Theater

Theater2024-02-09T23:35:25+00:00

Rahman Jamaal McCreadie

Theater and Hip Hop Instructor and Director

Rahman is an emcee, poet, musician, actor, dancer and martial artist who has been teaching and performing in Bay Area schools for over 15 years. Rahman wrote the play “The Frisco Kid” for Handful Players students to perform at the African American Art & Culture Complex in May 2019.  In 2007, he wrote and developed the first Common Core and UC-standard approved curriculum for Rapping & Emceeing and is the current Executive Director of the educational nonprofit and 27-year global grassroots network, Hip Hop Congress. He graduated with honors from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-Television in 2004 with a major in a Critical Studies and double-minor in Communications in the Entertainment Industry and Music Industry. He starred in the critically acclaimed 2003 Sundance Film Festival feature-length film “The Beat” which aired internationally on television 2005-2014.  Rahman is a two-time winner in the International John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Since March 2020, he has written, produced and directed over 20 episodes of an online children’s web series called ThistlegartenTV.  He released his first self-produced musical album called “The Book of RaH” online in November 2020.

Ramon Abad

Puppetry Instructor

Ramon is an accomplished puppeteer and teaching artist who holds many years of experience in his craft, having led residencies since the late 90s in both the United States and United Kingdom. He studied Cinema at San Francisco State University, was an intern at the props department of the American Conservatory Theatre, and was a part of ShadowLight Productions for over 5 years. Along with his work as a teaching artist, he had a 2023 premiere of his solo art installation show “Mabuhay, Friend!” at the gallery of the SF Arts Education Project at the Minnesota Street Project. He is a recipient of Artist and Individual Artist grants from the San Francisco Arts Commission, and has received a Youth Arts grant from the California Arts Council. Using puppetry, Ramon has directed multiple in-person stage plays and online shows.  Ramon seeks to engage all communities in the exploration of modern puppetry, regardless of age, background, and skill set.

Ermarie “Mari” Quinton

Theater Instructor

Mari is a versatile theater and dance instructor who has a love for collaborative teaching, understanding one another’s lived experiences, and fostering children’s imaginations. Before becoming a teaching artist for Handful Players, she was an intern in the African American Shakespeare Company’s Teaching Artist in Training program. Equipped with the knowledge and skills from that opportunity, Mari uses what she learned in conjunction with her experience from her parts in theatre and musical theatre productions, as well as dance and choreography as she brings her expertise to youth. In her time in the Bay Area, she has worked with prominent directors and artists, some of which include Michael Gene-Sullivan from the SF Mime Troupe and Michelle Talgarow from Shotgun Players. Mari is currently finishing her last year of college and is obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in Performing Arts and Social Justice, where she is devising a piece for her thesis that incorporates her passion for theater and social justice while showcasing Black voices.

Gary Stanford Jr.

Musical Theater Instructor

Gary has served as an instructor in various theaters for 35 years and has a vast array of artistic talents, including dance, vocals, and visual art. He has worked with students of all ages throughout the Bay Area, including at the San Mateo Recreation Center, 42nd Street Moon Theater, SF Arts Education Project, and San Carlos Children’s Theater. Gary strongly advocates for diversity, inclusion, and decolonization, as well as for enrichment in underprivileged communities. He is a former software engineer and is a professionally trained actor, singer, and performer, having studied as a youth and then taught at the P.S. Performance Studio from 1987 to 2000. Using his various talents, Gary shares his love for the arts with children from different communities as he brings joy and laughter through his craft. His impact extends beyond the classroom as he serves on the Boards of Directors at several theater organizations, including TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Hillbarn Theater, and Z-Space. Gary also hosts a podcast, Planet Bay Area, which is dedicated to social justice. As a performer, he has starred in over 80 musicals. Gary graduated from San Jose State with a degree in computer engineering. 

Elena Kobylina

Theater Instructor

As a theater and performing artist, Elena utilizes her talents in order to heal and empower youth through expressive arts as a therapeutic approach. She has a Master’s of Fine Arts in Acting from Actors Studio Drama School and is an Actors Studio Finalist. Elena has had experience teaching classes with a variety of focuses, including voice work, movement, and drama literacy for elementary students. She was also chosen out of 22,000 applicants for Creatives Rebuild New York’s “Guaranteed Income for Artists” program. Along with her work with the children, Elena is currently working on her short film to express the voices of immigrants. Through her growing expertise of performing arts, Elena works to impact many students positively. (www.elenakobylina.com)

Hannah Gaff

Theater Instructor

Hannah is a theater creator, therapeutic clown, movement director and teaching artist based in San Francisco. She is a core member of UpLift Physical Theatre and cofounder of ClownCorps, an organization that aims to bridge divides and cultivate compassionate communities using tools of clowning and play. Hannah is a 2021/2022 Fulbright Scholar at the Egyptian Academy of Arts in Cairo and she holds a MFA in ensemble-based physical theatre from Dell’Arte International. She is a Program Director and therapeutic hospital clown with the Medical Clown Project, serves as core faculty at the Clown Conservatory at Circus Center, and teaches clown, physical theater, and circus classes locally and around the world. She works internationally with non-profit organizations including Clowns Without Borders and ClownCorps, performing for children and families in communities who have experienced trauma or crisis. Hannah is a ferociously earnest fool at heart, disarming the world through joyful play, physical engagement, and authentic connection. Compelled by the transformative power of play, she seeks to facilitate play spaces and collaborative performances that foster connection, shift perspectives and nurture a deeper understanding of our shared human experience. (hannahgaff.com)

Reyna Brown

Theater Instructor

Reyna is a poet, playwright, director and educator. In addition to teaching performing arts enrichment programs with Handful Players, Reyna teaches with other arts organizations at a number of SF public schools and community centers, where she uses theatrical tools and team building activities to create youth development opportunities. She also runs her own small business called Amplify that offers customized workshops to help small communities understand unconscious bias using art, music, and poetry. She is a active member of the Artistic Ensemble, a theater troop inside of San Quentin State Prison. She has worked with San Francisco’s Human Rights Commission on expanding student relations councils. In 2019, she interned in Governor Newsom’s office with his legal clemency team. She graduated from University of San Francisco with a BA in Performing Arts & Social Justice with a concentration in Theater and a minor in Peace and Justice Studies. At USF, Reyna was elected Student Body President and has been recognized multiple times for her impact and creative growth, including with the Leo T. McCarthy Public Service Award, the Cathy Gallagher Performing Arts & Social Justice Award, and the Schlegel Social Justice Award.

Tristan Cunningham – Theater and Clown Instructor

Tristan Cunningham

Theater and Clown Instructor

. Tristan started performing when she was only ten with Vermont’s own country circus, Circus Smirkus. After touring for eight years, she changed her focus to acting and graduated from S.U.N.Y Purchase Acting Conservatory. Professionally, Tristan performs extensively and frequently throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, including with Circus Bella, California Shakespeare Theater, The Aurora Theater, New Pickle Circus, Circus for the Arts, The San Francisco Mime Troupe and African American Shakespeare Company. In 2016, Tristan received Theatre Bay Area’s Outstanding Actor Award for her principal role in “The Taming of a Shrew” at Marin Shakespeare Company and was a recipient of the 2017 Best Ensemble Award for Lorraine Hansberry Theater’s production of “Home” was nominated for an Outstanding Actor Award for her principal role in that production. Other credits include “Around The World in 80 Days” with TheatreWorks, “Skeleton Crew” with Marin Theater Company, “Julius Caesar” with African American Shakespeare Company, “The Road to Hades” with Shotgun Players, “Tenderloin” with The Cutting Ball Theater, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” with The San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, ”The Arsonists” at The Aurora Theater, and “A Winter’s Tale”, “Comedy of Errors”, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and “Life is a Dream” at California Shakespeare Theater, and “And I and Silence” at Magic Theatre, and “Tree” and “1-2-3” at SF Playhouse.  She is a proud member of Actors Equity Association. Tristan has served as the Director for the Circus Center Summer Camp and as a lead teacher for Prescott Circus Theater.  As a teacher, Tristan is recognized for her ability to instill children with a strong sense of self confidence and body awareness through clowning and circus arts.

Lanie Wieland

Puppeteer

Lanie is a puppet, mask, costume and prop designer, as well as a storyteller and musician. She teaches puppetry creation and performance with Handful Players and other organizations around the Bay Area. She is also a teaching musician, currently working with several Music Together centers and specializing in early childhood and elementary music education. She majored in Psychology and minored in Theater with a concentration in Music at Kalamazoo College. She was introduced to puppetry as an art form while studying in Turkey, and later returned on a grant to research the socio-political history of the art form and to study traditional shadow puppetry creation and performance with some of the few remaining masters in the field. Before moving to the Bay Area, she lived, created puppets and performed with Bread and Puppet Theater in Vermont. Now, as an educator in both puppetry craft and music, she seeks to encourage creative exploration as a way of building community and cultivating joy as a life-long habit.

In the Bay Area, her professional credits include varying puppet, mask, and prop design and creation and acting roles with: Golden Thread Productions’ Fairy Tale Players in the traveling performance of “The Girl Who Lost Her Smile,” Precarious Theatre’s “I’m Yours! (or: Deranged by Love),” Nude Men’s adaptation of Peter S. Beagle’s “Giant Bones,” San Francisco Shakespeare Festival’s “Cymbeline” and the Bay Area Children’s Theater’s “Knuffle Bunny” and “Pinkalicious” (puppets) as well as costumes and puppets for several of their educational program performances. She is also an artist with Ochlos Theater Lab, most recently performing and developing story, puppets, masks and props in collaboration for “Unrest,” a site-specific outdoor performance. She has over a decade of experience touring the Bay Area as a storyteller, musician, facepainter and puppeteer.

Rene Walker Costumer

Rene Walker

Costumer

Rene has extensive experience in the area of Costume and Fashion Design. She has worked with some of San Francisco’s most popular theaters: Magic Theater, Brava! Traveling Jewish Theater, Chabot College, and Word for Word Theater. For over twenty years, she had been the Resident Costume Designer for The Medea Project, Theater for Incarcerated Women and The Women’s HIV Circle, in collaboration with Rhodessa Jones and Cultural Odyssey. Rene is also an artist and has worked directly with Handful Players’ students creating and painting sets and props. Rene’s fashion line STYLEVIBES, debuted at the 2015 AFRO FASHION SHOW at the African American Art and Culture Complex.

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