Ben Johnson was excited to make his acting debut in Welcome To Arroyo’s. He is a NE Portland native who has garnered success nationally in the underground hip-hop scene under the MC name Milc, releasing several projects in the last 2 years alone (most recently ‘Neutral Milc Motel’ and ‘Windbreaker XL’). He has performed shows in Portland and beyond, opening for acts like Boldy James, Armand Hammer and Blu and Exile. Arroyo’s was Ben’s first foray into acting, and he’s excited for the opportunity to highlight the joy of rap and connect with his community in a new way.
Anthony “Tron” Parrish is an artist based in Portland, OR. He has been performing musically as Old Grape God since 2012, releasing 37 albums through 2022, collaborating with over 100 other musicians (including Milc, who plays Trip Goldstein). When he is not performing, he is a self-taught oil painter, poet, muralist, embroiderer, designer, producer, audio engineer, printmaker, or whatever the job calls for; claiming the title of All-Purpose Artist. After spending most of his 20’s working in leather goods, Tron made the switch to full-time artist, in a quest to explore every artistic medium and form of expression. He also co-hosts a monthly comedy show at Beuhlahland called Stoolhumpin’. Welcome To Arroyo’s is Tron’s first time acting outside of a music video.
Anthony Tron Parrish aka Old Grape God
Levi Cooper
Levi Cooper – NCAA D1 heavyweightwrestler at Arizona State University. Performed for WWE 2014-2020 under the pseudonym “Tucker Knight,” one half of the tag team Heavy Machinery. A father of 2, Kenzi and Storm.
Matthew Sepeda is an actor and fight choreographer based in Portland and he is absolutely thrilled to be a part of his first show with Profile Theatre. He received his B.A. in Drama from the University of Portland and has been working around town since graduating. A few roles/shows he’s been particularly proud to be a part of are Diego Moreno and CP Conyers in Bella: An American Tall Tale with Portland Playhouse, Leaf Coneybear in 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee with The Anonymous Theatre Company as well as Septimo in Wolf at the Door and Bartolome the Cat in Alebrijes with Milagro. Matthew would like to thank his friends and castmates as well as everyone else that has been a part of this process. Their support and hard work has been integral in creating this amazing show. Thank you everyone for coming to see and support it and please enjoy!
Gemma Whelan (she/her) is an award-winning director, screenwriter, and educator. As an Irish immigrant to the U.S. her perspective crosses the boundaries between cultures, and as an artist she gives expression to stories that have been suppressed. She was the Founding Artistic Director of Wilde Irish Productions in the San Francisco Bay Area and Corrib Theatre in Portland, Oregon. In Portland, she has also directed at Artists Repertory Theatre, Profile Theatre, Milagro, CoHo Theatre, Boom Arts, and Portland Center Stage’s JAW Festival.
Gemma has extensive experience working on both classical and contemporary works and has directed and assisted in the development of numerous world premieres. She has taught theatre and film at colleges, universities, and conservatories from San Francisco to Singapore. Her novels are Fiona: Stolen Child and Painting Through the Dark. She is also published in the Wordstock Ten Anthology and The New Hibernia Review.
Gemma earned her BA in English and French at Trinity College, Dublin, and has graduate degrees in Theatre (University of California, Berkeley) and Film (San Francisco State University). She lives in Portland, OR.
Cindy Williams Gutiérrez is a poet, playwright, producer and educator. Her work is inspired by the silent and silenced voices of ourstory. She co-produced her dynamic choreopoem In the Name of Forgotten Women with CoHo Productions in April 2022. She received the 2017 Oregon Book Award for Drama for Words That Burn which premiered at Milagro in 2014. This award-winning drama was presented at the Linkville Playhouse in Klamath Falls, Oregon and the Merc Playhouse in Twisp, Washington in 2017, and was recorded by OPB for the Literary Arts Archive Project in 2018.
Cindy’s third poetry collection, This Tender Geography, is forthcoming from Lost Horse Press. She was awarded the 2018 Willow Books Editor’s Choice Poetry Selection and a 2016 Oregon Literary Fellowship for Inlay with Nacre: The Names of Forgotten Women. She was selected by Poets & Writers Magazine as a 2014 Notable Debut Poet for the small claim of bones (Bilingual Press/Arizona State University), which placed second in the 2015 International Latino Book Awards.
A passionate educator, Cindy has taught creative writing to adults through Annie Bloom’s Books, the Attic, Literary Arts Delve Seminars, LiTFUSE Poet’s Workshop, the Maryhill Museum of Art Teachers’ Institute, the Oregon Council for Teachers of English and the Oregon Poetry Association. She is cofounder of Los Porteños, Portland’s Latinx writers’ collective, and the founding producer of El Grupo de ’08, a Lorca-inspired, Northwest collaborative artists’ salon. Cindy earned an MFA from the University of Southern Maine Stonecoast Program with concentrations in Mesoamerican poetics, drama and creative collaboration.
Ben Johnson is excited to be making his acting debut in Welcome To Arroyo’s. He is a NE Portland native who has garnered success nationally in the underground hip-hop scene under the MC name Milc, releasing several projects in the last 2 years alone (most recently ‘Neutral Milc Motel’ and ‘Windbreaker XL’). He has performed shows in Portland and beyond, opening for acts like Boldy James, Armand Hammer and Blu and Exile. This is Ben’s first foray into acting, and he’s excited for the opportunity to highlight the joy of rap and connect with his community in a new way.
Anthony “Tron” Parrish is an artist based in Portland, OR. He has been performing musically as Old Grape God since 2012, releasing 37 albums through 2022, collaborating with over 100 other musicians (including Milc, who plays Trip Goldstein). When he is not performing, he is a self-taught oil painter, poet, muralist, embroiderer, designer, producer, audio engineer, printmaker, or whatever the job calls for; claiming the title of All-Purpose Artist. After spending most of his 20’s working in leather goods, Tron made the switch to full-time artist, in a quest to explore every artistic medium and form of expression. He also co-hosts a monthly comedy show at Beuhlahland called Stoolhumpin’. Welcome To Arroyo’s is Tron’s first time acting outside of a music video.
Bobby Bermea is the co-artistic director of The Beirut Wedding World Theatre Project, a 20 year member and now part of the leadership body of Sojourn Theatre, and a long-standing member of Actors Equity Association. Bermea is a writer, director and award-winning actor and has appeared in theatres literally from New York, NY to Honolulu, HI. As a director, Bermea has recently helmed productions of My Soul Grown Deep and The Green Book with BaseRoots Theatre, Hollow Roots with BoomArts, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents with Theatre Vertigo, Wait Until Dark at Northwest Classical Theatre (for which he was a finalist for a Drammy Award), and Top Dog/Underdog at Street Scenes. This is Bermea’s third stint as a director at Profile Theatre (having previously helmed Blue Door and Fires In the Mirror) and ninth production at Profile overall and he’s ecstatic to finally be working on a comedy!
Mic Crenshaw is a world class MC and poet who has emerged on the national – and international stage. Crenshaw was born in the Southside of Chicago, and was raised both there and in Minneapolis, where he became a leading voice for social equity and racial justice. After moving to Portland in 1992, he quickly became one of the most respected artists in the Northwest – he has recorded and produced over ten albums, recorded and performed with Dead Prez and Immortal Technique, and is the founder and frontman for the Portland based hip hop group Hungry Mob. In 2001, Crenshaw won The Portland Poetry Slam Championship and went on to finish as a national finalist. He is a long-time anti-racist and social justice activist, educator, and co-host of the 11-episode podcast “It Did Happen Here,” which Crenshaw describes as “the people’s history of anti-fascist and anti-racist organizing primarily in Portland, but it draws from stories that involve Minneapolis and a broader national story that took place in the eighties and nineties.”
Tiffany Conklin is Executive Director and co-founder of the Portland Street Art Alliance (PSAA), a non-profit organization that manages and documents the creation of public works of art, educates the public about the significance of street art and related traditions, and builds supportive networks for local, regional, and international artists. Tiffany has nearly two decades of professional research experience, including 16 years managing projects at Portland State University. She holds a Bachelors in Cultural Anthropology and Sociology, and a Masters of Urban Studies from Portland State University, with a specialty focus on Public Space. As ED for PSAA, Tiffany manages the daily operations, including all commissioned work, community art projects, public policy consultation, and a variety of public engagement activities.
christopher oscar peña grew up in San Jose, California before moving to New York City to earn his BFA and MFA at NYU, and now splits his time between New York and LA. An in-demand TV-writer for such hit series as CW’s “Jane The Virgin,” HBO’s “Insecure” and ABC/Hulu’s “Promised Land,” for which he is Supervising Producer, peña works in media ranging from theatre to tv to opera.
A resident of New Dramatists and a former Fellow with The Lark, NYTW, the Playwrights Realm and the Old Vic/New Voices, peña was recently named Artistic Associate at Arizona Theatre Company and was listed on Backstage’s “Future Broadway Power List.”
His plays sit at the intersection of Latinx, LGBTQIA+ and American pop culture and interrogate the “American Dream” in ways that are current, fresh and illuminating. Profile Theatre is producing his play, “How to Make An American Son,” in June 2023.
Megan Tabaque is Filipina-Canadian playwright, actor, and arts educator. Her work has been developed, commissioned, and produced by the Alliance Theater, Salvage Vanguard Theater, Tofte Lake Center, the Workshop Theater, Paper Chairs, and Egg & Spoon Theatre Collective, among others. She is a Kundiman Fiction Fellow, Sewanee Writers’ Conference Scholar, Seattle Public Theater Emerald Prize finalist, Playwrights’ Realm Scratchpad Series semi-finalist, and a 2021 Four Seasons Residency nominee.
Recent works include Britney Approximately, a pop Greek tragedy commissioned by Vanderbilt University and Decapitations, a comedic haunting of a multi-facial family in Florida by the ailing president of an HOA (scheduled for Salvage Vangaurd Theater’s 2023 season).
She is currently developing a brand new play about conspiracy theorists and human trafficking in Asian American communities titled Marry Me, Bruno Mars for Emory University’s Brave New Works festival. Megan earned her MFA in Playwriting and Fiction from the Michener Center for Writers in Austin, TX.
Alvaro Saar Rios is a Texican playwright living in Chicago. His plays have been performed in New York City, Mexico City, Hawaii, Chicago, St. Louis, Milwaukee and all over Texas. He has received playwriting commissions from various organizations, including Kennedy Center, Chicago Children’s Theatre, First Stage, Houston Grand Opera, Honolulu Theatre for Youth, Purple Rose Theatre Company, Houston Community College, Zoological Society of Milwaukee and Omaha’s Rose Theater.
His award-winning play Luchadora! is published by Dramatic Publishing Inc. Other plays include On The Wings of a Mariposa, Unmuted, Bienvenidos a Milwaukee/Welcome to Milwaukee, and Carmela Full of Wishes. Alvaro holds an MFA in Writing for the Stage and Screen from Northwestern University. He is a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists and Playwright-InResidence at Milwaukee’s First Stage.
Alvaro is a proud veteran of the US Army and an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. https://www.alvarosaarrios.com/ Twitter & Instagram: @realCrazyMex
CHIP MILLER is a director and producer, currently in the role of Associate Artistic Director at Portland Center Stage at the Armory. Some of their recent directing credits include Rent, August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean, Hedwig & The Angry Inch, the world premiere of Redwood (Portland Center Stage at the Armory), Larry Owens’ Sondhemia (Carnegie Hall), Journeys to Justice (Portland Opera), School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play, Welcome to Fear City, A Raisin in the Sun, (KCRep); the world premiere of Becoming Martin (The Coterie); dwb: driving while black (Lawrence Arts Center, Baruch Performing Arts Center). Upcoming: It’s a Wonderful Life – a Live Radio Play at Portland Center Stage and the world premiere of Kareem Fahmy’s American Fast at Artists’ Repertory Theatre.
Cristi Miles is a native of El Paso, Texas and is a theatre artist rooted in Portland, OR. She enjoys making life awesome with her husband, daughter and their 4 pet friends. She wildly enjoys teaching, and making radical art with PETE (petensemble.org), where this past November they concluded FRONTERIZA, a three year long project investigating Cristi’s identity in context of the recent immigration crisis along the US/Mexico border. Her work has taken her all across the Pacific Northwest and Northeastern parts of the US.
This year finds her teaching Reed, Lewis and Clark, and the University of Portland all for the first time! She has been previously seen acting on stage with PETE; Artist’s Rep; Third Rail; Portland Playhouse; Profile Theatre; Portland Shakespeare Project; and Teatro Milagro, as well as many theatres in New England. Cristi is a founding faculty member at the Institute for Contemporary Performance and a graduate of The Oregon Center for Alexander Technique (AmSAT certified teacher).
Ella deCastro Baron is a second generation Filipina American born and raised on Patwin and Muwekma lands (Vallejo, California). She holds an MFA in Creative Writing, is a VONA alum, and teaches English and Creative Writing at San Diego City College and U Mass. Ella’s first book of creative nonfiction is, Itchy, Brown Girl Seeks Employment, and she will be/is published in Nonwhite and Woman,(Her)oics: Women’s Lived Experiences During the Coronavirus Epidemic,Anomaly, and The Rumpus. An embodied storyteller, Ella honors sensations, images, story, dance, and candid cultural insight to reflect the dynamic identities in all of us.
Ella explores what it means to have integrity—to be integrated—as a woman of color who lives with chronic illness. She co-teaches and produces workshops and kapwa (deep interconnection) gatherings that aim to reconcile folks—especially BIPOC—through decolonial, nourishing acts such as writing, art, movement, food (yes!) and community rituals. She lives and loves on Kumeyaay territory (San Diego, CA) with her husband and interracial family. Her favorite pronoun is We.
