The Cast of Your Other Left

(L-R: Merrily Antony, Alan McNeely, Tony Marcellino, Gretchen McNeely, Jennette Zarko. Not pictured, but loved just the same: Ruth Jenkins)

Merrily Antony
Born and raised in Mt. Gilead, Ohio, Merrily studied ballet, tap, jazz and classical piano. When she was a kid, she wanted to join the circus to ride horses after reading Nancy Drew, but her Mom wouldn't let her. Merrily started in theatre with a variety of roles in Marion (Ohio) Community Theatre's summer musical productions. She graduated from the University of Miami with a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Engineering Technology and has a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering. Portland became her home when she moved there for a man who is now her husband. Merrily started improv workshops in 1996 and began performing with ComedySportz-Portland later that year. She began performing with Your Other Left in 2002. She is also the very happy mama to 1-year-old Zach.

Ruth Jenkins
Ruth holds the Master of Science Degree in Speech and Language Pathology from Portland State University and a BFA in Acting from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Ruth, who joined ComedySportz-San Jose in January 1988 and co-founded ComedySportz-Portland in 1993, has performed in over 800 matches and 100 workshops, as well as founding ShakesProv, long-form improvised Shakespeare, in late 2001. Her latest stage role is “Mom” in the ongoing Thinking People’s Theatre production of New Canadian Kid. Ruth joined Your Other Left in the spring of 2002. She can make great pig noises. She is the mother of two rather awesome small humans: Cowan, whose memorization skills are enviable and who loves knights, Shakespeare, and the American Revolution; and his younger sister Fiona, a maniac elf who is fond of introducing herself into conversation with statements like “my skin is attached to me” and “I know all about the presidents . . . they’re dead.”

Tony Marcellino
Tony plays for ComedySportz-Portland, has played for ComedySportz-Eugene, and is a founding member of Your Other Left. He also put together “Skin and Bones”; a two-person long form/sketch Halloween show that plays annually at ComedySportz-Portland. Tony met his date for his Senior Prom in the ComedySportz High School League. As far as food goes, he loves anything Vanilla, Orange, and beverages that are blue (they make him feel like vacation). His favorite places are Disneyland and the ocean (particularly Mendocino, CA) and he loves snow. Tony has a rough, bad boy exterior, but get to know him and you'll find his sensitive side. And then you'll cuddle.

Alan McNeely
Alan is a founding member of Your Other Left and has performed with ComedySportz since 1994. Prior to that he appeared on stage infrequently, usually in roles that required his death, such as Miles in "The Innocents" or Jerry in "The Zoo Story." While in Ann Arbor, Michigan from 1998-2000 he directed television shows such as "Access Ann Arbor" and "Improv Kids" for the Community Television Network. During the day Alan is a software developer for Aston Group. Alan was born and raised in South Carolina and graduated from North Carolina State University in 1988. He was nearly booted off campus for having too many homemade paper objects (more than 200) on the wall of his dorm room, which created a fire hazard.

Gretchen McNeely
Don’t mess with Gretchen – she has her taekwondo black belt. She also majored in German at Dartmouth College, is a Fulbright Scholar and has sung the national anthem at three baseball parks. Gretchen, a founding member of Your Other Left, began her improv training in 1995 with Chicago's Players Workshop of the Second City, run by Jo Forsberg. She also appeared in several children's shows before moving to Portland in 1996. As a child, she directed little plays where she would cast her parents and grandparents and make them move around according to the blocking she set and say all the lines she had made up. In 1998 she completed a master's degree in information at the University of Michigan, and now works as a research librarian in MEMS and nanotechnology. Gretchen joined ComedySportz in 1997, finding both performance satisfaction and romance!

Jennette Zarko
Growing up in Montana, Jennette kept herself entertained by playing board games with her stuffed animals. No, she didn’t always win. “Hustle-Honeythistle-Before-You-Get-Sat-On Bear” was the smart one. She started in children’s theater at the age of 7 and has averaged 2-3 stage performances a year since then. Jennette holds a BFA in Performing Arts from Emerson College in Boston, MA. She had a brief stint in Los Angeles working in the casting offices of the CBS TV series “Touched By An Angel”, and then moved to Portland, where she began performing with ComedySportz in 2001. She is also a cast member of New Canadian Kid, playing Mencha, whose lines are all in gibberish. Jennette is a founding member of Your Other Left and has a bad habit of over-committing herself to anything involving improv.

Keyboardist: Knute Snortum
Knute Snortum went to the first ComedySportz-Portland meeting but didn't muster the courage to go to his first workshop until ten years later. He has been playing piano since he could reach the keys, as well as guitar, drums, trombone, Coke bottle, nose whistle, and any other odd object he can get a hold of. His favorite is those long pieces of seaweed you find washed up on the beach. He has been/is a professional musician, actor, software engineer, church music director, husband, father, online comics reader, dog walker, and lava lamp owner. He holds no degrees of note that he can remember except for one some community college gave him so he'd quit going to classes. He knows how many quarks are in a proton and that black holes emit radiation but this information never gets him very far in conversations at parties. That's why he stays home and watches "Enterprise" a lot.

Building Blocks:
Your Other Left would like to thank the following people for their participation in the troupe’s early days: John Breen, Geoff Kleinman, Tom Magee, Rance Rizzutto, and Jeff Schnabel.

(Back to Your Other Left)

URL: http://www.portlandcomedy.com/shows/yol_cast.html