Join us for the premier showcase of live performances by Throckmorton Theatre Teaching Artists, and some of Bay Area’s greatest talents and rising stars. The October 5th showcase will cover a variety of disciplines: dance, music, theater, and include performances by award-winning choreographer Nicole Helfer, Throckmorton Resident Musical Director & singer Carl Pantle, Throckmorton Director of Theatre Programs Amy Marie Haven, and choreographer & Ahdanco member Rebecca Gilbert.
Other talented artists featured this evening include: Lily Jackson, Gillian Eichenberger, Geoff Bolt & Michael O’Brien, Zoe Swenson-Graham, Curtis Aikens, Rachel Menendez, Jasmyne Brice, Alex Munoz and Stacey Printz.
The event highlights our 2018-2019 Season’s incredible teaching artists and artist mentors, whose contribution to our community is invaluable. It is also an opportunity for community members, parents, youth, artists and educators to engage with teaching artists working across all mediums. Come learn about Throckmorton Theatre’s arts education programs and introduce yourself to the Directors, Musical Directors and Choreographers of our upcoming season!
PERFORMER BIOS
NICOLE HELFER
Nicole Helfer is an award-winning choreographer, a director, performing artist, and a full-time theatre faculty member at Oakland School for the Arts. Choreography credits include The Music Man, The Producers, Miss Saigon, Kiss Me Kate (SFBATCC nominee), West Side Story (TBA Award finalist), and In the Heights (TBA Award finalist) with Broadway By The Bay; Me and My Girl (Associate Choreographer) and No No Nanette (TBA and SFBATCC Award nominee) with 42nd Street Moon; Mamma Mia, West Side Story (TBA and SFBATCC nominee), Peter Pan, Beauty and the Beast with The Mountain Play; Lizzie with Ray of Light (SFBATCC nominee); Dogfight with OMG Productions; Tarzan with Contra Costa Musical Theater (Shellie Award nominee); and Rock of Ages and RENT with Pacific Coast Repertory Theatre. Directing credits include The Music Man, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Good Kids, Snow White: A Holiday Panto, The Little Mermaid and the Greek epic Electra. Featured performance credits include Marian in The Music Man, Rosie in Bye Bye Birdie, Fantine inLes Miz (Shellie Award winner), Betty in Sunset Blvd (Shellie nominee), Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors (Shellie nominee), Val in A Chorus Line, Velma Kelly in Chicago (SFBATCC nominee), Kate Monster/Lucy T. Slut in the National Regional Premiere of Avenue Q, Miraid inBrimstone (SFBATCC and Shellie nominee) and Sheila in Hair (Shellie nominee).
CARL PANTLE
Carl is a vocal coach, Music Director, and singer who frequently works with San Francisco Opera, West Bay Opera, Opera San Jose and the Bay Area Summer Opera Theatre Institute. He is an alumnus of the prestigious Merola Program at the San Francisco Opera Center. Carl studied voice and choral conducting at Brigham Young University and soon after returned to the Bay Area to pursue vocal coaching and accompanying at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Mr. Pantle has collaborated with some of the finest talent Broadway has to offer, including Daniel Reichard, Keala Settle, Julia Murney, Alysha Umphress, Laura Benanti, and Patti LuPone. Carl is excited to be back in the pit AND on stage as Daddy Warbucks.
AMY MARIE HAVEN
Amy Marie Haven has a diverse theatre background focusing on producing, directing, acting, and community building. Based in the Bay Area, she has directed for and acted with many award-winning local companies including: Cal Shakes, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, The Quixote Project, We Players, Alter Theater and Sleepwalkers Theatre. Her international theatre experience includes: Theatre of Heart and Four Larks in Melbourne, Australia, as well as youth street theatre in Tulum, Mexico and educational program creation at San Jeronimo Bilingual School in Cofradia, Honduras. Amy Marie is a co-founder of Tomorrow Youth Repertory in Alameda and has spent the last two years as a full-time faculty member with Oakland School for the Arts’ School of Theatre. She received a Bachelor of Arts from UC Santa Cruz in 2007 where she studied Literature and Theatre. Recently, she directed 23 Elephants’ The Unspeakable Act, a production awarded Best of Fringe 2016, and opened the world premiere of a new adaptation of The Oresteia in Oakland in 2017. Next, she is excited to act with We Players this summer in Caesar Maximus at the Music concourse in San Francisco and to deepen her exploration and service of the new North Bay theatre community she so admires and adores.
REBA GILBERT WITH ANDREW MERRELL OF AHDANCO (ABIGAIL HOSEIN DANCE COMPANY)
Rebecca (Reba) graduated with a BA in dance from Mills College and has performed with various Bay Area choreographers including little seismic dance company, RAW dance and Dance Ceres. She has produced her own work at CounterPulse and Works in the Works and had a residency at the Garage in SF that culminated in an evening length piece, After August. Rebecca is currently the Director of Education and Outreach at Throckmorton Theatre and has been choreographing for youth theatre companies in the Bay Area for 6 years. She is thrilled to be one of the original Ahdanco members, performing in her 15th year with the company!
Andrew Merrell received his education at CSU Long Beach with a BA in Dance, and at Saint Mary’s College with a MFA in Dance Creative Practice. He has been dancing professionally since 2008 for companies including: Keith Johnson and Dancers, Holly Johnston’s Ledges and Bones Nina Haft and Company, Abigail Hosein’s Ahdanco, Davalos dance, Deborah Slater Dance Theater, Rogelio Lopez & Dancers, and Paufve | dance. Andrew currently teaches contemporary modern dance technique and theory at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, Saint Mary’s College, San Jose State University, and Sonoma State University.
LILY JACKSON
Lily Jackson is a performer, director, and educator. She received her B.A. in Theatre from Occidental College, and completed training at the London Dramatic Academy as well as programs with A.C.T. and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Returning to her native Bay Area after graduating, she now teaches and directs with theatre companies such as the Yes! Foundation in the Ross Valley School district, the Montessori de Terra Linda and Throckmorton Youth Theatre, as well as providing administrative services to Stapleton School of the Performing Art. Lily has performed with companies throughout the Bay, including Central Works, 3Girls Theatre, Novato Theatre Company, and 142 Throckmorton.
GILLIAN EICHENBERGER
Gillian Eichenberger is a singer and actress from Marin County, dividing her time between performing and teaching. She has spent the past 15 years onstage, favorites roles include: Roxie Hart in Chicago, and Louise in Gypsy, and has worked all over the Bay Area with companies such as Ross Valley Players, Novato Theater Company, Marin Onstage, and 6th Street Playhouse. As a vocal coach and director, she has worked with students privately at the Kayla Gold Vocal Studio and has been a guest artist at Stanford University and Redwood High School.
GEOFF BOLT & MICHAEL O’BRIEN
Geoff Bolt is a comedian, writer and actor. A Bay Area original, Geoff is renowned as an inspired improviser in the world of sketch comedy. Geoff got his start in the comedy world as a founding member of the critically acclaimed National Theatre of the Deranged, and soon after debuted his stand-up comedy to rave reviews at San Francisco’s Other Cafe. He continues to perform regularly to dedicated fans at a wide variety of comedy clubs. He has appeared in many feature films was featured in HBO’s Young Comedian’s Special, Showtime’s Comedy Channel, A&E’s Evening at the Improv, and KQED’s Comedy Tonight. Geoff has appeared in several plays at the SF Fringe Festival and has done hundreds of voice- overs for radio, television, and video games. He appears regularly on NPR’s West Coast Live as half of the comedy team of Karl and Carl, who offer their unconventional “Tips on Travel.”
Michael O’Brien is an original member of the National Theatre of the Deranged, co-creator of “Tips on Travel” with Karl & Carl” and a master improviser whose credits include performances at The Moth, Porchlight SF, Marsh Theatre, Holy City Zoo and Throckmorton Theatre. Michael is also a teaching artist: Improv Open Workshop at Fort Mason Center, Voice One SF, Academy of Art University, San Francisco State University (guest instructor) and Stanford University (guest instructor).
CURTIS AIKENS
Bassist and Composer, Curtis Aikens is a versatile musician who has worked in a variety of settings including theater pits, orchestras, folk, rock and hip hop bands, but jazz is his passion. He began his studies of jazz with Bay Area legend Mel Martin at the age of 12, and continued his education at The Idyllwild Arts Academy where, in addition to jazz, he studied classical bass, production and composition, with continued composition studies at The San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Curtis’ first professional gig was as Principle Bassist of the Mill Valley Philharmonic at the age of nineteen.
STACEY PRINTZ WITH JORGE VASQUEZ OF PRINTZ DANCE PROJECT (video excerpt)
Stacey Printz is the Artistic Director of Printz Dance Project (PDP), a dance company that has performed in SF for 17 years, and toured across the nation and internationally in Russia, Lithuania, Ireland, The Virgin Islands and Mexico. Printz was nominated for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award (Izzie) for her 2011 work Hover Space. In addition to choreographing regional musical theater productions (including productions of West Side Story, A Chorus Line, Grease and more) Printz’s choreography credits in theater/multi-genre, performing arts pieces include: As You Like It at Cal Shakes, Aaron Davidman’s Wrestling Jerusalem, Sarah Shourd’s The Box, Washington D.C.’s Woolly Mammoth Theater production of The Arsonists, and Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s internationally recognized works, Scourge, The Break/s, the Bessie nominated Red, Black & Green: a blues, and /peh-LO-tah/, which recently toured to Kennedy Centerand BAM. Printz has taught her hybrid contemporary-jazz technique across the U.S., and Internationally (incl. Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Austria, Ireland, Russia and more). In the Bay Area, Printz teaches for A.C.T.’s MFA program, at Alonzo King’s LINES Dance Center and RoCo Dance. Printz graduated cum laude from UC Irvine with degrees in Sociology and Dance. She just closed her show GLASSLANDS at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Mainstage in May.
RACHEL MENENDEZ
Rachel Menendez just graduated from UC Irvine with a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre and is excited to be back at the Throckmorton after production managing The Music Man last summer! She finished out her college career showcasing for agents in Los Angeles and New York City in the Spring and performed in the ensemble of American Idiot directed and choreographed by Broadway choreographer Andrew Palermo in June. Aside from her love of performing, Rachel also followed her passion for stage management in college by working many times as a production assistant and she is going down to San Diego to stage manage Ghost Quartet at the Tenth Avenue Arts Centre later this summer. Rachel participated in UC Irvine’s New York Satellite Program in 2017 where she lived in New York for a month and studied with working professionals in the industry and is excited to hopefully make the move to the Big Apple soon!
ZOE SWENSON-GRAHAM
Zoe Swenson-Graham returned to the states in 2015 after living in London for nearly seven years, where she worked as a dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Zoe performed as Velma in West Side Story with the Mountain Play, and choreographed the fights for the production. She appeared in the world premiere of Arches, Balance and Light at Ross Valley Players and Peter Pan with the Mountain Play. Before leaving London, she performed in the leading role in the English Premiere of Neil LaBute’s Autobahn at The Kings Head Theatre, London. Other London credits include: Our Town (Emily). The Trojan Women (Helen), The Toll (Edinburgh Festival), and Twelfth Night (Viola). Zoe received an Off-West End Best Actress nomination for At the Broken Places, a new American play that premiered in London in 2011. Zoe graduated from the University of Southern California and has served as a dance and stage combat choreographer and teacher around the UK, including at the Royal Opera House, Soho Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Southwark Playhouse and the British American Drama Academy. London dance choreography credits include: The Producers, A Chorus Line and Company. Last year, Zoe finished filming the horror film Lasso. Currently Zoe also teaches dance classes at Steppin’ Out Dance Studio in San Francisco.
ALEX MUNOZ
Alex Munoz is a sophomore at SFSU, studying Business and Music. His most recent performances include Usnavi in In the Heights, Seaweed in Hairspray, and he is currently playing Gomez in the Addams Family at Throckmorton. He is very excited to continue working with Throckmorton and hopes for your support this coming season!
JASMYNE BRICE
Jasmyne Brice is currently the stage manager for Addams family, and one of the assistant directors for Little Throck Never Neverland. Just recently she was in the summer production of Hairspray at Throckmorton. Other shows include: In the Heights and Snow White Panto. She is grateful to have worked with so many amazing people at Throckmorton. She is also thrilled for the coming season here.
