Faculty Bios

Emily Klion is the Program Director of the Marsh Youth Theater. She specializes in bringing together artists from all over the world to explore multicultural arts with children. For over twenty years, Emily has incorporated her broad experience as a producer, composer and musical director to create theater projects for both children and adults.

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 has taught art and cost for the past two seasons.

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.

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.

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.

Rebecca Fisher has been a theater teaching artists for over 8 years teaching independently, as well as with organizations. Most recently she worked at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts where she was actively involved in their former onsite and off-site arts education programs and served as Interim Kaleidoscope Education Director her last six months with the organization.  In the Bay Area, 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.

Maica Folch is a movement artist and educator from Barcelona, Spain. For the past four years, Maica has worked at MYT as a teacher of aerial dance, trapeze and clowning. She is the founding member of ZaZa Dance Theater and NO-WAY group. Learn more about Maica at www.zazadance.org.

Michelle Jordan has performed in theaters around the Bay Area including Theatreworks, A.C.T. and the Lorraine Hansberry Theater for over twenty years. Michelle is a member of the vocal performance ensemble WINGIT! Michelle was a star in the hit musical Crowns, produced by Theatreworks.

Aileen Lawlor is a Bay Area fire dancer originally from New Jersey. She began studying the Flow Arts at the Temple of Poi in San Francisco 3 years ago and has performed at many Bay Area events, held at locations such as SupperClub, Mighty, and Burning Man. She is skilled in the art of Poi and Staff spinning in addition to extensive studying of theatre, improvisation, and acting at HB Studios in New York City.

Lisa Quoresimo has directed, and taught at theatres around the country, and at many schools and colleges including Malcolm X Elementary in Berkeley, Rooftop K-8 in San Francisco, New York University, and the Manhattan School of Music. She was the artistic director and co-founder of the Kairos Theatre Company, which produced many Off-off Broadway shows, including a one-man show which went on to a successful Broadway run. She is also a playwright, music director and composer who has been produced widely in New York and elsewhere. Lisa holds a Master‚s degree from Carnegie Mellon University, and trained at Circle in the Square Theatre in NYC.

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.

Sonya Smith A lifelong athlete, Sonya Smith discovered dance at Macalester College while earning a degree in Biology and Environmental Studies. Since moving to the Bay Area, she has performed with Project Bandaloop, Kim Epifano/Epiphany Productions, and Zaccho Dance Theater among others. Additionally, Smith is a principle collaborating member of Eat Cake Productions and Lizz Roman and Dancers. Smith¹s choreography is often collaborative, and combines aerial apparatus, modern dance and contact improvisation. In 2006 she was awarded residency from the Jon Sims Center for the Arts. Smith coordinated construction of CounterPULSE, in the SOMA district of San Francisco.

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, where she teaches a large variety of Dance techniques. She has also served as consultant for multicultural Dance programs at various elementary schools in the area for the past 5 years. 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.

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.

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.