Deborah Maclean (director, performer, founding member) began performing improv and sketch comedy eons ago in Los Angeles. There she performed in several plays and comedy shows at various theaters and clubs, including The Improvisation and the Odyssey Theater. In New York Ms. Maclean performed, directed and taught improvisational comedy with Shock of the Funny and appeared at theaters and clubs such as StandUp New York, Lincoln Center and the West Bank Theater. After moving to New Jersey, she helped found Lunatic Fringe, now in its 9th season. She has appeared in comedy shows with the Something for Everyone Theatre Company; worked as a performer, director and playwright for the Glasslight Theater Company; and appeared in staged readings at both Luna Stage Company and 12 Miles West. She also wrote and performed a one-woman show Motherhood and Other Desperate Acts. If you listen closely to the voices during the final fight scene in the much-acclaimed Rocky IV, you can hear her yelling things in Russian like “Punch him in the nose! Hit him in the ear!”
Jerry Lazar (assistant director) is a founding member of Lunatic Fringe, All You Can Eat Comedy, The Murray Hill Singers, The Brotherhood of the Iguana and Who's on First? Of all of these, only Lunatic Fringe is still in existance, a fact that makes his castmates nervous and unwilling to sit too close to him during performances.
Paul Murphy has been seen at Luna Stage as Owen Musser in The Foreigner, as Estragon in Waiting for Godot, the Head Witch in Macbeth, and as Mac Now in the world premiere of Jim Lehrer's Kick theCan. He has appeared at Luna Stage in readings with Frankie R. Faison, Louis Zorich, Cotter Smith, Joe Morton, and Ed Asner (where he resisted successfully the temptation to say: "Ohhh, Mr. Grant!")
Sean Day was active in London Street Theatre in the 1980s, and a supporting actor in several student films. He is now in his fifth season with Lunatic Fringe. He is also a regular at the Jamprov at the Brooklyn Lyceum. Sean has been seen at NLT as Ethan in Nicky Silvers 'The Altruists". He also has designed both the postcards and program cover as well as the Lunatic Fringe website.
Susan Korn was bitten by the Theatrebug as a teenage waif while puppeteering with Teatro Piccolo di Milano at the Playhouse on the Mall. She studied at The Stella Adler Theatre Studio with Alvin Ailey, among others. She is one of the original New Jersey Mental Health Players, and has appeared at the Studio Playhouse, most notably as the Donkey in Brementown Musicians. Susan is in her fourth season as an aging improv waif with Lunatic Fringe.
Glen Duphiney. While living in New Jersey, Glenn spent six years travelling to New York to study improv with Upright Citizens Brigade, Tom Soter, and completing all the courses Second City had to offer. He got to know the NJ Transit conductor very well, as he would travel into NYC to do improv as well as films and commercials. Finally moving into New York to live out his acting dreams, he is now performing in New Jersey.
Harvey Chipkin studied improv for more than two years with Deb Maclean in Lunatic Fringe's Lunatics-in-Training workshop, and has been a member of Lunatic Fringe since early in 2003. Harvey has also trained with Second City Improv and with Tom Soter. He recently performed with his team Crosstown Roll in Soter's New York 2003 Improv Festival. His day job is freelance writing, where the rules of improv do not apply.
Frankie Spear is enjoying her fourth season with Lunatic Fringe. She has been producing and performing stand up comedy for several years, and is a regular on the NYC & NJ Comedy Circuit. She has been seen at many of the top clubs, including Caroline's, Rascals, and Gotham. Frankie began studying and performing improv in NYC with the Upright Citizens Brigade under the group name of the White Horse Experiment. Frankie started out as a B. F. A. theater major at Montclair State University, and then graduated with a degree in Psychology, a perfect background for Lunatic Fringe. Ms. Spear is also the proud and laughing mother of the beloved biddy queen, Isabella, her greatest creation to date.
