Olympia Family Theater

About OFT Who We Are

Volunteer for the Board

We are actively seeking Board members for two year terms.

Come be an intregral part of the Theater Scene in Olympia. Get to see the behind the scenes functioning of Olympia Family Theater.

You'll make new friends and have a ton of fun!

Who We Are

Paid Staff and Key Personnel

Samantha Chandler
Managing Director

Jen Ryle
Artistic Director

Board of Directors

Samantha Chandler, Jen Ryle, Karen Janowitz, Sarah Jolley, Andy Gordon, Diane Rudeen, Deane Shellman, Cathy Wasserman, Bruce Kooi, Kathy Dorgan, and student representatives Miranda Waldron and Whitney Worden

Technical Director for 2011-2012

Jill Carter

Jill is an accomplished theatrical designer with many years experience doing scenic, lighting and projection designs, primarily in Olympia for Harlequin Productions, Ballet Northwest, the Evergreen State College and many local theaters. She is a graduate of Evergreen where she studied technical theater. She interned as a scenic designer at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and returned to Olympia to become Evergreen’s Technical Director and then Harlequin’s Production Manger for many years. She is also an interior designer, locally she designed Swing Wine Bar and Cascadia Grill. She is now a freelance graphic, projection, interior and theatrical designer enjoying doing animated projections, children’s book illustrations, and artists websites.

Artists in Residence for 2011-2012

Set design: Sarah Sugarbaker, Jill Carter, Lyndsey Nichols

Lighting design: Nick Shellman, Katie Kennelly, Kate Arvin

Lead Carpenter: David Nowitz

About Lyndsey Nichols

Lyndsey studied fine art at the University of Puget Sound graduating in 2009. Since then she has promoted herself as a fine artist and spent a year at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the graduate animation program. Currently, she is working with Jill Carter helping design sets for the Olympia Family Theater.

Volunteer Coordinator for 2011-2012

Heather Christopher; contact her at volunteer@olyft.org

2011 Summer Camp Teachers

Josh Anderson has worked with OFT as an educator, director and musical director for four seasons. In addition, he has musically directed numerous shows including work for Capital Playhouse’s Students on Stage Program, TAO, the Twilight Lounge, Our Time Musical Theater Troupe (NY), Vocal Minority (NY) and Cabaret Cabaret (NY). Josh is also a very busy actor and has performed with TAO, Capital Playhouse, TESC, Prodigal Sun Productions, Central Washington University, OTMTT (NY), SLC (NY), Seattle Children’s Theater, Big Pretty Pants Productions (SEA), and Improv Robot. He is currently the music director for Unity of Olympia. He holds a BA in Arts Education and Theater Performance.

Terri Charles has sung and soloed professionally and in choirs and she is a frequent performer in Olympia Family Theater and other productions. Terri believes one’s voice is one’s first instrument and that learning a combination of music-making and creative movement at a young age primes a child for a lifetime of learning. Little ones and their adults gain confidence in themselves as musical people in Terri’s “Music With TLC” classes. Terri earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology in 1986 from University of Washington and has since worked with children in grades K-6 professionally and as a parent volunteer.

Jen Ryle, OFT Artistic Director, co-founded Olympia Family Theater in the fall of 2006. After a lifetime of acting, directing and working with kids, Jen completed her BA at The Evergreen State College focusing her studies on expressive arts, business and education, with the goal of starting a children’s theater here in Olympia. She worked for three summers with Creative Theatre Experience (CTE). Currently, in addition to her work with OFT, Jen teaches creative dramatics, puppet and craft classes for the Olympia Regional Learning Academy (ORLA) and also teaches private piano lessons. For OFT Jen has directed Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2006 and 2011), The Giver, Rapunzel, The BFG, Winnie the Pooh, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

Steven Wells has performed with the OFT family twice this season. First as Toad in A Year With Frog and Toad, and most recently as Alexander in Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. He also worked as the assistant director for OFT’s Spring Break Camp. He is a graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy and after college, lived and performed in both LA and Chicago. You may have also seen Steven on stage with Capital Playhouse as Professor Bhaer in Little Women, Brother Gad in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Mr. Bucket in Willy Wonka.

Webmaster

Nathan Miller