The San Francisco Theater Pub Team

Stuart Bousel (Founding Artistic Director)- Stuart Bousel graduated from Reed College with a degree in English/Creative Writing. He has served as the artistic director of three theater companies: Quicksilver Productions (1997-2000) and Horror Unspeakable Productions (2000-2002) in Tucson, and No Nude Men Productions in San Francisco (2003-2012). He has directed a number of classic plays, including LYSISTRATA, ORESTEIA, FAUST PART ONE, SALOME, EDWARD II, LE CID, LOVE’S LABORS LOST, HAMLET, PHAEDRA, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, TWELFTH NIGHT, M. BUTTERFLY, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, MEASURE FOR MEASURE, PRELUDE TO A KISS and THE FROGS, as well as the Arizona premiere of Derek Walcott’s ODYSSEY and the world premieres of David Duman’s FISHING, Alison Luterman’s OASIS, Nirmala Nataraj’s THE MONK and THE BOOK OF GENESIS REMIXED AND REMASTERED, Susan Sobeloff’s MERCHANTS and Morgan Ludlow’s RUTH AND THE SEA. Additionally he writes plays, including THE EXILED, SPEAK TO ME, LOVE EGOS ALTERNATIVE ROCK, TROIJKA, HOUSEBROKEN, SPEAK ROUGHLY, EDENITES, JUNO EN VICTORIA, BRAINKILL, LLAMA, TWINS, PASTORELLA, THE AGE OF BEAUTY and POLYXENA IN ORBIT. His play VINCENT OF GILGAMESH was nominated for the MAC Award in 2001; WILD BLUE PEAKS was nominated for the Heideman Award in 2003; MATHEW 33:6 was a finalist for the Sky Cooper Award in 2007. Places his work has been performed include New York City, San Francisco, Melbourne, Dublin, Tucson and Portland. He co-wrote the Cosgrove winning short film INSOMNIA with Chris McCaleb and Amanda Karam and the mocu-mercial WISH U WERE HERE for Hosteling International. He occasionally acts as well and numbers among his credits the title role in MACBETH, Carl in THE BALTIMORE WALTZ, Matt in THE FANTASTICKS, the Record Keeper in JACOB MARLEY’S CHRISTMAS CAROL, Ned Poins in THE BOAR’S HEAD (which he also adapted from HENRY IV part 1 and 2) and the opera TOSCA, in addition to voicing a number of radio and television commercials. He is a frequent collaborator with Theater In The Woods, Custom Made Theater Company and Wily West Productions. He is a founding member of the San Francisco Theater Pub, as well as the Executive Director of the San Francisco Olympians Festival. His first novel, DRY COUNTRY, came out 2008 and is available on Amazon.com.

Victor Carrion (Founding Artistic Director 2010-2011)- Victor trained in acting and writing at Studio ACT where he met his first group of collaborators and founded Theatre in the Woods (TIW); a theatre experience that takes audience members through a redwood forest as they hike from scene to scene.  Victor is currently the Executive Director of AtmosTheatre, our umbrella company. With TIW, Victor has played a number of roles including Nick in David Mamet’s THE WOODS, Mousier Cradeau in Jean Paul Sartre’s NO EXIT, Canniphlet in David Ives’ BABEL’S IN ARMS, Nick Bottom in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, Claudius in Stoppard’s “ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD, Frog leader and Radamanthys in Aristophane’s THE FROGS.  Victor has also acted with other local companies including, The Next Stage (ENRICO CARUSO), Hillbarn Theatre (Picasso in PICASSO AT THE LAPIN AGILE) and Custom Made Theater Company (FINDING THE SUN, TEMPTATION, ST. JOAN OF THE STOCKYARDS). He is currently an Associate Professor in the School of Medicine at Stanford University and the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital where he directs a program on national and international early life stress.

Ashley Cowan (Staff Blogger, 2011-) Ashley Cowan is originally from Avon, CT and went to school at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island. After graduating, she moved to New York City to become a starving artist before moving to San Francisco as a moderately hungry artist where she’s been acting, writing, teaching, and enjoying burritos ever since. She’s had the privilege of working with such Bay Area theater companies including: Atmos Theatre, San Francisco Olympians Festival, Custom Made Theatre, Piano Fight, No Nude Men, Young Performers Theatre, and one of her favorites: Theater Pub. Her biweekly column “Cowan Palace” attempts to explore some of the source material that inspires each new month of Theater Pub. To hear more of her thoughts and enjoy one too many pictures of her pets, you can follow her on Twitter at: twitter.com/AshCows.

Eli Diamond (Staff Blogger, 2012-) Elijah Diamond, a San Francisco native, is a freshman at the Tisch School of the Arts in New York University. Before he went off to pursue his degree, he performed with Ray of Light Theatre, the SF Olympians Festival, and numerous youth productions. He aspires for a legitimate acting career wherever he can find one, be that theatre, film, or television.

Bennett Fisher (Founding Artistic Director, 2010-2012)- Graduated from Connecticut College in 2008 with BAs in theater and English, where he received the Charles Palmer, Sally Abrahms, and Benjamin Marshall prizes for his creative writing. Since returning to his native Bay Area, he has performed with the Marin Shakespeare Company, AtmosTheatre (where he is an associate artist), Off-Broadway West, New Conservatory, BRAVA for Women in the Arts, The Pear Avenue Theatre, Stanford Summer Theater, and has understudied at CalShakes. Directing credits include CYCLOPS and AUDIENCE for the San Francisco Theater Pub, as well as THE INCREASED DIFFICULTY OF CONCENTRATION for the Connecticut College Spring Main Stage Production, for which Fisher received a student research grant to travel to Prague and meet playwright Vaclav Havel as well as other Czech theater makers. Bennett has assistant directed THE FUTURE PROJECT: SUNDAY WILL COME and MIRRORS IN EVERY CORNER for Intersection for the Arts. His plays include EXCHANGE (Threshold Theatre for the 8th BOA Festival), QUERY (9th BOA Festival), DAEDALUS (BOA Short Leaps), FOOTPRINTS IN THE APPLESAUCE (Threshold Theatre for SF Theater Festival), SPARK (Element Festival, Chicago), HERMES: THE COST OF DOING BUSINESS (No Nude Men’s Olympian Festival), LEVIATHAN (WCNI Radio, New London), and translations of Euripides’ CYCLOPS, Aeschylus’ PROMETHEUS BOUND, and Moliere’s THE MISANTHROPE (with Baris Ungun). Visit his blog for more info.

Julia Heitner (Artistic Director, 2012-) is a Bay Area raised actor and director. She graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in Theater Arts, as well as studying modern dance & choreography and many world dance forms. She has also trained with ACT’s Summer Training Congress and Studio, Marin Shakespeare Company and had the honor of studying the classical Kuchi Pudi dance while on a semester abroad at Hyderabad, Central University University, Andhra Pradesh, India. Favorite roles include: Felice, FRANZ KAFKA’S LOVE LIFE, LETTERS AND HALLUCINATIONS IN SHORT SCENES WITH ACTORS (Brookside Repertory); Dancer/Narrator, AUGURY & ENTROPY (Herpic Performances); Bette, AN AFFAIR OF HONOR (The Exit/DivaFest); Vera, DISTRACTED (Town Hall Theatre); Connie/Sister, TONY ‘N’ TINA’S WEDDING (SF Production); Dionne/Anne, HOUSEBROKEN (No Nude Men/BOA 9); and one of the buck basket carrying servants, MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR (Marin Shakespeare Company.) As a director Julia has worked with PianoFight/PCSF, No Nude Men, The Bay One Acts Festival (BOA), as an assistant on MERCHANT OF VENICE directed by Daniel Fish (Calshakes), and as a directing consultant for CHRYSALIS: A SOLO TRAGICOMEDY IN ONE ACT, written and performed by Evangeline Crittenden. Julia met the founders of Theater Pub while performing as a Frog/Fury/Landlady in AtmosTheatre’s production of THE FROGS and was invited to perform in the very first Theater Pub production of THE CYCLOPS in January 2010. After acting and directing for a number of Theater Pub shows, Julia joined as Associate Artistic Director in January 2012.

Helen Laroche (Staff Blogger, 2012-) is a San Francisco Bay Area-based actor, teacher and arts administrator. She moved here in 2007, shortly after graduating from Carnegie Mellon with a degree in Opera Performance. She juggled a corporate day job with amateur artistic pursuits for over 4 years before deciding to jump ship in 2011. Now, her aim is to tell memorable stories (and make some money too). Her bi-weekly column “Falling With Style” chronicles her lessons learned, goals achieved and general musings toward that aim. Visit her website at www.helenlaroche.com, for information about upcoming projects.

Brian Markley (Founding Artistic Director) is a co-founder of Theatre in the Woods/AtmosTheatre (2002) where he acts as technical director, an actor and adaptor. His adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND and THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS AND WHAT ALICE FOUND THERE will run eight weeks of the 2010 summer in the company’s 5-acre complex of trails, stages and amphitheater in the redwoods of Woodside, CA. For Theater Pub, Brian premiered a new short play and produced a collection of Muni-based stories for the company’s March 2010 HOW TO RIDE A BUS IN SAN FRANCISCO production. As an actor with AtmosTheatre, he has performed in ROSENCRANTZ  & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD (Rosencrantz), THE BIG FUNK (Austin), CONVERSATIONS IN THE WOODS (various), BABEL’S IN ARMS (Gorph) FOREPLAY, OR THE ART OF THE FUGUE (Chuck).  He has performed as a stand-up comedian, and his other acting credits include John in THE LION IN WINTER for Palo Alto Players, Tripp in FIVE WOMEN WEARING THE SAME DRESS for Actors Anonymous, Man/Alien in ABDUCTED for Elastic Future, Yoda in THE KEN AND ANDY SHOW and Trent in the short film TURNING ON TRENT by Lucid Dreams Films.

Allison Page (Staff Blogger, 2013- ) is a Bay Area actress, writer, director and comedienne known for her frequent collaborations with the sketch comedy troupe Killing My Lobster, and for having ruled Pint Sized Plays III as the Beer Bear in Megan Cohen’s BEEEEAAAARRRR!!! She has been a frequent participant in the San Francisco Olympians Festival (SELENE OR SOMEONE LIKE THE MOON, HERMES THE COMPUTER THAT WANTED TO LOVE, TWINS, IAEPETUS, HYPERION), starred as Rita in Custom Made Theater Company’s production of PRELUDE TO A KISS (and appeared in their long-running production of THE BOOK OF LIZ), did some time in TONY ‘N’ TINA’s wedding, and she often pops up in films and commercials shot in the bay. She went to school for cosmotology and currently writes games for Zynga.

Cody Rishell (Art Director) has been working as a freelance graphic artist in the Bay Area theater scene for the past five years., designing dozens of posters and the programs for many productions, including work by the San Francisco Theater Pub, The Olympians Festival, No Nude Men, Bay One Acts, The San Francisco Fringe Festival and Central Works. He designed the book Songs of Hestia and has curated all the art in the annual Olympians Festival collection since the festival’s beginning. Internationally, his work has been on display in Corciano, Italy in addition to Turkey, Afghanistan, and Paris.

Marissa Skudlarek (Staff Blogger, 2012-) Marissa Skudlarek is a San Francisco-based playwright and arts writer. She is a frequent collaborator of Theater Pub, which produced her short plays DRINKING FOR TWO and BEER THEORY in the 2010 and 2012 Pint-Sized Play Festivals, respectively. Theater Pub has also afforded her opportunities to write heroic couplets in praise of props masters (ODES OF MARCH, 2012), translate and produce a Jean Cocteau play (ORPHEE, 2013), do silly things while dressed in a fake beard and a toga (CONGRESSWOMEN, 2011) or reindeer antlers and smudged mascara (CODE RED, 2010) — and, of course, to write her biweekly column “Hi-Ho, the Glamorous Life.” Since moving to the Bay Area in 2008, Marissa has also been heavily involved with the San Francisco Olympians Festival, which commissioned her full-length drama PLEIADES in 2011 and her first screenplay, APHRODITE, OR THE LOVE GODDESS, in 2012. She also wrote the introduction to Songs of Hestia, an anthology of five plays from the 2010 Olympians Festival, now out from EXIT Press. Marissa’s other full-length plays include DEUS EX MACHINA (Young Playwrights Festival National Competition winner, 2006), MARGINALIA, and THE ROSE OF YOUTH (Marilyn Swartz Seven Award and Vassar College production, 2008). Her shorter plays have been produced by Un-Scripted Theatre and the San Francisco One-Minute Play Festival; and she has worked in a literary/dramaturgical capacity with Cutting Ball Theater, the Bay One-Acts Festival, and Portland Center Stage. Marissa grew up outside of Portland, Oregon, and double-majored in Drama and French at Vassar College. Find her writing about theater, books, playwriting and more at marissabidilla.blogspot.com or on Twitter @MarissaSkud.