Russell Campbell is a descendant of enslaved Africans and is part of the queer community. Russell joined the Tacoma Little Theatre (TLT) board of Directors in June 2023. He is the Director of the Office of HIV/AIDS Network Coordination (HANC) at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. Russell is inspired by his children and is committed to addressing disparities and injustices that disproportionately impact individuals and communities that have been harmed and are often marginalized. Russell believes that real change comes about only when others step up, speak out and act against dismantling the status quo. As a member of the local musical theatre community, Russell is excited to brings his passion and lived experience to TLT in the hopes to inspire change in the local theatre community.
JALEN PENN
CHANDLER THOMAS
ASHLEY YOUNG
Ashley Young long-time and proud resident of the PNW. While she's lived in different states on opposite sides of the country, including Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and California, Ashley and her long-term partner Michael grew up in Tacoma and settled back here in 2017 to raise their two young children.
Ashley grew up singing and performing in church and high school. She was a soprano and alto for the Henry Foss High School competition jazz and chamber choirs. From there she went on to travel two years with a performing arts non-profit organization doing assembly shows for elementary students on the weekday and performing at churches throughout the country. It was with this organization that she performed in Pigeon Forge, TN (home of the famous Dollywood) doing musical theater. In her personal music endeavors she has performed with bands such as Phunkatron and the Double Duce Horns.
In her career, Ashley has spent over a decade in hospitality, as a corporate and social event planner, director, and venue manager for several venues in San Diego, Seattle, and Tacoma. In her time as a government employee, Ashley has acted as the liaison for committees such as the Des Moines Arts Commission.
In her new role with City of Tacoma, Ashley is the Community Events Coordinator working with the Tacoma Venues and Events Department. She oversees Special Event Permits and is the liaison to the City [of Tacoma] Events and Recognition’s Committee, who host the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration and the City of Destiny Awards. In addition, she has overseen grant programs for arts and culture, applied for program funding, and worked hand in had with tourism marketing organizations.
Though Ashley’s involvement with performing arts has evolved over the years, she is passionate about providing access to those who may otherwise not have it, supporting career paths for events and arts, and finding new ways to engage the community in arts and culture.
BRENDA BALLINGER, TREASURER
Brenda retired from a 30 year career at Russell Investments, a global investment management firm that was founded in Tacoma in 1936. Her journey there included many roles ending as the Finance Director of Financial Planning and Analysis. While employed at Russell, she participated in many events that were focused on serving the Tacoma Community. She is also a member of Quota of Tacoma, a community group that focuses on the under serviced women and children of Pierce County. Brenda is delighted to bring her knowledge and enthusiasm to the TLT Board.
BLAKE KREMER
Blake is a longtime Tacoma attorney who represents peace and environmental activists in a variety of state and federal trials.
Blake’s legal practice is diverse and includes criminal defense and personal injury work. He does pro bono work related to victim advocacy, hospice work, and his work for a pediatric HIV/AIDS support organization. Blake’s work reflects his commitment to social justice, including one of Washington’s last death penalty defense trials and defense of Father Bill Bichsel, Sister Anne Montgomery and others who engaged in civil resistance against nuclear weapons. Blake has also successfully represented many environmental activists in jury trials and serves on many boards dedicated to issues close to his heart.
Blake believes that theater has an important role in bringing our community together as we continue to suffer the effects of a pandemic, and considers the work of this board to be more vital to our community than ever.
MARIA VALENZUELA, VICE PRESIDENT
A native of Tacoma, Maria has been involved in the performing arts throughout the US and abroad as a performer, director, educator, and administrator... but it all began as a performer and volunteer nearly 40 years ago at TLT. She is a veteran of the US Navy and has extensive background in both non-profit and public/government administration. Maria is a frequent coach, clinician, and adjudicator of student choral and theatrical groups, and is currently the Director of Music and Drama at Saint Patrick School. Maria is so pleased to be returning to TLT this time to serve this community and its legacy as a member of the Board of Directors.
PAMELA ROZA HAYES
Pamela Roza has been a member of the Lakewood community since early 2018, having moved from South Florida to the Pacific Northwest in the summer of 2017. In Miami, Pamela taught at the prestigious New World School of the Arts, featured in the New York Times and whose alumni include Tarrell Alvin McCraney (Oscar for Moonlight), Alex Lacamoire (Tony Award - Hamilton), and David Del Rio (Grease:Live on FOX).
Pamela, who made her debut at Lakewood Playhouse last September as Kate in Brighton Beach Memoirs, has been a professional theatre artist for going on three decades, starting back in 1991 with her first professional role as Martha in Careless Love at Area Stage Company in Miami Beach. It was the Area Stage where she appeared with Oscar Isaac (Poe in Star Wars: The Last Jedi) in the world premiere of Sleepwalkers by Jorge Ignacio Cortinas.
Pamela originated a second role in the world premiere of The Sunken Living Room, by David Caudle, where she played John Magaro’s (Orange is the New Black; The Good Wife) negligent mother, Lynette. John and David’s subsequent Q&A via teleconference with Pamela’s Scene Study class at New World was featured in Samuel French’s Breaking Character Magazine. Pamela was also a frequent featured artist at GableStage in the world famous Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, winning a Miami New Times Best Actress Award for her performance in Boy Gets Girl and a Carbonell Award for Killer Joe.
Pamela teaches the Linklater Vocal Method and focuses on a combination of Uta Hagen and Sanford Meisner in her approach to acting instruction. She is also trained in Alexander Technique and the Fitzmaurice Vocal Method, although she prefers to use the Linklater when teaching voice for the stage.
ERIC CLAUSELL
Eric was born and raised in New Yorker City (NYC) where he trained and began his performing arts career. He identifies as an African American, Puerto Rican, Queer, Cisgender male, Performing and Teaching Artist. By day, Eric is a Clinical Psychologist at the Seattle VA Medical Center. Eric moved to Tacoma in 2012 for a new career opportunity in the VA, which he enjoys. Since arriving in the area, he has performed in productions all along the I-5 corridor from Portland to Bellingham and has thoroughly enjoyed the rich performing arts scene that the Pacific Northwest has to offer. Eric is honored to join the Board of Tacoma Little Theatre during this important time of cultural transformation in the Tacoma Arts Community. He has been involved in several TLT productions as an actor, choreographer, and director. As a member of the TLT Board, Eric hopes to bring his passion, experience, and personal history in the theater to the TLT community. In addition to his local performing arts endeavors, Eric has performed professionally as a singer, dancer, and actor in musicals, also as a concert dancer in NYC, Los Angeles, Massachusetts, and Vienna Austria. He's had the privilege of touring the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia in Broadway tours collaborating with so many inspiring artists in his career that have inspired him to strive for excellence and honesty in the creative process.
MARIA-TANIA BANDES B. WEINGARDEN, SECRETARY
Maria-Tania Bandes B. Weingarden (she/her) is an artist/scholar who has recently joined UWT as an Assistant Teaching Professor in the department of Arts Media and Culture.
As a director, Maria-Tania uses theatre to challenge homogeneous ideology. She addresses issues of race and gender on stage by not only the content of her work, but often by casting non-traditionally, works that fit within the more traditional canon.
While her area of scholarly specialization is in Theatre History, more specifically Latinx theatre, her research focuses on revolutionary theatre. Her book, Echoes of Revolution: Nicaragua, aims to expand the knowledge of the canon of works of Central American playwrights as well as explores both the successes and limitations of theatre that has undergone political turmoil. Echoes of Revolution: Nicaragua, is the first of a three-part series on the revolutionary theatre of Central America.
Other areas of research include Queer Theatre, more specifically the representation of bisexuality on stage.
Jeanette Sanchez-Izenman, PRESIDENT
Jeanette Sanchez-Izenman is a director, teaching artist, dramaturg, intimacy choreographer, stage manager and theatre theorist/historian. She did her actor training at the University of New Mexico where she earned her BFA with honors and returned to complete an MA in Directing and Educational Theatre under the mentorship of Susan Pearson.
She moved to the Pacific Northwest to study at the University of Washington School of Drama where she achieved her PhD candidacy in Theatre History and Criticism in 2006. While working toward her candidacy, she was a Drama School Intern at the Seattle Children’s Theatre (Class of 2004), where she remained working for several years in the box office and as a dramaturg/consultant for Jason and the Golden Fleece and Night of the Living Dead. She also worked with the marketing team to help promote Tomás and the Library Lady.
Jeanette highly values public scholarship and earned a fellowship at UW’s Simpson Center for the Public Humanities in 2005. She was in the inaugural cohort of the Project for Interdisciplinary Pedagogy at UW Bothell where she taught theatre and performance studies for nearly a decade. Her classes focused on social change (Latino Theatre for Social Change and Theatre for Young Audiences) and outreach (Education and the Performing Arts) where she partnered with local schools to bring theatre education into their classrooms via UWB students leading creative drama exercises. Her script analysis class, Project Hamlet, became an exploration of languages as she began working with larger numbers of international students and explored how to perform the play multilingually.
She is a co-founder of eSe Teatro in Seattle and has worked as a dramaturg with Teatro Vision in San Jose (Perla) and with Teatro Nuevo Mèxico (Electricidad). Her doomed dissertation was an exploration of women dressing as men in contemporary Latinx productions, most of which were reimagining classical works.
She works with Lakewood Playhouse as a stage manager and teaching artist. She won a “Woody” in 2017 for her work on The Rocky Horror Show.
She is a founder of Screaming Butterflies Productions with Kathryn Philbrook in Tacoma. Their indie company seeks to use performance to re-vision myth, community and justice through imaginative, tenacious, unapologetic creativity. She is working with Break the Table RPG, a local streaming group using fantasy and table top game mechanics to shape stories told by and for BIPOC to address some of the current issues we are dealing with. She also helped to found Rise Up: a South Sound BIPOC Theatre Artist Coalition.
She is currently serving as a commissioner on the Tacoma Arts Commission for District 1.
She is a deep believer in the power of collaboration in theatre, consent and inclusion.
MARTIN GOLDSMITH
Martin moved to Tacoma with his wife and two sons in 1992. For the next 25 years he continued his career as a pediatrician, specializing in endocrinology, with Pediatrics Northwest and Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital. During that time he also served as Medical Director for a local summer day camp for children with diabetes. In 2013 he resurrected his high school love for the stage and has acted in several Puget Sound community theatre productions. He retired from his medical practice in 2017 but has continued his desire to heal – now with music: he regularly brings his guitar and voice to the kids and their parents in the playroom at Mary Bridge. In 2020 he joined the TLT Board.
AYA HASHIGUCHI CLARK
Aya Hashiguchi Clark joined the TLT board in 2019. She is a former occupational therapist who worked with special education students in the public schools. After retiring from her chosen profession, she and her husband Randy Clark founded Dukesbay Productions, an independent, multiracial theatre company in Tacoma. The Clarks also built The Dukesbay Theater, an intimate 40-seat venue that has become the home for several independent theatre companies.
Aya is a producer, actor and playwright. She is also an advocate for keeping live theatre in Tacoma vital and accessible for all, inclusive of ethnicity, disability and gender expression.
