Erin Soares, Conservatory Administrator

Erin Soares serves as Conservatory Administrator of Pacific Resident Theatre Youth Conservatory and Production Manager of Pacific Resident Theatre. She is an alumna of the USC School of Dramatic Arts and the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences where she graduated with a double major in Theatre and Italian. During her time at USC, Erin worked on sets as part of the technical production staff and volunteered as Assistant Director of Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play. She also worked at the Lula Washington Dance Theatre, where she worked to facilitate an International Dance Conference, as well as many other events and projects.

Susan Angelo

SUSAN ANGELO has performed Shakespeare and other classical plays regionally at such theatres as The Shakespeare Theatre; Pittsburgh Playhouse; Indiana Rep; Syracuse Stage; American Players Theatre; New York Workshop; Signature Theatre; William Inge Theatre; in Los Angeles at A Noise Within, where she is a resident artist, and at Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum, where she began her love of the Bard as an ingénue, and remains a resident artist, and served as the Education Director for many years.

As a teacher, Susan specializes in techniques of scansion and rhetoric, helping actors of all ages “hear” and “play” the music that Shakespeare wrote. She has conducted Shakespeare workshops at countless elementary and secondary schools, as well as at colleges and universities, including California Lutheran University (where she is an adjunct professor, receiving the 2019 Teaching Excellence Award from the College of Arts and Sciences); USC, NYU, Claremont Graduate School and The American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Ms. Angelo recently directed Barbarians at USC,Shakespeare’s Women:Loss & Reconciliation (which she also adapted) for Warriors For Peace; and the hit show I Am Sophie at The Pico Playhouse and at Pacific Resident Theatre. Other directing includes The Chalk Garden; The Royal Family; Twelfth Night; A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the LA premiere of My Name is Rachel Corrie at Theatricum Botanicum; the critically acclaimed multi-ethnic A Midsummer Nights Dream at Shakespeare Orange County; and Twelfth Night and Winters Tale at The Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival in Thousand Oaks.

Susan works steadily in television, commercials and film. Recent credits include guest starring on How To Get Away With Murder; recurring on Bosch; and as Liza’s mother on Liza On Demand! Susan has a BFA from California Institute of the Arts; an MFA from George Washington University and teaches Shakespeare at her private studio, on the westside as well as on-line! (www.susanangelostudio.com).

Marwa Bernstein

Marwa has been a professional performer for most of her life, first as a ballet dancer and second as an actor. She moved to LA from New York and is so happy to be making her home here.

She has been a proud member of PRT since 2013, and is so thankful to have found her artistic home.

She has always had a love for teaching and has taught acting, movement and dance at HB Studios, Lee Strasburg Institute (NYC), New Roads School, SOCAPA (LA) and The New York Film Academy (NYC, Princeton, and Florence, Italy), Citizens of the World Charter School, and ASTEME Learning Center.

Her LA credits include TV/Film: 13 Reasons Why, Two and a Half Men, The Stand at Paxton County, the Dixie Chicks’ Grammy award-winning video, “Not Ready to Make Nice,” Charlie Wilson’s War, Blind Spot with Sally Kirkland, and Love, Wedding, Marriage (Dermot Mulroney, Dir.); and Theatre: Much Ado about Nothing at La Jolla Playhouse, Cigarettes and Chocolate at Pacific Resident Theatre (by Anthony Minghella) and The Homecoming, The Dorothy Parker Project, also at PRT, and Oppenheimer with Rogue Machine Theatre.

New York credits include Performance at Here for the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, Emilia Galotti at BAM, Zenobia (World Premiere) for Princeton Summer Stage, Edward II for The Queen’s Company, 3D World at the New York International Fringe Festival, the Off-Broadway productions of Necropolis and Artists and Anglers, the NYC Lysistrata Project and Aquila Theatre’s A Very Naughty Greek Play.

As a dancer Marwa has performed with The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Lincoln Center, Ballet Ireland, Lexington Ballet and the Opening Ceremonies of the 98 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, among others. In 2001, she and her sister, Bobby, were the only two Americans chosen to dance in a gala performance at the Lincoln Center with Rika Yu Oriental Ballet.

Marwa has been a guest artist and or worked with such notable individuals as Gelsey Kirkland, Melissa Hayden, Maria Tallchief, Diana Cartier, Wes Chapman, Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Belotserkovsky. Some of Marwa’s favorite dance roles include: Giselle in Giselle, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Firebird in Firebird, Sugarplum Fairy Nutcracker, Marie Taglioni Pas De Quatre and the soloist role in Trey McIntyre’s Square One.

In addition to performing, and teaching, Marwa is also a choreographer, and has choreographed shows most recently for PRT, Rogue Machine Theatre, and various Off-Broadway productions.

She studied acting at HB Studios, primarily with Rose Arrick (who was also her mentor and coach until her death in 2008) and Austin Pendleton, and in Los Angeles with Jeffery Brooks and Sally Kirkland. Her formal dance training began in Cape Town, South Africa, with Yvonne Adkins, formerly of the Royal Academy in London. Her training in the United States began at the School of the Chicago City Ballet, where she was a trainee with the company and continued at the Salt Creek Ballet and in the trainee program with the Joffrey Ballet.

Marwa was home-schooled through high school and attended Sarah Lawrence College.

Her best achievement to date, however, is her daughter Luciana, with husband David.

The Chameleons: Sharon Diskin & Keith Berger

Highly acclaimed mime duo Keith Berger and Sharon Diskin have performed together since 1985 delighting a wide range of concert audiences throughout the world. Noted for their exciting performance style and professional discipline, Sharon and Keith have been enthusiastically received by audiences and critics alike at theatre venues ranging from New York City’s, La Mama, to L.A.’s, Disney Concert Hall, from the world renown Edinburgh Arts Festival in Scotland to world cruises that have brought them to such far reaching places as Romania, Istanbul, and The Ukraine. Keith and Sharon spent several weeks in China where they performed and taught classes to young adults that culminated in a stunning performance at the Macau Cultural Center. Since 1990 The Chameleons have been two of the most popular and in demand artists touring for the L.A. Music Center and The Segerstrom Center for the Performing Arts. Keith & Sharon have made numerous TV appearances in the U.S. and Great Britain including several appearances on various PBS educational programs.

Gifted teachers as well as performers, Berger & Diskin have taught workshops and master classes in Physical Theatre and Mime throughout the U.S., including Cornell University, The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, The Disney Animation Studios and at hundreds of schools throughout Southern California. They’ve also taught physical theatre workshops in England, France and China. Keith and Sharon were honored with the PASA award for their excellence as professional artists in the schools, which was presented by the County of Los Angeles, California Arts Council, and the California Department of Education. They are both Master Teaching Artists with The L.A. Music Center and The Segerstrom Center for the Performing Arts. Keith and Sharon are married and reside in Los Angeles, California where they raised their two children, Gideon and Allegra.

Bryan Chesters

(SAG-AFTRA-AEA-AGVA) –  grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, IL.  He has performed on stage and screen in Chicago, NYC and Los Angeles. He received both his BA (Music) and MFA (Theater) from UCLA (Magna cum laude).   He has taught acting at UCLA, YPS Studio, LA School of the Arts, Arts Camp & LAUSD.  Some of his private coaching’s include Nathan Kress ( iCarly), Chad Broskey; Skye Townsend (Lucifer); Laura Long (TURN); and Lexi Ainsworth(Congract role & Emmy Winner on General Hospital).

He interned at UDK Casting for two years and served as both an audition reader as well as running camera for auditions.  He has studied with some of the best acting teachers in the country including:  Bobby Lewis (Founder of the Actor’s Studio & original member of the Group Theatre), Mel Shapiro, Salome Jens, Ellen Geer, Gil Cates, Jean-Louis Rodrigue, Larry Moss,Terry Schreiber, Ken Lerner, Tom Irwin, Jeff Perry, Shannon Cochran, Gar Campbell, Marilyn Fox.  He is the recipient of several acting awards including scholarships from Carol Burnett, George Burns and Laura Pels; LA MOVIE Awards Best Actor for his performance in FORERUNNER.

Recent TV/Film acting credits include:  LESS THAN ZERO (Pilot); WAR DOGS; MAD MEN (Dir. Jon Hamm), MODERN FAMILY, ANGER MANAGEMENT, Grey’s Anatomy (Dir. Jeannot Szwarc), A Lesson in Love (Starring Kristy Swanson) & Jet Set (Starring Eric Roberts).

He currently resides in LA where he’s a company member of Pacific Resident Theater in Venice, CA; Theater includes plays by Shakespeare (Hamlet), Williams (The Glass Menagerie) and Chekov (The Cherry Orchard) to name but a few.  Some of his favorite roles include:  Eddie (Hurly Burly), Charles (The Clean House), Oed (Big Love) and Millet/Binky (Fuddy Meers).  A true triple threat he has played the Gene Kelly role in Singin’ in the Rain at two different regional theaters. (Art Park-NY, Glendale Theater, CA).  Broadway Tours include: 1st National Sunset Boulevard (Dir. Trevor Nunn)  and 42nd Street-European (Dir. Jon Engstrom).  As a director he worked alongside Mel Shapiro and assisted him on ANGELS IN AMERICA: Parts One and Two. He also adapted, produced and directed the 25th Anniversary Production of ST. ELMO’S FIRE  at the Flight Theatre in Hollywood, CA.

Moses Norton

Moses Norton is a physical theatre artist, actor, director, acrobat, theater creator, and community-based arts facilitator. He graduated with an MFA in Ensemble-Based Physical Theatre from the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre, completed a year of Lecoq based physical theatre training at Estudis Berty Tovias in Barcelona Spain, and studied, Acting Physicality, Clown, and Improvisation at UC Santa Cruz.

Since graduating from Dell’Arte he has co-founded and toured nationally with UpLift Physical Theatre based in San Francisco, Performed and created original content as a clown and acrobat for the LA Opera’s Pagliacci, choreographed and soloed in the LA Jazz Band Burning Ghosts’ latest music video Defiance, as well as currently freelancing as an actor, director, stunt coordinator, and fight choreographer for stage and film. He is also currently working with the critically acclaimed LA based physical theatre company Not Man Apart acting and creating in their last year’s devising project Paradise Lost: Reclaiming Destiny.

As a director Moses most recently directed Chambeando in collaboration with The Frida Kahlo Theatre and The Pasadena Community Job Center, he has also directed Physical Comedy for The Servant of Two Masters as an Adjunct instructor for Sacramento City College and this past August won the “Judged Choice Award” for his Direction of Aprender a Caer at the Stella Adler Short and Sweet Latino Theatre Festival. Furthermore Moses continues to teach workshops for and devise immersive theatrical events with his own emerging theatre troupe Fiasco Physical Theatre having recently staged Hint! A Commedia Masked Murder Mystery in collaboration with the Idyllwild Arts Academy. Moses is currently directing Historias Del Rio with Teatro Jornalero Sin Fronteras opening June 29th at The Autry Museum of The American West.

As a teaching artist Moses has worked as an Adjunct movement instructor for the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre. In Los Angeles, at The Frida Kahlo Theatre, he is moving into his third year of bilingual teaching and directing, leading physical acting and mask craft intensives. He also teaches physical theatre, games, and innovative fitnesswith Not Man Apart’s Educational outreach program. In Lynnwood he partners with the B.R.I.D.G.E. Theatre Project, facilitating intensive playwriting and acting programs collaborating with an awesome team of children, professional artists and community members. Moses also partners with the Plaza de La Raza in Lincoln Heights where, in exchange for studio space for his Company Fiasco PhysicalTheatre, he teaches mask making and physical theatre workshops to the community.

Ellen Schulze

Ellen Schulze began her theatre training as a mime, but her interest was captured by miniature performers that can speak and move only when she helps them.  These magical performers are puppets.  Since 1986, Schulze has worked exclusively in puppet theatre.  Her experience reflects almost every variety of puppets that can be imagined, including hand puppets, mask and rod puppets, Bunraku, shadow puppets and marionettes.  Her work with the Great Arizona Puppet Theatre of Phoenix included performances in both solo and company puppet shows, as well as conducting workshops in the design, construction, scripting, and performance techniques of puppet theatre.

She has performed at schools, festivals, preschools, and private parties. Schulze studied at University of Nevada/Las Vegas with an emphasis in Special Education, and trained professionally at Chabot University of Mime,Hayward, California.  She studied privately at the Mime and Mask Theater under mime artist Richmond Shepard, and has worked professionally as a mimesince 1978.  She has conducted workshops funded by the Arizona Arts in Education program and for Arizona Commission on the Arts.  She has created and performed puppet shows fororganizations as disparate as the Desert Botanical Garden in Arizona and city water departments throughout the state.  Ellen came to California at the special request of Jim Gamble, who was Artistic Director and Founder of The Art of Puppets and Marionettes.  She has been leading classes for the company since 1992.