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Faculty / staff
Berkeley Rep School of Theatre faculty and staff are highly trained professional theatre artists who work regularly in their respective areas of expertise.
staff
Rachel Fink
is the Director of the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre and has served as the Associate General Manager of Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Over the past eight years, she has overseen the School of Theatre’s major expansion into a newly-renovated facility with significant program development and staff growth. These programs now serve over 22,000 students (ages five—adult) annually in 13 counties throughout the Bay Area. Prior to moving to the Bay Area, Ms. Fink was the Managing Director of the Yale Cabaret and has worked at theaters across the country including the Yale Repertory Theatre, International Festival of Arts and Ideas, Long Wharf Theatre and the Cleveland Play House. She is on the board of Theatre Bay Area, is currently the chair of the Theatre Bay Area’s Theatre Services Committee, has served as the chair of the Berkeley Arts in Education Steering Committee and was a founding member of Teaching Artists Organized, a networking and training resource for Bay Area teaching artists. In association with Theater Communications Group and Theatre Bay Area, she recently planned “New Leaders for A New Century”, a national conference for emerging arts leaders. She has participated in Theater Communication Group’s “Expanding the Theatre Manager’s Repertoire,” The League of American Theatres and Producers’ “Commercial Theatre Institute” and was a member of the Producer Development Program. In addition, Ms. Fink has taught acting at Case Western Reserve University and the Cain Park School of the Arts. Ms. Fink received her B.A. in Theatre Arts from Case Western Reserve University and her M.F.A. in Theater Management from the Yale School of Drama.
MaryBeth Cavanaugh
is the associate director of the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre. REGIONAL (Choreographer): California Shakespeare Theater for fifteen seasons, where she is an Associate Artist; Oregon Shakespeare Festival, for five seasons as choreographer and actor; Berkeley Repertory Theatre; The New Victory Theater; Yale Repertory Theatre; Cincinnati Playhouse; Repertory Theatre of St. Louis; La Mama E.T.C.; Aurora Theatre Company; Shakespeare Santa Cruz; Lincoln Center Director’s Lab; San Francisco Shakespeare Festival; TheatreWorks; Shakespeare at Stinson; Mills College Rep; Summerfest Dance. DIRECTING: Twelfth Night, North Bay Shakespeare Company; Measure for Measure and The Red Wheelbarrow, Shakespeare at Stinson; Peter and the Wolf, Napa Valley Repertory Theatre. Ms. Cavanaugh currently teaches in the M.F.A. program in the Department of Theatre and Dance at U.C. Davis and has taught in the Department of Theater, Dance and Performance studies at U.C. Berkeley, California Shakespeare Theater and at the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre where she is the Associate Director. She received her M.F.A. in Dance Composition from Mills College.
Dave Maier, Jan & Howard Oringer Outreach Coordinator
Gendell Hernández, Education Associate
Emika Abe, School Administrator
Devon LaBelle, Intern
faculty
Erica Blue
has a B.A. in Dance/Theatre and Child Development from Sarah Lawrence College. She founded The Raw Material Performance Ensemble in Amsterdam. For the last 10 years, she has taught and performed around the US. Her solo work has been performed at La Mama in New York and The Cleveland Performance Art Festival, and has won Best of the Fringe in San Francisco and Seattle. Now a mother of two boys, she has redoubled her enthusiasm for teaching young people to explore their imaginations.
Jon Burnett
is a teacher and professional actor and has performed in Seattle, Atlanta, New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area. Jon has taught theatre to students ranging from kindergarten through undergraduate college, and found inspiration, profound laughter and empathy at every level.
Ron Campbell
played the title role in R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe and had leading roles in Salome and Teatro ZinZanni. A founding member of The Actor’s Gang and associate artist of Cal Shakes. His performances include: The London Fringe One-man Show of the Year Award, LA Drama Critics Circle Award, The Bay Area Critics’ Circle Award (for Lead & Solo Perormance.), four KPBS Patte Awards, four Backstage West Garland Awards, 15 Dramalogue Awards and a 2002 Helen Hayes Award Nomination. He has worked at Mark Taper Forum, Seattle Rep, San Diego Rep, Old Globe, Old Red Lion Theatre (London), the Intiman and Edinburgh.
Rebecca Castelli
is an experienced vocal teacher, as well as professional actress and singer. She holds a bachelor’s degree in voice and theatre and a Master of Fine Arts in Performance. Throughout her academic and professional career, Rebecca has performed leads in over 30 plays and musicals with her most recent appearance being Lady Chiltern in Porchlight Theatre’s 2006 production of An Ideal Husband. She has recently added dialect instruction to her private voice classes, and has been the dialect coach for La Luna Theatre Collective and Theatre Rhinoceros, and will be dialect coaching Porchlight Theatre’s production of An Enchanted April in the spring of 2007.
Roni Dengel
has played leading roles on Broadway, in repertory theatres across the country and in scores of prime time television dramas and series. She is the founding Artistic Director of the award-winning CharActors Theatre Company and The Working Actor professional theatre studio, both in NYC; also, a Master Teacher at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in NY and at The Actors’ Centre in London’s West End, where she has directed plays of Tennessee Williams and Anton Chekhov.
Laura Derry
is an improviser, actor, teacher, director and musician in the Bay Area. She has been performing with BATS Improv since 1991, and teaching since 1993. Laura teaches a wide range of students from five year olds through 90 year olds, and loves to create a safe place for people to learn, grow, take risks and have fun improvising. Laura has taught at BATS Improv, A.C.T., Cal Shakes, Young Audiences, UC Berkeley, Stanford University, Miami Ad School, Special Focus and Academy of Art University.
Lura Dolas
has taught for Continuing Education for the Bar in SF and LA, and is on the acting faculty of the department of theater, dance and performance studies at UC Berkeley. In addition to conducting corporate seminars and private coaching, she has taught acting for A.C.T., Berkeley Rep, the Boston University Theatre Institute and Cal Arts. Her performance experience includes leading roles with the Aurora Theatre, California, Santa Fe, Oregon and San Francisco Shakespeare Festivals, Sacramento Theater Company, Empty Space Theater and Emory Theater.
James Donlon
returns to Berkeley Rep with four decades of experience as a master teacher and international performer. He has been on the faculties of acting schools such as A.C.T., North Carolina School of the Arts, The National Theatre Conservatory-Denver Center and The Yale School of Drama, and has presented residencies with special institutions like El Teatro Campesino, Mexico City’s Bellas Artes, Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus Clown College where he taught Tony Award-winner Bill Irwin. He has been a film movement coach for Oscar-winners Javier Bardem, Kathy Bates and Frances McDormand, as well as Benjamin Bratt and David Strathairn. James is the only physical theater artist ever invited to perform with legendary San Francisco street mime Robert Shields of CBS Shields & Yarnell. James has performed his original work throughout North American, Europe and Latin America to critical acclaim. The New York Times describes his theater as “an extraordinary blend of skill and lunacy.”
Deborah Eubanks
majored in Theater Arts at Harold Pinter Studios (England). She has designed and implemented workshops with Stephen Hawking’s Company at Covent Garden Arts Center (Cambridge). She has written and directed for London’s Age Exchange, created and produced two teen operettas and has been teaching and directing in Bay Area for sixteen years. She has taught at A.C.T., SF Shakes and USF, worked as dialect and vocal coach for the Aurora Theatre and the Spreckles Performing Arts Center and recorded narration for Dean Lesher’s Christmas. Deborah is also the lead playwright for 2007 SF Fringe Diva Fest.
Nancy Gold
is the author of Finding Your Funny Bone! The Actors Guide to Physical Comedy and Characters, published by Smith and Kraus. She has taught at Berkeley Rep School of Theatre, A.C.T. Young Conservatory, Vector Theatre, UCLA, Univ. of Illinois, Foothill College and throughout the Bay area public and private schools. Nancy studied with Jacques LeCoq, Ctibor Turba and has a Masters Equivalency from Foothill College and a B.F.A. from the Univ. of Illinois.
Gary Graves
is a company co-director of Central Works Theater Ensemble in Berkeley. Now in its twelfth season, Central Works is dedicated to the development of new works for the theater. He has written and directed numerous productions with Central Works, at U.C. Berkeley, Hardback Theater and American Theater Arts in Los Angeles. He holds an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Southern Illinois University and a Ph.D. in directing from U.C. Berkeley.
Marvin Greene
is a professional actor and has performed with major regional theatres such as A.C.T., Aurora Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre and San Jose Rep. Marvin has been an instructor at A.C.T. since 1994 and also teaches at U. C. Berkeley and at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco.
Gendell Hernández
has taught for Berkeley Rep School of Theatre for the past five years. Past credits include Beatbox: A Raparetta, which he directed for the NY Hip Hop Festival, Around the World in 80 Days at Center Rep, Sons of Don Juan with San Jose Rep, Oil! with Word for Word, Show Up at New Pickle Circus, The Gate of Heaven at the Old Globe and Romeo and Juliet at Shotgun Players, for which he won a Critics Circle Award for fight choreography.
Brian Herndon
has been working as an actor and teacher in the Bay Area for the last ten years. He is currently on the faculty of the Actor Training Program at Solano College and Odyssey School in San Mateo. Brian has performed with theatres all over the Bay Area such as TheatreWorks, Aurora Theatre, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Marin Theatre Company and the California Shakespeare Theatre. Most recently, he returned from reprising his role as Mr. Elton in Jane Austen’s Emma at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. He holds an M.F.A. in Acting from the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and attended the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre. He is a proud member of the PlayGround Acting Company and Actors’ Equity Association.
Geoff Hoyle
was the original Zazu in the Broadway cast of The Lion King and performed off-Broadway in his solo Feast of Fools and in Mr. Fox by Bill Irwin. He trained with Marcel Marceau’s teacher Etienne Decroux, and clowned with Circus Flora, Pickle Family Circus and Cirque du Soleil. His award-winning shows have been seen in New York, San Francisco, Paris, London, Berlin, Taiwan, England and the former Soviet Union. He has received several National Endowment for the Arts mime fellowships, as well as an ArtsLink grant to visit circuses in Latvia and Russia and a TCG/Pew National Theatre Artist’s Residency Program Fellowship.
Andrew Hurteau
has been acting and teaching since he graduated from the American Conservatory Theater. He has performed with Berkeley Rep, Magic Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, Aurora Theatre Company and throughout the Bay Area. Andrew teaches at A.C.T., the Academy of Art University and the Nueva School. He is currently appearing in Nicholas Nickelby, Parts I and II at the Cal Shakes.
Ben Johnson
has worked as a professional performer and teacher since 1997. Recently he has appeared as a featured clown on Cirque du Soleil’s show Alegria; as Merrick in Bernard Pomerance’s The Elephant Man; and as a core company member of Improv Jones, a long-form improvisational theatre company based in Providence, RI. Ben holds a Master’s degree in teaching from Brown University and has taught for UCSD, URI, Wheaton College, the ArtsLiteracy Project at Brown University and at public and private schools in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and California.
Dave Maier
is an actor, director and fight choreographer who has been working with young artists for over 14 years. Most recently he was a Teaching Artist for the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts in both their Lincoln Center Institute and Kaleidoscope programs. He has also been on the faculty of A.C.T.’s Young Conservatory, The Seattle Children’s Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre and The Intiman Theatre, among others. He has designed and taught residencies for the public school systems of Seattle, Contra Costa County, Berkeley and Oakland, as well as several private schools. He is the resident drama teacher at Berkwood Hedge School. He is a core member of Berkeley’s award winning Shotgun Players and the Actors’ Equity Association. Dave has certified as an actor combatant with Society of American Fight Directors and has trained with Dueling Arts International.
Joan Mankin
has been an actress/teacher/director in the Bay Area for many years. She has performed with A.C.T., Cal Shakes, San Diego Rep, TheaterWorks, Marin Theater Company, A Travelling Jewish Theater, the Magic Theater, San Jose Stage, Center Rep and most recently with the international production of Black Rider in Los Angeles at the Ahmanson Theatre. She was a company member of The SF Mime Troupe, the Dell’Arte Players and Pickle Circus. She has directed for the Magic Theater, SF Shakespeare Festival and Make-A-Circus, as well as several solo shows. She has taught at SF State, A.C.T. Conservatory, UC Santa Cruz, Antioch College and is currently on the staff of the Clown Conservatory of the S.F. Circus Center.
Marilet Martinez
studied theatre at the A.C.T. Young Conservatory and SF Mime Troupe, and is a graduate of the Pacific Conservatory for the Performing Arts. She has performed with Teatrovision, Busbarn Theatre Company, Custom Made Theatre Company, Outlook Theatre Project, and played Romeo last summer in the Woman’s Will production of Romeo and Juliet. She has also toured and trained with Kaiser Permanente’s Educational Theatre Programs for the last four years, teaching students grades K–12 about making healthy choices.
Leslie Martinson
is the associate artist and casting director at TheatreWorks, where she has directed many shows, including Theophilus North last season. She has also directed for Shakespeare’s Associates, Underworld Opera, First Seen and City Lights Theater Company. A graduate of Occidental College, she was a Watson Fellow, a member of Lincoln Center Directors Lab and a member of the LaMaMa International Directing Symposium. She serves on Theatre Bay Area’s Theatre Services Committee and conducts workshops for many Bay Area universities and theatre academies.
Alex Moggridge
has performed and taught in San Francisco, New York, London and Taiwan. He has acted with such companies as A.C.T., Berkeley Rep, San Jose Rep, The Aurora Theatre, the Magic Theatre, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Utah Shakespearean Festival, MCC in New York and New Perspectives in the UK. As a playwright, his work has been seen at the Playground Emerging Playwrights Festival and off-Broadway in the Summer Play Festival. Alex has taught with A.C.T., San Francisco Shakespeare Festival and Touchstone Theatre Company in London. He holds an M.F.A. in acting from A.C.T.
Jonathan Moscone
is the artistic director at Cal Shakes. Moscone earned his M.F.A. in directing from the Yale School of Drama before serving for seven years as the associate director of the Dallas Theatre Center. Moscone’s directing credits include Berkeley Rep, Goodspeed Musicals, Intiman Theater, Portland Stage Company and the Magic Theatre. He is a recipient of a Princess Grace Award for Directing and his productions in the Bay Area have earned him Bay Area Theater Critics Circle and Dean Goodman Awards.
Andy Murray
is a working actor who has taught at the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre for seven years. He is an associate artist at CalShakes where he has played major roles in over twenty productions. He has also acted at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, A.C.T., San Jose Rep, The Shakespeare Theatre, The McCarter, Seattle Rep and Kansas City Rep, among many others.
Michael Navarra
is an Equity actor who has played leading roles with San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, Word for Word, Traveling Jewish Theatre, Pacific Alliance, Sierra Rep, Pacific Rep, Central Works, AlterTheater and Shakespeare A Firenze in Italy. He has taught at the University of Washington, SF Shakespeare, Marin Shakespeare and Berkeley Rep. Michael is a graduate of UC Irvine and earned an M.F.A. in Acting from the University of Washington.
Robert Parsons
has been an actor, teacher and director in the Bay Area for the past 12 years. Acting credits include roles with A.C.T., Berkeley Rep, Magic Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, San Francisco Shakespeare and many others. Regionally Robert has appeared at the Ahmanson Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, the Alley Theatre and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He has taught for Solano College’s Actor Training Program, Marin Shakespeare Festival, Colorado College, the Wilma Theatre and Temple University. Robert holds an M.F.A. in acting from Temple University.
Lisa Anne Porter
is a designated Linklater voice instructor, an acting, voice, dialect and text professor in the B.F.A. program at Syracuse University and a professional actress and director. She has also taught master classes in voice and text at A.C.T., Cal Shakes, Shakespeare & Company, The Tepper Center in NYC, Naropa University and the Academy of Art University. She has performed with numerous repertory companies and Shakespeare festivals throughout the country including A.C.T., San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Cal Shakes, Shakespeare/Santa Cruz among others.
Amy Potozkin
is the Casting Director at Berkeley Rep. She has been a private acting and audition coach to hundreds of professional actors and taught acting to children and teenagers at Chapel Hill Chauncy Hall Summer Theatre School for six seasons. She is a member of Actors’ Equity Association and has performed at numerous theatres around the country. She received her M.F.A. in Acting and Directing at Brandeis University.
Diane Rachel
has been performing and teaching at BATS School of Improv since 1989. She created a specialty long form program with a focus on intimate acting and stage combat, and her work has attracted an international following. Locally, Diane has taught improvisation at A.C.T., Stanford, Hayward State and College of Marin; internationally she’s led improvisation workshops in Melbourne, Paris, Amsterdam, Tampere and Helsinki. Diane is a founding member of San Francisco’s preeminent improv group, True Fiction Magazine.
Michael Storm
has been working as an actor in the Bay Area for the past 15 years. He has appeared with the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Napa Valley Repertory, San Jose Stage Company, Shakespeare at Stinson, Cal Shakes and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. He was born in Berkeley and attended the University of California at Irvine where he received degrees in drama and economics. He has taught for the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, A.C.T. and Berkeley Rep School of Theatre. Michael is a certified Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors.
Rebecca Stockley
is co-founder of BATS Improv in San Francisco with whom she continues to coach and play. She has been teaching and performing improvisational theatre since the mid ‘80s and has created and implemented improvisation training for numerous theatre training programs. Rebecca attended the University of Washington Professional Actor Training Program in Seattle. Rebecca’s company, Improvlady.com brings improvisation to business training, working with companies as diverse as British Petroleum and Pixar Animation Studios.
Tony Taccone
is the artistic director of Berkeley Rep, where he has worked since 1988 and served in his current position since 1997. His most recent directorial credits include the world premiere of David Edgar’s Continental Divide for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Rep, Birmingham Rep (UK), the Barbicon Theatre (UK) and the La Jolla Playhouse, and Sarah Jones’ Bridge and Tunnel in New York City. He has directed more than twenty-five plays for Berkeley Rep including Surface Transit, Homebody/Kabul, Culture Clash in AmeriCCa and The Oresteia. Before coming to Berkeley Rep, Mr. Taccone served as the Artistic Director of Eureka Theatre in San Francisco. He has also worked at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arizona Theatre Company, San Jose Rep and Yale Rep. He had the great honor of co-directing the world premiere of Angels in America at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.
Stephen Barker Turner
appeared in Cymbeline (Posthumus), The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (Nicholas Nickleby) and As You Like It (Orlando) at Cal Shakes where he is an associate artist. He performed in Hedda Gabler (Lovborg) at A.C.T., where he will appear in three productions next season. He has also performed with Williamstown Theatre Festival, Arena Stage, Long Wharf, Intiman, Denver Center, Eugene O’ Neil Theatre Center, Center Stage and New York Stage and Film. Turner is a graduate of Julliard School and a Fox Fellow.
Abigail van Alyn
has appeared in principal roles in more than twenty made-for-TV and major motion pictures. Her credits include True Believer, Final Analysis, Tucker, The Pursuit of Happyness and SF Filmmaker Lynn Hershman’s Technolust, with Tilda Swinton. For two years, she played the devious spy Fiona Lowry in Electronic Arts’ live-action digital game, Majestic. On stage, she was a member of the Eureka Theatre Company for 10 years, with multiple roles in Road, Fen and Top Girls, among many others. She has received several BATCC awards, including best actress in Berkeley Rep’s The Stickwife. Out of town, she had the honor of appearing with ACT veteran Sydney Walker, as Goneril in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s King Lear. Outside the theater, Abigail has designed and facilitated corporate on-camera workshops in communication and presentation skills since 1984. She holds a certificate in Integral Coaching from New Ventures West, San Francisco, and has an active practice in Executive Coaching.
Ben Yalom
is founder and artistic director of foolsFURY, a physically-oriented theatre ensemble based in San Francisco. Under his leadership, foolsFURY has recently been hailed as San Francisco’s “Best Theater Company (2008)” by the San Francisco Weekly, “one of the brightest stars of the San Francisco experimental theater scene” (SF Arts Monthly) and awarded the GOLDIE award by the San Francisco Bay Guardian. He teaches both playwriting and physical performance at California College of the Arts, and has also taught at the La MaMa Umbria Director’s Symposium, Stanford University and Vassar College.