Paul Jacques (Director) is an award-winning writer, actor, fight choreographer, scenic designer, producer and director with over 200 stage, film, radio, television and commercial credits. As a director, Paul has been honored by the Inland Theatre League award for his work on two separate productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and was privileged to direct Broadway’s original Joseph, Bill Hutton, in a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Some of his other directing credits include Fiddler on the Roof, I Hate Hamlet (ITL Award, Scenic Design), Celadine (ITL Award), Glengarry Glen Ross (ITL Award), The Tempest, The Taming of the Shrew (ITL Award), Little Shop of Horrors (ITL Award), The Music Man and Godspell. Paul last appeared on stage as Elliot in the West Coast Premiere of Charles Evered’s Class (ITL Founder’s Award). Other roles include Petruchio (The Taming of the Shrew), Mortimer Brewster (Arsenic and Old Lace), Pseudolus (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum), Edmund (King Lear-ITL Award), Matt (The Fantasticks), Cornelius (Hello, Dolly!), and Curly (Oklahoma!). As a writer, Paul has had 20 scripts staged, and has written for the City of Riverside on projects such as the Grier Pavilion and the Fox Theater opening. He has worked with organizations such as Ordinance 14 Films, Syfy Channel and the Ruskin Theatre of Santa Monica. He is on the theatre faculty at San Bernardino Valley College, Mt. San Jacinto College, California Baptist University and CSU San Bernardino, is an Artist in Residence with the Riverside Arts Council, holds an AA in Music from RCC, a BA in Theatre from UCR, and an MFA in Writing for the Performing Arts from UCR. Paul also portrays Charles Dickens for the Riverside Dickens Festival and is a Co-Founder of 3 Theatre Group of Riverside. He lives in Riverside with his wife, Sarah, and their daughters, Katharina, Olivia and Cassandra.
Carol Damgen (Director) is a fulltime Theatre Arts faculty member at California State University, San Bernardino with an M.F.A. in Writing for the Performing Arts from the University of California, Riverside. She began her acting career on stage at the age of nine. Theatre credits range from timeless favorites, Richard III and A Flea in her Ear to contemporary works, Other Desert Cities and One Man, Two Guvnors. She has won twelve Inland Theatre League Awards for Acting, Directing, Playwriting and Scene Design. As a freelance director she has presented many modern and classic productions, such as: Almost, Maine, God of Carnage, Hauptman, Private Lives, The Hobbit, Fiddler on the Roof, The Great Gatsby, The Music Man and To Kill a Mockingbird to name a few. She is a member of SAG/AFTRA, the Dramatist Guild and the Co-Vice Chair for the National Playwriting Program for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) and a resident artist with the repertory company-Redlands Theatre Festival where she was awarded Outstanding Actress in a Lead Role for the 2015 season. Her original devised work, Without a Box won KCACTF’s “Most Compelling & Strongest Connection to the Prompt” 2014 Regional Award. As a writer, Carol had her original shows, The Twists and Turns of Edgar Allan Poe, Jackie Robinson: An American Dream and Grimm Tales produced at CSUSB. This is her fourth directorial adventure with Worldwide Theatricals. She looks forward to her fifth with the Sondheim classic, Into the Woods next year.
James Griffin (director) has enjoyed a long and colorful career as an actor, director and designer. He has worked for MGM, Universal Studios and Disney Theatrical. He has served as director, designer and actor for nearly 100 productions throughout Southern California. Film credits include such films as Sgt. Bilko, Get Shorty and Clueless, to name a few. A couple of his favorite roles include The Umpire, in a pre-Broadway workshop of Casey at the Bat, Edna in Hairspray, Charlie Brown in You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, King Arthur in Camelot, and Tartuffe in Tartuffe. He is thrilled to be working at The California Theatre again, after serving as director for the highly acclaimed productions of Proof, Tuesdays with Morrie, and Celebrate America. For years, James could be seen annually as Mother Ginger and Father in Inland Dance theatre’s production of The Nutcracker and now act as resident stage manager for the production. James has a Masters in Theatre Arts.
Jubel Obien (Musical Director) For the past 8 years, Jubel has coached and trained the over 300 singers a year that are cast in STILETTO ENTERTAINMENTS production shows for Holland America Cruise lines. Daily you can find her molding the performances of the top notch singers and performers in their shows. Ms. Obien studied as a soprano in The Metropolitan Opera’s Summer Singers program as well as Juilliard Summer series, and ten years as an associate vocal coach for legendary vocal coach Seth Riggs. Her favorite leading roles include Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar, Bloody Mary in South Pacific, and Martha in Company. On stage she has appeared as a backup singer with Michael McDonald, Jessica Simpson and jazz greats Dave Grusin (The Firm, and The Fabulous Baker Boys), renowned bassist Abe Laborial Sr. (George Benson and Al Jarreau.) She also toured with Paula Abdul as a singer/dancer and still enjoys teaching the new crop of upcoming stars. Behind the scenes she has directed more than 250 regional productions of Beehive, West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof and Steel Magnolias. Her current projects include musical arranging for developing artists under Simon Fuller (American Idol) and Jamie King (Madonna, Ricky Martin), and numerous musicals in the Riverside area, including AIDA and CHICAGO for her company BellaJohn Theatricals. Jubel has created musical vocal arrangements for award winning shows on Holland America ships such as HEAT, NORTHERN LIGHTS, ROCK LEGENDS, ROADHOUSE, ACES HIGH, and the newest shows now premiering on the seas ELEMENTS, DANCIN’, and RENAISSANCE.
Lisa Lyons (Music Director) is a professor of theatre at California State University, San Bernardino with a Master’s Degree from the same university. Prior to moving to the Inland Empire and starting her teaching career, Ms. Lyons performed with many Southern California Civic Light Opera companies; San Diego, San Gabriel and San Bernardino. While being “on” stage was a satisfying endeavor, Lisa also had a passion for teaching. She spent six years teaching choral music at the high school level, taking her choirs to festivals and producing full-scale musicals. In the community, Lisa worked with Junior University in San Bernardino, a children’s community theatre organization that has produced musicals for over 50 years. She began as a choreographer and moved to vocal direction in later years. At Redlands Theatre Festival, Lisa performed in many musicals but recently starting directing and handling musical direction. For nine years, Lisa worked as the Drama Coordinator for Immanuel Baptist Church in Highland. With a congregation of over seventeen hundred, she produced Broadway-style Christmas, Easter and Fourth of July extravaganzas. As a professor at CSUSB, Lisa taught Creative Dance in the Classroom for many years as well as Acting for Musical Theatre, Musical Theatre Dance and Tap. Her duties there also include choreography and vocal direction for a majority of the musicals produced there since 2001. She is proud of her award winning choreography for their production of “Cabaret”. Ms. Lyons has recently been directing at California Baptist University. “Little Women”, “Forever Plaid” and “HMS Pinafore” are some of her favorites. She has received Inland Theatre League awards for her direction of “Little Women” and “Forever Plaid”.
Travis Rhett Wilson (actor)- Travis has become a familiar face around the Inland Empire, having originated an interpretation of the tortured literary and poetic genius Edgar Allan Poe in the one man tour de force Lord, Help My Poor Soul: An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe, a role which has earned him two Inland Theatre League Awards. Travis also appears as Poe annually at the Riverside Dickens Festival alongside Riverside’s own Paul Jacques who plays Charles Dickens. Among Travis’s most recent credits are the delightful nut-job Charles Guiteau in Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece ASSASSINS, Edna Turnblad in Hairspray at the Redlands Bowl, Marley’s Ghost in A Christmas Carol at The California Theatre, Mr. Marks in Intimate Apparel (ITL Award & Scotty Award Nomination at Riverside Community Players), and Greta in Bent (ITL Award). This year Travis was honored with his first ITL Founders Award for his portrayal of John Wilkes Booth in the one man play Damned: JOHN WILKES BOOTH: Bloody Patriot. Other dramatic credits include the title role in the Shakespearian tragedy (don’t say it out loud) MacBeth (ITL Award), Serge in Art (ITL Award), Renfield in Dracula (ITL Award), and Leroy in The Bad Seed (ITL Award). Travis’s other notable musical theatre credits include Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Show (ITL Award), Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady, Herr Shultz in Cabaret (ITL Nomination), Mushnik in Little Shop of Horrors, Narrator/Mysterious Man in Into The Woods, and Rotti Largo in Repo: The Genetic Opera. Travis also had the honor of creating the role of villain Marquee St. Evermonde in Jordan Beck’s well-received musical adaptation of the timeless Charles Dickens masterpiece A Tale of Two Cities. Travis has performed in Orange and LA County as well in such roles as Albert Einstein in Picasso at the Lapine Agile, as Edgar Allan Poe at TreStage in Hollywood, and he appears regularly in multiple roles for the musical dinner theatre murder mystery company The Gourmet Detective at both their locations in Newport Beach, as well as the Avilla Terrace near the Mission Inn, in nearby Riverside. Independent film credits include JOHNSCHOOL & 17 PHOTOS from JTL Productions, and as the lovely scumbag politician Ryan Andrews in the soon to be released –RM, and as the intellectual cannibal Martin, in the soon to be released Safety in Numbers. You can find out more about Travis’s upcoming projects at his Facebook page at Facebook.com/ActorCatharsis, or you can follow him on Twitter, and subscribe to his YouTube channel “Travis Rhett Wilson” as well.
