 |
 |
||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
 |
|
Meet
Our Cabaret Staff
|
|
|
 CRAIG
HUDSON(Founding Director/ Resident Scenic & Lighting Designer) was the first to envision a cabaret-styled theatre in the dilapidated and abandoned building known as “The Old Pink Church.” He has always liked fixing up old broken things so it didn’t surprise anyone when he purchased the building in 1984 and began a two-year restoration of this National Historic Landmark. In the early years of the Cabaret’s existence his title often included box office, waiter, cook, and maintenance man in addition to being the Resident Scenic and Lighting Designer. |
 JIM
GIANCARLO(Artistic Director) is a founding member of Oregon Cabaret Theatre and has served as Artistic Director since 1988. Jim has a degree in Visual Arts from SUNY College at Buffalo. At age 25 he moved to San Francisco to be a writer but found himself detoured into the world of Dance, which led to Theatre, which led to the first theatre company of which he was a founder: Trenchmouth Musical Productions. Several years later he was hired as a dancer for the Green Show at OSF which led to 6 seasons as dancer, actor and choreographer, interspersed with many other theatre gigs and restaurant jobs. Forming OCT was the ultimate combination of these two most foolish businesses, theatre and restaurant. He has happily toiled here ever since, directing and/or choreographing 60 productions, writing 8 musicals and performing in 4 shows. Jim has also taught at SOU since 1990. |
 SYLVIA
MEDEIROS(Company Manager) was born into a Portuguese family that goes back for three generations on Maui. How she moved to artsy Ashland some 30 years ago is a mixture of good fortune and timing. After receiving her degree in Spanish at Southern Oregon State College, she spent a year in Mexico as an exchange student, then lived and worked in New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia and Fiji. But as is the nature of most Ashlanders, she came back and this time stayed. In another stroke of good luck, on a Grand Canyon river trip in 1986, she met the man of her dreams, Larry Koster, but waited fourteen years to marry him, just to be sure. More recently, Sylvia was instrumental in the formation of the Ashland Independent Film Festival. In a former life, she was a dancer and founded the SOSC Dance Collective but most importantly, met Jim Giancarlo (who hired her in 1992) and the rest as they say, is history. |
||
|
||||
 KATHLEEN
MAHONEY(Resident Stage Manager) is putting on her Production Princess tiara for her tenth season at Oregon Cabaret Theatre. She’s never done anything for ten years in row. After Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, New Mexico, and New Jersey, it seems she has found a home at OCT. Or, after over 2250 performances of 45 different productions, maybe she’s just in a rut. |
 KERRI
L. ROBBINS(Resident Costume Designer) has been designing costumes all her life. The first costume was for the ballerina in her jewelry box. Upon graduating from Yreka High, she thought she should do something more important...and considered the mission field, teaching, and medicine. Kerri turned down her acceptance to medical school when she realized she had to “do” theatre. While at New York University, she dressed Buddy Hackett and Joyce Brothers as Mother Goose for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. She did Off Off Broadway with Cynthia Nixon and David Canary. Later, she got to see her work on Broadway stages, not as costumes, but soft goods, set dressing and props. Among the Broadway shows were Guys And Dolls and Will Rogers Follies. Kerri has worked with Tommy Tune and Cirque de Soleil in Las Vegas. She had a wonderful time, but her favorite theatrical credits are the 65 shows she has done here at the Cabaret! Besides this great joy, Kerri is now CEO of her own business, designing creative spaces for children. |
 MICHAEL
HALDERMAN(Resident Technical Director) earned his BFA in Theatre from Southern Oregon University. His first show with the Cabaret was painting scenery for Working. Help was needed building the scenery so Mike went to work. During his first full season in 1995 he became Technical Director with full responsibility for completing the scenery. Since that first show he has built and painted over fifty sets, designed Woody Guthrie’s American Song and co-designed many shows. Mike has also designed and built scenery for Modoc Performing Arts Theatre, Camelot Theatre, and the Ross Ragland Theatre. During that time he has lived in Alturas, California with his wife Helen and they have three grown daughters and six grandchildren. Helen recently retired from 35 years of teaching school and she and Mike have moved to Ashland. |
||
|
||||
 ROXANNA
CLOVER(Prop Mistress/ Production Assistant) grew up in a Denver suburb. With the beautiful Rocky Mountains as her backyard playground, she was as much at home in the wilderness as in the city. After pursuing a degree in Theatre from the University of Northern Colorado, she bounced from theatre to theatre. In 1979 she landed in Ashland, working for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. A friend introduced Roxanna to the Cabaret in 1991 and she’s been there ever since. These days, Roxanna spends her days as a “lunch lady” at Talent Middle school. Although different from the restaurants she has cooked in, it still has daily challenges. Roxanna tries to find any excuse to surround herself with nature. She is notorious for bringing the outside in. Rocks, plants, odd sticks, fossils and her watercolors litter her apartment. Of all the things Roxanna has accomplished, being a mother has been the most rewarding. In her next life, Roxanna wants to be a paleontologist. |
 JULAINE
HARADEN MORLEY(Box Office Manager/Group Sales) was raised in the State of Jefferson, tap-dancing from the age of 4. After high school, she lived in the San Francisco area and returned to settle in Ashland in 1987. At Southern Oregon State College her intermittent college studies finally resulted in a degree in English with a minor in Music. Julaine was fortunate to be invited to join the Southern Oregon Repertory Singers, with whom she has performed for 18 years. Even more fortunately, she met Ray, her true companion, husband & sidekick of 13 years. Her work history consists of an eclectic assortment – dinner club dancer, leather seamstress, waitress, schoolteacher, cafeteria worker in Germany, English tutor, coffee shop manager, pet store specialist – and culminates in her work as box office manager at Oregon Cabaret Theatre, where she feels more at home than at any previous occupation. |
 WYLY
CUNNINGHAM(Restaurant Manager) left the small town he grew up in, nestled in the snow covered peaks of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado in 1989. With a degree in Anthropology/Religions firmly under his belt he set out to explore the historic Oregon Trail. Landing in Ashland a month later in pursuit of local cultures and their customs he found the Cabaret Theatre and never left. In between his sixteen years at the Cabaret he has toured the Oregon coast as a singer/songwriter with his band in which he plays guitar, flute, and keyboards. He has also done graphic design and editing for two local magazines (winning the prestigious Lambda award for artistic achievement in 1997/98). In the last four years Wyly has been passionately pursuing a career as a fledgling film maker, recently submitting to the Ashland Independent Film Festival. |
||
|
||||
 KARRIE
SMITH (Wardrobe Mistress) grew up on a cattle ranch in northern
California. She earned her BFA in Costuming at Southern Oregon University.
Since 1996, Karrie has been Wardrobe Mistress for the Cabaret Theatre
and Housing Manager for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, a challenging
job creating ideal short-term living situations for actors, dancers, and
directors. Her business, Karrie’s Kreations, gives her an opportunity
to do what she loves: make unique jewelry. Of all the places she has traveled
in the world none compare to the beauty and serenity of Ashland, which
Karrie is proud to call home. |
|
Oregon
Cabaret Theatre, Inc. For information about Submissions to the Cabaret To contact our administrative staff Now
Available for Leasing: OCT's Hit Show |