Ingez Rameau – Writer / Actress
Ingez Rameau’s passion for performing goes back to her early childhood when she was cast in an Estonian play while growing up in post-WWII Displaced Persons Camps in Germany. After emigrating with her family to Toronto, Canada and graduating from Humberside Collegiate Institute she continued her studies in the field of Radio & Television Arts at the Ryerson Polytechnical Institute. Ingez subsequently moved to New York, working as an actress and a model, prior to moving to Los Angeles. Some of her credits include Birthday Girl, Stiletto, The Young and the Restless, Days of Our Lives, Dark Justice, and Fame. For the past five years, Ingez has devoted her life to examining, writing and crafting her experiences growing up in those post-WWII DP Camps. Her journey of survival, discovery and empowerment ultimately formed her 90-minute, one-woman play BURN which debuted at the Actors Forum Theatre in North Hollywood for a 3-week run to standing-room-only audiences. For Women’s History month in March 2011, a performance of BURN was featured at the Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival to a standing ovation. BURN has taken on a life of its own and a book is now in development. In conjunction with the theme of the play and book, Ingez is embarking on the development of workshops and seminars to break the Code of Silence — a place where men and women can begin their journey from darkness into light.
While living in Europe, Ingez was fortunate to have been exposed to countless different nationalities and languages which helped shape the woman she is today. Her life has been full of diversity, experience and travel and she continues to express her creativity through various art forms. She speaks, reads and writes German, Estonian and French.
Ingez is privileged to have had the guidance of Michael Phillip Edwards on BURN. His direction, experience, soul and sensitivity helped bring her vision to a reality and she is honored to share her story with you.
Michael Phillip Edwards – Director
Two NAACP Best Actor nominations and one Dramalogue award later, Michael committed to the pen with his seminal work “runt” premiering at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, 2001. The play was awarded the Scotsman Fringe First Award the first week of its four week run and was immediately picked up by the BBC and produced as a radio play which went on to win the Sony Gold Academy Award for Best Play UK, 2003.
The play toured the US—New York (Nuyorican Poets Café), Chicago, Minneapolis, North Carolina and Los Angeles to name a few—and several countries around the world before being adapted into a screenplay and produced as the feature film, “runt”.
Fugard’s lesson of ‘walking a life’ married with specific readings of Joseph Campbell influenced Michael to forge what he now calls the Runt Method, a form of character exploration that immerses the character in timeless archetypical mythology.
A graduate of Toronto’s Second City and York University’s Fine Arts Conservator, Michael’s first professional experience was directed by multiple Tony award-winning playwright Athol Fu- gard—a seven month tour of “My Children! My Africa!” at Montreal’s Centaur Theatre. Michael cites Fugard’s visceral passion as a writer director as a major tone setting factor in his shift from stagecraft to pen. “The experience was brutal. Fugard forced me to recognize my responsibility as an artist not to pretend but to actually ‘walk a life’.”
Read Michael Phillip Edwards’ full bio »
Armando Compean – Sound Design
Television / Film Credits: Armando has worked with Oscar/Grammy winner T-Bone Burnett playing the bass on such films as Walk the Line, starring Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix, All the King’s Men, starring Sean Penn, andDivine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, starring Sandra Bullock and Ellen Burstyn. Other film credits include Hope Floats, starring Sandra Bullock; L.A. Confidential, starring Russell Crowe and Kevin Spacey; Ulee’s Gold, starring Peter Fonda; and Because I Said So, starring Diane Keaton. Television credits include the current TNT show Memphis Beat,The Drew Carrey Show, 7th Heaven, According to Jim, The Johnny Carson Show, and The Richard Pryor Show.
Recording / Stage Credits: Armando can be heard playing the bass on numerous recordings with artists Gillian Welch, A.J. Croce, producer T-Bone Burnett, Taj Mahal, Jennifer Warnes, Coco Montoya, Jon Hartman, Jaye P. Morgan, as well as singing the vocal on jazz guitarist Joe Pass’s C.D. White Stone, to name a few. Live performances include working with Paul Williams, Cybill Shepherd, Lowell George, Johnny Winter, Edgar Winter, Scott Ellison, Ornette Cobb, Jimmy Ford, Lanny Morgan, Jaye P. Morgan, Texacali Horns. Featured documentaries include writing and music supervision for the PBS series Over America and Over California. As a producer, he has worked with a number of artists on their recordings and projects.
Armando Compean, bassist/vocalist/composer and band leader, boasts a career marked with a countless number of collaborations and musical partnerships. He has had his own voice since the late 1960s when he relocated to Los Angeles. A native of Houston, Texas, he was born into a musical family and, as a result, was exposed to all types of music and instruments. His musical journey began with violin lessons at the age of 5 and continued with learning the trumpet, drums and the studying of classical piano for 10 years. At age 13, he taught himself the guitar, formed his own bands and was fortunate to play with some of the best local blues and jazz musicians in Houston. After being asked to play the bass in a band, and after hearing bassist Ray Brown with Oscar Peterson and Scott LaFaro with the Bill Evans Trio, Armando completely fell in love with the bass and it became his choice of instrument. The diversity of his musical background has given him a wide spectrum to draw from for his writing and composing.
To purchase Armando’s CDs visit his website
James Varley – Sound Design
A native of Dallas, Texas, James Varley began playing the drums in clubs and roadhouses around Texas throughout his high school years. He went on to North Texas State University to major in music and subsequently moved to Los Angeles where he began working with numerous bands around the Los Angeles area, including the legendary R&B/Jazz group Bump and Motown recording group Earthquire. His credits also include recording sessions both for various artists, as well as sessions for jingles, television and movie sound tracks. He has toured and recorded with Seals & Crofts, Jose Feliciano, Kim Carnes, Sanford & Townsend Band (Smoke from a Distant Fire), Mac Davis, England Dan & John Ford Coley, Jaye P. Morgan, Shawn Phillips, Neil Sedaka, among others. He also helped compose the music for the PBS series “Over California.”
Lynne Conner – Producer / Publicist
A native of Los Angeles, Lynne has promoted hundreds of theatrical productions in the Los Angeles community through her company Publicity4you by producing and marketing to the media and masses. Her mantra is “connecting artists…to audiences.” She co-produced Solo Show…Offs, a weekly platform wherein solo artists were encouraged to showcase and develop new works. For five years, she was a co-producer for the Foxx Follies Readers Theatre in association with the William Grant Still Arts Center, James Burks and Ian Foxx. Lynne is an Associate Producer for the acclaimed one-woman show BURN, written and performed by Ingez Rameau. During the past few years, Lynne’s focus has been on producing short film projects such as The Last Job, Tale of Two Dragons, Family Affair and Black Theatre Today, among others. She is an active member of the Beverly Hills/Hollywood NACCP Theatre Awards Productions, Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center Film Festivals and a Board Member of the Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival. One of her passions is to mentor at-risk youths by bringing the arts to them through The Unusual Suspects Theatre Company.