Theater
Melissa Briggs
Melissa Briggs is an actor and educator who specializes in theatre as a tool for social change. Melissa holds a BA with honors from Wake Forest University in North Carolina and certificates from the Professional Training Programs of The Actor’s Center Conservatory in New York City and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Melissa had been in the Bay Area since 2007 and continues to perform professionally on stage and screen in New York and San Francisco. Credits include extensive theatre, short and feature length films. Melissa has taught Acting with Power to students in the MBA program at Stanford University Graduate School of Business. She was the Director/Dramaturge for children in grades 3-6 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Greylock Theatre Project. She has taught children at the New Conservatory Theatre Center and at Stagewrite in San Francisco. Before arriving in the Bay Area, Melissa was a Volunteer Actor/ Smart Partner, for 3rd-12th graders at the 52nd Street Project, in Hell’s Kitchen, NY, USA.
While she is most often hired to teach “Beginning/ Advanced Acting” to children and adults, her passion as a teaching artist is focused on the application of theatre to our daily lives. Her work at the 52nd Street Project in NYC was centered around playmaking as a way to help underserved inner-city youths find and express their own voice in a society in which they are so rarely heard. Melissa wants those who don’t know anything about theatre to learn that it is fun and that it applies to every aspect of our lives in our community. Her programs are constantly evolving and she is constantly learning. It fires Melissa up to create new and unique ways to relate theatre to life.
Programs Offered: Commedia dell'Arte, Improvisation, Production, Playwrighting, Storytelling, Mask Theater, Reader’s Theater
*On parle le Francaise
Lizzie Domash
Lizz Domash is a Registered Music Therapist with a Master's Degree in Creative Arts Therapy. She has extensive training in piano, violin, dance, art and drama and has been dedicated to the field since 1979, and in Private Practice for over 21 years. Lizzie develops innovative approaches for assisting children and teens to understand and communicate their feelings, socialize with their peers, develop their strengths, and build self-esteem. She has implemented her multi-disciplinary Creative Arts Programs in Schools, Residential/Day-Treatment Programs, Hospitals, and Camps.
Lizzie has been working as an Arts Therapist for students with special needs since 1980. She specializes in stimulating developmental growth and addressing IEP goals with children who have special needs through providing creative arts programming. Lizzie has facilitated and directed school-wide theatrical productions, involving an entire cast of students with a variety of special needs and abilities. Lizzie’s warm-hearted, personal approach makes all types of learners feel comfortable and ready to paint, act, sing, dance, and most of all, perform.
Programs Offered: Storytelling, Puppet Theater, Improvisation, Mask Theater
Diane Ferlatte
Storyteller Diane Ferlatte believes that telling and listening to each other’s stories enables us to understand each other better. Many of Diane's stories emphasize empathy, tolerance, respect for others and the environment. She also includes historical stories along with her personal tales. Diane views storytelling as a traditional art form that can promote literacy, imagination, and values in the young. As she enhances her storytelling with music, songs, sign language, humor and audience participation, her energy, enthusiasm, & joy is infectious.
While Diane has traveled the globe for over 20 years telling her stories on six continents, she has received numerous honors including the National Storytelling Network’s Circle of Excellence Award, the National Black Storyteller's Zora Neale Hurston Award, as well as the California Arts Council’s highest ranking. All eight of her recordings have also won awards including those from Parents’ Choice, the American Library Association, National Parenting Publications, the National Youth Storytelling Pegasus Award, Storytelling World Awards, iParenting Media, Children's Web Music, as well as a 2008 Grammy nomination.
Program Offered: Youth in Arts Present Assembly
Eliot Fintushel
Eliot Fintushel began his professional acting career at a mime theater in upstate New York, studying and later performing with many great dancers, mimes, puppeteers, actors, mask performers, and storytellers. He has received the NEA Solo Performer Fellowship twice, along with many grants for creating and touring shows from arts councils and foundations on both coasts. Eliot has performed nearly four thousand solo shows at schools, theaters, and community centers. Eliot is an adjunct theater professor at the Santa Rosa JC, and the author of a new novel, Breakfast With The Ones You Love. He also performs on the theremin, an electronic musical instrument that is played without ever touching it--perfect for a mime!
Eliot Fintushel is a creator and performer of mask, mime, and clown theater, with incursions into puppetry, improvisation, and performance art. Students in his classes are able to experiment with all of the above to discover their own special talents.
Programs Offered: Storytelling, Puppet Theater, Improvisation, Mask Theater, Mime, Youth in Arts Presents Assembly
Michael Katz
Michael Katz has been a storyteller since 1984 and has been featured at such illustrious locations as the openings of both the LA Getty Center and the Disney Concert Hall. Michael is the host of his own radio storytelling program, Katz Pajamas. Michael’s recording of folktales from around the world, “Far Away and Close to Home” was a recipient of a Parent’s Choice Silver Honor Award. He is one of the founding members of the national touring theatre company Boxtales, and was the founding Artistic Director for the Flying Leap Storytelling Festival in Solvang, CA.
Using his own highly energetic, animated and interactive style of storytelling, Michael tells stories which weave together both the comic and the profound. Michael’s stories include multicultural folktales, myths, original stories and personal narratives. Michael has performed at theatres, concert halls, festivals, school assemblies, and libraries throughout the US. Because of Michael’s extensive research of stories, his repertoire is so vast he can find the right story for almost any event.
Program Offered: Youth in Arts Presents Assembly
Awele Makeba
Awele is an award winning and internationally known actor/writer, storyteller, recording artist an educator recognized as a “truth teller” and an artist for social change. She holds her MA in Education, a Reading/Language Arts Specialist Advanced Credential, Multiple Subject Teaching Credential, and her BFS in Theater Arts. Performances and residencies include Stanford University, Kent State, Arts Council of Richmond, and the National Black Theater Festival.
Awele researches, writes and performs hidden African American history. She invites audiences to wrestle with complex and emotionally laden issues that teach us about our common humanity, potential, and our purpose for “being” in the world. She provides opportunities for audiences to grapple with the meaning of their own lives as they make meaning of past lives. Awele has mesmerized audiences throughout the United States. She has performed in Suriname, Austria Russia, Australia, Taiwan, France, and Canada. Awele’s play, “The Story of Claudette Colvin, “ is featured on the Music for Little People benefit recording, This land is Your Land, for the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Programs Offered: Playwrighting; Youth in Arts Presents Assembly
Jeremy Shaffer
Jeremy Shafer has been entertaining professionally in the Bay Area for over 15 years. His venues include schools, libraries, hospitals, fairs, festivals weddings, birthdays and corporate events. He has been featured on CBS Evening Magazine, known today as Eye on the Bay, on national and overseas TV shows, and has performed at the California State Fair for nine summers. He has designed hundreds of original origami models, written two books: "Origami to Astonish and Amuse" and "Origami Ooh La La!" He has taught and performed at origami conventions in eight countries and he placed second on TV Champion, a survivor-esque Japanese TV show, competing against four Japanese origami masters.
Origami is very connected to math and science, and a juggling workshop falls into the physical education category. Origami - The ancient art of Japanese paper folding has in the last 60 years been adopted by scientists and mathematicians, who seek to answer the question: “What is possible to fold from one piece of paper with no cuts? Students will learn to fold a variety of exciting and original action origami models and will be introduced to some of the connections between origami and math.
Program Offered: Youth in Arts Presents Assembly
Victor Toman
Victor received his California Teaching Credential and a Masters in Dramatic Arts from UC Davis. Victor has over 20 years of national and international experience in professional theater as an actor, director, choreographer and dancer. He was a Collective Member of the Tony Award-winning San Francisco Mime Troupe for twelve years. At San Francisco’s performing arts high school, Victor taught movement for actors and circus skills: tumbling, clowning and juggling.
Victor is a dedicated and passionate teacher skilled in sharing knowledge, articulating concepts and encouraging artistic growth. He has taught acting, improvisation, physical theater, Commedia dell’Arte, and choreographed dance productions.
Programs Offered: Commedia dell'Arte, Improvisation, Production, Playwrighting, Storytelling, Mask Theater, Reader’s Theater
*Se Habla Español
