Z Space

Carlos Aguirre (he/him) is an actor, musician, vocal percussionist, and educator, performing and teaching in the Bay Area for over 20 years. He has shared the stage with The Roots, Eryka Badu, Black Eyed Peas, Mary J. Blige, Jam Master Jay, and L.L. Cool J, among others. He is currently producing his original rap and beatbox adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart. Carlos is dedicated to the voice of the youth!

Ariel Allen’s strengths are illustration and costume design/construction. She received a degree from San Francisco’s Academy of Art University in Illustration and is currently working on another for Costume Design, while simultaneously working in theater as a designer. She loves to draw, sew, make cool stuff, spend time with family, and follow her cat’s orders to the letter.

Brenda Arellano (she/her) is a performer and deviser based in Oakland. She was a company member with the Chicago and San Francisco Neo-Futurists and Playmaker’s Laboratory. Brenda has performed with Chicago Children’s Theater, The House Theater, Teatro Vista, Berkeley Rep's Ground Floor Summer Lab, and Shotgun Players. She also works as a medical clown and has been with the Medical Clown Project since 2015. Brenda loves to travel and has been to many places, but still does not know how to properly pack a suitcase.

Jessica Dalva (she/her) is a sculptor, painter, and maker of many things, both massive and miniature. She has a BFA in Illustration, but has since branched out into three-dimensional work. Jessica has exhibited sculptures and paintings in art galleries and created work for stop motion animation films, television shows, theme parks, theater, and comic book covers. She also makes costumes, masks, and anything she can get her hands on. Jessica loves plants and animals. She has two black cats and more houseplants than she can count.

Eric Esquivel-Gutierrez (he/him) is an actor, guiding artist, and health educator. He has worked with many youth-centered organizations since 2012 including Kaiser Permanente Educational Theatre, Berkeley Playhouse, Music Together, Superstar Health Education, and Word for Word. Through extensive training, Eric is knowledgeable in creating safe and nonjudgmental spaces where people of all ages can have fun and connect and learn from one another. He holds a degree in Human Development from California State University, East Bay.

Robyn Grahn (she/her) is a Bay Area actor and guiding artist. She has performed with various Bay Area theater companies including Playground SF, SPARC Livermore, ShotzSF, Moonrisers, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, and Ross Valley Players. As a guiding artist, Robyn enjoys leading mask tutorials and teaching clown work. Her second passion, gardening, has recently taken front seat, with which she is excited to engage youth in everything dirt, plants, and wildlife.

Gendell Hing-Hernandez was born in Havana, Cuba, and is proud to have called the Bay Area home since 1997, working as an actor, director, and teaching artist in theaters, classrooms, libraries, and jails. He believes in being as present as a Jedi, as undeniable as hip-hop, and as facile as Shakespeare while trying to understand this human experience and the social conditions we all share.

Lisa Hori-Garcia (she/her) is a theater artist based in Denver, Colorado and San Francisco, California. She has been with Word for Word since 2004 as an actor, director, and guiding artist, performing in such shows as Chairman Greg Sarris's Citizen and Stories from Sonoma Mountain. When not working in the theater, Lisa loves going on hikes with her pup Snoopy. She received her BA from Smith College and her MFA in Acting from USC.

Anne Yumi Kobori (she/her) is a Japanese-American actor, playwright, and guiding artist. She has taught with A.C.T., Word for Word, SF Shakespeare Festival, Magic Theatre, Shakespearience, and Young Performers Theatre. Anne loved sword fighting as the title role in Hamlet and getting to cook onstage as French chef Simca in To Master the Art. She enjoys tending her vegetable garden, cooking for her family, and writing on her vintage typewriter.

Laura Marlin is a director, playwright, dancer, and most of all, teacher. Laura is proud to be a teaching artist with Word for Word, Cal Shakes, and Berkeley Playhouse. She has written two musicals produced at Berkeley Playhouse: Bravado, and most recently, Becoming Robin Hood. As a modern dancer, Laura has performed with local choreographers such as Nina Haft and Co., Rogelio Lopez, Randee Paufve, Dana Lawton Dances, and Ruth Botchan. She lives in Berkeley, in her empty nest, with her dog, Oatie. 

Josh Matthews (they/he) is a teacher, actor, and clown/circus performer. He has traveled around the world with his theater company, Under the Table, performing original plays. Josh has performed at The Lincoln Center (NYC), The Big Apple Circus (NYC), and Third Rail Projects (NYC), to name a few companies. For 25 years, Josh has taught and lectured at various institutions, including New Victory Theater, Word For Word, A.C.T., Occidental College, Sarah Lawrence College, and NYU. Currently, Josh serves as artistic program director of the Medical Clown Project.

SJ Munford (they/them) is a performance-based artist in Brooklyn, NY who uses a variety of media to create new work including puppetry, dance, and installation. As a guiding artist, SJ has worked with students from pre-K to high school on set design and puppetry. SJ is dedicated to creating a space where engaging youth in diverse ways is supported and valued, as well as encouraging authentic self-expression in their artistic journey.

Alicia M. P. Nelson (she/her) is an award-winning actor, clown, and arts educator. She received a BFA in Acting from Boston University, and trained in classical theater and Commedia dell’Arte in Greece and Italy, respectively. Alicia has worked with theaters across the country including the San Francisco Mime Troupe, WAM Theatre, Bay Area Children's Theatre, TheatreWorksSV, SF Playhouse, Marin Theatre Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the National Women's Theatre Festival, and many more. ampnelson.com

Jessica Nguyen (she/her) is an artist and educator specializing in movement and visual arts disciplines ranging from dance, puppetry, and circus to illustration and sculpture. She has collaborated and performed as a shadow puppeteer all around the Bay Area, and is a core member of Shadowlight Productions. Jess has a lifelong love of and involvement in the natural world and is deeply invested in the entomological. You can often catch her sipping tea and, unsurprisingly, mulling over fun facts to share with you.

Ely Sonny Orquiza (he/him), a 2023 YBCA 100 Honoree, is a Queer Filipino multidisciplinary artist based in the unceded territory of the Ramaytush Ohlone People (San Francisco Bay Area). As an artistic director, dramaturg, and arts advocate, he passionately champions equity in storytelling. Ely’s work delves into the Asian diaspora, Queer/ness, and ancestral ghosts, while advocating for new works by Black and Indigenous Artists and Artists of Color, with a focus on untold stories and the Global Majority.

Luke Santy (he/him) is a Brooklyn-based musician and theater artist pursuing his M.F.A. in Sonic Arts at Brooklyn College. He is particularly interested in sound design and creative tech in performance. Luke is Co-Artistic Director and Musical Director of puppet-based theater company Little Did Productions and an adjunct professor in the Lehman College Department of Music, Multimedia, Theatre, and Dance.

Sharon Shao (she/they) is a Bay Area-native actor and guiding artist. Local credits include Far Country (Berkeley Rep), Chinglish (SF Playhouse), Sleeping Beauty (Panto in the Presidio), The Winter’s Tale and Good Person of Szechwan (CalShakes), The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin (SF Playhouse, *recipient of SFBATCC featured actress award), and others. Offstage, Sharon is passionate about teaching voice and drama to young artists, devising original work, and building creative communities here and abroad. sharonshao.biz

Anakarina “AK” Swanson (she/her) has been teaching for 15 years. She is trained in ballet, jazz, lyrical jazz, modern, contemporary, musical theater, and hip-hop. Anakarina has won numerous awards for her choreography and now owns her own dance studio, Breakthrough Studio, located in downtown Santa Rosa. She has lived in Sonoma County all her life. Outside of dance, Anakarina likes to cook, garden with her husband, and play with her two yellow labs, Lucy and Frida.

Storm White (she/her) is an actor, director, and educator born and raised in Oakland, California’s immersive and colorful theater community. She graduated from San Francisco State University’s Theatre and Dance department in 2023 with a BA in Theatre Arts (Performance) and a minor in Race and Resistance Studies. Storm has worked with various Bay Area theaters such as SF Playground, Shotgun Players, Marin Shakespeare Company, Aurora Theatre Company, and African-American Shakespeare Company.

Dan Wolf (he/him) is an artist who works with rap, theater, personal narrative, and history to give voice to the problematic world we live in. His projects have traveled around the world, from concert halls to museums to schools and memorial sites, engaging history and culture as a prompt to make vital music and theater that can only live in this moment. Dan is the Artistic Director of Sound in the Silence and a co-founder of both the Bay Area Theatre Cypher and Felonious.