The San Francisco Theater Pub Team

Sam Bertken (Saturday Write Fever Co-host, 2014-2016) is an actor, clown and writer in the Bay Area. He has performed in numerous productions with various companies across the Bay Area. Here’s a helpful list of those productions: Custom Made Theatre Co. (PETER/WENDY), DIVAFest (YOU’RE GOING TO BLEED), Dragon Theatre (MARCH, BECKY’S NEW CAR), foolsFURY (FAULTED), SF Theatre Pub (THE TAMING OF THE SHREW). He has also performed as the clown Meekins in Idiot String’s O BEST BELOVED, winner, Best of Fringe, SF Fringe Festival 2013, an adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s short stories that toured around on an unfolding wagon-stage around the Bay Area. He also recently performed as a mouse in Pollinator Theatre Company’s CINDERELLA, where an old Irish man asked him if he’d “kissed the Blarney stone,” shortly after the production, one of the highest compliments he has ever received. His short play, LAMP RITUAL, was featured in the SF Olympians V: Monsters. He has been semi-hosting Saturday Write Fever for the latter half of 2014. He graduated with a BA in Theatre Arts from Kalamazoo College, where he received the Irmgard Kowatzki award for academic and theatrical excellence. He is proudest of his roles in CLOUD 9, THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN and a devised production called KAHANI that toured to Varanasi, India the summer after his graduation. He is a staff writer for Movoto Real Estate’s Insider Blog, where he writes rundowns of list-form articles about cities across the entire country and produces scripts and videos that are to the same effect.

Stuart Bousel (Executive Director, 2015-2016; Blog Editor, 2013-2014 ; Founding Artistic Director for Saturday Write Fever, 2013-2014 ; Founding Artistic Director, 2010-2014) Stuart Eugene 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 (2003-2016). 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, THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, PRELUDE TO A KISS, THE FROGS, THE CRUCIBLE, GREY GARDENS, and THE DESK SET, 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, THE AGE OF BEAUTY, PANDEMONIUM, SEE ALSO ALL, POLYXENA IN ORBIT, and GONE DARK. 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; and EVERYBODY HERE SAYS HELLO! won “Outstanding World Premiere” at the 2014 TBA Awards, and was nominated for “Best Original Script” at the 2015 Bay Area Critics Circle Awards. His play PASTORELLA was nominated for “Outstanding World Premiere” at the 2015 TBA Awards, where he was also nominated for “Outstanding Director of a Musical” for GREY GARDENS. Places his work has been performed include New York City, San Francisco, Melbourne, Dublin, Tucson, Chicago, Seattle, 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 founding member of the San Francisco Theater Pub, the current Executive Director, as well as the Executive Director of the San Francisco Olympians Festival, and the hospitality coordinator of the San Francisco Fringe Festival, the publicist for DIVAfest, and the Director of New Work Development for Custom Made Theatre Company. His first novel, DRY COUNTRY, came out 2008 and is available on his website, http://www.stuartbousel.com. In 2013, the SF Weekly declared him “Best Ringmaster Of The Bay Area Theater Scene”. He was on the Individual Services Committee for Theatre Bay Area from 2013-2015, the chair of the Committee and a Board Member for Theatre Bay Area in 2015.

Victor Carrion (Founding Artistic Director, 2010-2011) 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.

Andrew Chung (Saturday Write Fever Co-Host, 2015-2016) is a Bay Area actor originally from the boring suburbs of Los Angeles, where he first tried acting in a production of THE DUCHESS OF MALFI at Harvey Mudd College. More recently, Theater Pub attendees may remember him from the time he suffocated the audience in a haze of Axe during Pint Sized Plays IV. He has also performed with 99 Stock Productions, the Bay One Acts Festival, Dragon Productions, Impact Theatre, No Nude Men Productions, and the SF Olympians Festival. Following a stint juggling acting and getting M.S. degrees in chemical biology and medicine at Stanford, he now juggles acting with being a laboratory safety professional. Most importantly, though, he is super pumped to be co-hosting Saturday Write Fever!

Megan Cohen (Founding Artistic Director for Saturday Write Fever, 2013-2016) is a playwright, dramaturg, and performer. The most frequently-produced female playwright in the SF Bay Area, she’s had over 24 shows and readings in 24 months. Named one of SF Weekly’s “Theater Artists to Watch” in Jan 2013, she was also profiled in the Sept-Oct 2013 issue of Theater Bay Area Magazine as an artist to “Keep An Eye On.” She’s worked with hundreds of local theatermakers to create shows in bars, in black boxes, and on beaches. Megan earned a B.A. with Honors in Drama at Stanford University, where she was mentored by director/translator Carl Weber, and by playwright Cherríe Moraga. Previously the Literary Manager/Dramaturg at Cutting Ball Theater, and the Dramaturgy Fellow at American Conservatory Theater, she offers private dramaturgical support for new writers in person and via Skype. With Stuart Bousel, Megan co-founded and co-hosts the monthly theater party and flash-fried-on-the-spot performance festival Saturday Write Fever at the Exit Café. On Saturdays when she’s not at the Exit, Megan appears with the San Francisco Neo-Futurists (an ensemble of writer/performers of which she is a charter member) in the constantly-rotating weekly show “Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind: 30 Plays in 60 Minutes.” Website: MeganCohen.Com Twitter: @WayBetterThanTV

Ashley Cowan (Staff Blogger, 2012-2016) 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, 2012-2013), 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.

Robert Estes (Staff Blogger, 2016) is quite thrilled at the ripe age of 56 to have achieved his almost forgotten life-long goal of being an columnist with his debut at the Theater Pub this year. He’s the Artistic Director of Anton’s Well Theater Company, where he has directed OLD TIMES, OR, and DYING CITY. His production of the Bay Area premiere of Melissa James Gibson’s aching comedy WHAT RHYMES WITH AMERICA will open there in April. For other east bay companies, he has directed CURSE OF THE STARVING CLASS, OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY, HEARTBREAK HOUSE, ARCADIA, ROCK’N ROLL, and THE REAL THING. Last summer, he had a great time creating his first adaptation, FALSTAFF!, in which the great rogue was played by six different women. He’s a devoted lurker (audience member!) for all things Theater Pub, where has directed pieces by Marissa Skudlarek and Heiner Muller. He welcomes you to a place at the bar as he follows the vodka!

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.

James Grady (Music Director, 2011-2016) is originally from Scottsdale, AZ, but has called San Francisco home since 2008, and has firmly established himself in the local music and theater scenes. His first music directing gig was the 2011 Theater Pub holiday spectacular, a concert version of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR. The following year he music directed and sang the role of Roger in Theater Pub’s RENT. Most he was the music director of Kristin Hersh’s RAT GIRL, adapted for the stage by Stuart Bousel. Other credits include playing guitar in the band of Custom Made Theatre’s production of NEXT TO NORMAL, performing in the house band for several Killing My Lobster shows, and playing the role of Roger in RENT at Altarena Playhouse.

Julia Heitner (Artistic Director, 2012-2014) 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.

Alandra Hileman (Staff Blogger, 2015-2016) is a writer, director, semi-recovering stage manager, and arts administrator, usually hovering about the San Francisco Bay Area. She holds a double BA in Theatre & English from San Francisco State University, where she has returned to pursue her MFA in Playwriting. Her short plays have received readings and production with SFSU, Do It Live! Productions, 99 Stock Productions, and the 2015 SF Olympians Festival. She works frequently in a variety of capacities with Central Works, the Live Oak Theatre, The Breadbox, Awesome Theatre, Davis Shakespeare Ensemble, and Quantum Dragon Theatre. Sometimes she even gets paid for all of this. Visit http://www.ajhileman.com for sporadic but juicy updates, literary quotes, and pretty, pretty pictures of actors.

Sara Judge (Empress of On The Spot, 2015-2016) is a theater artist and songwriter. She studied theater at Rutgers University and spent time training at the Walnut Street Theatre, The Wilma Theater, and EgoPo in Philadelphia and at ACT in SF. She has been an actor and playwright in several “Guaranteed Overnight Theater” productions at The Brick Playhouse in Philadelphia. She directed several plays and staged readings for the Philadelphia Dramatists Center. Her work as an actress and director has been featured in the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival. Sara won an award for “Outstanding Achievement in Acting” as Lila in Ed Shockley’s SUNSET JOHNSON at the Philadelphia ACT Festival, and first place in an entertainment slam at the Philadelphia Theater Workshop for performing her song “5 Time Loser.” In 2008, she drove to San Francisco and never left. She was lucky enough to find the SF Theater Pub in 2010 where she had the pleasure of directing a staged reading of Aeschylus’ SEVEN AGAINST THEBES, Ben Fisher’s DEVIL OF A TIME, a folk musical, Sharif Abu-Hamdeh’s CANARY YELLOW for the BOA X festival, composed musical adaptions of Oscar Wilde poems for Theater Pub’s Oscar Wilde Festival and co-wrote OPEN HOUSE for On The Spot 2015. More credits include directing Alison Luterman’s A NIGHT IN JAIL for No Nude Men, Michael Golden’s 90-minute musical ALASKA LEAVIN’ for the SF Fringe Festival, and a solo-performance piece with music for the L.A. based artist Rana Rines. She co-produced a SOMA Salon, a semi-annual San Francisco theatre and performance salon where she also developed and directed a staged reading of her original play. She is a member of the Playwright’s Center of San Francisco. Her play THE LOSS TEMPLE was produced as part of the PCSF Spring 2015 24hr Play Festival.

Barbara Jwanouskos (Staff Blogger, 2013-2016) is a Bay Area based writer. She was a semi-finalist for the 2015 and 2014 Bay Area Playwrights Festival and a 2014 semi-finalist for the Disquiet International Short Play contest. Her work has been developed or produced by 31 Plays in 31 Days, All Terrain Theater, Just Theater, La MaMA E.T.C., the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, the Playwrights Foundation, and the San Francisco Olympians Festival. She graduated with an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University where she studied with Rob Handel, and a BA in English from University of California, Santa Barbara where she studied with Naomi Iizuka. She has a bi-weekly blog on San Francisco Theater Pub’s website called “The Real World – Theater Edition”, in which she interviews artists doing theater in the Bay Area. You can follow her on twitter @bjwany and check out inspiration for her writing projects at http://writingfinds.tumblr.com/.

Helen Laroche (Staff Blogger, 2012-2013) 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.

Will Leschber (Staff Blogger, 2013-2016) Will graduated from Arizona State University with a BA in English, a minor in Theatre and a Writing Certificate. (Read as: unemployable but perfect for this blog) Known formostly as an actor, he has had the pleasure to play in the Bay Area with Atmos Theatre, The SF Fringe Festival, The Olympian Festival, Custom Made Theatre, and Theater Pub. When he’s not stumbling around the stage, he aspires to write and sleep past noon. Will has had two short stories and one short play published by the ASU online magazine, Canyon Voices. His main areas of interest fall into film, theatre and literature, but also readily fan out to other areas of human interests and interdisciplinary pursuits. Turning an alternate phrase, he’s interested in pulling on the unifying strings that connect all things. His “Working Title” blog aims to take a current Bay Area theater production and relate it to a film that has similar subject matter, analyzing both to see how they accomplish telling their stories. Lastly, he is honored to be blogging for Theater Pub and wishes to express his abundant appreciation to the editors and the reading audience.

Charles Lewis III (Staff Blogger, 2014-2016) first attended during their second-ever show in February 2010, and he’s been coming back ever since. They’ve frequently cast him as an actor, having appeared as a love-lorn kazoo-player, Nelson Mandela, and even a horse. He has written and directed for ‘Pub shows CODE RED, OCCUPY THEATER PUB, and Pint Sized Plays. As a writer, actor, and director, he’s worked with such renowned Bay Area companies as Wily West Productions, 31 Plays in 31 Days, and the San Francisco Olympians Festival. A prolific presence on stage, he’s acted for the ACT, No Nude Men Productions, PianoFight Productions, Cal Shakes, Impact Theatre, Cutting Ball, New Conservatory Theatre Center, Playwrights Center of San Francisco, Atmos Theatre, and the San Francisco Opera, to name but a few. He has made nearly as many appearances on film and television, most recently appearing a popular tv spot for the San Francisco Giants, as well as the independent film The Diary of a Teenage Girl alongside Kristen Wiig and Alexander Skaarsgard. His most outlandish ramblings can be found on his Tumblr (charlesandhistypewriter.tumblr.com), his blog, (TheThinkingMansIdiot.wordpress.com), and in 140-character madness on Twitter (@SimonPatt).

Brian Markley (Founding Artistic Director, 2010-2013) 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.

Anthony Miller (Staff Blogger, 2014-2016) Anthony R. Miller is originally from San Jose, Ca. Writing credits include the book and lyrics (co-writer) for Zombie! The Musical!, Agamemnon for the San Francisco Olympians Festival, and most recently, Camp Evil. Anthony has a degree in Dramaturgy and Play Preparation from SFSU and the debt to prove it. For four years Anthony was the Slam Master of the San Jose Poetry Slam, where he was a two time Grand Slam Champion and coached Team San Jose to the Semi finals of the Nation Poetry Slam in Austin, Texas. He has released three Spoken Word CD’s, 2 self published books of poetry, and has toured Nationally. He now lives in Berkeley, CA with his Girlfriend and their two cats that can’t seem to stop eating.

Tonya Narvaez (Artistic Director, 2015-2016) is a writer and actor originally from the Midwest and southern California, where she studied Theatre Arts at California State University, Long Beach. She is currently the Production Manager for Loud and Unladylike and writing a piece in the San Francisco Olympians Festival VI: Wine Dark Sea. She’s worked with a number of Bay Area theater companies, including: Battle Stache Studios, Awesome Theatre Company, Thunderbird Theatre Company, No Nude Men Productions, Custom Made Theatre Company, Sleepwalkers Theatre, The Mess, and Guywriters.

Allison Page (Staff Blogger, 2013-2016) is a Bay Area actress, writer, director and comedienne known for her frequent collaborations with the sketch comedy troupe Killing My Lobster (of which she is currently co-Artistic Director), and for having ruled Pint Sized Plays III and VI 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, MENELAUS, SCYLLA, CHARYBDIS), wrote several of her own Olympians Plays (THE GOLDEN APPLES, CERBERUS, JASONS), 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), and as Bunny in No Nude Men’s production of THE DESK SET, wrote and directed HILARITY at DIVAfest, did some time in TONY ‘N’ TINA’s wedding, directed the world premiere of Stuart Bousel’s ADVENTURES IN TECH (WITH PILLOW TALK ON THE SIDE) at PianoFight, and she often pops up in films and commercials shot in the Bay Area. She went to school for cosmotology and used to write games for Zynga.

Claire Rice (Staff Blogger, 2013-2014 ) is a playwright and director. She has worked with Thunderbird Theatre Company, No Nude Men, Three Wise Monkeys, PianoFight, AtmosTheatre, Theatre Pub, San Francisco Olympians Theatre Festival, Custom Made Theatre Company, DIVAFest and is co-founder of Ann Marie Productions. Her plays include SEX IN THE NEXT ROOM, WOMAN COME DOWN, THE CARMINE LIE, IT AIN’T ME, WATER LINE, DEMETER’S DAUGHTER and PRIDE AND SUCCUBUS. Claire graduated from Eastern New Mexico University with a BFA in Performance before moving to San Francisco to earn her MFA in Playwriting from SF State. She lives and works in San Francisco with her wonderful husband. You can follower her exploits on claireannrice.blogspot.com.

Cody Rishell (Art Director, 2010-2016) 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.

Dave Sikula (Staff Blogger, 2013-2016) Dave Sikula has been acting and directing in Los Angeles and the Bay Area for more than 30 years. He’s worked with such companies as American Conservatory Theatre, South Coast Repertory, the Grove Shakespeare Festival, Dragon Productions, Palo Alto Players, Custom Made Theatre Company, Theater in the Woods, Second Wind Productions and 42nd Street Moon. As a writer and dramaturg, he’s translated the plays of Anton Chekhov and had work produced by ANTA West.

Jeunée Simon (Saturday Write Fever Host, 2014-2016) is originally from New Jersey (don’t ever call it ‘Dirty Jerz’ please) but has an intense love of Washington DC after spending 5 glorious years there. She graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Drama. And after discovering that winter and snow wasn’t for her, she finally returned to the Bay Area in 2012. (As you can see, she also really loves starting senteces with ‘and’.) Jeunee has had the pleasure of working with such companies as Custom Made Theatre, Aluminous Collective, Bigger than a Breadbox Theatre, and the Ragged Wing Ensemble.

Marissa Skudlarek (Staff Blogger, 2012-2016; Twitter Mistress/Pint Sized Tzarina, 2015-2016) 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.

Meghan Trowbridge (Artistic Director, 2015-2016) is a playwright and singer living in San Francisco, CA. She writes for SF’s premier sketch company Killing My Lobster, Berkeley’s playwright incubator Playground-SF, the science and culture webzine Mathom House, and Good Morning, Good Morning: a collaboration of misfits. Her plays have been produced by the SF Olympians Festival, FoolsFURY, and Inkblot Ensemble under her pen name Meghan Kathleen O’Connor. She is a proud member of the comedy improv team Chinese Ballroom, performing regularly around the Bay Area and beyond (like Sacramento). She has worked with TheaterPub since it’s inaugural season, and lubs this company very much.