Summer Olsson (Tours & Artistic Relations) is an actor, director, writer and designer who joined Tricklock Company in 2002. She holds a BFA in theatre from the University of New Mexico, where she is now a teacher in Tricklock’s Ensemble Incubator class. Her directing credits include: the Southwestern première of Crave, by Sarah Kane (which went on to play at the prestigious Prague Quadrennial); Coax, a collection of unpublished new works by Neil Labute (produced in collaboration with the author); and Death’s Door, by Kerry Morrigan (the first American piece to ever play at the Masharkid Solo Festival in Israel). She also directed the professional premieres of In The Wind, by Eric Whitmore; and Welcome to the Family and Tangential, by Kevin R. Elder. She is currently directing the newest Tricklock original show, BellaDonna, opening in Fall 2007.

Summer is a co-writer of, and co-actor in, the highly acclaimed, world-touring show The Glorious and Bloodthirsty Billy the Kid, Greatest Serial Killer of Our Time. She is a co-writer and costar of Splinters, a dark fantasy masque for all ages. Most recently, she co-created and costarred in Black River Falling, a Tricklock original that garnered crtical and community acclaim in Albuquerque, and toured successfully to Europe. She also appeared in Mac Wellman’s Dracula, and Idris Goodwin’s Braising, both produced by Tricklock in collaboration with the playwrights. She recently played leads in the independent films The Faithful and the Foul (Egg Murders) and Hamlet the Vampire Slayer (Eat Drink and Be Larry). She also played a lead in Elana Greenfield’s radio play Transiberiada.

Summer has designed costumes for productions of Fool for Love by Sam Shepard; Eugene Ionesco’s Macbett; Highway 47 by K.J. Sanchez; Tricklock’s Love and Beauty, A Comic Massacre, Billy the Kid (on tour), and Black River Falling.

She has performed in several staged readings of new works, for their authors, including The Red Snake by Michael McClure, Dirty Girls Social Club by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, and Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination by Helen Fielding. Summer is a core trainer in Tricklock’s Manoa Project, and the workshop coordinator and artist liason for the Revolutions International Theatre Festival. Her work has been seen in the United States, Germany, Israel, Canada, Czech Republic, Poland, Scotland and Serbia.