Meet the Team

  • Stephen Sachs

    Co-Founder
    Artistic Director

    is an award-winning playwright, director, producer and the Artistic Director of the Fountain Theatre, which he co-founded with Deborah Culver in 1990. He is the author of eighteen plays that have been produced at the Fountain and across the country, in London, and beyond. Sachs was instrumental in the launching of Deaf West Theatre at the Fountain in 1991. He wrote the screenplay for the film version of his play Sweet Nothing in my Ear for CBS starring Marlee Matlin and Jeff Daniels. He inaugurated the Outdoor Classical Theater at the Getty Villa in Malibu in 2006 and directed several premieres of new plays by Athol Fugard in Los Angeles, New York and the UK. As playwright, director, and producer Sachs has received every theatre award in Los Angeles. He was recently honored by the Los Angeles City Council for “his visionary contributions to the cultural life of Los Angeles.”

  • Simon Levy

    Producing Director

    has been Producing Director of the Fountain Theatre since 1993. The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle honored him with the Milton Katselas Award for Lifetime Achievement in Directing. Recent shows he’s directed at the Fountain include: The Children, Daniel's Husband and The Chosen. His stage adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (Finalist for the PEN Literary Award in Drama) is produced widely throughout the world. It is the only stage adaptation authorized by the Fitzgerald Estate, and is published by Dramatists Play Service, along with his adaptations of Tender is the Night (winner of the PEN Literary Award in Drama) and The Last Tycoon. He has produced dozens of shows at the Fountain over the past 30 years. Prior to coming to Los Angeles, he lived in San Francisco where he was the General Manager of Beach Blanket Babylon, Artistic Director of The One Act Theatre Company, and Executive Director of Theatre Bay Area. He belongs to many theatre, human rights, and political advocacy groups. www.simonlevy.com

  • Barbara Goodhill

    Director of Development

    has been Director of Development at The Fountain Theatre since 2013. Prior advancement positions include Sinai Akiba Academy, Inside Out Community Arts and PS#1 Elementary School. Barbara’s wealth of experience, innovative thinking and dedication have resulted in significant growth in The Fountain’s donor community and strengthened relationships with the funding community. A passionate believer in the power of live theatre to open hearts and encourage empathy, Barbara is deeply committed to The Fountain, its vision, mission and future goals. “Institutions like The Fountain Theatre are vital to the health of a diverse, compassionate society.” Barbara loves the opportunity to meet the many wonderful patrons who form The Fountain Theatre’s family and is always thrilled to receive your calls and greet you at the theatre. Barbara received her B.A. from UC Berkeley and her Masters from UCLA.

  • Scott Tuomey

    Technical Director

    has been Technical Director at the Fountain since its inaugural production of Winter Crane in 1990. He has overseen virtually every Fountain production, on and off site, including their numerous flamenco shows, and has appeared here on our stage in Declarations: Love Letters of the Great Romantics, and the Fountain’s hit productions of Master Class and Joe Turners’ Come and Gone. Scott's talents as actor-singer-guitarist were also seen in the Shakespeare Festival L.A. productions of As You Like It and Twelfth Night at the Globe Theatre in West Hollywood and in the film A Day in the Life of Sunny Paradise.

  • James Bennett

    Producer

    joined the Fountain team in 2007 and has smiled and whistled, much to the irritation of everyone else, every day ever since. James enjoys chatting, hobnobbing, and wine sipping with all the theatre's many fine friends, family, and patrons. For work, he can be found running the whole stack of theatre activities, whether that's toiling on a pile of paperwork, coiled into a pretzel in the tech booth, or producing fabulous Flamenco shows. He's enjoyed co-producing the Fountain's Rapid Development Series and is looking forward to many more scrumptious seasons to come. He's compelled to the theatre by its immediacy, its intimacy – the visceral impact of being so close to real humans with real sweat and real spit. In a world that's increasingly disjointed, behind glass, and far away – theatre becomes more powerful than ever. Terran Fighting!

  • Nathan James

    Theater Education Manager

    is a proud native of Pittsburgh, where he began his career with Kuntu Repertory Theater. He received a B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh and an M.F.A from Penn State University, where he also served as an instructor in the Fundamentals of Acting. With over twenty years in arts education, he started out as a teaching artist for the Pittsburgh C.L.O. While living in New York, he taught stage combat for the McCarter Theater at Princeton University, and screenwriting for Urban Arts Partnership and HBO (MAX). Nathan is one of the seven playwrights who contributed to the New Black Festival's 'Hands Up: Seven Playwrights, Seven Testaments,’ which was featured in American Theater Magazine and on BBC Radio, with his specific piece chosen as BBC Radio's Play of the Week. Theater Credits: Off-Broadway: Travisville (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Playing with Fire (Gene Frankel Theatre), Black Angels Over Tuskegee (St. Luke's Theatre). NY: Maid’s Door (Billy Holiday Theatre). Film/TV credits: Standing Up, Falling Down (Tilted Windmill Productions), Madam Secretary (CBS), Shades of Blue (NBC), Quantico (ABC), Blindspot (NBC), VINYL (HBO), Person of Interest (CBS), Blue Bloods (CBS), The Path (Hulu), Service to Man (STARZ).

  • Terri Roberts

    Terri Roberts
    Fountain Friends Volunteer Program
    Fountain Theatre Cafe

    wears many hats at the Fountain Theatre, including the care and repair of production costumes; the on-going maintenance of in-house prop and costume stock; coordination of the Fountain Friends Volunteer Program; and serving Fountain patrons as manager of both our brand new (outdoor) concessions station and our charming (indoor) Fountain Theatre café. Terri also works in stage management (production/assistant stage manager on 20 fabulous Fountain shows thus far), and loves every opportunity to also serve as casting assistant, props designer/assistant/set dresser, and coach for actors. She also frequently writes for Intimate Excellent, the Fountain Theatre blog.

  • Lucy Pollak

    Publicist

    has been providing publicity services to the Los Angeles performing arts community for the past 28 years, and is honored to have represented the Fountain Theatre since 2008. Prior to becoming a publicist, Lucy spent ten years as the production manager/staff producer at the Odyssey Theatre, earning an L.A. Drama Critic’s Circle Award, an L.A. Weekly Award, 4 Drama-Logue Awards, and a Women in Theatre Recognition Award.

  • Liz Aguilar

    Box Office Manager

    tired, wired and filled with existential dread

  • Peter Carrisoza

    Accountant/Bookkeeper

    Peter Carrisoza obtained his business degree from CSU Northridge and has worked as an accountant/financial analyst in a variety of industries ranging from entertainment to defense contracting. He is currently enjoying his third year at the Fountain Theatre.

  • Melina Young

    Box Office Manager
    Development Associate

    Melina has trained at Bard College, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the Williamstown Theatre Festival. As a playwright, Melina has been produced at Bard and recognized in national playwrighting competitions; her analytical writing was selected for presentation at the American Comparative Literature Conference held at Georgetown (2019). In performance, Melina blends her theatre with her lifelong study of classical piano and voice. Favorite theatre credits include Blanche Dubois in Jack Ferver’s Desire, Natasha in Whitney White’s Three Sisters, Melchior Gabor in Spring Awakening, She in Lost & Found (dir. Zoe Gulüb-Sass, Williamstown), Sorrel Bliss in Hay Fever(dir. Robert Price, LAMDA) and Macbeth in Macbeth(dir. Sylvestra LeTouzel, LAMDA). You can find her working in Outreach, Arts Education, and Development at the Fountain Theatre in Hollywood.