Executive Director

JERRY M. FINN

Artistic Director

CAROLE KLEINBERG has directed over 70 plays, including award-winning productions of The Diary of Anne Frank and The Elephant Man. Local audiences enjoyed her productions of I Never Saw Another Butterfly and The World of Sholom Aleichem at The Players of Sarasota, Crossing Delancey at the Sarasota Jewish Theatre and the Lemon Bay Playhouse, and Mixed Emotions at the Island Players. Carole conceived and directed the original staged readings Movies that Changed My Life and Uncommon Woman: A Tribute to Wendy Wasserstein with the Women’s Theatre Collaborative, and most recently directed Private High, a substance abuse prevention play that is performed for local high schools. As education director for the Asolo Repertory Theatre, she managed the Access to the Arts program, presented theater classes, and co-produced the Kaleidoscope Musical Theatre Workshop. In her former position as professor of theater at Oakton Community College on Chicago’s north shore, Carole was the lead director for mainstage productions and coordinated acting programs.

SÉVA ANTHONY (Lane, The Clean House) is happy to be making her debut with the Banyan Theater. Recently, Seva was seen as Go-to-Hell Kitty at the Golden Apple Dinner Theatre's production of Chicago and in prior productions of Evita and Funny Girl. Other recent local credits include Bernarda in The House of Bernarda Alba (Historic Asolo Theatre) and Frida Kahlo in Casa Blue (American Stage). She performed for several seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Pendragon Theatre and toured internationally as a dancer and aerialist. She holds a B.A. in dance and received her dramatic training at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the American Conservatory Theatre. Originally from upstate New York, Seva presently lives in Sarasota with her lovable Bichon, Brise.

KARINA BARROS* (Matilde, The Clean House) is a professional singer, dancer and performer with over 10 years of stage experience as a solo artist and lead singer/performer.  She acted in Brazilian plays at the University Anhembi Morumbi of São Paulo, Department of Theater (1997-2000); hosted specials on South Florida’s Brazilian station TV Brazil; has released several CDs of her own compositions; performed in Haiti for the president of Haiti and ambassador of Brazil; and is working with Florida Atlantic University’s music director Michael Zager on her new album.  She trained in classical ballet for 16 years; is skilled in Brazilian, Afro, Latin, jazz and hip hop dances; plays guitar; and speaks Portuguese, Spanish and English. She has just graduated with honors from FAU with a theater performance major. She acted in many theater productions at FAU including Bye Bye Birdie, Carousel and Thurber Carnival as well as The Caldwell Theatre’s professional production of The Clean House playing Matilde. She hails from São Paulo, Brazil.

ERIC HISSOM* (Austin, True West) returns to the Banyan for a third year, after appearing during the last two seasons in Life X 3, A Doll House and Faith Healer. Since receiving his M.F.A. from Florida State’s Asolo Conservatory in 1989, he has worked steadily in regional theater as an actor, director and playwright. Regional acting credits include productions at Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, the Meadowbrook in Detroit, the Arden in Philadelphia, Cape Playhouse on Cape Cod, Syracuse Stage, the Orlando Shakespeare Festival, Florida Studio Theatre and many others, including a recent production of Macbeth at the Folger Theatre in Washington, D.C. which was co-directed by Teller (of Penn and Teller). Television credits include Mortal Kombat, Sheena: Queen of the Jungle and One Tree Hill. Feature film credits: Out of Time.

STEVEN CLARK PACHOSA* (Phil Hogan, A Moon for the Misbegotten) is delighted to return to Banyan Theater Company’s stage. His portrayal of Victor Franz in The Price garnered a 2004 best actor nomination in Sarasota Magazine. Steven also received best actor awards from Creative Loafing in 2001 and 2006 for his role of The Devil in Gorilla Theatre’s Don Juan in Hell and Jobsite Theater’s The Goat (as Martin). His most recent work at American Stage in St. Petersburg includes Hamlet, Othello, Much Ado About Nothing and The Drawer Boy. Steve has been a cop in 10 television movies and appeared in the following feature films: Men of Honor, Psycho, My Own Private Idaho, Imaginary Crimes, Foxfire, Anoosh of the Airways and Birddog.

JESSICA K. PETERSON* (Josie Hogan, A Moon for the Misbegotten) is delighted to be making her Banyan Theater debut. She just finished The Accomplices at Gable Stage, FL and Hamlet at American Stage, FL.  Recent credits include The Glass Menagerie, Blowing Rock Stage, NC and the inaugural Voices at the River, African-American and Latino playwright-in-residence festival at Arkansas Rep. Other credits include Deathtrap, Maltz-Jupiter Theatre; Dairy Queen Days, Blowing Rock Stage; Frozen and Anna in the Tropics at the Hippodrome Theatre (Gainesville). Favorite credits include Copenhagen, Gorilla Theatre, (Tampa); Dinner With Friends and the U.S. premiere of A Prayer For Owen Meany, Playmakers’ Rep (NC); The Music Lesson at both the Dorset Theatre Festival, VT and Florida Stage, where she earned a Carbonell Award for best actress; Hysteria and A Park in Our House, Florida Stage (Carbonell nominations for both); How I Learned to Drive, Caldwell Theatre (Carbonell nomination); Fort Chaffee, Arkansas Rep; Our Country’s Good, Warehouse Theatre (SC). She is a member of AEA and SAG.