Ellen Brooks has performed classical Japanese Kyogen with Theatre of Yugen since 1987, training and touring with Artistic Director Yuriko Doi and other Japanese Masters. She has appeared with Akira Matsui of Kita Noh in his American production of Beckett's Rockabye and with Ms. Doi, kaz Tanahashi (Brush) and Yukihiro ito (Shintaido) at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago as well as in the company's fusion productions of Noh Christmas Carol, Elephant, The Dressing Room and Inugami, The Dog-faced Boy. As a solo artist she has performed for both the Yuki Teiki Haiku Society of California (Internment of the Heart, Saigyo, The Ancient) and Natica Angilly's Peoetic Dance Theatre. Ms. Brooks teaches Kyogen for the American School of Japanese Arts and in college workshops. She was recently movement director for Lamplighter's 2001 production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado.

In other realms, recent roles include the Wife of Bath in Geoffrey Chaucer & Company's Wife of Bath - The Musical, and Claudius in Hamlet by Woman's Will. Ms. Brooks' stage direction has been seen throughout California, and as a lighting designer, she is in demand with Bay Area producers and has over one hundred and twenty production credits in theatre and dance. Ms. Brooks founded the West Coast Conference for Women's Theatre and hold a Masters in Theatre from San Francisco State University.

Taiko player Tracy Bush spent the last four of her seven years in Japan
performing throughout the country and internationally as the sole foreign member
of groups such as Warabiza, OMagari Drummers and other troupes. Highlights
include Carnegie Hall, the Smithsonian Institution and Kennedy Center
Imagination Celebration. In 1993 she received the BunkaCho grant by the
Japanese Ministry of Culture for the extended study of Japanese Drumming and the
folk performing arts. Since 1996 she has taught and performed with her own
group, Kigaeru Taiko, throughout the Bay area as well as tapping into her
experience and sense of fun to fuse a unique blend of traditional and more
unusual elements as a sound designer for local theatres.