Masters of Fine Arts - Class of 2022

Heather Bennett has a passion for facilitating art and artists through stage management. She is a member of Actors Equity Association and the Stage Managers Association and recently earned her MFA in Stage Management from UC Irvine. Credits span across dance concerts, dramas, musicals, Shakespeare, and theatre for young audiences. She is excited to continue her journey and to continue telling the stories that need to be told.

A native of Jackson, MS, Avery Evans is a proud theatre graduate of Jackson State University.  He was a mentee in the Gateway and Stage Management Mentorship Program at USITT in 2018-19 respectively. His love for theatre started at a young age which he cultivated into a passion for learning and discovery throughout his matriculation as an undergraduate. Some of his productions that he has enjoyed working on include, As Much as I Can, Stick Fly, The Wiz, and A Streetcar Named Desire. His future plans include working for Cirque Du Soleil and owning his own production company.He is overjoyed to join his UCI family where he plans to become a well-rounded theatre practitioner, able to tackle any challenge along his journey. Avery would like to thank God, his mom, his beautiful daughter Demi, his mentor Ross, his undergraduate faculty and everyone who has helped motivate him to follow his dreams. 

Lyla Flashman is a Chapman University alumna with a B.A. in Theatre Technology and a double minor in Art History and Production Design, and is grateful to be continuing her education at UCI towards building a career in stage management. She was awarded the Musco Scholar medal for her undergraduate achievements, which include stage managing a sold out production of Avenue Q to a house of over a 1,000 seats. Although mainly a theatre bug, Lyla can be found enjoying galleries, live music, swing dancing, and quality time with loved ones. Having grownup in New York, she feels torn between the coasts and dreams of touring the world as a stage manager

Tyler Hahn graduated from Barry University in 2015 with a BFA in Theatre (Acting). He made his Stage Management debut in 2016 at the Miami Theatre Center working on the one-woman show Supa’Nova. He also traveled from Miami, with this show, to the Hollywood Fringe Festival. He then stage-managed for the Florida Shakespeare Theatre for their 2017 – 2018 season. He most recently worked as the Assistant Stage Manager for the world premiere of Confessions of a Cocaine Cowboy at the Colony Theatre in Miami Beach, Florida.

Honors in Stage Management - Class of 2022

Veronica Fealy is a recent UCI alumni who graduated with both summa cum laude standing, and honors in stage management. She earned her associates degree at Diablo Valley College in the San Francisco Bay Area, and went on to earn her BA in Drama at UC Irvine. She does work in both the San Francisco and the Los Angeles area. Veronica is extremely passionate about the communication and conflict resolution aspects of stage management. She finds that stage managers have a unique opportunity to bridge gaps and create relationships between many diverse groups of people, and she looks forward to taking that passion with her into the professional world.

Resume: Click HERE

Vivian Consuelo Juarez (she, her, hers) is a Latina Theatrical Artist that has spent her time at UCI focused on growing her skills as a Producer, Stage Manager, and Production Manager. She has worked on various UCI productions such as: She Kills Monsters: Virtual Realms (SBO), two first year-grad projects: The Last Time We Saw Maddison (PSM) & The Just (PSM). In addition to UCI produced productions, she has worked with Brown Bag Theatre Company, UCI's only Latine Theatre Company, and was also the Managing Director for the club from 2021-2022. She has also worked outside of UCI & Brown Bag as a SM/ASM/Crew Member for Boston Court Pasadena, Transversal Theatre Company, El Campanil Theatre, Performance Riverside, Rail Events Inc., & Long Beach Opera. Because of Vivian's efforts and hard-work she was awarded CTSA's Honors in Stage Management. Vivian seeks to empower other women and latine individuals to continue pursuing their passions in the arts and help them grow as artists in any way they can. Vivian will continue her work in entertainment, after graduation (June 2022), at The Ford Theatre in Los Angeles. Thank you to all the students, faculty, and mentors that have helped her grow along the way. 

Business Card Link: Click HERE

Masters of Fine Arts - Class of 2021

Kyrsten Goodrich is California born and raised, and a member of Actors Equity Association and the Stage Managers Association.  As a manager of art she is an advocate of art, and she takes that seriously and humbly. She graduated from California State University Chico in 2016 with a BA in Theatre and was named “Outstanding Theatre Student” by the College of Humanities and Fine Arts. She has had the pleasure of working as a stage manager at the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre in Clinton, Iowa for their last four summer seasons, while also traveling and working around the country for various events and productions. Kyrsten is particularly passionate about working on comedies and with people that are passionate about telling stories. When not in a theatre, she can be found watching stand-up comedy, reading on the beach, painting, or perhaps practicing calligraphy. As of May 2021, she is working as the Operations Assistant for The Musco Center for the Arts. 

Jesús Lopez graduated with a BFA in Technical Theatre and Stage Management from the University of Texas at El Paso in 2018. Jesús has professional experience as a journalist, translator, production & project manager, director, stage & portrait photographer and as a publicity artist. In 2016 Jesús published his first book of poetry and photography titled I See Red, under the penname K. Zakrevski. During his studies at UTEP Jesús worked as a Lighting Shop Student Supervisor & as a publicity artist and he worked as a Production Stage Manager at Monomoy Theatre in Massachusetts for two consecutive summers followed by a summer at the New Swan Shakespeare Festival. He was brought back for his second summer at the New Swan as the Assistant Artistic Director. Jesús is also the Managing Director for K.B. Theatre Company, founded in El Paso, TX., a theatre company that promotes the growing art community of El Paso as well as Latinx artists across the nation. As a producer of the performance art, Jesús has produced, written, and directed four live performative productions: RED (2017) & /Echo (2018), In This Light | There is Silence (2019) & Tzaqik | a tale, of many (2020), as well as two video projects Zu Sein (2020, short film) & HardCandy (2020, post-dramatic movie). 

Arielle Singer graduated June 2018 from Union College in Schenectady, NY with a B.A. in Marketing Engineering Products and a minor in Digital Media. Throughout her undergraduate experience she was heavily involved with the student theater club where she did everything from stage managing, designing, conducting, directing, and producing six musical productions (favorites include Spring Awakening, The Fantasticks, and Spelling Bee).  Additionally, in her free time, she mentors FIRST Team 702, a high school robotics team, where she teaches them branding, fundraising, and marketing techniques.  In addition to stage management Arielle also dabbles in projection design where she is able to utilize her undergraduate degree in Marketing and minor in Digital Media. Some of her favorite shows to work on have included: Katori Hall’s Hoodoo Love, Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and Kitt & Yorkey’s Next to Normal. Currently Arielle is working as the first ever Museum Theater Coordinator for Plimoth Patuxet Museums in Plymouth, MA.

Honors in Stage Management - Class of 2021

Francesca Menegon will be graduating with a BA in Drama and Honors in Stage Management in June 2021. She currently resides in her hometown of St. Helena, CA where she will be helping the local theater community with upcoming projects this summer. She can't wait to continue to create theater and make it more accessible to others. Francesca plans on pursuing an internship abroad in the UK in the spring of 2022.

Resume: Click HERE

Mason Bergenholtz is currently a student at UC Irvine and a new member of the Stage Managers Association. He graduated from Folsom Lake College in 2018 with a AA in Theatre Arts and transferred to UC Irvine shortly after to earn his BA in Drama with an emphasis in stage management later this year in the Fall. Mason has always found strength in the passion he holds for inspiring others through creative art and performance. Mason has just finished managing a directing thesis at UC Irvine and is looking forward to continuing his education through this Fall in order to earn his BA in Drama and complete his minor in Informatics upon graduation.

Resume: Click HERE