Eight Contributors Be part of the Group That Prepares and Helps Excellence in Rising Leaders 

Heart Theatre Group is continuous its mission to uplift, have fun, and assist early- and mid-career workers members at Los Angeles’ largest theatre firm by deciding on its latest cohort of workers who determine as BIPOC, in addition to people from intersectional and marginalized identities. The newest cohort, which began in December 2022 and can run by way of July 2023, contains eight members from throughout 4 completely different departments at Heart Theatre Group.  

“The CTG Management Circle explores what it means to be an arts chief right this moment and celebrates the leaders of the longer term,” defined Heart Theatre Group’s Schooling and Group Partnerships Program Supervisor Aurora Ilog, who’s this system lead for the CTG Management Circle. “These hour-long periods enable members of our workers to have the area to domesticate and navigate their particular person profession journeys. From studying what it means to develop sturdy groups, figuring out elements to a shared management mannequin and cultivating their very own distinctive management type, the CTG Management Circle creates an area for employees to develop as leaders in their very own regard and inside our group.” 

This newest cohort of the CTG Management Circle contains Keana Jackson Alfred (Ticket Gross sales and Companies), Eduardo Fernandez-Baumann (Manufacturing), Beonica Bullard (Manufacturing), Jessica Doherty (Communications), Raul Vega Martinez (Manufacturing), Joey Solano (Info Expertise), Angelene Storey (Manufacturing), and Zane Wayneright (Manufacturing).

The CTG Management Circle was created to attach collaborating workers members to facilitated group periods targeted on constructing expertise in arts administration management. Contributors additionally interact in further one-on-one and small-group networking alternatives, from informational interviews to topic-based periods on every little thing from private monetary administration to connecting with CTG Board members to find out about their commitments and obligations. As well as, every member is given further entry to skilled improvement.

“With the ability to expose members within the CTG Management Circle to not solely the significance of growing one’s personal genuine management type it doesn’t matter what place they lead from, but in addition giving them an introduction to the worth of government teaching earlier on of their inventive careers has been a full circle skilled spotlight for me,” shared Elena Muslar, Chief Empowerment Workplace and Founding father of Confide Inventive who facilitates the weekly group periods and conducts particular person mid-point check-ins with the cohort. “The importance of this program is unveiled with every participant’s deeper discovery and exploration into who they’re, will be, or need to enable themselves to step totally into at work. I at all times are inclined to say skilled improvement is private improvement. You may’t develop one from a spot of intentionality with out the opposite. It’s the boldness one builds in understanding the dialog between the 2 that actually prepares them for his or her subsequent part.”

Heart Theatre Group, one of many nation’s preeminent arts and cultural organizations, is Los Angeles’ main not-for-profit theatre firm, which underneath the management of Managing Director / CEO Meghan Pressman and Producing Director Douglas C. Baker, and in collaboration with the 4 Affiliate Creative Administrators, Lindsay Allbaugh, Tyrone Davis, Neel Keller, and Kelley Kirkpatrick, applications seasons on the 736-seat Mark Taper Discussion board and 1,600 to 2,100-seat Ahmanson Theatre at The Music Heart in Downtown Los Angeles, and the 317-seat Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver Metropolis. Along with presenting and producing the broadest vary of theatrical leisure within the nation, Heart Theatre Group is among the nation’s main producers of formidable new works by way of commissions and world premiere productions and a pacesetter in interactive neighborhood engagement and education schemes that attain throughout generations, demographics, and circumstances to serve Los Angeles. Based in 1967, Heart Theatre Group was led by Founding Creative Director Gordon Davidson till 2005 when Michael Ritchie was the inventive director till his retirement in 2021; Snehal Desai has been appointed the group’s subsequent inventive director and can start in August of 2023. Heart Theatre Group has produced greater than 700 productions throughout its three levels, together with such iconic exhibits as “Zoot Swimsuit;” “Angels in America;” “The Kentucky Cycle;” “Biloxi Blues;” “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992;” “Youngsters of a Lesser God;” “Curtains;” “The Drowsy Chaperone;” “9 to five: The Musical;” and “Bengal Tiger on the Baghdad Zoo.” CenterTheatreGroup.org

BIOGRAPHIES (in alphabetical order):

Keana Jackson Alfred (she/her) is a 1st Assistant Treasurer at Heart Theatre Group and has been an arts administration skilled for over 10 years. As a field workplace treasurer for Los Angeles’s most distinguished theatre firm, she goals to work behind the scenes on behalf of artists and creatives in every single place, offering sources, assist, and construction for his or her tasks and practices. Keana fell in love with theatre as a toddler actor, and her ardour for storytelling developed right into a profession as a dressmaker for her namesake model of womenswear. She transferred her group and management expertise to arts administration earlier than working at Heart Theatre Group. She enjoys combining her zeal for the humanities, deep affection for folks, and experience in communication to serve and assist the theatre neighborhood regionally and globally. Her dedication to empowering the disempowered and rising generations has led to her ongoing work with the NAACP, The Piney Woods College, The Music Heart, and The World Stage performing arts area within the coronary heart of Leimert Park. On the core of Keana’s work on the stage and off is a perception within the energy of neighborhood and transformative storytelling. Keana, a Los Angeles native, enjoys writing every little thing from poetry to stage performs, making whipped shea butter, and gardening. She enjoys skydiving and touring along with her husband, whom she met on the Mark Discussion board. She at present lives within the Crenshaw/West Adams space of Los Angeles.

Eduardo Fernandez-Baumann (he/him) is the Store Coordinator at Heart Theatre Group. He manages CTG’s woodshop and warehouse whereas aiding with scenic and prop building. Earlier than taking the place of Store Coordinator, Eduardo labored on the Kirk Douglas Theatre as an assistant entrance of home supervisor, a chat again chief, a lead concierge, a carpenter, and an electrician. Outdoors of Heart Theatre Group, he has freelanced as a technical director and carpenter at many theatres within the L.A. space. He’s an L.A. County native and holds an MFA from The American Repertory Theatre at Harvard and a BFA from the College of California, Santa Barbara.

Beonica Bullard (she/they) is an Assistant Manufacturing Supervisor at Heart Theatre Group and has been knowledgeable stage supervisor for greater than eight years. She is an African American lady from southeast San Diego, California. She acquired a Bachelor of Arts in Theater (2017) from San Diego State College and graduated from the San Diego College of Inventive and Performing Arts. Previous to her time at CTG, she labored at numerous skilled theatre corporations and organizations together with The San Diego Repertory Theater, Moxie Theater Firm, Diversionary, Intrepid Shakespeare Firm, Playwrights Mission, and San Diego Comedian-Con. Her honors and highlights embrace a Certificates of Recognition in Creative Achievement from the California Legislature Meeting and her position because the Technical Director for the San Diego Comedian-Con Masquerade. First becoming a member of CTG in December of 2021, she has since co-led CTG’s BIPOC Affinity Area and is a member of CTG’s Accountability Group. In her spare time, Beonica enjoys hanging out along with her 9 cats, taking part in video video games, and sleeping.

Jessica Doherty (she/her) is the Affiliate Editorial Director of Heart Theatre Group. She oversees and produces CTG’s editorial content material concerning the establishment’s neighborhood work and season programming throughout three theatres for his or her web site, social media, and bodily Performances Journal. Outdoors of Heart Theatre Group, Jessica is a researcher with Hearst’s Alta Journal, a quarterly literary journal publication devoted to the tradition of the American West. She can also be a contributor for The Eastsider, the place she writes a e-newsletter that highlights restaurant and nightlife information and contains profiles on artists and personalities on the Eastside of Los Angeles. She is at present a 2023 Los Angeles Press Membership Foot within the Door Fellow and was a Nationwide Fellow Finalist of the Kennedy Heart’s Institute for Theater Journalism and Advocacy from the Los Angeles area. She is a former Govt Editor of Annenberg Media, and a former Managing Editor and later Editor-in-Chief of the digital arts publication Ampersand LA. Jessica graduated from the College of Southern California with a grasp’s diploma in Arts, Tradition & Leisure reporting in 2022 and bachelor’s levels in Journalism and Theatre in 2020. Although at present residing in Culver Metropolis, Jessica hails from New York Metropolis, the place she was knowledgeable actor and attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia Excessive College for Drama. dohertyjessica.com  

Raul Vega Martinez (he/him) is the Prop Carpenter at Heart Theatre Group and has been working as a carpenter in numerous capacities all through Los Angeles for the final seven years. Because the Prop Carpenter, Raul is accountable for constructing customized furnishings and prop items for productions throughout all three levels at Heart Theatre Group. Raul acquired a bachelor’s diploma in Drama from the College of California, Irvine and has pursued a profession as an actor, later growing an curiosity in carpentry. All through his profession as a carpenter, he has constructed numerous set items for productions at completely different schools round Los Angeles together with California State College, Northridge and American Musical Dramatic Academy. As his profession progressed, he has constructed set items for Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, Hulu, and touring Commerce Exhibits. Earlier than accepting his position at Heart Theatre Group, Raul specialised in making customized residential furnishings and was working in direction of making his personal furnishings enterprise tailor-made in direction of advantageous customized woodworking. Outdoors of Heart Theatre Group, Raul is an avid rock climber and alpinist, having made ascents within the Sierra Nevada Mountains in addition to native areas all through Southern California. His final climbing aim is to at some point climb Monte Fitz Roy in Patagonia.

Joey Solano (he/him) is the Digital Product Supervisor at Heart Theatre Group. He has over eight years of expertise as a digital advertising and marketing skilled supporting the performing arts. Because the Digital Mission Supervisor, it’s his ardour to bridge storytelling with the digital area by way of numerous channels resembling CTG’s web site. Previous to his time at CTG, he has managed advertising and marketing campaigns for over 300 reside and digital engagements together with musicals, Broadway headliners, dances, concert events, comedy, arts training, and neighborhood occasions. As a flutist, he has carried out on a few of L.A.’s most prestigious levels such because the Walt Disney Live performance Corridor and Hollywood Bowl, and within the orchestra pits of quite a few L.A. regional theatres and college productions. As an educator, he taught normal music, band, and choir in elementary faculties all through Santa Clarita, CA. Joey is an L.A. native and a graduate of California State College, Northridge.

Angelene Storey (she/her) is the Prop Coordinator at Heart Theatre Group. Her position is important to the success of a manufacturing, and requires a mixture of group, creativity, and a focus to element. She has a number of necessary duties, together with performing because the assistant to the Prop Lead, prop procuring, and scenic portray. In Spring of 2021, she graduated from California State College, Los Angeles with a bachelor’s diploma in Theatre Design and Manufacturing. She can also be a contract scenic painter and has labored in theaters throughout the Los Angeles space, together with Boston Court docket Pasadena, Sierra Madre Playhouse, and East West Gamers. Previous to working in technical theatre, Angelene studied classical voice and music principle for 4 years. She has at all times had a ardour for numerous points of artwork and theatre. In her spare time, she likes to journey, work on her small enterprise, and hang around along with her cat, Naboo.

Zane Wayneright (he/him) is the present Stage Supervisor on the Kirk Douglas Theatre. His profession within the arts started on the younger age of 16, when he was employed by way of Los Osos Excessive College’s theatre for theatrical and dance rental. Now, he has been a theatrical artist and technician for 15 years. Artwork and storytelling have at all times been a spotlight for Zane all through his life, and in newer years, he has explored the methods artwork and storytelling can be utilized as avenues for constructing neighborhood and the methods during which identification and socio-economic standing have an effect on the best way folks each obtain and inform their tales. After graduating from California State College, Lengthy Seashore with a BA in Technical Theatre and Design, Zane spent a number of years doing odd jobs resembling instructing folks to color in bars and eating places, all whereas freelancing as a manufacturing assistant and stagehand for Disney Stay Leisure on the El Capitan Theatre. After experiencing the fantastical purple carpets of Disney, he moved on to assist create the magical world of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge as a scenic installer and crew foreman at Adirondack Studios. Presently residing in Backyard Grove, Zane spends his free time streaming, hanging out along with his two happy-go-lucky huskies Zelda and Kipo, and exploring different types of artwork.