Company
Mother Road Theatre Company currently comprises of a core of six highly trained, imaginatively creative and supremely motivated individuals. Collectively as dramatists, they share 228 years of experience in all aspects of theatrical production, including performing, directing and design.
Kristín Hansen
Co-Executive Director, Email
Kristín began her career path in the performing arts by attending the University of Massachusetts in 1988 as a theatre major. She transferred to the University of New Mexico in 1990, where she continued her studies. In 1993 she was among 3 undergraduate students chosen to travel to New York City and perform in the premiere of Kestutis Nakas’ JACK RUBY SLIPPERS at the Ohio Theatre in Manhattan. She graduated with a B.A. in Theatre Arts in 1994. A year after graduation, she moved to Budapest, Hungary, where she joined the English Theatre Company as an actor in 1996. In 1998, she took over as co-executive producer/artistic director. In this capacity, she not only performed, but also secured reputable venues, technical staff, and promoted the shows. She also helped to maintain and create new funding sources with major international corporate sponsors such as Andersen Consulting, Clifford Chance, Moquet Borde Dieux, and Healey and Baker, among others.
Moving back to the states in the early summer of 2000, she traveled up to Minneapolis, MN and Winnipeg, Canada to perform in their fringe festivals with a group of Albuquerque actors. Not long after, she joined forces with Tricklock Company. She first acted as director for the international tour of their original play, In Between in the fall of 2000. In January 2001 she became a resident member of Tricklock Company. In 2002, she, along with 3 other Tricklock cast members, was invited to perform Crave, by Sarah Kane at the Prague Quadrennial, one of Europe’s largest international theatre festivals. During her tenure with Tricklock, Kristín was not only an actor, but fully participated in the creation of original shows, such as THE GLORIOUS AND BLOODTHIRSTY BILLY THE KID. She was one of the producers of the Revolutions International Theatre Festival for its first four years, and a trainer, producer and director for The Manoa Project, Tricklock’s teen outreach program. Other aspects of the company’s success she was involved in included finding and maintaining sponsorships, tour manager, foreign guest artist liaison, and donor relations. Throughout this time she took master classes with internationally renowned artists such as Daniel Stein (Dell Arte School, California), Gardzienice Theatre Company (Poland) and Mariana Sadowska (Ukraine).
Kristín left Tricklock Company in the fall of 2004 to pursue new adventures in theatre. She has since performed in several productions with Fusion Theatre Company at The Cell and now very happily calls Mother Road Theatre Company her home. Other non-theatrical endeavors of Kristín’s include film and commercial work, and being a member of the training and organizational learning team of a non-profit that supports individuals with developmental disabilities. She is also the vice-president of a company that lends training support to law enforcement agencies and mental health entities in crisis intervention and crisis negotiation in NM, CO, and MN.
Julia Thudium
Company Artistic Director, Email
A confirmed army brat, Julia Thudium has been an actress since age 11, performing at Army bases across the United States. She has honed her skills through a variety of mediums, from tumbling to improvisation, from combat to clowning. The last occurring with the famous RINGLING BROS. AND BARNUM & BAILEY CIRCUS, which she joined in 1989 as a member of the famous Clown Alley after graduating with 2 BFA’s: a Bachelor of Fine Arts from The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago, and a Bachelor of “Fun” Arts at the RBB&B Clown College in Venice, Florida.
After a 2 year stint riding the rails with the circus, Julia headed for Chicago where she performed all over the Chicagoland and Regional Midwest, earning her Actors Equity card as well as her Screen Actors Guild membership in 1992. It was in Chicago where Julia branched out from performing, to working with Playwrights to develop scripts, and learning the art of Directing from some of Chicago’s finest directing talents. She also collaborated with modern dancers and choreographers, culminating in a yearly program of original material crossing the boundaries of theatre performance and dance to create THE CITY SIDESHOW.
Her ability to imagine and invent spectacle led her to a job offer in NYC, where she became a producer and learned to apply the art of Theatre to the Science of Communication through large staged events and business theatre. She worked for several production companies focused on the corporate world, all while improv’ing her way around the greater NYC area. In 1999 she decided to “head for the hills” literally, and moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico as a freelance producer. Since then her work has taken her all over the world, producing corporate events for many of this country’s top Fortune 100 companies. She recently incorporated, and is now doing business as Thudium, Inc.
Since moving to Albuquerque she has also been active in the Theatre and Film scene, performing both onstage and in front of the camera. Bringing together her artistic abilities with her skills as a producer, she is the “Chief Instigator” of The Mother Road Theatre Company, a professional regional company dedicated to promoting the arts in New Mexico through education and high standards of performance.
* Member Actors’ Equity Association
Justin Tade
Company Member, Email
Justin started acting in community theatre in his hometown, Bloomfield, Iowa. After acting in high school and a little gorilla theatre work at the University of Iowa, he took a break from acting – for almost fifteen years.
After spending seven years in the Army Judge Advocate Generals’ Corps, and a six- month deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, Justin settled in Albuquerque and rediscovered his love of acting when he co-starred in the History Channel’s “Taming the Wild West – The Legend of Jedediah Smith” in 2003. Since then, he has appeared in numerous independent productions, films, and television shows including “Sex & Lies in Sin City” (Lifetime Television), “The Real Cowboys” (History Channel), “Seraphim Falls”, “Book of Eli”, “In Plain Sight”, “Fugue State”, and the upcoming “Righteous and the Wicked”.
Justin supplements his acting pursuits as a freelance writer for Trail Runner Magazine. His feature articles include stories about running the Pikes Peak Marathon, running across the Grand Canyon, and running trails in Hawaii. His short story, “Elvis Calling” was ranked number eighteen out of over 2,300 entries in the Writers Digest 73rd Annual Writing Competition and his writing has been selected for numerous other short fiction contests.
When not writing or acting, Justin is an adviser to the United States Department of the Interior where he focuses on issues involving endangered species and National Wildlife Refuges in Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. He has also served as an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law and the Art Center Design College where he taught American History and Public Communications.
Sag member.
Chris Gonzales
Company Member, Email
Bio to come.
Vic Browder
Company Production Manager, Email
Vic has been involved in almost every aspect of the theatre for the last 20 years. As early as Jr. high and high school in Las Vegas, Nevada, Vic was an actor, director, set, and lighting designer.
Southern Utah University was Vic’s next stop. While attending SUU Vic acted in over 30 plays, with both the Utah Shakespeare Festival and the university. He directed 4 main stage productions and co-founded Stage 2 Productions, a student production company. Vic received his BFA from SUU in 1997 with an emphasis in acting and directing. He continued his education at Florida State University Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training in Sarasota, where he was trained by some of the country’s best acting teachers such as Jose Quintero and Jim Wise. Vic also trained in London through an exchange program supported by FSU, studying with members of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Theatre Complicite. He was issued his MFA From FSU A solo Conservatory in 2000.
Immediately following graduation, Vic went to teach and direct at Perry Mansfield School and Performing Arts Camp in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. In 2001, he returned to Southern Utah University to teach Acting 1 & 2 and Introduction to Theatre. 2001 was also the year Vic came to call Albuquerque home. Not wasting any time getting involved in the local community theatre scene, Vic acted, directed, designed, and ultimately became President of the board of directors at the Vortex Theatre. Vic remained with the Vortex until 2004 when he was offered a position at Fusion Theatre Company as Company Manager, and a member of the acting ensemble. He was also the project manager for Zygote Pro Creations (a local production company) and facility director for the Cell Theatre.
Currently, Vic is running his own massage therapy business. He is a respected acting coach to local actors, and in demand as a performer in the state’s growing film industry. His main area of focus is the newest professional theatre in New Mexico, Mother Road Theatre Company, of which he is a founding member. Vic has memberships in Actors Equity Association and the Screen Actors Guild and has high hopes for the performing arts in New Mexico.
* Member Actors’ Equity Association
Laura Brunette
Company Sound Designer, Email
Bio to come.
Mandie Harms
Company Stage Manager, Email
Upon her graduation from Oklahoma City University and return to Albuquerque, Mandie was thrilled to find a thriving theatre community. She has joined the ranks of companies across the city, most recently as stage manager for The Beauty Queen of Leenane with Mother Road, and Landmark Musicals’ productions of Pippin and The Fantasticks. She is honored by this opportunity to work with Mother Road Theatre Company and a supremely talented cast.
David Sinkus
Director of Education, Email
David brings over 20 years experience in the theatre and arts education to Mother Road. David served as Master Teacher Artist with ROUNDABOUT THEATRE COMPANY in New York City, where he collaborated with classroom teachers in NYC public high schools to develop and implement academically and theatrically integrated curriculum projects, as well as created and presented professional development for classroom teachers. He was the Project Coordinator for the Brooklyn School of Music and Theatre, one of ROUNDABOUT’S high schools, coordinating all aspects of the performance schedule and creating curriculum to parallel that schedule. David also worked on the design and presentation team who received a $400,000 grant from New Visions and The Bill Gates Foundation to create and open Manhattan Theatre Lab, the third of ROUNDABOUT THEATRE COMPANY’S academic and theatrically integrated project-based high schools. Also in NYC, David designed and taught residencies for LINCOLN CENTER THEATRE.
During his years in Chicago, David served as a teaching artist and director for FREE STREET PROGRAMS, a community-arts-based organization. There he directed the internationally recognized TeenStreet companies, taking an ensemble of youth through the intense process of creating and then touring an original, boundary-breaking theatre piece. David founded and led THE THEATRE COLLECTIVE, a Chicago off-loop theatre company. Also, he and his company represented the State of Illinois at the American Alliance of Theatre and Education’s national conference with THE FOUR GIFTS, an adaptation of Native American folk tales. During this time he was instrumental in the creation of Chicago’s annual off-loop theatre festival. Other education experience includes THE NEW VICTORY THEATRE, PLAYWRIGHT’S THEATRE OF NEW JERSEY, MAD RIVER THEATRE WORKS, THE NEW YORK and NEW JERSEY YOUNG PLAYWRIGHT’S FESTIVALS, IMAGINATION THEATRE and URBAN GATEWAYS.
As a professional actor, David performed in the original Off-Broadway cast of JOHNNY GUITAR. In addition, he toured Italy, Lebanon and Japan in the LA SCALA OPERA’s production of WEST SIDE STORY. David has performed in regional theatres all over the country. He also has extensive youth theatre experience having toured schools in many states with MAD RIVER THEATREWORKS, URBAN GATEWAYS and AMERICAN EAGLE PRODUCTIONS. David is also an accomplished musician playing the trombone and guitar in many productions and bands.
David is currently teaching as adjunct faculty in the theatre department at The University of New Mexico and will be serving as the Director of Education for Mother Road. Most importantly, David is a proud new dad to his 18-month-old son Owen John.
* Member Actors’ Equity Association
Tom Schuch
Director of Marketing, Email
Tom Schuch, a New Mexico native, sees in the birth of the Mother Road Theatre Company a necessary and exciting artistic collaboration with an eclectic group of accomplished theatrical artists and a vision of an on-going entrepreneurial adventure.
He sees this gathering of artists in many ways to be prophetic, but also its essence and mission to be truly genuine. What brought Tom to this group is simple. He is one of the members, like the others, brought together for one purpose—-to produce and create great theatre. He brings to this tribe a life of experience spanning not only years of acting and producing theatre and educational programs but also a thorough background in business. From the first time he stepped on the boards in junior high to his current position with MRTC, Tom has dedicated his life to the pursuit of entrepreneurial enterprise and artistic excellence.
Tom has appeared in numerous films including BLOOD (THINNER THAN WATER) written and directed by Alan Arkin, $5 A DAY with Christopher Walken, MALL COP, DOUBTING THOMAS, the television series IN PLAIN SIGHT & WILDFIRE, a variety of national commercials and more than 60 plays. Tom began his training at the University of Washington, a national leader in theater training, and over the years studied at the Harvey Lembeck Comedy Improv Workshop in Los Angeles and helped found the performance groups SURELY YOU JEST Comedy Improv Troupe and SHAKESPEARE-ON-THE-HALFSHELL.
Finally, while working along side the MRTC founders to create a vibrant theatre company, he served as a three-term president of the NM Branch of Screen Actors Guild, and is a member of Actor’s Equity Association and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. Through his company, Spoli Productions International, LLC, Tom performs and produces his international tour of the one-man show EINSTEIN: A STAGE PORTRAIT by Willard Simms, produces Alan Arkin’s workshop Crossing the Chasm from Theatre to Life: A Forum in Improvisation, and is launching an online performing arts magazine, Spoli Arts Beat, in the fall of 2010.
* Member Actors’ Equity Association
Morse Bicknell
Subscriber Liason, Email
Morse Bicknell brings a wide variety of life experiences to his work in theater. Fascinated with languages from an early age, Morse taught himself German as a teenager and later served as a Russian linguist in the US Army, intercepting Soviet radio communications in the waning days of the Cold War. Upon returning home from his listening post in Germany, Morse took time off to indulge his passion for music, teaching guitar lessons in a music store and playing guitar and singing in nightclubs in a noisy cover band. He then earned a degree in Philosophy/English. Changing course yet again, he worked for three years as an EMT and paramedic on an ambulance, learning Spanish along the way so he could communicate with Hispanic patients.
Though he has enjoyed all his different undertakings, he feels he has found his greatest passion in theater. He was introduced to theater when, on a whim, he took Paul Ford’s wonderful Foundations of Acting class at UNM. More classes followed, and soon Morse had earned a B.A. in Theater with a Music Minor. He has since appeared in productions at nearly every theater in Albuquerque, joining the Albuquerque Theatre Guild and performing a wide variety of classic and contemporary roles. More recently, he has done television and film work as a member of the Screen Actors Guild.
Morse is delighted and honored to be a member of Mother Road Theatre Company. He is thrilled to work side by side with some of the best actors, directors and designers around, and looks forward to many more exciting artistic adventures with “The Muthas!”
