Samantha Jackson

Musical Theater Instructor

Sam’s focus is combining her passion for theater and teaching. In 2017, the San Francisco Chronicle named Sam the emerging theater artist under 30 years old to watch for her artistic choices and combining her passion for theater and teaching. She performed professionally in “Splendour,” at Berkeley’s Aurora Theatre in 2017. She has also performed with New Conservatory Theater Center in “The Submission,” “Compleat Female Stage Beauty” and “Avenue Q.”  Sam was winner of Best of Fringe in the 2013 SF Fringe Festival for “O Best Beloved” and she performed in the 2012 Bay Area One Acts Festival with 11th Hour Ensemble in the acclaimed production of “The Seagull Project”. Other recent performance credits include Berkeley Playhouse’s “Bridges: A New Musical,” Central Works’ “Project Ahab; Or Eye of the Whale,” and Shotgun Players production of “Our Town” in Berkeley. She also is the lead singer of the funk/soul band, “The Gentlemen Amateurs,” which performed at Great American Music Hall in 2016. Sam performed and conducted talk backs at middle and high schools throughout the Bay Area in New Conservatory Theater’s Youth Aware production of “Outspoken,” focusing on diversity, respect, and school safety education. She taught at J&S Center for the Performing Arts in Vacaville, CA, her hometown, where she held roles of assistant choreographer, co-director, stage manager, and summer camp coordinator. She has a B.A. in Theater Arts from San Francisco State University.

James Mayagoitia

Theater Instructor and Director

James is a classically trained singer, actor and teacher and was a founding member of 11th Hour Ensemble: an ensemble based, physical theater company. Most recently, he was in the cast of San Francisco Playhouse’s regional premiere of “The Christians” and appeared in the regional premiere of “Heathers: The Musical”, with Ray of Light Theatre and their production of “The Rocky Horror Show.” Previous favorite credits include “Hedwig and The Angry Inch” at Boxcar Theatre, “A Chorus Line” at San Francisco State, “I Never Lie” with 99 Stock Productions, and in “Candide” at the Lamplighters Music Theatre. He co-directed an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull” with 11th Hour at the Bay One Acts Festival to great reviews. James has also worked with several accomplished directors in the Bay Area including Barbara Damashek, Mark Jackson, and Bill Peters. He has performed at The Noh Space, San Francisco Theatre Festival, ODC, Shotgun Players, and The Dark Room. James began his teaching career in Los Angeles, where he was the personal assistant to Stephanie Vlahos, director of The Full Circle Opera Project: a high school repertory company devoted to arts outreach and presenting opera to schools throughout the greater Los Angeles Area. This program is in residency at The LA County High School for the Arts, which is James’ Alma Mater. In addition to assisting the program director, James taught and mentored the students in acting, singing and movement. James graduated (magna cum laude) with a B.A. in Drama from San Francisco State University, where he performed in several productions.

Jourdan Olivier-Verde

Theater Instructor

Jourdán has extensive acting credits with theater companies throughout the Bay Area, including 42nd Street Moon, 6th Street Playhouse, CalShakes, African American Shakespeare Company, Marin Shakespeare Company and Bay Area Musicals. Prior to moving to California, he received a Hallam Award for Outstanding Lead Actor for his performance of Walter Lee in A Raisin in the Sun, and he was a regional finalist for the KCACTF Collegiate Theatre Awards. He received his training as a Theatre Minor at Howard University, and in conservatory at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts – NY, and International Academy of Film and Television LA with a Winter Session at Cour Flourent in Paris. Jourdán is pursuing a Master of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies with a concentration Creative Writing and Drama at Harvard University. In addition to teaching with Handful Players, he has honed his Teaching Artist skills teaching students from Marin County, Sonoma County and San Francisco Unified School Districts with the African American Shakespeare Company as well as the Marin Shakespeare Company, for which he was recently appointed to the Board of Directors and serves as Co-Chair of their BIPOC Alliance Council to address racial equity and justice in the theater community.

Laura Echegaray

Puppetry Instructor

Laura is an avid paper artist, puppeteer, journalist, poet, Spanish teacher and translator. As a teaching artist, Laura started volunteering in classrooms in 1995 and has taught visual art and puppet making at many elementary schools in the Oakland Bay Area, the Museum of Children’s Art (MOCHA), the Triton Museum of Art and with Leap Art in Education teaching in San Francisco schools. In 2001, Laura designed, wrote and constructed a puppet play about Latinos with disabilities that earned a San Francisco Certificate of Honor for disability awareness delivery. She also has experience working as a Spanish language teacher in private and public schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. Laura received her Bachelor degree in Environmental Design and a Master’s degree in Architecture from University of Puerto Rico and worked in architecture at various firms in Puerto Rico and the East Bay Area for more than 10 years.

Ben Baker

Theater, Dance, and Clowning Instructor

Ben has worked with many organizations in San Francisco, sharing his techniques of Contemplative Arts with students at the San Francisco Unified School District, Department of Recreation and Parks, Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, Circus Center, AcroSports, Summer Institute for the Gifted, and the Richmond District Neighborhood Center. In addition to teaching, Ben is a performance artist, and has worked at a number of theatre troupes, including Theater of Yugen and the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival. He is also a contemplative artist and meditation instructor. He has an MA in Drama from San Francisco State University and an MFA in Contemporary Performance from Naropa University. He is the founder of the performance troupe, Dynamism Movement.

Nick Olivero

Artistic Director

Nick is a director, teacher, and clown extraordinaire. As Artistic Director of Boxcar Theatre, he oversees the creation of new and adapted plays. Nick is also founder and Creative director of The Speakeasy, with name like you have for Boxcar ) an immersive San Francisco theater experience at the Palace Theater. Nick’s experience with young adults runs the gamut — from working with youth playwrights, leading workshops and acting classes targeted to younger actors, to directing youth-performed musicals. Earlier, he directed musical theatre performances for The Imagination Players, a children’s theatre based in Berkeley. He also entertains as Mr. Scruffy the clown at children’s parties when he is not directing. Nick came to San Francisco in 2003 from Chicago, where he received his Bachelors in Acting and Directing from DePaul

Myers Clark

Theater Instructor and Director

Myers Clark made his stage debut at age 12 in a Broadway production of “Porgy and Bess” at San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House. Next, he attended American Conservatory Theater’s Young Conservatory program and performed at the Geary Theater in San Francisco.

In 2017 Myers was nominated for a Theater Bay Area award for his performance in Lorraine Hansberry Theatre’s “Home” directed by Aldo Billingslea. He has performed in over 25 professional and community theater productions at the California Shakespeare Festival, San Francisco City College’s Diego Rivera Theater, San Francisco State, and the University of San Francisco Gershwin Theater. He also held the title role in the critically acclaimed production of “The Death of the Last Blackman in the Whole Entire World” at the Cuttingball Theater. He has appeared in seven independent films, including “Broken Arrows,” just released, and “Rent,” the 2005 Disney movie. Experienced in working with youth, Myers has taught at the Ella Hill Hutch and Booker T. Washington Community Centers in San Francisco’s Western Addition and is the proud father of an aspiring teenage actress.

Shakiri

Theater and Movement Instructor

Goldie and Izzie Award winner Shakiri has been a performer and choreographer in the San Francisco Bay Area for over thirty years. Shakiri is a member of the internationally acclaimed Zaccho Dance Theater Company and has performed with them throughout the United States and abroad since 1988. She has written, directed, and choreographed several dance and theater pieces for her company Shakiri/Rootworker. Known for confronting controversial issues, her work has toured in Black Choreographer’s and been listed on the “Best Ten” of the year by the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Shakiri is recognized for her role as Nutcracker in the highly acclaimed and long-running, “Revolutionary Nutcracker Sweetie.” She trained with and was a member of Ed Mock’s dance company.

Shakiri has developed a dance/theater piece titled DEAR LOIS inspired by letters written to her mother during WWII and has exhibited paintings at the Kuumba Art Gallery in Sacramento. As an arts educator, Shakiri takes tremendous pride in having introduced several hundred children to the world of dance and theater.

Amy Penney

Theater and Music Director and Instructor

Amy Penney is an actor, singer, dancer, director, writer, and teacher who has worked extensively in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Arkansas. Having studied dance for over 20 years, she has a wealth of knowledge and performance experience in ballet, tap, jazz, and clog dancing. She has appeared in a variety of leading roles in theater productions at numerous theatres throughout the country, including San Francisco’s New Conservatory Theatre and Ray of Light Theatre, and Los Angeles’s Theatre Forty, Secret Rose Theatre, and Hudson Theatre. Amy won an LA Weekly Theatre Award for Best Featured Female Performance in “Hound Dog,” performed at the Hudson Theatre. Amy also has appeared in film and television, including two feature films “Holyman Undercover” and “Destiny” and has also played roles on “Boston Legal” and the Sci-Fi Channel’s “Monsters of the UFO.” Amy has directed plays at the for New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC), Synapse Institute, and East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, and at the Land Ark Garage Theatre Company in Los Angeles and at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. An accomplished writer, she has written a comedy feature screenplay and directed her one-act play, “The Lady In Red,” at a one-act festival at the University of Arkansas.

Amy has taught extensively, including teaching acting technique and scene study classes to youth and adults in LA for over ten years at Strasberg Institute, Ventura Court Theatre and The Actor’s Forum, youth drama classes for San Francisco’s NCTC, and Artist In Residence Programs at several schools and summer programs in the San Francisco Bay Area. She also directed a youth choir for the world peace organization, Soka Gakkai International. As part of America’s Pride Program, Amy conducted weekend workshops in drama, dance, and singing and cast fifty students from Arkansas Public Schools to perform at Arkansas’s State Conference. She wrote, directed, and choreographed students in a show that was performed for an audience of 2,500.

Amy graduated (magna cum laude) from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with a B.A. in Theatre Arts.

ArVejon Jones

Dance Instructor and Choreographer

ArVejon began taking Tap, Hip Hop, and West African at “Kennedy Universal Dance Designs” in Los Angeles, CA, where he studied for 13 years as a child. He is a member of the Sean Dorsey Dance and performed the highly acclaimed “Missing Generation” on the company’s 20-city tour during 2015-2017. His performance in Dorsey’s production of “Boys Bite Back” earned him a 2018 Isadora Duncan Dance Award nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Performance. In addition to dancing with Jean Appolon Expressions, and Prometheus Dance in Boston, ArVejon has worked with ODC on a touring production, with SoulSkin Dance in their home season at the Joe Goode Annex, he’s been featured in “AM/FM,” a film that premiered at the San Francisco Dance Film Festival, choreographed by Robert Moses, and he performed with PUSH Dance Company in Atlanta. He has performed works by KT Nelson, Brenda Way, Kimi Okada, Kat Roman, Robert Moses, Ray Tadio, Dexandro Montolvo, Natasha Adorlee Johnson, Breton-Tyner Bryan, and Raissa Simpson, among others. As a teaching artist, ArVejon has taught students in Dr. Albirda Rose’s Village Dancers at the African American Art and Culture Complex and worked as the Lead Teaching Artist with the Boston Ballet’s Educational and Outreach Program. He also teaches group fitness classes in San Francisco, Boston, and Philadelphia, and holds a BA in Dance and a Minor Degree in Japanese from San Francisco State University.

Tassiana Willis

Spoken Word Instructor

Willis is an artist born and raised in San Francisco. They have performed their art at the Warriors half time show, Herbst Theatre, the historical War Memorial and even on top of Oakland’s City Hall building. Through their poetry, acting and singing, Tassiana is known for bringing people to tears one moment and hysterical laughter the next. They believe that art has the power to heal and transform. Tassiana has worked with multiple youth organizations in the Bay Area and finds immense joy in working with young people to develop their voices and craft.

Natalie Ayala

Theater Instructor

Natalie is an actress and teaching artist. She currently is in the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival production of “The Comedy of Errors” on Tour where she plays Luciana and Duke. Other recent performances include “Romeo and Juliet” on Tour where she played Juliet with the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, “Memoria del Silencio” at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, and she also was featured in the musical “In The Heights” with Plethos Productions. As a theater teaching artist, she works with San Francisco Shakespeare Festival and Kid Stock where she directed “Monster Mash”. She graduated from San Francisco State University with honors and a B.A. in Theater Arts.

Raissa Simpson

Choreographer and Dance Instructor

Raissa has had an extensive performance career in the San Francisco Bay Area dancing with Robert Moses’ Kin and Joanna Haigood’s Zaccho Dance Theatre, among others.

As a freelance artist, she danced with Lucas Films, Tori Quinn at BAPC, Alleluia Panis Dance Theater, Capacitor, Flyaway Productions, Liberation Dance Theater, Michael Mayes, and Peninsula Ballet. Along with serving as Assistant to the Director at Zaccho Dance Theatre, she is featured as a dancer in the film “Never Stand Still,” at Jacob’s Pillow.

Raissa founded PUSH Dance Company to present vibrant contemporary dances that provide audiences an opportunity to examine issues of identity and intersecting cultures that surround and affect us all. Raissa’s pieces and site-specific installations have been performed at such venues as Washington Ensemble Theater, Black Choreographers Festival, Joyce SoHo, ODC, CounterPULSE, Dance Mission Theater, Evolve Dance Festival, Buriel Clay Theater, APAP/NYC, American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, 418 Project in Santa Cruz, Museum of the African Diaspora, and Union Square Live. PUSH has presented consecutive home seasons in San Francisco since 2005.

Raissa’s PUSH Dance Company’s teaching, speaking ,and guest choreography engagements include Stanford University, UC Santa Cruz, San Francisco State University, The Medea Project/ San Francisco County Jail, 3rd St Youth Center & Clinic, Valley Christian High School, Studio 10, Dance/USA panel, 20/20 Vision at Novellus Theater (curated by Marc Bamuthi Joseph), Social Media Summit, and National Dance Education Organization.

Raissa began training in San Jose, California at Dance Art Studio and later continued onto San Jose Dance Theatre, Cleveland Ballet, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and the Paul Taylor School. She received her BFA from the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase.

Emma Jaster

Theater, Clown, and Puppet Instructor

Emma is an actor, clown, puppeteer, choreographer, director, and teacher and has been called a “splendid mover” (The Washington Post) and “a master of her craft” (Baratunde Thurston). She has performed in New York at Dixon Place, The Brick, Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, and HERE Arts Center. She has worked with Cie. Pas de Dieux in Paris, Natanakairali Institute for Sanskrit Theater in India, LaMama’s International Theater Symposium in Italy, and U-Theatre, a Grotowski-based Zen-drumming troupe in Taiwan. She is the recipient of two Roland Wood Fellowships for independent graduate study in theater and dance, a HARP artist residency at HERE Arts, and a 2013 artist fellowship from the Washington DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities which funded the initial development of her last work, “To Know a Veil” (“Jaster has created the kind of performance for which the 21st century is going to be very hungry” -playwright Gwydion Suleibhan). In 2015, Emma performed in Cutting Ball Theatre’s production of “Antigone” and was featured with the cast in a story about this production in American Theatre Magazine. She earned her BA in Theater and Dance from Amherst College and studied physical theatre at the Lecoq School in Paris.