Guest Artists
Rebecca Barragan
Rebecca Brancato Barragan graduated with honors from Oklahoma City University where she received a Bachelor of Performing Arts in Dance Performance. From there she moved to NYC where, on her first audition, she landed a role in the European tour of West Side Story. A highlight of her career was performing at La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy. She has performed in over 40 cities worldwide including Lebanon, Munich, Tokyo, and Paris. She has also been blessed to tour the nation with the Broadway National Tour of West Side Story. Some of her favorite roles have been Anita (West Side Story) and Cha Cha (Grease).
While living in NYC, Rebecca danced professionally with a rhythm dance company and was seen during the Tony Awards dancing in a commercial for Broadway.com. Here in LA, she performed with Kenny Loggins as a tap percussionist on an album and music video. Rebecca has created competitive choreography and has been a choreographer for numerous musicals such as Singing in the Rain and 42 nd St. She continues to have a passion for teaching and choreographing and encourages her dancers to be well rounded with a balance of technique and performance quality.
She believes it is her responsibility to enlighten and inspire her students to rise to a level beyond a dream and to make them a reality.
Mikael Mattsson
Mikael Mattsson is a Los Angeles based actor, fight choreographer, and stage combat professional for both screen and stage. Born and raised in Sweden, he began his career over 20 years ago, and has been actively teaching both acting and stage combat since 2016. Mikael's training includes a diploma from Folkuniversitetet in Stockholm, a B.A. in Theatre from USC School of Dramatic Arts, and a Masters Degree in Acting from Guildford School of Acting in the United Kingdom. While at USC, he had the privilege of working with accomplished professionals such as Rob Clare, Vicki Lewis, Michael Keenan, and Eugene Lazarev.
During his studies at GSA, Mikael was honored with the Post Graduate Principal's Award for his achievements, and also began Stage Combat training under the tutelage of equity fight director, and GSA fight master, Andrew Ashenden. By graduation, Mikael had attained several certificates from the British Academy of Dramatic Combat, culminating in his Advanced Fight Exam in 2009.
In 2010, he achieved his second Advanced Level qualification, this time with the Academy of Performance Combat, for which he was rewarded a Professional Recommendation. Continuing to train with the APC, Mikael acquired multiple qualifications at Honors Level, as well as learning fighting and coordinating for camera, taught by fight master Kevin McCurdy.
Mikael is grateful that his permanent residency in LA has provided him with so much opportunity. He has worked on numerous award-winning short films, has frequently appeared on a popular web series, and is awaiting the releases of several feature films by the end of 2023.
Dana Schwartz
DANA SCHWARTZ is a Los Angeles writer, director, producer and actress. Her play "@Playaz" was a 2019 O'Neill Finalist and had its World Premiere in November 2021. "Early Birds" Premiered in 2019, and is published by Next Stage Press . “The P.T.A” and “That Time She Proposed” have been in several productions of the internationally renowned Car Plays, notably at REDcat LA, Disney Hall, Segerstrom Arts and Costa Mesa. Her newest play “Presto!” was completed while working with The Workshop Theater in New York. She is co-creator, writer and stars in the 9 episode Zoom series "Isolation Inn". She has directed plays across the country.
As an actress she has performed all around the world. She is the co-creator and Producer of Theater at the Museum at LACMA, and Produces the MADlab New Play Development Program at Moving Arts, where she is Director of Programming, and a company member.
Kathy Deitch
Kathy Deitch grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and moved to New York to attend Wagner College where she graduated with honors and received the Departmental Award for Theatre. She made her Broadway debut in the original cast of FOOTLOOSE and later created the role of Shen Shen in the smash Broadway hit WICKED. She made her LA acting debut at the Hollywood Bowl in RENT directed by Neil Patrick Harris. Other credits include: SILENCE! THE MUSICAL (LA Weekly Award), AMERICAN HORROR STORY: FREAK SHOW, the thriller LOFT, opposite Modern Family's Eric Stonestreet and MAGIC MIKE XXL. She currently is in an Off Broadway run of the new musical TITANIQUE playing Kathy Bates as Molly Brown.
As a teacher, Kathy has brought her Audition Boot Camp to students of all ages across the country and currently is a professor for the BFA program at Hussian College in Los Angeles. Other top theatre programs have invited her to work with their best and brightest, including UCLA, Pace University, University of Hartford and her Alma mater, Wagner College. Her private voice clients include young professionals on TV and Broadway.
As an activist looking to combat body bias, Kathy co-created PLUS THIS! SHOW, a weekly vodcast that highlights fat women & non-binary folx and their allies in its 5th season on UBN GO.
Leonora Pitts
Leonora Pitts is an actress, filmmaker, dancer, and community organizer, born and raised in Grand Forks, ND. She graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she received her BFA in Acting, studying with the Atlantic Theater Company Acting School. Upon her graduation, she received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Atlantic and NYU, and a year later, Atlantic hired Leonora onto their faculty, where she taught for the following three years.
As an actress and dancer, Leonora spent several years on the New York stage, including a lengthy run in the long-running off-Broadway hit, The Donkey Show. Since moving to Los Angeles, she has appeared on numerous television shows including The Grinder, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Rita Rocks, and is a recurring character on the Apple+ series, For All Mankind. She has also continued her teaching and coaching career.
She continues to collaborate with the prolific Duplass Brothers, co-starring in the films The Freebie, and Manson Family Vacation, and guest-starring on two of their HBO series, Togetherness and Room 104.
Leonora’s four award-winning short films have collectively screened at over fifty festivals worldwide, including Raindance, Aspen Shortsfest, Outfest, Mill Valley, Newport Beach, Heartland, Bentonville, Santa Fe, Vail, Woods Hole, Dam Short, Provincetown, and Indie Memphis.
She is the co-founder and leader of the 1500-women strong Los Angeles Women’s Film Collective and co-founder of both the Atwater Village Mom’s Group and the NELA Mamas, and serves as one of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s City Commissioners, working on habitability issues surrounding the rent-stablized properties of the City of Los Angeles. She is also proud to have served as a board member for the Independent Shakespeare Company, which brings free Shakespeare in Griffith Park to nearly 50,000 Angelenos every summer and on the advisory board for the legendary Vidiots Foundation. She and her husband, Scott Pitts, have two young children.