Sonoma Arts Live has a “working board.” Meaning, many hands make light work. We meet once a month on the third Wednesday at 5:30. We want all our board members to be part of helping to create our seasons and our shows. We love that our members are reaching out to our community for donations and grant possiblities. We ask that they purchase a season ticket and help at one performance for each show greeting our patrons. We have at least two events a year that we like all board members to attend. We are currently in the process of adding some committees, and are looking for members to join one of their choice and help Sonoma Arts Live grow! The most important task we have is sharing our theatre company with the Bay Area.
Artistic Director - Jaime Love has been involved in theatre and radio for over 35 years as an actor, producer, singer, director, writer and voice-over artist in New York, Los Angeles, Boston and San Francisco. She is a founding member of the Sonoma Theatre Alliance and Sonoma Arts Live, and former Co-Artistic Director and Producer of The Nicholson Ranch Players’ musical revues and Christmas shows at Nicholson Winery for 6 years. She is the founder of SAL’s Teens ’N Training program.
President - Andrew Smith has been lucky enough to enjoy a career in theatre that took him across the globe and back again. Full of excitement, growth, and adventure, still missing was a true sense of community, something both he and his wife yearned for. According to Andrew, “We’ve now put down roots in Sonoma, where our children will grow and create their own adventures, and I believe SAL is the perfect piece of community I’ve sought out for years. I look forward to bringing innovation, experience, and positivity to the Board, and will focus on helping navigate SAL to new heights.” When not in front of or behind the spotlights, he has fully embraced his careers as “hospitality guru in the wine industry and, most importantly, husband and Dad.”
Vice President - Libby Oberlin is a well-known actor who has trained and performed with Shakespeare & Co., The Upright Citizens Brigade, HB Studios, The University of London and We Players. In September of 2018, SAL and The Theater School, Libby’s educational theatere company, formed a partnership, bringing her educational programs to the Rotary Stage.
Secretary -Treasurer - Jenny Sheerin has been a Sonoma resident for the past 32 years and raised her 3 children here. Her youngest, James Witous, attended Marin School of the Arts (MSA) at Novato High, and this is where she became involved in the theater life. She enjoyed learning about backstage happenings, costumes, makeup and even some theater lingo. She loved volunteering for James’ performances and enjoyed seeing the results of a play from start to finish. She too hopes to learn more about acting and to some day perform on stage! She is very excited to be on the SAL Board and to spread the word about our wonderful local theater!
Sue Martin (President Emeritus) has been involved in theatre for over 50 years. Sue was a founding member of the Sonoma Theater Alliance and Sonoma Arts Live. She has served as President for ten years and has been a realtor in Sonoma since 1998. Sue has appeared in numerous SAL productions, including It’s A Wonderful Life: A Radio Play, Nunsense: The Mega Musical, Calendar Girls, Helen of Egypt, A Christmas Story: The Musical and Guys & Dolls.. She is honored to be serving with such dedicated individuals currently on the Sonoma Arts Live Board of Directors.
Dr. Geeta Malik is a Sonoma family physician. She began attending plays during her residency and currently subscribes to five Bay Area theaters. Her preference is community theater, but she is not opposed to an occasional trip to Manhattan when a favorite actor is performing. She is also a supporter of theater and dance at Adele Middle School. It is not surprising that her oldest daughter has shown an interest in performing and has been involved in the drama productions at SVHS and locally. Geeta was thrilled to be asked to join SAL’s Board. “I am excited to help SAL emerge from this pandemic to reassert its place as one of our community’s gems.”
Rod Crisp retired from the tech industry at 52 and moved with his wife, Sandee, from Hong Kong to their property in Hawaii. This move allowed him to spend time with his passions of woodworking, tennis and travel. His woodworking has been featured in five magazine cover spreads and a stint on HGTV. His smaller pieces were also carried at the Wayland Gallery. In Hawaii, he became active in the Rotary Club, where he was a board member and president. His primary responsibility was fundraising. Rod and Sandee also became patrons of local theater and supported the Aloha Theater Company. They moved to Sonoma four years ago and discovered SAL. They love the quality of SAL’s shows, and Rod wanted to be involved in such a creative theater company.
José Antonio Luciano is a native of Puerto Rico. He moved to Sonoma in 2006 with his husband. They are now raising their twin sons in the community that they’ve called home all these years. José made his career in the tourism and hospitality industry since graduating college. Growing up, he was part of any school play or folkloric dance performance he could join. Connecting with an organization like SAL is an opportunity to be part of the prolific arts scene of Sonoma. He enjoys arts in its many forms. Theater arts, music, visual arts, along with gardening and cooking, are some of his interests. He also believes in providing his sons exposure to as many forms of the arts, history, culinary experiences, and cultures as possible while they are young. Learning from the diversity of this world creates a base from which they can better understand others. Live theater is always an enjoyable escape and insight into many of those things. José finds it exciting to be part of a local theater group where he can lend a hand to continue to provide to our community the high-quality productions we are accustomed to from SAL.
Lindsay John graduated from Southern Oregon University in 2016 and, upon moving back home, she immediately put her degree to use, stage managing and acting around Marin County. She was part of a volunteer group with Sheri Lee Miller and several other BIPOC members of the theater community. SAL’s Jaime and Rick Love were on a large group call with Artistic Directors of the area who were seeking to promote more inclusive casting and diverse productions to feature the BIPOC community. At that point, Lindsay had already worked at SAL in 2017, and with several other theaters in the Bay Area, bringing in a fresh perspective. Working on Ain't Misbehavin’ as Stage Manager solidified her interest in doing more with SAL.
Executive Director - Rick Love, after programming radio stations in Worcester, MA, Rochester, NY, and San Francisco, CA, transitioned into radio research in 1995, joining Creative Audience Research in Sonoma. He eventually purchased the company in 2001 and over the next 17 years continued to provide perceptual research to many of the most important companies in broadcasting. In 2018 he accepted a position with full-service firm Cooper-Roberts Research. He caught the theatre bug a few years after moving to Sonoma, with his first role as Juror #11 in 12 Angry Men, part of the Sonoma Community Center’s short-lived Theatre @ The Center Program. Since then, favorite roles have included The Old Man in A Christmas Story: The Musical (SAL), Guiteau in Assassins (NWSC), Harold in The Full Monty (etc!), Brad in The Rocky Horror Show and Williamson in Glengarry Glen Ross (T@TC). Discovering an aptitude for the business side of theatre, he joined Sonoma Arts Live as Business Manager in 2017 and was named Executive Director in 2021. Along with his theatre “hobby,” he is the host of Power Pop radio show ALL KINDSA GIRLS on Saturday nights at 9pm on 91.3 KSVY Sonoma. He holds an IPC Principal Certification from the Insights Association and a B.S. in Communications from Emerson College where he was Salutatorian of his graduating class.
Advisory Board
Buffington Clay Miller
Suzanne Brangham
Suzy and Wulfrin Oberlin
Susan Drake