QUASIMONDO ENSEMBLE
Brian Rott - Producing Artistic Director
Brian Rott is the founding artistic director of Quasimondo Milwaukee Physical Theatre. With co-founder Jessi Miller, he has lead the company through five critically acclaimed seasons writing and directing a diverse repertoire of original works, which have toured across the country from Nevada to New York.
 
His dedication to strengthening the arts through collaboration has lead to partnerships and site-specific co-productions with The Milwaukee Art Museum, The Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum, The Wisconsin Historical Society, Milwaukee Public Theatre, Milwaukee Opera Theatre, and Old World Wisconsin. In 2015 he collaborated with Present Music and Grammy award winning pianist Cory Smythe to create Carnival, a theatrical concert merging music, dance, and commedia dell'arte.
 
Brian Rott is an international director and theatre artist. His work is accessible, visceral, and eclectic;  fusing forms to create challenging productions that address contemporary issues. In 2015, his dissection of gender roles and cosplay culture, Kamikaze Cutesauce: Cosplay Club, played at the New York International Fringe Festival, and was featured in Time Out: New York, The Village Voice, and The Daily Beast's "Best of Fringe NYC". He has been recognized for his work in clown and bouffon performance, and Americlown, an exposé on homeland security,  was listed in "Top Ten Wisconsin Plays of 2013" by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. With founding ensemble member Jenni Reinke, he has choreographed and created provocative works of dance theatre, exploring  the life and works of Salvador Dali (Giraffe on Fire),  sexuality and eroticism (Kama Sutra), and the physiological and psychological effects of deep space travel (Bottle 99).
 
He received an M.F.A. in Physical Theatre from Accademia Dell'Arte (Arezzo, Italy), and has trained with masters across the globe: At the Moscow Art Theatre (Russia), Odin Teatret (Denmark), Berlin School of Music (Germany),  FLIC School of Circus (Italy), The International Mask Museum of Donato Sartori (Italy), Teatro Piccolo (Italy), Tri Pusaka Cakti Arts Foundation (Bali), and most recently at the Kottayam Kathakali Festival (India). He earned a B.A. in Theatre Arts from the University of Wisconsin Parkside, and has assisted directors at The Guthrie, American Players Theatre, and  Great River Shakespeare Festival.
 
As a theatre educator he has taught a variety of courses and workshops, and is a founding member of the Milwaukee Fringe Festival. He enjoys gardening, cooking, running, juggling, and occasionally performing. 
​Jessi Miller - Associate Artistic Director

Jessi Miller is the co-founder and associate artistic director of Quasimondo Milwaukee Physical Theatre. Her favorite directorial credits at Quasi include Buboes, Americlown, Variations on the Death of Trotsky, Bacchanalia, The Seagull 3D, and Paper or Plastic.

​Jessi has studied and taught clowning, mask-making, circus, gymnastics, and dance at a variety of institutions in the US, Denmark, Italy, and Haiti.
​Jenni Reinke - Public Relations

Jenni Reinke is a performing artist, choreographer, arts educator, and nonprofit professional. An original member of Quasimondo, she has worked with the company as assistant director, choreographer, dancer, musician and actor. Locally, she has worked with independent composers, musicians and choreographers.

​Jenni graduated from Beloit College with a B.A. in music and philosophy. She also is an alum of Public Allies Milwaukee, a nonprofit leadership development program. She has lived in and traveled throughout Asia.

​Kimberly Pratt - Grants Manager
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Kimberly Pratt worked for Milwaukee’s new urbanist mayor, John O. Norquist, in roles including constituent relations manager and project manager for major budget initiatives designed to streamline and improve the City’s development process and the provision of neighborhood services. She later served as executive director for the Milwaukee Alliance, a nonprofit aimed at revitalizing a targeted area on the South Side by working in partnership with existing stakeholders in the community.

Ms. Pratt received bachelor’s degrees in history and political science and a Master of Urban Planning degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She completed the coursework required for a PhD in Urban Studies at the University of New Orleans, where she taught the Introduction to Urban Studies class, assisted with the District 5 Neighborhood Recovery Plan following Hurricane Katrina, and worked as an assisting editor for the academic journals Tipiti and Anthropology and Humanism.

Ms. Pratt draws on her education and her experience in planning, administration, and management to write effective grant proposals and to manage the overall grant process for Quasimondo Physical Theatre and the North Milwaukee Arthaus project. Before coming to Quasimondo, she worked with WUWM-Milwaukee Public Radio, the Canticle and Juniper Courts Foundation, and the Milwaukee LGBT Center to identify funders, develop grant proposals, and manage their grants systems.
Michael Pettit - Technical Director

As Visual Artist, Performer and Designer, Michael has a 20 year history in the Arts, working mainly in puppet design and construction, puppetry theater performance, conventional theater performance, stage technical work, and props-making. Michael is best known for his work in performances with Milwaukee Mask and Puppet Theatre, co-productions with Theatre X and First Stage, and countless Summer Arts events with Milwaukee Public Theatre. He is currently an ensemble member and production artist with Quasimondo Milwaukee Physical Theatre and operates his own production company: Ontic Mask and Puppet Design Co.
​Andrew Parchman

Andrew has spent most of his life within the theater. He has designed, lights, sound, and puppets for a variety of productions. With Quasimondo he's created puppets for Love & Cthulhu, Animal Farm, Halloween Legends and Lore, and Giraffe on Fire, and has been a part of the performing ensemble in a number of productions.

​ Andrew works as a freelance art teacher in community centers and schools around the city of Milwaukee and has created poster art work for many Quasimondo productions.
Ben Yela

 Ben is a multidisciplinary artist whose skills include performance, design, music/composition, and clowning. A founding member of Quasimondo, he has worked in several capacities with Theatre Gigante, Cooperative Performance, Truepenny Theater, Optimist Theater, Danceworks, DanceCircus and UWM's dance department. During his off-time he can be caught earning guffaws at Lakefront Brewery as a tour guide.