I. Mission Statement
Santa Clarita Playhouse is committed to preserving the vitality and enhancing the quality professional theatre through year round performance and education programs. We strive to advance the “magic” of theater performance by making literature come alive for our audience. We achieve this by being of service to our community through both adult and youth productions, educational outreach programs, school performances and reading groups. Santa Clarita Playhouse provides the residents of Santa Clarita Valley, Los Angeles County and beyond, exciting ways to appreciate and explore the human
experience through fresh and daring interpretations of classical and contemporary texts.
II. Board Members
President
Kevin Wetmore has a B.A. from Bates College, an M.A. in Theatre Studies from the University of Leeds, and a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of two books, “The Athenian Sun in an African Sky: Modern African Adaptation of Classical Greek Tragedy” and “Black Dionysus: Greek Tragedy and African-American Theatre”, and numerous articles. His scholarly areas of interest include Japanese theatre, African theatre, Shakespeare, Greek tragedy, and stage combat. In addition to being a theatre historian and teacher of dramatic literature, theory, and criticism, Dr. Wetmore is also an actor, director, stand-up comedian and stage combat choreographer (member, Society of American Fight Directors) with many award-winning productions to his credit.
Vice President
Johannes Larcher is a proven builder of successful technology companies with over a dozen years of hands-on experience in managing high-tech and fast-growth organizations around the world. As President and CEO of Academy123, Johannes drives the overall vision and operations of the company with a particular focus on customer success and platform expansion.
Before joining Academy123, Johannes was General Manager of International at Overture Services Inc., a leading provider of pay-for-performance internet search services. From 1999 to 2003, Johannes launched Overture into twelve European and Asian markets and oversaw the growth of its overseas business from scratch to more than $150M in revenue and profitability. Serving as Overture’s Chief of Staff during 2003, and following its acquisition by Yahoo! Inc. for $1.7B, Johannes co-led the integration of Overture into Yahoo!
In addition to his tenure at Overture / Yahoo!, Johannes’ career includes senior roles at Korn Ferry Futurestep and Friendster; and several years as a management consultant at McKinsey and Co.
Johannes is a member of the advisory boards of Revenue Science, BrandPort and Enquiro. He received his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and holds an M.A. from the University of Vienna in Austria.
William Morgan Sheppard was born in London, UK but was raised and educated in Dublin, Ireland. Before his formal training in the dramatic arts Sheppard served in the Norwegian Merchant Navy. Upon continuing his education he earned a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art,1956-1958, then went on to act with the Royal Shakespeare Company for twelve years.
Treasurer
Kazumi Tsunoda
