Natasha Mirny is a stage director, performer, choreographer, and founder of Happy Theater. Her background is in pantomime, puppetry, and physical theater. Natasha is also a teaching artist at Kennedy Center, Wolf Trap, Inspired Child, and Arts for Learning Maryland. She designs and implements arts integration programs for teachers and students in both public and private schools across the US. Natasha devises and directs shows for the audiences of different ages – from 1 year old to adults. Her show for young audiences To The Clouds was nominated for Helen Hayes Award as an outstanding theater for young audiences production. Natasha is also a faculty member at National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, where she teaches voice, movement, puppetry and Mikhail Chekhov technique and leads a theater laboratory Sol Lab.
Tia Shearer Bassett is an actor/creator who specializes in solo shows, children’s theatre, and playful theatre for grownups. She has been a member of Only Make Believe since 2017, bringing interactive theatre to children in hospitals and special education programs. She also performs self-produced work like a poetic Zoom show featuring her son’s toys. Acting credits include The Kennedy Center (two national tours), The Second City, Imagination Stage, Baltimore Center Stage. She was an original company member at Arts on the Horizon, creating nonverbal shows for ages 0-6 and earning the title “Buster Keaton for babies.” She is a certified Audio Description writer, co-creator of a web-series starring her leopard gecko: “Eugene Cheese Gets It Wrong,” and mom to an amazing kid. She met Natasha during a day of clowning and creation with Happenstance Theater; they hit it off instantly, as they accidentally arrived to the event in matching vests. Since then, Tia has been joyfully making and sharing original family-friendly theatre with Natasha for almost a decade.
Anna Kusner is an MD based professional musician. She graduated from the State Gnessin Music College in Moscow. She performed at the Moscow Philharmonic Society in a duo with a Bolshoi Theater singer. After graduating from the Academy of Music in Jerusalem in 1995, Anna performed with chamber orchestras and ensembles on Israeli TV, radio, and at music festivals. She has taught classical guitar widely and recorded 16 CDs. Anna moved to Maryland in 2015 and since then has been touring with chamber concerts and has also been involved in a number of theater projects.
Happy Theater 