Stockdale, Muriel: - Muriel was born and raised in England and moved to Long Island, NY. She was educated until age 13 in the United Kingdom went to High School in Huntington Long Island. She graduated in 1979, Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Vermont with a BS in Nutrition then earned her MFA in 1982 from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Design Department. She began early in entertainment as a stage manager for theater. In the 1970's she received a federal grant, with friends, to form a theater company in rural Vermont. Over the last 40 years, while maintaining a successful professional career in costume and scenic design, she has directed shows in NYC and in New England, performed onstage, crewed backstage, managed costume shops, designed and painted scenery, and taught aspiring designers. She is a Reiki healer, a writer, a media consultant and artist. Throughout, Muriel has extensively studied the cultures and religions of the world by reading many of the classic texts and through various classes, workshops, seminars, retreats and much travel. Her quest to understand human culture and ideas introduced her to a myriad of body, soul and spirit traditions and the many beautiful ways we humans have of expressing our sacred and sanctified existence. All of this informs her work whether it is in the fields of art, writing or entertainment.