Electric Lodge Staff

• Joel Shapiro, Founder and Artistic Director
• Lizl Peter, Managing Director
  livearts@electriclodge.org
  310.306.1854
• Jenny Hodges, Technical Director

         jenny@electriclodge.org

• Lori McBrayer, Parking Artist
• Susan diRende, Max 10 Coordinator & Emcee
  max10@electriclodge.org

Board of Directors

• Justin Yoffe - President
• Amelia Xann
• Ryan Flegal
• Richard Korngute
• Annette Shapiro
• Joel Shapiro

A Special Thanks to our past Managers

• Todd Covert
• Jeanette Yoffe
• Ryan Flegal
• Miranda Morton

Bios

Joel Shapiro

The Electric Lodge was conceived and created by Dr. Joel Shapiro, a performer, an environmental activist and a physician. Joel created the Electric Lodge to build a home for fellow artists to work, to "paint" their personal and societal joys, angst, confusions, defeats and victories onto the canvas of a stage. In addition, Joel wanted a nucleus from which to spark discussion and debate, and to thereby find creative solutions for the environmental issues that face society both locally and around the globe. 

As an artist, he danced for 2 years with Aman International Folk Dance Ensemble; performed a solo piece for Pipeline (as well as studied for over 10 years with director and teacher Scott Kelman); acted in many original works with Electric Lodge's Founding Resident Theatrical Company, Venice Theater Works; danced in a re-creation of a 1960's group piece, by Ann Halpern, with Oguri's Body Weather Laboratory at the Geffen Contemporary; and has done numerous solo performances over the past 10 years at the Lodge. Recently, he performed an installation piece in the group show "In The Balance", at the Lodge, acted in 'Double Play' with the Rudy Perez Dance Theater at the REDCAT, and performed again with Oguri's BWL, at the REDCAT in "Caddy, Caddy, Caddy".

Joel's environmental passion has driven him for over 25 years. In 1980 he gave talks on "The Medical Consequences of Nuclear War", as a member of the Nobel Award honored international physician organization 'Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR)', describing, in detail, how a nuclear war would be the end of civilization. Continuing to demonstrate for environmental issues over the years, Joel's desire to encourage the goal of a sustainable Earthly environment, has led him to convert the Lodge to a solar powered venue and invite environmental activists to take advantage of the capacity of the Lodge.  He is now, with Justin Yoffe, Electric Lodge President, implementing Arts:Earth Partnership, which will be a consortium of Arts venues joining to lead, from the ground up, a solution to the global warming crisis.  We only have one fragile Earth ecosystem. Joel understands the big picture of the necessity of a sustainable ecological system, balancing human and other animal and plant needs, as the only long-term answer for our security and our very survival.

Joel has practiced general medicine/urgent care medicine now over 25 years, after graduating from Tufts University School of Medicine, in Boston, in 1980.

Through the balance of art, environment, medicine and business, Joel Shapiro continues to expand the reach of both himself and the Electric Lodge into the community and the world.

Lizl Peter

Lizl, our Managing Director, comes to us with eleven years of non-profit managing experience. She was Founder, Executive Director and Program Director of the LHP Educational Foundation, with an accomplished mission of conducting free of charge comprehensive after-school programs serving up to 160 disadvantaged elementary and middle school students daily.

 

Jenny Hodges

                            Jenny Hodges has been working in a theater somewhere off and on for

                            25 years. She moved to Los Angeles 10 years ago to be the assistant

                            art director on a game show. After she recovered from that experience,

                            she went to CalArts and got an MFA in creative writing. Her thesis (on-

                            going) is a set of essays about her work (on-going) as an artist's model

                            and what it means to be naked. She came to the Electric Lodge four

                            years ago as the production manager of the Broad Humor Film Festival,

                            and she enjoyed the place so much, she stayed. She is surprised and

                            pleased to have become their technical director and in-house lighting

                            designer.