teaching artists

Trained theater professionals lead camps, residencies, and playshops

Bay Area Shakespeare Camps, Residencies, and Playshops are led by trained theater professionals, including members of our Education Workgroup and independent teaching artists

ANNE YUMI KOBORI
TEACHING ARTIST
Anne Yumi Kobori is an actor, director, playwright, costume designer, and teaching artist. She adapted Chekhov’s The Seagull and played Nina in Utopia Theatre Project’s inaugural production in 2014. Her plays Seeds and Every Day Alice have premiered at Utopia. Her performance credits include the title role in Hamlet, Desdemona in Othello, Ariel in The Tempest (Silicon Valley Shakespeare), Ophelia in Hamlet on Tour (San Francisco Shakespeare Festival), Peggy Maruyama in Allegiance (CCCT), and numerous ShotzSF comedy shorts. Anne is the Education Program Manager of SF Shakes, and will be directing a Butoh-inspired Macbeth with their touring program this fall. AnneYumiKobori.com

BIANCA CHESNUT
TEACHING ARTIST
Bianca (she/her) is so excited to be joining SF Shakes as a Teaching Artist. Bianca began her TA experience in high school when she was part of a group that visited middle schools in the Santa Cruz County doing performances, Q&As, and workshops, and is so grateful to be continuing this work as part of the SF Shakes community! Along with teaching residencies, Bianca is currently part of the SF Shakes touring production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, alternating for the roles of Helena/Egeus/Snout/Peaseblossom. She is a recent graduate of New York University Tisch School of the Arts and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, receiving her degrees in Drama and Classical Acting. Some of her recent credits include Juliet/Sampson in Romeo & Juliet and Olivia in Twelfth Night. BiancaChesnut.com

HENRY ALPER
TEACHING ARTIST
Henry Alper is a longtime member of the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival family, since joining as a camper in the first grade! The Festival is what sparked his love of Shakespeare and has kept him coming back ever since. He is currently on a gap year while pursuing his BFA in theater at Emerson College. He has taught previously with SFShakes, most recently As You Like It this past summer. As a performer, he most recently could be seen as the titular role in Hamlet with Pale Fire Theater, the Palo-Alto based community theater he founded. He’d like to thank SFShakes for sticking with him for over a decade.

JOSEPH SCHMITZ
TEACHING ARTIST & AUTISM THEATRE SPECIALIST
Joseph Schmitz, founder of Eureka Street Learning, and our partner in the “Shakespeare’s Heartbeat” program for kids on the autism spectrum, feels fortunate to work in technology, education, and theater in the Bay Area — exciting fields in a wonderful place. When not making video, writing, or acting, he has the pleasure of teaching improv and videomaking in Bay Area classrooms. He is a co-founder of Special Focus, a performing arts program for special education students in Northern California.

KUNAL PRASAD
TEACHING ARTIST
Kunal Prasad is a Theatre Artist and SDCF Directing Fellow on ‘Wizard of Oz’ at American Conservatory Theater. And has an interest in the intersection of poetry, gesture and social dance. They direct and lead workshops and residencies at San Francisco Shakespeare Festival. As an actor, they are featured in the indie film ‘Gone in the Night,’ starring Winona Ryder, and they perform in ‘Baloney’ at The Oasis nightclub. Other theater credits include: Wives, (Aurora Theatre Company) A Thousand Splendid Suns, (A.C.T.) Taylor Mac: A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, (SF Curran) and Hedda Gabler, (The Cutting Ball Theater.) On instagram follow @kunalized.

NATALIE AYALA
TEACHING ARTIST
Natalie (she/her) is ecstatic to be back as a teaching artist with SF Shakes after playing Luciana and Duke in The Comedy of Errors, as well as playing Juliet in Romeo and Juliet on tour. She was most recently seen in Plethos Productions as Yolanda in In The Heights. Other performances include Memoria del Silencio ( Elia) SF Shakes’ Hamlet (Voltemand/Player Sailor), Sweet Charity ( Hostess), and All In The Timing (Kafka). At San Francisco State University her credits include Shakespeare Goes To School Cabaret, Trifles (Mrs. Peters) and Immaculate (Gabriel.) When she is not acting, she is teaching drama/directing shows at many schools.

RADHIKA RAO
TEACHING ARTIST
Radhika Rao is an actor, improviser, storyteller, director, writer, and arts educator/consultant. She has performed theater in the United States and abroad. A post-graduate from Harvard Graduate School of Education, Radhika specializes in creating curriculum that integrates theater into diverse learning situations for various populations and organizations. Her work is steeped deeply in respect for life and social justice. She teaches in schools (K-12), universities, juvenile detention centers, corporations, theaters, and community centers. On any given day, she could be performing a Chekhov play, Shakespeare’s Sonnet or Improv Comedy!

SUZANNE HALKA
TEACHING ARTIST
Suzanne Halka is a San Francisco based director, costume designer, choreographer, writer, actor, dancer, and teaching artist. She joined the SF Shakes team as a teaching artist in 2012, and has also taught for San Francisco Recreation and Parks, Destination Art, New Conservatory Theatre Center, and The Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. Her favorite theatre role to date was as The Nurse in Romeo and Juliet: CSI, a deconstructionist version of the well-known play. Suzanne most recently performed in the Oakland-based sketch comedy group, Running With Glitter as The Plant Virus and as Carla, a dancing zombie. She also practices and performs with her all-women improv troupe, the HAMAZONS! Suzanne feels privileged to have interned with The American Shakespeare Center and to have studied theatre while abroad in London. Her most recent directing credit was a personal passion project: a contemporary dress version of Hamlet with the Harvey Milk Center for the Arts Junior Acting Troupe. Suzanne can’t wait to have fun with the Bard and all of our young actors at BASC this summer! Huzzah!

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