“What I experienced in Dzieci, will live with me forever.”
Jordon Flato – Dzieci Alumni 2004 -2008
Matt Mitler (Director) was initially trained in Humanistic and Existential Psychology, before discovering the healing potential of theatre. He has had the good fortune to study with such masters as Jerzy Grotowski and Eugenio Barba in theatre; Carl Rogers and R. D. Laing in psychotherapy; and Jean Huston and Michel DeSaltzman in more esoteric disciplines.
Combining these pursuits, he began to lead workshops of his own design in a variety of settings including Hutchings Psychiatric Center (NY); The National Theatre School of Sweden; and the graduate school of The University of Psychology of Warsaw, where, in 1980, his essay, “Art and Therapy” was published in the anthology, New Directions in Psychotherapy.
In Europe from 1977 to 1981, Matt performed, directed, taught, and formed the international theatre collective, “The Tribe”, which presented interactive works at a variety of therapeutic institutions and was featured at Le Festival Mondial du Theatre in Nancy, France. Other festivals, which presented Mr. Mitler’s work, include: The Koln Festival, Vienna Festwochen, The International Festival of Fools, The Gaukler Festival of Mime, The International Festival of Mimes and Pantomimes (Poland), and The Theatre of Nations.
Matt appeared on numerous television programs and starred in over a dozen independent motion pictures in the 80′s before creating his own film projects. His feature film, Cracking Up, garnered a number of awards; including “Best Film” in The Venice International Film Festival Critic’s Week and the “People’s Choice Award” in The New York Underground Film Festival. Participating in the festival circuit brought him back to Europe for the first time in fifteen years, where he had the good fortune to be sponsored by The Children’s Cancer Fund of Sweden to train an ensemble of actors in clowning and therapeutic technique and lead seminars in creativity and healing at the Umea School of Medicine.
To date, Matt has designed and directed more than 70 theatrical productions; among them: his own adaptation of Nathaniel West’s Miss Lonely Hearts for the 29th Street Repertory Theatre; the critically acclaimed musical Sofrito, featuring The Latin Legends All Stars, for the New Victory Theater; and the apocalyptic epic Dirty Money (also co-author) for Teatr Am Turm in Frankfurt, Germany. He has also staged the works of dozens of solo artists and ensembles at a variety of NYC venues including The Samuel Beckett Theatre, LaMama ETC, and The Joseph Papp Public Theatre.
Currently, Mr. Mitler‘s primary focus is on Theatre Group Dzieci, which he founded in 1997. He and Dzieci are profiled inWorking on the Inside: The Spiritual Life Through the Eyes of Actors by Retta Blaney, and are included in the current edition ofThe Encyclopedia of Religion.
Rebecca Sokoll is Assistant Director for Dzieci, and has been with the company since 1999. She studied movement and dance from age 3, and is on her way towards an MSW at NYU after earning an advanced degree in psychology, with a theatre minor at Hunter College. A native of Detroit, Rebecca appeared in several professional productions there, including Meadow Brook Theatre’s The Merry Wives of Windsor , and The Moon Wolf, at Ann Arbor’s Performance Network. She has become one of the leading forces in Dzieci, performing with the ensemble as well as providing meditation, movement, and vocal coaching. Rebecca and her husband, Dzieci chorusmaster John Norman, are the proud and adoring parents of Jack, who made his debut in Fools Mass at Saint John the Divine in 2004 at age 11 days, and Isaac, who has yet to perform with the group, but has high aspirations.
Megan Bones, a former Minnesotan, is proud to call New York City home. After graduating from Saint Olaf College with a BA in Theatre and Political Science, she and fellow graduates began The Gremlin Theatre Company in Minneapolis, a group dedicated to creating new works of theatre. She also taught dance and performed professionally in the percussive dance/theatre company The Flying Foot Forum. She left the Mini-Apple for the Big-Apple and was cast in many shows including the first national tour of The Music Man (Ethel) and the national tour of Crazy For You. Being a part of Dzieci has been a life changing experience for her. Striving towards personal transformation through theatre and works of service has helped fill a space left empty from experiences in professional theatre. She is grateful to be a part of this amazingly diverse, talented and dedicated group
Yvonne Brecht, the driving force behind the initial creation of Dzieci, was born and raised in Basel, Switzerland. She worked as a kindergarten teacher before moving to New York in 1994 to pursue a career in theatre. She has been a member of The Irondale Theater Ensemble whose work includes safe sex education and group-building skills based on improvisational theatre for high-risk teenagers in high schools and prisons. Yvonne is a certified Feldenkrais practitioner and runs a Music Together program for children. She has been blessed with two beautiful dzieci of her own, Yona and Ora.
Jesse Hathaway was born and reared in the fertile concrete valleys of Los Angeles. He left California for the confines of New York City to attend the Experimental Theatre Wing at NYU, where he discovered Grotowski, clowning, physical theatre, the Roy Hart vocal technique, and graduated with a BFA in Theatre. Jesse is Project Manager for Special Programs at Manhattan New Music Project, an Arts Non-Profit, and is a storyteller at a day camp during the summer. He is a member of the Rune Gild, a Freemason, and an initiated priest of the orisha Obatala in the Afro-Cuban Lukumi religion. Currently, Jesse is pursuing a PhD in Cultural Anthropology focusing in Anthropology of Religion, drawing upon a deep need to integrate the spiritual with the practical.
John Norman has been an ensemble member with Dzieci since 2000, and since 2006, also Vocal Director. He holds a BAin performing arts from Oakland University and has taught voice and acting for well over a decade. Dzieci offers him a unique opportunity to explore rituals connected with his Native American ancestry (Eastern Band Cherokee blood on both sides of his family), as well as develop his own vocal music techniques, in line with the group’s “work on the Self”. John is also a singer/songwriter with 2 EPs out on an independent label.
Golan graduated from Queens College with an interdisciplinary degree in Liberal Arts in 1997. Since then, he has successfully computerized his family’s small business, which he continues to run to this day. Golan came to Dzieci by way of clown school, and attributes his affinity for the work of Dzieci to his ongoing pursuit of understanding the human condition through clown. He believes that clown is a state of being, a vibration of the soul that we all share as humans, and struggles to find this on a daily basis. He continues the pursuit of these principles through his work in Dzieci and in Jef Johnson’s Clown Lab in New York City, both perpetual works in progress.
Zachary Koval
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Bob Strock(Music Supervisor) was born and raised in Illinois, and has a BA in Sociology from the University of Chicago, where he directed productions of Six Characters in Search of an Author and Twelfth Night. His favorite acting roles before Dzieci have been Edmund in King Lear, Pseudolus in Forum, Jack Boyle in Juno & the Paycock, Proctor in The Crucible, and Juror Number Twelve in Twelve Angry Men. He has also performed in a number of vocal and instrumental ensembles, with an emphasis on early music, and has received choral training from Frank Dillow, Bruce Tammen, and Sheila Schonbrun. Bob locates, arranges, and conveys new musical pieces for the group’s work. In the meantime he is completing a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the New School for Social Research, conducting empirical research that investigates processes underlying emotional response to music, while learning the art and craft of psychotherapy in hospitals and clinics in Brooklyn and the Bronx.
Karen Hatt (costumer) is a craft and food stylist by profession, but much happier designing and building costumes. She has created all of the costumes for Dzieci since the company’s inception in 1997, producing 17th century clerical wear for The Devils ofLoudun; 15th century idiot wear (a la Breughel) for the company’s annual Christmas offering, Fools Mass; calico and patchwork outfits, inspired by clothes of 19th century slaves and their dolls, for the group’s work with children; and the delirious Cirkus Luna! ensembles for the Dzieci’s inept acrobatic show. She continues to finesse Gypsy wear for the company’s ever-evolving Makbet, and will soon be designing the look for Ragnarok. She and her husband, company director Matt Mitler, are the masterminds behind the famous Garfield Place annual black-light puppet show in Park Slope, Brooklyn every Halloween.
Bios
“What I experienced in Dzieci, will live with me forever.”
Jordon Flato – Dzieci Alumni 2004 -2008
Matt Mitler (Director) was initially trained in Humanistic and Existential Psychology, before discovering the healing potential of theatre. He has had the good fortune to study with such masters as Jerzy Grotowski and Eugenio Barba in theatre; Carl Rogers and R. D. Laing in psychotherapy; and Jean Huston and Michel DeSaltzman in more esoteric disciplines.
Combining these pursuits, he began to lead workshops of his own design in a variety of settings including Hutchings Psychiatric Center (NY); The National Theatre School of Sweden; and the graduate school of The University of Psychology of Warsaw, where, in 1980, his essay, “Art and Therapy” was published in the anthology, New Directions in Psychotherapy.
In Europe from 1977 to 1981, Matt performed, directed, taught, and formed the international theatre collective, “The Tribe”, which presented interactive works at a variety of therapeutic institutions and was featured at Le Festival Mondial du Theatre in Nancy, France. Other festivals, which presented Mr. Mitler’s work, include: The Koln Festival, Vienna Festwochen, The International Festival of Fools, The Gaukler Festival of Mime, The International Festival of Mimes and Pantomimes (Poland), and The Theatre of Nations.
Matt appeared on numerous television programs and starred in over a dozen independent motion pictures in the 80′s before creating his own film projects. His feature film, Cracking Up, garnered a number of awards; including “Best Film” in The Venice International Film Festival Critic’s Week and the “People’s Choice Award” in The New York Underground Film Festival. Participating in the festival circuit brought him back to Europe for the first time in fifteen years, where he had the good fortune to be sponsored by The Children’s Cancer Fund of Sweden to train an ensemble of actors in clowning and therapeutic technique and lead seminars in creativity and healing at the Umea School of Medicine.
To date, Matt has designed and directed more than 70 theatrical productions; among them: his own adaptation of Nathaniel West’s Miss Lonely Hearts for the 29th Street Repertory Theatre; the critically acclaimed musical Sofrito, featuring The Latin Legends All Stars, for the New Victory Theater; and the apocalyptic epic Dirty Money (also co-author) for Teatr Am Turm in Frankfurt, Germany. He has also staged the works of dozens of solo artists and ensembles at a variety of NYC venues including The Samuel Beckett Theatre, LaMama ETC, and The Joseph Papp Public Theatre.
Currently, Mr. Mitler‘s primary focus is on Theatre Group Dzieci, which he founded in 1997. He and Dzieci are profiled inWorking on the Inside: The Spiritual Life Through the Eyes of Actors by Retta Blaney, and are included in the current edition ofThe Encyclopedia of Religion.
Jesse Hathaway was born and reared in the fertile concrete valleys of Los Angeles. He left California for the confines of New York City to attend the Experimental Theatre Wing at NYU, where he discovered Grotowski, clowning, physical theatre, the Roy Hart vocal technique, and graduated with a BFA in Theatre. Jesse is Project Manager for Special Programs at Manhattan New Music Project, an Arts Non-Profit, and is a storyteller at a day camp during the summer. He is a member of the Rune Gild, a Freemason, and an initiated priest of the orisha Obatala in the Afro-Cuban Lukumi religion. Currently, Jesse is pursuing a PhD in Cultural Anthropology focusing in Anthropology of Religion, drawing upon a deep need to integrate the spiritual with the practical.
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