Glitterz & Razz
 
Founders
Lynn Johnson

Lynn knew that she wanted to be an actor when she was just 5 years old and has spent her whole life centered around the learning, teaching, and creation of theater. She spent her childhood moving throughout the northeastern U.S. until her family settled in Concord, MA her 8th grade year. Being a "drama geek" and 1 of only a few African American students living in the town at the time, Lynn developed a strong awareness of and commitment to those who live their lives "being different." At a young age, she began to develop a personal and professional mission dedicated to using the art of theater to celebrate difference while building strong, peaceful, loving, and diverse communities.

After graduation from Northwestern University, she discovered her entrepreneurial tendencies when she founded TurnStyle Teen Theatre, a multicultural teen ensemble. The company used the process of creating original productions to explore themes central to the lives of its members. Also in Chicago, Lynn worked as a company member for Child's Play Touring Theatre, a nationally recognized theater that performs stories and poems written by young people throughout the United States. Later, in Chapel Hill, NC she designed and directed a number of community-based educational programs that focused on literature, oral history, community building, and personal narrative. She served as the Education Director for both the StreetSigns Center for Literature and Performance in Chapel Hill and Burning Coal Theatre Company in Raleigh. She also created programming for the Opera Company of North Carolina and directed The Village Whippersnapper Ensemble, a group of home-schooled students and their mothers that adapted and performed classics and original stories for local school groups and libraries.

Lynn transferred her direct youth service experience to work as a trainer and organizational development consultant when she joined the staff of the Bay Area non-profit, Community Network for Youth Development (CNYD). Over her 4 years there, she led a variety of training workshops, advised on a number of city-wide youth serving efforts in San Francisco, and specialized in the connections between the arts and youth development. Presently, Lynn is also a founding member of OutLook Theater Project (with Rebecca Shultz), a community-based professional theater company that explores social issues from a queer perspective.

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Allison Kenny

Allison has spent a good part of her life leading and participating in creative and community-based activities focused on personal transformation. Growing up in Phoenix, AZ as the “dramatic” and extroverted one in a house with 3 other sisters, she built her values through active engagement in softball teams, theater productions, show choir, and youth ministry programs. She was a natural leader from a young age who was particularly influenced by her role in WomanStory, a Phoenix-based organization that supports the spiritual and emotional development of women and girls in intergenerational, arts-based camps and retreats. To this day, she has a personal mission to create healing spaces for women.

Prior to moving to San Francisco in 2002, Allison earned her B.A. in Theatre Performance from Northern Arizona University. Performing and directing with Theater Outreach for Social Change, Allison traveled throughout the Southwest, touring a series of vignettes that depicted social issues central to the lives of teens and young adults. It was here that Allison’s passion for creating meaningful theater emerged. In the Bay Area, Allison discovered that she had a deep love and talent for working with young children and has developed her own special methodology for working with children ages 2-6. She is particularly proud of the work that she did as the Artist-in-Residence for St. James Pre-School in San Francisco, the Beyond Borders program at Marin Country Day School, Young Performer’s Theater, the YMCA of San Francisco, the Marsh Youth Theater, and the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts Kaleidoscope Program. She wrote and starred in “Story Swap with Madame Razz,” a highly hands-on show with song, dance and stories for young children. She also designed and directed Home Base Preschool, a collaborative of San Francisco families focused on alternative early childhood education.

In addition to her work with Glitter & Razz, Allison works in connection with Dr. Ilene Lee as a Floor Time play therapist with children on the autism spectrum.  She also served as the Program Director for the youth ministry programs at First Congregational Church of Oakland. She is an ensemble member of the Living Arts Playback Theater Ensemble, a troupe of improvisational actors and musicians who "play back" personal stories of audience members in ways that both honor and illuminate the original experience.

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