Rio is an elementary school teacher by day, an artist by night and a father…all the time. Rio grew up in the Napa Valley where he discovered his love of theater in high school. It was at Napa Valley College and with the Napa Shakespeare Festival that Rio began performing with professional actors. He had the privilege of performing in past shows such as ’Lend Me A Tenor’, ‘Charley’s Aunt’, and ‘All In The Timing’. Rio moved to Seattle, Washington to pursue his theater degree at Cornish College of the Arts and work with fantastic theater companies such as Book-It Repertory Theatre, Wooden O Seattle Shakespeare Company, and The Seattle Children’s Theatre. At The Seattle Children’s Theatre Rio was able to work on two world premieres: ‘The Borrowers’, and ‘Crash’. While working at SCT Rio became more interested in providing inspiration to his young audiences. He received a Masters in Teaching and is now currently performing live as an elementary school teacher in his classroom. When Rio is not teaching students he enjoys being onstage. You may have recently seen him playing Jerry Jubilee in the Napa Valley College and Cafeteria Kids Theater Collaboration of ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ or as Oberon in ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ with the Shakespeare Napa Valley’s performance at di Rosa Center.
Sophie Heflebower Teaching Artist
Sophie has been an acting student of Cafeteria Kids Theater (CKT) since she was 15, when she played Grandma Josephine in CKT’s production of Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka. She has been an intern for 3 years and is currently training with CKT as a teaching artist. Other roles include the CKT/NVC Theater Department productions of Shrek the Musical as the Mad Hatter, Mary Poppins as Katie Nanna, and Matilda the Musical as the Magician/Big Kid Ensemble. Sophie has been nominated for Youth Volunteer of the Year Award for The Center of Nonprofit Leadership’s Heart of Napa Awards for her work with CKT. In 2016 she won September Student of the Month for Academic Achievement from the Napa Valley Unified School District Board of Education. A Napa Valley Independent Studies graduate, she is currently attending Napa Valley College majoring in Musical Theater. She is looking forward to continuing her work as a Teaching Artist with CKT.
Aimée Guillot Founder
Aimée is a theater artist and educator who began her career as an actor. Off Broadway she appeared at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival in the Obie-award winning production of Big Love directed by Les Waters and written by Chuck Mee.; Canard, Canard, Goose? (Here Arts Center), directed by Steve Cosson with original music by Michael Friedman; and Xtravaganza ( St. Ann’s Warehouse), directed by Marianne Weems. She is also an original member of the New York based theatre group The Civilians. Her regional credits include: Big Love (The Goodman Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville- Humana Festival of New American Plays), Wintertime (Long Wharf Theater); The Importance of Being Earnest (La Jolla Playhouse). In the Bay Area, she was in the West Coast premiere of Eurydice at Berkeley Rep directed by Les Waters and written by Sarah Ruhl. Also, The Typographer’s Dream (Encore Theatre, Shotgun Players), directed by Anne Kauffman and written by Adam Bock, Big Love (Berkeley Rep), Fingered (Yerba Buena Center for the Arts). In Europe she has performed at Kaaitheater, Brussels; the Rotterdam Schouwburg; Le Maillon, Strasbourg; Mousonturm, Frankfurt; Le Volcan, Le Havre. As a teaching artist she has worked in classrooms in San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, Palo Alto, San Jose and Napa. She was also a resident teaching artist for TheatreWorks’ Children’s Healing Project at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto. In Napa she has taught drama to students at Blue Oak School, Pueblo Vista Alternative School, Yountville Elementary, Northwood Elementary, Redwood Middle School, Calistoga Elementary, NVLA, Saint Helena Elementary School, St. Helena Primary School, Napa Montessori Children’s House, and American Canyon Middle School. As a director she has staged productions at The Napa Valley Opera House, The Little Theater @ NVC, Lincoln Theater, and the Napa Valley College Performing Arts Center. As a director with Cafeteria Kids Theater she has co-directed productions of Peter Pan, Willy Wonka, Shrek the Musical, Mary Poppins the Musical (2019 Arty award winner for Best Youth Musical), and Matilda the Musical. Aimée received her Bachelor of Arts in Literature from SUNY Purchase (Cum Laude), and her Master of Fine Arts in Acting from UC San Diego, where she was voted one of the top 100 teachers. Additional acting training: NYU/Tisch School of the Arts; Oxford School of Drama. She is an adjunct faculty member in the Theater Arts Department at Napa Valley College. Aimée founded Cafeteria Kids Theater in 2007, and formally founded the non-profit Lunchtime Productions Inc. with Olivia Cowell in 2014.
