Biography

Natalie Greene (Director of Education & Community Programs) is an artist and educator working at the intersection of dance, theater, and community engagement. Natalie worked with the award-winning devised performance ensemble Mugwumpin for more than a decade, and was Artistic Director from 2016-2022. As a choreographer and intimacy director, Natalie has worked with 42nd St. Moon, AlterTheater, Aurora Theater, Cal Shakes, Center Rep, Custom Made, Cutting Ball, Portland Center Stage, and Shotgun Players. Her dance-theater work has been presented by California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco Airport, ODC Theater, Dance Mission Theater, San Francisco City Hall, Danspace (NYC), DiMenna Center/Baryshnikov Arts (NYC), Club Principe (Spain), and Montescudaio Amphitheater (Italy). Natalie has performed with numerous Bay Area dance companies and choreographers including Deborah Slater, Emily Keeler, Erin Mei-Ling Stuart, Kim Epifano, and Mary Armentrout.

As Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Performing Arts & Social Justice at the University of San Francisco from 2006-2021, Natalie directed USF's intergenerational performance company Dance Generators and led the international exchange program Minds in Motion in Tacna and Lima, Peru. She has served on faculty at San Francisco State University, ODC School, and San Francisco Arts Education Project, and has led workshops and trainings in the United States, Peru, Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia and Ecuador.  Natalie is a passionate advocate for socially-conscious arts education. Her research focuses on ethical means and specific tactics for bringing people together for embodied creative experiences that build a culture of consent.

Biography

Viera Whye is Co-Founder and has been the Producing Artistic Director for Tabia African American Theatre Ensemble and San Jose Multicultural Artists Guild since its inception in 1985, she is excited to celebrate their 40th anniversary in 2025! She earned her BA in Theatre and Sociology from Towson University in Baltimore, and her MA in Theatre from San Jose State. Viera is a Director, Actor, Poet, Educator, Administrator, and HR Professional. She has numerous stage, film, and commercial credits. Viera proudly invested in the Broadway productions of Piano Lessons and Thoughts of A Colored Man helping to include BIPOC as Broadway Producers.

Viera successfully combines art and technology in her role as a Diversity and Inclusion Specialist. Prior to Intel she was employed as a Telecommunications professional for many years at Siemens Communications. Viera is very active in the San Jose community and a member of several organizations that advocate for equity of health, education, and economic empowerment for women and BIPOC.

Viera has received extensive recognition and awards, most recently a Santa Clara County Lifetime Achievement Award, and DEI Community Leader Award from the SC Women’s Network in 2024, she was one of the inaugural Silicon Valley Black Legends Award recipients in 2015 (and the Whye-Piper Arts award is presented each year in her and David Piper’s name). She was selected as one of Silicon Valley Biz Journals’ 2020 100 Women of Influence.

She is proud mom to two handsome and witty adult sons Copeland Bryan and Courtney Bryan.

Biography

Rebecca J. Ennals (she/her) is a Community Connections Liaison in the Education and Community Programs department at A.C.T., in addition to having stage managed several workshops and productions for the company. Last year, she directed Measure for Measure for the inaugural season of the A.C.T. OUT Tour. 

Rebecca spent 21 seasons on the staff of San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, including 10 seasons as Artistic Director, where she oversaw all aspects of production, education, and artistic programming. Her projects at SF Shakes included directing 8 school tours and 6 productions of Free Shakespeare in the Park, and devising and producing the pop-up Shakespeare events 30 Days of Free Shakespeare in the Parklet and 35 Famous Speeches in 35 Famous Places, which activated public spaces and further expanded access to the arts through civic-based theater. She also founded SF Shakes’ internship program and actively mentored dozens of early-career theater artists.

Ennals is currently a lecturer in stage management and theater appreciation at U.C. Berkeley. She is passionate about co-creating collaborative and supportive cultures in which diverse theater-makers can thrive. Her interests include free civic theater, increasing access to the arts, and environmentally responsible theater-making in the time of climate crisis.

Ennals holds an M.F.A. from UC Davis and a B.A. from Scripps College and is a graduate of Directors’ Lab West. Her favorite creative collaborations are Henry (10) and Eddie (7).

Biography

Anelisa Armijo Montoya (she/they) is an actor, playwright, and musician from Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 2020, she graduated from the University of New Mexico with her BFA in Theatre with a concentration in performance. She takes special interest in new work and scrappy theatre. Since moving to San Francisco in the fall of 2021, Anelisa has worked with American Conservatory Theater as a Production Assistant, Assistant Stage Manager, Prop Designer, and Stage Management PA for mainstage shows and the MFA Program. Anelisa has also worked as a Wardrobe Supervisor and Assistant Costume Designer for San Francisco Shakespeare Company’s 2022 summer production, Much Ado About Nothing, and co-produced Downtown High School’s Fall Exhibition, “Caught in the Achievement Gap” in December of 2023 in A.C.T.’s Strand Theater. In October 2024, she will perform in Awesome Theater's production "Terror-Rama V: The Last Final Chapter", making her San Francisco acting debut.

Biography

Adam Mendez Jr. (he/him) is an actor, musician, and teaching artist originally from the Bay Area. Adam received his BA in Theater (Acting Concentration) from Arizona State University in 2016, along with training from The Groundlings. He also has extensive training in Modern Movement, Physical Theater, Musical Theater , Improv, Sketch Writing,  and Ensemble Building Techniques. With focus on collaborative ensemble building practices within the TYA community, Adam takes his work and teachings across Arizona, Montana, Los Angeles and the Bay Area.

Adam has taught with Grandstreet Theater (Helena, MT), Childsplay (Tempe, AZ), Mesa Arts Center (Mesa, AZ), Phoenix Center for the Arts, Greybox Collective, Berkeley Playhouse and Kaiser Permanente Educational Theater (LA & SF). Adam has also written an autobiographical one person show “Chicano in the Sun”, directed by Ricky Araiza. Adam’s Theater Acting credits also include Leaf Coneybear in 25^th Annual Putnam… (Idaho State University), Segismund from Life is a Dream, Clopin in Hunchback of Notre Dame (South Bay Encore Theater), Henry Reyna in Zoot Suit (OC Shakespeare Company), Tomas in Tomas & the Library Lady (Childsplay), along with working on readings such as Banned Play with Richard Montoya (ASU-Performance in the Borderlands), Daniel in That Day In Tuscon & The Boy in Hit Music with Guillermo Reyes, Asterion with Bill Partlan and Selena Maria Sings with Miriam Gonzales (Childsplay). Adam also has commercial & film credits with Omeleto, Fox, Carter Ink Films, Universal Studios and KP Educational Theater’s The Password, winning Telly Awards and servicing the TYA community from 2020-2022. Along with VO credits, Adam voices Lucho Luchon in Beyond The Ring with Daisy King, working with Ramona Young (currently on Audible).

Adam made his Bay Area acting debut as Wickersham Bro in Seussical (Berkeley Playhouse) last Winter, with his next acting opportunity in portraying Alex in Jesse Sanchez’s first full production of his newest musical Suenos at LPC (Livermore, CA), directed by Karina Guiterrez.

Biography

ANDY ALABRAN (he/him) received his B.A. in Theater from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and his M.F.A. in Acting from the American Conservatory Theater. He has 20 years of experience as a teacher, director, and performer in the Bay Area. He has taught at the American Conservatory Theater Young Conservatory and Studio, California Shakespeare Theater, Oakland School for the Arts, 826 Valencia (Tenderloin), Voice One, Stagebridge, Mission High, Burton High School, and Hayward High School. He directed A.C.T.'s Young Conservatory productions of "Electra", "The Glass Menagerie", "Discovering Beckett", and "The Importance of Being Earnest". He served as voice and speech coach for the Y.C. productions: "Begets", "The Wolves", and "Hookman". He has performed with Theatre First, the Shotgun Players, and Killing My Lobster. A current company member of the Shotgun Players since 2000, his acting credits include Woyzeck, The Death of Meyerhold, A Seagull in the Hamptons, Truffaldino Says No (world premiere), and Mother Courage. He served as Creative Director with San Francisco’s premiere sketch comedy group Killing My Lobster. With KML, he also performed, wrote, directed, taught, and produced where credits included The Shakespeare Bug (world premiere), The Whole Megillah, KML Plays with Beckett (at A.C.T.), and Patronizes the Arts.

Biography

Aureen Almario (she/her/siya) is an educator and artist. Her pedagogy is rooted in her experience in Early Childhood Education and training in Pin@y Educational Partnership. She is an Asian American Studies and theater arts adjunct faculty at various Bay Area colleges and universities, as well as a freelance teaching artist for K-12, including American Conservatory Theater and Brava Theater. She is the Artistic Director of Bindlestiff Studio and is the co-founder of the sketch comedy troupe Granny Cart Gangstas. Her latest puppetry projects include Shadows for Carlos Villa with Shadowlight Productions which she co-directed with the late Larry Reed, puppetry director in Black Benatar’s Black Magic Cabaret, ensemble member for Ramon Abad’s Pickles, shadowplay for Golda Sargento’s Darkheart and The Ground with Odd Savvy Production. November 2026, she will be directing Identite-a part of the Tagalog Festival, an international collaboration with Virgin Lab Fest in Manila. Her work explores the intersection of immigration, identity, diaspora, gender and labor and she is currently developing a multi-disciplinary performance art project, Bulong. She was a resident artist at Memeraki Arts in Limassol, Cyprus for the video installation project Body of Work: Work of Body with Yawen Chien--an exploration of family, migration and womanhood. 

Biography

Biography

Callie Floor, since coming to the Bay Area in 1987, she has designed for many theaters, including  ACT, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, Magic Theatre, San Francisco Mime Troupe, California Shakespeare Theatre, West Bay Opera, Zaccho Dance Theatre, Word for Word, and San Francisco Opera Merola Program. 

Biography

Josh Matthews (They/He) is a teacher, actor, and clown/circus performer. He has traveled around the world with his theater company, Under the Table, performing original plays. Josh Has performed at The Lincoln Center (NYC), The Big Apple Circus (NYC) and Third Rail Projects (NYC) to name a few companies. Josh has been a teaching artist and guest lecturer for the past 25 years, some of the organizations Josh has worked with have been the New Victory Theater, Word For Word theater company, American Conservatory Theater, Occidental College, Sarah Lawrence College, and New York University. Currently Josh serves as their artistic program director the Medical Clown Project.

Biography

Adam Mendez Jr. is a theater artist & musician who focuses on ensemble-building & collaboration through social emotional learning. Originally a Bay Area native (with deep roots to Montana), Adam received his BA in Theater (Acting Concentration) from Arizona State University. From there, Adam discovered the profound impacts that TYA could provide to the next upcoming generations, leading to him performing & teaching with numerous companies spanning across Phoenix, Los Angeles & the Bay Area (Childsplay, Kaiser Permanente Educational Theater, Berkeley Playhouse, many more).  Adam has also received training from The Groundlings and The Comedy Project, sharing the knowledge he gained from these spaces into numerous workshops, classes, and educational opportunities. Adam’s main focus in teaching are: Improv, Physical Comedy, Modern Movement, Devising, Puppetry, Acting (Film & Theater), and Composition.

Adam’s very first theater experience was attending a Student Matinee of The Lion King at the same Toni Rembe Theater back in 2003. Since then, the enthralling experience has always lingered until Adam worked up enough courage to compete in his first poetry competition in high school. Currently, Adam’s main focus is creating accessible performance/artistic opportunities for kids to enjoy, create and (hopefully) connect to; providing them the same opportunity Adam had back in 2003.

Biography

Dani O’Dea (she/her) completed her BFA at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts at the Experimental Theatre Wing, with a focus on physical/devised theatre and stage combat. While still a student, she started her apprenticeship under J David Brimmer, an award winning Fight Master and the former President of the Society of American Fight Directors. As his associate, Dani worked on countless Broadway and Off-Broadway productions including AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE (Atlantic Theatre Company), GRACE (Cort Theatre w/ Paul Rudd, Michael Shannon),  BETHANY (New York City Center w/ America Ferrera), MEDIEVAL PLAY (Signature Theater w/ Tate Donovan, Halley Feiffer, directed by Kenneth Lonergan) GABRIEL (ATC) and THAT FACE (Manhattan Theatre Club w/ Laila Robins, Betty Gilpin, Cristin Milioti).

Dani relocated to San Francisco to work as a Fight and Intimacy Director at Berkeley Rep, ACT, TheatreWorks, San Francisco Opera, NCTC and more. She also expanded her work as a teaching artist, joining Shakespearience as their Director of Programming, and working in theaters (Marin Theatre Company, ACT’s Young Conservatory) and schools (Stanford University, Piedmont HS, Lowell HS) across the Bay Area. As a Teaching Artist, Dani leverages her diverse physical training in theatre and sports to connect students with the expressive potential of the human body. With a focus on play and the joy of movement, she emphasizes the unique physicality of every individual and the precision and generosity required for ensemble work.        

In addition to her creative endeavors, Dani is a highly accomplished live-action producer, working in theatre, independent film, commercial, and motion capture. While working at 2K Games, she was the Sr. Producer of one of the largest permanent mocap facilities in the world. During her time there she worked with such actors as Idris Elba, Rosario Dawson, Michael B Jordan, and athletes such as Scottie Pippin, Luka Doncic, and the Bay Area’s own Steph Curry.

Biography

Brennan Pickman-Thoon is an actor, teaching artist, and proud Bay Area native. He grew up training with A.C.T., Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Marin Theater Company, and more. He graduated with honors from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he earned a BFA in Drama and trained at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. In addition to working as an actor in New York, he also wrote, produced, and directed a one-act comedy that won Best Short Play in the 2015 Unchained Theater Festival. Since returning to the Bay Area, Brennan has performed with A.C.T., Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, California Shakespeare Theater, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Cutting Ball Theater, Marin Shakespeare Company, Word For Word, and New Conservatory Theatre Center, among others. Brennan also spent several years working as a Production Coordinator for film, tv, and commercial shoots, and brings this behind-the-lens knowledge to his on-camera classes. Brennan enjoys developing and teaching diverse acting and theater curriculums, from On-Camera Acting to Shakespeare to Improvisation to Devised Theater. SFBATCC Winner: Actor In A Leading Role. Member, AEA.

Biography

Hayley Sherwood a theatre artist, educator, and administrator, whose work focuses on bringing theatre to the people. Career highlights include producing COMMUNITY WORKS, a community-engaged theatre program at Williamstown Theatre Festival that casts local residents in a world premiere musical, touring schools as a Story Pirate, and serving as the Director of Programs for CO/LAB Theater Group, an organization that creates theater with artists with developmental disabilities. BFA in Theatre Arts from Boston University; MA in Educational Theatre from NYU. She loves to hang with her grandma, dog, and partner in the East Bay. She also co-founded a personal chef and events business with her partner called Seasoned Food.

Biography

Faith Von Minden (they/them/theirs) is an applied theatre artist, educator, performer, consultant, and drama therapist. They specialize in access oriented approaches and have had the pleasure of co-creating with disability community members ages 3 to 103. Since beginning this work in 2010, Faith developed a multi-modal approach, bringing a toolkit of theatre, music and songwriting, poetry, and visual arts to support participants as they explore play, creativity, and interconnectedness. Faith presented at North American Drama Therapy Association Conferences about different facets of their work including filmed-based arts integration processes with students in transition programs (2019), social therapy and radical hospitality (2019), auditing and promoting accessibility and inclusivity in the training and education of drama therapy students (2020), and devised theater performance (2020). A former teacher in an arts integration public school for students with developmental disabilities, Faith brings a deep respect for educators and a commitment to inclusive, symbiotic learning. They look forward to continued collaboration with SFUSD teachers. When off the stage or out of classroom/office, you’re likely to find Faith catering to their adorable corgi Einstein, searching for trinkets, or enjoying nature.

Biography

Maryssa Wanlass (she/they) is an actor, director, and educator, with an emphasis on social justice and classical theatre. They recently directed a queer, fantasy genre Cymbeline for San Francisco Shakespeare Festival. She has also directed locally for Utopia Theatre Project, PlayGroundSF, Shotz, and regionally for Advice to the Players. Bay Area stage acting highlights include SF Shakes (Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, Hamlet, and Winter's Tale), CalShakes (As You Like It), Jewel Theatre (Breaking the Code, Book Club Play), San Jose Stage (Persuasion), SPARC Theatre (As You Like It, Hamlet, Merry Wives of Windsor), Center REPertory Company (Sweat, Enchanted April, Witness for the Prosecution). Wanlass' social justice theatre work includes working with Red Ladder to deliver improv workshops to California's incarcerated population and with SF Shakes to develop a program to foster creativity with unhoused neighbors in San Francisco.