Vampire Cowboys and IRT Theater

Lead teaching artists from Vampire Cowboys Company include:

Qui Nguyen (Co-Artistic Director/Co-Founder)
Qui Nguyen is a playwright, screenwriter, and Co-Artistic Director of the OBIE Award-winning Vampire Cowboys. His scripts include the critically acclaimed Vampire Cowboys productions of The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G; Soul Samurai; Alice in Slasherland; Fight Girl Battle World; Men of Steel; Living Dead in Denmark;Stained Glass Ugly; A Beginner’s Guide to Deicide; and Vampire Cowboy Trilogy. Other scripts include She Kills Monsters (The Flea); Bike Wreck (Ensemble Studio Theatre; Metropolitan Playhouse); Aliens Versus Cheerleaders (Keen Teens); Trial By Water (Ma-Yi Theater/Queens Theatre in the Park); and Krunk Fu Battle Battle (East West Players). His plays are published by Samuel French, Broadway Play Publishing, and Playscripts.com.

Additionally, Qui is an award-winning fight director who has worked extensively as an instructor & choreographer for such places as Columbia University, LAByrinth Theater, Ma-Yi Theater, Long Wharf, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Public, HERE Arts Center, and many others.

Honors include a 2013 Andrew W Mellon Playwright Residency with Mixed Blood Theatre; 2012 & 2009 GLAAD Award nominations (She Kills Monsters & Soul Samurai); 2012 ITBA Patrick Lee Award & 2010 ITBA Award nomination (She Kills Monster & Alice in Slasherland); 2008 & 2006 NY Innovative Theatre Awards nominations for Best Production (Fight Girl Battle World & Living Dead in Denmark); 2007 ComicCritique.com’s Best Adaptation of Comics into Other Media (Men of Steel); The New Dramatists Playwriting Fellowship, NYTheatre.com’s 2004 People of the Year, featured as a “Playwright to Watch” by TIMEOUT NEW YORK, 2008 Innovative Theatre Award for Best Choreographer and nominations in the same category for 2007 & 2005.

Qui is a proud member of New Dramatists, The Ma-Yi Writers Lab, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Playwrights Center, and an advanced actor/combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors. He is currently serves as a Playwright-in-Residence for Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis.

He is represented by Abrams Artists Agency.
For more info on Qui, check out his website at quinguyen.com

Alexis Black is an affiliated artist with Vampire Cowboys and thrilled to be joining Westside Experiment! Currently an MFA candidate in Performance Pedagogy at Virginia Commonwealth University, she has been a professional Fight Director and active member of Actor’s Equity Association for nearly a decade.  In Virginia she has served as Fight Director and Movement Coordinator for Virginia Repertory Theatre, Richmond Shakespeare and more.  While in New York City, she performed and choreographed for numerous regional theaters including Dorset Theatre Festival, Mainestage Shakespeare and Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, and in several international tours. NYC Performances include: Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company, TITAN Theatre Company, American Globe Theatre, Brick Theatre.  NYC Choreography includes NYCFringe, Samuel French Theater Festival, The Workshop Theatre, UglyRhino, InViolet Theatre Company, The Anthem (assisted, Off-Broadway).  NYIT Award nominated: Best Choreography/Movement of 2013.  On the small screen you can find her acting/performing fight stunts on AMC and The Discovery Channel.  She has trained in clown, mask and puppetry, and worked on devised-theatre techniques with SITI Company and Anne Bogart.  As an educator at the High School and University level, she has taught Movement, Acting, Improv and Stage Combat.  Alexis loves sci-fi and puns, and can’t wait to bring on the play!

Rocio Mendez is an actor / fight director / teaching artist who was born and raised in Hell’s Kitchen, NYC. Rocio has mostly been seen on stage working with great theater companies such as The Pearl Theater Company, American Globe Theater, The Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey, The Classical Theater of Harlem, and The Brick. Rocio as been on various short and independent films, commercials and TV including a reenactment documentary about the DC Sniper on MSNBC. Rocio is currently a teaching artist with Opening Act. An organization that provides arts programs for under­served public schools that have lost there funding for arts programs. Rocio has also staged and coordinated fights for off and off ­off broadway, as well as independent films. She has had training in various different fighting styles – mostly martial arts including Kung Fu and Tae Kwon do. Presently studying Muay Thai / MMA with trainer Brayner Martinez.