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 Oz in the Napa Valley College and Cafeteria Kids Theater Collaboration of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ or as Andrew Agucheek in ‘Twelfth Night’ 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.
Huda al-jamal Guest Teaching Artist
Huda is an artist and community store owner in Marin county. She received her BA from UC Berkeley and MA from Dominican University. Huda began her journey to theater design doing window displays and interior murals in the 1990s. She has been a regular guest artist in the Tamalpais High School district working on such gems as The Addams Family, Into the Woods, Spamalot, She Kills Monsters, and Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play. She has created props, puppets, and costumes for Stapleton theater company, the College of Marin, Cinnabar theater, and Cafeteria Kids Theater. Huda’s work for Cafeteria Kids Theater includes prop and costume work on Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Shrek and production design for the digital production of Beauty and the Beast.
