 Kirsten Kelly, Director/Producer
Kirsten Kelly is a graduate of the masters program at The Juilliard School where she was awarded the prestigious Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship for Advanced Studies in Directing. She has directed theatre extensively in New York, Chicago, and Washington, DC where she was recently nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for Best Direction. She is also the Artistic Director of the Oceana Summer Youth Theatre where she directs Shakespeare with rural students. She was raised on an asparagus farm in Oceana County and is a proud former member of the pre-teen asparagus dance troupe, the "Oceana Stalkers."
 Anne de Mare, Director/Producer
Anne de Mare is an award-winning playwright, producer and director from New York City, where her original plays have been presented at The Ontological Theater, SoHo Rep, The Flea Theatre, The New York International Fringe Festival, and The Ohio Theatre (among others). Her pieces have also been produced in Chicago and most recently in London at The Jerwood Space. The Village Voice has hailed Anne's work as "ingenious" not to mention "fast-paced, wacky and savage," while TheatreWeek described her as "a considerable creative force."
This is the story of one rural American community scrambling to keep its proud identity and source of survival against impossible odds. Asparagus! Stalking the American Life journeys to the heart of asparagus country to discover why one little vegetable matters so much.
Asparagus! Stalking the American Life had its World Premiere in 2006 at the acclaimed Full Frame Documentary Film Festival - the largest documentary film festival in the U.S. - and toured the festival circuit throughout 2006-2007. It garnered Best Documentary awards at the Rural Route Film Festival in New York and East Lansing Film Festival, as well as Audience Awards at the Newburyport Documentary Film Festival and Waterfront Film Festival. The film also won the W. K. Kellogg Foundation Good Food Film Award at the Media That Matters Film Festival and a special finishing funds grant from P.O.V./American Documentary through New York's Museum of Television and Radio (recently renamed as The Paley Center). 
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