Staff

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Makoto Hirano
Co-Artistic Director

Makoto Hirano (he/him) is a Philadelphia-based choreographer and theatre-maker. His award-winning, original performance projects have been presented nationally in numerous venues and festivals including Off-Broadway at the National Asian American Theatre Festival (NYC), DanceTruck (Atlanta, GA), Ringling Museum (Sarasota, FL), Yale University (CT), and FringeArts (Philadelphia, PA). As a freelance collaborating performer, Hirano has originated over 25 roles, with highlights that include projects with Bill Irwin, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Nichole Canuso Dance Company, and Thaddeus Phillips/Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental. Hirano is a founding member and current advisor to the arts collective PAPA (Philly Asian Performing Artists); co-founder of installation art duo Gatto+Hirano; co-founder of Team Sunshine Performance where he is a creator, producer, performer, administrator, and choreographer (2018 Barrymore-Award nomination for Outstanding Choreography for ¡BIENVENIDOS BLANCOS! OR WELCOME WHITE PEOPLE!, as well as Lead Artist for the forthcoming The Great American Gunshow. From 2007-2014 Hirano was a Facilitator with Philly/Baltimore/South Carolina-based professional development program Artists U. A former U.S. Marine, Hirano earned his BFA in dance at Temple University.

Alex Torra
Co-Artistic Director

Alex Torra is a Miami-born, Philadelphia-based director, performer, producer, and educator. He is the Co-Founder and Resident Director of Team Sunshine Performance, where he serves as one of the company’s primary administrators and has directed most of the company’s full-length works including Punchkapow, Japanamerica Wonderwave, Henry IV: Your Prince and Mine, The Sincerity Projects (1,2, and 3) and ¡BIENVENIDOS BLANCOS! OR WELCOME WHITE PEOPLE!. Alex is also an Associate Artist and former Associate Artistic Director of Pig Iron Theatre Company, where he has worked as Performer/Creator and Creative Producer on many of the company’s works since 2007. 

​Alex received a 2018 Pew Fellowship in the Arts, and he has also received fellowships from the Independence Foundation, the Philadelphia Live Arts Brewery, the Princess Grace Foundation (the Grace Le Vine Theatre Award), Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and NY's Drama League. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and his M.F.A. in Directing from Brown University. Alex currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Swarthmore College, where he directs often and teaches Devised Performance, Directing, and Acting.

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Benjamin Camp
​Co-Founder

Benjamin Camp  is an performer/creator and a Co-Founder of Team Sunshine Performance Corporation. He was lead artist for Team Sunshine’s Punchkapow, Terrarium, Zombie Defense Consultations, and Your Optimism Is Not Required as well as a core collaborator on all Team Sunshine projects and events including ¡BIENVENIDOS BLANCOS! OR WELCOME WHITE PEOPLE!, JapanAmerica Wonderwave, Henry IV: Your Prince and Mine, and The Sincerity Project.

​Benjamin was awarded the 2014 Independence Foundation Fellowship, was a 2015 Haas Emerging Artist Nominee, and has had the pleasure of working with Pig Iron Theatre Company, Shakespeare in Clark Park, Theater Horizon, and the Rosenbach Museum and Library, among others. Benjamin graduated with a BA Theater Major from Swarthmore College and completed the full program of Lecoq style training in physical theater and ensemble created theater at the London International School of Performing Arts (LISPA). He has also co-founded Camp Bonfire, a summer camp for adults, and serves the artist community as a realtor and managing partner of the Camp Cammisa Steinreide Joslin (CCSJ) Team at Elfant Wissahickon Realtors.

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Phoebe Schaub
Manager of Operations & Education

Phoebe Schaub is a multimedia artist, specializing in live performance. She is the Operations Manager of Team Sunshine Performance, a former Teaching Artist and Mentor of the Resident Playwrights at Philadelphia Young Playwrights, and was the Associate Producer of The Philadelphia Thing's Trade School festival from 2019-2022. She produced the short films Scabs (directed by Tommy Butler; WORLD PREMIERE: Palm Springs International Shortfest 2022, OFFICIAL SELECTION: New Hampshire Film Festival 2022, OFFICIAL SELECTION: Charlotte Film Festival 2022) and Everything You Owe Me (directed by Tommy Butler; OFFICIAL SELECTION: Reading Film Festival, Miami Film Festival Quarter Finalist, Mountain Shadow Film Competition Finalist, Bucks Fever Film Festival, Diamond Screen Film Festival, Temple University Best Graduate Film Winner). She is a co-founder and former company member of Found Theater Company, a frequent collaborator of musical act soleCALIBUR, and previously co-produced and curated the Secret Show Series at Painted Bride Art Center.

​She received her BA in theater, with a concentration in directing, from Temple University. ​

April Rose
Digital Content Manager

April Rose is a curator, administrator, creative producer, and project manager based in Philadelphia and has worked with Team Sunshine since 2018.

April served as the Programming, Communications, and Operations Manager at the Painted Bride Art Center until 2019 and managed the Philadelphia Fringe Festival from 2019-2023. Their freelance work has included production design for Jillion Jetton's HEAT WAVE (2020), project managing ARC (2018), a multidisciplinary performance project presented at Swarthmore College, and producing the first Philadelphia Chalk Festival (2020). 

April received their BA from Temple University in 2016. 

Rachel DiBlasio
Development Associate

Rachel DiBlasio is an opera-singing-actor, music teacher, and arts administrator based in Philadelphia. Interested in art as a mirror in which we both see ourselves as we are and as we wish to become, Rachel is invested in both traditional and contemporary opera-theater work, cross-genre collaboration, and intimate theater spaces. Rachel has sung with Opera Delaware, Opera Baltimore, ENA Ensemble, Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia, and Philadelphia Symphonic Choir. Rachel's most formative performance experiences include singing in Brahm’s Ein Deutsches Requiem and Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony at Carnegie Hall and in Bernstein’s MASS at the Kimmel Center, all with Westminster Symphonic Choir. In 2020, Rachel won the overall curation prize in Opera MODO's aria competition and was selected as one of the 24 finalists in the Rochester International Vocal Competition. Rachel holds degrees from Temple University and Westminster Choir College.

Board

Amanda Chudnow
Katie Samson
Liz Green
Sarah Bishop-Stone
Stephanie Harmelin
​Elizabeth Scanlon