Heather spent her youth rehearsing an Annie-inspired musical she wrote with her best friend and acting out Little House on the Prairie-inspired dramas into a tape recorder. She also devoted many hours to whisper-singing in her bedroom and perfecting the Tramp’s defeated expression from a pivotal scene in Disney’s Lady and the Tramp. She loves improv because it feels like childhood. She’s willing to get on stage because singalongs work best with a crowd. And she’s grateful to Mopco for providing that space, so she doesn’t have to invite all those people over. https://www.heathereschwartz.com

Mike comes from an improvised family. His brother, Patrick, got him in touch with Michael Burns when Mopco was looking for a backup keyboard player. Michael sent him Down the Rabbit Hole while waiting for the primary piano player to bolt, and there’s been no looking back. Mike likes to play strange, slightly clueless, but reasonably nice characters, in other words himself, when he’s not providing the instrumental platform. He’s a songwriter and performs in concert settings when not making stuff up. Mike is the oldest “Mopcoian.” He is, in fact, 206. He’ll do this until he can’t drive at night.

Craig has had the privilege of performing improv at Mopco for the past 7 years. During that time, he’s been able to develop as a performer with great players, performing regularly, thanks to Mopco’s regular improv classes. Craig is also an active singer/songwriter and visual artist. He is the founder of the Electric City Arts Contest, an annual online art contest open to all forms of art, including visual, music, literature, etc. He can be found mulling around the Schenectady Stockade, just blocks from where he first moved here over 40 years ago!

Hayes has been in front of audiences as long as he can remember. He began singing with his mother and his sisters in a well-known gospel group named the Fields singers. He then was introduced to theatre formally through the Harlem Children's Theater Co. Hayes was able to perform in Europe and Africa because of this troupe, as well as most of the major stages and Off-Broadway stages in New York City. Hayes sings, plays guitar, writes music, and has created some music videos on social media. Hayes is probably the worst dancer that has ever performed in theater. He has however been allowed to do movement in two productions of Ain't Misbehavin’ in Albany New York. Hayes was formally introduced to the world of improv through The Mopco Theatre of upstate New York. His passion for this form of theater continues to grow by leaps and bounds, because of great instructors like Michael Burns. Hayes is currently pursuing his dreams of theatre in every form, including voiceovers, film, stage, and whatever opportunity presents itself. However dancing, he shall eschew as though it was an ancient plague that has been enclosed in a sarcophagus sealed by an evil wizard's curse.

Riley started taking improv classes around the turn of the century and ran a weekly jam for 3 years in Massachusetts (“Home By Ten—Improv for the Middle Aged and the Middle Aged at Heart”). And she’s been hired by a few cohousing communities to run improv workshops. BUT she never joined a performing troupe until moving to Schenectady and finding the welcoming, age-diverse Mopco community. When not impersonating animals and inanimate objects, Riley attempts to save America from itself through deep canvassing and election reform… activities that are about as lucrative as performing improv.

Kara’s earliest performance as a villager in the 3rd grade production of “The Magic Pasta Pot” was neither memorable nor the beginning of any kind of desire to perform. That would come some 30 years later when saying yes to a one-off improv class led to becoming instantly hooked to an artform and community of amazing people. A proud former recipient of the Mopco Annual Get Shit Done Award (2016), when not doing improv Kara is singing in their car, and recharging in their private bio-pod they share with a small quadruped feline while entertaining people by passing along memes and fun history facts they learned with anyone who will listen.

Catherine likes to think she is new at improv, but her pandemic hobby was tabletop roleplaying, which is basically just improv with a lot more math. After some past stints doing community theater and taking a class with The Mopco Improv Theatre in 2022, she threw caution to the wind and decided to audition for Down the Rabbit Hole. Then, to her surprise, she managed to get in! When she is not busy being a funny little guy on stage, Catherine does marketing and marketing-adjacent things in the games industry.

Rachel Balon started taking classes at the Mopco, worked in the snack bar, has been lighting improviser for a lot of shows, and is also an improviser with Down The Rabbit Hole. She’s great. (She didn’t write this, by the way)