PEA HICKS, a composer from San Diego, CA, has worked in a wide variety of musical contexts professionally for the past ten years. In addition to composing the opera THE WORLD IS ROUND, he has written music for several of San Diego's finest theater companies. With Sledgehammer Theatre, his credits include HAMLET, TERMINAL HIP, DRUMS IN THE NIGHT, LEONCE AND LENA, PETER PAN, SEDUCED, GHOST SONATA, and the world-premiere of Mac Wellman's 7 BLOWJOBS. For five years, he was the resident composer and musical director for The Fern St. Circus, a community-based organization in San Diego. Elsewhere, he has worked extensively with Ensemble Arts Theater as well as The San Diego Repertory Theater, where he most notably composed music for THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING. With OperaZero, he has also composed the music for MY EYE WAS A CAMERA and A SLEEP OF REASON CREATES MONSTERS. Pea holds a BA in music composition from UCLA, where he also studied and performed Indian, Ugandan and Balinese musics in the school's famous ethnomusicology department. In addition to this, He has been involved in a myriad of experimental bands, most of which have releases on CD or LP. His current band, Optiganally Yours, has a growing worldwide fan base, and his CD, "Lucas and Friends Discover a World of Sounds" explores a found-sound history of everyday home-made audio recordings.

SCOTT FELDSHER was co-founder and artistic director of Sledgehammer Theatre in San Diego, California until his resignation in 1998. He currently serves in the honorary position of Founding Artistic Director for Sledgehammer. His directing credits at Sledgehammer include the world premieres of Mac Wellman's 7 BLOWJOBS, Kelly Stuart's THE PEACOCK SCREAMS WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT, and NEW, THE SAINT PLAYS (San Diego version), and NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT (commissioned and originally performed at the Whitney Museum of American Art) all written by Erik Ehn. Mr. Feldsher conceived and directed a trilogy of plays entitled U.S. HIGHWAY LOVE SLAVES, including SOUTH OF HEAVEN which he also wrote. Other Sledgehammer directing credits include HAMLET, Brecht's DRUMS IN THE NIGHT, ACTION, ENDGAME, PING (which he adapted from Beckett's short story), R.W. Fassbinder's PRE-PARADISE SORRY NOW, and the West coast premieres of Heiner Muller's DESPOILED SHORE/MEDEA MATERIAL/LANDSCAPE WITH ARGONAUTS and QUARTET. Also with Sledgehammer, Mr. Feldsher collaborated with H. Perry Taubman on new translations/adaptations of Georg Buchner's WOYZECK (retitled "Blow Out The Sun"), and LEONCE AND LENA, which was performed at the Old Globe Theatre's Cassius Carter Center Stage. Mr. Feldsher has also served as associate artistic director and literary manager of the San Diego Repertory Theatre where he produced and directed numerous projects including their new play series, a touring version of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, and the 1991 production of A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Most recently at the San Diego Rep, he and Douglas Jacobs co-wrote and co-directed a multi-media version of Sophocles' Theban Plays entitled THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING which won eleven Los Angeles Dramalogue awards including Best Production and Best Direction. Among other awards, Mr. Feldsher was a 1994 recipient of the prestigious NEA/Theatre Communications Group Directors Fellowship (one of four awarded nationally), which he used to expand his knowledge of opera and music theater, working at such renowned companies as the Houston Grand Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, and the Salzburg Festival in Austria. As a faculty member at Skidmore College in Saratoga, New York Mr. Feldsher recently adapted Gertrude Stein's THE WORLD IS ROUND into an opera with composer Pea Hicks. Also at Skidmore he conceived and directed THE IMP OF SIMPLICITY written by Erik Ehn, which will be published next year by PAJ Publications/Johns Hopkins University Press in an anthology of Mr. Ehn's collected works. Mr. Feldsher is a graduate of the University of California at San Diego Department of Theatre.