Directors/Teaching Artists

Robert Nickel - Actor/Director/Writer/
Teaching Artist
Robert, has deep roots in the Point Loma Theater community. He discovered his lifelong passion for theater in productions at Sunset View Elementary, Correia Jr. High, and Point Loma High School, where he appeared in numerous shows and was a member of the PLHS Thespian Society. He earned his B.A. in Theater from Stanford University, where, among other accomplishments, he was a founding member of the improv troupe Spontaneous Generation, served on the Board of Directors of the of Ram's Head Theatrical Society, and chaired the on-campus Undergraduate Lighting Project. Following graduation, he held the role of creative director for two Northern California faith-based theater companies, at First Congregational Church Palo Alto and at Menlo Park Presbyterian. Since relocating back to Point Loma, he has performed with the Red Brick Players at Point Loma Presbyterian; served from 2016–2019 with Christian Youth Theater in the roles of acting teacher, sound designer, and production team member; and, most recently, appeared at Point Loma Playhouse in Glorious!, playing the role of Cosme McMoon.

D. Candis Paule, CSA is the owner of Candis Casting. Since 2003 she has been the premiere San Diego casting director and has worked on such projects as Pitch, Terriers, The Ex List, Point Pleasant, and all three seasons of Veronica Mars. Along with many telenovellas for Fox’s My Network, she has been the primary or local casting director on a wide variety of pilots and features. She has worked on hundreds of union and non-union commercials, print jobs, voice over projects, and industrials. Her educational background is in the dramatic arts and life sciences. Ms. Paule is also an award-winning actor, director and private coach.

Jeanette Knight - Jeanette is an actor, director and choreographer. As a proud member of SAG/AFTRA and Actors Equity Association, she has played over twenty roles, ranging from Rose in The Woolgatherer at the Tony award winning Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago, to Shen Te/Shui Ta in Brecht’s Good Person of Szechuan to Roberta in Going to a Place Where You Already Are. But her most demanding role was Louise in Always, Patsy Cline, which played to sold out audiences in 2011 and 2013. From 1997-2006, she worked full time as the Education Program Director for the McCallum Theatre, supervising a faculty of fourteen teaching artists and helping coordinate and judge the English Speaking Union’s Shakespeare Competition. Simultaneously, she served as the Executive Director for the Beaumont Actors Studio. She has been teaching acting and directing at the Idyllwild Arts Academy since 2006, where she has also directed several highly lauded productions. Other theaters/venues she has directed for include the Indian Wells Theatre, Arthur Newman Theatre, Palm Canyon Theatre, Truckee Meadows Community College, Brewery Arts Center, Coachella Valley Repertory and the Green Room Theatre, where she directed Hamlet. In 2014, as Artistic Director for the Indio Performing Arts Center, she conceived of and carried out the first ever Coachella Valley Improv Festival, which has moved to the Hi-Desert Cultural Center and been re-branded as the Joshua Tree International Improv/ Comedy Festival, now approaching its fifth year. In 2017, she received the Most Inspirational Award from the Desert Theatre League.

Peter Frisch - Peter has directed over 160 productions in New York and
regional theatre and produce 160 hours of network television. He has
been executive Director of The Granada Theatre in Santa Barbara, Producing
Director of the Hyde Park Festival Theatre, NY., Resident Director with the
Berkshire Theatre Festival and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and
Artistic Director of American Playwrights Theatre in Washington D.C.
In Los Angeles, Mr. Frisch served as Producer of The Young and the
Restless for CBS and Fox Network's "Tribes." His macabre comedy,
"Deadication," won the "Best of the Fest" award at the Seattle Film
Festival. Peter's work has received the Joseph Jefferson, Outer Circle
and Helen Hayes Awards. His Play "American Dreams," co-authored with
Studs Terkel, has played in New York and all over the U.S. and Canada.
As a nationally recognized teacher and coach, he served as Head of the
prestigious Carnegie Mellon School of Drama and held faculty posts at
The Juilliard School, Carnegie Mellon, Harvard University, Boston and
Cal Arts. Currently, he runs The Frisch Approach hosting acting classes in Santa Monica,
Sherman Oaks and Santa Barbara.

Hannah Ryan -
Broadway Resident Director of HAMILTON. Founding collaborator of Nettelworks: a creative collective. Director: CONFIDENCE AND THE SPEECH (Theatre Row) ALL DRESSED UP (Redhouse Arts Center) RIOT SONG (The Drama League: Joe's Pub) EVERY PATH (La Jolla Playhouse & Moxie Theatre) STILL LIFE (Keller Gallery) THE GUYS (Davenport Theatre) ASCENDED (Zoetic Stage) NEW YORK THEATRE GALA (Plaza Hotel) THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT (Drama League’s Rough Draft Series) LET'S MISBEHAVE (Mr. Finn’s Cabaret) CENDRILLON and GIANNI SCHICCHI (Point Loma Opera) TWELFTH NIGHT, MIDSUMMER, THE FORCED MARRIAGE, et al (Point Loma Playhouse), Broadway Resident Director of An American in Paris, Associate Director The Curious Incident on Broadway, Circus in Winter (Goodspeed), The Golem of Havana (Barrington Stage Company & Miami New Drama) Assistant Director: Doctor Zhivago & 700 Sundays (HBO), Christopher Plummer’s A Word or Two (CTG), Fetch Clay, Make Man (NYTW), Sideways and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (La Jolla Playhouse). Member of SDC, Drama League Director’s Project Fellow & Resident, SDC Foundation Denham Fellow

DeAnna Driscoll - DeAnna is a recipient of the San Diego Critics Circle award and the BACKSTAGE magazine’s Garland award. She is a proud member of both Actor’s Equity and SAG/AFTRA. Most recently DeAnna was seen in the award winning production of The Quality of Life with Intrepid Theatre. Previous to that she was seen in Moxie Theater’s ‘Mud Blue Sky’’ and just before that she performed in ‘Bethany’ at The Old Globe Theater. Other theaters include: NSC Black Box (NY), Cockpit Theater (NY), Diversionary Theater, The Old Globe Theater, The San Diego Repertory Theater and more. Favorite roles include: Jeanette in Quality of Life, Frankie in Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Grace in Bus Stop, Haley in Bad Dates, Eve Ensler in The Good Body, and Regan in King Lear. Television and film credits include: “Lincoln Heights”, “Point Pleasant”, “Veronica Mars”, “Decaf”, “Nixon Baby”. Commercial credits include: Union Bank, Pepsi, Sunny Delight, and AT&T.

Jordan Miller, award winning Equity Actor who has performed internationally in musicals, plays, operas and the occasional cruise ship. He received his BFA and classical actor training at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and his private vocal training with Metropolitan Baritone, Jason Stearns. Together with his wife, he owns and operates Theater For Young Professionals, a not-for-profit theater company and private acting and vocal school dedicated to training youth actors through a mentorship program with his professional colleagues in La Mesa, CA. Jordan's philosophy towards the arts has always been: "Talent, is merely a capacity to learn”

Samantha Goldstein has taught comedy, literature and creative writing for over two decades, including a course called The Yada Yada Factor: Jewish Humor from the Catskills to Seinfeld, which she created at the University of California San Diego. She has directed and acted in comedies in San Diego theater and film for more than 12 years, and is trained in stand-up comedy, improv, and comedic public speaking.

Jennifer Lane - Director/Playwriting Workshop Teaching Artist.
JENNIFER LANE is a California-based playwright, novelist, and teaching artist originally from Troy, Michigan. Her work includes To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This (Winner of the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Play Competition, and Winner of Best Writing and Best Drama at the San Diego International Fringe Festival, 2017); The Seer & The Witch (developed in the Groundbreakers Playwriting Group, part of the nuVoices for a nuGeneration Festival, Semi-Finalist for the O’Neill Playwriting Conference, nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize); and Harlowe (developed under the mentorship of Sarah Ruhl, winner of the Alec Baldwin Fellowship at Singers Forum, workshopped at the Gulfshore Playhouse and FAU’s TheatreLab, Finalist for the 2015 Humanitas/CTG Playwriting Prize). Jenny is a teaching artist with the Playwrights Project and UCSD. She is the Playwright in Residence at Scripps Ranch Theatre, and a founding member of their New Works Studio. Her dramatic writing is represented by Amy Wagner of Abrams Artists Agency. MFA: Columbia University; BA: Sarah Lawrence College.

Jerry Pilato (Artistic Director) has directed for PLP Speed The Plow, Clever Little Lies, Building The Wall, First Night, One Slight Hitch and The Fantasticks. At The Brooks Theatre in Oceanside :The Foreigner, Love Sex And The IRS and Biloxi Blues; at 6th@ Penn Four Dogs And A Bone, The Reindeer Monologues, Orange Flower Water and Glenn Garry Glen Ross; at The Broadway Theatre in Vista : Plaza Suite, Visiting Mr. Green, Weekend Comedy and The Cemetery Club, and at Lamplighters Theater The Hallelujah Girls, Stage Fright, The Dixie Swim Club and Daddy’s Dyin’ Who’s Got The Will. He has been awarded Best Director awards from the Alamo Theatre Arts Council, in San Antonio for Chicago, and When Pigs Fly (Musical), I Hate Hamlet and First Night (comedy), American Buffalo, and Taking Sides (drama). For Different Stages/San Diego he has directed: The Psychic, Vampire Lesbians Of Sodom, MOMologues, Race, Last Train To Nibroc, and Lone Star Laundry and Bourbon among others.

Ashley Kobza - Director/Acting Workshop Teaching Artist.
Ashley Kobza is a teaching artist specializing in physical theatre, comedy, and the creation of new works. She graduated in 2012 with a Master of Fine Arts in Acting and New Work from The Ohio State University. She has also trained extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, Dell Arte International in Blue Lake, and both IO and Second City in Chicago. As teacher Ashley employs power of play and laughter to inspire vulnerability and risk taking in the classroom.

Cris O'Bryon - Director/Musical Theatre Workshop Teaching Artist.
Cris O’Bryon is delighted to come to Point Loma Playhouse and bring his music teaching and performance experience spanning Musical Theatre, Opera, Cabaret, and everything in between.
He has worked on world and regional premieres at La Jolla Playhouse, Old Globe Theatre, Moonlight Stage, North Coast Rep, New Village Arts, Lamb’s Players, SDMT and many other production companies and schools throughout Southern CA.
His coaching clients have worked on Broadway and National tours, and won scholarships to schools such as BoCo, CCM, Pace, NYU/Tisch, Indiana, Elon, NCUSA, Hartt School, and Northwestern. He maintains a private voice/acting/audition studio, which specializes in an intuitive approach to finding your authentic voice.

Kevin Mahoney - Director/Actor/ Shakespeare Workshop Teaching Artist. Kevin earned his Master’s of Fine Arts in Acting from West Virginia University’s conservatory program, where he also taught acting classes and directed student plays. While attending WVU Kevin performed in numerous University productions, including Three Sisters (Vershinin), Comedy of Errors (Antipholus S & E), Angels in America (Joe Pitt), Our Country’s Good (Harry), and Boys Next Door (Klemper). After graduate school Kevin earned scholarship to study at HB Studio. While at HB he studied acting technique with William Hickey; Performing Shakespeare with Uta Hagen, and a Master Class led my Herbert Berghof. Kevin later attended master classes in NYC with Michael Beckett and Michael Howard. His professional theatre credits include the Old Globe’s production of Bus Stop (Carl); Arcade Theatre (LA) True Believer (lead); East Lynne Theatre’s (NJ) productions of Anna Christy (Matt Burke), Rain (O’Hara), and You And I (Maitland); Tribeca Theatre (NYC) El Salvador (lead); and the Princeton Repertory’s production of Comedy of Errors (Antipholus S). Kevin also performed in numbers films, including Exorcist Chronicles (Netflix); Backgammon (NY Film Festival) *best comedy, A Darker Silence AFI (LA Directors Film Festival), Exodus (History Channel, and Nazi Terror (History Channel).

Elizabeth Osmun - Director/Acting Workshop Teaching Artist.
a.k.a Betsy Bruce Osmun Actress, Singer, Dancer - had a Talk Show in NYC for over 11 years interviewing famous and interesting guests from Henny Youngman, King of the One Liners to Dr. Edgar Mitchell, the 6th Astronaut on the moon. Aside from her work as an actress in small roles in soaps, commercials and Off-Broadway, she directed and produced promo tapes for performers and executives. She also worked in dinner theatre as a singer and coached beginners in cabaret workshops. She had a CD out in 1994 with Broadway & Cab Calloway musicians. She has been a teacher (of all ages) for over 10 years in combined disciplines of dance, performance workshops, and the English language. She is no stranger to the Point Loma Playhouse, having performed as “Daisy” in Driving Miss Daisy; Only in New York – DMV, Jets Suck; Much Ado About Mutton, Shakespeare and other performance. She directed and choreographed a short musical piece for a Pt. Loma Playhouse finale.

David Sein - Founder/Board Member/ Education Director. David is a founding member of Point Loma Playhouse. He has been a producer, director and playwright for the past 30 years. He is the founder of Point Loma Actors Theatre (PLAT). Productions include; A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking, Kimberly Akimbo, America's Finest City, Cafe Risque, Steel Magnolias, Sylvia, Tuna Christmas, Fuddy Meers, Driving Miss Daisy, Romantic Fools-PLAT, The Obiturist,-Northpark Playhouse, A Midsummer Night's Dream-NTC, An Honest Arrangement-New Perspectives Festival, Only In New York- PLAT, Greater Tuna,-PLAT, Polish Joke-PLAT, Food For Thought-PLAT, Goodbye Charlie- Cabrillo Playhouse, Belle of Amherst-La Jolla MOCA Theatre.

Stephen Carpenter - Director/Teaching Artist.
Stephen Carpenter was born in Weatherford, Texas, and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. He graduated UCLA Film School, and has written screenplays for hit movies OCEAN’S ELEVEN, BLUE STREAK, and SOUL SURVIVORS, which he also directed. Mr. Carpenter also created the hit Emmy-nominated series, GRIMM, for NBC. He has lectured often at USC Film School on screenwriting and pitching for studios and networks. Carpenter has published seven novels, including KILLER, the first of his Jack Rhodes Mystery series, which was Number One on Amazon’s bestselling Mystery list, and dubbed a “blockbuster debut” by Entertainment Weekly. Carpenter is currently developing a one-hour TV series based on his Jack Rhodes Mysteries. and just completed a major film script to go into production next month.

Tony Calabrese - Director/Stand-Up Comedy Workshop Teaching Artist.
A native San Diegan, Tony has been performing comedy for the past 25 years. He talks about life, world events, marriage, kids, grandkids, the corporate world, and the trials and tribulations of not staying in top physical condition. Tony performs regularly at The Comedy Store, The Comedy Palace, The Madhouse Comedy Club and other San Diego and L.A. clubs and venues. Tony also teaches standup comedy at the Point Loma Playhouse and the National Comedy Theater. Tony won the “Ultimate Laff-Down” at Flappers Comedy Club and is a two time finalist in the World Series of Comedy in Las Vegas.