Teachers

Hannah ArguËlles

Hannah is an actor, choreographer, and director who has worked all across the DFW metroplex. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Oklahoma City University with dual degrees in Theatre for Young Audiences and Music, with a minor in Directing.  Her choreography has been seen across Texas with her work for school choirs of all levels from McAllen to Plano and everywhere in between.  Hannah formerly served as the Education Director at Casa Manana theatre where she cultivated the love of theatre in hundreds of young artists. 

 

Rob Bosquez

Resident Education Playwright and Outreach Instructor

Rob Bosquez received the Live Theatre League's Theatre Educator of the Year Award in 2022 and is beloved by the countless young theatre artists that he has taught over the last 15+ years. He is co-founder and co-director of Stage West Conservatory, the Neighborhood Play Contest, and Festival of the Kid, as well as the creative writing, improv and acting instructor at Artes de la Rosa. He is a published writer, accomplished director, experienced actor, and an uplifting collaborator with many of DFW's most talented and boundary-pushing theatre makers.

 

Douglas Davidson

Douglas Davidson has studied in New York City, LA, and London. Along with a degree from NYU’s Tisch School for the Arts, his professional training credits include acting studies with William H. Macy and David Mamet, Judith Weston, and directing seminars with Martin Scorsese, Costa-Gavras and Spike Lee. He has a BFA and and an MFA from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.

 

ShaVonne Davis

ShaVonne Davis is a Certified Theatre Educator & Acting Coach from Fort Worth, TX.  She received a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts from Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, GA.  Mrs. Davis teaches virtual and in-person Theatre Arts classes, private lessons, and after-school programs for youth ages 2-18.  She has directed various stage productions, and has coached students to win theatre competitions and receive acceptance into advanced Theatre Arts schools and programs.  Mrs. Davis and her acting company Acting With Mrs. Davis were just featured on WFAA Channel 8, ABC13 in Houston, TX and the show Localish as a recent recipient of the @BeyGOOD Small Business Impact Grant from Beyoncé and the NAACP.

 

Clare Floyd DeVries

Clare is an architect and theatre set designer of over two hundred and fifty professional regional and civic stage productions, mostly in the DFW area, but also on the west coast, the east coast (Off-Broadway), in Oklahoma City (central coast?), and in Prague (with no coast). Plus a critically praised Indie film and an obscure TV game show. Clare wrote a how-to set design book, "Alice Through the Proscenium."  She has often spoken and written on aspects of theater and production design: at high schools and colleges, including the MFA scenic design program of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville; at the Dallas Museum of Art/Dallas Film Society; at kids’ summer theater camps; on her blog; or in Stage Directions magazine. She has been interviewed frequently, including for the NPR series “American Stages”  and for a KERA Art + Seek artist profile. 

 

Evelyn Dumeer

Evelyn Dumeer (she/her) is so excited to be a part of the Stage West team! A recent graduate of the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with a BFA in Musical Theatre, Evelyn has been teaching Kindergarden for six years, and has been performing for more than a decade. She's so excited to share her love of theater with the tiny humans of the Fort Worth area! Watch this 1 minute introduction.

 

Siouxsie Easter

Siouxsie Easter is a theatre director, deviser, and educator. She loves working with children and adults as they discover and grow their acting skills. Some of Easter's work has taken her to theatres in New York City, Seattle, Atlanta, and England where she helped found the Advanced Studies in England Theatre Summer School in Bath, England. After eighteen years as Professor of Theatre at Wells College in Aurora, NY, she recently made the transition to Texas where she is the new Upper School Theatre Director at Fort Worth Country Day. She has an MEd in Drama from UNCG, and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts--Directing and Devising from Goddard College.

 

Sarah Gay

Sarah is an actor, director, music director and teacher with a busy voice studio. Most recently, her directing work was seen at Circle Theatre for their first post-pandemic show, The Last Wide Open, and at TexARTS in Austin for Honky Tonk Laundry. Sarah is a member of Actors Equity and has been seen on stages across Texas, including Dallas Theatre Center, ZACH, The Alley, Uptown Players, Casa Mañana and Lyric Stage.  Sarah has a passion for arts education and has been teaching and directing theatre for youth for over 20 years, and is also a staff member at TCU, where she teaches Music Together for their early childhood music program.  Sarah has helped countless students prepare for college auditions in both her private studio and as a teacher for Stage West’s College Prep Program.

 

Jennie Lynn Godfrey

Jennie Lynn Godfrey is an actor, director, and theatre educator in the Dallas Fort Worth area. She holds her MA in Theatre from Texas Woman's University, and her work has been seen on the stages of Casa Manana, Stage West, Hip Pocket Theatre, Theatre Arlington, Long Lake Camp for the Arts, Studio B, and Broadway Theatre, among others. Jennie's work on stage and in class is typically movement- and ensemble-based, helping actors connect to the story, the audience and each other. Favorite credits include Charlotte’s Web (Director, Theatre Arlington), The Panther’s Scream (Damsel, Edinburgh Fringe Festival), The BFG (Director, Studio B), Fuzzbug Follies (Fuzzbug, Hip Pocket Theatre), and Oedipus Rex (Jocasta, Texas Woman’s University). When she is not doing theatre, Jennie works as an Occupational Therapist, bringing drama and other therapy forms into homes all over the Metroplex. 

 

Linda Leonard

Linda Leonard has been a sometime actor, sometime director and ever loyal supporter of Stage West and the amazing theatre and outreach they have provided over the many years in the Fort Worth community and beyond.  "I was sooo excited and honored when Dana called me about teaching acting to the Senior, or as I like to say "The Seasoned Players" in our community in Fort Worth. I am "seasoned " myself and I appreciate and champion any opportunity to celebrate life and art and stories that inspire and entertain others.” Linda has directed for the Dallas Library Project over the years, bringing theatre to many of our senior living communities, performed by those very actors of "stature". When that opportunity concluded, she began teaching acting at CC Young in Dallas, including original works from the actors, Neil Simon, Carol Burnett Sketches, Radio Plays, and a little Shakespeare, to name a few genres.
She loves collaboration, and enlivening and encouraging artists of all ages to find or rediscover their inner artist whenever she can. Linda is looking forward to this new adventure!

 

Lauren Riley

Youth Theatre Arts

Lauren Riley is a theatre artist in the Dallas Fort Worth Area. With a BFA in Performance from the University of Texas at Arlington and three years experience teaching theatre in public education, her passion is theatre production. She loves working with people of all ages to tell stories through live performance. Her acting credits include “Into the Woods” at Maverick Theatre Company, “Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad” at the Scott Theatre, “Killer Shrews” at Hip Pocket Theatre, and many more. She has also stage managed, lighted, and wardrobed shows at theaters across DFW. Lauren is so very excited to be joining Stage West’s teaching staff this semester, a wonderful place with an important mission to enrich our community through art in action. 

 

Tonya Wilson-Brown

Filmmaking

Tonya Wilson-Brown, represented by Linda McAlister Talent, can be seen in many commercials and print ads for Kaplan College, Cooks Children’s Hospital, and Boy Scouts of America. She is certified to teach Theatre for the K-12 age range and is excited to bring acting classes to the virtual format after working full time in online education for the past 4 years. Tonya has also served as the Education Director at Stage West, as well as an outreach instructor here and for The Rose Marine Theatre, and Children’s Theatre of Madison, WI.

 

Sasha Maya Ada

Sasha (SMU ’16 & TCG: Alan Schneider Director Award Nominee ‘22) is a DFW based director-actor. Her recent directing credits include Natural Shocks (Echo Theatre), Aida (Lyric Stage), Cabaret (Arts Mission Oak Cliff x Lost Boys Presents), Pass Over (Second Thought Theatre), If Pretty Hurts… (Jubilee Theatre), A Christmas Carol (Associate Director- Dallas Theater Center), and Two Gentlemen of Verona (Associate Director- Shakespeare Dallas). Sasha’s past acting credits include Macy in The Cake at Theatre Arlington, Billie in Enemies/People at Second Thought Theatre, May in Fool for Love, and Brutus in Julius Caesar at House Party Theatre. Upcoming productions include and Little Shop of Horrors (Oct ‘23 -Lyric Stage) and Marjorie Prime (Feb ’24- Stage West).

 

Farrah Lightbearer

Farrah is a theater and dance educator with a passion for creating spaces where people feel supported and uplifted. After 12 years working in Los Angeles as a SAG-AFTRA member where she had a rich and diverse career spanning the disciplines of acting, dancing, singing, and writing, Farrah chose to leave LA and homeschool her children here in Fort Worth. She is the founder of the non-profit 2012 Kids, Inc., which provided performing and fine arts education and therapy to over 100 families across North Texas, and she has worked with many non-profits as a Motivational Speaker and Volunteer Coordinator and Mentor, including Powered by People and Girls Rock Fort Worth. Farrah studied Dance and Pre-Med at TCU where she was a member of the Showgirl Dance Team and holds a Doctorate of Naturopathy.

 

Leslie Marie Collins

Leslie has been performing and teaching improv, musical improv and sketch comedy for over 20 years. She trained with incredible teachers from the Upright Citizens Brigade-NY, The Peoples Improv Theater, Groundlings and the Magnet Theater. She went on to perform on long form and musical improv house teams at UCB, the PIT, Magnet, Annoyance theater, and with world renowned musical improv troupe, Baby Wants Candy. She is classically trained in musical theater and loves performing in musicals and plays all over DFW. She continues to perform musical improv and runs the musical improv program at the Dallas Comedy Club.

 

Alejandro Saucedo

Alejandro is an actor, director, and instrumentalist from Haltom City, TX. He is a graduate of Texas Christian University, serving as a TA for many classes before graduating, and is the 2023 recipient of the Bill Garber Young Theatre Artist Award from the Live Theatre League of Tarrant County. Alejandro has performed all around the DFW metroplex, including Stage West, Dallas Theater Center, Circle Theatre, TCU Theatre, Casa Mañana, Theatre Three, and Bass Hall. Alejandro has also been a part of directing teams at Stage West, Theatre Three, Watertower Theatre, and TCU Theatre. Recently, he has been fortunate enough to lead classes at Haltom High School and Amphibian Stage in topics including musical theatre performance, auditioning, directing and is excited to lead “The Art of Directing” at Stage West!”

 

Aaron Knowles Dias

Education Director