Meet our directors!
Everardo Aguilar
The Late Afternoon (Around 3:45 or so) Before Christmas marks Everardo's directorial debut. "I chose this piece because it has two male voices, like Defrosting in last year's “Life Slices.” It is humorous, and I thought it would balance out some of the seriousness in the others. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with talented actors like Vincent Baca, Kevin Lin and Eduard Riedel.”
Everardo is a 30-year member of First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego and has been a part of Looking Glass Theatre since 1989, starting with Reflections in a Fable. In addition to last year's “Life Slices,” Everardo has also appeared in Transfusions, Speak Truth to Power, The Music Man, Fiddler on the Roof, and Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde. He was also cast as The Beast in The Enchantment of Beauty and the Beast, but could not perform due to a medical emergency. Fortunately, later that year, he was able to understudy for all four male actors in The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later.
Kia Bordner
Writer, editor, photographer, knitter, concession stand manager, actor, publicity chair, director, etc: Kia Bordner wears many hats behind the scenes, on stage, & in life. Her theater experiences are few, but intense. In 2015, she narrated and directed RiledUp Production's premiere of Spotz! Months later, still recovering from hip surgery, she tackled her first lead role in One Night’s Sleep. Last spring, Kia donned another hat, literally, as Grandmother Hood (Big Bad Musical). In August, Kia wrote The Desk for “More Life Slices.”
“My main character looks back over moments in her life through photos, which are all based on real, but unrelated pictures of people from my life. The universality of many of these moments has stayed with me, beyond the personal significance. That they can be woven seamlessly together as one fictional woman’s narrative is evidence to me that these are touchstones of Life, that we share such a collective oneness.”
Outside of LGT, Kia is actively involved in advocacy in various areas: birth, public school, social justice, and for backyard goats (or alpacas).Les GrantSmith
Les GrantSmith has been involved in Looking Glass Theatre, on-stage and behind the scenes, since his daughter dragged him into our 1997 production of The Music Man. His forays into directing include staged readings of 8 and Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, as well as co-directing The Big Bad Musical, with Gay Hybertsen.
Rolly Fanton
Rolly got her theater wings in San Diego during high school at Starlight Opera and the Old Globe Theatre. She received a BA in theater, with a minor in voice, at San Diego State University. Then she went to New York, where she worked and studied acting for five years; a highlight of which was doing a nine-month tour of Stephen Sondheim's Company, in both the bus and truck and the National Tour. Closer to home in Los Angeles, she enjoyed 11 years of a garden-variety career; doing stage, television and films, in addition to teaching and acting with American Theatre Arts. She married and moved to San Diego to have her family, which has been the grandest role of all. She is grateful to be working with a wonderful cast and production crew in LGT. "To Life!"
Gay Hybertsen
Gay Hybertsen is happy to be directing her third play for Looking Glass Theatre. She worked in all aspects of production from kid wrangling to acting before finding her niche as a director. Her day job is psychotherapy, so she has a life-long interest in how people make relationships work. In Ma in Her Kerchief, two women who may have very little time left negotiate that most challenging relationship: mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.
Rosalie Riedel
Rosalie Riedel has been involved in theater for 20 years in various capacities. This is her fourth production with LGT. Rosalie's first experience with directing is Buying a Brassiere, a piece which speaks to the nature of rediscovering one's self after having survived cancer, which has for so long been treated as a “dirty word” in our society. Rosalie is also a wife, mother of two, and an artist.