Our Resident Artists (in alphabetical order):

Chrispin Barnes, Resident Artist, has traveled the majority of the continental United States, having hitchhiked the entire length of several interstate highways including I-5, I-10, and I-80, amounting to over 40,000 miles. He is a native of Saginaw, Michigan. He is currently studying digital video production, and in 2006 he digitally remastered the 1994 independent film Zombie vs. Mardi Gras, which was then released on DVD and received a screening event at One Eyed Jack’s. Upon joining Theatre Louisiane, he was featured as the mythic brain-eater Tydeos in the warrior video footage that accompanied the group's live performance of The Seven. He also worked directly with the video projection footage for their successful multimedia version of The Music of Erich Zann, and in 2004 he created a complete digital archive of all extant video footage of Theatre Louisiane's performances. He created video projection and appeared as one of the Wraiths for the 2006 original work dis+graced.

Blake Buchert, Associate Artist/Board of Trustees Chair, is a native Louisianian hailing from Lake Charles. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and a GIS Certificate from the University of New Orleans. He has worked backstage for numerous Theatre Louisiane projects, and was featured onstage in 2000's Pinter Sketches. He has also been seen as the Lobster Man/Rock n' Roll Savior in an impromptu performance of Sam Shepard's Cowboy Mouth, as the soundscape narrator for Liquid Land, as King Adrastos in the warrior video footage for The Seven, as Erich Zann in The Music of Erich Zann, and as one of the Wraiths in dis+graced. Buchert has appeared in a number of independent films, including Today Could Be The Year of The Tiger, The Rising Sons of Hibachi, and Shasta, Son of Jesus. Currently, he can be glimpsed as one of The Ancestors in the image projection for Moon Cove. In 2009 he has performed on New Orleans stages in the Backyard Ballroom's Bourbon Street: Episode II, Four Humours Theatre Company's Verbatim Verboten, Rivertown Repertory Theatre's Murdered to Death, and in the film KinK, which took the Best Film award in the New Orleans 48 Hour Film Project.

Jennifer Buras, Resident Artist, a ninth generation Louisianian, holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre with a Psychology minor from McNeese University, and a Master of Social Work degree from Tulane University. At McNeese she acquired extensive backstage and administrative experience in the performing arts, and appeared onstage in Re:Vision: Trojan Women/Wages of War, Tony Kushner's adaptation of The Illusion, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Insect Comedy, the rock musical Faustus, and Jane Martin's Talking With.... She co-wrote the curriculum for McNeese's Expressive Arts Therapy program, which is still used today, and she founded the drama therapy program at the New Orleans Adolescent Hospital. As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, she has earned numerous credentials, and has a private practice as a therapist. She has modeled professionally, and has appeared in film, television, and radio. With Theatre Louisiane, she has run tech for The Seven and dis+graced, and she worked as Publicity Director for The Music of Erich Zann and for dis+graced. She is a happy newlywed as of 2006, and she is the proud roommate of two dogs and one cat.

James B. Raasch, III, Resident Artist, was born and raised in Kentucky, taking a BSE in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Louisville. He moved to New Orleans in 1998 to pursue a PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Tulane University. In addition to minor roles prior to his move south, J.B. has performed as Polyphontes in the video scenery that accompanied Theatre Louisiane's stage performance of The Seven, assisted with set construction, and handled sound and projection operation during the 2008 run of Moon Cove.

Kresenda Raasch, Resident Artist, is a Southern native through-and-through. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Louisville, Kentucky, and during her youth she lived in both Pensacola and Tallahassee. She has resided in New Orleans since 2002. Kressy worked as a production assistant for Theatre Louisiane's 2008 run of Moon Cove, and she will be featured as one of The Ancestors in the image projection for upcoming extended versions of the project. She was a production assistant with Amy Woodruff's experimental work fleetinghosts. She is an official Ambassador for Maker's Mark and is a member of the Bourbon Society of New Orleans. She has a particular fondness for horse racing and Elvis.

Amy Woodruff, Resident Artistic Director, a tenth generation Louisianian, specializes in actor-created intermedia performance. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from McNeese University, and she is completing a Master of Fine Arts at Goddard College's innovative low-residency Interdisciplinary Arts program in Vermont. Woodruff has trained with Dah Teatar of Serbia, Odin Teatret of Denmark, Shakespeare & Company of Lenox MA, and Vortex Repertory Theatre of Austin TX. She created Theatre Louisiane in 1999, launching provocative, critically-acclaimed pieces that she has developed. Her works have been seen at New Orleans spaces such as the M.I.C.A. Gallery, the AllWays Lounge, the Louisiana Crafts Guild, the Voodoo Mystère, Zeitgeist, the Pickery, the State Palace Theatre, and the Dramarama festival at the Contemporary Arts Center. She was a Guest Artist in her multimedia stage version of Lovecraft's The Music of Erich Zann at McNeese University Theatre, and in her one-actor project dis+graced at the Montréal Fringe Festival in Canada. She is also a member of Four Humours Theatre Company of New Orleans. Her original mixed media solo work Moon Cove was seen in New Orleans and Vermont, and she appeared in the multi-state visual art and performance collaboration, the Our Lady of Sorrows Project, which was presented in Vermont and Maine in 2009. Her recent solo installation work was the video projection + performance project fleetinghosts, which debuted digitally in 2009 and was staged live in New Orleans in 2010. Her personal artist page is here.

Amy, Blake, Chrispin, and Jennifer were together named "People to Watch" by New Orleans magazine for 2006-07 !!!