ARAB SPRING

Arti Ishak is a Chicago actor/writer/director whose work centers on Queer, Muslim, and multicultural stories. Select Credits TV: Southside (HBO); Dark Matter (Apple TV); Chicago Med (NBC). Theatre: Fantastic Super Great Nation Numero Uno, The Best Decision You’ve Ever Made (The Second City); Witch, Buried Child (Writers), Venus in Fur (Circle). Directing credits include short films Shukran Bas (Means of Productions), ba la (HF Productions), HALF (ZAXIE), and upcoming short Divorce Party. Arti is a senior instructor at Black Box Acting and Adjunct Professor at The Theatre School at DePaul. @artiishak www.artiishak.com

Denmo Ibrahim is an American playwright, actor, educator, entrepreneur and theatre maker of Egyptian descent. Denmo is the founder of five companies, leads immersive workshops in devised work and ensemble theatre, and has been invited as keynote speaker for a wide variety of conferences including wellness, meditation, performance, and leadership.

Denmo is the Playwright-in-Residence at Golden Thread for 2026 and will have the world premiere of her play Arab Spring produced in June 2026, a co-production with SFBATCO.

Nailah Unole Didanas'ea Harper-Malveaux is a queer multiracial theater director and producer. Directing highlights include: the rolling World Premiere of Haunted by Tara Moses (Cleveland Public), the West Coast premiere of The Last of the Love Letters by Ngozi Anyanwu and Edit Annie by Mary Glen Fredrick (Crowded Fire), the world premiere of Getting There by Dipika Guha (NCTC), and The Light by Loy A. Webb (Shotgun Players). She serves as the Artistic Director and Co-Executive Director of Crowded Fire Theater. She has worked as a freelance artist at Cleveland Public Theater, Woolly Mammoth, Pasadena Playhouse, Williamstown Theater Festival, Berkeley Rep, Baltimore Center Stage, Z Space, and American Conservatory Theater. She received her B.A. in American Studies and Theatre Studies from Yale University.

River Bermudez Sanders is proud to support this co-production between two of the most exciting and innovative companies in the Bay! They are is a multi-disciplinary theatre artist with credits from companies throughout the region, including San Francisco Playhouse, Oakland Theatre Project, Berkeley Playhouse, and more. Some recent projects include Hillbarn Theatre’s The Play That Goes Wrong (Trevor), Crowded Fire Theatre’s limp wrist on the lever (Charli), and Theatre Rhinoceros’s The Laramie Project (co-director w/Elio Amador).

Lev Collins is thrilled to help bring Arab Spring to life. He loves all aspects of scenic creation and has worked as a freelance technical director, scenic painter, and scenic carpenter, including technical directing Returning to Haifa for Golden Threads in 2024. In addition to his freelance work, Lev is a full-time scenic carpenter at Cal Scenic, where he helps build sets for theaters both locally and across the U.S., including A.C.T., Center REP, and Shotgun Players.

Laura A. Bruekner is a Bay Area-based dramaturg specializing in new work, immersive theatre, and experimental pieces. She's thrilled to be working with Golden Thread, SFBATCO, and this creative team on this incredibly special play.

Lauren Quan is a Bay Area based stage manager. She has stage managed for various local theaters such as: Magic Theatre, Aurora Theatre, Berkeley Playhouse, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre and of course, the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company. She is always eager to connect with new people.

Ella Watkins is delighted to be working on her first show with SFBATCO. Previously, she was a Stage Management Intern at Broadway at Music Circus in Sacramento, working on Hello, Dolly! and In the Heights. Other than that, she has worked on shows at her high school and college. She is currently working towards her BA in Theatre Arts at San Francisco State University.

Mikiko Uesugi has designed Cuckoo Edible Magic and Sign My Name to Freedom for SFBATCO, and several productions for Golden Thread including Pilgrimage, Drowning in Cairo, Our Enemies, Language Rooms and Night Over Erzinga. She has also designed for Word for Word, Aurora Theater Company, Shotgun Players, Magic Theater, among others. She is a resident artist at Golden Thread, a recipient of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award and the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Designers.

Sinjin Jones is a storytelling artist from Denver, Colorado. He founded both Otherworld Collective, a multimedia artists collective, and Perplexity Pictures, a story driven film production company. After moving to the Bay Area, he was the Executive Artistic Director of The Pear Theatre and is founder of Foundry of Aether, an immersive storytelling project. In addition to his work with SVCreates, he is currently an independent arts consultant and artist in the Bay Area. Favorite productions include: directing Once on This Islandz; Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea; Sunset Baby; and Infinite Black Suitcase and lighting design for Azad, The Agitators; Chaplin and Keaton on the Set of Limelight; and The Last Five Years.

Michael Kelly is the audio supervisor with Shotgun Players in Berkeley. Recent mixing and design projects include Choir Boy, Hedwig, Great Comet (Shotgun), Tempest (SF Shakes), Human Error (Town Hall), Bees & Honey (Marin), Winter’s Tale (Cal Shakes), House of the Spirits (UCB), Do’s and Don’ts of Time Travel (Quantum Dragon) and RUR (Cutting Ball). Upcoming projects include Witch (Stanford Univ) and Sunday in the Park with George (Shotgun).

Buffy is filmmaker and artist from the Bay Area. In addition to personal creative goals, Buffy is eager about supporting others in their work, and resistance. Buffy has collaborated on "Collective Rage" at Shotgun Players, "Do You Feel Anger" at Marin Theatre, Azad, the Rabbit and the Wolf, as well as "The Pilgrimage" at Golden Thread Productions.

Heidi Button recently received her BA from SF State, also serving as Interim Props Department Coordinator for spring 2024. Recent credits include designing props for Nollywood Dreams at San Francisco Playhouse, and In The Evening By The Moonlight for the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre Company. In a former life, Heidi lived in France 8 years as an aerialist, and spent 9 years at SF Circus Center doing circus production. Spring 2020 she co-directed Circus Center's Youth Program.

Landyn is a queer, trans Japanese-American fight choreographer, acrobat, actor, and stuntman. He has performed in Europe with DTM2 Improvisational Ensemble, Off-Broadway in NYC, and in Japan in “Dreaming Forward,” an artistic collaboration with choreographer Motoko Hirayama. Check out his new show “Box M” in July at Crowded Fire Theatre.

Landyn is a proud member of Flying Rabbit Circus and People’s Circus Theatre, and teaches at Circus Center and VRV3. Find him on IG @smooth_landyn