The Community Arts Workshop

Teacher Bios

MICHAEL BERNARD spent 10 years as the Associate Artistic Director of The 52nd Street Project, a nationally recognized theater company that creates original theater with kids from Hell’s Kitchen in New York City. At Upright Citizens Brigade NYC Michael directed a few shows including "The Chipperton Family Vocaltainers Shooby Dooby Dooby Hour" which was an official selection of The HBO Comedy Festival in Aspen. He received his training in improv at SecondCity Chicago, and was the artistic director of Improvboston, Boston’s best-known improvisational comedy company. He has also written for Disney, Nickelodeon, Henson Productions, Nick at Nite, DC Comics, Showtime, Spike TV, The Sundance Channel, Noggin, WE, MTV, VH1 and some commercials you probably fast-forwarded past. Since moving to California in 2009 Michael has performed in LA with "Immediate Theater" an improv company made of of ex members of Second City and The Groundlings. He has acted in numerous shows with the Lit Moon Theatre Company.  He is the Artistic Director of Elements Theater Collective where he played King Charles/William Scott/Lady Davenant in "Or," Richard Nixon in, "Nixon's Nixon," and Sorn in "Stupid F-ing Bird.” He was recently seen at SBCC playing Francis in “One Man Two Guvnors." He also directed "In a Word" and runs the annual "Play in a Day" theater festival.

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JOSEPH VELASCO is an English and AVID teacher at Santa Barbara High School as well as a professional director, actor, and storyteller.  He grew up across the street from the renowned El Teatro Campesino in San Juan Bautista where his interest in theatre was sparked.  While attending UC Santa Barbara he began an internship with the company and upon graduating became a Resident Director where he directed a series of workshop productions featuring the comedy trio, Chicano Secret Service; a bilingual, gender-bending adaptation of Greater Tuna;  an original work, Chicano (R)evolution as well as taught performance workshops and co-wrote and directed the premiere of the performance troupe, The Alter Boys in Praying for Laughter (Nothing's Sacred).  He also helped start Teatro Camp, an intensive summer youth workshop. Upon moving back to Santa Barbara, Joseph was invited to study at the Estudio Busqueda de Pantomima Teatro in Guanajuato, Mexico.  Soon after Joseph joined James Donlon & Company as a performer and teacher co-creating original works such as Wrench.   He continues to work with Donlon to this day.  Joseph is one of the co-founders of BOXTALES,  a storytelling theater troupe that brings world mythology to life through storytelling, movement, masks, and music.  He has worked locally over the years with the Lobero Theater, Ensemble Theater Company, Speaking of Stories, Center Stage Theater, as well as being the Artistic Director of City at Peace Santa Barbara.  He has also taught performance workshops at various theater companies and universities in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and New York.  Joseph continues to be active as a storyteller and director in the local community.  He also teaches workshops in multicultural issues, conflict resolution, and teacher training programs.

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PATRICK MELROY holds an MFA from UCSB where he taught for several years as a lecturer. He has taught classes and workshops at SBCC, College of Creative Studies, Marymount, Laverne University, Stanford, and UCLA. His work most often manifests as idea based interactive sculpture. He utilizes any material that best serves the project. He draws influence from tactile daily experiences and manifests a creative vocabulary that utilizes familiar sentimental interactions. His work was recently seen in the State of the Art Gallery and during special events at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. He grew up with a carpenter father and teacher librarian mother.

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STEPHANIE MIRACLE is an independent choreographer and teaching artist. She holds a MFA in Dance 2014 from the University of Maryland and a BA in Dance from Belhaven University 2004. A 2014/15 German Fulbright Fellow in the Performing Arts, Stephanie has focused her research on the embodied practice of tanztheater. She became a certified teacher of Klein Technique™ in 2017. Her teaching practice explores the liveliness of space and the possibilities of a precision and chaos in the body. Stephanie's choreography has been described as “iconic and nuanced…with an irreverence that makes you smile unconsciously” (Rick Westerkamp, 2014). Her choreographic projects have been presented in Germany, Portugal, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Russia, and various cities across the US.  As a performer she has worked with Deborah Hay, Shannon Gillen, David Dorfman, Susan Marshall, PWDT, and was company member with FTS for 2 years. She is the director of Fakers Club and is the guest choreographer for Folkwang Tanzstudio's 2018 season. She lives with her husband Jimmy Miracle in Santa Barbara.