Olivia
Olivia Puerta first discovered improv at age 9 as a student of First Stage Theater Academy in her hometown, Milwaukee, WI. A dedicated theater kid, she continued to study and perform theater and vocal music in all her formative years. Olivia has been studying and performing improv in San Francisco since 2012, training primarily with Endgames Improv, where she now teaches. She performs weekly with San Francisco Tonight.
ANDRÉ
MAURICE ANDRÉ SAN-CHEZ has earned a B.F.A. in Music Theatre from the University of Texas El Paso. He is a teaching artist with Bay Area Children’s Theatre (BACT) in several of their educational programs and has been working with youth since 2008. He is also a company member with the Bonfire Makers a Theatre collective that creates political performance gathered from community stories, and ensemble collaboration, which embraces theatre as a people’s tool for resistance. His continued work with youth and his new work teaching theatre in the prison system with Red Ladder Theatre has inspired him to go back to school to get his Master’s in Education to continue shaping, inspiring, and empowering young minds for a brighter future!
Basel
Basel Al-Naffouri began his theater journey at MIT where he took his first acting classes. After moving to the Bay Area, he was introduced to improv by taking his first class at BATS in 2005. Soon after, Basel was invited to perform with the BATS Sunday Players and was a founding member of Double Entendre and Out of Line. He has also produced, directed and acted in “Improvised Arabian Nights”, an improvised show in the style of “A Thousand and One Nights”. Basel has taught improv workshops both locally and internationally and has led trainings with organizations such as Google and Aswat, various improv troupes and internationally at KAUST University in Saudi Arabia and Laban in Lebanon.
Bill
Bill Stahl has been a San Francisco based improviser for the past seven years. He has trained at BATS Improv and was a guest with the mainstage BATS company for the nine-month 2012/2013 season. Bill occasionally runs workshops and guests at BATS. Bill was a guest with the Un-Scripted Theater Company for the first time in 2015 with the cast of And it All Went to Hell, and most recently with the 2018 show Love at First Sight.
Brittany
Brittany is very excited to join the As the Fog Rolls In cast. She discovered improv during play practice in college and enthusiastically went on to join Stanford Improvisors (SImps). Brittany has continued taking improv classes in San Francisco post-college and is always looking for opportunities to learn and perform. Currently, Brittany performs with DASH, the late night show at Un-Scripted Theater Company, and has performed with a group of former SImps, Minerva, at Femprovisers fest the past couple of years. In her free time, Brittany loves cooking and watching movies.
Chris
Former director of BATS’ Improv @ Work corporate engagement programs, Chris has led applied improvisation sessions for more than 100 workplaces, including Genentech, UCSF, and Google. Chris delights in facilitating teams to develop leadership, presence, creativity, adaptability, communication, storytelling, teamwork, and collaboration. He has taught improv for 11 years at BATS’ School of Improv and has performed on ten different BATS’ CaveMatch improv ensembles. A Benjamin N. Duke Leadership Scholar graduate of Duke University, Chris enjoys German strategy-based board games, Texas Hold’em, and writing poetry for life-work balance. Actually, his whole life centers on play.
Clare
Clare Bierman is a recent University of San Francisco grad, a terrible retail associate, and a professional unpaid intern. She has been improvising since 2012, and has graced stages in her real home (Los Angeles), her adopted home (San Francisco) and her dream home (Copenhagen) where she has been garnered such real reviews as "not as embarrassing as I expected" and "has resting constipation face." When not performing with Dash, she can be found rolling her own sushi and whistling at birds.
David
David Madison Stellar (San Francisco, CA) first took the plunge into improv in 2004. He directed a weekly improv jam for many years and has performed with the Un-Scripted Theater Company, BATS main company, Out of Line and a variety of other groups, and is now the artistic director of the San Francisco troupe Well Endowed.
David is also an internationally renowned dance instructor, as well as Time Magazine's Person Of The Year in 2006.
Eric
Eric Kostenbauder started improvising in his hometown of Seattle a lifetime ago and continues to perform around the Bay Area.
Joey
Joey has studied at BATS Improv and ACT, and has performed with Lombard Street Experiment (7-time winner of the BATS Cave Match), the San Francisco Improv Collective, and the Un-Scripted Theater Company. He believes the fundamentals of improv can help people open up and thrive off stage. Joey is the Deputy Chief of Staff of Change.org. He enjoys making up silly songs together with his wife Lucy and little boys Jackson and Parker.
Jay
Jay Ridler is a historian, writer and improviser. He joined Pan Theater in 2013 as a member of Liquid Mind, and teaches their drop in classes and sketch writing/performing workshop. He directed his first show, Wrestlepalooza, in 2016, and, along with Sid Starr, is a member of The Ambassadors improv duo. He’s stoked about bringing history and improv together with the gang at Un-Scripted Theater Company for Secret Lives! A former punk rock musician and cemetery groundskeeper, Jay lives in the East Bay.
Kate
Kate Wing has been making things up since her college days with the Smith Improvisational Comedy Organization of Smith. She's a regular guest at Un-Scripted Theater Company and SpeechlessLive and musical improv is her absolute favoritest. One time a guy called her and sang and played keyboard for Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called to Say I Love You," which wins boldest mixtape.
Larissa
Larissa Kasian has been improvising for almost a decade, having taken classes at BATS, Upright Citizens Brigade and Second City in Los Angeles, and Keith Johnstone in Calgary. She has performed with BATS Improv, An Improv Team Named Desire, Pure Moxie Players, The San Francisco Improv Collective, and Out of Line. She has also appeared in a variety of independent films and voiceover work. This is her fourth show with the Un-Scripted Theater Company.
Laura
Laura has been practicing improv since 2005 and has guested with BATS and Un-Scripted, and was one half of the musical improv comedy duo Lula and Juicy's Farewell Tour. Laura credits improv with a good chunk of her personal improvements in life, and the majority of the fun. She is the founder of ZipLine Improv in Sonoma County, through which she teaches and performs.
Mariah
Mariah Howard's been improvising as long as she can remember, using her imagination and dress-up collection to become French novelists and door-to-door computer salesmen. When she’s not running after her darling son, or attending graduate school for Expressive Arts Therapy, she’s thinking about improv. Mariah's been a part of Bay Area improv since 2005 and has been a troupe member of Drunken Monkey Improv, Tilted Frame, True Medusa and Leela’s The Armando Company. In 2014 she had one of the best ideas of her lifetime: she invited two extremely talented and totally adorable women, Claire Slattery and Fontana Butterfield, to form an improv trio which they called, The Right Now. The Right Now performs their unique short form improv throughout the Bay Area and in national improv festivals. Mariah is elated to join the cast of The Short and the Long of It for her first time performing with the Un-Scripted Theater Company!
Sam
Sam Miceli is a video game art director by day, and an improvisor by night. She has a degree in illustration from Rhode Island School of Design, where she focused on visual storytelling. She took her first improv class in 2014, fell in love with long-form improv, and is a graduate of BATS Improv.
Chris
Chris Shurland is a Bay Area improviser by way of Chicago, where he studied improv with Second City, iO (formerly Improv Olympic), Annoyance Theater, and One Group Mind. Chris is a member of American Improv Theatre in San Jose, where he performs, directs, and teaches. He is also one half of the Chicago-based improv duo Legends of Public Access, which performs and teaches at festivals and theaters around the country. By day, he can be found toiling around being a lawyer. Chris is very excited to be making his Un-Scripted debut with Murder, Most Un-Scripted!!!
Jessia
Jessia Hoffman is a Bay Area-based performer, educator, and freelance writer. With over a decade of improv experience, Jessia has directed the Stanford Improvisors, coached the Aragon Improv Team, studied on both coasts, and currently teaches for BATS Improv. Select theatre credits: writer/director of Sheila, an original play; co-creator of Gravity: A New(tonian) Musical; guest improviser in Un-Scripted’s Foglandia; Tracy Turnblad in Hairspray; Dot/Marie in Sunday in the Park with George. Jessia holds a B.A. from Stanford University in English with a focus in Creative Writing, a minor in Spanish, and Interdisciplinary Honors in the Arts. She is thrilled to return to Un-Scripted for Super Scene, one of her very favorite formats!
Ana
Ana is an improviser based in San Francisco, CA, playing on stage and in the tech booth. She has created and directed On the Rocks, a fully improvised, semi-costumed stage play set at a 1950s cocktail party, and Grendel's Grinches, an improvised epic inspired by oral traditional literature. Other performance credits include Attack of the Scenes, Split Decision, RagTag Improv, guest performances with Phasers on Stun and The Iron Stage, and numerous student shows at BATS Improv. Her website is seeanaplay.com.
Tim Orr
Tim has improvised since 1988 with many San Francisco-based groups, including BATS Improv, True Fiction Magazine, Awkward Dinner Party, and with the acclaimed troupe 3 For All. In 2009, he founded Improv Playhouse of San Francisco. Since 2015, he has toured Europe with Inbal Lori from Berlin performing their duo show Click.
Tim has also appeared in numerous plays in the San Francisco Bay Area, and received critical acclaim for his leading roles in the improvised feature films, Suckerfish and Security. With Stephen Kearin, Tim co-wrote, and originated the role of Dirk Manly in, An Evening with Dirk & Blaine.
Tim has performed and taught improvisation at the American Conservatory Theatre, BATS Improv, Stanford University, and many other venues nationally (Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Austin, Louisville, Atlanta, etc.) and internationally (Amsterdam, Barcelona, Beirut, Belgium, Berlin, Bucharest, Dubai, Hamburg, Helsinki, Lisbon, London, Mallorca, Oslo, Paris, Saudi Arabia, Stockholm, and more.)
Jared
A recovering hustler (i.e. workaholic), Jared Polivka rediscovered his childhood love for story in Rebecca Stockley’s improv class. Shedding his former “hustler” identity, Jared intends to be light hearted, present, empathetic, kind and responsible while making good art and serving others. Jared is a graduate of BATS Improv. He currently trains improv with Tim Orr, trains voice with Dan Seda and trains acting at the American Conservatory Theatre (ACT) and with Stan Roth. Stay in touch with Jared on Instagram and Medium.
Shawn
On advice from his acting coach, Shawn Brick took his first improv class in 2008 and has never looked back. Since then, he has performed with a number of Bay Area troupes, including Phasers on Stun, The Iron Stage, Flash Mob Musical, and RagTag Improv. Shawn loves short-form, long-form, and narrative improv, as long as he gets to do things he wouldn't in real life. This is Shawn's first Un-Scripted show. (www.shawnbrick.com)
Bela
Bela is a San Francisco Bay Area based improviser. His love of improv started in the mid-1990s, when he began studying at BATS Improv and taking private classes from Diane Rachel and Carol Hazenfield. Subsequently, Bela performed in groups at BATS, Made Up Theatre, and Pear Theatre. In recent years, he has played with local indie troupes Charmers Market, All That Jazz, The Internet: Live, and Live Clickbait. Most recently, he appeared in The Muse, an episode in the Dark Room’s 16th Annual Twilight Zone Parody Series. At Un-Scripted, Bela was a cast member in Intimacy Issues, Super Scene, Adventure Quest, and Oregon Trials – and he’s super excited to be a part of Remote Control Freak!
Mariah
Mariah Thompson comes to the San Francisco improv world from Toronto, Canada, where she studied and performed at the Second City Conservatory and Bad Dog Theatre. She is thrilled to be making her debut with the Un-Scripted Theater Company in Love at First Sight. During the week Mariah works in Animation Film Production juggling project coordination and voicing temporary audio for whatever wacky character her co-workers think up next.
Bonnie Kate
Bonnie Kate Wolf is a Bay Area native who recently moved home from London. She's been doing improv since middle school, and likes to think she's improved. At Un-Scripted Theater Company, she guested in Let It Snow 2018, In Case You Missed It, Oregon Trials, Mixtape, World Premiere, and Remote Control Freak, with Holly Jolly coming up this winter. She performed with Un-Scripted at the West Coast Musical Improv Festival 2019. She performs regularly with Well Endowed, a local improv troupe, and trained at BATS Improv. Professionally, Bonnie Kate is a brand designer at OpenTable. For fun, she knits sweaters, sings a cappella, and plays with her puppy. She plays ukulele because guitars are too big for her hands.
Charlie
Charlie Stellar has been improvising and creating in both music and dance for basically her whole life, yet it has taken years of considerable encouragement from her husband to finally start improvising with words. Now that it’s happened, she loves it! She performs with the improv troupe Well Endowed. This is her fourth show with Un-Scripted Theater Company and she is so excited to be part of this awesome cast.
When she is not playing make believe you can find her creating dance films, spoiling their pets and napping.
Melanie
Melanie Flores Salman is an improviser both on stage and in life. Six years ago she co-founded Phasers on Stun and has been exploring the world of Star Trek ever since. She’s also performed other forms of Improvised Theater including Demimonde, a format that explores the 1890’s Paris underworld. She has also guested with San Francisco Improv Collective, RagTag and is thrilled to perform with Un-Scripted.
Derek
Derek Yee took his first improv class in the fall of 2007 and has been at it ever since--improv, that is, not the class. During this time he’s had the pleasure of performing with BATS Improv, Big City Improv, Secret Improv Society, the Streetlight People, Spontaneous Combustion, and other Bay Area groups. He also created The Five Deadly Improvisers, who performed improvised kung fu movies in festivals around the nation.
Rebecca
Rebecca Poretsky is a company member with BATS Improv since 2012 and, since 2004, has improvised all around the Bay with numerous groups, including: Speechless, Awkward Dinner Party, the Un-Scripted Theater Company, Couples Therapy Improv, and Big City Improv. Rebecca has performed live and video sketch comedy (Crisis Hopkins and the Kasper Hauser Comedy Group) and original solo performance (I Left My Heart in Brooklyn – The Marsh). She starred as Señorita Panochista in Spring Break: The Musical, an original production, written and produced by the Mortified team. Rebecca's studied improv at the Annoyance Theater in Chicago, acting at the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre and Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass, and physical theater/clown at the Flying Actor Studio and with master clown teacher Giovanni Fusetti. She's been in a bizarre number of comedic cat videos and is not AT ALL embarrassed by that.
Rebecca teaches improv classes and facilitates workshops all over the place, acts in and writes various other projects, and practices and teaches yoga. She lives in a blended family with her sweetheart and their cat and dog step-pets in San Francisco and is working on being better at self-promotion.
Ben
Ben Woehler is thrilled to make his Un-Scripted Theater Company debut with such a talented ensemble. New to San Francisco, Ben is a former company member of Blacktop Comedy in Sacramento and The Michael Becker Experience in Santa Cruz.
Ben has performed at theaters all over Northern California. Recent stage credits include 1984, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). He hopes you enjoy the show!
Jenny
Jenny Donohue is sassy, saucy, somatic play & communication connoisseur. A Meisner Technique conservatory grad & holder of some standard Bay Area relationship coach titles, she has been teaching healing improv classes for over 13 years. She fuses her passion for deeper connection and intimacy with the art and fun of theater games.
Rebecca
Rebecca hails from Seattle, Washington, where she trained as a professional actor, played lots of parts at lots of theatres and eventually chanced upon Seattle TheatreSports where everything changed. It was 1984 and Rebecca, the actor, took an improv workshop. The next day, Rebecca was an improviser. Within weeks, she joined Seattle TheatreSports' board of directors, and for four years she taught and performed improv in and around the Pacific Northwest. The workshop she taught in San Francisco in the fall of 1987 led to the birth of BATS Improv. In 1989, Rebecca moved south to join the BATS fun. As an advocate for improvisation and pioneer in the growing field of Applied Improvisation, Rebecca has taught and performed improv all over the world. She has been invested in the development of long and short form improv here and abroad. Improv introduced Rebecca to her husband, all her best friends, and to the world. improvlady.com
Claire
Claire Slattery is thrilled to be performing with The Trifecta! She is a seasoned performer and expert coach/facilitator who travels the world delivering Improv Thinking trainings to groups and coaching to top executives. She is particularly passionate about training women and non-binary leaders to free their voice, tell their story, and transform their impact. Claire has trained, performed, and produced her own original work at top theaters and comedy centers including Upright Citizens Brigade, iO West, The Groundlings, American Conservatory Theater, and BATS Improv. She is a proud graduate of Stanford University and resident of Oakland, CA.
Joe
Joe Balfantz is a Bay Area improviser focusing on strong storytelling and fun characters, throwing in a dash of singing along the way! Joe was trained at BATS, starting in 2014, and has been making things up ever since! Joe is currently a member of All That Jazz and the director and co-producer of On Tap, in addition to guesting with RagTag Improv.
Natalie
Natalie Ernst is thrilled to be part a part of Mixtape! She is currently an improv instructor and performer with Leela in San Francisco. She has a background in musical theater and is excited to continue combining her love for improv with her love for musical. She currently has the pleasure of performing in a duo called “Musical Story time with Natalie and Sid,” which is a musical Armando-type format, often featuring puppets. She is also in a group called “Giraffe Town” that performs the Deconstruction format, created by Miles Stroth, as well other groups known as “The Leftovers,” and "Leela’s Armando Company.” Natalie has her own small face painting company, “Paint a Face Designs,” where she has the opportunity to express her creativity through face painting, and body art. Natalie is very grateful for all of the amazing people she has met through this incredible art form.
Eric
Eric is super excited to rock out for the first time at Un-Scripted Theater Company in Mixtape. He can be seen regularly with Flash Mob Musical, SF's longest running musical montage group, creating scenes and songs with some of his favorite people! Eric has studied acting at ACT and improv with BATS, Endgames, Jim Cranna, Pan Theatre and too many workshops to count. He lives in SF with his wife, Stephanie, and enjoys board games, sci-fi and being weird.
Christine
Christine Kwong started performing improv in 2011, but considers her entire life an improvised performance. She has trained and performed at the National Comedy Theatre (San Diego), BATS, Leela, and is thrilled to be part of the Un-Scripted Theater Company’s Mixtape.
When not engaged in her improv comedy career, she enjoys daydreaming about opening for Ali Wong, picking colors for a living (as a marketer), and looking for love in all the oblong places.
Patricia
Patricia Pearson is an alumna of BATS and as if regular old improv were not wonderful enough, the day Patricia discovered improv singing fifteen years ago she could not believe the joy! From then on any time an opportunity to improvise songs comes her way, she takes it, and is thrilled to be doing music improv with the Un-Scripted Theater Company in the new Mixtape show.
Zoab
Zoab Kapoor has been making people laugh for almost as long as he’s been talking — sometimes even intentionally! After beginning his comedy career in standup, Zoab realized that the “telling jokes” part is much more fun than the “preparing to tell jokes” part, and pivoted to improvisation. He has been improvising since 2013, performing in Los Angeles, Budapest, and San Francisco.
This is his first show with Un-Scripted Theater Company, but he thinks it will be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
Brian
Brian Ogata performed off-off Broadway at the Theatre for the New City, New York, NY. He has performed in several improv troupes including Blue Blanket Improv, the Peninsulators, and the Jesters of Yes. He studied with notable instructors including Joe Bill, Zoe Galvez, Susan Messing, Mick Napier, David Razowski, and Todd Stashwick. He received his MA, Theatre Arts and MA, Speech Communications. Currently, he is the Lynbrook High School Head Coach of Speech & Debate.
Brian began his musical improv journey in 2019. That March, he joined Major Sixth, Leela Theatre’s musical improv performing ensemble. He performed in the Leela-sponsored 2019 Femprovisor Festival and the 2019 Un-Scripted Theater Company-sponsored West Coast Musical Improv Festival. And, now, he performs in the Mixtape ensemble.
“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” Brian thanks Christopher Eickmann, Steven Burnett, and Dana Cory for starting him on his journey.
MOLLY
Molly Wixson holds a BA in Theatre, an MA in Psychology, 10 plus years of improv experience, and 4 library cards. You can decide which one is most impressive. Thank you for coming!