EQUIVOCATION (2010) Andrew Hurteau, Craig Marker and Lance Gardner
EQUIVOCATION (2010) Andrew Hurteau, Craig Marker and Lance Gardner | Photo by Kevin Berne

Staff

Administration Office | 415.388.5200 | info@marintheatre.org

Leadership

  • Lance Gardner

    Lance Gardner

    Artistic Director

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    A familiar face in the San Francisco Bay Area theatre scene, Lance Gardner is an actor and producer born and raised in the Bay Area. He has earned dozens of theatre credits over the last 20 years, including six mainstage shows and a school tour at Marin Theatre Company. He has also performed in multiple shows at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, California Shakespeare Theater, Magic Theatre, TheatreWorks, and more recently served as the President of the Board of Aurora Theatre. He comes to Marin from KQED, where, as a live event producer, he helped launch KQED Live, a year-round, in-person and virtual events program where he crafted unique experiences marrying journalism, arts, and entertainment. Harnessing the power of public media, he created bespoke concerts, game shows, performances, food and dining events, interviews and more. His work has been featured on KQED TV and on the radio at KQED and KALW.

  • Meredith Suttles

    Meredith Suttles

    Managing Director

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    Meredith Suttles (she/her/hers) is an arts leader with an extensive background in creative and performing arts in the areas of development, management, strategic planning, fundraising, and performance. She has held senior leadership roles at TheaterWorksUSA, Soho Repertory Theatre, Theatre Communications Group (TCG), and the New York City Opera. Meredith is a proud graduate of the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) and former EmcArts: Arts Leaders as Cultural Innovators (ALACI) Fellow. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., a Steering Committee Member of the Black Theatre Commons and currently serves on the Board of Directors of viBe Theater Experience.

Administration

  • Zphyna Caldwell

    Zphyna Caldwell

    Special Events and Engagement Manager

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    Zphyna Caldwell (she/her) first began working with Marin Theatre Company in 2011 as a Resident Teaching Artist and Community Engagement Coordinator.

    She is thrilled to return in 2022 as MTC’s Special Events Coordinator. Zphyna has also worked as as a Resident Teaching Artist with the Performing Arts Academy of
    Marin, the GATE Academy and St. Hilary’s School.
    Beyond being a Teaching Artist, Ms. Caldwell has developed fully comprehensive Theatre Programs for the Cities of Mill Valley and Sausalito. In 2016 Zphyna founded her own youth performing arts company, Interactive Enrichment. Based in Sausalito, Interactive Enrichment has a primary focus on Musical Theatre, Ensemble Skills and Improvisation. (www.InteractiveEnrichment.com)

    From 2012- 2016 Zphyna hosted “The Last Dance with Dizzy Jones” on Radio Sausalito. She also hosted and produced “Dizzy Jones Presents” a series of live swing dance concerts in Mill Valley as well as a behind the scenes YouTube show interviewing artists and musicians at the Sausalito Arts Festival. All of these projects were produced under her pseudonym Dizzy Jones.

    Zphyna is also the head of the Hair and Wig department of the Mt. Play Association, the
    longest running theatre company on the West Coast.

    She is so charismatic she shares inside jokes with complete strangers and the stars in her eyes
    have recently been acknowledged by NASA.

  • Anne Clark

    Anne Clark

    Director of Development

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    A seasoned non-profit professional, Anne Clark is thrilled to join Marin Theatre Company as their new Director of Development. She is passionate about inspiring giving to support creativity across generations, fostering space for the radical hospitality at the heart of MTC’s values, and creating a space for all to come together to enjoy the power of the human experience reflected in the stories told at MTC. 

    As the Managing Director of 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa, she confidently led her team through the trails of the pandemic, creating a thriving educational program and a robust season of 17 productions annually. During her time at the Playhouse, she led efforts to secure their “forever home”, and the Playhouse is now the proud owner of the historic building they occupy in Railroad Square. 

    As the Academy Director of the acclaimed Bay Area Children’s Theatre, Anne Clark led operations and strategic direction across 19 different cities throughout the Bay Area. She developed international programming with Shanghai Children’s Art Theater and free performance programs, serving over 4000 students in the Bay Area. A nationally recognized, award-winning director, she has directed, music directed and choreographed over 40 productions with children ranging in age from 2 years old to 18 years old all across the Bay Area. 

    She earned a BA in Musical Theater at UCLA, and was a participant in the prestigious Ray Bolger Musical Theater Program in association with the School of Theater Film and Television. 

    Well-known in regional theater in the Bay Area, she was featured in the film Dream Girls. Her Broadway experience includes High Fidelity the Musical, Imperial Theater, Original Broadway Cast, Penny Hardwick/Back up Chick; Hairspray, Lou Ann/US Amber Von Tussle, Neil Simon Theater, and Thoroughly Modern Millie, Miss Dorothy, 1st National Tour.

  • Nichole Gantshar

    Nichole Gantshar

    General Manager

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    Nichole Gantshar (she/her) is a former dramaturg turned arts administrator. She's provided interim staffing for Louisville Ballet, Theatre Bay Area, Playmakers Repertory Company and now Marin Theatre Company. She spent five years as Executive Director of Rochester City Ballet and also worked for Tulsa Ballet and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. Prior to her administrative career, she worked for Richmond Ballet, Syracuse Stage, Hangar Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, and Milwaukee Ballet. Nichole received her BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and MFA from the University at Stony Brook. Among her awards, she was twice nominated as an Outstanding Young Woman of America and received a LMDA residency grant to serve as the production dramaturg for the Atlanta Ballet’s production of The Great Gatsby

Education

  • Euan Ashley

    Euan Ashley

    Education Programs Manager

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    Euan Ashley (He/Him/His) is excited to be joining the MTC staff as an Educator Coordinator! He is an actor and San Francisco native with a strong belief that the best theatre comes from a place of passion and that arts education is crucial for people of all ages. Even though his training is primarily as an actor he is happy to do anything theatre related, having started at MTC as a box office associate before moving to his current position. He recently graduated with a BA in Theatre Arts and Dance from Sonoma State.

Front of House

  • Jules Simons

    Jules Simons

    Box Office Manager

    BoxOffice@marintheatre.org

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    Jules (she/her/hers) is elated to be joining the MTC team this summer. With a background in playwrighting and production management, she is excited to gain new experiences as the Box Office Manager. She is a New Orleans native, though she spent the last five years at Ohio University, from which she holds a BA in Theater and will be completing her Master of Art Administration virtually this summer. She found a new passion for disability advocacy within the performing arts after serving with AmeriCorps at Easter Seals Wisconsin Respite Camp in 2021. When not petting her cat, she is working towards a world in which including people with disabilities is the standard.

  • Laura Odeh Steele

    Laura Odeh Steele

    Patron Experience Manager

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    Laura Odeh Steele (she/her/hers) is excited to expand her love for theatre career in an administrative capacity at MTC.  As a professional actor, Laura was first seen at MTC in Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley.  In addition, she has work on Broadway, off-Broadway and regionally at theatres including Lincoln Center Theatre, Irish Repertory Theatre, The Public Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Shakespeare Theatre, and Berkeley Rep.  She has worked with directors including James Lapine, Moisés Kaufman, Mark Lamos, Meredith McDonough, Bill Rauch, Don Roos and Charlie Kaufman.  In addition to her acting career, Laura has taught in the Department of Theatre Arts & Dance at Sonoma State University since 2019.  She received her MFA from the Graduate Acting Program at New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

Production

  • Jeff Klein

    Jeff Klein

    Technical Director

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    Jeff started first working at MTC as an overhire carpenter in January 2006, was hired full time as the Assistant Technical Director in October 2006.  With 9 seasons and nearly 5 dozen productions to his name here, he was then promoted to Technical Director in June of 2015.  A native Texan originally from San Antonio, Jeff has worked in all aspects of theatre.  Getting the theatre itch in high school with some minor acting roles, he attended college graduating with a B.A. in Humanities with a Theatre minor.  Eventually moving into a full time technical/behind in the scenes career in his mid 20s, Jeff has a storied history working from theme park venues in Texas to a magic show in Branson, MO and then landing in the San Francisco Bay Area which he has been proud to call home since 2005.  While Jeff misses the time acting on stage, he considers himself a character of life and does his best undertaking the roles of comedy (and drama, of course) that seemingly come at him everyday.

  • Jessica Marchesi

    Jessica Marchesi

    Director of Production

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    Jessica Marchesi, MTC’s new Director of Production, is overjoyed to be returning to MTC after a nearly 20 year hiatus.  Jessica is a native San Franciscan who has been working in professional theater for over 30 years, mostly in production management.  Originally trained as an actor and director, her additional training and experience as a technician and designer led her to shift her focus to production. After starting her PM career at the San Francisco Fringe Festival and the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Jessica served as MTC’s PM from 2001-2005, under then Artistic Director Lee Sankowich.  Since leaving the Bay Area, her career has taken her all over the country.  During that time she managed production and operations for a wide variety of companies, including Studio Theatre in Washington, DC, Arkansas Repertory Theatre and the Walton Arts Center in Arkansas, and Horizon Theatre in Atlanta, GA, but the bulk of her career was spent at South Coast Repertory Theatre in Southern California.  SCR specializes in new play development, and while she was there she had the great pleasure of helping launch over 50 world premieres, many of which have gone on to great success, including A Doll’s House, Part 2 (Lucas Hnath), Vietgone (Qui Nguyen), Cambodian Rock Band (Lauren Yee), Silent Sky and Emelie (Lauren Gunderson), The Language Archive (Julia Cho), and many more.  Jessica’s journey has been personal as well as geographical, and she is proud to have recently come out as Trans and is excited to begin her new life among old friends.

  • Daria Perkova

    Daria Perkova

    Costume Shop Manager

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    Daria Perkova (she/they) is a Bay Area native costume designer. She first took an interest in costuming when she was just 4 years old, watching Sailor Moon at her grandparents house and making props out of cardboard. She first stepped into theatre at her high school and fell in love with the magic of backstage production ever since. She has a BFA in Theatrical Costume Design from Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri and returned here to the Bay to pursue a full time career in costuming. She is the current Costume Shop Manager and Wardrobe Lead here at MTC, as well as the Assistant Costume Designer for the current 2022-23 season. She has recently costume designed How Black Mothers Say I Love You at Theatre Rhinoceros in SF and Anton Chekov’s Uncle Vanya at Chabot College. 

  • Liam Rudisill

    Liam Rudisill

    Assistant Technical Director

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    (he/him)

  • Krys Swan

    Lighting, Sound & Video Supervisor and Light Board Programmer

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    (He/Him)