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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
Emika Abe, School Administrator
Katie Riemann, Registrar
Hannah Lennett, Education Fellow
faculty
Renzo Ampuero
is an actor engaged with the intersections of physical theatre, dance and other creative disciplines. Originally from Peru and recently relocated to San Francisco, Renzo has performed in New York, Cambridge, Moscow and Sao Paulo. He has collaborated with playwright Ellen McLaughlin in the development of new plays and is a member of La Criatura Theater Company in New York. Renzo has an MFA from American Repertory Theater at Harvard University.
Amy Bobeda
a Bay Area native, attended both USC and UC Santa Cruz, where she studied theatre design and wig making. A long-standing employee of Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Amy is currently the costume fellow at Berkeley Rep and has worked with Cal Shakes, Bay Area Children’s Theatre, Berkeley Playhouse, Town Hall Theatre in Lafayette, Marin Academy, Shotgun Players and Playground. She makes wigs and facial hair for private clients and various productions.
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.
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.
Ben Johnson
has worked as a professional performer and teacher since 1997. He has performed at ACT in Scapin, including understudying Bill Irwin. He has also appeared as a featured clown in Cirque du Soleil’s Alegria, as Merrick in The Elephant Man and as a company member of BATS Improv. Ben holds a MA in teaching from Brown University and has taught for the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre, BATS Improv, Cal Shakes, Pixar University, TheatreWorks, Mills College, Berkeley Playhouse, UCSD, URI, Wheaton College, the ArtsLiteracy Project at Brown University and at public and private schools in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and California.
Ken Kelleher
is artistic director of Pacific Repertory Theatre and resident director at the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival. He has been a director in the Bay Area for the past 25 years, having worked at San Jose Rep, San Jose Stage Company, TheatreWorks, Sacramento Theatre Company and Cal Shakes.
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.
Dave Maier
has composed fights for Berkeley Rep, ACT, Shotgun Players, Cal Shakes, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, La Jolla Playhouse, the Cutting Ball Theatre, SF Playhouse, Impact Theatre and Berkeley Opera. He is a full instructor of theatrical combat with Dueling Arts International and outreach coordinator at Berkeley Rep School of Theatre.
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 and 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 four feature scripts, multiple short scripts and a full-length play that premiered in Melbourne, Australia. He has a writing credit on American Cowslip, an indie film which features Cloris Leachman, Bruce Dern and Val Kilmer. Christopher’s theatrical directing has been seen on both coasts and in Chicago, and he has performed with Cirque du Soleil, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The Huntington Theatre Company and California Shakespeare Theatre, to name a few.
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.
Michael Storm
has been the artistic director of TheatreFIRST for three years and has overseen the production of six plays, including one Bay Area premiere, one co-production world premiere and multiple staged readings. He has been acting, directing, teaching and producing theatre for over 20 years in the Bay Area. He has also performed with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Rep, Cal Shakes, Crowded Fire and Napa Valley Repertory Theatre, among others. Recent directing credits include Anton in Show Business and Stones in his Pockets with TheatreFIRST, The Hermit Bird with Virago Theatre Company and Every Christmas Story Ever Told with San Jose Stage Company. Michael received his training at UC Irvine and the University of Alabama’s MFA Program.
Maggi Yule
has been working in the costume industry for over 30 years. Originally from New York, she received a BFA from SUNY Purchase in Costume Design. Maggi worked in New York for many years designing costumes for theatre, film, television and industrial shows. Some of her credits include Tales from the Darkside, Short Attention Span Theatre with Jon Stewart and Little Caesar’s Pizza. Since moving to the Bay Area, Maggi has designed shows for Berkeley Rep, The Aurora Theatre, Bay Area Children’s Theatre, TheatreFirst and Town Hall Theatre in Lafayette. She has also designed costumes for industrial clients like BMW and Tibco. The Costume Director at Berkeley Rep for the past seven years, she enjoys the opportunity to work with School of Theatre students on a regular basis.
school of theatre
major sponsors
The S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation / The Mosse Foundation for Education and the Arts / The Woodlawn Foundation
