STAFF
To contact a staff member just use their first name @theatreactionproject.org
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Anita Ashton
Development Director
A native of Southeast Texas, Anita spent sixteen years in the Boston area, first as a student at Harvard College—from which she received a degree in English and American Literature—followed by years of work in out-of-school time programming and advocacy. She was the co-founder and Administrator of Boston Do Something, a local branch of a national effort to equip young people to identify and address problems in their communities and a founding campus director of Citizen Schools, an innovative effort to reform schools by involving “citizen teachers” in the education of young people. Upon moving back to Texas with Sasha, Arlo and Theo (her three kids), she worked as a grant writer for Austin Lyric Opera for more than three years before joining the TAP team in November, 2010. TOP

Keri Boyd
Artistic Associate
Keri Boyd is an Artistic Associate. She tours with Natalie on the Courage in Action and Alternative Solution shows. She supports TAP Afterschool as a Team Lead, works with teaching artists and campuses to deliver high quality afterschool classes, assist with curriculum, training, and assessment. TOP

Florinda Bryant
Company Manager
Florinda Bryant is an interdisciplinary artist and educator. Florinda is the Artistic Director of the Austin Project Performance Company, supported by the Center for African and African Americans Studies Department at the University of Texas. Florinda has worked with Theatre Action Project since 2005, and has been working with at risk youth for over ten years. Florinda currently serves as the Theatre Action Project Company Manager. She directed and performed in the Artspark Festival 2008, award winning play "HUSH" and starred in the world premiere of Sharon Bridgforth's new work delta dandi. TOP

Freddy Carnes
Artistic Associate
Freddy Carnes is an actor, producer, director, writer, composer and teacher who has won awards and recognition for his work with children including special recognition from Mayor Will Wynn and a B. Iden Payne award. He has co-written and directed over 40 operas with elementary school children and has produced several CD's of his original songs. Freddy's work with TAP includes "The Hamlet Project" which introduces at-risk youth to the joys of Shakespeare in the after school hours, and performing "World Tales and Tunes" for PreK-kindergarten most mornings.  Freddy was awarded the 2009 Central Texas After school Network After school Staff Member of the year for his work teaching children Shakespeare and Greek Mythology. TOP

Mary Alice Carnes
Community Relations Director
Mary Alice Carnes has been part of the arts and nonprofit community in Austin since 1982.  She worked as the Associate Director for Austin Circle of Theaters (ACoT), now the Greater Austin Creative Alliance.  Mary Alice chaired Playfest, a 10-week festival of theater for youth in 1996 presented by ACoT. She also chaired the Coalition for Children’s Theater, a consortium of theater for Austin youth arts organizations. As the Development Associate of Austin Musical Theatre/Broadway Texas, Mary Alice served as grant writer, supporting main stage productions and academy programs from 2000-2003.  She also worked at Greenlights for NonProfit Success in Austin helping to strengthen Central Texas nonprofit organizations, nonprofit professionals, and boards through professional development. Mary Alice has a BA in Theatre from St. Edward’s University in Austin.  She has been a long-time volunteer with many area arts organizations including Teatro Vivo, Austin Shakespeare, and Zilker Theatre Productions.  She has served on the boards of Austin Circle of Theaters, Texas Nonprofit Theatres (TNT), and on the advisory board of Teatro Vivo.  Mary Alice worked as a theater director and dramaturg, production manager and stage manager, and marketing for a number of performing arts organizations in Austin.  As an actor she has performed with Different Stages, Austin Musical Theatre/Broadway Texas, Second Youth, and the Gilbert and Sullivan Society. TOP

Brian Fahey
TAP in the Classroom Program Director
Brian is an artist and educator from Boston, MA. He graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in 2010 with a Master of Fine Arts in Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities. Prior to moving to Austin Brian was the Artistic Director for Gurnet Theatre Project (GTP), a Boston based theatre company he co-founded. For GTP he directed the Boston premieres of Bert V. Royal’s Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead and Adam Rapp’s Essential Self-Defense, as well as Kenneth Lonnergan’s This Is Our Youth, a production that earned two IRNE (Independent Reviewers of New England) award nominations. At UT Brian taught Improvisational Drama and served as a Specialist with Drama for Schools, a drama in education professional development program, in Victoria, TX, McAllen, TX and for the 2008 residency in Galena, AK. As a teaching artist he has worked with Austin’s Paramount Theatre and State School of Acting, Arkansas Governor’s School, and The Children’s Art Centre in Boston. In 2009 Brian directed Louis Sachar’s There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom for UT’s main-stage season. The production coincided with his thesis, “Connecting Theatre for Young Audiences and Community Engagement: Allowing the Issue of Bullying in Louis Sachar’s There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom to Ignite Dialogue and Inform Production.” Brian holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from Northeastern University and has trained at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland. TOP

Chelsea Gilman
Business Manager
Since receiving her BA in Theatre with a minor in Business at The University of Texas, Chelsea has worked abroad at Te Whaea (Dance and Drama Center) in Wellington, New Zealand; in the artistic and management offices at Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, CT; and marketing for The Meadows Schools of the Arts at SMU in Dallas, TX. She also spent seven summers and two years with Greene Family Camp, a summer camp north of Austin, where she worked as Counselor, Drama Specialist, Arts Director, Activities Director, and eventually Assistant Director of Development.  She's performed improv comedy in Austin for over four years, as well as performed at Second City in the Chicago Improv Festival. She can be seen performing improv and sketch comedy around Austin and heard practicing her drumming skills. TOP

Natalie Marlena Goodnow
Artistic Associate
Natalie Marlena Goodnow is a theatre artist, educator and cultural activist from Austin, Texas. She uses theatre as a tool for education with both youth and adults, utilizing dialogical, arts-based methods with which she nudges students and audiences towards deeper reflections on our relationships to place, in terms of: relationship to our own bodies, to our communities, and to the Earth. Natalie performs, directs, and writes; she's been doing some combination of those things for 15 years.  Recent projects include her solo, autobiographical play "Muntu," a reading in Vicki Grise's "blu," directing Stamp Lab's "T.A.G.," which was awarded "Best of the Fest" in February 2009 and her newest solo play "Mud Offerings". She is a proud alum of Southwestern University (2007), an Associate Company Member of Teatro Vivo, and a cohort of the Austin Project.  She has been working with TAP for 4 years. She also performs in "Courage in Action (CIA)", "Alternative Solutions", teaches at T.A. Brown Elementary School, and writes curriculum. TOP

Katie Grills
Community Relations VISTA
Katie recently transplanted to Austin from Memphis, TN, and is happy to find herself exploring a passion for activism through the arts that developed during college. Katie graduated from Rhodes College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Creative Writing. During her time at Rhodes, Katie spent a significant amount of time serving those who were experiencing homelessness and hunger in the Midtown Memphis community through providing community meals and arts classes, all in the mission of providing a place of belonging to those who needed community the most. She also explored her love for costume design for theatre by developing a preliminary costume concept for Opera Memphis' production of Scott Joplin and Treemonisha. Katie spent the last year in Austin working as an AmeriCorps*State member at College Forward, and is looking forward to a career in non-profit development after her year as a VISTA.  TOP

Nitra Gutierrez
Middle School and High School Artistic Associate
Nitra Gutiérrez is an interdisciplinary teaching artist, with a MFA in Drama and Theatre for Youth from the University of Texas at Austin. She is the Artistic Director for the Changing Lives Youth Theatre Ensemble. She is also involved with the Voices Against Violence (VAV), a program that serves students at the University of Texas. Other applied theatre projects include teaching artist work with Hospital Audiences, Inc. in New York City and residencies in south Texas and rural Alaska. Nitra is also an active improviser, actor and playwright. She is a charter member of the 3Graces Theatre Co. (NYC), who received the 2007 Lucille Lortel Award  for the achievement of women in theatre.  She is also the co-creator of the Kidnapped by Craigslist play series, nominated for an Emerging Comedy New York Award. Kidnapped by Craigslist has been produced in New York, Los Angeles, Austin and Phoenix. TOP

Karen LaShelle
Executive and Artistic Director
Karen LaShelle began working at Theatre Action Project as a volunteer in 2003.  Since then, Karen has helped TAP grow from serving 800 young people to more than 16,000 each year.  She developed many of TAP's current programs, including TAP After School, "The Heroes/Los Heroes" and the current version of "The Courage to Stand", amongst many others.  Previous positions include: Assistant to the Artistic Director and Outreach Associate at Northlight Theatre (Chicago), Co-director of Redmoon Theatre's award winning program Dramagirls (Chicago), Arts Specialist for Interfaith Neighbors Girlspace (New York City). Additional community-arts projects include collaborations with Northwestern University, Steppenwolf Theatre Crosstown Exchange, and co-creating The Owl's Nest retreat with TAP founder Lynn Hoare, amongst others. Karen holds a B.F.A. from Illinois Wesleyan University and a M.A. in Community Based Arts from New York University. Karen can also be found leading creative workshops and participating in local arts projects as a designer, dramaturg and collaborator. Karen was a member of the Create Austin cultural planning task force, is a member of the Leadership Austin Essential Class of 2010, was a finalist in both 2009 and 2010 for the Austin Under 40 Awards and a winner of this award for 2011. TOP

Caroline Reck
Artistic Associate
Caroline Reck is an Artistic Associate. She supports TAP Afterschool as a Team Lead, works with teaching artists and campuses to deliver high quality afterschool classes, assists with curriculum, training, and assessment. She is a puppeteer, director, and educator and has been using arts education to teach literacy and language since 1998 in the states (East Austin, West Baltimore, and NYC) and abroad (France, Poland, England, and the Dominican Republic). She has an MFA from Towson University and is a graduate of L’Ecole Internationale de Theatre Jacques Lecoq. TOP

Sarah Rinner
Elementary School Program Director
Sarah Rinner works as the Elementary School Program Director for Theatre Action Project in Austin, TX, a nonprofit educational theatre company, where she oversees the after school program, teaches K-8th grade theatre arts throughout Austin in after school classes, and coordinates special projects, workshops, and programs. She graduated in May 2006 with a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin.  In Lufkin and Victoria, Texas, she trained and mentored teachers in using drama as a teaching tool in the classroom, as well as assisted a peer theatre middle school group in devising and facilitation for performance techniques.  From 2005-2007, she directed plays for young audiences with Second Youth Family Theatre in Austin and coordinated their 2007 summer camps.  She developed curriculum and taught summer camps, after school classes and workshops for the Des Moines Community Playhouse in Des Moines, IA for over 6 years.  In December of 2000 she graduated from The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) with a BA in Theatre in Education and Design & Production. Most recently, Sarah co-coordinated a cross-generational outreach program for the 30-year anniversary of the UNI Theatre Department. In January 2011, she became the President of the Central Texas After School Network. TOP

Cassie Swayze
After School Programs Associate VISTA
Cassie is an aspiring visual artist and arts administrator. She recently relocated to Austin from Seattle to serve as an AmeriCorps VISTA with TAP. Cassie graduated from Whitworth University in Spokane, WA in 2008 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Arts Administration. Her passion for the arts has taken her across the country; working in event coordinating and development for the Center for Contemporary Art in Dallas, TX; administrative work for the James Cohan Gallery in New York, NY; events and administrative assistance for the Saranac Arts Project in Spokane, WA; and administrative planning for the Loop Press Association of Whitworth University. Her visual work focuses on found paper objects and, most recently, watercolor self-portraiture. She is very excited to serve as TAP's newest team member! TOP

Patrick Torres
Middle School and High School Program Director
Patrick Torres is a professional educator and theatre director. Prior to joining Theatre Action Project he served as the Associate Artistic Director of Young Playwrights’ Theater (YPT) in Washington, DC. At YPT he created and implemented arts integrated curricula for students of all ages throughout Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia. His work in developing original assessment tools to measure students’ learning in the arts has received national recognition by the Theatre Communications Group who named him a Young Leader of Color in the field of arts education. In 2009, Mr. Torres worked with 60 youth in Washington, DC’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services under a grant from the US Department of Justice to create an original play about their experiences in the juvenile detention system. The resulting play, Choosing Change, toured throughout the Washington metro area and was seen by more than 6,000 community members. The After-School Playwriting Program he developed and implemented at YPT won the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award from First Lady Michelle Obama in 2010. He has taught professional development workshops to teachers for the DC Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the District of Columbia Public Schools. Mr. Torres has a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Southern Mississippi. TOP

Erik Weasenforth
Marketing Associate VISTA
Erik Weasenforth graduated in 2011 from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana with a degree in Computer Graphics Technology and a minor in Art & Design. Having specialized in computer animation at Purdue, he enjoys creating art that has a purpose, as he has worked on a few 3D animated shorts in college. After he graduated in spring of 2011, Erik worked that summer as Animation Teacher at Camp Kenmont in Kent, Connecticut, where he taught boys and girls aged 8-14 Computer Animation and Claymation. Erik volunteered for Special Interest in Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH) at Purdue and at the SIGGRAPH National Conference 2009 in New Orleans, and is excited to serve the Austin communities with his artistic abilities as an AmeriCorps VISTA this year. Having lived in northern Texas since 2003, Erik is new to the Austin area, but is enjoying the city and his opportunity to grow with TAP. TOP