Bios

Cynthia deHay
Originally from Hawaii, Cynthia moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1990s. While working in the mental health profession, she started taking improv classes and found improvisation such an unexpected delight that she was hooked immediately. She now takes classes at Berkeley Rep and BATS. She loves the playfulness of both the Perennials and their audiences. As well, she appreciates how learning improv has changed her life (oh, yes, for the better!).

Diane Bloom
Diane Bloom, retired mental health professional and landscaper, has been playing with the Antic Witties and the Perennials for eight years. Always with her fingers in the arts, she’s been a dancer, a singer and a garden designer. And she comes from a family where goofiness was valued. (Do you have a picture of your grandmother in a sailor suit tying her friend to the railroad tracks in your family album?) A meditator, she believes in being in the moment and loves the call to presence that improv brings. She especially loves the community that the Perennials bring to her life.

Jan Goodman
Jan Goodman is a retired teacher and administrator who worked for over 40 years in public education. In addition to all of the informal improvisation that is a survival skill to the craft of teaching and grandparenting, Jan received more formal training at The Berkeley Rep School of Theater and the Stagebridge Performing Arts Institute. Jan is also a storyteller and a member of the Berkeley Broadway Singers. A long-time Oakland resident, she is thrilled to be part of the Perennials as we bring joy and laughter into the hearts of seniors and other audiences.

Laura Wells
Laura Wells was born in Traverse City, Michigan but has felt right at home in the East Bay for the past 40 years. She is thrilled that the Perennials improv troupe is a politics-free zone since otherwise she is a political junkie of the Green variety. She has one daughter (“I knew my limits!”), and is delighted that her daughter really can sing. Laura lives a cooperative lifestyle in the Grand Lake neighborhood of Oakland, and loves to ballroom dance.

Lynda Esko
A Bay Area transplant from London, England, Lynda has always been interested in theater and any kind of storytelling. She grew up performing in British pantomime playing everything from the bear to the ugly sister. She discovered improv when she was in her 40s and felt that she had found her mothership and ended up studying and performing with Improvworks of San Francisco. She believes improv affects our daily lives, making us more confident and happier people. She loves the mission and joy that the Perennials troupe brings to others.

Ramah David
Ramah David was born in San Francisco and has always lived in the Bay Area. She is a retired elementary school teacher who honed her improv skills by engaging with her classroom audience of six-year-old children. Her goal nowadays is to cultivate and to be faithful to the imagination  and creativity of her “3-year-old self.” She is inspired by her young grandchildren as well as her participation in a variety of improv classes. As the most recent addition to the troupe, Ramah is thrilled to be able to play with such a lively group of women who laugh and bring laughter to others.

Terry Englehart
Terry Englehart is a retired gerontologist who appreciates the great value of continued brain challenges. What better way to get those neurons firing than improv? Being silly and spontaneous on a regular basis with like-minded folks is a fun prescription for healthy creative aging! And interacting and sharing laughter with our delightful audiences is a bonus! A native Californian who, as an Army brat, at the age of 6 months made her first of many moves, Terry happily re-settled in California in the early 70s.

. . . And our accompanist 🎶

Audrey Spector
Audrey began her musical journey with piano lessons at the age of 5 and has been a music lover ever since. Living across the street in SF from a well-respected classical piano teacher, she endured twice-a-week piano lessons for 10 years! She often threatened to quit, but her mom would always say, “One day you will thank me for this.”  So, here it is: THANK YOU, MOM!  When Audrey had the opportunity to join the Perennials as their accompanist, she jumped at the chance to leave her classical roots behind and explore the challenge and excitement of going off the page!  She loves being part of a group that thrives on play and being together while bringing joy (and music) to folks in the community.