HMTC Staff

Executive Artistic Director and Co-founder

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Silvia is co-founder and executive artistic director of HMTC. She is a playwright by profession, and has done standup comedy, been in improv groups, plays, commercials, t.v., and movies. Silvia was recently named Artist of the Year by Senator Melissa Hurtado for her work in Hurtado’s district with Hanford Multicultural Theater Company which she co-founded. Silvia is a proud alumnus of three playwright residencies: New Dramatists, Chicago Dramatists, and INTAR Playwright Lab in New York. She is a long-time member of the Dramatists Guild and a member of the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights (ALAP). Silvia also wrote ALICIA IN WONDER TIERRA (Or I Can't Eat Goat Head), BOXCAR/EL VAGON, and THE MIGRANT FARMWORKER’S SON which is in high school drama textbooks and published by Dramatic Publishing. Her newest play THE MUSSEL SLOUGH CHRONICLES – A CALIFORNIA TRAGEDY received a public staged reading recently for the 142nd anniversary of the 1880 gunfight in Hanford. She recently participated in the Goodman’s Theater’s GeNarrations with her monologue NO MORE PICTURES OF SILENCE. She is the producing director of the citywide Hanford Dia de Los Muertos community event. She also writes a column for the local paper and keeps active the HMTC blog. She recently turned her stage play PEDRO THE PUPPETEER into a film. Her plays have won awards and are performed coast to coast. Her plays are published and her work and work history is included in anthologies. She writes a column in the local newspaper called HMTC This Week.  Check her other works on www.SilviaGonzalezS.com

Managing Director and Co-founder

Camia prefers to be behind the scenes but she is the co-brain of the whole theater company. Her skills are enormous. She is intuitive, too, knowing the right direction and people to work on HMTC mission. The theater began with her skills. She is also a co-host of the HMTC Behind the Scenes podcast. She's a professional photographer and will be doing cinematic work with the film Hanford Private Detective.

Associate Artistic Director

Raymond is full of gifts. Talented, and contagious enthusiasm he has propelled HMTC to exciting relms. He brings inspiration and good vibes to the theater and all who he comes across.  His positive thinking and talent are phenomenal. He acts and directs for HMTC, and has credits in film.

Acting coach, actor, director and Shakespeare educator

Don has lots of tv,  film, and theater credits to list here. He is a gigantic force in our theater and he is a joy to listen to when he explains Shakespeare to the younger generations. He has acted in Hollywood and Las Vegas before coming to Hanford. His personal website is www.DonBrakenman.com

Master puppeteer, fight choreographer, actor, set builder, writer,

Mark Richard Saltzman has been performing for audiences from a very young age and began acting, dancing and choreographing professionally in 1990. Having toured extensively throughout the US, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico as a cast member in popular touring shows such as South Pacific, Oklahoma, The Sound of Music and Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dream-coat, Mark’s love of performance puppetry was kindled when he was cast as a principle actor and dancer in Disney’s “Bear in the Big Blue House” and “Sesame Street LIVE”. Working with professional puppeteers was an inspiring experience which unlocked the magic of the art of puppetry for him. Mark began constructing custom puppets and performing with puppets in 2000. He is an alumni of the US National Puppetry Conference at the prestigious Eugene O’Neil Theatre Center in Waterford Connecticut. Mark creates amazing puppets with his company Kiwuppet Studios.

Freelance Grant Development

Grace was awarded a California Arts Council grant to extend her skills for applying for grants for our theater company. She is also an author of Korean stories. Due to the pandemic she is working for HMTC in a freelance status.

Artistic Associate and Intern

With us since our second of our founding, Chris brings skills to the forefront in helping our organization grow and succeed. He is a natural and enthusiastic performer and quite good with electronics. He recently was supported in a project by the Arts and Accessibility Grant by the California Arts Council and the National Arts and Disability Center.

Theater Company Consultant, Advisory Board, director, playwright, actress

Pamela Sterling is an Associate Professor of Theatre in the School of Film, Dance and Theatre in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University. She teaches courses in theatre for social change, the history of children’s dramatic literature, new play development, playwriting and acting. Prior to her arrival at ASU in 1999, she served as Executive Director for the Muny/Student Theatre Project in St. Louis, the Coterie Theatre in Kansas City, and Honolulu Theatre for Youth. She has served on the board of ASSITEJ (The International Association of Professional Theatres for Children and Youth) USA, as panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts theatre program, and as chair for the American Alliance for Theatre and Youth’s Distinguished Play Award. Her directing credits include Alicia in Wonder Tierra by Silvia Gonzales S., as well as Our Town by Thornton Wilder, The Ashgirl by Timberlake Wertenbaker, and the vine, by cc casas. Professional directing credits include The Grapes of Wrath for the Fulton Theatre in Lancaster, PA, To Kill a Mockingbird for Theatre Project Company in St. Louis, Great Expectations for the Coterie, plus Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Dragonwings by Lawrence Yep, for Honolulu Theatre for Youth. Her adaptation of The Secret Garden received the Distinguished Play Award from AATE, and her adaptation of the Nate the Great books by Marjorie Weinman-Sharmat, titled The Adventures of Nate the Great received the Best New Play Award from the Kansas City Theatre Association. Both plays are published by Dramatic Publishing Company. Sterling joined AEA, the Actor’s Equity Association union of professional actors and stage managers, in 1982. Her professional acting credits include PATRICIA in Extremities by William Mastrosimone and ESSIE in You Can’t Take it with You for Theatre Project Company, EMILY in Our Town for Stage One: The Louisville Children’s Theatre, SCOUT in To Kill a Mockingbird and GOLLUM in The Hobbit for Seattle Children’s Theatre. Current projects include her solo play, Louisa May Alcott: The Power of a Woman, a stage adaptation of the novel Blue Willow by Doris Gates, and a play written with men incarcerated in Missouri, No Plan B, commissioned by the Prison Performing Arts Program.

Board of Trustee

Trustee Janie M. Isidoro is a writer and photographer from the beautiful Valle Central de California. She has lived all over the United States but there is no place like home. She discovered her passion for writing over a vivid dream she had, a dream which changed the course of her life, she was inspired to write 7 novels, full of amor, familia y cultura .

Board of Trustee

With us since our founding, Alicia's watchful eye, experience and skills brings to the forefront talent in helping our organization grow and succeed.