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About the Instructors and Staff
 Trevor
Weaver, Founder & Artistic Director
Trevor has been teaching drama since 1992 and is thrilled that the program has met with such accolade throughout the Bay Area. He currently instructs a variety of drama, voice- over and production classes for children, teens, and adults, and counts himself among the lucky few who absolutely love their career.
While growing up in Southern California, Trevor leapt onto the acting scene and snapped up recurring and guest-star roles in such popular shows as Eight is Enough, 21 Jump Street, Adam 12, Little House on the Prairie, and Kids Incorporated. His extensive resume also includes over 100 voiceover credits, numerous off-Broadway stage performances, and several successful collaborative ventures in song and script-writing.
Trevor studied acting with the prestigious Stella Adler Academy in New York City and Lee Strausberg Institute of Los Angeles, and pursued a rigorous course of study in the Visual and Performing Arts program at San Francisco State University. His love of improvisational theater motivated him to pursue additonal improv courses with The Groundlings Studio in Los Angeles and with the extremely talented crew at Second City in Chicago.
On the rare occasions that Trevor is not obsessing over upcoming classes, rummaging for props and costumes, or battling rush-hour traffic on the way to his next teaching gig, you will most likely find him perusing used-book stores (check the drama section first), solving the world's problems over a cup of joe, or taking in local shows and cultural events. |
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 Stephanie
Assisi
Stephanie Assisi is proud to be the Lead Music Director
of KTTS, and part of the wonderful new staff for
the So Cal branch of KTTS. She is also very excited
to be conducting the live orchestra for KTTS’s
teen productions, and thinks it will give the actors
an even better idea of what musical theater is all
about! Ms. Assisi resides in Los Angeles, CA, and
does private vocal coaching, piano instruction, acting,
modeling and voiceover work. In addition, she is
the pianist and organist for the St. Robert Bellarmine
Catholic Church in Burbank, CA. Stephanie would like
to thank the Loving Creator above for all of the
many blessings in her life, and Trevor Weaver and
her family for their continuous artistic and spiritual
support.
Stephanie is commercially represented by the Michael
Zanuck Agency in Agoura Hills, CA.
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 David Belles
David Belles has always loved music. Brought up on American musical theater and Gilbert and Sullivan, his musical tastes have branched out to include all fields of music, from classical to jazz, from rock-and-roll to world music.
David entered college as a piano performance major, but early on became involved in vocal music. He sang in choir for almost his entire college experience, and it is here that he developed his passion for group music. During college, he was involved in such music performance activities as opera workshop, musical theater ensemble, jazz band, string orchestra (on harpsichord), piano ensemble, and piano accompaniment, along with the annual non-serious PDQ Bach concerts at CSUEB. He graduated summa cum laude in 2008 with a Bachelors Degree in Piano Performance, and received his teaching credential in music the following year.
David's professional experience has been also quite varied; he has accompanied for multiple vocal studios in the area as well as for local high, middle, and elementary schools. In 2008-2009, he was the choral assistant for Ken Rawdon's choral music program at Mount Eden High School. He currently teaches music at Bullis Charter School in Los Altos and directs the choir for the Jenny Lin Summer Youth Music Program. Despite just graduating from college, David has been working with groups of students for a long time, having taught group piano lessons at the Colton Music Center in Hayward for seven years.
Throughout his musical career, David has received numerous awards and distinctions; he was given the Dr. David Stein Award for Choral Excellence in 2008, the year that he was appointed the assistant conductor for the East Bay Singers under the direction of Dr. Buddy James. Additionally, he has received multiple music scholarships from both Chabot College and CSUEB.
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 Julia Bruce
Julia Bruce has been directing children's plays and summer camps for
over five years and is super excited to join the Kids Take The Stage
team. She studied literature at UC Santa Cruz where she learned
musical theatre from Tom Lehrer. She is finishing an MFA at Mills
College and is a English/Russian bilingual new mom.
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 Tiffany Burris
Tiffany Burris has always had a passion and love for dance. She studied dance at the School of the Arts in San Francisco for high school, and went on to UCLA where she majored in dance. Upon graduation from UCLA she taught dance to children, with an emphasis on musical theater, incorporating several styles of movement including Jazz, Ballet, Tap, Modern, Afro-Haitian and Hip-Hop. She is a true believer in the arts and loves choreographing for children.
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 Katie
Chaidez
Katie is currently completing her M.A. Drama degree at SFSU, where she is now working towards the goal of writing, producing and directing an original thesis performance piece. She is also the Director of Music at Lake Merritt UMC and has worked as both director/conductor and accompanist with various choral, jazz vocal, and theatrical groups. Katie holds a Bachelor of Music degree from SJSU where she studied Vocal Performance and Improvised Musics (including jazz, world, and pop styles) as well as English Literature, and a degree from vocal jazz guru Phil Mattson's School for Music Vocations in Iowa. In addition to her music studies, Katie has also acted with various theatre companies, and has sung and recorded with multiple jazz, r&b/soul, and Afro-Latin groups in the Bay Area.
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 Rachel Glenn
Rachel has been performing on stage and screen for 17 years, appeared in more than 70 commercials, numerous television shows and feature films but her greatest love is the stage. Her favorite productions were Toad of Toad Hall and the world premiere of Resistance- The Musical in Seattle where she appeared on stage 6 nights a week for 6 weeks. Most recently she played lead roles in the Los Angeles Showdown Theatre Company's productions of Quixote and Nottingham. In addition to perfoming, Rachel has taught acting for the Young Performers Studio in Seattle and Los Angeles for the past decade while earning a college degree in Communications and an Early Childhood Education certificate.
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 Mallory Gross
Mallory Gross is thrilled to be joining KTTS for the Fall season. After earning her degree in Theater and Performance Studies from UC Berkeley, Mallory continued her studies with ACT in San Francisco. She is an active artist who works with Four Larks, Sleepwalkers Theatre, and The Threshold Company in the Bay Area. Look for her in the upcoming film 'The Elephant Graveyard' to be released this winter.
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 Amy Marie Haven
Amy Marie Haven is thrilled to be working with Kids Take the Stage once again. She is a graduate from UC Santa Cruz where she studied Literature and Theatre. She has acted and directed with many companies throughout California, as well as overseas including the award-winning Sleepwalkers Theatre (voted best theatre company of 2009- SF weekly), Shakespeare Santa Cruz, The Quixote Project, Rococo Risque, and Four Larks Theatre. She is proud and extremely grateful that KTTS allows her to share her passion for theatre with such talented children.
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 Linny Kenney
Linny attended Plymouth State University on a talent grant where she received her B.A. in Music and Vocal Performance. She continued her classical study in NYC with private instructor, Neil Semer, and was invited to study and perform at The Neil Semer Vocal Institute in Coesfeld, Germany. Linny currently performs in her San Francisco based folk band with her sister, Caiti.
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 Nora Marie Plutzik
Nora Marie Plutzik is very excited to be joining Kids Take the Stage this Summer for the production of Annie! Nora is a recent graduate from the Conservatory of Music at University of the Pacific in Stockton, California with a degree in Vocal Performance. Her last performance experience with children was a production of the children's opera Brundibar, which toured around Stockton, helping to educate kids about opera and theater. She has also performed with companies in the bay area such as Lamplighters Music Theater, Festival Opera, and the Willows Theater Company. She loves working with kids, and can't wait to begin working on music this summer with the cast of Annie!
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