Biography

Biography

Patrick Russell has performed in theaters across the Bay Area, including ACT (King Charles III, A Christmas Carol, Once in a Lifetime), TheatreWorks (Frost/Nixon), California Shakespeare Theater (As You Like It), San Francisco Playhouse (Noises Off, Red Velvet), Aurora Theatre Company (Body Awareness), Magic Theatre (Fool for Love), Marin Theatre Company (Othello), Marin Shakespeare Company (Measure for Measure, Love’s Labour’s Lost), CenterREP (Old Wicked Songs), and Shotgun Players (Care of Trees). Film credits include the feature film Being Us and the award-winning animated short film Rapunzel’s Etymology of Zero. Most recently, Patrick directed The Arsonists at UC Berkeley, As a teaching artist, Patrick has taught at ACT in various programs, Southern Oregon University as the movement instructor for the BFA program, and currently serves as a lecturer at UC Berkeley, where he teaches acting and movement. In addition, Patrick is the co-founder of The Actors Space professional actor training program in San Francisco. He received his B.F.A. in acting from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and is a graduate of American Conservatory Theater’s Master of Fine Arts Program in Acting. Patrick is a member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA. 

Biography

Anna Marie Sharpe is an actor and teaching artist in the Bay Area. Her recent credits include Nollywood Dreams (SF Playhouse), Paradise Blue (Aurora Theatre), and A Christmas Carol (American Conservatory Theatre). Other credits include The Incrementalist (Aurora Theatre Company), and the filmed production of [hieroglyph] (San Francisco Playhouse). Sharpe made her film debut in the award winning short film, “The Best Time.” She received her B.A. from UC Berkeley where she double majored in Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies. In addition to performing Anna is a dedicated mother, director, and writer.

Biography

Dee Dee Stephens is an actor/comedian, producer and arts educator. She uses her voice as an artist to discuss tough social issues like civil rights, mental health, and gender equality to name a few. The underlying belief always being that radical love and radical art can change the world for the better.

A first generation American born to Caribbean parents and raised in San Jose, California, Dee Dee received her MFA degree in Acting from University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and her undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley. 

deedeestephens.com

Biography

Mark Jackson is a theatre maker. He makes, directs, writes, performs, attends, and teaches. He was the founding artistic director of Art Street Theatre, San Francisco, from 1995 to 2004, and made a lot of work. Based on this work, other people started hiring him to make things. His range of work in theater, dance, and performance has been seen at venues throughout the San Francisco Bay Area; Nationally at The Catamounts (Denver), Hunger & Thirst (NYC) and The Studio Theatre (Washington D.C.); Internationally at Arts International Festival IV (Japan), Bread & Roses Theatre and Edinburgh Festival Fringe (UK), English Theatre Berlin and Deutsches Theater Berlin (Germany). My plays have been developed at American Conservatory Theater, Capital Stage, Cutting Ball Theater, EXIT Theatre, Playwrights Foundation, Magic Theatre, Z Space, and occasionally in the homes of generous friends. He occasionally write about theater for the likes of Howlround and Theatre Bay Area, as well as other print and online publications.

Biography

Jack F. Sharrar, Ph.D. (Director of Academic Affairs Emeritus) received the Managing Director’s Award for 2003. He has served as a theater panelist for the National Foundation for Advancement of the Arts and is a member of Actors’ Equity and the Screen Actors Guild. His credits include roles at Michigan Repertory Theater, Mountainside Theater, the BoarsHead Theatre, Theatre 40, Pioneer Theatre Company, numerous media roles, and direction of over 50 plays and musicals. He is author of Avery Hopwood, His Life and Plays (UMI Press), editor (with an Afterword) of Avery Hopwood’s heretofore unpublished novel, The Great Bordello, a Story of the Theatre (Mondial), contributor to The American National Biography (Oxford), and The Gay and Lesbian Theatrical Heritage (UMI Press); coeditor (with Craig Slaight) of numerous award-winning volumes of scenes and monologues for young actors (Smith & Kraus), “Lean Forward, An Orientation to Professionalism for the Student Actor (Dramatics Magazine); adapter of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Debutante (Playscripts, Inc.), Avery Hopwood’s Fair and Warmer (Playscripts, Inc.) and Just for Tonight, a Screwball Comedy; Doctor Faustus; Better Angels, drawn from the Civil War writings of Walt Whitman and Louisa May Alcott, and author of Up In Avery’s Room, which received a staged reading at Theatre Rhinoceros. He is a graduate of Central Michigan University, the University of Michigan, and holds a Ph.D. in theater history from the University of Utah.

Biography

Peter J. Kuo is an L.A. native that has been working in the theatre industry for more than two decades. At A.C.T. he is the Director of the Conservatory and sits on the Staff EDI Committee. He earned his MFA in Directing at The New School for Drama in New York City where he was the Social Justice Programs Coordinator. He is a theatre director, producer, writer, educator, and social justice advocate focusing on raising the visibility of marginalized communities. He is a Round Three grantee of Theatre Communication Group's Rising Leaders of Color Program and held a First Stage Residency at The Drama League. He is a co-founder of Artists at Play, an Asian American theatre collective producing Los Angeles premieres. He has directed/assistant directed at American Conservatory Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Geffen Playhouse, East West Players, South Coast Repertory, The Play Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Rattlestick Theatre Company, among others. He holds a certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from eCornell and has facilitated workshops, led panels, and taught classes around Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion for Theatre Communications Group, The New School, HB Studio, Asian American Arts Alliance, and The Consortium of Asian American Theatres and Artists, among others.