Jason Inman graduated from the University of Tulsa with a Bachelors Degree in Film/Theatre. He has written and created several short films, internet viral videos, and television commercials. His short films have won Best Cinematography at The Oklahoma City Smashers Festival, and been featured on the main page of Funnyordie.com. Jason currently works for YouTube Intertainers Rhett & Link, and has recently shot videos for the film productions ofJoyful Noise, The Rum Diaries, and The Muppets.

MUSIC

Sandii Castleberry Daigh, guitarist/vocalist, attended Idyllwild Arts (ISOMATA) as a high school music student in the 1970’s. She has been teaching children’s music at Family Camp and the Multiarts program since 2003. Sandii has a Masters Degree in Holistic and Integrative Education. She taught 2nd and 3rd grade in Irvine for 7 years, and is a 15-year veteran roster artist for Segerstrom’s Center for the Arts in Orange County, performing American music assemblies and teaching workshops in elementary schools throughout Southern California. Sandii has released 4 music CDs and performs a variety of musical genres in restaurants, libraries, community events and festivals.

Paul Nickels: BA in Piano Performance from California State University, Hayward. Spent 20 years teaching piano full time in Las Vegas, independently and with Nevada School of the Arts. He continues to teach in Las Vegas while developing Suzuki Music Education in southern Utah. Currently, he is active in music production with St. George Musical Theater.

Matthew Pedregon: Bachelor of Music Education; Bachelor of Music in Piano Pedagogy from New Mexico State University, Orff Level 2 certified. He is currently the elementary music specialist at Dry Creek Elementary which is part of Cherry Creek Public Schools in the Denver metro area, a position he previously held at Columbia Elementary School in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He has maintained a piano studio of students ages 5 to adult for the past 10 years. He is past president of the New Mexico chapter of the American Orff-Schulwerk association.

Laura Spitzer: Associate Professor of Piano, New Mexico State University. Completed her undergraduate studies at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria where she was awarded the Bösendorfer Stipend and graduated with distinction. She earned her Master’s Degree with Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Institute. The recipient of four touring grants from the Nevada State Council of the Arts and the Nevada Humanities Committee. She was honored with the 1986 Nevada Governor’s Arts Award. Her students have won competitions such as the state level MTNA (collegiate division), and the El Paso Symphony Guild Concerto Competition (high school division).

Janisa Tharp began piano instruction at age 2 with her father, Suzuki-trained instructor Paul Nickels, and later studied with Muriel Adler. Piano performance major at the Las Vegas Academy of International Studies, Performing and Visual Arts under Mary Straub, Participated in numerous competitions including the Clark County School District Solo and Ensemble Piano Festival and the Bolognini Scholarship Competition. Received training at several Suzuki Institute classes with Cleo Brimhall and Dr. Haruko Kataoka. 

THEATRE
Cynthia Bangert is an improviser, actor, and teaching artist native to Chicago. She earned a BFA in Theatre from the Univerisity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has studied improv at iO (formerly Improv Olympic), One Group Mind and Second City. She performs regularly at iO, the Mayne Stage and throughout the Midwest. She works as a teaching artist with the Chicago Children’s Theatre. For the past three years she has worked with the Red Kite Project, a multi-sensory theatrical experience for children with autism. She writes and performs with The Other Other Guys, a Chicago based sketch comedy group that loves fake blood and cardboard props 

David Bauman: (SAG, AFTRA, AEA) earned his MFA from UCLA. Originally from Wisconsin, David is an actor, director, and children’s book author now living in Los Angeles. He has written and directed several serials for Sacred Fool’s Theater’s Late Night Crime Scene. He has worked with the Blank Theater Company’s Young Playwrights’ Festival and directed for their Living Room Series. He has worked with The Blank, Sacred Fools, the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, Evidence Room Theater, and Buzzworks Theater companies in classic and contemporary productions. Bauman has taught acting at UCLA, for StageCoach Schools and at CrossRoads in Santa Monica. He has written interactive children’s books for Golden Books in Wisconsin and Meredith Publishing in Iowa, and hopes to publish his own collection of children’s poetry, Tales From Bedside Manor.

Laura Carson: (SAG, AFTRA, AEA) has been working as a professional actress for the past 20 years. She holds a BA in Theatre & Speech from the College of William and Mary. She was an 88’–89’ apprentice in the Acting Apprenticeship Program at Actors Theatre of Louisville under the direction of Jon Jory and Bob Krakower. In NYC, she completed the Meisner program at Gately/Poole Acting Studio and performed in several Off-Off Broadway and regional theatre productions. She also had two of her original plays produced there. In Los Angeles she worked on many commercial, film and TV projects, the highlights of which include Bruce Almighty, Grey’s Anatomy, Gilmore Girls and Marshall Herskovitz’s internet series Quarterlife. Over the years she has taught improv, sketch comedy and digital film-making to kids. 

Donna Simone Johnson (AEA, AGVA) is earning her MFA in Acting  from CalArts. Dance training and company work include the Debbie Allen Studio, the E.D.G.E. Performing Arts Center, and Lula Washington Dance Theate.Acting credits include work atUnion Square, The Pantages, REDCAT, Wilshire Ebell, the Royal George, Theatricum Botanicum and the regional tours of Life Without parole by Warren Doody, and High School Musical 2. Television and film credits include x High School Musical 2 & 3, You Got Served, Honey, and Take It To The Street, For One Night, Controlled, Shank, and the acclaimed film Deddon, which was selected by the 2009 LA Film Festival. Awards  include the CA Arts Scholar Award, 3 NAACP ACT-SO awards for best acting, original choreography and dance ensemble, as well as a NAACP Theater nomination Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992. She currently is a member of DV8 Physical Theater Troupe, Theatricum Botanicum, and Urban Theater Movement, all companies based in Los Angeles. 

Tim Labor: Ph.D. in music composition, UCSD and currently a faculty member in the UC Riverside Dept. of Music. A composer and sound designer whose theatre recognitions include an Ovation nomination for sound design for John DeGroot’s Papa and the 2008 LA Weekly Award for small theatre sound design for Sacred Fools’ Swine Show. Recent credits include Flu Season, and Love/Sex (Circle-X Theatre Company), Sex and Imagining and Beaverquest (Sacred Fools), Travesties, Papa, and the world premier of Frank Zappa’s rock opera Joe’s Garage (Open Fist Theatre Company), Holy Mother of Hadley New York and Fubar (Theatre of Note), Lie of the Mind (Studio-Five Productions),Blomidon: tone poem with sound design (Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra), Olivia (Mira Costa Symphony). Tim is a member of the Society of Composers and Lyricists, the Canadian Electroacoustic Community and the Game Manufacturer’s Association.

Johanna McKay: (AEA, SAG, AFTRA) has directed and written adaptations of Shakespearean plays for young teens and has taught acting to children for over sixteen years. She teaches drama during the year for PS Arts in Los Angeles. She earned her BFA in acting from The Theatre School, DePaul University (Sarah Siddons Award), and her MFA from UCLA (Jack Nicholson Award). Her acting credits include work at the Steppenwolf, The Goodman, Dallas Theatre Center, San Jose Repertory Theatre and the Hollywood Bowl. She’s been nominated for an Ovation and Los Angeles Weekly Best Actress awards and won the Santa Barbara Independent Theatre Award for her performance as Gwendolyn in The Importance of Being Earnest (Rubicon Theatre) and a Dramaloque Award for Mary Barnes (The Odyssey). Film/TV credits include Grey’s Anatomy, Malcolm in the Middle, Mr. 3000, The Babe, and The Bernie Mac Show. Johanna’s adaptation of As You Like It” has been published by Playscripts, Inc.

Michael McLean: BA in Music Education from Eastern Illinois University in 1981. Michael has completed two levels of Kodaly Training and taught several music methods survey courses for the Los Angeles Unified School District Teacher Intern Program. He presently serves as a peer coach for the elementary music teachers in the LA Unified district. Before he began his teaching career, Michael recorded and toured with a Los Angeles based country band, The Lonesome Strangers from 1984–1991. This is his sixteenth year of teaching with the Los Angeles Unified School District. He is currently working at Parmelee Avenue Elementary and Liberty Boulevard Elementary.

Shaun Michael McNamara is the owner and artistic director of the All Puppet Players. He has been a puppeteer for five years but has been performing with puppets for over fifteen years. He has performed professionally with Disney as the voice and puppeteer of “Crush” from Finding Nemo, and “Donkey” from the Shrek films with Universal Studios. His group the All Puppet Players perform original works written by Shaun to sold out audiences in Orange County.

Linda Miller: Currently the Drama Specialist at Los Encinos School in Encino. For over twenty-five years, she has been a member of We Tell Stories, and has been entertaining and educating children by bringing stories to life through a blend of storytelling and audience participatory theatre as well as working in the classroom with teachers and students using improvisation and storytelling techniques to turn stories into plays. She served as program facilitator/staff coordinator for Dramatic Results, an art therapy program that focuses on at-risk children in the Long Beach Public School system. As an actress, Linda has performed throughout Los Angeles at such theaters as South Coast Rep, The Met Theatre, Sacred Fools, The Coast Playhouse and Circle X Theatre Co. Her film and Television credits include 17 Again, Grey’s Anatomy, Without a Trace, Carnivale, Better Luck Tomorrow and Turner and Hooch.

Felice Moskowitz: brings over 30 years of teaching experience to Idyllwild. Her extensive experience in choreography includes her work in The Wiz, Music Man, Once on this Island, Guys and Dolls, and Footloose. She is past board member of the International Network for Performing and Visual Arts Schools, and Dance chair for the Oregon Board of Physical Education. Currently Felice teaches at the Arts and Communication Magnet Academy, and is assistant director of Dance West, a pre-professional training company.

Laurel Ollstein: is an award winning, published playwright with a production record in major cities all over the country. She penned a one-woman play Laughter, Hope and a Sock in the Eye, nominated for Best One Person show by theLA Weekly. Most recently it was produced by the Theatre/Drama Committee of the National Arts Club, in New York. She was one of the original members of Tim Robbins’ theatre company The Actors’ Gang. She wrote the book to the musical OPA! nominated for 14 awards at the midtown theatre festival in NYC. Her critically acclaimed play Showing Our Age was produced in Los Angeles at Inside the Ford theatre. Other plays produced around the country include:Anatomy of A Brain Injury, Bias Cut, Insomniac, Pot Roast, Cheese, Blackwell’s Corner, Esther’s Moustache, The Dark Ages and Dorothy Parker Is In The Bath. Her screenplay Stress is currently under option. She received the Faith Broome Playwright In Residence for 2012 at the University of Oklahoma where they will be producing her new playThey Promised Her the Moon. She holds an MFA from UCLA in playwriting and has held teaching positions at CalArts, UCLA, LMU, UC Redlands, UC San Bernardino and OTIS.

Jennifer Pennington: is a professional actress and Teaching Artist currently working with P.S.Arts, Idyllwild Arts, Eastla Classic Theatre and Inside Out Community Arts. She is very grateful to be given the opportunity to teach children the art form that changed her life when she was young. She holds a BFA from The University of Michigan and a MFA from the International Actor Training Academy at the University of Tennessee, where she worked with directors and instructors from Poland, Hungary, Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Scotland and France. Jennifer has done some film and television work, however, her true passion is theatre. She has been in several different theatre and improv companies from Michigan to California. Her Los Angeles theatre credits include productions with South Coast Repertory, Theatre Banshee, Syzygy Theatre Ensemble, The Openfist Theatre and The Elephant Theatre.

VISUAL ARTS

David Delgado is a mixed media Sculptor/Potter who has been working in ceramics for seven years, where his focus in clay has been on both the hand-built and wheel-thrown object. Having recently received his BFA in Sculpture from California College of the Arts, David lives and works in Oakland California where he has a sculpture/pottery studio for his mixed media practice. This will be David’s sixth year working for the Idyllwild Arts Summer Program.

Linda Fuller: Otis Arts Institute, BA, Antioch University; Center for Early Education, Early Childhood Degree, Arts Specialist: Midtown, Westland, Los Encinos, Center for Early Education, Crossroads Elementary, integrating art into social studies curricula and creating scene designs, masks, and murals for the theater and music programs; Hollywood High School (Innovative Education Program); Barnsdall Junior Arts Center. Consultant: Melrose Avenue School, Valley Country School. Children’s mural from Crossroads Elementary used in the film, I Am Sam, starring Sean Penn. Currently: art consultant/specialist elementary school workshops and museums: New York, Florida, San Francisco, Los Angeles. Exhibited masks and batiks, Art Gallery, New York; Hanna Sushi, Venice, California; Private commission: sculpture for film, The Promise. 

Stanley Goldstein: BA from UC Santa Barbara, College of Creative Studies; Fellowship Yale Summer School of Music and Art. Stanley has taught painting classes at the San Francisco Art Institute, UC Santa Barbara, San Francisco City College, the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, and the Central California Arts League in Modesto. Represented by George Billis Gallery in New York City and Los Angeles. He has had solo exhibitions in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. He had a solo exhibition at George Billis Gallery, LA, in September 2009 and at George Billis Gallery, NY in March 2010. His first solo museum show was held in March 2011 at the Triton Museum in Santa Clara, California. His work is in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Fine Arts Museum.

Valerie Ann Gordon: MA, Art Education, Cal State, Northridge. She currently teaches as an Art Specialist, K–6th grade, at Los Encinos Elementary School in Encino, CA, where she works closely with classroom teachers integrating social studies and class themes into art projects. In the summer of 2004, she was the summer art and music camp director for the Los Encinos Elementary School. In 2001 she was nominated for the BRAVO Award for Excellence in art education. She is also a past presenter for the California Association of Independent Schools, Los Angeles.

Shaunna Friemoth Lehr: BA in Photography, Brooks Institute. Shaunna began her training in film based photography before moving into the relm of digital photography. Shaunna’s background includes work in both artistic and commercial photography. In addition to her training in the fundamentals of traditional photography Shaunna has accumulated extensive experience in Photoshop, Dream Weaver and Final Cut Pro. While studying at Brooks she was selected to intern with the Santa Barbara Seasons magazine, and her work was published in the winter 2009 edition. Shaunna currently works full time as a photographer doing both freelance photography and running a commercial studio specializing in portrait work. 

Helene Lohr: is a professional artist, illustrator, and graphic designer based out of Idyllwild, CA. Her art reveals her love of the beauty of patterns in nature with a personal and unique take on the styles and techniques of the masters. Her pieces convey the joy, peace and exuberance that one can find in nature. She has shown throughout the United States and Europe. More information: windwoodstone.com. 

Bruce McMenamin: Director of Children’s Center. BA in Art: Sculpture, SDSU. Sculptor, Graphic Designer, Photographer, Arts Administrator. He has held numerous positions during his 40+ years at Idyllwild Arts, including student services, arts faculty and administration.

Carrie Meeker: BA in Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley; MA Linguistics, UC Santa Barbara. Carrie returns to her sixth year at Idyllwild, bringing along her experience working with a variety of media including ceramics, watercolors, photography, fiber arts, and the written word. Her work in visual arts have received recognition and awards in public exhibitions.

Jim Morford: Digital Media Arts and Multimedia instructor at Cerro Coso Digital Animation Academy, using Adobe Flash, 3ds max and Adobe Photoshop. He began his graphics career creating the AniMax computer graphics system and has designed graphics and facilities for the environmental field and contributes to the development of the Away3D rendering engine and the Blender 3D authoring environment. Jim directs VisualInertia, a studio creating digital, 2D and 3D interactive content for animation and game design and development.