Meet the Authors

Arne Zaslove

Theater director, teacher of mask and movement, and expert clown doctor, Arne Zaslove is an artist with unrivaled depth and range of experience. As a young man studying theater at Carnegie-Mellon University, he met and apprenticed with Commedia dell’ Arte master Carlo Mazzone-Clementi (“You want to learn? Here – carry the bags!”) After this exposure to the great tradition of European physical theatre, Arne went to Paris as a Fulbright Scholar to become the first American to study at Ecole Jacques Lecoq.

Returning to North America, Arne taught at New York University and served as head of the National Theatre School in Canada, before co-founding the Professional Actor Training Program at the University of Washington and becoming Associate Artistic Director at the Seattle Repertory Theatre. He spent years focused on the work of Samuel Beckett with his own Floating Theatre Company, and developed many devised theatre pieces as Artistic Director of the Bathhouse Theatre in Seattle. In addition, Arne has taught and directed at universities and theaters throughout North America.

With his uniquely rich background, and his eye for what makes things funny (and compelling) on stage, Arne is a highly prized consultant, bringing his insight to the work of David Shiner (of Fool Moon), Graciela Daniele (The Glorious Ones) and Cirque du Soleil. For a fuller look at his career, please visit www.zaslove.com.

With The No Bird, Arne adds “children’s book author” to his list of credits. His versions of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night are also available through Normandy Press, as well as his translations of Moliere’s An Imaginary Invalid. Eugene Labiche’s An Italian Straw Hat and Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit.

Claire Zaslove

A native of Vancouver, B.C., Claire, who also writes under the pen name K.C. Brown, has been making up stories and acting them out since she was old enough to talk. These twin passions were formalized with a degree from Yale (B.A. magna cum laude with Distinction in English and Theater Studies), and an MFA in Directing for Theatre from the University of British Columbia.

Claire has acted on stage, screen and radio, and is a member of Actors Equity, Screen Actors Guild-AFTRA, UBCP and the Alliance of Canadian Cinema Television and Radio Artists. Under the professional name Claire Vardiel, she is represented by Topo Swope Talent. You can see her theatrical page over here.

A childhood fascination with mythology led her to travel, as a teenager, through northern France with Joseph Campbell (author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces and The Power of Myth) and a busload of Jungian psychotherapists, on a seminar in search of the Holy Grail. The search continues, through many adventures and projects.

Stay tuned at this site for new plays and books, and visit her at the Dramatist Guild.

Claire’s Sherlock Holmes play about a mystery in the personal life of the great detective, Sherlock’s Veiled Secret, is published by and available at Dramatists Play Service.

Guest Authors

Kelly Foster Griffin

Kelly Foster Griffin has been a passionate music teacher and children's choir director for nearly three decades. Nationally Board Certified, Kelly currently teaches at Moorlands Elementary in the Northshore School District and directs Ragazzi Boys Choir - one of the highly-esteemed groups affiliated with The Columbia Choirs of Metropolitan Seattle. She is the Immediate Past President of the Organization of American Kodály Educators, which envisions a world where the unifying, humanizing and healing forces of music are integral to the lives of the American people. Since 1992, Kelly has been collaborating with Tom Freeman writing children’s musicals. Together, they co-founded Summer Fun! – A Performing and Visual Arts Day Camp for Children established in 1993.

Tom Freeman

Tom Freeman has been working in creative modalities with children for over 30 years. With his co-writer and co-producing partner Kelly Foster Griffin, he co-founded Summer Fun, a non-profit summer day camp for children in Seattle designed to cultivate musical, theatrical and artistic literacy. He served as the Director of Children's Programs for The Healing Center, a grief support community in Seattle and currently maintains a private psychotherapy practice in Bellevue, WA. With a background in theater and degrees in music theory and psychology, he seeks to express the human experience through theater and music.