Doorman Actors Lab

We have been working hard to produce our first show, Mud by Maria Irene Fornes. The rights are secured, the space is rented, and the director and actors are all lined up, so it looks like we just might have a show. Oh, and check out the poster! That swank number there was photographed and designed by Chelsea Aldrich. Check out her work here.

Oh and before I forget:

WARNING

Mud contains explicit language and strong sexual content

Okay. Now that that's taken care of...

Mud is being directed by Liz Lacy. Liz has been directing over at San Jacinto College South for the last couple of years. She received an award of excellence in directing from the Kennedy Center's American College Theatre Festival regional competition for San Jac's production of The Cripple of Inishmaan. She was then invited to direct Nu Shu at the Kennedy Center as part of the A.C.T.F New Works Festival. Liz is currently pursuing an M.F.A. in Design at The University of Houston. Doorman is seriously lucky to have Liz and she knows this as evidenced by her commitment to making all cast members run laps and do push-ups as punishment for backtalk and "eyeballin" her.
The Designer for Mud is Sheleigh Carmichael, head of the San Jacinto South Theatre Dept. Sheleigh has gone above and beyond in helping with the set, props, rehearsal space, and overall guidance. Doorman is forever in her debt (literally and figuratively) for all she's done.

Mud features Lydia Lara, Will Morgan, and Ricky Welch.

Lydia has been involved in the theatre from an early age, appearing in productions of The Lion King and Hercules (among others) in Mexico City and Juarez. She continued to pursue an acting career at San Jacinto College South and then earned her B.A. in Theatre at Brock University in St. Catherines ON. There, she appeared as Tituba in Arthur Miller's The Crucible In An Age of Terror, directed by Gyllian Raby. She found her way back to Houston where she is an active member of the growing theatre community. Most recently she appeared in a post-modern adaptation of the classic opera Armide, produced by Mercury Baroque at the Wortham Center and directed by Pascal Rambert. Lydia has a cat named Lilly, misses Yummy Korean BBQ in Toronto, and gets hooked into movies playing on TV if they are in the least bit interesting and then feels compelled to watch the whole thing.

Will is a Houstonian, born and raised. He studied drama at San Jacinto College South, and SUNY Purchase, finally ending up at Brock University. There he appeared in Arthur Miller's The Crucible In An Age of Terror and Paul Thompson's Border Collective. In Houston, Will has appeared in Main Street Youth Theatre's Taming of the Shrew and Lend Me a Tenor at Texas Repertory. Will has also worked with Nova Arts Project, appearing in The Bacchae and The Conduct Of Life. In 2007, Will performed a season of summer stock at the Lillian Russell theatre on the Clinton Area Showboat in Clinton, Iowa where he appeared in Guys and Dolls and You Can't Take It With You, among others. Most recently Will was featured in Armide with Mercury Baroque. Will enjoys entertainingly bad movies, being a foodie/food snob, griping about The Rockets. In his Clark Kent job he works in commercial debt collection.

Ricky Welch is a practicing Jedi. His talent on stage is only matched by his mystery. Ricky is the ultimate enigma and when he happens, there will be no survivors.

Ricky grew up in The Woodlands, Texas area where he was cast as a swindler in a Third Grade production of The Emperor's New Clothes. This pretty much sums up his theatre career. He has continued to con and connive his way into roles and the spotlight as much as he can. His next role was in Fourth Grade where a co-”actress” skipped his cue line in a production of some show (tittle forgotten) about the history of Texas. Ricky was allowed to give his line, after much crying and caterwauling to the audience from center stage. The crowd erupted with hearty applause and Ricky was hooked. He went on to work with many Houston area theatre groups including Woodlands Community Theatre, Dramatic Fury, Actor's Workshop, Actor's Theatre of Houston, Three Legged Dog, Houston House, Diverse Works, Curtains!, Chocolate Bayou Theater, Theatre Collide, Gray Wolf Theatre, Country Playhouse, Stage Door Inc., Mercury Baroque and Ornery Theatre. A few of Ricky's favorite roles have been Athos in The Three Musketeers, the Matron in Women Behind Bars , Polonius in Hamlet, various roles in The Laramie Project, various roles in Danton's Death, Lamar in Godspell and junky Jerry in Strange Attractors. He was last seen in Company On Stage's version of The Little Mermaid as the Sea King. Ricky has performed as a vocalist practically every style of music known. (Maybe not every style, like Tuvan Throat Singing but a lot. He has tried to chant like the Gyuto Monks and doesn't think he vibrated his skull enough to cause any real damage. You can decide.) He achieved very moderate success with the bands Bag Of Tricks, Spontaneous Combustion, Maverick Chinamen, The Mushroom Tribe, Static Ecstasy and The Good Luck Band. Ricky was also the Co-Host, with ex-wife actress Leighza Walker of the sex and relationship radio talk show Hot and Bothered Radio for 4 years before being canceled due to being too risque. (Something about bestiality gets folks all antsy!) Ricky resides in the Oak Forest area of Houston and spends his time managing a candy store, playing guitar (poorly, he says) and entertaining his four children Clarity(18), Chloe(15), Cassidy(11) and Rider(8). Lastly Ricky is a practicing Jedi. (He has actually been to Skywalker Ranch and eaten lunch in the same room with George Lucas. He is also still very sad he didn't lunge at him and profess that he needed Ricky as a creature for his Star Wars saga but he was a good boy and did as he was told.) His talent on stage is only matched by his mystery. Ricky is the ultimate mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma and when he happens, there will be no survivors!