Amber-Sky Skipps

Co-Director and Choreographer

Amber made her performance debut as the title role of “The Pancake Girl” in the 2nd Grade and hasn’t looked back since! A Huntington Beach native, she has choreographed many musicals including ANYTHING GOES, CRAZY FOR YOU, last year’s HAIRSPRAY at Marina High School, OLIVER!, ANNIE, HONK!, …FORUM at The Attic and BYE BYE BIRDIE at TheAtree Productions.

Amber has been a teacher at South Coast Performing Arts in Tustin since 1999, specializing in both musical theater and dance. She also spent 5 years as Choreographer and Assistant Director of the South Coast Theater Company before becoming its Director in 2004, with productions such as THE WIZARD OF OZ, CINDERELLA, and INTO THE WOODS. After an 8 year hiatus, Amber was proud to have been part of the team that brought theater back to South Coast, directing and choreographing DISNEY’S ALICE IN WONDERLAND JR in 2014.

In addition to teaching, choreographing and directing, Amber continues to perform herself. Favorite credits include: “Camila” in IN THE HEIGHTS (Moonlight), “Rosie Alvarez” in BYE BYE BIRDIE (Candlelight), “Serena” in LEGALLY BLONDE (Perf Riverside), “Cassie” in A CHORUS LINE (Center Stage), “Demeter” in CATS (The Norris), “Miss Hannigan” in ANNIE and “The Witch” in INTO THE WOODS (The Attic), and “Dancer/Ensemble” in many amazing productions including SOUTH PACIFIC (MTW), FUNNY GIRL (3DT), and MY FAIR LADY (Moonlight).

Amber holds a dual degree in Family Life Education and Child Development and a minor in Anthropology from California State University, Long Beach and works full time at Edward Jones Investments. Amber loves teaching and hopes to instill and nurture a love and appreciation for Performance Arts in all of her students, as her teachers did for her for. For Nana.

 

 

Jodi Kimura

Co-Director

Jodi Kimura is a nationally and internationally critically acclaimed actor and singer from Maui, Hawaii and was recently featured in If All the Sky Were Paper alongside Annette Benning, Laura Dern, Brad Hall, Common and Gary Cole at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in LA and then at the Kennedy Center in D.C.

Jodi starred as Bloody Mary in the first national tour of Lincoln Center’s Tony Award winning South Pacific (directed by Bartlett Sher) for which she was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for Best Supporting Actress at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.  She took her Bloody Mary across the pond and was the only American in the first national tour of Lincoln Center’s South Pacific in the United Kingdom.

Prior to that, Academy Award winning Olympia Dukakis handpicked Jodi to appear as Juno in the world premiere of Another Side of the Island, which Ms. Dukakis co-wrote, co-directed and starred in, along with Louis Zorich, Apollo Dukakis and Lynn Cohen.

Regional favorites include:  Tim Rice’s new musical, From Here to Eternity (Mrs. Kipfer) World Goes Round (Woman 1 and 3), Full Monty (Vicky), Spelling Bee (Marcy), Godspell (Sonia), Jesus Christ Superstar (Mary),  Man of La Mancha, (Aldonza), Phantom of the Opera (Mdme. Giry), Ruddigore (Mad Margaret), and Gondoliers (Tessa) directed by the renowned principal comedian of the D’Oyly Carte for two decades, John Reed, OBE.

Jodi was an Artist in Residence at Central City Opera, an Apprentice Artist with Des Moines Metro Opera and has appeared as a soloist with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.  And she also appeared as a featured performer at the Crystal Palace in Aspen for many years.  She received a Bachelor of Arts in Communication, a Bachelor of Arts in Music and a Master of Vocal Performance all from the University of Colorado in Boulder.