We’re excited to introduce the 2026 Convergence Residency Artists—a diverse and thoughtful group of creatives from across the country coming together to explore, experiment, and connect. They bring a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines—from puppeteers and stand-up comedians to filmmakers and composers—sharing a commitment to deep process and meaningful collaboration. This cohort reflects the spirit of Convergence: a place where curiosity lights the way and the work unfolds through an open, evolving process rather than a fixed destination. On this page, you’ll find their photos and bios—small windows into the talented people who shape this residency experience.
Technical Staff
Shane Rogers | Technical Director
We’re thrilled and honored to have Shane Rogers on board as our technical associate this year. He’ll be working side by side with Indy Convergence staff to make sure our convergers have everything they need.
Shane currently resides in a suburb of Chicago where he is the Technical Director for the Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre. He has worked for over 25 years in professional theatre as a technician, carpenter, and actor at places including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Ashland, Or.), Classical Theatre Company (Houston, TX.), Pioneer Theatre Company, Salt Lake Acting Company, and Plan B Theatre (Salt Lake City, Ut.) He has also done a number of independent films and audio book recordings.
Artistic Cohort
Beau Brown | Puppeteer, Puppet Builder, Theatre Professional
Beau is a puppeteer, producer, host, and has been part of Atlanta’s thriving puppetry community for nearly three decades since interning at the Center for Puppetry Arts in high school. Beau produces and hosts Atlanta’s open mic puppet slam, The Puckin’ Fuppet Show, and created and produces the Puppetry Track at Dragon Con and The National Puppet Slam. He most recently took a 10-day puppet wood-carving workshop in the Czech Republic thanks to a scholarship from the Atlanta Puppetry Guild and performed as a principal puppeteer in Sesame Street: The Musical at the Center for Puppetry Arts. Keep up with what Beau has coming up next at: https://linktr.ee/mrbeaubrown
Fernando Casanova | Multidisciplinary Artist
Fernando Casanova, a multidisciplinary artist raised in Ecuador, brings his vibrant heritage and personal story to his work in painting, drawing, installation, poetry, and more. A graduate of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he uses handmade paper and simple tools like crayons and colored pencils to create intimate pieces that invite viewers to come close and find joy in the details. Fernando continues to weave his Ecuadorian roots into his art, sometimes even collaborating with his kids on shared canvases. Fernando, along with his wife Sofia, is co-founder of Nova Dream Space, an artist duo. Learn more by following @novadreamspace.
Arika Casey | Modern Dancer, Choreographer, Actor
Arika Casey is a native of Indianapolis. She is an interdisciplinary performing artist who combines storytelling through dance and acting. Her recent credits include Sophisticated Ladies based on the music of Duke Ellington at Beef & Boards, Tales Out of Twelve O’ 8 by Jamaal McCray at Storefront Theatre, and Panther Women: An Army for the Liberation by India Nicole Burton at The Phoenix Theatre. Arika serves as a principal dancer in Kenyettá Dance Company’s Black Keys: The Evolution of the Black Classical Arts, which premiered June 2024 on Indianapolis’ PBS syndicate, WYFI. Arika is a professional teaching artist who specializes in dance education for youth. She is also a certified yoga instructor at Capture Fitness.
Audrey Edwards | Actor, Costume Design Major at DePaul University
Audrey Edwards (she/her) joins this year’s cohort through Indy Convergence’s Emerging Artist Program, presented in partnership with The Theatre School at DePaul University. A performer and costume designer from Chicago, she began her career almost a decade ago and has always been fascinated with both the onstage and offstage worlds of theatre.
As an actor, Audrey has performed throughout the Chicagoland area, including roles at Drury Lane (Matilda), Paramount Theatre (The Wizard of Oz), Marriott Theatre (The Sound of Music), and TimeLine Theatre (The Audience). She is a company member at Inkwell Arts and Learning, a theatre company that produces outdoor Walking Plays, where she has performed and designed for the past several years (Winnie the Pooh, Anne of Green Gables, Pride and Prejudice). Audrey is currently a second-year Costume Design major at The Theatre School at DePaul University, and is represented by Paonessa Talent.
Morigan Eileen | Artist, Director, Deviser
Morigan Eileen (they/them) is a young queer theatre maker eager to utilize their work to make change in the world around them. Their work often centers around queer history, human rights advocacy, and fighting for change. In the past, Morigan has directed and assistant directed shows like A Nightingale by Horton Foote, Language of Angels by Naomi Iizuka, Roe by Lisa Loomer, and an original devised piece titled Life Love Struggle which was built surrounding the gay rights movement. Most recently, Morigan has acted as Assistant Stage Manager on an adaptation of The Pirates of Penzance with Center Stage Theatre in Kalamazoo, MI. They are drawn to work that highlights the untold struggles of those who are often pushed aside by the mainstream media and theatre industries. They aspire to light a spark in people to learn, get involved in their communities, and get loud.
Rob Funkhouser | Composer, Performer, Instrument Builder, Installation Artist
Rob Funkhouser is a composer, performer, installation artist, and educator who can never quite sit still. His work tackles ideas of place, memory, and pattern, and he is interested in interrogating assumptions in established art music performance and music education. He holds an M.M. from Butler University in Music Composition, and works to build community through classical and experimental music in Indianapolis. His current projects include a new record of chamber music, research into interactive sculpture design, and several commissions for Sound Ecologies. Funkhouser is a resident artist at Contemporary Art Museum Indianapolis in the CAMI Long Term Residency program. He is also a composer in residence and artistic director for the Indianapolis-based non-profit Sound Ecologies, and teaches music technology at the Herron School of Art. Recently, he has had over a dozen new premieres of pieces ranging from solo piano to symphony orchestra. His past collaborators include Forward Motion, Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, No Exit Theater, and Butler University. In 2024, his installation work was visited by thousands of people through a gallery exhibition at the Guichelaar Gallery, his installation A House is Alive with Sound at Spark Monument Circle, and in Unpopular Music at Burning Man in Nevada.
Jennifer Goodlander | Director, Puppeteer, Scholar, Educator
In New York City and regionally, Jennifer works as a director and teacher with a special emphasis on new plays and physically based performance. She often combines techniques such as Viewpoints with feminist theatre praxis to create dynamic theatrical worlds that bridge the divide of realism/nonrealism. She draws from her extensive training and performance experience in traditional Asian theatre to direct innovative productions of The Ghost Sonata, The Bacchae, and others. She was a member of the 2005 Lincoln Center Director’s Lab, which focused on new play development and working in collaboration. She often shares her research through performances and lectures at theatres, civic groups, and universities, and has performed wayang kulit (Balinese shadow puppetry) both nationally and internationally.
Jennifer has received many grants and fellowships for her performance work and research on Asian performance, including a Fulbright Fellowship to Indonesia, a summer residency at the National Humanities Center, and funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Her first two books — Women in the Shadows: Gender, Puppets, and the Power of Tradition in Bali (2016) and Puppets and Cities: Articulating Identity in Southeast Asia (2018) — focus on puppetry, one of the oldest and most dynamic performance traditions in Southeast Asia. Currently, her work continues to explore intercultural dynamics through performance and text.
At IU, Jennifer teaches courses on global theatre, puppetry, feminist/queer performance, and directing at the undergraduate and graduate level. She works with graduate students in theatre practice (MFA) and graduate students in Comparative Literature, Folklore, and others.
Zahra Jafarpour | Painter, Performance and Installation Artist, Mixed Media
Zahra Jafarpour was born during the war between Iran and Iraq. In her generation, studying the arts was considered useless. In the aftermath of the war, Iran underwent a rebuilding phase that prioritized sciences and engineering, leaving little room for artistic expression. The Iranian government also imposed censorship and restricted creative freedoms. These reasons led Jafarpour to pursue a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering as her first choice. After graduation, she changed her focus to art. She earned two master’s degrees in fine arts in Tehran in 2010 and Milan in 2018. Currently residing in Dallas, Jafarpour is pursuing a Ph.D. in Visual and Performing Arts at UTD University.
Sadie Jensen | Chief Development Officer, Director, Actor, Producer, Writer
Sadie Jensen joins this year’s cohort through Indy Convergence’s Emerging Artist Program, presented in partnership with The Theatre School at DePaul University. Sadie is an actress, artist, and creative pursuing a BFA in Acting at DePaul University. Growing up along the border in the Rio Grande Valley, she consistently uses her platform as an artist to speak about the injustices occurring in her community. Taking great strides to be heard, she’s won numerous awards for performances tackling crucial social justice topics, most notably being deemed the national champion in both storytelling and prose for the National Speech and Debate Tournament in Des Moines, Iowa. With only 3–5% of lead actors in the industry being of Latino/Hispanic origin, it’s abundantly clear her community is incredibly underrepresented. As a young girl who once looked up to the people shining bright on the big screen, the opportunity to inspire others would be nothing more than a dream come true.
Alex Lydon | Actor, Musician, Collaborative Creator
Alex Lydon is a multi-hyphenate artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Throughout his career, Alex has explored disparate disciplines from Decroux mime to Noh and Kyogen, from Commedia to Balinese Wayang Kulit. Specializing in new work development as an artist and producer, Alex has worked at some of the largest theaters around the country, such as Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Center Theatre Group, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, South Coast Rep, and People’s Light. Some favorite projects include Cambodian Rock Band, Eugene Onegin: A Bluegrass Musical, Such Things as Vampires, and It Can’t Happen Here. Alex studied acting with Joan Rosenfels, holds a BA in theatre arts from Pomona College, and is proud member of Actors’ Equity.
Katie McDermitt | Musician, Teaching Artist, Arts Entrepreneur
Katie McDermitt is a musician, teaching artist, social entrepreneur, and changemaker who believes in the power of the arts. She has seen firsthand how music can nurture well-being, spark personal growth, and transform strangers into a community. In all areas of her work, she uses music to foster connection, champion justice, and create spaces where everyone’s story matters.
She is a multi-instrumentalist, with flute as her primary instrument. As a soloist, she creates and performs her own music, and she also freelances with orchestras and other organizations across Indiana. In addition to performing, she works with several schools in the greater Indianapolis area as a flute instructor and maintains a full private flute studio.
She is passionate about the Venezuelan El Sistema methodology, which uses music education as a catalyst for social change. She is a co-founder and the former Founding Executive Director of El Sistema Indianapolis, and she now works with El Sistema-inspired organizations across the country by serving on the Membership and Engagement Committee for El Sistema USA. She studied El Sistema in Mérida, Venezuela, and received her Bachelor of Music from Butler University and a Graduate Certificate in Arts Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship from the Global Leaders Institute.
Eric Salazar | Musician, Composer, Entrepreneur
Eric Salazar (The Clarinet Guy) is a performer, composer, and entrepreneur. He performs recitals and concertos of classical music that he feels connected to. Sometimes what he plays isn’t all-classical, but a merging of different genres, like jazz and ambient. As a teacher, he focuses on helping his students boldly experiment to grow into the person they are meant to be.
When performing, he embraces being vulnerable on stage as he shares stories in a way that makes the listener feel like they can be vulnerable too. His down-to-earth stage presence is both entertaining and mesmerizing. Salazar always jokingly says, “I owe you an explanation for what you’re about to hear,” when he presents music that he writes, but at the heart of it all, Salazar simply writes music that will tell you a story, so you can feel seen and feel connected to those around you. His music isn’t necessarily in the classical style, though it is cinematic and merges inventive electronic sounds with familiar instruments.
Salazar is a tea drinker, plays soccer, and gets lost playing Dungeons and Dragons. He loves listening to people talk, and making them smile. Eric Salazar is a Pereira 3D Artist. He plays on a Pereira Custom clarinet, and uses Pereira 3D printed barrels, bells, and ligatures.
Dena Toler | Writer, Director, Actor, Dancer, Poet
Dena has been a professional artist in Indy for two decades. She has recently started writing and has a book of poems and a solo one-woman show coming soon.
Bill Wilkison | Educator, Actor, Director, Clown, Improvisor, Writer
Bill Wilkison has studied with a variety of artists, from Academy Award winner Alan Arkin to Tony Award recipient Mary Zimmerman. He spent twenty years perfecting his craft in Chicago’s underground theatre movement before relocating to Indianapolis. As an educator and entertainer, Bill is constantly challenging the conventional restraints of time and space, creating an environment where delight and magic can blossom and the unknown can become known. Play is a predominant part of his pedagogical process. Bill is a professional clown and a player at ComedySportz Indianapolis, as well as an improvisational theater teacher.