staff and management
- Amy Christian, Co-Artistic Director, Founder
- Alessandra Ogren, Co-Artistic Director, Founder, Penasco Theatre Director
- Katy Medley, Managing Director
- Rebekah Tarin, Penasco Theatre Managing Director
- Nikesha Breeze, Studio Manager and BUST Director
Amy Christian - Co-Artistic Director, Founder
Amy Christian is a professional performing and visual artist, teacher and community activist. A founding member of Wise Fool, Amy has served as a co-Director, core artist, producer and administrator since 1989.
In her time with Wise Fool, Amy has conceived, organized and directed outdoor and indoor theatre events, taught public workshops in mask making, stilt walking, puppetry arts and processional theatre, performed throughout the US, Mexico and Europe, built hundreds of giant puppets and supported an uncountable number of cultural and social change groups and events.
Amy has also guided community and cultural organizations through the conception and creation of public events. In 1995, Amy founded IN THE STREET, the San Francisco Street Theatre Festival. A three-day free event, celebrating accessible theatre by bringing high quality performances into the streets of the Tenderloin. IN THE STREET is now in its sixth successful year, changing the face of this "dangerous" neighborhood by bringing the community together in dialogue and shared celebration.
Since 1988 Amy has also been; teaching visual art and creative movement to children ages 2 to 18, performing as a dancer and clown, and creating masks and puppets on commission for venues such as the Santa Fe Children's Museum and the Earth's Birthday Project. Her vision is to bring art back into our daily lives as a means of empowerment, celebration and reclamation of public space.
Alessandra Ogren - Co-Artistic Director, Founder, Penasco Theatre Director
Alessandra Ogren has been creating puppets, masks and performance works as a core member of Wise Fool since 1993. She is a professional performer, artist, lighting designer, teacher and accomplished aerialist.
Socially relevant theater and circus arts have been Alessandra's passions since childhood, when she wrote a play about recycling and toured it to all the schools in her hometown of Bloomington Indiana. Since then she has never underestimated the power of theatre and performing arts to communicate important issues. In her time with Wise Fool, she has created; directed and taught community workshops in stiltwalking, mask making and giant puppet building. She was part of the core staff of IN THE STREET, the San Francisco Theatre Festival from 1995-1999. Alessandra co-wrote and co-directed with Tai Uhlmann the video "Bad Jews in My Kitchen" a documentary film about Jewish lesbian culture in San Francisco. "Bad Jews" has shown in over 20 national and international film festivals. In 1996 she founded the Turnbuckles, an eclectic multimedia trapeze and dance company. Between '96 and '98 they performed and toured in the Bay Area and nationally.
Since moving to Santa Fe in 1998, Alessandra has been teaching trapeze and performing with her new aerial company Sorelle Sora. She helped conceive of and start the One Railroad Circus, which has performed around New Mexico since the summer of 1999. She is a firm believer in the power of the Circus to bring people together and to inspire all of us to follow our dreams.
Katy Medley - Managing Director
When Katy joined Wise Fool as Managing Director in Feb 2008, she brought along her values of practicality and persistence, a passion for the pursuit of a just society, and a deep belief in the profound ability of the arts to inspire and change lives.
As Managing Director she helps the organization to create and sustain healthy administrative, fundraising, and financial systems and structures that support our mission and programs. Katy has been a non-profit arts professional since 2000 and has successful fulfilled roles in program management and evaluation, creation and leadership of fundraising initiatives, RFP and grants administration, and fiscal management for a variety of organizations including museums, galleries, and technical assistance organizations. She holds a Masters of Non-Profit Arts Management from Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University.