Rolando Morales, is a NuyoRican (New York Puerto Rican) from the Bronx in the 1970’s. He was raised in Washington Heights and sang his way into the La Guardia High School of the Arts for vocal music during the 80's. He attended Binghamton University and received a Bachelor’s of Arts in Theatre. He returned to NYC to pursue a professional career in Acting in the 90's. He was able to work and perform plays at The Public Theatre, The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Theatre for New Audiences, The Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe and NYC Fringe Festival. He created and performed The Last Will and Testament of Willie ShakespeaRican for the first annual Hip Hop Theatre Festival. He later acquired a Master’s degree in Special Education to promote disability justice for young people. He has been a dedicated teacher since 1998 and worked for the NYC Department of Education where he received his credential. What brought him to the Bay Area was a new teaching assignment at Berkeley High School from 2009-2020. He joined OSA during the Spring of '21. He has directed Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night or What You Will,  and Ellen McLaughlin's adaptation of Aristophanes Lysistrata. He is also incredibly proud of his collaboration with the Production and Fashion Design teams on our March Theatre Festival showcasing the original work of both middle and high school students. Peace.

 

Tavia Percia is a East Oakland Native and Class of 2011 OSA graduate. She was apart of OSA’s inaugural middle school year in 2005. As a young performer at OSA Tavia starred in many shows, most notably “The Wiz” in which she played the evil witch, Evilene. After leaving OSA Tavia moved to New York City to study at Stella Adler Studio of Acting in their two year conservatory. While in NYC she worked at numerous playhouses and stages in the city and taught summer classes at Stella Adler. In 2015, Tavia moved back to the bay and became a company member at African American Shakespeare Company while simultaneously creating a youth theatre company called “The Blackberry Collective” that provides inner city youth with the opportunity to learn and cultivate their artistic gifts and tell the stories that means the most to them and heal through the artistic process. In addition, she worked at Juvenile Hall giving acting training to incarcerated youth and helping to ignite their artistic fire. During this journey, Tavia began teaching at Elmhurst United Middle School, the school she attended before OSA and ran the theatre department there before returning to OSA as a full time theatre teacher. At OSA, Tavia helped to ignite the Every 28 Hours Project that details the shared and contested 2015 statistic that Every 28 Hours a black person is killed in the US. This project is about uplifted the voices of students of color and creating an opportunity for them to tell the stories that matter most.