Bob Balaban is an actor, author, comedian, director and producer. He was one of the producers nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for Gosford Park (2001), in which he also appeared.
Bob is best known for his appearances in the Christopher Guest comedies Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), and For Your Consideration (2006) and in the Wes Anderson films Moonrise Kingdom (2012), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Isle of Dogs (2018) and The French Dispatch (2021). Some of Bob’s other film roles include the drama Midnight Cowboy (1969); the science fiction films Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Altered States (1980), 2010 (1984), the comedy Deconstructing Harry (1997), and the historical drama Capote (2005).
Bob has directed three feature films, in addition to numerous television episodes and films. He is also an author of children’s novels.
Christian Camargo is well known for his pivotal roles in such films as The Hurt Locker, Twilight and National Treasure: Book of Secrets as well TV shows such as Dexter, Penny Dreadful and Apple TV’s See.
Christian wrote and directed Days and Nights, a modern retelling of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, starring Allison Janney, Mark Rylance, Katie Holmes, William Hurt, Ben Whishaw and Jean Reno.
Christian’s New York theater work includes title roles in the Public Theater’s Kit Marlowe, Theater For A New Audience’s Coriolanus, Pericles and Hamlet, for which he received Obie and Drama League nominations. Other theater credits include Steve Martin’s Underpants at Classic Stage Company, and Arthur Miller’s All My Sons on Broadway.
Christian also portrayed Orlando in The Bridge Project’s presentation of Shakespeare’s As You Like It and The Tempest both directed by Sam Mendes.
He portrayed Mercutio in the 2013 Broadway revival of Romeo and Juliet, directed by David Leveaux.
Christian also portrayed a mid-career Robert Evans in Simon McBurney’s stage adaptation of The Kid Stays in the Picture, staged in London’s Royal Court
Theatre.
After receiving his commission at West Point, Jeff cut his teeth as a tank, scout, and support platoon leader in Baghdad and Germany. He then took command of the best damn tank outfit this side of the Imjin River- Demon Company, 2-9 Infantry. His last assignment was in the Asymmetric Warfare Group. He has a Master’s degree in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia, and is currently the Deputy Director of the Operations Research Center (ORCEN) in the Department of Systems Engineering at West Point conducting research in support of the DoD and Army. His weekend passions are his family, his guitar, and his long trail run. To this day Jeff remains a NY Mets fan, which says more about him than anything else
Denver Dill is a member of the West Point Band and an instructor of American Politics at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York. He has developed the course SS493 Music & Influence which he teaches in the Department of Social Sciences. He also serves as a co-founder and researcher in the West Point Music Research Center and as the Army Music Analytics Team Leader. He has taught and assisted in several departments including the Department of Mathematical Sciences, Department of Systems Engineering, Department of English and Philosophy as well as with the Army Cyber Institute. As a trumpet player, Denver has been a prize winner in several national and international competitions. Additionally, Denver has appeared as both a soloist and a principal trumpet player with the New York Philharmonic and has performed with the Metropolitan Opera Brass. Prior to coming to West Point Denver was a doctoral teaching assistant at the Eastman School of Music. He holds degrees from Juilliard and Eastern Kentucky University and holds certifications in: Lean Six Sigma, Security+, and Influence in Special Operations.
Denver is co-editor of the new book Ears of the Elephant – Sound, Music & Influence which is slated to be released Fall of 2022.
Jeremy Kareken was born and raised in Rochester, NY, and graduated from the University of Chicago and the Actors Studio Drama School. For almost 20 years he worked for Inside the Actors Studio, where he was the researcher, the Associate Producer and Producer. For two presidential campaigns he served as a writer and policy analyst for Gary Johnson. Jeremy also works as a writing teacher and consultant.
With David Murrell, Jeremy co-wrote the Broadway hit The Lifespan of a Fact starring Daniel Radcliffe, Cherry Jones and Bobby Cannavale and received the 2019 John Gassner Award for New Plays from the Outer Critics Circle. Jeremy’s awards include the EST Next Step Fellowship, the Walter Dakin Fellowship at the Sewanee Writers Conference, the Hamptons Film Festival’s screenwriting conference, the Playwrights Center/Guthrie Theater’s Two-Headed challenge, and the 25th Annual Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Awards.
Jonathan Leaf is a playwright, screenwriter, author and journalist based out of New York City. He is the writer of the off-Broadway play The Caterers, which was nominated for Best Full-Length Original Script of 2005-2006 in the Innovative Theater Awards. Jonathan’s The Germans In Paris was the highest rated show in New York according to audience surveys on the Theatermania website. Jonathan has written both about the arts and culture for such publications as The Weekly Standard, The New York Sun, The New Yorker, The New York Post, The New York Daily News, The American and National Review. Jonathan has also been a contributor and editor at the Web journal New Partisan, and he has written for The New York Press, where he served as the Arts editor. Jonathan’s recent dramatic play “Pushkin,” premiered at New York’s Sheen Center in the summer of 2018. The Wall Street Journal’s Terry Teachout called it ‘one of the best new plays to open in New York in recent memory.’ The National Association of Scholars President Peter Wood, in a review, wrote that it was ‘an extraordinary achievement…Leaf has created a work that will stand the test of time.’ Teachout subsequently named the play one of his four best new plays of 2018.
Rob Long received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations in 1992 and 1993 as executive producer for the long-running television program Cheers. He also created the television show George and Leo, among others. In addition to his television work, Rob Long is a contributing editor for National Review, as well as a contributor to TIME, Newsweek International, The Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times. He hosts the syndicated weekly radio commentary Martini Shot and is the co-founder of the Ricochet podcast network. Rob received an award from the Writers Guild of America, and is on the board of directors of The American Cinema Foundation, a non-profit arts organization created to nurture and reward television and feature-film projects. His published works include Conversations with My Agent and Set Up, Joke, Set Up, Joke.
Gary Mintz earned his undergraduate degree from California State University at Northridge, and a Master of the Fine Arts in Theatre Design and Technology from California Institute of the Arts. Early in his career he worked for touring dance and music companies including Pilobolus, Merce Cunningham Dance Co., Meredith Monk and Phillip Glass, touring the world as variously, lighting designer, production manager, stage manager and audio engineer. Later he retired from touring and became the technical director for the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza which hosted touring acts ranging from Tony Bennett and Neil Sedaka to Jethro Tull, Crosby Stills and Nash, and many others.
Gary has taught lighting design at California Lutheran University and Pepperdine University.
He has literally hundreds of lighting design credits ranging from Merce Cunningham Dance Company “Events” to Trojan Women.
Gary is one of the founders of the Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival now in its 26th year.