People

Marisela Barrera is a Tejana writer and teatrista with a BFA in Acting from Southern Methodist University and  MA/MFA degrees in Creative Writing, Literature and Social Justice from Our Lady of the Lake University. Her work has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, HowlRound, The Rivard Report, Concho River Review, Latina Critical Feminism, Out in SA, Texas Matters, The San Antonio Current, Radio Esperanza 101.5 LP-FM, and TheaterJones, among others. She was Artistic Director of Cara Mia Theater, Theater Director at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, and has performed in Latino cultural centers in Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. Recent original productions include Tejana Rasquacha at Jump-Start, Ruby Reds, Big Birds y Burras at the Guadalupe, and Tejana Trilogy at Palo Alto College. Favorite directing projects include Yemaya’s Belly with Cara Mia, Lydia with AtticRep at Trinity University, and Ay, Pedro at the Guadalupe. She teaches writing at Northwest Vista College and is a two-time recipient of the National Association for Latino Arts and Culture Fund for the Arts award. Barrera spins and eats fire with Jump-Start Performance Co., where she is a company and board member. Her performative memoir, Tejana Rasquacha, plays at Jump-Start Theater in July 2020. Find her work at www.mariselabarrera.com.

Kim Corbin lived a bunch of places when she was a kid, ending up in SA to attend Trinity University where she got a degree in Art and Speech & Drama. A few years later she met some artists in a modern dance class. They kept in touch, working on various independent performance projects together until a couple of them felt compelled to create Jump-Start Performance Co., which has been Kim’s artistic home ever since. During these 30-plus years she has been a performer, costumer, creator of artistic work, event planner, volunteer, et cetera with the company. She remains excited and inspired by her artistic cohort and by the endless possibilities of original performance.

Sandy Dunn is one of the founding members of Jump-Start Performance Co.  Over these many years at Jump-Start she has performed in, produced, choreographed and directed several shows. Long before Jump-Start she obtained a BFA in dance at Ohio State University and worked with a group of performance artists, We’re Just Like You, in Cincinnati, Ohio.  After moving to San Antonio she performed with Kista Tucker of DanceArt/SA, 24th Street Theater and Urban-15 and THEN started creating performance art with a few others who were interested in starting Jump-Start.  Sandy also studied Massage Therapy and Barrett Breathwork which she still practices in Austin where she currently lives in with her husband Paul when not tooling back and forth to Jump-Start on I-35.

Pamela Dean Kenny is an actor and art model.

Holly Nañes is a multidisciplinary artist that has done work as a director, writer, visual artist, stage manager, producer, performer, and more. She has lived in San Antonio for 7 years and is currently pursuing an MFA in Directing at Texas State University.  Her work, love for travel, humanity, different trees, and curiosity has taken her to New York City, Provincetown & Boston, Massachusetts, Oakland & San Francisco, California, San Antonio and Lubbock, TX. She hopes to continue working and traveling while developing as an artist, creating and collaborating with other artists, and teaching within the community.  She believes in humanity’s ability to contribute in a healthy and productive way towards the betterment of themselves, others, animals, the environment and generally speaking this beautiful Blue Planet. It’s up to us what’s in store for this planet. She is proud to be a member of Jump-Start and can’t wait to see what the next 5 years has in store for us.

Sheila Sisler-Currie, a long time Jump-Start Performance Company member and a multi-faceted entrepreneur with a “Let’s do it!” attitude, teeming with character and whimsy, can be found most days working and wishing she had even more time for creating.

Chuck Squier has been working and playing with Jump-Start since the ’80’s. He has served in a variety of production, company, staff, and board of directors capacities over the years. He’s still fascinated by how other people’s creativity inspires him to respond and create his own work. 

Lisa Suárez is a San Anto’ “teatrista” and longtime company member. She is an actress, singer, dancer and stilt-walker known for her portrayal of her own mother in I’ll Remember for You: An Alzheimer’s Story which she wrote and premiered at Jump-Start in 2010. She appeared and collaborated in many Jump-Start productions including High Yello Rose, La Frontera, Finding Love in Wartime, and Sandra Cisneros’ House on Mango Street. She was also in other local productions including Real Women Have Curves, Heroes and Saints, and Las Nuevas Tamaleras. She played Lydia Mendoza in Lydia Mendoza: La Gloria de Tejas. Suárez has toured and performed with other theater companies including the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, El Centro Su Teatro (Denver, CO), Mixed Blood Theatre Company (Minneapolis, MN) and Cara Mia (Dallas, TX).  She has appeared in television and films including HBO’s The Leftovers, PBS’s Latino Americans series, From Dusk Till Dawn (the TV series), Lonestar, and From Mexico With Love. She is a graduate of Incarnate Word College (now known as the University of Incarnate Word) earning a Bachelor of Arts degree. She is a NALAC Leadership program graduate. Lisa currently teaches various group fitness classes including aqua fitness and Zumba and is a transcendental meditator.

Clint George Taylor has been a theatre artist in San Antonio for more than 20 years and he continues to enhance his artistic practice by working with diverse companies and solo artists and by taking advantage of workshops and classes offered in San Antonio and New York. At Jump-Start, he is a member of the artistic company, he is a teaching artist, he serves on the Curatorial Committee and he is the organization’s Social Media Coordinator.

Sarah Tijerina is a San Antonio-based performance artist and teaching artist. After graduating from Texas State University, Sarah has returned to her hometown of San Anto to continue her work as a community-based artist and educator as a new member of the Jump-Start Performance Company. Her perspective is a major influence in her poetry, scripts, and performance art, as her work explores her relationship with femininity, injustice, and “nepantla”, the “in-between-ness” she balances in her identity as a Tejana. Her work has been showcased in theaters, galleries, and performance spaces around Central Texas and she even co-founded her own theatre troupe, (Re)Appropriate, in San Marcos, TX. As a teatrista, her passion revolves around unapologetically creating and taking up space, as well as encouraging artists and creatives to find healing, and empower their voice.

Max Parilla, Monessa Esquivel, Eraina Porras, Julie Marin, Mellissa Marlowe, Jessica Arriola, Steve Bailey, Mark Blakeney, Cathleen Pollock Boehme, Paul Bonin-Rodriguez, Erik Bosse, Michael Cavazos, Laurie Dietrich, Kevin Evans, Michi Fink, Dino Foxx, Felice García, Skye Heather Daniels, Sterling Houston, Daniel Jackson, Billy Muñoz, Anita Jones Owers Baker, Danielle King, Michael Marinez, Julie Marin, Mellissa Marlowe, Lisa Mellinger, Dianne Monroe, Max Parrilla, Glenna Park, Dennis Poplin, Robert Rehm, Diana Rodriguez Gil, Annele Spector, S.T. Shimi, Amanda Silva, Susan Taylor, Fabiola Torralba, Jesse Valadez López, Michael Verdi

Eduardo Juárez is a Supervisory Trial Attorney with the San Antonio Field Office of the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission where he litigates civil rights cases dealing with employment discrimination. During the 1990s, Mr. Juárez was a Trial Attorney with the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia and began his law career as an Associate with the law firm of Sidley & Austin in Chicago. Eduardo received a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame and a law degree from the University of Michigan.  A native of San Antonio’s Westside, Mr. Juárez has served as a director on several nonprofit organizations and is currently the Jump-Start board president.

Anna De Luna received her training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. She has acted in leading roles at the Guadalupe Theater, Jump-Start Performance Company, Attic Rep and appeared at the San Pedro Playhouse’s Anna In The Tropics for which she received a San Antonio Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has also been a recipient of grants from the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture and the City of San Antonio Office for Creative and Cultural Development to produce her original, one-woman shows, The AIDS Lady and My Arab Fall. Ms. De Luna has also served as a theater/arts educator for the YMCA H.Y.P.E. Program, the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center’s Grupo Animo, Discover Animo, Summer Youth Camp and the 21^st Century Arts Program and for Jump-Start Performance Company’s Historias y Cuentos.

Chayo Flores Zaldívar has been a staff member with Jump-Start Performance Co. since May 2005 and currently serves as Director of Operations. She is a member of the American Federation of Musicians Local 23, belongs to the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, and is a voting member for the Grammys (NARAS) and Latin Grammys (LARAS).  Chayo is past Executive Director of the Academy of Tejano Artists & Musicians. Before that she was Associate Director of the Tejano Music Awards and Past President of that organization. With the support of Green Spaces Alliance, Chayo organized Labor Serena Community Garden and hosts the annual Spring Break Camp &  Earth Day Celebration for school-aged children in District 5 and surrounding community. Chayo attended and completed training for Non-Profit Management at U.T. Austin in 1996 and is a graduate of the MALDEF Leadership Institute. She has extensive experience with non-profit organizations.

Sabine Widen is a nonprofit consultant with more than 20 years of experience. She holds degrees from Texas A&M University in College Station and St. Mary’s University of Law in San Antonio.

Erica R. DeLaRosa is a Teaching Artist, Theater Director, Performance Poet and Activist.  DeLaRosa is a Co-Founder of the performance troupe, MAHINA MOVEMENT in New York City. She has also served as Casting Director for the independent short film, Bad Behavior. In 2013, DeLaRosa moved back to San Antonio, Texas. Now, she invests in her community & contributes her talents as a Teaching Artist with several community organizations in San Antonio and New York City.  DeLaRosa is also the Founder and Producing and Education Partner of CEIBA Arts Cooperative (Communities Enlivened and Interactively Building through the Arts). Erica’s activism takes place in her poetry and drama therapy workshops in juvenile detention and adult rehabilitation centers and in producing community events and mobile classrooms in her city. She serves on the Board of Directors for San Anto Cultural Arts and as a Judge for the annual Young Pegasus Poetry Contest.