from University of Puget Sound in 2011 with studies in English: Writing, Rhetoric, & Culture; Classics; and Theater Arts.