Manual Cinema's CHRISTMAS CAROL at Writers Theatre

LaKecia Harris (Aunt Trudy, Puppeteer) is so excited to be making her Manual Cinema and Writers Theatre Debut. She is a native of Chicago’s Southside and attended Ball State University for her BFA in Acting. After leaving Ball State she returned to her hometown; you may have seen her most recently in The Secretaries: A Parable (First Floor Theater) or Hurricane Diane (TheaterWit). LaKecia is represented by Gray Talent Group; she is also an ensemble member of Midsommer Flight and Artistic Associate of Babes with Blades. She is grateful to her family and friends for all their love and support.

Lizi Breit (Puppeteer) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago. She has worked with Manual Cinema as a performer, designer, animator and director since 2011.

Julia Miller (Puppeteer) is a director, puppeteer, and puppet designer. With Manual Cinema she has directed Mementos Mori and The End of TV as well as created original roles in Frankenstein (The Creature/Elizabeth), Ada/Ava (Ada), Lula del Ray (Lula's Mother), The Magic City (Helen), and Hansel und Gretel (Hansel). In Chicago, she has worked as a performer and puppeteer with Redmoon Theatre and Blair Thomas and Co. She spent several years training in devised theatre, clown and mask with Double Edge Theatre, Carlos García Estevez and at the Accademia dell'Arte in Arezzo, Italy.

Jeffrey Paschal (Puppeteer) Is originally from a town called Corning in Upstate New York. In 2012 Jeff moved to Chicago to go to school at Northwestern University where he majored in Theatre. At Northwestern Jeff was involved with several theatre productions including Fabulation directed by Jerrell Henderson and Anna in the Tropics directed by Henry Godinez as well as directing and producing several short films through the school's RTVF program. Jeff graduated from Northwestern with a B.S. in Theatre in 2016. He currently lives in Chicago and is represented by Gray Talent Group.

Sarah Fornace (Puppeteer Understudy) is a director, puppeteer, choreographer, and narrative designer based in Chicago. She is a co-Artistic Director of Manual Cinema. Outside of Manual Cinema, Sarah has worked as a performer or choreographer with Redmoon Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre Company, Court Theatre, Steppenwolf Garage, and Blair Thomas and Co. Most recently, Sarah wrote the story mode for the video game Rivals of Aether. In 2017, she directed and edited the first episode of the web series, The Doula is IN. In 2016, she directed and devised an "animotion" production of Shakespeare's Hamlet with Rokoko Studios for HamletScen at Kromborg Castle in Elsinore, Denmark.

Ben Kauffman (Lead Vocals, Keys, Piano, Voice Over) is a Chicago-based composer, director, interactive media artist and co-Artistic Director of Manual Cinema. His film and interactive work has been shown at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion (Chicago), the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum (Chicago), the University of Wisconsin and CUNY’s Baruch College (NYC). He has lectured at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's MediaLab, New York University and Parsons the New School of Design. His past composer credits with Manual Cinema include Ada/Ava, The End of TV and the New York Times documentary The Forger. He holds a Master’s degree from New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP).

Kyle Vegter (Cello, Keys, Bass, Vocals, Voice Over) is a composer, producer, sound designer, and Managing Artistic Director of Manual Cinema. As a composer of concert music he’s been commissioned by such groups as The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW series, The Pacific Northwest Ballet, and TIGUE. His music and sound design for theater and film has been performed worldwide and commissioned by the New York Times, NPR’s Invisibilia, Topic (First Look Media), the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, StoryCorps, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Poetry Foundation, Hubbard Street Dance, the O, Miami Poetry Festival, and others. His past Composer/Sound Designer credits with Manual Cinema include Lula Del Ray, Ada/ Ava, FJORDS, Mementos Mori, The End of TV and various other performance and video projects. He has been an artist in residence at High Concept Laboratories, and co-founded Chicago’s only contemporary classical music cassette label Parlour Tapes+.