The Marsh - MYT Marsh Youth Theater


		Faculty Bios MYT Director Emily Klion founded Marsh Youth Theater with The Marsh's Director Stephanie Weisman in 2001. For the past ten years, MYT has grown to be a community youth theater magnet for young artists throughout the Bay Area, serving over 650 students per year. Emily specializes in collaborating with artists from all disciplines to produce new works of theater for youth, particularly with a social justice emphasis. She has a BA and MA from Mills College in music composition, where she studied with the great Terry Riley and Lou Harrison. Emily composes much of the music for MYT's original productions. She received the American Harmony Prize for her original script and score of Katherine Paterson's "Jip, His Story", and the Rex Foundation's "Jerry Garcia Award" for promoting creativity in youth. At The Marsh since 2001.

		Carlos Aguirre has been performing both as an actor and hip-hop artist in the Bay Area for over eleven years. He is part of the musical group Felonious and has performed with The Roots, Eryka Badu, Black Eyed Peas, Mary J. Blige, Blackalicious, Jurassic Five, L.L. Cool J, and George Clinton among others. He is also part of the all beatbox collective known as The Vowel Movement, which is dedicated to bringing vocal percussion as an art form to the forefront of musical expression. Carlos appears regularly at Intersection for the Arts with world-renowned theatre company Campo Santo and with The Hybrid Project. Carlos shares his experience as an actor, musician and poet by teaching at various schools, correctional facilities and risk environments throughout the Bay Area. His work has helped many different students from various demographics gain skills to better express themselves. He is dedicated to preserving the voice of the youth and the culture of Hip Hop.

		Susana Aragón is a visual artist and teacher from Lima Peru who shares her work with children through many media including painting, photography and video. She is artist-in-residence at Thousand Oaks School in Berkeley in partnership with Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Susana teaches art and costumes at Marsh Youth Theater. At The Marsh since 2004.

		Alex Bargas is a Bay Area native and an artistic visionary. With art beginnings in the underground graffiti scene, Alex’s artistic abilities cross a broad spectrum of categories from fine art to urban art. He has worked on murals across the Bay Area and overseas in Europe. Alex is a skilled painter and teacher and is currently studying Painting at San Francisco State University and is the Art Director for the Beyond the Bell after school program at James Lick Middle School.At The Marsh since 2007.

		Vernon Bush is a singer/songwriter, musician and recording artist, who worked with Whitney Houston and jazz legend and song stylist, Nancy Wilson. With his groups, ("The Vernon Bush Group" and "VSOUL"), he has opened for artists as Gladys Knight, Stanley Jordan, Mickey Hart, and Michael Franti & Spearhead and has toured all over Europe. He is also a featured vocalist with the Glide Ensemble Choir at the world-renowned Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco (as seen in movie, "The Pursuit of Happyness") as well as musical director of The Immaculate Conception Academy Choir, Glide Tots Choir and former musical director of the Glide Teen Choir (GTC) and is by far, one of the hardest working artists in the Bay Area. A passionate singer as well as a consummate voice teacher and coach, Vernon has taught privately in New York, Los Angeles, London, Holland, France, South Africa as well as San Francisco and teaches his popular "Reclaim Your Voice" workshops in voice and speech production.

		*Ellen Sebastian Chang, Jip, His Story* Director** Ellen Sebastian Chang has a long and productive career as a director, writer and a creative consultant throughout the United States. She began her career as a lighting designer and technician for The Blake Street Hawkeyes from 1979-1983. In 1982 her directorial and writing debut of Your Place Is No Longer With Us, the coming of age story of a ten-year old biracial girl, won a Bay Area Critics Circle Award for New Directions in Theater. This work was the beginning of Ms. Sebastian Chang’s ongoing interest in children; exploring dialogues in regard to race, specifically, issues relating to mixed race and strong female identified images. Sebastian Chang’s work based upon the life and work of Zora Neal Hurston, The Sanctified Church, premiered in San Francisco and received productions through the U.S. Ms. Sebastian Chang was the co-founder and artistic director of Life on the Water, an internationally known presenting and producing organization at San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center. As a director, Sebastian Chang has collaborated with such solo performers as Awele Makeba, Whoopi Goldberg, Holly Hughes, Leonard Pitt, Ned; Bill Talen, The Shape. She has been fortunate to work with some of the most interesting artists and projects in the Bay Area and beyond: GamelanSekar Jaya; Kitka; Youth Speaks; Deep Waters Dance Theater; A Travelling Jewish Theater; Aya de Leon; kaoticGood; inkBoat; Oakland Opera Theater and The Kitchen Sisters.

		Sally Davis works as a musician, theater director, and arts educator in Telluride, Colorado and in children’s theater residencies around the world including: Telluride Institute Watershed Puppet Shows, The Children’s Storefront School, Harlem, N.Y. Bay Area Discovery Museum, and Mudd Butt International. Sally conducts Story Theater workshops at the Ah Haa School, The Mudd Butt Mystery Theater Troupe, Circus Holus Bolus and Moving Mountain Theater in Telluride. Sally’s adult performance work includes: San Francisco Trolley Dances and Heelomali (Epiphany Productions), Planet Protectors and How Clowns Got Their Red Nose, Field Trip (Telluride Repertory's ACTion Tour), St. Adolf’s Ring (Terry Riley), Lunatic Girl, Sonic Luminescence and Einstein’s Daughters (Kim Epifano) and The Mission is Not Impossible (Peter Whitehead.) She is a recipient of the Telluride Institute Visionary Award.

		Shannon Day A highly regarded and sought after private vocal teacher and coach, Shannon began teaching at the University of South Florida, where she specialized in singing technique for the “beginner”. While in San Francisco she became the founding music director for the San Francisco Event Players and an artist in residence with San Francisco Arts Education Project. She has taught at California College of the Arts, The American Conservatory Theater and The Marsh Theater and Brisbane Dance Workshop. Shannon is currently an artist in residence at Rooftop Alternative School where she is also the director of the musical theater program. At The Marsh since 2006.

		Daveed Diggs is a Bay area native with a degree in Theater Arts from Brown University. He has worked in the Bay area with Bale Techlorico, Custom Made Theater, and Cutting Ball Theater, and has performed from schools to the Orpheum stage. Daveed has worked with Youth Speaks and the Living Word Project, has performed work in the San Francisco Hip Hop Theater Festival. At The Marsh since 2005.

		Rebecca Fisher has been a theater teaching artists for over 10 years. She served as Interim Kaleidoscope Education Director. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts where she was actively involved in their former onsite and off-site arts education programs. Rebecca has performed with New Conservatory, Three Wise Monkeys, and Shotgun Players. In April 2007, she completed a three month run of her solo show The Magnificence of the Disaster, a piece commissioned by The Marsh Performance Initiative. She is the co-creator and co-producer of the East Bay solo performance series, Tell it on Tuesday. At The Marsh since 2006.

		Maica Folch is a movement artist and educator from Barcelona, Spain. She teaches aerial dance, trapeze and clowning at the MYT. She has performed in theater and dance projects directed by Moshe Cohen, Rhodessa Jones, Kim Epifano, Theresa Dickinson and Lizz Roman. Maica is a lover of the Day of the Dead celebration. Along with other members of the Marigold Project, she organizes the Day of the Dead festival of altars at Garfield Park. Maica has worked with home-schooled children and also with students at many local schools, such as Sanchez Elementary School, James Lick Middle School, Buena Vista Elementary School and The San Francisco School. At The Marsh since 2005.

		Cliff Mayotte is an award-winning educator and director with over twenty years of experience in the field. He is currently serving as the Education Program Director for Voice of Witness, where he is co-creating a national oral history curriculum with Facing History and Ourselves. He is the author of the recent book A Community Talks to Itself, an oral history/documentary theatre guide for educators. In 2008, Cliff received the Beverly Kees Educator Award from the Northern California Chapter of The Society of Professional Journalists for his work in integrating oral history, civic engagement and performance. From 1997-2000, Cliff served as the Education Director for the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, where he implemented and managed all community engagement and education programs. As a director, he has staged plays for such notable local theatres as Aurora Theatre Company, Shotgun Players, Marin Shakespeare Company, Rough and Tumble and The Marsh. His work in theatre has garnered awards from the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Drama-Logue and the SF Weekly.

		Rashidi Omari (Choreographer: Jip, His Story) came to the stage through his passion for all forms of dance. Hip Hop, B-Boying, Popping, Locking, House, modern and jazz dance are integral parts of his extensive repertoire. He has been performing professionally since 1998 and has been teaching dance since 2000. He has performed with DREAM Dance Company, Avatar Flux Dance Company, Adia Whittaker Dance Company, Liberation Dance Theater, among others and is an MC for Hip Hop crew Company of Prophets and has worked with live bands Loco Bloco and The Unsmokables. He is currently the co-director of the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company.

		Marcelo Pereira is a San Francisco native and has been performing since he could stand up on his own two feet (actually it was probably even before that). After graduating from the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts from the vocal music department in 2008, Marcelo has gone on to pursue acting at Syracuse University. Marcelo has been working at the Marsh since 2007.

		Lisa Quoresimo has directed MYT’s Mainstage Performance Ensemble for the last five years. She was the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Kairos Theatre Company in New York City, where she produced and directed more than 30 productions, including Jimmy Tingle’s Uncommon Sense, which went on to a Broadway production. Her works: Not My Heart’s Desire and Antigone: a Fable Without Walls were produced off-off Broadway. Bay Area productions include Between Dirt and Sky (a musical inspired by the life of Cesar Chavez) and Ciribiribin. Lisa holds an M.A. from Carnegie Mellon University and also received theatrical training at New York’s Circle in the Square. She has taught at N.Y.U.’s Tisch School of the Arts and the Manhattan School of Music.

		John Ramirez, Set Designer and Art Instructor John Ramirez grew up in the farmlands outside of Sacramento. He studied studio art at Sacramento State University and UC Davis with Mel Ramos, Darrell Forney, Wayne Thiebault and Greg Kondos. For the past twenty-five years, Ramirez has freelanced as a professional space designer, prop master, and muralist for business throughout the United States. His teaching experience includes studio art, murals and set design Mission Cultural Center, Marsh Youth Theater and Mission High School. Ramirez has a fine art studio in San Francisco Mission District.At The Marsh since 2006.

		Karina Vela has been teaching movement to children for 10 years, most of that being Ballet Folkórico Mexicano and Creative Dance. She currently is the resident Dance teacher at James Lick Middle School in San Francisco. In addition to her specialty, Mexican Folklore, she is passionate about the many Dance styles of Latin America and Musical Theater. In 2003, she graduated from San Francisco State University with a BA in Dance. She has performed and toured with Ballet Folkórico Mexicano de Carlos Moreno, based in Oakland, CA and is currently a company member of Ballet Folkórico Alma de Mexico based in SSF, CA. At The Marsh since 2008.

		Rebecca Weisser has been teaching dance and choreographing shows for youth and adults all over San Francisco for the past 9 years. She currently dances with Mixtiso, a hip hop group that represents the diversity of San Francisco. She has a strong commitment to empowering youth through the arts. At The Marsh since 2003.

		Russell Wright is a Bay Area native who has worked with young people on stage for over 20 years, bringing dances to life from a wide array of musical sources from all over the world. An experienced choreographer, drama teacher and playwright, Russell is well-versed in a variety of dance traditions from ballet, jazz and West African to hip hop and other forms of modern dance. Russell specializes in creating works that express the creativity of African-American influenced art forms. His drama background includes work with Lew Levinson and the Oakland Lyric Opera. Russell is a past board member of the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, where he directed Young People's Theatre Group for 12 years. He is currently the drama and movement teacher at Walden Center and School in Berkeley, California. At The Marsh since 2006.