Amielynn Abellera
Amielynn Abellera is a graduate of USC’s MFA in Acting program, and an LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award nominated actress. Recent onstage credits include Liv in Burners (Moving Arts), Julia in 1984 (Greenway Court), Landry in Captain of the Bible Quiz Team (Rogue Machine Theatre), and Viola in Twelfth Night (Coeurage Theatre). Her favorite roles include Sampaguita in Dusty de los Santos (Skylight Theatre), and Edith in Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them (Artists at Play). Other regional credits with The Odyssey Theatre, Off Square Theatre Wyoming, Shakespeare Center of LA, Theatre at Boston Court, MainStreet Theatre, Chalk Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, and San Jose Stage. Read More…

Lane Allison
Lane Allison (SAG-AFTRA) is an actor, producer, writer, director, who recently launched the Pilot of her new web series, After Pluto on YouTube. She has appeared on BET’s Vindicated, the short films The Deserted with NYFA, Kidnapping with Ion Films, and Gloria for Reese’s Puffs Extraordinary Cinema/Dreaming Tree Films, as well as the web series Room For Shenanigans with Asta Forever Films and the fake/mock trailer Deleted (co-producer, director, and writer). Previously, she’s been a member of The Production Company, where she performed in I Fart in My Sleep: Confessions of An Embarrassing Life, the musical Working, and The Eight: Reindeer Monologues. Read More…

Olivia Applegate
Olivia Grace Applegate is an actor and singer based out of Los Angeles. Most recently, you can see her playing Rooney Mara’s sister in Terrance Malick’s feature “Song to Song” where she acted alongside such performers as Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Ryan Gosling and Natalie Portman. She played the leading role in “The Honor Farm” with Michelle Forbes, Louis Hunter and Liam Aiken which premiered at SXSW this year. Read More…

Dennis Baker
Los Angles Credits: LOOKING FOR BRUCE (Open Fist), HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (Actors Co-op), REAL ESTATE (Little Fish Theatre), DIARY OF ANNE FRANK (Curtis Theater); THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAN (Long Beach); THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (Knightsbridge Theatre). Regional Credits: JOAN OF ARC, HAMLET (Gorilla Rep, NYC); TWELFTH NIGHT, THE GIVER (NYU); PICASSO AT THE LAPIN AGILE, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (Two River Theater Co., NJ); THE COUNTRY WIFE (The New Theater, NJ). Read More…

Tisha Terrasini Banker
Tisha is thrilled to be back performing at Open Fist, her first artistic home in LA! And she is equally thrilled to be working with Ron West and Catherine Butterfield again. Some of her favorite theater experiences are: The Book of Liz, Life Expectancy, The Idiot Box, Because They Have No Words, Seven Santas, and Flight. Her TV credits include: Pretty the Series, Growing up Fischer, Welcome to the Family, Criminal Minds, Beware the Batman, Duck Dodgers, Raising the Bar, Leverage, Sleeper Cell, and Joey. Read More…

John Bozeman
Originally from Myrtle Beach, S.C.; attended Duke University and New York University’s Graduate Film School before moving West; has studied with William Alderson and Wendy Phillips; Theatre includes Horton Foote’s “The Roads to Home,” “Harrison, Texas” (Second Story Theatre), and “Foote Notes” (Open Fist), all three directed by Scott Paulin; Television includes “Entourage,” “Miracle at Gate 213,” and “Veep.”  Read More…

Sandra Kate Burck
Sandra Kate Burck spent her formative years growing up on the Big Island of Hawaii as a member of the the Aloha Performing Arts Company. She is overjoyed to now be working with the Open Fist Theatre Company as her new second home here in Los Angeles! Sandra’s most recent theatrical credits include The Middle (ABC), Rush Hour (CBS), and Key and Peele (Comedy Central). She has also appeared in national commercials and recently completed UCLA’s inaugural Professional Program for Acting (2016). Read More…

Caitlin Renee Campbell
Bio Coming Soon. Read More…

Christopher Cappiello
Christopher is an actor and director who joined Open Fist in November 2015. Recent work includes playing Sidney Bruhl in the Sierra Madre Playhouse’s acclaimed  production of Deathtrap. Prior work on both coasts includes leading roles in works by Shakespeare, Shaw, Ibsen, Chekhov, Strindberg, Stoppard and Pinter. Chris was privileged to work often with playwright Romulus Linney in New York, including the off-Broadway premiere of Gint, Mr. Linney’s Appalachian adaptation of Peer Gynt that traveled to the National Theatre of Norway. Read More…

Jacque Lynn Colton
Jacque, long-time Open Fist Theatre Company member, participated in Foote Notes, Nobody Likes Jews When They’re Winning, Life on This Couch, 365 Days/365 Plays, Abington Square, Golden Round, Death Comes to Us All, Mary Agnes, Roberto Zucco, The Time of Your Life, Travesties, How to Explain Communism to Mental Patients (Edinburgh International Fringe Festival), and happily reprises the role of Aunt Julia in James Joyce’s The Dead. Read More…

Martha Demson (Artistic Director)
Ms. Demson believes passionately in the voice and role of theatre in our communities.Highlights of her award-winning career with the Open Fist Theatre include: As a producer: THE GARY PLAYS (Mednick), THE COSMONAUT’S LAST MESSAGE TO THE WOMAN HE ONCE LOVED IN THE FORMER SOVIET UNION (Greig), HOW TO EXPLAIN THE HISTORY OF COMMUNISM TO MENTAL PATIENTS Read More…

Bill Jackson
Open Fist has been good to me. They’ve let me play in their yard – The Scottish Tragedy, Stage Door, The Devil with Boobs, Foote Notes, The Good Woman of Szechuan, Land of the Astronauts, Comedy of Errors, Machinal. And I guess I’ve been good to them, too with schlepping and hanging and painting and cleaning and box officing and ushering and bar tending – that covers most of it. If you’re new to the company I hope you’ll enjoy your tenure as much as I have mine. Read More…

Laura James
Laura has been in the theatrical media for over 35 years as an actress, director, teacher. Her career spans performances in England, Italy, Hong Kong, East Africa. Films include Raging Bull, Losin’ It, And the Band Played On. She has worked extensively on network TV, in soaps and episodics. Her numerous stage credits at: The Old Globe , SD; SF Shakespeare Festival, El Portal, Tiffany, etc.,etc. She has performed two one woman shows: Gertrude Stein’s, Ms Furr and Ms Skeene and Virginia Woolfe, in her Own Words, featured at the John Anson Ford and L.A. Women’s Festival. Read More…

Carl J. Johnson
Theatre highlights include playing Charles in Open Fist’s production of THE GARY PLAYS, JOHN IS A FATHER (The Road), FILM (NOTE), LARAMIE PROJECT 10 YEARS LATER (LAGLC), ANGELS FALL (The Prod. Co.), BREMEN FREEDOM (Odyssey).  Screen credits include ZNATION, MONK, SCRUBS and the MEN IN BLACK films. Read More…

Carol Kline
Carol Kline, a new member of the OPEN FIST, started in regional theatre at PCPA/Solvang Theatrefest and by the 90’s, was awarded the “Distinguished Artist Award of the Los Angeles Music Center” for her work at the Mark Taper Forum,  Center Theatre Group.  Favorite work includes productions by Deaf West, OLIVER!, and BIG RIVER, at the Taper, and directed by Broadway’s Jeff Calhoun.  Carol was honored to record the role of Mrs. Beaver in Disney’s NARNIA, Songs of Wonder and for Library of Congress, shows for the Gershwin Foundation and Tommy Krasker, including SOPHISTICATED LADIES and PARDON MY ENGLISH. Read More…

Elizabeth Lande
Elizabeth Lande was last seen as Professor Vivian Bearing in WIT at Playhouse on Park in Hartford, Ct., for which she received a Connecticut Theater Critic’s nomination for Best Actress in a Play.  Several of her favorite performances have included Phoebe in AS YOU LIKE IT at The Yale Repertory Theatre, works by Maria Irene Fornes at The Trinity Rep, A KNIFE IN THE HEART at New Dramatists, LOOK BACK IN ANGER at The Williamstown Theater Festival, Lady Percy in KING HENRY IV Part 2 at The New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, Luz in UNMERCIFUL GOOD FORTUNE and Natalya in THE THREE SISTERS at Yale School of Drama. Read More…

Darrell Larson
Darrell is an actor, director, writer and teacher. He has directed more than 50 plays (including many plays of Sam Shepard’s, including, in LA: COWBOY MOUTH (with Ed Harris), MAD DOG BLUES, THE UNSEEN HAND; in NYC: ACTION, THE SAD LAMENT OF PECOS BILL, KILLER’S HEAD. He directed and adapted Bob Dylan’s TARANTULA, in LA; and directed Steve Earle’s KARLA in Nashville; Denis Johnson’s PSYCHOS NEVER DREAM at Campo Santo in San Francisco, and Johnson’s SHOPPERS CARRIED BY ESCALATORS INTO THE FLAMES (with Michael Shannon) in NYC; Adam Rapp’s FASTER at Rattlestick Theater in NYC (with Chris Messina), and many many more. Read More…

Robert Lesko
Robert wrote and performed “B. Franklin,” a one-person play. He has appeared in Los Angeles in Room Service, Both, and Fernando at the Open Fist Theatre, the operetta Charlotte: Life? Or Theatre? at The Met Theatre, and with Circus Theatricals in The Heiress, Iphigenia In Aulis, and The Circle. Regional theatre appearances include Undiscovered Country, Galileo, and After The Fall at Arena Stage, Richard III at The Folger Shakespeare Theatre, and The Miser and The Tenth Man at Olney Theatre. Read More…

Laura Liguori
Laura Liguori grew up in Scottsdale Arizona. She classically trained at the Oxford School of Drama in Oxford England, and Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Laura is currently staring in the Gary Play Series written by award winning playwright Murray Mednick.  In which she stars in the haunting role of ‘Laura”. The Gary Plays will premier in Los Angeles May 2017. Most recent stage credits also include the role of “Marilyn Monroe” in the new play- Marilyn Madness and Me- that premiered at the El Portal Theatre in Hollywood. She also starred in the world premiere play entitled Between Pretty Places, which premiered in Los Angeles and New York. Read More…

Dylan Maddalena
Dylan has been involved in theater, film and television since a very young age. He has appeared in numerous Open Fist Theater Company shows over the past decade. Dylan holds a BFA from the University of Southern California and is a member of SAG-AFTRA. Read More…

Roderick Menzies
An actor, director, producer, and coach, Rod became a member of OFTC in 2016. OFTC: The Gary Plays (DaddyO); ANW: Oedipus (Creon); EST/LA: House of the Rising Son (Bowen). Also for EST/LA, where he is Co-Artistic Director, he directed The Many Mistresses of MLK (Ovation Nomination Best New Play) and produced Mutual Philanthropy, Princes of Kings Road, Watching OJ, Winterfest, and the One Act Festival. On college faculties for 20 years, including, most recently, USC, he is a first-call coach for Voice, Speech and Dialects. Read More…

Paul Myrvold
Paul performed on Broadway (Shenandoah, Kings), Off Broadway (My Old Friends) and Off-Off Broadway (The Gilded Cage). He has been a Guest Artist at colleges and universities across the country. Paul trained at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, and with Wynn Handman in New York. Favorite roles include Cervantes/Quixote in Man of La Mancha, Lear in King Lear, Billy Flynn in Chicago, Caldwell B. Cladwell in Urinetown: The Musical, Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, Macheath in The Three Penny Opera, and Trigorin in The Sea Gull Read More…

Vince Paegler III
Vince is an actor, writer, and director. After leaving a successful career in Investment Banking, Vince decided to move to LA to pursue acting. He has studied with Tony Savant from the Playhouse West Acting School, Eden Bernardy and Larry Moss. He has also completed Level I & II at The Groundlings. Vince has written the screenplays: Philly Blues and New Merica (director), which have been screened at several film festivals. Vince’s Film/TV credits include, Days of our Lives, Psychos, and Assistants. Read More…

Mary Linda Phillips
Mary started her acting career in NYC. She performed at Lincoln Center, The Harold Clurman Theater, New Dramatists, and The Manhattan Punchline Theater. Regionally, she played Frances in Light Up The Sky (NC), Doris in Same Time Next Year (Palm Springs) and Dinah in South Pacific, directed by James Hammerstein at the Coconut Grove Playhouse (Miami). Some Los Angeles favorites are Peggy in A Late Snow (Robby award winner), Kate in Dancing At Lughnasa (Theatre West), 14 characters in Spoon River (directed by Betty Garrett) and Mrs. Malins in James Joyce’s The Dead (Open Fist Theater Company). TV credits include The West Wing, Dirty Sexy Money, and recurring roles on Gilmore Girls and Grace and Frankie. Read More…

Laura Richardson
Laura is an actor, writer and producer. As an actor, Laura’s recent film credits include, Troubled Child, Decomposed, Good-bye, Simon, Give up the Ghost, Go North, and Shattered Illusions. Her latest television roles, Monday Mornings, Criminal Minds, Law and Order L.A., The Event, and Desperate Housewives. A few of her favorite stage credits include the Critic’s Pick world premiere of Horton Foote’s, The Roads to Home, and Harrison, Texas, at The Lost Studios, the Critic’s Pick The Last Pitch, at NoHo Arts Center, and the Critic’s Pick Curse of the Starving Class Read More…

Beth Robbins
Actress/Writer. MFA from UCI. Improv with Viola Spolin, The Groundlings and Stephen Book. Acting roles include: Karen (Everything is Enough), Estelle (Drive), Eleanor (Rock and Roll), Mrs. Shin (Good Woman of Shetzuan), Mrs. Shaw (Stage Door) at Open Fist. Sara Jane Moore (Assassins), Gussie (Merrily We Roll Along) and Ethel Banks (Barefoot in the Park). Two award winning films for AFI; Wet Fur and Left at the Rio Grande. And she was one of the first actresses to play a lesbian for daytime TV on “All my Children” in the 1980’s. Read More…

Scott Roberts
As an actor and writer, Scott is a new member of The Open Fist and a lifetime member of The Actors Studio. Some notable NY work includes Hurlyburly (Maddox Theatre), Beyond Therapy (Bank St. Theater), O’Neill’s Now You Ask Me (Provincetown Playhouse) and Pride’s Crossing (Bleecker St. Theater). He is thrilled to have worked at many Los Angeles theaters including The Odyssey Theater Ensemble, A Noise Within, The Rubicon Theater, Pacific Resident Theater and Boston Court. Read More…

Judith Scarpone
BROADWAY: “THE TWILIGHT OF THE GOLDS” (BOOTH THEATRE)…..over 150 productions OFF-B’WAY and REGIONALLY: The Kennedy Center, The Hartman, Pasadena Playhouse, The Paramount, Walnut Street, Marines Memorial Theatre, Syracuse Stage, GeVa, Whole Theatre Co., Bergenstage. LOS ANGELES: Boston Court, The Odyssey, The Hayworth, The Court, The Coronet, The Canon, The Hudson, The Open Fist, The Road. INTERNATIONALLY: Florence International Theatre Co., The Global Theatre Project in Florence, Italy. Read More…

Mandy Schneider
Mandy Schneider is very excited to be a new member of Open Fist Theatre Company! Originally from the suburbs of Chicago, Mandy quickly fell in love with theatre. She then decided to go somewhere even colder, Syracuse University, and get her B.F.A. in acting, where she also performed at Syracuse Stage! Upon returning to Chicago, she studied with Second City, and did many plays. Film credits include getting possessed by a demon child in David Goyer’s The Unborn and shooting some aliens in The Avengers; she also dabbles in stunts! Read More…

Jennifer Schoch
Jennifer first performed with The Open Fist in 2012 in the Ron West directed Early and Often. She has since been with the company quite often, as an actor, writer and producer. Notable experiences with the Open Fist include co-producing the show Mad Forest and performing in the role of Lucia, writing and producing the Open Fist produced Hollywood Fringe show First Dates, playing the role of Tara in Reasons to Live at the Skylight Theatre and most recently, writing and performing her piece Growing Up Female for the political pop-up show entitled Before the Sensors Stop Us. Read More…

Barbara Schofield
Selected Performance/Production Credits: Directing : Los Angeles: Premiere Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n’ Roll, Treadwell’s Machinal ,Kaufman & Ferber’s Stage Door, (Open Fist Theatre: LA Weekly Nomination Best Director), Incident at Vichy (Broadway World Best Director), Arcadia, Proof, The Fantastiks (Sierra Madre Playhouse). New York: Great Catherine (Roundabout/Susan Bloch Theatre), World Premier Uncontrollablelements (The Kitchen), The Maids (Jean Cocteau); Hamlet, Three Sisters, The Balcony, Endgame, Romeo and Juliet, The Man in the Glass Booth, What the Butler Saw (Independent Theatre/House of Candles Theatre) Read More…

Evan Silverman
Evan is an actor and writer and a newer member of The Open Fist. He was born in the sleepy town of Brooklyn, New York but was shortly thereafter whisked away to Los Angeles. After spending his formative years as a musician and sketch comedian he attended The American Academy of Dramatic Arts & Circle in the Square, where his love for theatre was solidified. Some of his favorite stage credits include: Summer & Smoke (T. Schreiber Theatre), Proof (The Kraine), The Glory of Living (Victory Theatre), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Pasadena Playhouse). Read More…

Stefania Spampinato
Stefania Spampinato is an actress former dancer and newer member of The Open Fist. She was born in a small town at the base of the Etna Volcano in Belpasso, Sicily.   She started dancing at 6 years old. Her passion for the arts at a young age was undeniable so her mother started making her dance costumes so she could afford her daughter’s tuition. After graduating high school with honors, she did something unheard of in her small village; she bought a plane ticket & left.  What came to follow was a  wildly successful career in dance & theatre that lasted 10 years & included collaborations with JOAQUIN CORTEZ, KYLIE MINOGUE, DEMI LOVATO, LEONA LEWIS, NEO, TAKE THAT, NIKE, SAMSUNG, TOYOTA TARGET, WELLS FARGO, ADIDAS, MILLER LIGHT, THE VOICE UK, & THE X FACTOR USA & UK. Read More…

Kim Swennen
At the Open Fist, Kim played Jean Maitland in Stage Door, Adriana in Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors, Cecily in Stoppard’s Travesties and The Woman in Blue Night in the Heart of the West. Other credits include The Ohio 4th (Hudson Mainstage), Scarcity (Need Theatre), Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare Santa Monica), Alexandrina in The Uneasy Chair (Ensemble Theatre Company, Santa Barbara), Polixenes in The Winter’s Tale (Embassy Theatre, London), Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and one of the Witches/Ross in Macbeth (London and European tour). Read More…

Caitlin Thompson
Caitlin is an actor, writer, and a fairly new member of The Open Fist Theatre Company. Her stage credits include: Out-of-Network (actor/writer, Hollywood Fringe Festival), The Gary Plays, Captive, and Uncommon Women & Others. Some of her tv/film credits include a recurring role on 90210 (CW), The Neighbors (ABC), Greek (recurring, ABC FAMILY), Walking the Halls (LIFETIME) and Crazy, Stupid, Love (WB). Read More…

Josh Trant
Josh Trant received his professional training from the prestigious Actors Studio Drama School in New York, which continues to help launch the careers of award-winning actors.  After his training, Josh moved to LA, where he now studies as a finalist at The Actors Studio West, the Groundlings Theatre School, and is a member of the The Open Fist Theatre Company. Josh has appeared in several short and feature films that have and continue to tour the festival circuits. Originally from Texas, Josh pursues opportunities to act uniquely diverse roles.  Read More…

Emily Tunon
Emily Tunon from Houston, TX raised in Panama City, Panama. Both a whimsical Assistant Stage Manager and Actress graduated from The American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Aside from Open Fist, she has worked and studied at: South Coast Repertory, Stages Repertory Theatre, The LA Little Theatre, Project Nongenue, Moving Arts, Greenway Court Theatre and now the beautiful Atwater Village Theatre. Her stage credits include Julius Caesar, Both: A Hard Day’s Silent Night, Forgotten Corners, The Savage Dilemma, Pinocchio, As You Like it, The Nacierma Society , A Month in the Country, and The Amazing Adventures of Peter Rabbit. Read More…

Amanda Weier
Actor, writer, director & long-time member of The Open Fist,  Amanda has studied Theatre & Creative Writing for the Media at Northwestern, where she was awarded a certificate for Outstanding Achievement in Theatre. Amanda also holds a Certificate in Directing from The Royal Court and is a graduate of iO, iO West & The Second City’s Conservatory program. Read More…

Norbert Weisser
Norbert Weisser is a founding member of the Odyssey Theatre, the ProVisional Theatre and the Padua Hills Playwrights Festival. He has performed in theatres throughout Europe and the US, including on Broadway where he played Rode in Ronald Harwood’s ‘Taking Sides.’ He has directed Murray Mednick plays at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco and the Mark Taper Forum’s New Playwrights Festival. For his work in theatre he has received LA Weekly, Ovation and Drama Logue Awards and LA Drama Critics nominations. He has acted in over ninety Motion Picture and Television productions. Read More…