Co-Artistic Director

DESEAN KEVIN TERRY

Desean Kevin Terry is a graduate of The Juilliard School. He is an actor and director. Previous works include Suzan Lori Parks' Father Comes Home from the Wars, where he replaced Emmy winner Sterling K. Brown; A Street Car Named Desire at the Boston Court, and Les Blancs at Rogue Machine Theatre, for which he received the 2017 Ticket Holder award for Best Actor in a play. Television credits include Scorpion, Southland, Shameless, ER, Monk, Harry's Law, The Night Shift, Sleeper Cell, House, Grey's Anatomy, NCIS Los Angeles and more. Film credits include Post Grad, God's Army, Somebody's Mother, States of Grace, Bolden. He has been twice nominated by the NAACP for his stage work and was privileged to work with Cicely Tyson, Vanessa Williams, and Blair Underwood on a Tony winning production The Trip to Bountiful, directed by Michael Wilson. As a director, he helmed Behind the Mask: a compilation of plays from the Negro Ensemble Company, James Baldwin's Blues for Mr. Charlie, George C Wolfe's The Colored Museum, Suzan Lori Parks' Imperciptible Mutabilities in the Rhird Kingdom, and more...

Co-Artistic Director

KEIANA RICHARD

Keiana Richard is a native of Nashville, TN. She received her MFA from the University of California, San Diego. Since graduating, Keiana has had the honor of working with some of the country's top theatre companies. Her New York credits include Lincoln Center’s Tony nominated Broadway production of Dividing the Estate, The Pearl Theatre Company’s Ghosts, The McCarter Theatre’s Eclipsed, and The Public/Sundance Lab’s reading of Forgotten World. In Los Angeles, Rogue Arts Ensemble’s Wood Boy Dog Fish, The Hudson Theatre’s Good People, and Center Theatre Groups The Trip To Bountiful. Keiana has also had the pleasure of working on-camera in film and TV, with projects such as Mid-City Blue, Adult Swim’s Delocated, and NBC’s The Player. She also has a passion for using art for education and social change for numerous outreach programs such as The Unusual Suspects Theatre Company and The Young Storytellers. She is thrilled to help bring these incredible stories to life.

Dramaturg / Producer

ARIANE HELOU

Ariane Helou a dramaturg and theater scholar. In addition to her work with Collaborative Artists Bloc, she has been a company member of the Santa Cruz Shakespeare festival since 2012 (dramaturgy credits include Romeo and Juliet, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Hamlet, The Liar, and The Mandrake; as dialect coach, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Henry V, and the world premiere of The Man in the Iron Mask). Ariane is a historian of theater and literature, whose research focuses on voice and performance in Renaissance drama; a translator; and a performing artist whose background spans early music, theater, and opera. She holds a PhD in Literature from UC Santa Cruz, where she also taught in the Theater Arts, Classical Studies, and French language programs. Ariane is currently a faculty member in UCLA’s Department of French & Francophone Studies, and sings with the Los Angeles-based ensemble Artes Vocales.

Marketing Manager/Producer

CRISTIAN KRECKLER

Cristian Kreckler is a marketing professional, designer  & photographer, born in Argentina, currently living in Los Angeles. He hates writing about himself in third person, but will do it for the sake of this project. Cris’ love affair with photography began with the mix of two catalytic agents: feeling it's better to go through life searching for beauty around him, and the fact that he loves the sound of the shutter of a camera. He loves evocative, dramatic, unusual images. More is more as far as Cris is concerned. His superpower is his overwhelming curiosity, and Cris’ mother is his hero. Other things he loves: videogames (Nintendo fan), meditation, brunch, politics, his pets, and his partner. Cris’ self conflicting social media presence: @neon_rockstar

Managing Director

BAILEY J. KOCH

Bailey J. Koch is an alum of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Originally from Folly Beach, South Carolina, Bailey has experience as a director, dramaturg, and casting director, among other credits. She has previously worked with Center Theatre Group, The Theater @ Boston Court, Playwrights Horizons, California Repertory Company, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and the Incubator Arts Project, as well as NBC Universal, Showtime, and Warner Brothers studios. She is currently pursuing her MBA at CSU Long Beach, with a focus in Arts Administration.

Producer

TARINA POUNCY

Tarina Pouncy is a versatile actor and producer hailing from Detroit, MI. On stage, she has performed in such classics as A Raisin in the Sun, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and The Old Settler for which she won an NAACP Theatre award. TV credits include Silicon Valley, Queen Sugar, Criminal Minds and Goliath. On the silver screen she went toe-to-toe with Denzel Washington in Roman J. Israel, Esq and can be seen in the spoof comedy Something Like a Business with Kevin Hart.