Meet the Impro Theatre Team!
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Brianna Pitts
Executive Director
Brianna Pitts serves as the Executive Director of Impro Theatre. Her background includes fundraising and development, as well as creating initiatives and programs that increase access to the arts in under resourced and marginalized communities. Previously, as the Director of Workforce & Economic Development, she led entrepreneurship development, creative placemaking initiatives, as well as youth and education programs. Her expertise includes strategic and organizational planning, fundraising and grant writing. Most notably, she developed Stand Up For Salem’s Makerspace, a creative studio and workspace for STEAM-based youth programs and community events.
Mike Rock
Artistic Director
Mike Rock has performed as a guest artist with Impro Theatre for over 5 years before joining the Main Company in January 2017. He is also a faculty member at the Impro Theatre School and has worked with the Educational Theatre Association and International Thespian Society for many years, presenting improv, acting and voice over classes at festivals and schools all over the U.S. native whose TV credits include Black-ish, The Goldbergs, Modern Family, Chelsea Lately, After Lately, The Mentalist, Monk, Conan O’Brien, Law & Order and many commercials & voiceovers. Mike’s extensive background in theatre, improv and sketch comedy includes being the former Artistic Director of Madison, WI TheatreSports and co-founding/co-producing the NYC sketch group The Bert Fershners, seen on Comedy Central, MTV, VH1 and Ch4 UK.
Leanna Dindal
Artistic Director
Leanna Dindal is a writer, performer, and musical theater choreographer from LA. She began improv training in 2008, graduated from The Second City Conservatory, and studied with Impro Theatre. She is now a member of Impro Theatre's Ensemble and is currently serving on the Artistic Director team. Leanna has taught hip hop classes to children throughout the LA area. She choreographed theTRIBE’s productions of Hair and Cabaret in San Francisco, as well as numerous Second City shows. She writes professionally for television animation (Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure, The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse, Firebuds).
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Rebecca Lowman
Jeffrey Thompson
Skye Smith
Artistic Director
Rebecca Lowman is a writer/actor whose work includes film, TV and stage roles. As an actor, she traveled the US with a Broadway musical (1997 Tony Award-winning Musical); appeared off-Broadway in American Silents, directed by Anne Bogart, and Chuck Mee’s Trojan Women: A Love Story, directed by Tina Landau; as well as Regional Credits such as Tom Stoppard’s On the Razzle at the Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia, and iWitness at the Mark Taper Forum. TV roles include Will & Grace, Prime Suspect, Dirty John, Perry Mason, Impeachment. She is also an actor and co-Artistic Director of Impro Theatre, LA’s home of Narrative Improv, which makes full-length plays in real time.
Artistic Director
Jeffrey Thompson is a writer, actor, magician, psychology professor, and tax professional. He has a roster of over 300 tax and accounting clients in the entertainment industry including actors, dancers, writers, and cinematographers. Jeffrey also teaches improv at the Westside Comedy Theater, teaches psychology at Citrus College, and has given tax talks for CalArts and the California Lawyers for the Arts. He also acts as a board member for The Ruby LA (a non-profit theatre in LA) and The Improv Network (an international non-profit organization), and produces short films with his production company, Great Hair Productions.
Studio Manager
Skye Smith is a writer, artist, and works in the film industry in production. Past productions include various shows for the Collegehumor streaming site Dropout.tv, THE PARTY webseries, and many more. She is a two-time award winning essayist, a short story author, and has published articles through the online outlet KnockLA. Skye has produced events and campaigns through the Sunrise Movement and independently, and can mostly be found at various improv shows.
Board of Directors
& More Staff
Cheryl Faris
President
Retired/Attorney
Dan O'Connor
Vice President
Actor/Writer/Producer
Andrew Pearce
Secretary
Dreamworks, Vice President of Global Technology
Cooper Bates
Entrepreneur, Small Business Owner, Writer, Producer, Actor
Michael Blaha
Secretary
Law Offices of Michael R. Blaha/ Entertainment Lawyer
Juliana Gondek
University of California Los Angeles/Associate Dean
Distinguished Professor
Susan Deming
Owner, Deming Casting | Pick Up Pix Productions CCDA
SAG-AFTRA, AEA
Ted Cannon
Yard Otter Productions, President
SAG-AFTRA, Actor
Bookkeeper
Tricia Bohren