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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
has led Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s educational programming for the past 11 years. A strong advocate of arts leadership development and cultural policy, Rachel was chosen to be the first U.S. delegate for the British Council’s Cultural Leadership International Programme and selected for the inaugural class of the American Express/Aspen Institute Fellowship for Emerging Nonprofit Leaders (2010). She has served on the boards of Theatre Bay Area and Tehiyah Day School, and chaired Theatre Bay Area’s Theatre Services Committee and Berkeley Arts in Education Steering Committee. She has spoken on conference panels for Theatre Communications Group and Theatre Bay Area and has served on grant review panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and Theatre Communications Group. She has worked at Yale Repertory Theatre, International Festival of Arts and Ideas, Long Wharf Theatre and the Cleveland Play House. Rachel has taught at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Case Western Reserve University and the Cain Park School of the Arts. She received her MFA in theater management from the Yale School of Drama.
MaryBeth Cavanaugh
is the associate director of 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 MFA 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 Berkeley Rep School of Theatre. She received her MFA in Dance Composition from Mills College.
Dave Maier, Jan & Howard Oringer Outreach Coordinator
Ben Hanna, Community Programs Manager
Cassie Newman, School Administrator
Katie Riemann, Registrar
Ashley Cleveland, Education Fellow
Amanda Spector, Education Fellow
faculty
Arion Alston
has taught theatre at Central Michigan University, Marymount Manhattan University and Loyola University, Maryland. Currently he teaches for the Community School for Music and Arts. He earned his BA from the U.C. Berkeley English Dept. and his MFA from the Hilberry Repertory Theatre at Wayne State University.
Jeffrey Bihr
is a theatre practitioner and has worked as an actor, director, composer and educator for the last 30 years. Jeffrey was a company member at Berkeley Repertory Theatre for seven seasons and is a member of the International Acting Company of Tadashi Suzuki, having performed with the company since 1987. He was a founding performing member of SITI Company along with Anne Bogart. He has served as core faculty at the ACT MFA program for six years, and he has taught at SITI Company, Drama Studio London and Academy de Turk. Jeffrey is currently a faculty member at Stanford University and College of Marin.
Sally Clawson
is a SAG-AFTRA actor in both voice over and on-camera. She has been voicing commercials, industrials and video games for over ten years. A partial list of her clients include McDonald’s, Toyota, PG&E, Sprint, Macy’s, Apple, Yahoo, Dolby, EA Games, Telltale Games and Lucas Arts. Sally earned an MFA from Mills College. She has taught at Cal Shakes and is currently on the faculty of Voice One.
Laura Derry
is an improviser, actor, teacher, director and musician. She has been performing with BATS Improv since 1991 and teaching since 1993. Laura teaches students ranging from age 5 to 90 at BATS Improv, ACT, Cal Shakes, UC Berkeley, Stanford University and the Academy of Art University.
Deborah Eubanks
majored in theatre arts at Harold Pinter Studios in England. She has performed with BBC’s Hugh Stoddard and 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 the Bay Area for 16 years. Deborah has taught at ACT, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival and USF.
Nancy Gold
is the author of Finding Your Funny Bone! The Actor’s Guide to Physical Comedy and Characters. She has taught at the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre Young Conservatory, Marin Theatre Company, California Shakespeare Theatre, UCLA and throughout California, Illinois and Maryland in public and private schools. Her most recent directing credits include A Servant of Two Masters, Madeline and the Gypsies and Caucasian Chalk Circle. She studied with Jacques LeCoq in Paris and Ctibor Turba. She holds a BFA from the University of Illinois. Nancy performs comedy characters and vaudeville with her partner, Lol Levy.
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 theatre. 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 MFA in Playwriting from Southern Illinois University and a PhD in directing from U.C. Berkeley.
Marvin Greene
is a professional actor and has performed with major regional theatres such as ACT, Aurora Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre and San Jose Rep. Marvin has been an instructor at ACT since 1994 and also teaches at UC Berkeley and at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco.
Andrew Hurteau
has been acting and teaching since graduating from ACT. He has performed with Berkeley Rep, ACT, The Magic Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, Aurora Theatre Company and throughout the Bay Area. In addition to the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre, Andrew has taught at ACT and the Academy of Art University.
Aaron Jessup
is a second-generation performing juggler whose first movement discipline was circus acrobatics, but his first movement love was contact improvisation. Aaron spent many years street performing his comedy, juggling and rope-walking show in the US, Europe and Australia. He has also appeared locally with Pickle Family Circus, Make*A*Circus and the Izzy-Award winning Scott Wells & Dancers. Aaron has taught contact improvisation locally, nationally and internationally since 1997.
Krista Knight
is a playwright whose work, including Salamander Leviathan, Clementine and the Cyber Ducks, Phantom Band, Un-hinged: A Silent Opera and Anaerobic Respiration, has been produced at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theatre, Ars Nova, Alley Theatre, Ontological Hysteric Incubator, Hangar Theatre, Dixon Place, WordBRIDGE, Playwrights Center of SF and the NYC Fringe Festival, among others. Krista received her BA from Brown University, her MA in Performance Studies from NYU and her MFA in Playwriting from UC San Diego. She is a Page 73 Playwriting Fellow, MacDowell Fellow and Shank Playwriting Fellow at the Vineyard Theatre and teaches Playwriting at St. Mary’s college.
Michele Leavy
is originally from the Bay Area and has performed locally with such companies as ACT, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Center Repertory Company, Livermore Shakespeare Festival, Marin Theatre Company and TheatreWorks, among others. In farther locales, she has appeared with Theatre Key West (Florida), The Elephant Theatre Company (Los Angeles) and Theatre167 (New York City). As a teaching artist she has taught for ACT, the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival and the California Shakespeare Theatre. She also serves as adjunct faculty with UC Davis Department of Theatre and Dance as well as the Cañada College Theater Arts Department. Michele is a Resident Artist with the San Francisco based ensemble company Crowded Fire Theater.
Julian López-Morillas
is well known in the Bay Area as a professional actor and director specializing in Shakespeare. He holds the rare distinction of having appeared in professional productions of all 38 of Shakespeare’s plays, and has directed some 20 of them. He had a long association with California Shakespeare Theater and served as its associate artistic director for several years. Julian has taught Shakespeare as literature at Mills College and classical acting technique at UC Berkeley, San Jose State, Foothill College, Solano College and Dominican College.
Laura Lowry
is a professional actress and teacher in the Bay Area. She has taught for Marin Shakespeare Company, Word for Word Theatre Company, California Shakespeare Theater, New Conservatory Theatre, StageWrite and SF Arts Education. She currently teaches acting and fundamentals of voice for West Valley College and Las Positas College. Laura received her MFA from FSU/Asolo Conservatory and studied Shakespeare in London with Patsy Rodenburg, teacher at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After graduate school, she moved to New York City, where she continued to study acting and Shakespeare at The American Globe Theater. Television credits include Trauma and Parenthood.
Dave Maier
is an award-winning Fight Director who choreographed Troublemaker, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Pillowman and Culture Clash’s Zorro in Hell (Berkeley Rep). He has also composed violence for ACT, San Jose Rep, Magic Theatre, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, SF Playhouse, Impact Theatre and Berkeley Opera, among others. He is the resident fight director at Cal Shakes and a company member with the Shotgun Players. He is a full instructor of Theatrical Combat with Dueling Arts International and the Outreach Coordinator of Berkeley Rep School of Theatre.
Joan Mankin
has been an actress, clown and teacher in the Bay Area for over forty years. She has performed at ACT, Cal Shakes (where she is an associate artist), Theatreworks, Marin Theater, Aurora Theater and many others. She has worked as a clown with the Pickle Family Circus and Make-A-Circus. She has taught at Berkeley Rep, ACT, Montalvo Arts Center, the SF Circus Center and more. Her specialty in teaching is physical comedy.
Patricia Miller
brings a diversity of experience to theatre directing, teaching and acting. Her work has been seen all over the U.K., including Edinburgh premieres, Europe and California. She has an MFA in directing from UC Davis. U.S. directing credits include The Magic Theatre, UC Riverside, UC Davis, Berkeley Rep School of Theatre and Teatro Zinzanni. U.K. directing credits include Mountview Theatre School, National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, New Playwrights Festival, Riverside Studios and the Edinburgh Festival. Patricia’s teaching credits include UC Riverside, UC Davis, Berkeley City College, San Francisco City College, California Shakespeare Festival, Aurora Theatre Education and the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre. She holds an MFA in directing from UC Davis.
Christopher Morrison
is an award-winning writer/director/actor who has worked on over 100 theatrical productions and films. His shorts have appeared in festivals throughout the United States, and …less than kind the award-winning short film he wrote and directed, premiered out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008 and is distributed by OUAT! Media. He has been commissioned for five feature scripts, multiple short scripts, pilots and a full length play that premiered in Melbourne Australia. He has a writing credit on American Cowslip, an indie feature starring six Academy Award-nominated actors. His theatrical directing has been seen on both coasts and in Chicago, and as an actor he has worked with such companies as Cirque du Soleil, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and The Huntington Theatre Company.
Michael Navarra
works as a SAG/AEA actor in both theatre and film. He has played leading roles with TheatreWorks, B Street Theatre, Traveling Jewish Theatre, Word for Word, Pacific Repertory Theatre, Sierra Repertory Theatre, Central Works, Pacific Alliance Stage Company and the San Francisco and Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festivals. Michael earned an MFA from the University of Washington and has taught at the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre and Napa Valley College.
Lisa Anne Porter
is a designated Linklater voice instructor and is currently teaching at UC Davis. She has also taught at ACT, Cal Shakes, Shakespeare & Company, Syracuse University and Naropa University. She has performed with numerous repertory companies and Shakespeare festivals including ACT, SF Shakes, Cal Shakes and Shakespeare Santa Cruz.
Diane Rachel
has been performing and teaching at BATS Improv since 1989. She created a specialty long-form program with a focus on intimate acting and stage combat, which has attracted an international following. She has led workshops in Melbourne, Paris, Amsterdam and Helsinki and has taught at ACT and Stanford. Diane is a founding member of San Francisco improv group True Fiction Magazine.
Elyse Shafarman
has an MA in physiological psychology and is an AmSAT Certified Alexander Technique Teacher. Elyse teaches the Alexander Technique to actors in training at ACT’s MFA program and has a private practice in San Francisco and Berkeley. Her background includes a 10-year career as a modern dancer and training in a wide array of movement disciplines including Gyrotonics, Svaroopa Yoga, Body-Mind Centering and Feldenkrais. Over the past seven years, she has taught Alexander Technique at schools and worksites throughout the Bay Area, including ACT’s Summer Training Congress, Elephant Pharmacy, The French American International High School, Pricewaterhouse Coopers and San Francisco State University.
Pireeni Sundaralingham
was educated at Oxford and has held fellowships from PEN USA (in poetry) and the Berlin Arts Academy (in interdisciplinary thinking). She is co-editor of Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian American Poetry, which won both the PEN Oakland and the N. California Book Award in 2011. Her own poetry has been published in journals such as Ploughshares (USA), Cyphers (Ireland) and Karavan (Sweden), anthologies by W.W.Norton, Prentice Hall and Macmillan, and translated into five languages. She was recently selected for the San Francisco Arts Commission’s Individual Artist Commission (2013/14), and is an Associate Professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies.
school of theatre
major sponsors
The S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation / The Mosse Foundation for Education and the Arts / The Woodlawn Foundation
