HALF STRADDLE is a New York City-based company that makes plays, performances, videos and music written and directed by Tina Satter.

The company includes composer Chris Giarmo, designers Zack Tinkelman and Nathan Lemoine, and performers Jess Barbagallo, Eliza Bent, Emily Davis, Erin Markey and Julia Sirna-Frest. A number of additional performers and artists including Annie McNamara (ERS), Bobby McElver (The Wooster Group), Heather Christian (The TEAM, Witness Relocation), Moe Angelos (The Builders Association), Joseph Keckler and Greg Zuccolo, among others, have joined Half Straddle in creating their shows and performances.

In February 2011, Tina Satter and the company were named “Off-Off Broadway Innovators to Watch” by
Time Out New York.

TINA SATTER (ARTISTIC DIRECTOR) is a playwright and director who attended the graduate playwriting program at Brooklyn College with Mac Wellman. Tina’s plays which she writes and directs have been curated into seasons at the Incubator Arts Project, HERE Arts Center, Dixon Place, Ice Factory Festival 2010, and The Bushwick Starr. Her full-length plays include In the Pony Palace/FOOTBALL, FAMILY, The Knockout Blow, and Nurses in New England. In the Pony Palace/FOOTBALL was a 2011 New York Times’ Critics Pick and FAMILY was named a Top 10 show of 2009 by Time Out New York. Tina has directed smaller pieces and works in progress at Envoy Gallery, Dixon Place and CATCH! performance series. She is a co-curator of Little Theatre at Dixon Place and was one of the featured directors at Culture Project’s Women Center Stage Festival 2011. She and her company were named “Innovators to Watch” by Time Out New York in February 2011. She received a B.A. in English from Bowdoin College and an M.A. in Liberal Studies from Reed College.

CHRIS GIARMO (RESIDENT COMPOSER) is an artist based in Brooklyn. He has has arranged or composed music for all of Half Straddle's work. He has performed and toured internationally with Big Dance Theater since 2005, and will be performing in and has composed music for their upcoming Supernatural Wife, translated by Ann Carson, which premiered at Theatre de Chaillot in Paris in 2011, and will be performed at BAM Next Wave 2011. He recently performed in Witness Relocation's 5 Days in March at LaMama and was an assistant choreographer on David Byrne’s last world tour. Chris has a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts’ Experimental Theater Wing and is currently pursuing his Masters of Science for Communication Design at Pratt Institute.For more information, visit chrisgiarmo.com.

JESS BARBAGALLO (PERFORMER) has performed in shows for The Builders Association, Big Dance Theater, Theater of the Two-Headed Calf, John Turturro and was writer/performer for Room for Cream. She was a writer in the 2010 Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, a recipient of Dixon Place Mondo Cane commission, and recently premiered her play, Saturn Nights, at Incubator Arts Project. She graduated from the Experimental Theater Wing at NYU and received a graduate degree in playwriting from Brooklyn College under the tutelage of Mac Wellman.

ELIZA BENT (PERFORMER) With Half Straddle: The Knockout Blow, FAMILY, Sliding Whores and Nurses in New England. Other recent projects: Pen Pals Meet: A Conversation Between Eliza and Salar as part of the Iranian Theatre Festival, Three Women at Columbia University and Band Practice (Short Form at Incubator Arts Project). Eliza writes for American Theatre magazine and is an MFA candidate in playwriting at Brooklyn College.

EMILY DAVIS (PERFORMER) In addition to her work with Half Straddle (FAMILY, Nurses in New England, Girl Detective Agency, In the Pony Palace/FOOTBALL) Emily has worked with the NY-based companies Witness Relocation, Theater Mitu and The TEAM. She has developed work and performed with writers Jess Barbagallo, Trish Hartineaux, Erin Markey, Ben Forster, Micah Bloomberg and Dylan Dawson at The Invisible Dog, The Bushwick Starr, The Incubator Arts Project, Ars Nova, the NYU Graduate Acting and Film Programs, the Brooklyn College MFA Program, The Twenty-Five Cent Opera of San Francisco, Dixon Place, The Wild Project, The Ontological Theater, The Metropolitan Playhouse, CATCH, Brigham Young University, The Women’s Project, Sundance Theater Lab at White Oak, The Watermill Center, 3LD Center for Design and Technology, Walker Art Center, Vanderbilt University, PS 122, New York Theater Workshop, Skidmore College, Kitchen Dog Theater, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts,and the Dallas Children’s Theater. Emily has also worked with filmmakers Andrew Simkiss (The Amy Character, official selection at the Palm Beach International Film Festival and the Arizona International Film Festival), Shal Ngo (Consolation Prize), and David Call (B.U.S.T, 2010 Dallas International Film Festival Special Jury Prize). She holds a BFA in Theater from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

ERIN MARKEY (PERFORMER) Recently played the lead in the NYC Premiere of Tennessee Williams' Green Eyes at the Hudson Hotel. Her performance in Half Straddle’s FAMILY was recognized in Time Out NY’s Top Ten Plays of 2009 as "one of the scariest performances" of the year. She is a series regular on LOGO's Jeffery and Cole Casserole television program. As a playwright, she was invited to participate in the Lincoln Center Director's Lab with co-writer Joseph Keckler. Her performance in her solo musical, Puppy Love: A Stripper's Tail at PS 122 was nominated for a NYIT Outstanding Solo Performer award. As a performance and cabaret artist, she has appeared at The Kitchen, Ars Nova, and regularly at Our Hit Parade at Joe's Pub. Her newest musical, The Dardy Family Home Movies by Stephen Sondheim by Erin Markey, will premiere as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival's live programming in the summer of 2011.

JULIA SIRNA-FREST (PERFORMER) has performed in all of Half Straddle’s productions including The Knockout Blow (Ontological & HERE), FAMILY (Ontological), Nurses in New England (Ohio). Other recent work includes Are They Edible? (Incubator Arts Project), The Magic Flute (Target Margin) and Rocky Philly (The Bushwick Starr). Julia is a member of Doll Parts, a Dolly Parton cover band, and a teaching artist for Opening Act. She has also performed in readings and workshops at New Dramatists, Soho Rep and The Soho Think Tank.

ZACK TINKELMAN (DESIGNER) has worked with Sarah Michelson, Moisés Kaufman, Ruben Polendo, Paul Lazar, Andy Paris, Sheron Wray, Red Terror Squad, and Target Margin. His designs have been seen at The Kitchen, La MaMa E.T.C., Ontological-Hysteric Theater, City Center, Ohio Theatre, HERE Art Center, Chocolate Factory, Skirball Center, Teatr Mały in Warsaw, and the ICA in London. With Half Straddle, Zack has designed In the Pony Palace/FOOTBALL, The Knockout Blow, FAMILY, and Nurses in New England. He is currently the Lighting Supervisor at The Kitchen.

Moe Angelos
Andre Callot
Nikki Calonge
Heather Christian
Sara Lindsay Copeland
Michael De Angelis
Asta Benne Hostetter
Joseph Keckler
Nathan Lemoine
Kate Marvin
Bobby McElver
Glennis McMurray
Annie McNamara
Andreea Mincic
Lena Moy-Borgen
Liz Nielsen
Matt Paweski
Wayne Petro
Kourtney Rutherford
Deborah Satter
Katherine E. Scharhon
Normandy Raven Sherwood
Becky Yamamoto
Rae C Wright
Greg Zuccolo