Diamond Lion is the only musical improv team regularly appearing at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, a comedy theatre and school whose alumni include cast members and writers of shows like "Saturday Night Live," "30 Rock,""The Office,""The Daily Show," and many more. Diamond Lion takes the unrehearsed stories of monologists and audience members as the basis for an evening of hilarious improvised scenes and songs. Joining us as interview subjects at NYMF this year will be Godspell's Julia Mattison and George Salazar (Friday at 7 and 9) and Anything Goes' Bill English (Sunday at 9).
Approximate Running Time: 60-70 minutes; with intermission
Ashley Ward is a comedian, actress and singer currently living in NYC. She performs weekly improv shows with Big Black Car at the PIT and Taco Supreme at the Magnet. She also regularly performs in musical improv shows with Baby Wants Candy and Diamond Lion. Ashley has been in several off broadway musicals and plays as well as many internet comedy videos. She is also a proud member of the Striking Viking Story Pirates and performs with them as often as she can. She has previously been seen at UCB telling stories for Nights of Our Lives.Ashley is also a former Jeopardy! Champion. This is not a joke.
Winston Noel has studied at UCBT since early 2007 with teachers including Will Hines, Joe Wengert, Anthony King, Zach Woods and Shannon O'Neill. He also studied acting at the Michael Howard Studios and graduated from the University of Virginia in 2005. Winston has been in several plays around the city, and can be seen on the Internet in videos for collegehumor.com, commercials for Yahoo and POM tea and ucbcomedy.com. He has performed with the Maude team 27 kidneys and currently performs with the Harold team Ragnarock.
Morgan has been studying and performing improv comedy since 1994. He can currently be seen on Fridays at 9pm withDiamond Lion (UCBeast), and sporadically with his indie teamGet Paid (various seedy locations). Past groups include the touring company of Baby Wants Candy, the touring company and mainstage cast of Chicago City Limits, and Swarthmore College's Vertigo-Go.Morgan was in a professional a cappella group for 10 years, but he doesn't really like to talk about that.
Amber Petty has been studying at UCB since 2004 and is currently on UCB's only musical improv team Diamond Lion. Also you can see her make up songs with another musical improv group, Baby Wants Candy. She's a proud member of the improv group Penny, who enjoyed a long and splendid run of their lovely show "White Orphans". A graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Ambers favorite scripted performances have included Cabaret, Buried Child, and West Side Story.
Michael Kayne improvises with the Sabonis (winner of the 2011 3x3 Tournament), UCB weekend shows Diamond Lion and What I Did For Love, Baby Wants Candy, and the champions of the DSICTBBC (Daioh Sushi Improvisation/ Chicken Teriyaki Bento Box Competition), Dreadnought. For reasons passing understanding, he is an undefeated veteran of freestyle rap battles.Michael is half-Filipino and half-Jewish. He was baptized and Bar Mitzvah-ed.In his non-improv life, Michael is a tutor. He has pretty much abandoned a blog about learning at www.shityoushouldknow.tumblr.com
No music tracks are available for this show yet.