SF Arts Ed Players Staff Biographies

Emily Keeler - Producer/Artistic Director/Choreographer
Ms. Keeler has worked as a professional dancer and choreographer in the San Francisco Bay Area for over thirty years. She served as dancer and resident choreographer for the San Francisco Moving Company and was a principal dancer for Cliff Keuter New Dance Company and the Joe Goode Performance Group. Ms. Keeler has choreographed dances for many companies including Joffrey Dancers, DanceArt and Oakland Ballet. She also has choreographed for George Coates Performance Works, Magic Theater, The Pickle Family Circus, Make*A*Circus, American Conservatory Theater and several Z Space productions. She is a recipient of four National Endowment for the Arts Choreographers' Fellowships. Ms. Keeler has been Artistic Director of the San Francisco Arts Education Project since 1985 and serves as Artistic Director and choreographer for the SF Arts Ed Players. She has worked as a guest artist at School of the Arts for five years and served on the San Francisco Arts Commission from 1994 to 1997.

Camille Olivier-Salmon – Program Liaison/Choreographer
Ms. Olivier-Salmon is the founder and acting Artistic Director of Brisbane Dance Workshop. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Choreographic Design and was an American Dance Festival and National Dance Guild scholarship recipient. She has studied and performed professionally in New York City, Louisiana, and in the San Francisco Bay Area. A mother of three, she has been teaching children's dance for over fifteen years. She has been working with Artsed since 1985. Ms. Olivier-Salmon is one of the choreographers for the SF Arts Ed Players.

Danny Duncan - Theatrical Director/Dramaturge
Danny Duncan is a native San Franciscan who has worked in the Bay Area most of his life. As founder and Artistic Director of Duncan & Company, he toured the West Coast for seven years. Duncan's writing career began in 1969 with Uhuruh, which appeared Off Broadway in New York at the City Center Theatre. Since then, he has authored and produced eight original musicals including Billie’s Song -- winner of six Bay Area Critic Awards, including Best Musical of 1982. He is also the recipient of the Bay Area Critics Circle Award for his choreography for Theatreworks production of RAISIN the musical in 1998 as well as the Dean Goodman Choice Award for outstanding achievement in theatre. For five years Duncan served as Artistic Director for the Mayor's Summer Youth Program (Bayview Hunter's Point) and for ten years with United Projects, an arts organization that trained young people in the performing arts. Duncan has written the librettos and song lyrics for eight of the San Francisco Arts Education Project's Events. Mr. Duncan has a long association with the School of the Arts and has taught at the American Conservatory Theater. He has been associated with Artsed since 1991.

Joey Price - Assistant Director
As well as working for SFARTSED as a drama teacher and assistant director for The Music Man, Joey Price is also heavily involved in other artistic projects throughout the city. During his time at San Francisco State University, Joey created Emo! the Musical, presented by the SFSU Players' Club in 2006 and directed Urinetown, the Musical in 2007, also presented by the Players' Club. He is an intern for Boxcar Theatre Company and the co-founder of the up and coming BEARDS BEARDS BEARDS: A Theatre Company, which will be presenting Emo! the Musical again this August. Joey is also a founding member of VentureTek, San Francisco's newest, alternative sketch comedy group. Joey graduated with high honors from San Francisco State University in May 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts in Drama.

Natalie Greene - Choreographer
Natalie Greene is a performer, choreographer and arts educator who received her BFA from Arizona State University. Her choreography has appeared in Italy’s Montescudaio Amphitheatre, Club Principe in Granada, Spain, and for three funny years in Phoenix’s weekly “Farce Side Comedy Hour. ” Natalie’s work has been seen locally at ODC Theatre, John Sims Center and the College of San Mateo. She has performed with Kelly Kemp/raw footage, Leyya Tawil/Dance Elixir, Kim Epifano/Epiphany Productions and is currently working with Mary Armentrout. This is her third season with the Event Players and she has truly enjoyed bringing this story to life.

Dan Kryston – Set Designer
Is the head of the Technical Theatre Dept. at SOTA. Mr. Kryston received his degrees in Theatre Directing and Design from Virginia Commonwealth University and Regis University. He has worked as artistic director for the Berlitz Gallery Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona and has been an active force in San Francisco’s cabaret scene. He has directed and designed over 120 productions nation wide for such companies as the Ravens Conservatory Theatre in Chicago; The Black Friars, in Washington D.C. and the New Conservatory Theatre and Lamplighters, here in San Francisco. He is currently directing Follies for School of the Arts.

Kathleen Moore – Wardrobe Mistress
Ms. Moore has been designing and coordinating costumes for the San Francisco Arts Education Project since 1994. She was Wardrobe Mistress for three years for Lenwood Sloan’s Jubilee Minstrels. She has also done costuming for Oblong Rhonda Dance Theater, TRANSIT Dance Company, Brisbane Dance Workshop and Emily Keeler for Summerfest. During the daytime hours, Ms. Moore is the Administrative Coordinator for the San Francisco Arts Education Project. She also performs with TRANSIT Dance Company and teaches creative movement and dance to senior citizens in the Tenderloin community.

Linda Ricciardi – Costume Designer & Builder
Linda Ricciardi is a designer, milliner and builder specializing in sculptural costumes and soft sculpture props for theater. Ms. Ricciardi’s experience, while including numerous projects for stage, also includes projects for television, dance, and opera. Some of Ms. Ricciardi’s notable projects include Broadway musicals (Spamelot, The Producers, Seussical, the Musical, The Lion King), Radio City Music Hall (Pokemon, Scooby Doo Live, Blues Clues), The Lincoln Center Festival (My Life as a Fairy Tale), and the Brooklyn Academy of Music (Pericles). Ms. Ricciardi recently moved to the Bay Area after working and living in New York City for ten years. Her recent projects in addition to Artist in Residence at School of the Arts include; Prop Maker for the tour of Spamelot; Milliner for the show Passing Strange at the Berkeley Repertory Theater; Hat designer and Milliner for the play Far Away by Caryl Churchill. Linda lives with her boyfriend Oliver and her cat Leo in San Francisco.

Henry Shin – Musical Director
Henry Shin currently serves as assistant conductor of the University Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Civic Orchestra. He has also served as music director of the UC Berkeley Summer Symphony for three summers, assistant conductor of the USC Concert Orchestra, and has made several guest conducting appearances with the USC Thornton Symphony and Chamber Orchestras.
Mr. Shin’s principal conducting teachers include David Milnes, Carl St.Clair, John Barnett, and Larry Livingston. He has also attended master classes taught by Kurt Masur, Marin Alsop, Gustav Meier, Daniel Lewis, and Stanislaw Skrowavczewski. Recently, he has been the recipient of the of UC Berkeley’s Alfred Hertz Memorial Traveling Fellowship, where he studied with Carl St.Clair at the Deutsches Nationaltheater und Staatskapelle Weimar in Germany. He began his musical training on the piano at the age of four, and later on the cello. He received his B.A. in music from UC Berkeley and his Master’s at the USC Flora L. Thornton School of Music in orchestral conducting. Mr. Shin has worked with SFArtsEd for several summers in their SFArtsEd Summer program and marks his first year with the SFArtsEd Players this year.

Tom Shaw - Vocal Coach and Accompanist
Tom Shaw has been a busy accompanist and event and theatre pianist in San Francisco since 1978 and he joined SFArtsEd as vocal coach and accompanist in the summer of 2007. Among his credits are "The Very Worst of Varla Jean Merman", "When Pigs Fly", "Christmas With The Crawfords", "Oh, My Godmother!" and "The Man Who Saved Christmas". Next up, a new production of "Oh, My Godmother!" that will play for 10 weeks at the Zeum Theatre in San Francisco starting in June, 2008. Tom also appears regularly at various monthly events on Sunday nights at Martuni's in San Francisco, including: Bijou, Opera Lady, Katya Presents and Cookie After Dark.

Suzanne Foster -- Dance Instructor
Suzanne Foster grew up in Arizona and began studying Jazz and Ballet. She performed with The Beat Modern Jazz Company where she worked with talented artists such as Brian Friedman, Mia Micheals, and Wes Veldink . Suzanne attended Arizona State University on a full dance scholarship and graduated with a BFA in Dance Choreography. She moved to New York in 2003 where she had the pleasure of working with Choreographers such as Jana Hicks, Maija Garcia, Oliver and Teri Steele, and Richard Rivera. Suzanne moved to San Francisco in August 2007. She is currently teaching Pilates at The Sports Club LA, working with the youth program at ODC and working with SFArtsEd. She is very excited to be a part of SFArtsEd and grateful to be working along side such a talented staff.