ABOUT ROUSTABOUT THEATER

OUR MISSION

Roustabout Theater’s mission is to create a vibrant regional theater and unparalleled actor training program in Sonoma County. 

Roustabout Theater is the resident theater company of the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California and our Apprentice Program is one of the leading theatrical training and performance programs in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Roustabout Theater has served thousands of the community’s families and theater lovers through productions, classes and scholarship programs.

Your support is welcome and all donations are tax-deductible.

Hay Fever 2017

Our programs are made possible, in part, with funds from Creative Sonoma and the National Endowment for the Arts. Thank you!

OUR VISION

To Build a Professional Regional Theater in Sonoma County

To Produce Masterworks of the 20th Century and new plays in their West Coast premieres

To Create a home for local, professionally-trained adult performers with a commitment to excellence

To Train young performers in the skills needed for an extraordinary performance, and to make them to feel at home in any performance situation

To Forge an indelible link between our performing artists and our apprentices

We’ve been a federally recognized nonprofit since 2005. Our number is 43-2082815.

All donations are tax-deductible. Talk to your tax advisor for details.

EQUITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

Roustabout Theater actively affirms the wide diversity of our community and actively supports all who are working to eradicate inequity, injustice, and marginalization.

In response to ongoing social and professional inequities, Roustabout Theater is dedicated to:

  • actively acknowledging all racial and gender identifications;
  • asserting itself as an advocate for justice and equity;
  • affirming Roustabout’s intolerance for oppressive language, actions, and behavior, and standing against hate, injustice, and inequity;
  • engaging in honest self-assessment of equity, diversity, and inclusion as reflected in all operations;
  • implementing criteria for production, casting, and staffing that support a true and robust equity;
  • practicing inclusion on our Board of Directors that respects our community’s diversity;
  • encouraging personal growth among Roustabout’s artists, audiences, students and administrators to become potent advocates for equity, diversity, inclusion, and change;
  • facilitating anti-racist and anti-oppression training for staff and board, including the drafting of an anti-racist/anti-oppression values statement and updating any policies to acknowledge and abandon any exclusionary or harmful practices.

FACULTY & STAFF

Clark Houston Lewis

Founder & Artistic Director

Sheila Brock

Stage Manager

William Davis

Director of Education

Joseph Favolora

Choreographer

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Clark Houston Lewis

President

Dr. William Davis, DVM

Secretary/Treasurer

Catherine Hamrick-Down

Teresa Norton

Debbie Raike

TYPICAL SEASON

SPRING

From early February through mid-May, we offer a professionally produced show – with our students performing all the roles – or we offer our intensive Conservatory classes with special Master Classes helmed by leading professionals in American theater. These classes variously provide training in acting, vocal performance, diction, dialect, movement, dance (jazz, tap, ballroom, ballet), improv and stage combat.

SUMMER

Roustabout’s summer theater camp offers actors of all ages and experience levels the chance to develop their acting, dancing and singing skills while working on the production of a professionally produced show.

FALL

From early September through mid-December we produce a full-length musical and every other year is our production of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas”. Rehearsals include instruction in dance, acting techniques and development of stage presence.

CONSERVATORY CLASSES

In addition to working on productions, Roustabout Theater offers our students the opportunity to further develop their skills through our Conservatory Classes. Held every other year, our classes provide training in acting, solo vocal performance, choral vocal performance, diction, dialect, movement, dance (stage, modern, mass and tap), improv and stage combat.

Clark Houston Lewis

Founding Artistic Director Roustabout Theater (2005-present)

50+ productions, including West Coast Premieres: Mary Page Marlowe, Apologia, When the Rain Stops Falling; Regional Premieres: Drowsy Chaperone; 13

Artistic Director Sutter Street Theater, SF, CA (2011 – 2020)

Produced & directed 40+ shows with professional actors and students; chose season; taught Graduate and Undergraduate acting students at Academy of Art University

Director at Nueva (2014-2019)

Directed students in Street Scene, Laramie Project, Pippin, Peter and the Starcatcher

Los Angeles Theater (1994-1999)

Matrix Theater: Home Free; Cort Theater: Burn This; Theatre 40: Shaw’s The Devil’s Disciple; Tiffany Theater: Lovers and Other Strangers; Theater Geo: What She Said; et al.

Coach/Teacher New York; Los Angeles; San Francisco (1984-2021)

Coach actors and singers for Broadway, National Tours, Film and TV. Clients include Academy Award winner Marisa Tomei and leading performers on Broadway and in National Tours (Bring It On, Les Miserables, Parade, Chicago, Cloud Nine, et al.); Master Classes at Neuva School and with Seniors Acting Classes of Sonoma County

Producer Riverlight Production Company, Los Angeles, CA (2004)

Produced “Preservation of the Ballona Wetlands” featuring Ed Begley, Jr.

Education

M.A. Juilliard (1981-1983) Conducting, on scholarship
B.A. University of Virginia (1977–1981) Music, with honors

Honors

Serves on Theater Services Committee for Theatre Bay Area

Sheila Brock

Sheila has been with Roustabout since 2011. Sheila’s love of theater started in high school. She has been involved in theater productions for over 40 years. Sheila graduated from CalArts with a BFA in Theater Management. During her time as a Stage Manager, she has worked with many community theaters in Sonoma County. Sheila has stage managed both straight plays and musicals.

Sheila had a hiatus from theater when she worked for KFTY News Channel 50 as a Stage Manager, Director and Producer. Then Sheila changed careers and became an Infant-Toddler & Pre-school teacher at Santa Rosa Junior College’s Children’s Center. She always hoped to go back to her first love of theater and now with Roustabout she has been able to do that. She is happy to be a part of the Roustabout family that trains the next generation of actors and stage managers in Roustabout’s Apprentice program.

Sheila has worked on over 35 shows with Roustabout. She is very excited to be a part of this new adventure with Roustabout and the Ensemble Company that is bringing amazing professional adult shows to Sonoma County.

William Davis

Bill was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and studied at SFSU, The American Conservatory Theatre, and U.C. Davis.

Bill has been seen onstage at Sutter Street Theater (S.F.), Theatre 40 (Los Angeles), A.C.T. studio (S.F.), Newman Auditorium (Santa Rosa) and Roustabout Theater.

A 3rd generation Japanese American, Bill has a strong interest in seeing representation of diverse people in the media and on stage.
In addition to his work in theater, Bill is a practicing veterinarian and goat keeper as well as a dog enthusiast.

Joseph Favolora

Joseph is thrilled to be part of the Roustabout team. Joseph has been dancing since age four, and competitively since age six. His professional Broadway credits span 15 years and include “Beauty and the Beast” and Cathy Rigby’s “Peter Pan”, as well as the roles of Mr. Mistoffelees in “Cats” (National Tour), and Baby John in “West Side Story” (International Tour).

As Choreographer, Joseph has won two San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critic Circle Awards for excellence in choreography, and awards for his dancing as Mr. Dance of New England, Junior Mr. Dance of America, and East Coast Junior Ballroom Champion. In addition, Joseph has taught master classes at the Boston Conservatory of Music (the Modern Dance department) and was on faculty at New Dance Group (NDG) in New York City.