A San Francisco native, Saskia Sunshine Lane (double bass, voice, composition, ukulele) began her classical training early on with the violin and took up the bass the day she turned 11. Her musical path eventually put her on a train bound for New York City (true story), where she received her Masters Degree from The Juilliard School. Currently, Saskia tours internationally with Dan Zanes & Friends and nationally with her critically-acclaimed trio The Biddies. She can also be seen playing klezmer and other raucous styles with the Isle of Klezbos, and bluegrass heehaw with her fun-loving quartet Hey Sailor. Saskia has shared the stage with a wide variety folks, from Jay-Z and Beyonce to Marc Ribot and the Kronos Quartet. Most recently she had the pleasure of performing with Frank Ocean as part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala.
Dedicated to outreach and education, Saskia works as a Teaching Artist through Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections Program, performing in homeless shelters, hospitals, correctional facilities, and senior centers. She also teaches songwriting to underserved populations throughout New York. Additionally, you can hear her sing and play with her bandmates in the children’s program they created for CarnegieKids (known here as the Itty Biddies), now moving into it’s fifth season.
Julian Crouch is a Brooklyn-based independent director, designer, writer, maker, teacher, illustrator, and musician, whose career has spanned theatre, opera, ballet, film, and television. Initially a mask and puppet maker, with much of his life based in London, in the mid-1990’s co-founded London’s Improbable Theatre Company. Improbable’s productions, which includedAnimo, 70 Hill Lane, Lifegame, Spirit, Sticky, The Hanging Man, The Wolves in The Walls, and Panic, have gained far-reaching national and international recognition. His final production for Improbable which he conceived, directed, and designed was The Devil and Mr. Punch. Julian co-created, co-directed, and designed the multi-award winning Shockheaded Peter.
On Broadway, Julian has designed Hedwig and The Angry Inch, Big Fish The Musical and The Addams Family. Most recently Julian designed Le Petit Prince for Lausanne Opera and co-directed and designed Jedermann for the Salzburg Festival. Currently he is designing Dreigroschenoper for the Salzburg Festival. Julian was recently Artist in Residence at New York’s Park Avenue Armory and is the first commissioned artist for the BRIC House Fireworks Residency Program in Brooklyn, NY.
Julian has received a Tony Award Nomination for Best Scenic Design of a Musical for Hedwig and The Angry Inch.
When an egg cracks open and a restless paper spirit emerges, what will it become? In this 30-minute tabletop puppetry piece, Julian Crouch and Saskia Lane team up to create extraordinary beauty from ordinary objects: crumpled brown paper, found objects, shadows and a mound of sand.
World-renowned theater designer, director and puppet-maker Julian Crouch wowed audiences with Satyagraha at the Metropolitan Opera and the devilishly delightful Shockheaded Peter (1999) and Wolves in the Walls (2007) at The New Victory. He is currently represented on Broadway with his Tony-nominated scenic design for Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The multi-talented Saskia Lane livened up the New Vic with Dan Zanes & Friends Holiday House Party (2008) and she also rocks with her band, The Lascivious Biddies. Together, Julian and Saskia (who have collaborated several times before) team up to create their first project as duo puppeteers and performers.