ARTISTIC DIRECTOR'S NOTE:
When I started at Olympia Family Theater last October, my goal was to more deeply connect our work to the community, and to use art as a way of building long-term relationships and networks. When we received the news last fall that we had been selected by the CDC Foundation as one of 30 organizations being funded (from a national pool!) to create innovative community art projects that help to overcome vaccine hesitancy – we were both shocked and ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work.
Our contribution to this national effort is FULLY VAXXED, a project that includes the three 20-minute plays you’re about to see, all written and created by playwrights and youth from across the state. These plays were made in a pressure cooker of sorts: the writing took place in just over a month, with our team meeting weekly to share stories, community interviews and personal experiences. We quickly cast the shows, and the performances came together in less than 20 hours of rehearsal over the past 2 weeks.
After these plays premiere at OFT, they’ll be touring around the state – traveling to Wenatchee, Sunnyside, Centralia, North Thurston County, and Bellingham. These engagements will be more than just the shows you see today – as we travel we’ll also be offering applied theater workshops, community meals, civic dialogues, community mural painting, vaccine clinics and much more. At current count more than 60 people are directly involved in making this possible – it’s a labor of love and community that I believe we will all hold near to our hearts for a long, long time.
I am immensely proud of this project, and the process we have gone through to bring it to life. The relationships we have developed are precious – and I know that we have made connections in the past few months that will be an important part of OFT’s future for years to come. It is also not lost on me that this is the first show on OFT’s stage since we closed for the pandemic in March 2020. It feels fitting that we are reopening our doors with a project that helps us to reflect on what we have just experienced. Although things may never get back to “normal” again – I’m excited for a new beginning. Thank you for showing up to support this project, and BIG LOVE To all.
KEY PARTNERS:
Bringing this statewide project to life has required the help of many, many people. We are so thankful for the community support – and encourage you to find out more about all of the amazing groups who have played a role in FULLY VAXXED!
Wash Masks & Ana María Campoy
WashMasks works to provide care, creative joy, and community to Washington farmworkers, their families, and other BIPOC rural communities.
CAFÉ
CAFÉ is a non-profit organization that advances family and community growth through education. We serve our culturally diverse community providing opportunities in leadership, civic and social engagement, literacy development, and academic advancement.
Numerica PAC
Located in the heart of downtown Wenatchee at the Stanley Civic Center, the Numerica Performing Arts Center offers something for everyone.
Nuestra Casa
Through education, empowerment and mutual support, Nuestra Casa enables immigrant women to create positive changes in themselves, their families, and their communities.
LaVenture Middle School – Latinx Unidos Con Honor y Amistad (L.U.C.H.A.)
Centralia College – SAALT (Student Advocacy Activities Leadership Team)
SAALT is a group of eight student leaders who advocate and plan events for Centralia College students. SAALT is committed to social justice, sustainability and creating inclusive events for all Centralia students.
TOGETHER!
TOGETHER! has been igniting change across the South Sound and beyond since 1989 with health promotion, youth development and prevention initiatives.
Mossyrock School District – High School Drama Club
Western WA University, Latinx Student Union
The Latinx Student Union (LSU) promotes unity, education, and diversity within the greater Latinx community and, specifically, here at Western. We strive to create awareness of historical narratives, culture, and identity issues faced by folks, both within the US and in Latin America in a way that is accessible and approachable.
Sea Mar – Community Health Center
Sea Mar Community Health Centers, founded in 1978, is a community-based organization committed to providing quality, comprehensive health, human, housing, educational and cultural services to diverse communities, specializing in service to Latinos in Washington state.
Olympia Timberland Library
Bridge Music Project
The Bridge Music Project is a Thurston County-based 501(c)3 Nonprofit Organization which teaches youth how music and songwriting can be used as tools to deal with life’s challenges.
Trial and Error Productions
Supporting astonishing artists. Creating extraordinary films.
Sky Bear Media
Sky Bear Media is a full-service video production company headquartered in Olympia, WA. Sky Bear has years of experience in creating media for the digital space, from script to screen, and has worked with Washington State government, Tribes, tribal organizations, corporations, small business and non-profits.
CAST/CREW:
Who’s Afraid of the Rain
Ramón Esquivel – Lead Playwright
Yulitssa Meza Duarte – Contributing Writer
Lus Gallardo – Contributing Writer
Arely Sanchez Medina – Contributing Writer
Mylaa Moreno – Contributing Writer
Teal Farias – Director
Maren Mcbeth – Drake the Dragon/Carín the Shrimp
Taz Mcbeth – Rebecca the Sasquatch/ Squiggles the Ferret
Chase Diamond – Chiquis the Lechuza
The Great American Liver Show
Created by Miguel Pineda
Mason Lucas – Contributor
Zirayly Ruelas – Contributor
Marixa Romo – Contributor
Vanessa Postil – Director
Rebecca Rogers – Improv Actor 1
Alfonso “Ponch” Campos – Improv Actor 2
June Eventyr – Improv Actor 3
Lucha Virus
Mabelle Reynoso – Playwright
Oliver Garcia – Contributing Writer
Jazel Hernandez – Contributing Writer
Ana Munoz – Contributing Writer
Leilani Iniguz – Contributing Writer
Luz Gaxiola – Director
Christian Carvajal – Dr Juan/Hand Sanitizer
Luz Langguth-Torrez – Nana/Chancla/La Célula Sana/La Vacuna Valiente
Oliver Garcia – Benjamin/El Cruel Coronavirus
CREW:
Donald Palardy – Puppet Design
Jill Carter – Scenic & Prop Design
Kate Arvin – Company Manager/Light & Sound Design
Alexa Ryle – Stage Manager/Costume Design
Ana María Campoy – Curriculum Builder
Claribel Gross – Curriculum Builder
Vanessa Postil – Curriculum Builder, Community Facilitator
Teal Farías – Community Facilitator
Alfonso “Ponch” Campos – Community Facilitator
Anya Guadamuz – Community Facilitator
Natalie Coblentz – Muralist
Adriana Campoy – Translator
Aimee Adams – ASL Interpreter
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Scenic Engineer – David Nowitz
Scenic Painters – Emily McHugh, Jill Carter, Paula McHugh, Veta Bakhtina, Rachel Sims, Riley Violet, Eva Leach, Rheanna Murray, Ezra Unterseher, Kristen Bailey, Edwin Warner, Faith Hagenhofer, Kefa Crow, Jade Hartung, Amber Winter, Ashlen Hodge
Sending love and appreciation to the following individuals/community groups: Lynne Olmos, Betsy Storey, Olivia Salazar de Breaux, Aimee Adams, Alma Chacon, Thurston County Food Bank, Alesha Thompson, Natalie Coblentz
No photography or video recording is allowed during the show.
CAST BIOS:
Maren Mcbeth - Drake the Dragon/Carín the Shrimp
Maren has enjoyed many productions at OFT, but this is the first one for which she is on the stage rather than in the audience. She would like to thank all the theater artists producing Fully Vaxxed and the letters R, K and I. She would also like everyone to know that she always knew she would be a shrimp when she grew up.
Taz Mcbeth - Rebecca the Sasquatch/ Squiggles the Ferret
My name is Taz Mcbeth, and I’m 17. I’ve been doing plays with OFT since 2014, though this is my first time on the big stage which I’m super pumped about. I really like writing songs, and am starting to learn how to produce music. I hope to one day be an art therapist collaborating on a program that helps fellow humans heal through the beautiful power of creativity.
I really want to thank my fellow cast members, and all the crew to have supported this beautiful production and overall project. And a shout out to my improv group, The Pickle Jar. Y’all are a big part of what makes OFT and doing theater special for me 🙂 Let’s DO this!
Chase Diamond - Chiquis the Lechuza
Chase is thrilled to make his acting debut in OFT’s Who’s Afraid of the Rain? He is currently a senior at Black Hills High School. Outside of class he enjoys music production and boxing. He would like to thank Rebecca Rogers for setting him up for his journey through improvisation; and now acting.
Christian Carvajal - Dr Juan/Hand Sanitizer
Christian was the founding, managing editor of OLY ARTS. He wrote 3 Impossible Questions, a play that premiered at Olympia Family Theater in 2018. His acting credits for local stages include Angels in America, Charlotte’s Web, A Christmas Story, Oleanna, Starry Messenger and The Tempest. He directed Laughing Stock for Olympia Little Theatre and The Credeaux Canvas for Theater Artists Olympia. As an author, his published works include two novels, a collection of short stories, a nonfiction guide to Genesis, celebrity interviews and a regular column for the Weekly Volcano.
Luz Langguth-Torrez - Nana/Chancla/La Célula Sana/La Vacuna Valiente
Luz is thrilled to make their debut performance with Olympia Family Theater! Luz works doing social work at a nonprofit downtown and is part of the Evergreen State graduating class of 2020. Their last public theatre performances were in high school and they are excited to take the stage once again with such an outstanding cast and crew!
Oliver Garcia - Benjamin/El Cruel Coronavirus
Oliver is currently a Junior in high school. He always enjoys working with the Olympia Family Theater, where he previously performed in Starry Messenger as young Galileo. He is very excited to be performing in Lucha Virus especially as the evil luchador El Cruel.
Rebecca Rogers - Improv Actor 1
Rebecca’s passion is improvisational theatre. She has been performing and teaching improv for over 25 years all over the country and even in Paris, France (Ask her about it. It’s a good story!). Rebecca wears and/or has worn many other theatre hats: Actor, Director, Teacher, Playwright, Props Master, Stage Manager, and Stagehand. She just can’t seem to get enough. Ask her anytime about her favorite roles, shows, props, or theaters! Rebecca recently became an elementary school music/drama teacher. She is discovering the rightness of the universe and couldn’t be happier.
Alfonso “Ponch” Campos - Improv Actor 2, Community Facilitator
Alfonso “Ponch” is a latino actor/stand-up comedian from Los Angeles, CA. He studied theater at UCSD. Now working out of Seattle, he likes to do work that represents his community and who he is.
June Eventyr - Improv Actor 3
June is an artist that has been doing improv with Olympia Family Theater for 4 years now.
CREW BIOS:
Teal Farías – Community Facilitator, Director of Who’s Afraid of the Rain?
I am Mexican queer dancer and community organizer that lives for pleasure activism and building community through dance. I moved to Olympia almost 5 years ago from Mérida, Yucatán, México, searching for a big chance and when I arrived, realized there was not much dancing and decided to pursue music, as DJ Siempre Bruja and play intercultural Latinx beats in the PNW. Currently working on a workshop about anti-racist deconstruction through creative movement. I believe that community that dances together, stays together.
Vanessa Postil – Curriculum Builder, Community Facilitator, Director of The Great American Liver Show
Vanessa is an Olympia based performing artist, producer, choreographer, musician, Teaching Artist, mama and lover of cats. She is so excited to return to OFT to direct The Great American Liver Show and to work with all of these very talented performers, directors, writers, crew members, and admin team! Thank you all so much for coming, and please enjoy the show.
Luz Gaxiola – Director of Lucha Virus
Luz is a theatre artist, clown, puppeteer, and musician based in Olympia, WA. She studied at the Dell’Arte School of Physical Theatre, the San Francisco Clown Conservatory, and the Flying Actor Studio. Luz loves collaborating with other artists to create original comedic works in a bright, cartoony style. She currently teaches children’s drama classes at Olympia Family Theater and performs with String and Shadow Puppet Theatre.
Kate Arvin - Company Manager, Light & Sound Design
Kate Arvin. The COVID-19 pandemic pulled the plug on Kate’s professional theater management/lighting career. March 13th, 2020 she was touring with Ballet Folclorico Nacional de Mexico and March 14th she was on an airplane heading home, still covered in last-night’s load out grime, without a clue as to what would happen next or if she’d see her colleagues ever again. She’s still looking for that clue, still hasn’t seen those colleagues or her own far away family, but she is deeply grateful to be re-kindling some light here at home with OFT on this extremely worthy project. Sincere thanks to everyone who contributed, to Lily for connecting all of us, to Jordan, and to you for coming to see this happen. Stay safe and keep masking!
Alexa Ryle - Stage Manager, Costume Design
Alexa Ryle has been involved in OFT since its founding and in theater and the arts since childhood. They have worn many hats in the arts community: actor, stage manager, costumer, lighting/sound designer & technician, dancer, maker, and teaching artist. Alexa is super proud of the role they are playing in the Fully Vaxxed project. She feels so lucky to be working with the amazing cast and crew, bringing to life a program written and driven by the Latinx community. Alexa will be performing in The Alphabetastics at Olympia Family Theater in May as the letter “H” -as in health, happiness, and harmony. Alexa hopes to: get better at drawing botanicals, learn to use a sewing machine without breaking it, dismantle white supremacy, learn ASL and Spanish and travel the world. She recently learned how to skateboard!
Donald Palardy - Puppet Design
Donald Palardy is an engineer of sound, light and cardboard. An avid fan of fanciful gaiety, his awkward lankiness has a certain grace suitable for the amusement of the public.
Jill Carter - Scenic & Prop Design
Ramón Esquivel – Lead Playwright of Who’s Afraid of the Rain?
Ramón Esquivel is a playwright, director, dramaturg, and educator. His plays for young audiences include Luna, Dulce, Nasty, Nocturnal, and The Hero Twins: Blood Race. Above Between Below, Ramón’s play about Internet bullying, toured schools in Washington and Oregon through a collaboration between Seattle Children’s Theatre, Oregon Children’s Theatre, and the Kaiser Permanente Educational Theatre program. His play, The Shahrazad Society, won the Aurand Harris Memorial Playwriting Award from the New England Theatre Conference. His latest work, ZEQ, a love story about and for queer youth that is set in Central Washington, was awarded a ReImagine Grant from Write Now, Theatre for Young Audiences/USA, and the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America. Born and raised in Kirkland, Washington, Ramón is now based in California, where he is Assistant Professor of Theatre – Playwriting at Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo.
Mabelle Reynoso – Playwright of Lucha Virus
Mabelle Reynoso is a multidisciplinary storyteller, teaching artist, and applied theatre practitioner. Her plays have been performed in traditional and non-traditional theatre spaces including classrooms, community centers, and correctional facilities. She is co-host of the podcast Hey Playwright and leads TuYo Theatre’s Pa’ Letras, a new play development workshop for emerging Latinx playwrights. Recent works include Noel Noel, the San Diego Symphony’s 2021 holiday show, Remember That Time, featured on the local panel of the 2021 San Diego REP Latinx New Play Festival, and ¡Lotería: Game On!, a 2021 ReImagine: New Plays in TYA grant selection. Mabelle has a BFA from New York University, an MFA from the School of Visual Arts, and is currently pursuing her PhD in Education for Social Justice at the University of San Diego. Mabelle is a member of the Dramatists Guild, TYA/USA, and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. She was proudly born in Tijuana, Mexico.
Miguel Pineda – Creator of The Great American Liver Show
Miguel Pineda is a Chicano Father, Director, playwright, musician and entrepreneur. Follow Miguel and his company, Porcupine Media, here.
Aimee Adams – ASL Interpreter
Nationally Certified ASL Interpreter, RID, & Music Educator, ’15 Texas State University alum, Aimee Adams blends the two distinct fields of musical conducting and language access of American Sign Language interpreting into a passionate outpouring, beloved by the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Hearing community. As a CODA, Child of Deaf Adults, Aimee Adams engages in communication access in a wide variety of settings while interpreting, but specializes in the performance arts access: music interpreting, integrative theatrical interpreting, traditional theater interpreting, & the comedic arts. See latest works on Tiktok @AimeeAdams_MusicHands.
David Nowitz – Scenic Engineer
David is happiest tinkering around in his scene shop coming up with imaginative ways to make things. Recent favorite engineering challenges for Olympia Family Theater include building an escalator for Corduroy, making a recycling machine with working wooden gears for Cinder Edna, making an under bed and over bed/jungle gym in The Monster Under the Bed, making a ski slope for A Year with Frog and Toad, and making a bed fall through a ceiling in Mercy Watson to the Rescue. Also, for Open Road Productions, David made an underwater/ overwater transforming touring set for The Incredible Undersea Trial of Joseph P. Lawnboy, and for Ballet Northwest, a candy cane throne.
Friends of Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum ($1000 & up)
Linda & Ronald Moon
David and Jane Nowitz
Elizabeth Gross
Paul D. Shepherd
Judith Moxley
Kimberly-Clark
Diana & Stephen Purvine*
Friends of Frodo & Sam ($200-$999)
Stephen Lykins
Carolee Johnson
Katrina Groen
Sara R. & K. Thiessen
Thomas E Lockhart III
Rebecca Scott*
Bobby Brown*
Roxanne & Martin “Booji” Waldron*
Jamie Jenson
Lori Campbell*
Sonja Hallum*
Nicole Miller*
Bonnie Cotton*
Daniel J. Berschauer
Cathy Wasserman & Vic Colman*
Karen Janowitz*
Katie & Jon Tallman*
Kyle Thiessen*
Abigail Kelso
Alan Hardcastle
Bonnie Kavanaugh
Patricia Starzyk
Friends of Frog & Toad ($100-$199)
Hilarie P. Hauptman*
Samantha Chandler*
Christopher Taylor*
Gayle Magee
Helen Tafejian
Katie Russell
Rye Ives
Andy Gordon*
Carol B. Jenner*
Deane Shellman*
Ethan Moreno*
Kate & Greg Tudor*
Kelly Leonard*
Teri & Todd Peterson
Greg Charles*
Alan Mountjoy-Venning
Beth Dubey
Bonnie & Ken Vandver
Ellen Matheny
John Linderman
Kimberly Duffy
Marcy LaViollette
Margaret Pilaro
Matthew S Ferrel
Melissa L. Young
Michael Stapleton
Friends of Dorothy & Scarecrow ($50-$99)
Andrea A Severson*
Jessica MacLeod & Ryan Black
Kathryn & Steve Wang
Cary Brim-Reid*
Brenda Stuvek*
Jessica Jackson*
Rebecca H Kelly*
Debe K. Edden
Ellie Jackson
Emily Walsh
Sarah Huntington
Friends of Pooh & Piglet (up to $49)
Christina Franklin
Amanda Stevens
Celeste Morgan
Kathleen Butler
Nancy Nole
Noah Rubinstein
Elizabeth Hauser
Hua Fan
Jordanna Averett*
Joslyn Trivett & Rip Heminway
Kate Thompson
Meg Rosenberg
Richelle Perez*
Amy Herring*
Brinn Campaz
Kassidy Anderson
Kristina Alnajjar
Megan Gruver
Jessica Frierson
Kyle Burke
In Kind
Cathy Dahlstrom
Cortney Kelley
ORGANIZATION CREDITS:
OFT Staff
Artistic Director
Lily Raabe
Deputy Director
Mike Taylor
Education Director
Rachel Carlson
Box Office Staff
Tracy Thomas
Scenic Engineer
David Nowitz
Resident Designer
Jill Carter
Company-in-Residence
String & Shadow
Volunteer Bookkeeper
Diana Purvine
OFT Board of Directors
Executive Committee:
Samantha Chandler
Sara Thiessen
Nicole Miller
Heather Antanaitis
Members at Large:
Meghan Goodman
Jonnita Thompson
Ally Upton
