The November Project - creative team Bios
Beth thompson, Director/lead deviser
Proud to call Portland home, Beth has collaborated with many local companies as an actor, deviser, teacher and producer. Favorite roles include Woman in Tender Napalm with Dancing Brain Productions, Orlando in Orlando at Profile Theatre, Miss Julie in Miss Julie and Catherine in Suddenly Last Summer at Shaking the Tree and Bear in The Snowstorm with Many Hats Collaboration/CoHo Theatre. She continues to develop as a deviser of new works and a producer of plays through her production moniker, Dancing Brain Productions, and through her work as Managing Director of Manny Hats Collaborations. See also her bio as Managing Director in Leadership.
LAVA ALAPAI, filmmaker
Lava is originally from Okinawa, Japan and grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii where she learned and fell in love with Bunraku puppetry, theatre, and photography. She graduated with an MFA in acting from California Institute of the Arts and has been creating theatre in Portland for more than a decade. She is a proud member of the Stage Directors & Choreographers Society (SDC). Visit her website here.
amenta abioto, composer/performer
Amenta Abioto is a singer, songwriter, producer, performance artist from Memphis, TN. In her one-woman show, she builds vocal and instrumental loops from kalimba, synthesizer, drum machine, and guitar creating atmospheric textures. Weaved into syncopated rhythms and dichotomies of comedic proportions, Amenta surprises and tantalizes audiences with mind bending ideas while skipping vocally from soul-shaking gospel to smooth jazz. Boldly mystical and soul-fired, and her raw live performances invoke elements of both theatrical surprise and magic through ancient African diasporic sounds and stories. Amenta studied drama and was familiarized with the stage. Amenta moved to Portland, OR in 2010 with her family (mother & 4 sisters). There she began her musical chapter. After many jams and the forming of band, dopebeds, Her solo project made debut in at house show in Spring of 2012. Since then, Amenta has released three projects and toured with The Blow, Secret Drum Band, Typhoon, and The Ghost Ease. In 2020 she plans to release her third record. Amenta is involved with projects KILEO and NOMADR. Visit her website here and follow her on Instagram at @yawamusic.
