Andrea del Moral: Co-Director
Andrea del Moral’s family crossed the border from Spain via the Panama Canal about 100 years ago and via Mexico in 1941; other ancestors came from England at an unknown, long ago time. Her spirit was raised by the Pacific Northwest. She has been producing original dance and theatre in the Bay Area and Urbana, Illinois since 2003. The most recent was AquaTown: a future hydrohistory (2010), supported by the Urbana Arts Grant. She cofounded Change of State Performance Project in 2005, and also works with Jessica Ferris Productions and the water underground. Her performances are informed by improvisation, clowning, experiential anatomy, and a vision of deep social transformation. She works with Catalyst Project mentoring, raising money, and facilitating generative somatics. Andrea begins an MFA in theatre/dance at UC-Davis in fall of 2012.
Olivia Levins Holden: Co-director
Olivia Levins Holden is a Puerto Rican, European, Jewish Minnesotan residing in Oakland California. She is an artist, muralist, oral historian, life student and story teller. Her connection to her own family and ancestry inspired her choice to graduate from Smith College with a degree in history/ radical and community histories. She has been exploring the power of storytelling as liberation since her childhood participation in youth political theater, and has extended this into her work with Frank Theater, Mama Mosaic, the BFUU Oral History Project, collaborative mural projects, her work with the Data Center, and work with youth in Oakland. olivialevinsholdenart.weebly.com
Karen ‘Muki’ Villanueva: Performer
Karen ‘Muki’ Villanueva was born in the province of Negros Occidental, Philippines. She and her parents migrated to the U.S. when she was less than 5 months old. Her migration story is intimately linked with her decolonization journey, and she believes wholeheartedly that the ancient practice of storytelling is a political act, a healing act that reminds us that we are all absolutely connected. She is ever grateful for ALL her relations—near and far, especially her family of origin—parents, Samuel & Adelina and sisters, Katherine & Samantha. She also offers deep gratitude to Leny Strobel, Susan Quimpo, and angel Kyodo williams, whose bodies of work have informed, inspired, and incited her to wholeness. (Up)rooted is her theatrical debut.
Rico Kleinstein Chenyek: Performer
Rico Kleinstein Chenyek is of Quechua/Chinese Peruvian, Colombian and Ashkenazi Jewish German and Lithuanian/Russian ancestry and is 2nd generation Bay Area-born. They are a recent graduate from Pomona College where they majored in Chican@ and Latin@ Studies focusing on Xicana/Latina-indígena healing philosophies. He has practiced danza MeXica first with Danzantes del Sol (Ontario, CA) and most recently with Cetiliztli Nauhcampa In Xochitl In Cuicatl in Ixachitlan (Berkeley, CA) for the past 3 years. She is currently on a year-off preparing for an MD/PhD program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where she will continue to develop her interests in the intersections between Third World Feminist and biomedical healing philosophies.
Veronica Haro: Performer
Veronica Haro is a member of Kairos Theater Ensemble which uses two main modalities of Theater: Playback Theater and Theatre of the Oppressed. She is a graduate of the movement-based expressive arts program at Tamalpa Institute and continues to collaborate with core faculty member G. Hoffman Soto. During the school year, she is blessed to work at Lighthouse Community Charter School teaching improvisational theater, various storytelling modalities, and playwriting. Her current project with the youth is La Guerra Cultural: A Culture Clash exploring the students’ family migration stories. Lastly, she would like to send a note of love and gratitude to Jesus Solorio for...so much.
Jeff Conant: Performer
Jeff Conant is Ukrainian Jewish Irish English New Yorkish New Englandish Californian, a writer of books essays and articles on ecology, social justice, international equity and development. He lives with his partner and four-year old daughter in Oakland and loves how food, music, gardening and theater bring us back to our ancient origins every time.
Carol Ann Amour: Performer
Carol Ann Amour is a writer/editor, actor/director, storyteller, and educator who has been on a journey of peace and healing for as long as she can remember. She is the director of TheatreWorks! In Berkeley and, before moving here in 2010, was the director of Native Roots, an intergenerational theatre collective based on the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe Indian reservation in north central Wisconsin. Her through-line has always been racial, social, and environmental justice. She did graduate work in theatre at Northwestern University and was the editor of Incite/Insight, the e-zine of The American Association of Theatre and Education.