About the School

Berkeley Rep creates ambitious theatre that entertains and challenges its audiences, provokes civic engagement, and inspires people to experience the world in new and surprising ways. The School of Theatre supports this mission through meaningful connections between audiences and our mainstage work, creative entry points for new audiences, tools for artists and students to harness their imaginative power, and immersive training for future theatre makers.

Having first opened its doors in 2001, the School of Theatre offers programming as eclectic as the productions onstage at Berkeley Rep, reaching some 20,000 people in the Bay Area each year. Driven by an expanding community of inspired, curious, and creative theatre lovers, the School’s programming provides opportunities for engagement on a variety of levels.

Since its inception, the School has

• Served over 321,340 people;
• Collaborated with 565 professional teaching artists;
• Led workshops in 3,630 classrooms in nine counties in the Bay Area;
• Produced 142 original plays created by youth and teen students;
• Mentored 359 young professionals through our Fellowship program (since 1985).

Staff

Anthony Jackson | DIRECTOR

Anthony is a director, deviser, educator, and arts administrator. He currently serves as the director of the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre where he oversees the Teen Council and fellowship programs, among other projects. Duties include programming the annual Teen One-Acts Festival and the Young Writers of Color Collective workshops and final presentation at Berkeley Rep’s acclaimed new play development program, The Ground Floor. He also serves as a mentor for 15 teens that are part of the Core Council teen leadership program. Previously Anthony was at Arena Stage in Washington, DC where he taught in all of the Community Engagement department’s programming as the Training Programs Manager and previously as the Partnership Manager. Anthony has traveled to India and Croatia as a guest artist with the U.S. Department of State, devising original plays with Arena Stage’s Voices of Now program. Anthony has also presented workshops at the American Alliance for Theatre and Education, Theatre Communications Group Conference, as well as the Southeastern Theatre Conference. In 2019 he was selected to be a member of the artEquity cohort. As an actor he has toured the U.S. and has performed with the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Olney Theatre, Arena Stage, and other regional theatres.

Dylan Russell | ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR

Dylan is a director, teaching artist, new play developer and community engagement specialist. Dylan has directed productions at American Conservatory Theatre Conservatory, TheatreFirst, New Conservatory Theatre, and Actors Lab Arizona. Most recently, Dylan was the Director of Education and Community Engagement at Laguna Playhouse. Dylan envisioned and created the OUR STORIES program at Laguna Playhouse, which utilizes generative theatre practices to create awareness about mental health and amplify the voices of youth and young adults ages 16-25. Dylan created the Drama Department at Jewish Community High School of the Bay, which was recognized as one of the top high school theatre programs in America by Stage Directions Magazine and twice performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Scotland. She has taught at Laguna Playhouse, California Shakespeare Theatre, Northwestern University's National High School Institute, Marin Theatre Company and New Conservatory Theatre Center.

MaryBeth Cavanaugh | DIRECTOR OF CLASSES AND SUMMER PROGRAMS

MaryBeth recently received her continuing appointment in the Department of Theatre and Dance at UC Davis, where she has taught for 15 years in the MFA and BFA programs. She also teaches at Academy of Art University. She is a member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and a few of her choreography credits include resident choreographer at California Shakespeare Theater for 20 seasons, where she also served as associate artist. She also choreographed for Oregon Shakespeare Festival for five seasons, Shakespeare Santa Cruz for nine seasons, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The New Victory Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, Brisbane Arts Festival—Powerhouse, Black Swan Theatre Company in Western Australia, Cincinnati Playhouse, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Mills College Repertory, and Summerfest Dance. Directing credits: Following the Wrong God Home, Theatre 212; Possession, United Solo Theatre Festival, New York City; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, TheatreFIRST; Twelfth Night, North Bay Shakespeare Company; and Measure for Measure, Shakespeare at Stinson. Ms. Cavanaugh was invited (all expenses paid) by the Norwegian Consulate in San Francisco to attend the Ibsen Festival in Oslo, Norway and to finish a new English translation of A Doll’s House from Ibsen’s original manuscript with an Ibsen scholar and a documentary film maker.

Si Mon’ Emmett | CURRICULUM AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS MANAGER

Si Mon' (she/her) is a San Francisco based theater educator, director, producer, filmmaker and arts activist. She currently holds the Curriculum & Educational Programs Manager position at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Her work outside of The School of Theatre spans from directing theatre to producing and assistant directing film.

Originally from Dallas, TX, Si Mon’ has established herself as a Bay Area artist embarking on projects with organizations outside of Berkeley Rep such as Playwrights Foundation, Campo Santo, and SFSU’s Black Film Connect. She graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in 2018 with a BFA in Theatre Education and a K-12 teacher certification, then began filmmaking when she moved to the Bay Area that same year. In 2020 she received the B. Iden Payne Award for Outstanding Digital Direction on a livestream performance of amendment: the making of an american myth, or the slow sipping of a peacock tea. 

Through her work in arts organizations across the country -- from Dallas Children's Theatre (Dallas), Victory Gardens (Chicago), Teatro Vivo and Salvage Vanguard Theatre (Austin), to Milagro Theatre (Portland) and Berkeley Repertory Theatre (Bay Area) -- she has committed her energy to amplifying BIPOC, queer, and youth voices, working to dismantle all forces that attempt to silence them.

Ashley Lim | CLASSES AND COMMUNICATIONS ADMINISTRATOR

Ashley is the classes and communications administrator at the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre, where she manages all marketing and communications, as well as provides administrative support for classes. Born and raised in the Bay Area, she fell in love with the vibrant and diverse theatre scene here in California at a young age. She has since gone on to combine her passions for theatre and communications at Willamette University in Salem, OR, where she earned a degree in Civic Communications and Media Rhetoric along with a minor in Theatre. Previously, she has worked with organizations such as the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Pleasanton Civic Arts Stage Company, and most recently, the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC.

Teaching Artists