Los Medanos College Drama Staff includes some greatly talented teachers and artists. We have some old and new faces. Check us out:

Professor Nick Garcia (Department Chair) has worked extensively across the country as a teacher, actor, director, and designer.  He was recently the Artistic Director of Children’s Theatre Programming for the George Daily Auditorium, where he designed and oversaw the curriculum for the drama school as well as directed their summer season.  He has performed, directed, and designed for venues such as the National Conservatory Theatre Center in San Francisco, Pella Shakespeare Festival in Iowa, The Miner’s Union Theatre in Silverton Colorado, The George Daily Auditorium in Oskaloosa Iowa, and both the Iowa New Play and Fringe Festivals.  

In 2006 he won the IRAN award for best actor for his role as Eben in I am Montana.  In 2007 he was a company member in the Iowa Tent Theatre’s critically aclaimed Regional Tour of Standing Tall.   Nick has also designed the curriculum for multiple children’s theatres across the country and was nominated for the Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award by the University of Iowa student body.  He is a graduate of Adams State College in Colorado where he received his BA in Theatre.  In addition he holds the Master’s of Fine Arts Degree in Acting from the University of Iowa; where he was trained in Alexander, Meisner, Stanislavski, and Growtowski techniques, as well as mask, comedia del arte, mime, yoga, voice, dialects, and period styles.

Professor Joanna Perry-Folino has been fortunate to be a full time drama and English instructor at LMC for 18 years. Prior to that she taught elementary school in Long Beach, CA for 5 years. She was the Department Chair for Drama from 1994 through 2008, bringing a once dormant program back to life with a lot of help from colleagues, administrators and friends. Currently, she teaches both face to face and online courses at Los Medanos College. Joanna is a produced playwright, screenwriter, librettist and lyricist. Her 2008 short film, The Silence of Bees, (based on the prologue to her stage play of the same title) won the prestigious Accolade Film Award in 2008, an Aloha Accolade from the Honolulu International Film Festival in 2009 and was screened at the Southeast New England Film Festival, The Kodak Screening Room in Los Angeles by Women in Film in April 2009, and in 2010 at the Urban Suburban Film Festival in Philadelphia, The Naperville Independent Film Festival in Illinois where it was an Official Selection and The New York Independent International Film Festival. The full length stage version will be produced in New York City in 2012 and directed by acclaimed director Andrew Traister. Most recently her original romantic comedy screenplay Lila Loves Louie was a finalist in Suzanne DeLaurentis' Cinema City International Film Festival in Century City, CA and a WINNER at The 2009 Moondance International Film Festival in Boulder, Colorado. She is also an Associate Producer for the award-winning documentary, Leave Them Laughing, directed by Academy Award winner John Zaritsky which documents the life of Carla Zilbersmith as she bravely battles and eventually succumbs to ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Joanna is also an Associate Producer for the documentary Within Reach, which travels with two adventurous young people across the United States as they search for a home in a sustainable community.

Joanna is a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, The Los Angeles branch of Women In Film, The Dramatists Guild, Theatre West of Los Angeles, and The Academy for New Musical Theatre. She has produced over 15 plays in the San Francisco Bay area including The Laramie Project, Speed-the-Plow and The Vagina Monologues as well as many festivals of new plays. Her most successful endeavors, however, have been the connections she has made with students and friends throughout her life who inspire and motivate her to be creative and nurturing in order to help them in some small way to make their collective dreams come true.

Casy Cann has served as former Department Chair of the LMC Drama Department during 2008-2009. Her critically acclaimed production of Thomas Gibbon’s, Bee-Luther-Hatchee, brought professional artists together with LMC Drama students in November 2007. In 2008 Associate Professor Cann’s work on Neil Simon’s, Chapter Two, for The Mira Theatre Guild earned her multiple Arty Award nominations, including Best Director. Casy is also the Artistic Consultant to the Larkspur Café Theatre and is currently working on a number of different film projects. Her work in the professional community, as noted by membership in SSDC (Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers) SAG (Screen Actors Guild) and AFTRA (American Federation of Radio and Television Artists) brings depth and dimension to what she can offer young artists academically. Her production of The Vagina Monologues for the V-DAY Until the Violence Stops College Campaign was performed as a fundraiser for STAND! Against Domestic Violence. Three performances raised nearly $5,000 to fight domestic violence in Contra Costa County. Associate Professor Cann graduated from the highly acclaimed Actors Studio Drama School in May, 2004 (MFA, Directing). In New York, she directed--The Most Massive Woman Wins, Joined at the Head, Ghost World, and the World Premiere of Intermediate - at the WestBeth ASDS Theatre. A Bay Area native, Casy transferred from Contra Costa Community College to Mills College (Phi Beta Kappa), earning a B.A. in Drama, 2001. She teaches acting in a variety of styles, voice & speech, directing, film studies and academic drama courses here at LMC. She is also a member of the faculty for Solano Youth Theatre. Casy Cann holds fast to her belief that the performing arts really can transform lives.

Rob Addison has performed and directed across the country in such places as the Utah Shakespeare Festival, Laguna Playhouse, Summer Repertory Theater, Asolo Theater Company and the Centennial Theater Festival. Most recently he directed "The Comedy of Errors" for Antioch Classical Theater Company in the summer of 2007. He received the 1988 Winterfest Spotlight Award for acting which led to a guest spot on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Presently, he teaches at Union Catholic Regional High School and is an instructor and technical director for the Performing Arts Company in New Jersey. Rob holds a BA in drama from UC Irvine and an MFA in acting from Florida State University/ Asolo Conservatory. Born and raised in Southern California, Rob now resides in the winter, spring and fall in New Jersey with his wife and two sons. But in the summers, he lives in the East Bay and teaches an acting class for LMC and works with Sean ONeil at the Antioch Classical Theatre.

Susannah Martin: A award-winning director, teacher, and theatremaker, Susannah has taught and directed for organizations throughout the Bay Area.  For five years, she was the Joint Artistic Director of Paducah Mining Co., a San Francisco-based theatre ensemble that produced acclaimed work by established playwrights and devised original pieces on complex material such as domestic terrorism, spousal abuse, and poverty in America.  During her tenure with Paducah, she was awarded three Dean Goodman Choice Awards.  She has taught movement, voice, acting, and composition for California Shakespeare Theater for the past six years and directed several Shakespeare productions for their 5-week summer conservatory.  Susannah has also taught for Porchlight Theatre Company, UC Davis, St. Mary's College, the New Conservatory Theatre, and a variety of high schools throughout San Francisco and the East Bay.  Recent directing credits include: Shaw’s MRS. WARREN’S PROFESSION for the Shotgun Players, Ibsen's THE LADY FROM THE SEA at A.C.T.'s Professional Training Program, Luis Alfaro’s ELECTRICIDAD at Sacramento Theatre Company, THE FAITH PROJECT, an interdisciplinary theatre piece that went up to sold-out crowds at the Mondavi Performing Arts Center’s Studio Theater, and KING LEAR for the California Shakespeare Theater’s Summer Conservatory.  Susannah received her BFA in Theatre from NYU and her MFA in Directing from UC Davis.

Rick Tejada-Flores began working in television in 1969, in a minority training program at KQED's Newsroom. He worked as news-film editor for KGO, San Francisco, and went on to co-produce and co-direct Si Se Puede! for the United Farmworkers Union in 1973.

Tejada-Flores served as Unit Manager/Production Supervisor for KNBC in Burbank, and then as Coordinating Producer for the Latino Consortium at KCET in Los Angeles, where he was responsible for packaging and distributing the weekly series PRESENTE! to public television stations.

He produced Low 'N Slow, The Art of Lowriding, which aired as a special on PBS in 1984. Latino poets were profiled in Go Chanting, Libre, produced for KRCB (PBS) in 1985. Farmworkers and land reform in Honduras were the focus of ELVIA, The Fight for Land and Liberty, which aired in 1988 on PBS as part of the VISTAS series.

Rivera In America, a documentary on the work of the Mexican artist Diego Rivera in the United States, and Jasper Johns, Ideas In Paint, aired on the PBS series AMERICAN MASTERS. Rivera In America won Best Film for TV in the National Latino Film and Video Festival.

Tejada-Flores created Nuestros Hijos, a docu-drama on parenting and child abuse issues for migrant farmworkers, for the Office of Child Abuse Prevention of the State of California.

In 1992 he served as producer on the series The Great Depression. The same year he directed three films on Hispanic history and culture in New Mexico for the American Encounters exhibit, at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of American History in Washington, DC. Another three interpretive films on New Mexico history and culture were created for American Encounters in 1993. Tejada-Flores was awarded the 1990 James Phelan Award for Video, and a CINE Golden Eagle.

       
DOUGLAS H. DILDINE is a native Californian, born (and educated) in the Bay Area. His education includes honors and awards from the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco State University, where he earned his BA and MA. In order to support his educational pursuits, Doug has worked as an I.A.T.S.E. theatrical stagehand in local venues and on motion picture crews, through his acting and directing careers, as well as, penning several films most notably Black-Eyed Dogs and Hand  Of God.
 
Locally, Doug has acted, directed, designed, technically supported, and/or produced with the support and cooperation of: A.C.T., Benicia Old Town Theatre Guild, Berkeley Repertory, Berkeley Stage Co., Center Repertory, D.E.O. Ireland, Eureka Theatre, Magic Theatre, Old Chestnut Drama Guild, Role Players Ensemble, Town Hall Theatre Co, and The Willows Theater Co. He is the former artistic director of Town Hall Theatre Co, Martinez Repertory Co, DEO Ireland, the Rheem Ensemble – and the former production business manager of Center Rep.
 
Doug has performed improvisation with Paul Sills’ Story Theatre Co, The Committee and The Wing, and was a founding member of Now Appearing. He was also a street performer at The Cannery and Fisherman’s Wharf with The San Francisco City Clowns.
 
He is concurrently an adjunct professor of drama at Los Medanos College and at Diablo Valley College where he directed Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, A Bright Room Called Day and Death of a Salesman.
 
Doug feels blessed to live in Concord with his wife, Patricia and their twin girls, Kate & Emma, age two years old.

Barbara M. Norris is cofounder and Artistic Director of Solano Repertory Company located in Fairfield, Ca. She received her Master's Degree in Theatre (Directing Concentration, with distinction) from CSU Sacramento in 2003 and graduated from UC Davis in 1989 earning a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Theatre. She has served as interim faculty in theatre at CSUS, and currently teaches Acting and Improvisation for Solano College Theatre, as well as Multicultural Theatre for Los Medanos College. Barbara has been the recipient of numerous awards for her skills in acting and directing. Recent directing credits include The Baltimore Waltz and How I Learned to Drive, both by Paula Vogel, M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang, John Patrick Shanley's Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, and The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler.

Sean J. O’Neil has been adjunct theatre professor for Los Medanos College since 2001 where he’s directed shows such as Twelfth Night, Welcome to the Monkeyhouse, Barefoot in the Park, and the upcoming production of A Raisin in the Sun. He earned his BA in Drama from UC Irvine and MA in Theatre Directing from the Chicago College of Performing Arts. He has worked as Theatre Arts Director at Antioch High School since 1996 where he’s produced and directed countless show including Waiting for Godot, Miss Julie, The Maids, Macbeth, Brigadoon, and Crimes of the Heart. In 2007 his production of This is a Test performed as part of the American High School Theatre Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. Before teaching, he worked for 3 years as an actor, director, producer and Arts Education Administrator with the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival. In 2002, he won a Dean Goodman Choice Award for his performance in Sight Unseen at Walnut Creek's Playhouse West. In 2006 he founded Antioch Classical Theatre Company - bringing professional actors together with student performers - with whom he performed the title role of Hamlet in 2008 and has directed A Midsummer Night's Dream and Taming of the Shrew. He also created and produces the world-wide podcasts available at ShakespeareCast.com. Recently, he was seen as Mitch in Hapgood Theatre Company's production of Tuesdays with Morrie. He is a longtime member of Actors' Equity Association and Theatre Bay Area as well as an accredited Dialogue for Peaceful Change facilitator.

 

Bart Cox, Jr.: Before his career as a teacher, Bart was an independent film/video producer for 20 years, having produced over 200 programs, ranging from documentary, television, corporate, and educational, to exercise and instructional videos. For his excellent two hour television documentary about children and sports, called “Is Winning Everything?”, Bart won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding  Achievement. Bart is currently the Video/Broadcasting Production Teacher at Heritage High School in Brentwood, having taught previously at Deer Valley High in Antioch. Bart has been teaching Video/Broadcasting classes since 1998. His department at HHS enrolls 150 students per semester, produces a daily news program and weekly cable access programs. His departments have won top prizes repeatedly at the Student Media Festival, a statewide festival of student work. In addition numerous students Bart has taught are currently working in the media industry. Bart has been teaching Drama 71, an LMC documentary/video production class since 2003. We are very fortunate to have such a dedicated and gifted adjunct professor to top off our fantastic line up of star-quality teachers.

 

Our instructors are the best. Why go anywhere else?