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. He is Amy's incredibly patient husband.

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 two cats.

Amy Woodruff, Resident Artistic Director, a tenth generation Louisianian of Acadian and Cherokee descent, specializes in actor-created interdisciplinary performance. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from McNeese University, and she has received intensive performance training from the world-renowned groups Dah Teatar of Serbia and Odin Teatret of Denmark, and from Shakespeare & Company of Massachusetts and Vortex Repertory Theatre of Austin, Texas. She created Theatre Louisiane in 1999, which has been the vehicle for many of the provocative, critically-acclaimed pieces that she has developed. Her works have been seen at New Orleans spaces such as Zeitgeist Arts Center, the Pickery Art Space, the State Palace Theatre, and the Dramarama festival at the Contemporary Arts Center. Woodruff has received artist grants from the Louisiana Division of The Arts and the Jazz & Heritage Foundation of New Orleans, and her works are fiscally sponsored by the NYC independent artists’ service organization Fractured Atlas. Her recent successes include appearing as a Guest Artist in two multimedia pieces: her stage adaptation of the Lovecraft horror tale The Music of Erich Zann at McNeese University Theatre, and her one-actor project about rejected women, dis+graced, which toured to the St-Ambroise Montréal Fringe Festival in Canada. In April 2008 she appeared in the V-to-the-Tenth workshop piece Women & War, and she is currently performing and developing the original work Moon Cove. Her personal artist page is here.

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