THE SHOTGUN PLAYERS
BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Debbie Arthur

A resident of South Berkeley for nearly 25 years, Debbie (she/her) has been a longtime supporter of Shotgun Players but became a passionate subscriber after seeing Love is a Dream House in Lorin (2007). With 20 years of grant writing and public health experience, she is now the Development Director at Visión y Compromiso, a statewide organization supporting promotoras, grassroots community leaders who serve their communities with passion in order to improve equity and community health and wellness. When not behind a computer, she may be found in the garden, cooking for family and friends, behind a book, or (in the before times and hopefully again soon) traveling, camping or hiking with her family across California from the breathtaking coastline to the hills of the East Bay and the rugged Sierra Nevada mountains.

Susan Champion

Susan first trod the boards at eight years old, playing Rosie in her elementary school's production of Really Rosie, under the patient direction of Mr. Henderson. She will never forget her father's words to her on the eve of her first day of college, encouraging her to major in theater, stating: "I don't care what you do with your life as long as you are happy and doing something to make a positive difference in your community." After an MFA and several years in the acting company at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, she left to work in public health, and later went to law school. She is now deputy director of Stanford Law School’s Three Strikes Project, which provides pro bono legal representation to individuals serving life sentences in prison for nonviolent crimes. She has been an informal Shotgun booster for years and is delighted to bring her boosterism to a whole new level. Were he alive today, she knows her father would be so proud of her service on Shotgun's board—a theater that is the very definition of making a positive difference in the community through art.

Vera Devera

Vera Devera is a seasoned 0 to 1 community builder for high growth Saas companies like Ironclad, Vareto, and most recently Watershed, an all-in-one enterprise climate technology platform. Her work for Ironclad is featured in David Spink's book "The Business of Belonging" and over her career, she's ghostwritten for Jeff Bridges, owned a wedding planning business, and worked at San Francisco Opera and the Berkeley Police.

Outside of work, she creates communities around her passions for hiking, cycling, tennis, and gaming. As a board gaming and Dungeons and Dragons enthusiast -- she has taught workshops and organized hundreds of meetups to make the hobby accessible to players of all skill levels and backgrounds.

Fun fact: Vera first moved to Oakland 2002 and in an effort to make new friends and contribute to the performing arts community, she volunteered as a backstage manager for the Transparent Theater. That Theater later became the Ashby Stage, home of the Shotgun Players! She’s proud to serve on the Shotgun Players Board today.

Ipsheeta Furtado

Ipsheeta is Director of Financial Operations at TripActions, a leading global business travel and expense platform. Previously, she started and expanded the Operations team at consumer real estate startup Divvy Homes and helped launch fintech startups in banking, lending, and payments at Max Levchin's incubator, HVF Labs. Ipsheeta was CEO and Co-Founder of Fluid Financial, a venture-backed platform for enabling sustainable financing options for small businesses and caught the startup bug while founding and managing a product development consultancy in Oakland, CA. Ipsheeta holds a B.S. in Engineering Physics from UC Berkeley and prefers tea over coffee. Her passion for theater started from a young age memorizing musicals well before seeing them on stage and finding La Val’s basement shows upon attending Cal. Go Bears!

May Lynne Gill

May Lynne has spent the last twenty years working in the community as an Early Childhood Educator/Transitional Kindergarten Teacher at Malcolm X Elementary School. She has long been a lover of the theatre where she and her husband Tim have attended many local professional and student productions over the years. Both were recently BLOWN AWAY by the quality of recent productions from the Shotgun Players, including "Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812," "Passing Strange," "Triumph of Love" and "Yerma."  May Lynne’s love for the Shotgun Players began in 2010 as part of a school field trip, where her students were introduced to the theater as part of their "Community Unit." Witnessing young 5-year-olds entering a theater for the first time, mouths agape, and learning about the different jobs performed in the theatre was a game-changer. Since then, May Lynne has believed in the importance of bringing the magic of live theatre to young people, and continues to encourage their exposure to the craft. As a member of the Board she is excited to help support the Shotgun Players in their mission, and is thrilled to be working with a group of such talented individuals. When she is not attending plays or “wrangling” 4- and 5-year-olds, May Lynne loves to read good books, create fiber art, kayak, and explore nature.

Lyndsey Heaton

Secretary

Lyndsey has had a passion for the performing arts since she was a child memorizing the lyrics to West Side Story in her living room. After graduating from UC Berkeley, she spent nearly a decade in New York City, fitting shows and karaoke sessions into her schedule as a Columbia law student. Lyndsey has since returned to Berkeley and is a partner in the intellectual property group of Sideman Bancroft LLP in San Francisco. She loves sharing Berkeley’s cultural and artistic offerings with her husband and two young children. They may even put on family plays from time to time (which are not quite ready for the Shotgun workshop).

Naomi Janowitz

Naomi Janowitz and her husband, Andrew Lazarus, have been part of the Shotgun audience since the La Val’s days. Many years ago, she started a college program at San Quentin and invited Shotgun to perform their production of Shakespeare's Henry V inside the prison. Some of the inmates reported that it was the first play they had ever seen. Later on, her son Gideon Lazarus appeared in the Shotgun production of Mamet’s Cryptogram. When she is not watching plays, she teaches religious studies at UC Davis and is also a graduate of the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis.

Zack Kushner

Zack first encountered Shotgun Players as a strategist, helping the company focus its brand and messaging. And almost immediately following his first Shotgun show, he began thinking about how he could stay involved. As a graduate of UC Santa Cruz' theater arts program and a veteran of Hollywood, his love of drama — and its power to engage — runs deep. Decades ago, he worked as David Mamet's assistant, ran lines with Steve Martin, and pitched an animated feature to studios. Now, working with Shotgun Players has revived his love for the theater, and specifically the kind of theater that makes you feel part of the show. He's a brand strategist with an affinity for finely tuned turns of phrase, who's worked with clients as widespread as the Rhodes Trust, HBO, and the Oakland Museum of California. He's papa to the best kid ever and married to someone much smarter than he is. Zack lives in Berkeley, loves to go bouldering, and would be happy to mix you up a cocktail.

Will Rountree

Will has been attending Shotgun performances for over a decade, and his enthusiasm for the company has increased over time, culminating with the recent Shotgun production of A Small Fire, which moved him deeply. Originally from Chicago’s South Side, Will was a tap dancer and choreographer extraordinaire, and he’s loved the roller-coaster of live performance ever since. He moved to the Bay Area in 1991 to pursue his Ph.D. in Sociology at Berkeley after completing his law degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Will has been a jury consultant for 22 years, and is a partner at Bonora Rountree, Trial Consulting & Research in San Francisco. When he’s not working, Will is probably enjoying a meal and/or cocktails with friends, visiting family in Chicago, or scheming his next vacation.

Maggie Salop

Board President

Maggie became a theatre fan in college, where she quickly learned that student ushers attend for free. Marrying a fan of theatre (and most things cultural) sealed her fate. Maggie has been enthusiastically following Shotgun since the 2001 Iphigenia in Aulis at John Hinkel Park. The manic rage of Medea in the decrepit UC Theater and the surreal The Play About the Baby in the basement of La Val’s the following year had her hooked. Maggie is an architect specializing in design for education, arts, and affordable housing. She lives in Oakland with her husband, two teenage theatre-fans-in-training, and one incorrigible dog.

Ann Shannon

Ann first experienced theater when the Mummers burst into her rural Irish home, threw down a makeshift stage on the kitchen floor, and began performing pagan rituals of death and revival. At around 4 years’ old, she never knew whether to laugh or cry as the whirlwind spectacle exited into the winter darkness as dramatically as it had entered. But she became hooked on live theater and made sure to catch it wherever and whenever. In 1995 Ann transferred from the University of Nottingham to Berkeley to work on research and development projects for US public schools. She happened upon Shotgun at La Val’s, became a regular, a volunteer, a subscriber, and then a supporter. Ann is delighted to retire in Oakland, join the board, and whole heartedly champion Shotgun.

Richard West

Treasurer

For his entire professional career, Richard worked in California public higher education serving in both the University of California and the California State University. Before retiring in 2008, he served for fifteen years as the executive vice chancellor and chief financial officer for the California State University system. After retiring, he taught for five years at Sonoma State University as a professor of economics. Recent duties have included serving on several different philanthropic boards, including the Berkeley City Club, California Trout, and the California Maritime Academy Foundation.

Shotgun's Board Emeriti

Joel Ager

Carol Amyx

Ann Gabor Arancio

Bill Bagnell

Vini Beachem

Kitty Bosher

Kat Bruno

Robert Burlin

Gayle Burns

Marc Chun

Tony Drummond

Nasos Eleftheriadis

Charles Gary

Ricky Grenis

John Horsch

Carolyn Jones

Oliver Kellogg

Mary Leichliter

Deborah Lichtman

Steve Love

Lynn MacDonald

Joseph Mallon

Ken Martin

Michelle Mattera

Laura McNall

Mina Morita

Claire Mosher

Richard Nelson

Gary Osteraas

Les Polgar

Alex Poulsen

Don Reed

David Reid

Pepi Ross

Scott Sanders

Michael Schnitzer

Lois Schwartz

Guenet Sebsibe

Ragesh Tangri

BiBi Tiphane

Michael Torres

Jed Waldman

Tamara White

Miki Yamamoto