Our Team
R. Réal Vargas Alanis
They | Purépecha | Tlahualil
Casting Director
R. Réal Vargas Alanis is a world-renowned, 2-spirit, indigiqueer artist from Winton, CA (Yokut). They have worked nationally, internationally, in regional theatre, and touring productions. Réal is the current Artistic Director of the arts and advocacy organization: IN THE MARGIN — leading an ensemble of intersectional and interdisciplinary QT,BIPoC artists in New Work Development and Civic Engagement.
Réal was recently named to be among “the best latinx comedic talent in the country” by the Latinx Theatre Commons for their piece A Little Bit of Gay: A Stand-up Piece by a Homo. Vargas Alanis is currently the Associate Director for the tour of Between Two Knees by The 1491’s, Directed by Eric Ting.
Réal was among the inaugural cohort of the National New Play Network’s Bridge Program as an Executive Producer for The New American Theatre Festival developing 10 New Works. Réal’s commissioned docuvela, La Demanda: A Call to Action – co-written with union leader Margarita A. Cacho, sparked protests and rallies in the Central Valley in support of food factory and farm workers contributing to the current Farm Worker’s Movement.
Réal is also a minister, curandera, and co-run their taco business Sexii Tacos: Where the tacos are Sexii, and so are you. Feel free to contact them to officiate your wedding… or cater it… or both.
Kieran Beccia
They|Them|Theirs
Casting Director, Owner
Kieran is a Bay Area director and dramaturg focused on devised performance and the development of new works. Their work has been produced at The Forum Collective, Cutting Ball Theater, Quantum Dragon Theater, FaultLine Theater, Fuse Theater, Dragon Theater, Utopia Theater Project, and more. A TITAN Award winner and two-time CA$H Grant recipient, Kieran is also a company member at the Oakland Theater Project, a former artistic director of the U.C. Santa Cruz poor theatre performance lab, Barnstorm, and a founding member of The Forum Collective. They are currently a first-year Directing MFA student at the University of California, San Diego.
Kieran received acclaim for casting San Francisco Playhouse's 2023 production of A Chorus Line, which received a numerous BATCC awards; this production was also the first musical in nearly four decades to receive an Isadora Duncan dance award.
Ciera Eis
She|Her/Hers
Casting Director, Manager
Ciera Eis is a theatrical director who develops socio-political new work and seeks to emphasize the experiences of human life that are queer, messy, visceral, otherworldly, weird, wild, and hilarious. Recent credits includes: first look of “Love U: Queer New Musical” (TBA Ca$h Grant), “Pickpocket: The Musical” (Musical Cafe), “Faust on 4Chan” (The Ground Floor, Berkeley Rep), “Circle Mirror Transformation” (Custom Made), “The Lost Ballad of our Mechanical…”(Shotgun Players CRS), “Murder at Roland Manor: 8-Bit Mystery” (Thunder Bay Theatre, MI), and “The Official Unicorn Hunter’s Guide” (Winner- Shortlived VIII Festival). She is currently developing an immersive poetry/collage play with NYT poet Tess Taylor for the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art in 2025. Ciera has developed new work with Berkeley Rep, A.C.T., Magic Theatre, Shotgun Players, Playground, among others and has assisted Anne Kauffman, Mina Morita, and more. For the past five years, she has helped produce Berkeley Repertory Theater’s New Work Summer Residency Lab The Ground Floor, championing countless new works by national and international playwrights. She was the Interim Artistic Director at Custom Made Theatre Company and Creative Director for the Undiscovered Works Festival, Artistic Director at FaultLine Theater, Creative Producer of Pint Sized Plays at PianoFight SF, Directors Lab West 2024 Recipient, and a 2019-2021 SDCF Observer. She has a Double B.A. in Theater Arts and Psychology from University of California, Santa Cruz. Awards: Winner of Shortlived VIII Festival, Promising Women in Theatre, Porter Arts Grant, Da Vinci Scholar Award, and Renaissance Artist Award.
Laura Espino
She|Her|Hers
Casting Director, Founding Member
Laura Espino is a Mexican actor and teacher. Born to Mexican immigrants in San Francisco, she is a San Francisco native and a teacher in the San Francisco Unified School District, teaching in Spanish and English. Currently, she teaches freshmen at the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of The Arts. As a casting professional, she has cast projects at Golden Thread Productions, Marin Theatre, Playwrights Foundation and SF Playhouse. As an actor, her credits include work with Theatreworks, The Magic Theatre, Playground, California Shakespeare Theatre, and Playwrights Festival. She is a proud company member of TheatreFirst in Berkeley and also a Theatre Bay Area Award Finalist. As an MLA Candidate at Stanford University, Laura is a fierce advocate for interdisciplinary art. She lives in San Francisco with her partner and three children.
Nick Ishimaru
He/Him/His
Casting Director
Nick Ishimaru (he/him) is a director, producer, actor, casting director, and scholar. In addition to his work with the Casting Collective, he is the casting director at Marin Shakespeare Company, an artist in residence at Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, and a producer and co-founder of Kunoichi Productions. He previously served as the Artistic Director of Theatre of Yugen from 2016 to 2020, where he has trained in traditional Japanese noh drama and kyōgen comedy for over 15 years and remains a member of their performing ensemble.
Director: The Red Demon, A Noh Christmas Carol, Seen/By Everyone, The True Tale of Princess Kaguya, Fun Home, Never Mind, and Anything Goes. He has performed in A Noh Christmas Carol, Puppets and Poe, The True Tale of Princess Kaguya, Bellini’s Norma, Carmen, Mame, and dozens of English language kyōgen, among others. Special thanks to Matt, Paul, Mom, Dad, and Champ.
Leigh Rondon-Davis
They |Them|Theirs
Casting Director
Leigh Rondon-Davis (they/them) is a performer, dramaturg, and director from both New York City and the Bay Area. They attended Wellesley College and were a member of Oakland's Laney College Fusion Theatre Project. Leigh’s performance credits include: Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. and Inked Baby (Crowded Fire Theater), Port Stories (Idiot String), Variety Pack in 2018 and 2019 (Cutting Ball Theater), Where The Boys Are (FaultLine Theater), A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (Curran and Magic Theatre), and Hamlet and Dance of the Holy Ghosts (Oakland Theater Project). They have directed and dramaturged at Shotgun Players, Oakland Theater Project, PlayGround, Aurora Theatre Company, Crowded Fire, TheatreFirst, Playwrights Foundation, Moxie Arts NYC, 3GirlsTheatre, The Bowstring Collective, and Magic Theatre. Leigh is on staff as Shotgun Players’ first-ever Associate Artistic Director and Crowded Fire Theater’s Curator of Online Programming, where they host a weekly Twitch Stream and are also a Resident Artist. They are also an Artistic Company Member at Shotgun and Oakland Theater Project, Board Member at Cutting Ball Theater, and Producing Director at The Forum Collective.
Anina Baker
She|Her|Hers
Casting Associate
Anina Baker is an actor, casting associate, and EMT, native to the Bay Area. She is arecent graduate of UC Berkeley holding degrees in Sociology and Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies. Anina has also had extensive training at the American Conservatory
Theater in San Francisco where her interest and passion for casting was born. She worked closely with Dori Jacob as a casting associate for the San Francisco Playhouse, assisting with casting and programming for their 2019-2020 season.
Growing up as a Chinese Jewish adoptee in an LGBTQ family, social justice and advocacy has been an essential part of her upbringing and identity. She is committed to making others feel
heard, understood, and connected to the world and those around them through her work. Anina is so excited to be part of the Casting Collective and for the resurgence of live theater in
the Bay Area!
Keith Carames
He/Him/His
Casting Associate
Keith Carames is a teacher and director living in San Francisco. He received the Meritorious Achievement in Directing award from the Kennedy Center, has consulted with Carole Shorenstein Hays at the Curran Theater and has taught at the American Conservatory Theater Young Conservatory. For twelve years, he taught at The Ruth Asawa School of the Arts where he served as the Head of Technical Theatre and as the Artistic Director of Main Stage Events. While at the College of Creative Arts at SFSU, he served as Audience Services Director and taught both Acting and Masks & Movement. Most recently, he collaborated with SFBATCO, the San Francisco Opera Guild and the Mission Academy of Performing Arts at the Brava Theater to create new work.
He now works full-time at James Lick Middle School teaching theatre arts and directing after school productions. He consults nationally as a Master Trainer with ArtfulLearning.org as part of the Leonard Bernstein Center for Education. He works with local artists to write, produce and direct original productions for both youth and adults, most notably The Barbary Coast Revue which received TalkingBroadway.com ’s 5-star rating as a “theatrical gem!” (Richard Connema).
Awards include the SFUSD Dream Catcher for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Education, SFUSD's Teacher of the Year, the Susan Stauter Bravery in Arts Education Award, the Engineers Alliance for the Arts Teacher of the Year Award and the first ever Pacific Singers and Actors Workshop STAR Award.
Emeritus Members
Dori L. Jacob, CSA
Founder, Casting Director Emeritus
Mariel Christian
Casting Associate Emeritus