CHRIS DeCARLO

Co-Artistic Director, Santa Monica Playhouse
Theatre Artist/Educator

            Chris DeCarlo has been directing, writing, acting and teaching in Los Angeles for over forty years. As Co-Artistic Director of Santa Monica Playhouse and Actors” Repertory Theatre since 1973 and, together with his partner and fellow Artistic Director Evelyn Rudie, he has been responsible for bringing over five hundred productions to the boards. 
            As a performer, Chris has created more than three hundred  roles, with over ten thousand on-stage performances on three continents, from the Henry Street Settlement Theatre in New York to the Dream Factory in Warwickshire and the gargantuan Hitomi Memorial Hall in Tokyo. He is especially recognized for his portrayals of such historical figures as Mark Twain, Chekhov, Moliere and of course, Sholom Aleichem. Over a quarter of a million people have been touched by his award-winning characterization of the beloved Yiddish humorist, a role he has assayed over five thousand times in the past twenty-eight years. His versatile performance style has garnered him such raves as “He has so much energy, he could light up the La Brea tar pits for days at a time!” (Entertainment News), “Magnetic!” (Drama-Logue) and “A tour-de-force performance!” (B’nai B’rith Messenger). Always the explorer, his diverse performance choices run the gamut from the blithely serio-comic The Art of Coarse Acting to the powerfully dramatic answers to unmailed letters, a collaborative theatre odyssey (Peter Manning Robinson, Bill Gough, Stephen Rothman and Evelyn Rudie) based on his personal experiences in Vietnam.
            Chris combines performing with an active career as director and educator. He has directed scores of World Premieres, including the critically acclaimed stage adaptation of Dostoevsky’s Notes From Underground, the award-winning Hard Laughs starring Sammy Shore and Ron Palillo, four of playwright Jerry Mayer’s comedies including the award-winning Aspirin & ELEPHANTS, the L.A. TIMES’ Critics’ Pick Sroka/Fleming comedy Dying for Laughs starring Stuart Pankin, Annie Reiner’s Mirage a Trois, playwright/screenwriter Brenda Krantz’ Hero in the House and Lovely, starring Louise Sorrell, the bi-lingual cultural exchange play From Tokyo to Hollywood and Back Again, and the Ovation-nominated Picon Pie. As Co-Artistic Director of Santa Monica Playhouse, he has been directly responsible for more than 200 American and World Premieres, including Michel Garneau’s Quatre a Quatre, Stephen King and Robert B. Parker’s RAGE, and the long-running hit musical Funny, You Don’t Look Like A Grandmother by Lois Wyse, Sheilah Rae and Robert Waldman.
            Chris and his wife and partner, Evelyn Rudie, have collaborated on more than four hundred fifty critically acclaimed productions, including four of a projected five plays in the Sholom Aleichem quintilogy (Author! Author!–an evening with Sholom Aleichem, The Clown Prince, The Great Fair: Sholom Aleichem On Tour and Because of You: the life and loves of Sholom Aleichem). Their productions of Dear Gabby: the confessions of an over-achiever (the longest-running teen dramedy in Los Angeles theatre history), 2004—a telling of tomorrow, Mezzanine, DOLLS!, CANTEEN: a musical reconnaissance of war and other unnatural disasters, and their new translation of Moliere’s The Fools have all been performed internationally.
            As an educator, Chris is co-founder and director of the Actors Workshop and the Young Professionals’ Company, theatre-intensive internship programs for performers with serious career intent.  Under his direction, the Young Professionals’ Company has traveled internationally, performing as well as leading discussions and workshops in New York, Canada, Japan, Ireland and England. Mr. Carlo also leads the Advanced Technique Workshop, the Advanced Internship Program, the Advanced Preparatory Program and the Dear Gabby Project. He is co-founder of the Kids-in-Theatre Educational Conservatory, Actors’ Repertory Theatre, the Young Professionals’ Company, the American Cultural Youth Ambassadors, the Diversity-in-Education Program, the Schools Theatre Excursion Project and Project: OutReach. His innovative methods of utilizing theatre as a tool for cross-cultural and cross-curricular education, developed over forty years through work with students locally and nationally, as well as in Japan, England, Ireland and Canada, are renowned internationally and are currently being utilized in classrooms across the globe.
            In addition to his work at Santa Monica Playhouse, Mr. DeCarlo teaches in the public and private school systems, and has developed theatre programs for such SMMUSD and LAUSD Schools as Edison, P.S. 1, John Muir, SMASH, McKinley, John Adams, Grant, Paul Revere, Mark Twain, Manchester School, as well for Model Language Studio in Tokyo, International Human Network in Kyoto, Playbox Theatre in Warwick, England, South Island School in Hong Kong, the Henry Street Settlement Theatre in New York, the University of Ulster at Coleraine, the Maharishi School in Fairfield, Iowa, Firestone High School in Akron, Ohio, and Kent State, the Northridge Play Project, Firestone High School and The Muse Machine in Ohio.             Awarded a Bronze Star for his film work with U.S. Army, he studied with Agnes Bernelle at The Project in Ireland, the Lee Strasberg Institute, Belgian director-producer Ted Roter, and British West End director Marianne Mcnaughten.
            Chris and his partner Evelyn have spearheaded numerous community service and cultural arts programs to bring the magic of live theatre to audiences throughout Southern California, as well as across the nation. These programs include the Mobile Touring Project, the Family Theatre Matinee Series, and the England Summer Theatre Adventure. Their educational outreach work stretches across the United States. They recently traveled to Ohio, as in-service leaders for The Muse Machine, where they gave teachers in the Dayton School District tools to use theatre arts in cross-curricular teaching. They also headed a ground-breaking program for the Northridge Play Project, helping students to craft a piece of personal theatre, Stains, Junk and Other Necessities of Life, which has now become a model for high school theatre programs.             The international cultural exchange program and outreach work that Chris has initiated at the Playhouse are part of a lifelong artistic goal. As he puts it, "I want to be instrumental in making some dramatic changes in the world, by helping people use theatre as a bridge between ages, backgrounds, cultures and socio-economic characteristics, a bridge that can establish a strong bond between audience and artist, enabling them to enjoy the intriguing differences and astonishing similarities of their cultural experience. We hope with all our hearts to contribute one small stepping stone towards a future in which today’s young people, as tomorrow’s adults, can build a global understanding of and appreciation for each other’s humanity.”

            In addition to his full-time theatrical duties, Chris recently completed a nine-year term as Commissioner on the Santa Monica Arts Commission.

EVELYN RUDIE

 Co-Artistic Director, Santa Monica Playhouse
Theatre Artist/Educator
 

over fifty years of uninterrupted theatrical service to the community
 

            Evelyn Rudie, “who may well be the most talented and prolific producer-director-lyricist-composer-musician-actress in theatre” (L.A. Times), can truly be called one of Hollywood’s success stories—a child star who didn’t go bad. Evelyn can look back upon a colorful and dynamic career in theatre, motion pictures, television and arts-in-education. For her performance as “Eloise” on TV’S Playhouse 90, she received an Emmy nomination at age six—the first time a child actress was so honored. She then guest-starred for years on almost every TV show of importance, including The Red Skelton Show, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Wagon Train, 77 Sunset Strip, Lawman, The Tonight Show with Jack Paar (7 appearances), G.E. Theatre (with Ronald Reagan), and The Groucho Marx Show.
            Her film debut in The Gift of Love at 20th Century-Fox with Robert Stack and Lauren Bacall earned her such notices as “reminiscent of Louise Rainer’s playing Anna Held” from the N.Y. Times’ Bosley Crowther, and the London DAILY EXPRESS hailed her as “the greatest child tragedian of our times.”
            For film work performed with Jack Webb for the U.S. Treasury Department, Evelyn was invited to the White House, where First Lady Mamie Eisenhower personally thanked her for “patriotic services rendered.” She was also given the golden key to the city and honorary membership in the Secret Service.
            Miss Rudie’s background is as colorful as her career. Ranking highest among the show business luminaries in her family are her grandfather, Rudolf Bernauer, who wrote the librettos for The Chocolate Soldier, May Time, etc, her father, Emery Bernauer, writer of the famed Nelson anti-Hitler Revues at the Tuschinsky Cabaret in Amsterdam during World War II (he wrote 60 shows and over 600 songs in less than three years—a feat never before accomplished in show business history), and her late aunt, Agnes Bernelle, Elvis Costello’s recording protegée, whose album, “Father’s Lying Dead On The Ironing Board” swept the charts in Great Britain in the early ’90’s.
            The proud owner of a gold star in Hollywood Boulevard’s Walk of Fame (at the corner of Hollywood and Highland), Evelyn graduated from Hollywood High with highest honors, and then went on to study film production at UCLA, meanwhile always maintaining her uninterrupted studies as actress, dancer, singer and musician.
            In 1973, Evelyn and her partner/husband, actor-director-writer Chris DeCarlo, became Artistic Directors of Santa Monica Playhouse, where they have, as a team, created over 500 productions, and have appeared live on stage for over 6000 performances each. Dedicated to continuing the battle to legitimize intimate professional theatre in Los Angeles, Evelyn and Chris are the co-founders of Actors’ Repertory Theatre, the Young Professional’s Company, the Mobile Touring Project, the Schools Theatre Excursion Project, and the American Cultural Youth Ambassadors. Under their aegis, the Playhouse has received more than 250 awards and commendations, and has directly touched the lives of more than 5 million people.
            Evelyn’s tireless efforts have made Actors’ Repertory Theatre and the Young Professionals’ Company one of the finest state-of-the-art professional theatre companies in the world, with close to five dozen international tours to such foreign countries as England, Ireland, Japan, The Netherlands and New York. Japan’s Senator Kyoko Ono says Rudie’s company “...blazes a trail of peace and friendship between our two nations, a trail which will change the face of our world in the 21st century.”
            In 1977, together with composer Ben Weisman (57 gold records), Rudie & DeCarlo began a major work, the Sholom Aleichem Quintilogy. The first play in this series of five productions was the award-winning “Author! Author! - an evening with Sholom Aleichem”, the musical that played Los Angeles for an unprecedented 4½ years, breaking all box office records, and has since toured Southern California and returned to the Playhouse for several encore engagements as the single most-requested of all Santa Monica Playhouse productions. Next came “The Clown Prince” and “The Great Fair - Sholom Aleichem on Tour”, both of which were critically acclaimed and played for 3½ years each.
            Evelyn’s song-writing talents parallel those of her father and grandfather, and her credits include the score for the highly-acclaimed Los Angeles premiere stage adaptation of Israel Zangwill’s “King of the Schnorrers”, the musical version of Sholom Aleichem’s “Gymnasium”, Moliere’s “The Fools”, Ben Jonson’s “The Alchemist”, and the highly successful (and controversial) “Clemensy for Mark Twain”, to name just a few. She is also the author of the popular FAMILY THEATRE SERIES of musical fairy tales for kids between 2 and 102, a series of plays that has grown into a repertoire of more than 25 productions, performed both in-house and internationally. In an interview with Evelyn, J. Lee Kavanau wrote in the Evening Outlook: "As she sits at her roll top desk, wisps of stray hair peeking untidily from tied-up braids, surrounded by encyclopedia, thesaurus, Yiddish-English dictionary, piles of yellowed letters and wadded-up pieces of paper, author Evelyn Rudie looks more like a 10-year-old cramming for finals than a widely recognized contemporary playwright and authority on famous author Sholom Aleichem." Nevertheless she is both.
            In addition to writing, directing and teaching, Evelyn has never let her performing go by the wayside. She maintains that it is the constant challenge of live performance that renews her creative energies and inspires her pen each season. As one of L.A.’s most versatile performers, she has created an incredible range of characters and personas, from Tom Sawyer to Queen Elizabeth (the first), and from Cinderella to the bizarre Mrs. Smith in Ionesco’s “The Bald Soprano”, (a performance which the famed playwright himself saw and called “Une excellente representation!”)
           In the past several years, Evelyn has taken several new performance pieces from initial idea, through play-building, staged readings, workshop performances and finally to Main Stage productions and international tours. “1994 - a telling of tomorrow”, a musical history of a potential future world, had its European premiere in Stratford-on-Avon in July of 1991 and was the first theatrical production to be given permission by British Heritage to perform on a Heritage Site, the famed ruins of the Kenilworth Castle. Mezzanine”, a musical drama about suicide, teen pregnancy and resourcefulness of the human spirit, played to sold out houses for five months, then toured England. The renowned dramedy, “Dear Gabby”, a theatre piece which deals with growing up, first love, drugs, rejection and the passion and pain of piano lessons, and which ran non-stop for fifteen years in its first run alone, having performed in England, Ireland, Canada and Japan. The Spanish-language verson, Querida Gabby: las confesiones de una ambiciosa, translated by Playhouse alumna Margaret Boyle, had its world premiere staged reading in 2003.
            Under the design pseudonym Ashley Hayes, Miss Rudie’s costumes have won numerous awards including the L.A. Weekly Award and the Drama-Logue Award for Best Costume Design. She has designed for more than 250 productions, and personally created more than 2500 costumes over the past 20 years. As a performer, Evelyn received critical acclaim in Diane Samuels’ KINDERTRANSPORT, a role which has garnered her such praise as “spell-binding” (Tolucan Times), “genuinely moving” (L.A. WEEKLY) and “a must see!” (L.A. Jewish Times, completed a fifteen month run in the critically acclaimed musical Funny, You Don’t Look Like A Grandmother, a one-year run of the world premiere musical Because of You: The Life and Loves of Sholom Aleichem and a nine-month run of the 28^th anniversary revival of Author! Author! – an evening with Sholom Aleichem..
             Evelyn is currently creating a world premiere musical, My Father’s Trunk, based on songs and material written by her father, the late composer-lyricist-playwright Emery Bernauer, between 1934 and 1937 for the Nelson Revues at the Tuschinsky Theatre, home of the underground pre-war Cabaret theatre in Amsterdam.
            “Through my more than fifty years of theatrical experience”, says Evelyn, “one thing has become ever more evident. The theatrical process is a necessity, not a luxury, in our lives. Theatre is the single most powerful tool for fostering social awareness, facilitating one-on-one interaction, nourishing ethnic identity and nurturing cultural exchange. It is the last bastion of hope for a society in which personal drama is relentlessly tempted into giving way to impersonal public pressures. It is our best hope for putting the human back in humanity.”
            In March of 2002, Ms. Rudie completed fifty years – two thousand six hundred weeks – of uninterrupted participation in theatre, film, television, and arts-in-education, for which she received commendations from the Los Angeles City Council, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and the California State Senate. 

SERENA DOLINSKY

Performer, Education Coordinator, Director

Serena Dolinsky started at the Playhouse as a child. Now, as a member of the Actors' Repertory Theatre, she has performed in numerous Main Stage productions, most notably AUDITION! THE MUSICAL (London preview production; U.S. world premiere), Sing Sholom Aleichem, Grandma’s Place (U.S. and UK premieres), All Aboard the U.S.S. Friendship, Because of You: the life and loves of Sholom Aleichem, Author! Author! - an evening with Sholom Aleichem,  Snowhite, Alice and the Wonderful Tea Party, Dorothy’s Adventures in Oz, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Barnyard Madness with the Three Little Pigs, Dear Gabby: the confessions of an over-achiever (English and Spanish versions), Absolutely Halloween!, All the World’s A Stage: The World’s of Shakespeare, All About Santa. Serena has toured England, Ireland and Japan many times with Actors’ Repertory Theatre in a number of shows including DOLLS!, Moonlight Madness, Next! living the lie, Remember My Name…, Jankenpon, Sugoi!, Youkoso! and dreamward. She helped the Playhouse ring in the new millennium by performing in the musical 2000 Years of Playhouse, and is a featured singer on Playhouse Greatest Hits, the CD. Serena has also performed in Dear Gabby: the confessions of an over-achiever, and was the original piano player for Querida Gabby: las confesiones de una ambiciosa. She attended Walnut Hill School for the Performing Arts in Massachusetts and is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Career highlights include the U.K. premiere of Canteen: a musical reconnaissance of war and other unnatural disasters at the Dream Factory in Warwick, the Irish premiere of The Silver Key in Londonderry, Jankenpon in Tokyo, Guys and Dolls (Sarah) and The Ends of the Earth (Alice) at the Keiter Performing Arts Center in Boston and The Gut Girls (Annie/Emily/Eady) and Moonchildren (Shelley) at The Academy Theatre in Los Angeles. Serena is Education Coordinator for the Playhouse, and founder of the Theatre Skills Crash Course and the Musical Theatre Performance Lab. She is actively involved with the Advanced Theatre Program and the Summer Stock Intensive and directs at least one Young Professionals' Company production each season. Recently written and/or directed productions include Wonderland, The U.K. Cabaret, Musical Chairs (U.S. production and U.K. Tour), 24 P.S.I., NEXT! Living the Lie (U.K. Tour) and Maximum Security (world premiere).

JOHN WAROFF

Associate Director, Media Specialist, Performer

 John Waroff has performed non-stop for over thirty years. A founding member of Actors’ Repertory Theatre, John has appeared in more than two hundred shows, including Dostoevksy’s Notes From Underground, The Clown Prince, Red, The Brand New Opry, Simpletown U.S.A., The Alchemist, Author1 Author! – an evening with Sholom Aleichem, The Great Fair, The Bald Soprano, The Lesson, The Wedding and The Marriage Proposal. The character-actor mainstay of the Playhouse’s Schools’ Theatre Excursion Project and Family Theatre Programs, John performs and lectures for more than 25,000 students each year. He has performed in England and Ireland and participated in thirteen tours of Japan, including the international East Meets West Festival production of 2004—a telling of tomorrow in the U.K. and The In ’n’ Out Café in Japan. He created and directed the teen television talk show I’ve Got Something To Say. Recent credits include Diane Samuels’ Kindertransport, a trio of productions that included Author! Author!—an evening Sholom Aleichem, Chekhov’s The Boor, and Ionesco’s The Lesson, and the Family Theatre productions of Snowhite, Cinderella, Barnyard Madness, A Hansel and Gretel Halloween and Alice and the Wonderful Tea Party. John, a graduate of Los Angeles City College, is media archivist for the Playhouse Kids-in-Theatre Conservatory program, and is photography and video production advisor to members of the Young Professionals’ Company.

TIM CHADWICK

Computer Sciences, Graphic Design, Performer

Timothy M. Benge-Chadwick received his Bachelor’s degree from Cal State University at Stanislaus, with a special major in Philosophy. He spent several years as an actor and graphic designer, appearing in such productions as Richard Green’s The Art of Coarse Acting, Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground, Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist and Dorothy’s Adventures in Oz. After a nearly fifteen-year hiatus, Tim recently returned to the stage in On The Road Forever. For the Education Department, he works with students in the fields of computer sciences and graphic and set design.

GEORGE J VENNES III

Technical Director, Educator

George J. Vennes III received his A.A. from Santa Monica City College, immediately began working as a theatre professional and educator, hasn’t been ‘without a show’ since. Production Stage Manager for the Playhouse for over ten years, George has done countless shows, including Jerry Mayer’s Aspirin & Elephants, Almost Perfect and A Love Affair, Robert B. Parker and Stephen King’s Rage, John Posey’s Father, Son and holy Coach, the Sroka/Fleming comedy hit Dying for Laughs, …answers to unmailed letters, Yahrzeit, Loose Lips (director Martin Charnin), the Rae/Waldman/Wise musical Funny, You Don’t Look Like A Grandmother, Rose Leiman Goldemberg’s Picon Pie starring Barbara Minkus, and the Family Theatre Musical A Hansel and Gretel Halloween. Other credits include Singing in the Rain for the Santa Barbara Civic Light Opera, Romeo & Juliet at the Globe Theatre, The Good Woman of Setzwan for the Actor’s Gang at the Odyssey Theatre, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He is also involved with the Young Playwrights Los Angeles Group. George produced John Pielmeier’s Impassioned Embraces, for the Playhouse Modern Comedy Series and is production stage manager for the Playhouse’s Friday Night Benefit Series. For the Santa Monica Playhouse Education Department, he works with both beginning and advanced students in the fields of theatre and stage management, lighting design and set and prop construction.

SANDRA ZEITZEW

Public Relations Director, Producer – Special Events

Sandra Zeitzew has been with the Playhouse since 1990. Projects include Scott DuVale’s Voices in the Dark, the English Shakespeare Company’s Los Angeles premiere of God say Amen…Themes from the Wars of the Roses, Agnes Bernelle’s one-woman shows Empress Eugènie and Black Champagne, countless Actors’ Repertory Theatre productions, as well as more than eighty productions in the Save the Playhouse Friday Night Benefit Series featuring such renowned artists as Minda Burr, Irene Chapman, Christiane Engel & Jiri Tomasek, Beth Ertz, Inara George, Richard Glaser, Barbara Haber, Dan Lewk, Lester McFwap, Barbara Minkus, Rochelle Newman, Playbox Theatre, Annie Reiner, Harriet Schock, Sammy Shore, Anne Silver, Don Snell & Shano, Chris Sullivan and Renn Woods. In addition to a BA in History and a Certificate in Public Relations from UCLA, Sandra has a Master in Business Administration with a focus on non-profit management from the University of Judaism. In addition to core areas of study such as Economics, Budgeting and Finance, the program placed an emphasis on Ethics, Fund-raising and Board, Donor, Volunteer Development and Management.  Her graduate thesis was on the topic of Federal Funding of Faith-based Organizations. She currently works as a Public Relations and Marketing Consultant.

CELESTE AKIKI

Language Specialist, Performer

Celeste Akiki attended L’école de la Sainte Famille française in Lebanon, where she studied music and theatre. She received her degree in nursing from L’Université de Saint-Joseph in Beirut and during the war, in addition to her nursing duties, taught dance to orphaned refugee children. She became a member of the international organization “The Oxford Group”, founded by Frank Buckmann, where she studied education, social science and reconciliation among nations and cultures, and was invited to Quebec to tour schools, speaking to students about her experiences as they related to the importance of peace and building a solid, constructive life. She taught language arts in Geneva at Notre Dame du Lac, and later studied acting in Toulouse, France. Celeste began her acting career as a child when she was called upon to substitute for an actor who was ill. From there, she participated in countless theatre workshops in the south of France (Toulouse) and performed in numerous Moliere plays, including her favorite, Les Precieuses Ridicules. She is currently studying with Chris DeCarlo in The Actors' Workshop. Performances at Santa Monica Playhouse include Snowhite, Little Red Riding Hood, Barnyard Madness with the Three Little Pigs, Alice and the Wonderful Tea Party, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast and Dorothy’s Adventures in Oz. She originated the role of Frau Zuckerhut in the Family Theatre Musical A Hansel and Gretel Halloween. Celeste performs and lectures for the Playhouse Schools Theatre Excursion Project (STEP) and performs every weekend in the Family Theatre Musical Matinee Series. A language specialist, Celeste also teaches French conversation, translation and creative writing.

RODOLFO ALVAREZ

Chair of the Diversity-in-Education Scholarship Panel

Rodolfo Alvarez, professor of sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles for over thirty years, serves as chair of the Diversity-in-Education Selection Committee for the Santa Monica Playhouse. Among an extensive number of academic leadership and administrative positions, he was Chair, Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities, American Sociologists Association, a position which led an effort to institutionalize broad based cooperative joint sessions with special emphasis on techniques for inter-racial-ethnic cooperation, and founder and director, Spanish Speaking Mental Health Research Center at UCLA and established the nation’s first research center devoted to broad social science research implications for community mental health within the Spanish Speaking population. In his capacity as Selection Committee Chair, he oversees the selection process, speaks personally with each of the scholarship candidates and helps design the evaluation materials. Professor Alvarez acts as consultant on ethnic traditions and translations, as well as community outreach and development for the Playhouse.

ADRIANNA BENGOECHEA

Ethnic Dance, Health and Fitness Specialist

Adrianna Bengoechea, a native Argentinean, has developed a special program that combines movement for the stage and the elements of kick-boxing with a fitness program designed to increase awareness of physical care as it relates to coordination, performance styles, and health. In Argentina, Adrianna choreographed numerous productions for both stage and screen, and taught dance and fitness in the school system. After coming to the States, she worked for eight years as a police officer before devoting her life to dance and education.

MARGARET BOYLE

Performer, Educator, Language Arts: Writing and Spanish

Margaret Boyle has been involved at the Santa Monica Playhouse since 1993, where she has been a student, taught theater and writing workshops and performed in numerous productions. She is currently a senior Spanish literature major at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. In 2003, Margaret received the McGill Lawrence Award to co-translate Dear Gabby: the confessions of an over-achiever into Spanish with Bettina Fairman. The translation, Querida Gabby: las confesiones de una ambiciosa, had its world premiere staged reading at the Playhouse later that year and will be presented in a full production for the 2008 Schools’ Field Trip Program for grades 8 - 12. In 2004, she received a Ruby-Lankford grant for her research on images of Picasso's Guernica in four contemporary Spanish plays. The Latina actress/educator is currently a ph.d. student in the department of Spanish and Portuguese at Emory University as a Robert W. Woodruff fellow. Her research interests include 16th and 17th Spanish theater and Women's studies. She recieved her B.A from Reed college in 2005 after completing a senior thesis on plays by María de Zayas and Ana Caro.

KATE BURLEIGH

Educator, Performer, Reading Skills and Mathematics Specialist

MELISSA GENTRY

Performer

Melissa Gentry graduated from Auburn University with a BA of Liberal Arts Degree, studying Radio, Television and Film, and a Minor in Performance Theatre. She also attended the New York Film Academy in New York, where she studied acting. Melissa has been dancing since the age of three and acting and singing since she could talk.  Favorite roles and performances include: Blithe Spirit (Elvira), Rocky Horror Picture Show (Janet), The Importance of Being Earnest (Cecily Cardew), You Can't Take it with You (Alice Sycamore), Vagina Monologues, Vanities (Kathy), A Midsummer's Night's Dream (Helena), The American Dream (Mommy), and more. All-State Drama and Singer competitor as well as a Thespian Scholarship Award Winner.  Melissa has also worked in Television, Radio, and Film, featuring as a News anchor and reporter, along with taking on various roles for local entertainment projects. For the Playhouse, Melissa has been seen in And Awaaay We Go To Wonderland and Mary-Mary, Quite Contrary. She also regularly teaches dance and movement classes and choreographs for the Education Conservatory programs.

CAMMY TRUONG

Education Consultant; Performer

Cammy Truong graduated from U.C.L.A. with a B.A. in Psychology and a Specialization in Business Administration. She enjoys working with people of all ages, especially children. She has had years of experience working with young people, from tutoring and encouraging literacy through the Bruin Corps-America Reads Program to working with children with behavioral problems. While at U.C.L.A., she had the opportunity to perform in A Song My Father Taught Me and Through Almond Eyes at the Wadsworth Theater. In addition to performing on stage, several theater classes helped her to realize her passion for acting. Now she is involved with the two things she enjoys most: children and theatre! Cammy made her Playhouse debut in 2000 in Dear Gabby followed shortly thereafter in By The Way, It's A Cabaret and a five month run as Polychrome in Dorothy's Adventures in Oz and now performs regularly in Family Theatre productions here at the Playhouse. Recent credits include Abandon All Hopes, Snowhite, Cinderella and Mary-Mary, Quite Contrary. She has been studying with Chris DeCarlo in The Actors’ Workshop since 1999 and is collaborating with Mr. DeCarlo on a performance piece illuminating the personal history, traditions and culture of U.S.-Vietnamese interaction.

RACHEL GALPER

Performer, Early Education Specialist

Rachel Galper, a graduate of New Mexico State University, began her career in New Mexico, where she taught the classics to young people as part of the American Southwest Theatre Company. Working with Mark Medoff and Ruth Cantrell, she “translated” Shakespeare and other classics, making the works more accessible to young people. In Los Angeles, Rachel has worked with the Los Angeles Children’s Theatre and the L.A. Theatre Collective. Stage credits include numerous Actors’ Repertory Theatre and Family Theatre productions, including Author! Author! – an evening with Sholom Aleichem, Dorothy’s Adventures in Oz, Cinderella, Charlie's Place, Alice and the Wonderful Tea Party, Santa Knows Best and Barnyard Madness with the Three Little Pigs. She has performed on tour with Actors' Repertory Theatre in both England and Japan and is a consultant and teacher for the Playhouse’s Education Department. For several years, Rachel has been teaching creative expression and play building in numerous public schools in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, including Paul Revere Middle School, McKinley Elementary School and SMASH, Canyon and Beethoven. She was the original M. Goose in the world premiere production of Mary-Mary, Quite Contrary.

MARK SAN FILIPPO

Musicologist and Percussion Specialist

Mark San Filippo graduated Summa Cum Laude from UCLA, earning a BA in Ethnomusicology with a Concentration in Jazz Studies. He began his musical career as a percussionist in the Los Angeles Jr. Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Dr. Ernst Katz. After graduating high school, he enrolled in the music program at Pasadena City College where he studied jazz theory and improvisation with famed cornetist Bobby Bradford as well as classical theory and harmony with Michael Mitacek. At UCLA, Mark studied jazz drumming with world renowned drummer Billy Higgins, as well as performed and studied with famed guitarist Kenny Burrell. He also participated in several outreach programs, teaching music classes and private lessons to students at inner city schools Washington Preperatory High School and Tibby Elementary School. Currently, Mark performs throughout Southern California with pianist/composer/lyricist Richard Glaser and his band and teaches special percussion and rhythm classes for the Playhouse Education Conservatory.

RENN WOODS

Theatre Artist, Educator

Renn Woods first appeared on stage at the Santa Monica Playhouse in 1991 in a staged reading of then 19-year-old playwright Debbie Alleyne’s powerful drama about inner-city youth, Hey, Little Walter, but she began her career singing and acting thirty years ago, and has been going strong ever since, making her stage debut as Dorothy in the first national tour of The Wiz, at the Ahmanson Theatre in 1976. Ten years later, she was back downtown, this time at the Los Angeles Theatre Centre in the stage production of A Diva Like Me. Now she is there again, this time at the Ahmanson Theatre in Tony Kushner’s new play Caroline or Change.
          A veteran stage, film and TV actor as well as vocalist-songwriter-playwright, Woods began singing at the age of six. By twelve, she and two girlfriends had taken the show business world by storm, as their group, Sunday’s Child, was taken on by such celebrities as Jack Benny, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. They toured the world, performing in the very last tour that Bob Hope did in Vietnam. After that came The Wiz, and then a host of films such as Forrest Gump, Nine to Five, Walker, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, The Jerk, Hair and Xanadu, and recurring roles on such television series as Hill Street Blues, The Jeffersons, Beauty and the Beast and Gabriel’s Fire, as well as a featured role in the original mini-series of Roots, directed by David Greene.
          Composer/performer Lisa Harlow Stark, who co-authored A Diva Like Me with Ms. Woods, says, “Renn is like a bridge. Besides the fact that she’s a black woman who’s been through everything she’s been through, what I always found unique about her is that she can move through every world.” Ms. Woods teaches and lectures for the Playhouse Education Conservatory, with special emphasis on music and career development.

Santa Monica Playhouse, a not-for-profit 501 (c) 3 educational corporation founded in 1960, provides exciting and entertaining dramatic and comedic, classic and contemporary live theatrical productions, Family Theatre musicals, birthday and tea parties, theatre workshops and educational programming for young people, teens and adults, create-a-play classes and Mommy and Me events for pre-schoolers, daytime and after school classes and in-service in public and private schools, cultural exchange, international touring, and community outreach, as well as theatre rental space for productions, seminars, solo shows, concerts, recitals, lectures, meetings and more.