STAFF
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 across the globe from Cairo to Off-Broadway. As a freelance collaborating performer, Hirano has originated over 30 roles, with highlights that include projects with Bill Irwin, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Nichole Canuso Dance Company, and Thaddeus Phillips. 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 Creative Director for The Great American Gunshow and the forthcoming Mister Saigon (more info tba). 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 Co-Artistic Director of Team Sunshine Performance where he serves as one of the company’s primary administrators and as co-creator and director of most of the company’s full-length works. Productions include: Punchkapow, Japanamerica Wonderwave, Henry IV: Your Prince and Mine, The Sincerity Project (Installments #1, 2, 3, and 5), ¡BIENVENIDOS BLANCOS! OR WELCOME WHITE PEOPLE!, Your Optimism is Not Required, and The Great American Gunshow. Alex is also a former Company Member and Associate Artistic Director of Pig Iron Theatre Company, where he worked as Performer/Creator and Creative Producer on most of the company’s works between 2007 and 2015. Alex has also worked on various independent projects, co-creating and co-directing Esto No Tiene Nombre with Denice Frohman, co-directing wrackzone created by transqueer clown and cardboard constructionist Eli Nixon, and serving as Associate Director on The Croning and Me and Jesus and Prince… created by choreographer/facilitator Shavon Norris. Alex received a 2018 Pew Fellowship in the Arts as well as 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 Theater at Swarthmore College, where he directs often and teaches Devised Performance, Directing, and Acting.
BENJAMIN CAMP // Co-Founder
Benjamin Camp is a 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.
PHOEBE SCHAUB // Director of Operations & Education
Phoebe Schaub is a multimedia artist, with her feet in the worlds of both live performance and narrative film. In addition to her work with Team Sunshine, she is a Programmer and Screener for the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, a co-founder and former company member of Found Theater Company (2009-2017), and a former Teaching Artist and Mentor of the Resident Playwrights at Philadelphia Young Playwrights. Highlights of her work as a producer include screening at the Academy Award-Qualifying Palm Springs International ShortFest and New Hampshire Film Festivals, co-producing and curating the Secret Show Series (presented by the Knight Foundation at Painted Bride Art Center), serving as the Associate Producer of The Philadelphia Thing's Trade School festival, and the thousands of hours spent creating and supporting collaborative, wild, shoestring-budget works of art in spaces not designed with art in mind. Phoebe has been a steadfast arts educator since 2005, and holds a BA in theater, with a concentration in directing, from Temple University.
NICOLE RENNA // Digital Content Manager
Nicole Renna is a singer, director, writer, voice teacher, and creative producer working in Philadelphia. She is the Producing Artistic Director of ENAensemble, staging performances of their Serial Opera Project and mentoring singers, composers, and librettists who work with the ensemble. Nicole has extensive experience performing in musical theater, cabaret, and opera. She was most recently seen in the Fringie Award-winning production of the Circus Opera Company’s production of The Tire Swing. She teaches the Musical Theatre Vocal Workshop at the Walnut Street Theatre and private voice lessons to beginners and pros alike! She holds a M.M. in Voice Performance from Temple University and a B.M. in Music Education from Rutgers University.
For more info, visit nicolerenna.net.
RACHEL DIBLASIO // Development Associate
Rachel DiBlasio is an opera-singing-actor, music teacher, and arts administrator based in Philadelphia who has worked with arts nonprofits such as Network for New Music and Westrick Music Academy (home of the Princeton Boychoir and Princeton Girlchoir). Interested in art as a mirror in which we see ourselves both as we are and as we wish to become, Rachel is invested in traditional and contemporary opera-theater, cross-genre collaboration, and intimate theater spaces. Rachel has performed with Opera Delaware, Opera Baltimore, ENA Ensemble, Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia, and Philadelphia Symphonic Choir. In 2020, Rachel won the overall curation prize in Opera MODO's aria competition and was selected as one of 24 semi-finalists in the Rochester International Vocal Competition. Rachel's most formative performance experiences include singing Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem and Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony at Carnegie Hall as well as Bernstein’s MASS at the Kimmel Center, all with Westminster Symphonic Choir. Rachel holds degrees from Temple University and Westminster Choir College.
BOARD
Amanda Chudnow
Liz Green
Bill Kiesling
Sarah Bishop-Stone
Stephanie Harmelin
Katie Monroe
Elizabeth Scanlon