MIKANO FUKAYA
Performer :: Ensemble Member

received her BA from the UW drama in 2005, and has been an ensemble member for a year. She is very excited about the new season and feels very lucky to be at The Ensemble. Last season, she was in Crave, Wonderful Life, and What is Sexy?. She also enjoyed playing Jessica in This is Our Youth with Direct Flight Production and Nina in The Seagull with Seattle Novyi Theatre, which she is still continuing. Mikano works in Communications. She is thankful for everyone at The Ensemble, her close friends who trust and support her in and outside of theatre, and her family in Japan.

HEIDI GANSER
Costume Designer :: Founding Member

In addition to being a founder and co-artistic director at The Washington Ensemble Theatre, Heidi Ganser is also the Director of Production and resident costume designer.  Selected costume designs for the Ensemble include Iphigenia in Aulis, Crumbs are also Bread, Crave, BlahblahblahBANG, and The Ten Thousand Things.  Heidi is the Assistant Costume Shop Manager at the Seattle Opera as well as the resident costume design coordinator.  Her costume designs have been seen locally at The Seattle Children's Theatre (Hamlet), the Seattle Opera (Tosca), Seattle Shakespeare (Pericles, Macbeth, School for Scandal, Much Ado About Nothing), Empty Space (Stupid Kids), Book-It (Broken for You), Taproot (Arthur: The Hunt), and Strawberry Theatre Workshop (Leni). Heidi has served as costume shop manager for Empty Space and Seattle Shakespeare- where she was also the resident designer for two seasons.  She has worked as a teaching artist for The Seattle Repertory Theatre, The Seattle Children’s Theatre, and The University of Washington.  Heidi was a costume design assistant at  Saturday Night Live for the 2001 season.  She received her BA from the University of Northern Colorado in 1999 and her MFA in Costume Design from the University of Washington in 2002.

ELISE HUNT
Performer :: Ensemble Member

Elise Hunt has been a co-artistic director at Washington Ensemble Theatre since 2005. She was last seen onstage at Washington Ensemble Theatre as Iphigenia in "Iphigenia in Aulis" in May 2007. She is currently originating the role of Yew in Paul Mullins’ “The Ten Thousand Things” (May 2008) Previously at The Washington Ensemble Theatre, Elise originated the roles of Pearl and Sally in "Crumbs Are Also Bread" (February 2007), Lila in "Museum Play" (October of 2006), Ensemble in "What is Sexy?" (May 2006), Ensemble in "Wonderful Life: The Holidays on Capitol Hill" ( December 2005), and during The Ensemble's first season, Elise originated the role of Handcuff Girl in "Handcuff Girl Saves the World" ( May 2005). Elise has also appeared as Carla Carla in "Swimming in the Shallows" (Feb of 2006). Regionally, Elise has appeared as Jane “The Women” ACT Theatre , and as Cecily Cardew in “The Importance of Being Earnest” at Southcoast Repertory Theatre . Elise works in Development/Event Planning with the Washington Ensemble Theatre and is extremely excited to present The Ensemble's new season. Elise hails from beautiful Half Moon Bay, California.

MICHAEL PLACE
Performer :: Founding Member

Michael Place is a co-founder, co-artistic director, actor and carpenter at The Ensemble where he has performed in over 10 productions including Finer Noble Gases, Swimming in the Shallows, Crumbs Are Also Bread and Never Swim Alone, the later for which he received a Seattle Times Footlight Award. Elsewhere in Michael has appeared in Jun Kaneko's Madama Butterfly with Opera Omaha, Book-It Repertory Theatre in Bud, Not Buddy and The Seattle Children's Theatre in The Outsiders. He has also performed in 5 productions with the Pacific Performance Project including Myra's War and Shogo Ohta's Water Station performed at the Here Arts Center in NYC and in Four Plays on Four Ideas directed by KJ Sanchez for the National Council on Foundations. In addition to being a performer, Michael coaches Improv for Blanchet High School, is a teaching artist with Coyote Central and works in technical theatre for Holy Names Academy. Michael received his B.A. in Theatre from the University of Washington.

JESSICA TRUNDY
Lighting Designer :: Founding Member

is a Seattle - based lighting designer for theatre, dance and opera. Recent designs include Bust by Lauren Weedman at the Empty Space Theatre, Zoe Scofield's there ain't no easy way out at On The Boards, Plainsong and Little Women for Book-it Repertory Theatre, and Crumbs are also Bread, What is Sexy, and Crave with the Washington Ensemble Theatre. She is a proud founding member of The Washington Ensemble Theatre. She received her MFA from the University of Washington, and her BA from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

is a Co-Artistic Director at Washington Ensemble Theatre and holds a theatre degree from the University of California, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude. Recent directing credits include Jane Eyre for the PATP graduate program at the University of Washington School of Drama, Swimming in the Shallows at The Ensemble (which received a 2006 Seattle Times Footlight Award for Best Off-Broadway Production), Five Flights and Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls at Cornish College of the Arts.  She has also directed at Live Girls! Theater (Fission, Seattle Times 2005 Footlight Award for Best New Play), Book-It Repertory Theatre (Sosu's Call), the Mae West Fest, Freehold, Richard Hugo House, Steeplechase Productions, Seattle Shakespeare Company's "Short Shakes" program and a national tour for California Theatre Center. Katjana's training also includes the Pacific Performance Project and modern experimental performance at Lancaster University in England. She has taught at The University of Washington, Cornish College of the Arts, Pierce Community College, Seattle Shakespeare Company, California Theatre Center, the Seattle Center Academy and Eastside Preparatory School in Kirkland.  She is a staff member at Seattle Shakespeare Company and a company member of Living Voices, where she regularly tours the U.S. performing five solo shows. Katjana works administratively at The Enemble as the Director of Communications, and was recently seen onstage in The Ensemble's blahblahblahBANG (a pistol fit in one act) at On the Boards in December 2007.

BEN ZAMORA
Lighting Designer :: Ensemble Member

Ben received an MFA in Lighting Design from the University of Washington and a BA in Theatre from the University of California, Santa Cruz.  Recent designs have been seen at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, The Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, The Los Angeles Philharmonic: Walt Disney Concert Hall, DeDoelen with the Rotterdam Philharmonic in Holland, Connecticut Grand Opera, Tacoma Opera.  For the past 4 years, Ben has also designed for both The San Francisco and The Northwest Flower and Garden Shows, where each year he collaborates with fifty different garden designers on their display gardens.  NY Off Broadway credits include: Guilty at Theatre Row, and Circus Contraption's Grand American Traveling Dime Museum.  Locally in Seattle, Ben has designed for Book-It Repertory Theatre, Washington Ensemble Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company, locust, Velocity Dance Center, Pat Graney, Adele Myers, Jessica Jobaris, Maki Morinoue, Crispin Spaeth, Tonya Lockyer, Alex Martin, and various premieres at On the Boards.  Recently, Ben designed Tristan und Isolde (The Tristan Project) in collaboration with director Peter Sellars and video artist Bill Viola.