The Team
Jordan Battle
Z Space Patron & Community Engagement Manager
Jordan Battle (she/her) is a Black woman from Tongva lands, also known as Lynwood, CA. She is the Patron and Community Engagement Manager at Z Space, a member of the Making Good Trouble cohort of EDI facilitators, an actor and a theater maker. She attended California State University, East Bay, with the intention of studying Children’s Theater and Sociology. Unfortunately, the Children’s Theater program was canceled, so she graduated with a degree in Sociology, with a Minor in Theater focused primarily on Social Justice and Change. Currently, she is responsible for coordinating and creating the front of house experience for patrons and acts as a production liaison for clients. Jordan's mission at Z Space is to create a stronger relationship between the organization, the immediate surrounding community and the rental community that has been cultivated by offering more access and minimizing barriers to utilize the space. Jordan has worked and managed front of house teams at various venues in the SF Bay Area, including Berkeley Playhouse, California Shakespeare Theater and Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture. In her personal life, she is one of the co-founders of Black Vent Space, a community space for Black-identifying folx to vocalize being Black.
Julius Rea
Lorraine Hansberry Theatre Associate Producer
Julius Rea (he/him) is a writer, performer, and arts producer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. With a background as a journalist, he obtained a degree in Philosophy at San Francisco State University. He co-founded The Forum Collective, a multidisciplinary arts organization that focuses on new journalism, theater, and community-focused events. Currently fiscally-sponsored under Playground SF’s Innovator Incubator, the company has received support from the Sam Mazza Foundation, the California Arts Council, and Zellerbach Family Foundation. Recently, Rea developed his new play Kaleidoscope while participating in Crowded Fire Theater’s 2020-21 Resilience and Development Lab. In 2020, he was selected as a finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Also an actor, Rea has performed across the San Francisco Bay Area with Ragged Wing Ensemble, Left Edge Theatre, and Benicia Old Town Theatre Group; he received a 2019 Arty award for his portrayal of Chris in Lynn Nottage’s Sweat. Currently, he is a Theatre Bay Area (TBA) Arts Leadership Recipient with Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. Learn more and connect with him at juliusernestorea.com.
Diana L. Jones
Festival Manager
As an actress, writer, and administrator, Diana is grateful for the opportunity to support the Young Writers of Color pilot program. Since earning her B.F.A from Mason Gross School of the Arts, where she studied and performed at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, some notable performances include The Public Theater (NYC), The George Street Playhouse (NJ), and the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival (CA). She has also enjoyed working on indie films, voice-overs, podcasts, and commercials.
Diana earned her M.P.A from Rutgers' Department of Public Policy and Administration and completed her international placement by studying service learning in Mozambique. She has lent her management expertise to the Community Music Center (San Francisco, CA), Common Interests Financial (NJ), Youth Alive! (Oakland, CA), T1International (online), and ART New York (NYC).
Brenda Arellano
Teaching Artist Mentor
Brenda Arellano is a performer and devisor based in Oakland after almost a decade in Chicago. She was a company member with the Chicago Neo-Futurists, Playmaker’s Laboratory (formerly Barrel of Monkeys) and the San Francisco Neo-Futurists, recently performing in their digital show, The World Wide Wrench. She also performed in the Chicago Neo-futurists’ recent digital show, 45 Plays for America’s First Ladies, which garnered a New York Times Critics’ Pick in 2020. She has performed with Chicago Children’s Theater, The House Theater, and Teatro Vista, as well as the monthly live lit event, Paper Machete. Recent credits in the Bay Area include Berkeley Repertory Theater’s Ground Floor Summer Lab, Shotgun Players, and she has been with Medical Clown Project since 2015. Brenda loves to travel and has been to many places but still does not know how to properly pack a suitcase.
Yari Cervas
Teaching Artist Mentor
Yari Cervas (all pronouns) is a many-awarded theatre director, teaching artist, and somatic worker inspired by stories of restorative justice, cultural memory, queerness, and trauma recovery. They are proud to have collaborated with numerous organizations including South Coast REP, La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe, and San Diego REP. As the founding Artistic Director of MaArte Theatre Collective in San Diego, they produced and directed two dozen plays by emerging Pilipinx playwrights including world premieres: Your Best American Girl (Best of the ‘19 San Diego Fringe Fest, Critics’ Pick, and Cultural Exchange awards); The Fire in Me (Award of Recognition from CA State Legislature) co-pro with Asian Story Theatre; and You’re Safe Here produced in partnership with Allain Francisco M.D. and the UCSD SOM to foster empathy for patients with mental illness. Most recently they directed the world premiere of Desert Rock Garden at New Village Arts (Award of Recognition from CA State Assembly). As the creator of Practical Somatics Yari offers body-based meditations to empower individuals to overcome trauma in their daily lives. Outside of theatre, Yari can be found in their garden playing ukulele and harvesting vegetables to cook in their Auntie’s favorite Filipino recipes. yaricervas.com
Edie Flores
Teaching Artist Mentor
Edie Flores is honored to be a teaching artist for the Young Writers of Color Festival. He is based in the Central Coast/Bay Area and is pursuing a Bachelor’s in Music Education with a Musical Theater Minor at San Jose State. He is committed to diversifying the American theater by assuring that all voices are heard on an equitable level. He will create a safe space for BIPOC students to grow and showcase their art forms. Programs like these should exist everywhere!
Catch his next performance as Moritz Stiefel in West Valley College’s production of Spring Awakening (Opens April 22nd) and as Seymour Krelbourn at the Forest Guild Theatre’s production of Little Shop of Horrors (Opens June 16th) !
Tyler Jeffreys
Teaching Artist Mentor
Tyler is an actor, writer, and fitness coach and honored to be joining the festival! She’s been devising work with ensemble US in the U.S.since 2017 emphasizing the browning of America. Her most life changing role so far is Medea which she got to play in Greece right before the quarantine. Since then she’s performed with Plethos Productions, The Pear Theatre, 3Girls Theatre and US in the U.S. Catch their next show “What Had Happened Was…Part 3: The Future” this June at Inerfo Theatre. Tyler’s coaching business, @spinallyfree fitness community specializes in blending fitness and theatre wellness concepts to use their authentic Selves. When Tyler isn’t acting, she’s drinking kava, watching Anime or roller skating! IG: @ty.anough
Anne Yumi Kobori
Teaching Artist Mentor
Anne Yumi Kobori is a Japanese-American playwright, actor, producer, director, and teaching artist. As a director, she has worked with Utopia Theatre Project, EnActe Arts, Los Altos Youth Theatre, and SF Shakespeare Festival, where she spent 5 years as Education Program Manager. She has written multiple short plays: for production: The Art of Suffrage (Best of PlayGround 25), New Year, Coward’s Flame, Give Me the Sky (MondayNightPlayGround), Simulation (Pear Theatre), Roses in the Desert (Dragon Theatre) and The Disappearance of Betty La Rose (Neighborhood Stories). Her full-length plays Seeds and Every Day Alice, and her adaptation of Chekhov’s The Seagull, have premiered with Utopia Theatre Project. Currently, Anne is a co-writer for Braided, a play exploring Native American liberation and Japanese American resilience, in development with Theatre of Yugen. Recent projects include Script Co-Conspirator for A.C.T.’s production of Neo Symposium, and the Pear Slices short play festival with Pear Theatre, where she is a Playwrights’ Guild member. BA Theatre Arts, summa cum laude, Santa Clara University. anneyumikobori.com
Crystal Liu
Teaching Artist Mentor
Crystal Liu (she/her) is honored to be a part of the Young Writers of Color Festival. A Bay Area native, she has felt and witnessed the healing powers of theater from the age of nine and has sought to deepen her understanding of the craft ever since. Crystal has performed with, worked backstage for, and held administrative positions in theater companies all over the San Francisco Bay Area; having developed a passion for storytelling through live performance and children's theater, she is pursuing an MFA in Theater with an emphasis on education, youth, and marginalized communities.
Crystal holds BAs in Theater and Anthropology from Yale University, where she studied playwriting and acting under Deb Margolin and Toni Dorfman and had the extreme fortune to workshop new plays under the mentorship of playwrights Melissa Tien and Edwin Sánchez. Her love of writing was fueled in great part by a youth writers' mentorship program like YWCF, and she is thrilled for the opportunity to provide a similar experience for today's young artists.
Ely Sonny Orquiza
Teaching Artist Mentor
Ely Sonny Orquiza (he/him) is a multidisciplinary Queer Filipino artistic director, stage director, and teaching artist based in San Francisco Bay Area. Through theater and the performing arts Orquiza explores the role of the Asian diaspora, Asian American experience, ancestral ghosts, and the politics of Queer/ness for the American stage. He champions new works by Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) artists, examines previously untold folklore, and advocates for undiscovered works highlighting the narratives of intersectional identities. He believes in the remarkable power of equity and representation in storytelling to bridge the divide and differences amongst us.
As a teaching artist, Orquiza is committed to uplifting and amplifying emerging voices for the American Theater by making the craft and artform radically accessible for all regardless of backgrounds and experiences. He is dedicated to providing quality education and experience to BIPOC students in order to build and foster the next generation of artists. He is thrilled that a program like the Young Writers of Color exists!
Orquiza is a Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of The Chikahan Company, a new Filipix theater company based in San Francisco.
