Rotimi Agbabiaka, Actor/Director/Teacher/Playwright, co-wrote 2018's Seeing Red and has performed on the Mime Troupe stage in WALLS, Schooled, Oil & Water, Posibilidad, or Death of The Worker, and Freedomland. He most recently appeared Off Broadway in If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka at Playwrights Horizons and has also performed at Yale Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, Shotgun Players, Magic Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, Cal Shakes, and with Word for Word and Black Artists Contemporary Cultural Experience, among others. He is a former cast member at Beach Blanket Babylon, and his solo play, Homeless, won Best Solo Performance at the SF Fringe Festival. His latest solo, Type/Caste, received the Theatre Bay Area award for Best Solo Production. As a director, Mr. Agbabiaka helmed the world premiere of VS. at TheatreFIRST and has also directed plays for SF One Minute Play Festival and the SF Mime Troupe's Youth Theater Project. He studied at Moscow Art Theatre and earned his MFA from Northern Illinois University.

Michael Bello Composer/Music Director/Musician, graduated with honors from the Jazz department at Sonoma Sate University in '06 with a bachelor's degree in jazz and music theory. He has played in clubs, halls and at major festivals touring throughout the US with many projects. Bello is a multi-instrumentalist who has composed and performed with a wide range of groups. Check out some of the current bands Bello is playing with, some require you to bring your dancing shoes and others to bring your dancing ears - Strike Iron! Heavy Afrobeat, Latin Rhythm Boys - Puerto Rican music, Telepathy - boundary pushing original Jazz, Humiors - solid funk and R&B, Ernest Ranglin - reggae, jazz, ska (in the 1950's created ska next to Rico Rodriguez), FogDub - Reggae Dub, Sean Nelson's OMEN: including some projects he is affiliated with on a semi regular basis, Phil Lesh and friends - Grateful Dead, Midnight North - rock, folk.

Velina Brown, Actor/Singer/Songwriter/Director, has been a principal performer for the Mime Troupe in such shows as City for Sale, Eating It, 1600 Transylvania Avenue, Mr. Smith Goes to Obscuristan, and Showdown at Crawford Gulch to name a few. She was the Devil in Deal With the Devil, Veronique in Veronique of the Mounties, she's played Condoleeza Rice three times, and was both an actor and Contributing Lyricist on GodFellas and Making a Killing. Velina's most recent shows with the Troupe include WALLS, Schooled, Ripple Effect, Red State, Too Big to Fail, and Posibilidad: Or Death of the Worker for which she won a Bay Area Critics Circle Award for Best Principal Actress. Last Spring Velina had the pleasure of touring France with the Word for Word production of Pulitzer Prize winner Edward P. Jones' All Aunt Hagar's Children. In October 2017 Velina and Brooklyn based ensemble Barbez released their new album For Those Who Came After: Songs of the Resistance from the Spanish Civil War. This summer Velina will take off from the Troupe and tour Portugal with Barbez in support of the album. Other credits include New Conservatory Theatre, A.C.T., Berkeley Repertory Theatre, SF Playhouse, Denver Center Theatre Company, Theatre Rhinoceros, Shotgun Players, Center Repertory Theatre, Central Works, Lorraine Hansberry Theater, Theatreworks as well as film (Bee Season with Richard Gere, Playing it Cool with Chris Evans and Milk with Sean Penn) and television (Trauma, Party of Five, Shaughnessy Iron Marshall, Nash Bridges, Final Witness). Velina is the founder and owner of the "Business of Show Biz," which offers career planning consultations and workshops for theater artists. She also writes a popular column of the same name for Theater Bay Area Magazine and is a contributing author of TBA's ATLAS (Advanced Training Leading Artists to Success) Manual. February 2017 Velina was given the Getting Played: Equity in the Entertainment Industry Award at Stanford University, and in 2012 she was honored as one of TBA's "35 Faces," artists who've made significant contributions to the Bay Area theater community.

Ellen Callas, General Manager/Teacher/Writer/Director, a native Chicagoan who cut her teeth on Second City, Ellen co-founded, in 1976, Hit and Run Theater, a political sketch comedy troupe that toured rural northern California for many years. Since joining the Mime Troupe in 1986, she has worked as a writer on (Ripped Van Winkle, Secrets in the Sand, Rats, Back to Normal, Escape from Cyberia, Revenger Rat, Soul Suckers, Eating It, 1600 Transylvania Ave, Doing Good, and Posibilidad. Also as an actor (Rats), director (Making a Killing) and as production, company & stage manager for various productions including the international collaboration and Asian tour of Big Wind. She also served as company manager for ACT's long running production of Angels In America: Parts I & II. She is committed to mentoring future activist artists and from its beginning has been an enthusiastic teacher and occasional project director of company's 24-year-old Youth Theater Project. Ellen credits her ability as an improviser for helping to navigate the rocky road of non-profit political theater.

Michael Carreiro, Actor/Technical Director, (currently on leave of absence), first came to the Mime Troupe in 1998 as a participant in summer workshops for actors. He continued his studies in Commedia and improvisation in Los Angeles, returning to the Mime Troupe in 1999. He has performed with the Troupe in City for Sale, Eating It, 1600 Transylvania Avenue, Mr. Smith Goes to Obscuristan, Veronique of the Mounties, Crawford Gulch, and Doing Good.. Additionally Michael has served as Collective Representative to the Board of Directors from 2004 to 2006.

Marie Cartier, Actor/Writer/Teaching/Artist/Properties/Scenic Painter, has been working with the Mime Troupe since 2012. A native San Franciscan, her theater practices encompass a variety of roles. She created props for the Mime Troupe shows Seeing Red, Walls, and Schooled and has taught with the Troupe's Youth Theater Project since 2016. Marie completed the Emerging Artist in Residence program at SFMT in 2017, by co-writing and performing her original work, Yesterday is Tomorrow. She has written, co-produced and performed in the original circus cabaret, Saturnalia: A Raunchy Circus Christmas at Shelton Theater in 2017 and 2018, and has served as a technician/board operator for more shows than she can count. Marie is a founding member of Bow & Arrow: A Circus Theater Collective. She is also a visual artist and has displayed her paintings and mixed-media pieces at Farley's, Alamo Square Grill, Brainwash, Tea Roots and the Sherwood Gallery.

Lisa Hori-Garcia, Actor/Director/Teaching Artist/Program Director of YTP, has been a principal performer and collaborator for the Troupe since 2004 in such shows as Seeing Red, Schooled, Posibilidad or Death of The Worker, Too Big To Fail and Doing Good to name a few. In 2016, Lisa received a TBA Nomination for Best Principal Actress in a Musical for her performance in Freedomland. She is also the program director and lead teacher of both the Mime Troupe's Youth Theater Project (YTP) and SFMT's summer intensive theater workshop. Lisa also works with other Bay Area companies, such as Cal Shakes, The Magic Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Word for Word and most recently appeared in ACT's Men on Boats and The Great Leap. Lisa is a former Ensemble Member & Production Manager with New WORLD Theater in Amherst, MA and received her BA from Smith College and MFA in Acting from the University of Southern California.

Taylor Gonzalez, Sound Designer/Engineer/Teacher, has been working with the Mime Troupe since he was 16 years old. His work began with the Youth Theater Project as a student. Since then he has taught as well as designed lights and sound for the youth program. This will be Taylor's fourth full summer with the Troupe. While not working with the Troupe Taylor spends his time as a studio and live audio engineer for local bands, as well as a sound designer for various theaters around the bay area. Recent work includes Paradise Square with Berkeley Rep, Violet the Musical with BAM (Bay Area Musicals), The View Upstairs with NCTC (New Conservatory Theatre Center).

Keiko Shimosato Carreiro, Actor/Director/Designer, was born in Cambridge Massachusettes. Keiko holds a BFA in Interdisciplinary Arts and an MA in Multimedia from the University of Iowa. She arrived in San Francisco with the Horse Drawn, Caravan Stage Company of Canada. She has been an actor, designer and director for the Mime Troupe since 1987. Keiko has designed costumes for many Bay Area Theater companies including, Berkeley Rep, S.F. Shakespeare in the Parks, The Asian American Theater Company, African American Shakespeare Company, Crowded Fire and Custom Made Theater as well as the Mime Troupe. She has appeared in many productions at Bay Area Theaters including, Berkeley Rep, The Aurora, The Magic Theater, Center Rep, ACT, Life on the Water, and of course the Mime Troupe. She directed City for Sale and Gotta Getta Life for the Mime Troupe, and Cowboy versus Samurai for the Asian American Theater Company. For her portrayal of Grace in Philip Kan Gotandas' The Sisters Matsumoto at Center Rep she was nominated for a Shellie Award as best actress in a leading role. In 2018 she received an award for Meritorious Achievement in Costume Design from the ACTF Theater Festival, for Three Sisters at St. Mary's College.

Daniel Savio, Music Director/Lyricist/Musician, started his professional theater career playing for the San Francisco Mime Troupe, participating in the tours for GodFellas ('06) and Making a Killing ('07), and returned for Freedomland ('15), Schooled ('16) and WALLS ('17). He was co-composer/lyricist, with SFMT vet Bruce Barthol, of the play FSM ('14, Stagebridge Senior Theater), written by fellow SFMT vet Joan Holden. Daniel has composed the scores of four musicals for young audiences at Stagebridge, all with book and lyrics by Josiah Polhemus. He also composed original music for an early production of Lauren Yee's A Man, His Wife, and his Hat ('11, AlterTheater). Daniel plays keyboards for The 808 Band, winner of the 2011 North Bay Bohemian Award for Best Hip Hop Band, which has backed many hip hop and reggae performers including KRS-ONE, MC Radioactive, and Robert Herrera. He has performed as an improv pianist with the Perennials, the Antic Witties, the Un-Scripted Theater Company, 6th Street Improv!, and the Midnight Matinee. Daniel has a BA in Music from the University of California at Santa Cruz and studies with Bay Area composer Michael Kaulkin.

Michael Gene Sullivan, Actor/Director/Resident Playwright, Teacher, has performed in, written, and/or directed over thirty SFMT productions. As an actor Sullivan has also appeared in productions at the American Conservatory Theater, Californian Shakespeare Theatre, Theatreworks, San Francisco Playhouse, Denver Center Theater Company, The Aurora Theatre, The Magic Theatre, The Marin Theatre Company, Lorraine Hansberry Theater, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theater, and San Jose Repertory Theater. Michael has been a principal actor in Mime Troupe plays since 1988, performing in Freedomland, Ripple Effect, For The Greater Good, 2012: The Musical, Posibilidad, Too Big To Fail, Making a Killing, GodFellas, Doing Good, Showdown at Crawford Gulch, Mister Smith Goes to Obscuristan, Eating it, Damaged Care, Soul Suckers form Outer Space, Revenger Rat, Escape to Cyberia, Offshore, Social Work, I Ain't You uncle, Back to Normal, Rats, Seeing Double, and Ripped Van Winkle. His directing credits at SFMT include Schooled, For The Greater Good, Red State, Veronique of the Mounties, 1600 Transylvania Avenue, Killing Time, and Coast City Confidential, Michael has also directed for the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, African American Shakespeare Company, Mystic Bison Theater, and Circus Finelli. Michael is a Resident Playwright for the Playwrights' Foundation, a 2017 Resident Artist at the Djerassi Arts Center, from 2009 - 2016 he was a blogger for The Huffington Post, and Michael has been SFMT's Resident Playwright since 2000. His scripts for SFMT include Walls (2017 nominee, World Premiere musical, Theatre Bay Area Awards.), Schooled (with Eugenie Chan) Freedomland, Ripple Effect (with Eugenie Chan and Tanya Shaffer), For The Greater Good, Posibilidad, Too Big To Fail (2009 nominee, Best Original Script, San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle), Red State (2008 nominee, Best Original Script, San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle), Making A Killing, GodFellas, Showdown at Crawford Gulch, Veronique of the Mounties, Mr. Smith Goes to Obscruristan, and 1600 Transylvania Avenue. As a contributing writer his SFMT scripts include Eating it, Soul Suckers From Outer Space, Escape to Cyberia, Offshore, and Social Work. His non-SFMT scripts include his all-woman political farce Recipe, (Central Works, winner of the Israel Baran Playwriting Award,) Red Carol (his adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol), the historical drama fugitive/slave/act, and his award-winning one person show, Did Anyone Ever Tell You - You Look Like Huey P. Newton? His critically acclaimed stage adaptation of George Orwell's 1984 opened at the Actors' Gang Theatre under the direction of Tim Robbins in 2006, and has since been performed across Europe, Asia, Australia, Central and South America, and the United States, and in 2018 will premiere in Amsterdam and Kiev, Ukraine. Michael's 1984 has been translated into Spanish, Russian, Catalan, and Dutch. Michael is also resident teacher of SFMT's Young California Writers Project, and in 2018 begins teaching playwriting for the American Conservatory Theatre. Click here to see a larger bio.

Photographer: DavidAllenStudio.com
SFMT COLLECTIVE
Click on photo for high res version

Back row: Rotimi Agbabiaka, Junelle-Johannah Taguas, Velina Brown, Ellen Callas
Front row: Lizzie Calogero, Keiko Shimosato Carreiro, Lisa Hori-Garcia, Michael Gene Sullivan

Not photographed: Michael Bello, Marie Cartier, Michael Carreiro, Taylor Gonzalez, Daniel Savio
No longer in the collective: Junelle-Johannah Taguas, Lizzie Calogero

Alumni:

View an on going list of names tallying everyone who has worked
at the Troupe over the past 50 plus years!