Check out the lineup of The Placeholders, Big Blue Door‘s resident improv ensemble dedicated to the Monoscene.

The Placeholders are: Larry Goldstein. Larry spent 15 years touring his New Vaudeville show, helped start Live Arts, and for the past many years teaches the art of pretending at Tandem Friends School. He likes variety. Nik Hayes. Nik was born on the outskirts of Richmond in ’91 and graduated from UVA in ’13. He is currently working in a neuroscience lab and is planning on pursuing graduate studies someday. He plans on traveling abroad sooner than that and might hit up a few monasteries in the far out East. Maya Hislop. Maya is from Brooklyn, NY. She likes to watch every single camera comedy series she can find and eat pizza. Her real-life career ambition is to be a professor of American and African-American Literature, but she loves to dream about a life in comedy.

Kirk Martini. Kirk performs on stage weekly at UVa, subjecting architecture students to the stress of structural design. He grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and still misses cool summers and the sound of fog horns. He can sometimes be seen in yoga class at ACAC, working to avoid a faceplant while jumping into bakasana. Nauder Namaky. Nauder moved to Charlottesville from Austin, Texas (although, when it’s to his advantage he seems to be from Cincinnati). When he’s not doing improv or playing D&D, Nauder works as a project coordinator for a clinical psychology lab at UVa. Erik Swanson. Erik is a native Virginian. He spent too many years attending VA Tech to be a true resident of Charlottesville, but likes it here anyhow. In real life, he helps people design rotating machinery that spins really fast. He enjoys sailing and hang gliding, but rarely gets to do either. Brian Weisbrod. Brian is an improviser best known for his role as Professional Finance/Accounting Robot.  His credits include Accounting Analyst at a now defunct electronics retailer formerly based in Richmond, Senior Accountant and Finance Manager at a local University basketball arena, and most recently Assistant Controller at a local software company.  He listens regularly to comedy podcasts especially ones on the Earwolf network.  In 2015 you can catch him playing volleyball or soccer in his spare time, performing stand up comedy at open mic nights, or most importantly performing all around town with his improv groups The Lady Pills, Hot Dog Water, and The Placeholders.