The Players

Know No Stranger is a living, breathing organism.

Like coral, say, or The Blob (from the hit movie The Blob 2), we’re always growing. Each contributor is an important piece of our ever-changing puzzle. And we’re always looking to expand out roster! So many terrific artists and thinkers have helped us out over the years that we (tragically!) can’t name them all here—but man, we love ’em.

We’d be delighted to introduce you to some of the old standbys! Here:

Brandon Schaaf illustrator & performer
A Field Guide to Recognizing the Work of Brandon Schaaf: Upon hearing / seeing / touching / smelling / tasting the work, do you feel your childlike wonder being revived? Has your relationship with yourself and others been sweetened; your respect for all living things, deepened?

Portfolio Site
Emily Gable puppeteer & illustrator
She dwells in the dark, and it obeys her. As if they are her puppets, the shadows kneel at her command. From the macabre to the beautiful to the downright goofy, they contort and morph for her amusement. She is a silhouette-shaper, a muralist, an illustrator to be feared. For in an instant, her works may come to overwhelming life.

Also, hire her.
Matt Helfrich writer & builder
Known to parents everywhere as a “nice young man” and to his peers as alternately “cool” and “great,” Mr. Helfrich composes musical pieces ranging from “good” to “incredible;” he is a conceptual draftsman whose works have garnered identifiers such as “hilarious” and “resonant;” and he is a consummate visual artist creating things we have occasionally heard referred to as “props” or “puppets.”

Ryan Felton writer & performer
Felton’s mild-mannered exterior: an effective guise. For at the drop of a worn-out cliché, our man refracts into a thousand gleaming personas. Motives! Pun-craft! Plot twists! Tics, temperaments and dialects spin out from the uncloaked Felton, glowing bundle of narrative energy.

Portfolio Site
Wallace Wimbley
Wallace Wimbley’s been in the biz since you was in nappies. We asked him how it feels becoming our stage manager after fifty years producing hit after hit in tri-county theatre. Wally said, “I can’t believe it’s come to this.” We’re excited too, Wallace! We love you!
Rachel Leigh multimedia designer
Rachel enjoys a standing relationship with an elite troupe of dancing light and sound waves. “She’s one of the more exacting choreographers with whom we’ve worked,” they informed us. “But it’s always worth it once we pull off what she has in mind.”

Also, hire her.

Matt Holdzkom puppeteer & writer
One part Pee-Wee. Two parts Henson. A splash of Fireball, and a mess of 19th-century Hoosier newspapers. Still not enough ingredients to make a Matt Holdzkom. Our complex pal has light notes of acerbic wit and subtle sweetness, fortifies our fuzzy friends, and adds historical texture, with just a hint of Vaudeville. Nutritious!

Portfolio Site
Danielle Graves maker & do-er
How does one contain the accomplishments of an artist so prolific and admired into a single paragraph? How can anyone hope to encapsulate the enumerable achievements of a painter/plush sculptor/gallerist/illustrator/art activist/good friend like Danielle Graves into a bite-sized blurb? One cannot. One simply cannot.

Portfolio Site
Tara Ree Miller illustrator & maker
Who can turn the world on with a brush? Who can take a tight deadline, and suddenly make great art not seem rushed?
Well, it’s Tara, and you should know it: Her paintings and jokes and set pieces show it. Need a little prop? She’s gonna make it. Animation time? She’s gonna take it.
She’s gonna make it—after all!

Portfolio Site