Opening Act Theatre Company

THE STAFF

Jo Lane (Artistic Director and Theatre Teacher) BFA in theatre education from Univ. of AZ and MA in Theatre Production from Central WA Univ., teaches Theatre Arts at the Arts, Communication, & Technology School on the Roosevelt HS campus. Formerly the Artistic Director for Fourteenth Avenue Players at Winterhaven School, Lane also previously taught in Tucson, AZ where she co-founded Opening Act Theatre Company as a summer theatre training program for young adults. She brought OATC to Portland and ran the summer program successfully for 10 years before transitioning it to Roosevelt as its resident production company where she also serves as the Artistic Director. Lane has worked in several community theatres across AZ in acting, directing, and technical theatre. Lane toured the U.S. and Canada as an actor and stagehand. She has taught theatre arts grades K-college. Lane is also published nationally in theatre education and has conducted theatre workshops for OTAA (President 2009-2011), EdTA, and ITS.

Derek Lane (Technical Director) former Assoc. Prof. at Central WA Univ., teaches courses in design, production, art, and general theatre studies at Westview HS in Beaverton. He holds a BA in Performance from Seattle Pacific Univ., and both an MA in Directing (Child Drama) and an MFA in Theatre Design and Technology from San Diego State Univ. Lane has received over 20 meritorious Design Awards from the Kennedy Center/ American College Theatre Festival. Lane also has designed for regional and national television programs. He has worked professionally as an actor, voice actor, director, and playwright.

Tami Castillo Shelton (Choreographer) with degrees in theatre and dance, has been a professional dancer, choreographer, musical theatre director and arts educator for the past 25 years. Her work has been commissioned nationally and internationally by many festivals, colleges, universities and theatre groups from Portland to Seattle to New York. As a performer she has worked with Danny Lewis of Juilliard and Donald McKayle of the Alvin Ailey Company. Gray has been on the faculty of PSU, Lewis and Clark, Linfield, Clark, and Mt. Hood Comm. Coll. and guest instructor to many OR and WA HS Musical Theatre programs. She is currently a residency artist and coach for Young Audiences of OR and WA, and a teaching artist with the West Linn/Wilsonville, Portland Public and Evergreen School Districts.

Leah Siebert (Musical Director) Leah Siebert has been singing as long as she can remember. She started performing at the age of 8. Her background includes solo and choral work as well as musical theatre. She was a member of the All-South Jersey, New Jersey All-State and All Eastern choruses while in high school. She was an active member of the Showstoppers, her high school musical theatre group, playing the title role in “Annie” and Mabel in “Pirates of Penzance”. She studied Vocal Performance at Brigham Young University and sang with the BYU University Chorale. She has sung with various choirs in the Portland area over the last 20 years and appeared as Aunt Eller in Roosevelt’s 2008 production of “Oklahoma”. Her voice teachers include Ann Greenfield, who performed with the Metropolitan Opera, and Portland area instructor Joan Neff. She loves show tunes, madrigals and anything sung in Latin. She currently sings with the University of Portland Choral Union as a first soprano. She volunteers to provide Roosevelt theatre students vocal coaching during the year and serves as the resident Musical Director.

Liz Hayden (Guest Artist in Directing) has taught art programs throughout the country and currently teaches throughout Portland, including as a guest artist and director at Roosevelt as a part of the Hands On Theatre program through Profile Theatre. She is a member of Hand2Mouth Theatre Company, and works extensively with Profile, Lakewood, and Northwest Children’s Theatre.