Eli West is an American Roots musician from the Pacific Northwest. A multi-instrumental creator of sonic spaces, Eli’s former training as a designer informs a sound that is lush and organic – neither manicured nor overgrown. Evergreen timbres weave among pitches, rhythms and lyrics to become comfortable rooms into which listeners are invited.
Lauded by Tim O’brien as a musician “making music the World needs,” Eli’s reputation as a crafter of considered, toneful environments has fostered collaborations with Bill Frisell, Andrew Marlin, John Reishchman, Julie Fowlis, and many other pillars of the growing Americana movement.

“Making music the world needs.” – Tim O’Brien

Sophia Franzella is a teaching artist and professional actor working in the Seattle area. After 11 years of classical ballet training, she decided to transition into the world of Theatre at the age of 14. After falling in love with Theatre in high school, Sophia earned her BFA in Theatre Arts from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas in 2013. She is also a 2014 graduate of A Working Group (a Meisner-technique acting program). Sophia has taught acting and dance throughout Seattle over the past 10 years (Lakeside Middle School, Village Theatre KIDSTAGE, Sing Out Seattle, STG, Mode Music, Coyote, 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle Rep, Taproot Theatre). Sophia also offers private lessons for audition preparation! When she is not teaching, Sophia works as a professional actor in Seattle. She is a co-founder and company member of the theatre lab Filament: A Collab Lab for which she often choreographs and directs. She is also a Pony World Theatre company member. Sophia also enjoys hiking with friends, reading, watching spooky movies, and learning new subjects!

Claire Marx currently teaches ensemble singing, cabaret, and private voice at Cornish. She has also music directed Cornish productions of Chicago, Secret in the Wings, Xanadu, and James and the Giant Peach. She has also worked as assistant choreographer/director for Sister Act and Singing in the Rain. She and Rich will be teaming up to work on The Theory of Relativity this fall. She has also taught at Village Theatre, The Evergreen School, Redmond Academy, The Meridian School, and many locations with Seattle Public Schools. Recent local stage credits include: Hairspray at Village Theatre, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at Seattle Children's Theatre, The Bishop's Wife at Taproot Theatre Co., The Odyssey educational tour with Book-It, Romeo and Juliet with Seattle Shakespeare, and a handful of new musical workshops at the Seattle Rep.

Rico is a Florida native who recently relocated to Seattle where he was featured in Newsies as Racetrack at Village Theatre and has also been seen in The Pajama Game (Centerstage), Jesus Christ Superstar (Tacoma Little Theatre), Tarzan (Kitsap Forest Theater), Big Fish (Bainbridge Performing Arts), and The Toxic Avenger (Burien Actors Theatre). Before the move, Rico co-hosted SeaWorld Kid’s Generation Nature LIVE with Bindi Irwin, understudied productions at Orlando Shakes including Peter and the Starcatcher, and was a stilt-walker at Walt Disney World. He is a tap instructor, choreographer, teaching artist, and musician. BFA – University of Central Florida. 

Bradley Taylor is a Seattle based artist, and printmaker. He is currently working at Cornish College of the Arts as the Printmaking Studio Technician. Proficient in all forms of printmaking Bradley specializes in woodblock prints. His work has been shown in numerous galleries in the Seattle area. He has also work collaboratively with many notable Seattle Artists.

Geoffrey Alm has been teaching Stage Fighting at Cornish since 2008. A Certified Teacher with The Society of American Fight Directors since 1987, he is also a Certified Fight Director and Fight Master. Professionally he has been choreographing fights since 1988, locally and Nationally. He’s a proud member of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Actors Equity, and SAG-AFTRA.

Dan D. Shafer is a graphic designer, artist, and educator living and working in Seattle. He owns Dandy Co., a graphic design studio specializing in book design, installation, and environmental design (as well as event promotion and branding). The studio's clients include Kronos Quartet, American Cancer Society, Salish Lodge, Herman Miller, and Pratt Fine Arts Center.

Shafer is also the creative director at Chin Music Press. His self-initiated social practice installations explore the nebulous territory that exists between traditional definitions of "art" and "design," and investigate how people interact with objects in their everyday lives.

Winifred Westergard is a Seattle based fine art and commercial photographer with degrees from the University of Washington and Cornish College of the Arts in Creative Writing, Journalism and Art. Her art making foundation is rooted in the early processes of photography, fully embracing the slow processes of 19th century photography. She is a visual creator with a strong base on human emotion and storytelling. She has managed the photography studio at Cornish College of the Arts since 1999 and has taught Photography and Portfolio Development through Summer@Cornish since 2003.

Brian is a musician who has worked with Jonny Copeland, Bobby Radcliffe, Bunny Domino and others.  He was a founding member of BBQ Bob and the Spare Ribs and produced their first recording.  He came to woodworking by experimenting with a more ergonomic design for basses to alleviate periodic bouts of tendonitis.  

He learned the basics of woodworking from master carpenter Joe Guida (Guida Woodworks, Flagstaff, AZ,) during the course of building his first prototype.  Since then, he improved his skill by trial and error and getting advice from the master wood workers at IsGood WoodWorks and Ballard Woodworking.  In 2020, he started Miller Basses and produces about three uniquely designed basses each year.  

David Taft was a Theater Professor at Cornish College of the Arts for 24 years and developed clown study coursework taken from his own training and performance experience. He curated the annual Clown Show at the Cornish Playhouse and currently is a movement consultant for stage and screen. His website and resume can be found at: david-taft.com

Winifred Westergard is a Seattle based fine art and commercial photographer with degrees from the University of Washington and Cornish College of the Arts in Creative Writing, Journalism and Art. Her art making foundation is rooted in the early processes of photography, fully embracing the slow processes of 19th century photography. She is a visual creator with a strong base on human emotion and storytelling. She has managed the photography studio at Cornish College of the Arts since 1999 and has taught Photography and Portfolio Development through Summer@Cornish since 2003.

Tory Franklin is a visual artist working with diverse media unified by pattern, print, and narrative. Since 2010, Franklin has focused on public installations inspired by folktales that are accompanied by screen-printed books, posters, and other ephemera. Her work has been exhibited at MAD Art, Bellevue City Hall, Storefronts Seattle, Storefronts Auburn, Spaceworks Tacoma, the Renton Arts Commission, Arts-A-Glow festival, Portland Winter Light Festival, the VERA Project, and 826 Seattle. She has received a Seattle Office of Arts & Culture City Artists project grant, a 4Culture project grant, and an Artist Trust GAP grant for these projects. In 2015, Franklin created her first permanent window piece with her sister, Eroyn Franklin, for Harborview Medical Center, and is currently working on SoundTransit’s Star Lake light rail station in Kent slated to open in 2024.

Nicole is an actor, singer, dancer, choreographer, teacher, visual artist, wife to Josh and mother to Max and Huxley. Nicole has lived and worked on both coasts, loves to create, garden, and do construction! On screen, Nicole has been seen in Nike, LG, and T-Mobile commercials. On stage in Adrift (Sam French Festival), Big Effing Deal! (Duet with Reggie Watts), Cabaret (Gregory Award Nominee), Mary Poppins, Annie, Bye Bye Birdie, How to Succeed, Once Upon A Time in New Jersey and many Village Originals (Village Theatre), The Constant Wife (Seattle Rep), Cabaret (5th Ave, AMTSJ, Ordway Center), Wonderful Town (5th Ave), Ming the Rude (Empty Space), Elephant and Piggie, Fire Station 7, Sleeping Beauty (SCT), Tapestry (Oregon Cabaret Theatre), and many more. As a choreographer and dancer Nicole had the honor of working with Sonya Tayeh and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival with running the dance call for the original production of Head Over Heals. In New York, Nicole’s work has been seen at the HERE Center, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Clubbed Thumb, Astoria Performing Arts, The Management and Acting Manitou. In Seattle, at KIDSTAGE, Cornish, Oregon Cabaret Theatre, The Triple Door, Café Nordo, Seattle Children’s Theatre, Fantastic Z, and Art Institute of Seattle. Nicole is currently teaching at Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle Film institute, and Westlake Dance Center. She has also taught at UW, Art Institute of Seattle, Hunter College High School, VAM Studios, 5th Avenue, Century Ballroom, McCarter Theatre Company, Jersey City Dance Academy, and The Studios. Nicole holds a BFA from Cornish College of the Arts, is a certified Simonson Technique teacher and a member of Actors’ Equity.

Seattle fiddler Ruthie Dornfeld’s vibrant, expressive playing is voiced in a wide range of traditional fiddle styles, from Celtic, American Old-Time, and French Canadian, Scandinavian, and Eastern European. She has performed and taught widely throughout the US, Europe, and South America. During her 15 year sojourn in New England, Ruthie studied at Berklee College of Music, was a member of the twin fiddle stringband The Poodles, the bluegrass band Boston City Limits, the Hungarian band The Pulis, was a mainstay on the contra dance circuit, and toured Europe with tapdancer Ira Bernstein and with the Copenhagen-based American Cafe Orchestra. Since returning to the Pacific Northwest in 1996, she has been a member of the French cabaret group Rouge, performs with guitar master John Miller, with the quintet Tangoheart, and for local contra and English dancing.

Born and raised in Seattle, after high school, Nikki moved to California to attend college, receiving a BFA in Film Production in2002 from Chapman University. For the next 6 years she worked various office jobs in the film industry while also earning a Masters Degree in Secondary Education. In 2006 Nikki decided to shift her career to special effects make-up from there segueing into the stop motion world, beginning in 2008 with Shadow Machine on the Adult Swim hit show, Robot Chicken: Season 3. Nikki has worked as a puppet fabricator, lead fabricator and department head on numerous stop motion television shows, commercials and films, helping create iconic stop motion characters for such shows/films as Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas, Happy Honda Days (SoCal regional commercial campaign 12 years running), Ask the Story Bots, Buddy Thunderstruck, Anomolisa and Ted Lasso to name a few. In 2022, the next adventure brought Nikki back home to Seattle to be closer to family and to hang out her own shingle as Puppets Northwest, offering a one stop shop for puppets of all kinds, SFX, 3D modeling/printing and educational outreach.

Dan D. Shafer is a graphic designer, artist, and educator living and working in Seattle. He owns Dandy Co., a graphic design studio specializing in book design, installation, and environmental design (as well as event promotion and branding). The studio's clients include Kronos Quartet, American Cancer Society, Salish Lodge, Herman Miller, and Pratt Fine Arts Center.

Shafer is also the creative director at Chin Music Press. His self-initiated social practice installations explore the nebulous territory that exists between traditional definitions of "art" and "design," and investigate how people interact with objects in their everyday lives.

Born and raised in Seattle, after high school, Nikki moved to California to attend college, receiving a BFA in Film Production in2002 from Chapman University. For the next 6 years she worked various office jobs in the film industry while also earning a Masters Degree in Secondary Education. In 2006 Nikki decided to shift her career to special effects make-up from there segueing into the stop motion world, beginning in 2008 with Shadow Machine on the Adult Swim hit show, Robot Chicken: Season 3. Nikki has worked as a puppet fabricator, lead fabricator and department head on numerous stop motion television shows, commercials and films, helping create iconic stop motion characters for such shows/films as Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas, Happy Honda Days (SoCal regional commercial campaign 12 years running), Ask the Story Bots, Buddy Thunderstruck, Anomolisa and Ted Lasso to name a few. In 2022, the next adventure brought Nikki back home to Seattle to be closer to family and to hang out her own shingle as Puppets Northwest, offering a one stop shop for puppets of all kinds, SFX, 3D modeling/printing and educational outreach.

Alia Swersky is a movement artist, performer and educator deeply engaged in dance improvisation, durational time-based art, film, site-specific work, and environmental installation. She is an artist and an educator with degrees from Cornish College of the Arts and an MFA in dance from the University of Washington.

Her artistic path over the last two decades has been shaped by this yearning for deep and meaningful connections with people and places. As a co-creator, ritual maker, and a “horizontal” director, Alia seeks to touch others through dance, somatic presence, vulnerability, and fierceness. Her work ranges from full audience participation to intimate acts of One-to-One performances, site-specific dances for film and live performance, as well as durational time-based art that includes physical acts of endurance, repetition, stillness, subtlety, singing, soft energetic grace, abstraction, caricature, and a deconstruction of clichés such as extreme high femme expressions. Her teaching and art-making seek to create practices that embrace endurance on stage and in life as acts of resistance, resilience, release, and beauty. 

As a performer, Alia has also toured nationally and internationally as a member of the LeGendre Performance Group and has performed in the works with many Seattle artists, some of which include The Maureen Whiting Company, Khambatta Dance Company, Jurg Koch, KT Niehoff, and Salt Horse.

As an educator, she has taught at Cornish College of the Arts for sixteen years and in the Seattle community at Velocity’s Strictly Seattle Festival, and the Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation (SFDI). She was a long time Co-artistic director of Dance Art Group (DAG), a non-profit organization that promotes the practice and appreciation of dance and somatic education in the Seattle area, including the Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation.