meet the stage left team & board of directors

A Lisa Edwards earned her BA from Sarah Lawrence College with a concentration in Theatre and her Masters in Education with an emphasis in Theatre Arts from Seattle Pacific University. Inspired by a summer camp Shakespeare production when she was twelve years old, Lisa has made a career out of sharing her passion for the theatre with others, particularly children.

  Lisa has worked as an actor, director and educator in New York, Chicago and Seattle. Prior to moving to Spokane in 2017, Lisa spent twelve years as a teacher, director, and curriculum developer for drama programs in the greater Seattle area. Locally, she has been seen as Bananas in The House of Blue Leaves and Liz Essendine in Present Laughter, both at Spokane Civic Theatre. Lisa and her husband David are busy raising two daughters, Bella and Hadley.  

Susan Hardie has directed and appeared in scores of productions throughout Spokane, WA and the region over the past forty years. Directing is her passion, and recent projects include An Iliad and The Long Christmas Ride Home at Stage Left. She has served as adjudicator for the AACTFest Region IX Regional Festival in Coeur d’Alene, ID as well as a variety of student theatre festivals and competitions throughout the region. 

Susan has served on the Spokane Arts Commission, the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce Arts Committee and the Civic Theatre Artistic Committee, and received numerous awards including City of Spokane Arts awards for Individual Artist and Arts Community Leadership. She hails from New York, where she received her BA in Theatre and English at the State University of New York at Geneseo.

Shantell has lived in Washington state for 16 years, and is originally from Buffalo, NY.  She has spent her career working in Higher Education, serving as the Assistant Director for Equity, Leadership and Community at Washington State University. She was the former Coordinator for Academics and Multicultural Education at Eastern Washington University.   

A visual artist and poet, Shantell has had her artwork showcased in the Terrain Gallery in Spokane, WA. She has performed original poetry (pre-pandemic) at Spokane Poetry Slam events, and is a featured artist of the Black Lives Matter mural in downtown Spokane. 

Shantell believes that our past informs the present, and the way forward is reckoning with our history: radical truth-telling that can lead to a better future. 

Audrey Overstreet’s career has been in journalism and PR – mostly in New York City as an investigative reporter at a national magazine– and in Austin, Texas, where she was Politics Editor for the city’s alternative weekly. She currently writes about the arts for the Spokesman-Review. 

While serving as Marketing Director for the Spokane Symphony and The Fox Theater in 2014, she helped create several collaborations with local artists, including the Symphony/Civic Theater production of Les Mis and the Symphony/Terrain launch of Uncharted. She has been active in many political and volunteer causes over the years, from the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) in the 1980s to a recent stint as President of the Hutton Elementary PTG.

A former USAF officer and aviator, Maeve Griffith is currently the Captain of Spokane Fire Station Number 3.  She has appeared in Spokane’s 2018 production of the Vagina Monologues and in the Quimby Oak Junior High High School's ground-breaking production of Li’l Abner.

Maeve is also a paramedic, artist, copy writer, novelist and poet. She has been in numerous local television commercials and has voiced many radio spots over the years. Ms Griffith is active in promoting LGBTQ rights in the local community, and has a loving wife, three beautiful sons and their spouses and three wonderful grandsons.

Al Kiefer is not a professional actor, director, set designer.  But he does sing and dance and attend at least one live theatre performance every week of his life, along with concerts, art openings, readings, museums and other cultural events. 

A Spokane native, Al is a WSU graduate in communications (Go Cougs!)  He was employed by Spokane County and the East Central Community Center.  But his longest work history was more than 30 years with Spokane Public Library, primarily with its Outreach Services department.  Yes, Al was the Bookmobile guy!  Now retired, Al continues to avidly support the arts community.

Michael Schmidt began his love of live theater at the age of 45 in 2013 when he answered an open audition call for Jesus Christ Superstar, and has not looked back. He took a 2-year hiatus beginning in early 2017 to relocate and settle in the Spokane area and has fallen in love with this city and surrounding countryside. His return to theater was right here at Stage Left, where he was cast in Hecuba, and he also performed in A Place to Call Home at Spokane Civic Theater. Some of Michael’s favorite roles include Agamemnon (Hecuba), Oberon (A Midsummer’s Night Dream), Capulet (Romeo and Juliet), and Ralphie’s Old Man (A Christmas Story).  

Michael is thrilled to be a member of the Stage Left board. He is in awe of the level of talent Spokane has to offer and the warmth and inclusivity of the theater community. “There is something,” he says, “about a group of people coming together to put all the hours and effort in to tell a story that no one person could do alone; all for the love of art.”

Lizzie is excited to be a part of Stage Left Theater.  She joined the Spokane theater community in 2015, where her

love of arts and crafts got an outlet with managing properties for many shows. Since

then she has taking on the adventure of Stage Manager for the shows: Left Overs,

Arcadia, Fiddler On The Roof Jr., God’s Country, Hecuba, A Place to Call Home, and

Present Laughter.

Lizzie became the Resident Stage Manager for Stage Left during the pandemic, overseeing such productions as An Iliad, I Am My Own Wife, Squeamish, and Open. She is looking forward to an exciting new season!

In the past, Marek had always enjoyed the theater as an audience member, until one day back in 2008 when Bob Nelson and Dave McCallum urged him to take a role in a staged reading for their small theater group. Reluctantly, he agreed. The experience led him to start participating in more readings and eventually fully memorized productions. Some of his favorite roles include Dasher in "Reindeer Monologues", Krogstad in "Nora", and Danforth in "The Crucible".

Marek has been involved with Stage Left (almost) every step of the way, from the purchase of the building, to the remodeling into a theater space (he and Bob actually installed the first set of chairs), to acting on the stage. He is incredibly proud of what Bob Nelson started and what the extremely talented group at Stage Left is creating in the space.

During the day, Marek helps to run the family-owned software company and trains regularly in martial arts. He has master's degrees in Chemistry and Computer Science, and holds the rank of 3rd-Dan in Kendo. He lives in the South Hill with his lovely wife Rebecca and their two kids.

Paul J Watts, in his own words, was a thorn in the side of Stage Left Theater, both on stage and behind the scenes, getting in the way of performances by adding scenic painting, sound and light cues for both festivals and season productions since 2017 when Texas ran him out of town. Having pestered the Lone Star State with everything from Stage, Screen, TV performances, photography, makeup and playwriting, they finally had enough. Thenhe became Spokane's problem.

His acting roles as Fred from Civic Theatre’s Present Laughter and Odysseus in Stage Left’s Hecuba were particularly dangerous. Paul was the Sound Technician for all of Stage Left’s streamed events during the pandemic, and his hard work and dedication played an integral role in the survival of the theater.

Following his death in 2022, he was awarded the title of Board Member Emeritus, in accordance with his desire to serve on the board of Stage Left Theater forever.

For the past six years, Jeremy has been the Resident Designer for numerous theaters including The Public Theater of San Antonio, The Modern Theaters of Spokane/Cd’A, and Lake City Playhouse in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. 

Prior to his career in theater, Jeremy was the Associate General Manager of Tomato Street Italian Restaurant in Coeur d’Alene, and Cyrus O’Leary’s Restaurant & Bar in Spokane from 2000 to 2014. He attended Ohio University from 1989 to 1992 majoring in Theater Production and, more recently, graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2014 with his BFA in Graphic Design from Sanford Brown. 

Recent stage credits include The Threepenny Opera (JJ Peachum, Stage Left), Disney’s Newsies (Weisel/Teddy Roosevelt, The Public Theater) and Assassins (Sam Byck, The Public Theater-2018 and Lake City Playhouse-2016). Jeremy brings his varied artistic talents and his longstanding business acumen to Stage Left, where he will continue to promote diversity, inclusion, political discussion, and social justice both on stage and in our community.

Check out Jeremy’s website at www.JeremyCreates.com

Courtney Joy Wood, known as Joy to friends and coworkers, is an actress, writer, and mother. She was born in Centralia, Washington, and much of her theater experience occurred at theaters in Western Washington, including the Evergreen Playhouse, Harlequin Productions, and Centralia College Theater. 

Joy is a former student of Developmental Psychology at Eastern Washington University who plans to continue her education throughout her life. Joy hopes her passion and creative spirit will be an asset to Stage Left.

Molly Allen of Dave Ken and Molly in the Morning on 92.9 zzu is thrilled to be The Playwright in Residence at Stage Left Theater. 

Radio personality and Grandma by day, theater lover by night. Molly's original comedy, Closing it Up, played to sold out audiences in the 2018/19 Season here at Stage Left and went on to win several awards at the Kaleidoscope festival. 

Before that she took home the "audience favorite" award at the Civic Theater's 29th Playwrights Forum Festival for "The Hostage". She also entertained overflow crowds at Ignite! Theaters 2016/17 season with "On Shaky Ground". 

Look for a showcase of new original material next Spring here at Stage Left!

Robert Tombari is a classically trained actor, director, producer, educator, and an acting/vocal coach who currently resides in Spokane, Washington. He received his MFA in Acting, with an emphasis in Shakespeare, from The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in Birmingham, England where he lived for two years. He holds a BA in Theatre Arts from Boise State University. While living in Boise he also worked as a stagehand on numerous productions at The Morrison Center for The Performing Arts. 

Robert has also toured parts of the Pacific Northwest with Idaho Theatre for Youth part of Idaho Shakespeare Festival. He has performed locally at Spokane Civic Theatre (Morris, Present Laughter) and at Stage Left Theater (Jody, Lonely Planet; Mack The Knife, Threepenny Opera). Robert currently produces the Masterpiece Monologues series for Stage Left Theater. 

Robert was born and raised in Spokane. When he isn’t working, you can find him wandering around Manito Park with his dog Bentley, trying new restaurants, binging his favorite tv series, and spending time with his immediate family. He can be reached at his website, or email roberttombari@gmail.com, for coaching and acting enquiries.