Bios

Cynthia deHay
Originally from Hawaii, Cynthia moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1990s. She started taking improv classes while working in the mental health profession and found improvisation such an unexpected delight that she was hooked immediately. She now takes classes at Berkeley Rep, Stagebridge 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 Esko 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. The newest recruit to the Perennials, she loves the mission and joy that they bring 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.