Staff
Karen LaShelle—Executive and Artistic Director
Sonnet Blanton—Development Director
Amanda Hashagen, Sarah Rinner—Programming Specialist
Roz Mandola—Company Manager
Florinda Bryant, Julia Smith—Senior Artistic Associate
Freddy Carnes—Artistic Associate
Sarah McCafferty—Community Outreach Director

Company Members
Theatre Action Project is proud of the diversity, talent, and professionalism of our 20 company members, many of whom have been teaching for ten years or more. We have brought numerous local and international artists into Austin area classrooms. Some of our featured teaching artists include Sevylla del Mazo, Claire Seymour, Jaclyn Pryor, and Nat Miller.

Other teaching artists include Shia Barnett, Sachi De Cou, Shana Merlin, Wura Ogunji, Leonado Guevara, CC Stinson, Ignacio Cruz, Chris Hatcher, Heather Davis, and Amira Wizig.

Karen LaShelle — Executive and Artistic Director
Karen joined TAP from New York City, where she earned an M.A. in community-based arts from New York University. Since working with TAP she has developed programs including, TAP After School, Youth for Youth Performance Project, and “The Heroes/Los Héreos.” While in New York, Karen served as the Arts Specialist for Interfaith Neighbors, a social service agency based in East Harlem. Prior to heading to New York, Karen spent three years in Chicago working at Northlight Theatre, Redmoon Theatre, and Steppenwolf Theatre as a director, designer, administrator and teaching artist. Karen holds a B.F.A. in performance and directing/design from Illinois Wesleyan University.

Sonnet Blanton — Development Director
Sonnet joined TAP after volunteering as a photographer for TAP’s First Night New Year’s Parade. Sonnet has worked for 12 years as a stage manager, director, producer, and arts administrator in both Austin and New York City. She raises money, plans special events, and helps TAP find ways to collaborate with the community. Sonnet is a graduate of the University of Texas and is a local director and producer.

Amanda Hashagen — Programming Specialist
Amanda is an artist, educator and facilitator who has been using theatre for social change for over 7 years. She holds an MA in Applied Theatre from The University of Manchester in the UK. She has facilitated theatre programs, workshops, and trainings which incorporate Theatre of the Oppressed techniques with marginalized groups in the UK, Uganda, US, and Canada. Amanda is excited to join TAP, and looks forward to building on the great programming that is a central part of TAP’s great reputation.

Sarah Rinner — Programming Specialist
Sarah graduated in May 2006 with a Master of Fine Arts degree in Drama and Theatre for Youth from the University of Texas. Sarah worked on the Imagine Safer Schools program through UT in which she co-directed a middle school peer theatre company and mentored teachers in drama-based instruction techniques. For two years she directed Austin’s Go Theatre team at UT, an undergraduate student ensemble which created and toured a performance about higher education. She directed two productions for Second Youth Family Theatre in Austin, including the American premiere of Mike Kenny’s The Song From the Sea. In 2002-2003 she worked for CLIMB Theatre in St. Paul, MN. For the past six years Sarah taught drama camps for the Des Moines Playhouse in IA. She graduated with her BA from the University of Northern Iowa in 2000.

Roz Mandola — Company Manager
Roz first came to TAP as a teaching artist in 2003-2004 and became the Company Manager in 2005. She has taught or performed locally with Refraction Arts, Dougherty Arts School, Teatro Humanidad, Empower Acting and many others during her undergraduate career at UT and in the years since. She is a graduate of the Eugene O'Neill National Theater Institute and the Trinity Repertory Company internship program. Roz brings her past work experiences as a graphic designer, a director, a copyeditor, a barista, and a communications intern to her position at TAP, where she manages the office and handles program logistics, financials, HR and IT issues.

Florinda Bryant — Senior Artistic Associate
Florinda has worked as a teacher specializing in working with at-risk youth and young women of color for ten years. She has been a professional interdisciplinary artist for 20 years. She is a member of the Austin Project, Finding Voice Productions and the Turquoise Moonbeam Group. Florinda has been commissioned by the University of Texas at Austin’s Center for African and African American Studies to produce a one-woman show for its “Performing Blackness” series in Fall 2006.

Julia Smith — Senior Artistic Associate
Julia M. Smith graduated from New York University 's Tisch School of the Arts Experimental Theater Wing in 2001 and has since been living and working in Austin. She is a company member of Refraction Arts Project where her work has been seen in Celebrity Crush '02 and '03, Complicitly Yours, American Arcana, Orange (nominated for Best Actress Austin Critic Table Awards 2004). Her design work has been seen with Teatro Humanidad, Rude Mechanicals, UT's New Works Festival, and with Redmoon Theater in Chicago. Her piece Re: Belated Birthday Greetings was nominated for "Best of Fest" for Frontera Fest 2004 and was performed long distance in the performance series CATCH! at Galapogos Space in Brooklyn, NY. She has studied mask making and performance at Dell 'Arte School and attended La Ma Ma's International Director's Symposium in Spoleto, Italy. Julia recently returned from New York's International Fringe Festival which she performed and co-directed The Philomel Project: A Barbarous Pleasure which was nominated for four Austin Critic Table Awards (Best Sound Design, Set Design, Ensemble, and Director). Currently Julia is an Artistic Associate for Theatre Action Project where she teaches and performs interactive and educational theater.

Freddy Carnes — Artistic Associate
Freddy is an actor, producer, director, writer, composer and teacher who has won awards and recognition for his work with children including special recognition from Mayor Will Wynn and a B. Iden Payne award. He has co-written and directed over 40 operas with elementary school children and has produced several CD's of his original songs. Freddy’s work with TAP includes "The Hamlet Project" which introduces at-risk youth to the joys of Shakespeare.

Sarah McCafferty — Community Outreach Director
Sarah first joined TAP in August 2005 as a Social Work intern and coordinator of TAP's St. John's Saturday's- a program focused on working with Katrina displaced youth. Enjoying the uniqueness of her experience so much, Sarah accepted a full time position as the Community Outreach Director where she manages the volunteer and intern program, coordinates the Changing Lives program, evaluates TAP's programming, and does a host of "TAP in the community" type stuff. Sarah comes to TAP with a strong commitment to working on social justice issues, 7 years research experience, and years & years of time spent working with youth and in the anti-violence movement. Sarah holds a Master's in Social Work from UT Austin and a BS in Sociology & Women's Studies from University of Oregon.

Sevylla del Mazo
Sevylla has been developing for at-risk youth in Elgin and Austin for the past eight years. She has lead Latin Percussion and African Drumming workshops for over 8 years throughout the United States and Latin America. Sevylla has studied the music and culture of the Afro-Caribbean music and dance for more than ten years and performs frequently throughout the Austin area with fellow Cuban artists. She holds a degree in Anthropology from UT-Austin.

Claire Seymour
Claire has been directing, acting and producing theatre in both England and America for the last ten years. Claire directed a number of productions in the West End and regional theatres of England before focusing on the development of programming for at risk teens, disability groups and youth theatre groups. Claire continues to collaborate with colleagues in England; writing new screen and stage plays for multi-ability groups while aiding in the development of a new organization, Trans-Atlantic Theatre Arts Exchange. She is a graduate from Rose Bruford College, London and Stephen F. Austin University.

Jaclyn Pryor
Jaclyn is a multidisciplinary performance artist, writer, and teacher. In 2005, she was commissioned by First Night Austin to create a community-based performance event, BREAD, which won the First Night International "Creative Programming" Award.  In Austin, her work has been also been produced by Frontera @ Hyde Park Theatre, Refraction Arts, and The University of Texas, as well as presented at national conferences such as The Association for Theatre in Higher Education (Chicago) and Performance Studies International (London).  In addition to her work with Theatre Action Project, Jaclyn is also a member of The Austin Project. Currently, Jaclyn teaches acting at The University of Texas, where she is also a doctoral student in the Performance as Public Practice Program.

Nat Miller
Before coming to work for TAP, Nat was an actor/teacher for First Stage Children’s Theater in Milwaukee and taught high school English and Theater in Burlington, WI. He has studied Theater-in-Education in Dublin, Ireland and has trained in long form improvisation at Improv Olympic in Chicago. His main interest is in directing and devising original theatre. Nat received his BFA in theater from SMU in Dallas, and his teaching certification at the University Of Wisconsin-Whitewater and is currently a first year MFA Theater For Youth student at UT-Austin.