Never at rest in the theatre, in her senior year Jimena chose to pull triple duty for this show. When she wasn't busy acting Jimena serves as a leader amongst cast and crew and also directed the grade school performers. Jimena's tech credits include: Diary of Anne Frank,Tut! Tut! Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Last winter Jimena student directed Powerline. In the future Jimena would like to become a full time Carpenter/Scenic Designer. She aspires to continue theatre in the future whether it be in the acting or technical field. Jimena would like to thank the cast and crew for trusting her and bringing a bit more joy into her life every day.

Cyrill is back at it again with Teatro Leyden for the world premiere of Wave. He has done projection work for 2020-2021 shows debuting in The Land of Forgotten Toys and Blood Wedding making digital drawings as backgrounds for the actors. The same year he won the William H. Fern award for Leyden’s art department and is currently in A.P Art to help him achieve greater things. His art account is @cyrillio.png on Instagram. Cyrill is grateful for his friends, family, and Leyden’s art department for helping him become the person he is today.

Ola is thrilled to have the opportunity to be costume designer for this world premiere! Just a sophomore at East Leyden this is already the fifth show she has worked on at Leyden. She has previously done a variety of tech work such as carpentry, props, sound, and costumes for Leyden’s productions of Land of Forgotten Toys, Powerline, Blood Wedding, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. She would like to thank Mr. Bavone for trusting her to work with costumes which are such a huge aspect of this show!

Layla wanted to do more for this show and when there was an opening at sound design felt called to step up. This is the first show Layla has designed and though it is a lot of work it won't be the last. Designing the sound for this show has been an amazing experience in which Layla has found another theatre passion.

Chloe is ecstatic to be a part of this world premiere of Teatro Leyden Wave. A Sophomore at East Leyden Chloe's first experience with Leyden was as Maia in the Summer Theatre virtual presentation of “Tut,Tut”. From that moment on Chloe wanted to be a technician and she has served every role imaginable including foley artist, carpenter and Asst Stage Manager for every show at Leyden since. Additionally Chloe is Vice President of East Leyden theater club East Players and is a member of the Leyden’s International Thespian Society Troupe. Chloe is thrilled to be apart of this once and lifetime experience of opening the world premiere of Wave!

Korneliusz is excited to assistant direct a world premiere here at Leyden. A sophomore at West Leyden, Korneliusz has assistant directed the previous summer show, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and worked in the tech crew as well as acted in his past two shows. Korneliusz knows how hard everyone in the cast and crew have worked for this show and he hopes that the public may enjoy it as much as we do.

Jisselle is very excited to be Stage Manager for this world premiere! Ever since her debut as Deck Crew in Harvey she has been heavily involved in theatre and has worked her way up the ladder of tech. Her most recent tech credits include: Powerline (Tech Director) Ah Wilderness (Stage Manager) Blood Wedding (Stage Manager) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Rail). Jisselle was also selected as a member of the 2022 IHSTF All State Show Tech Crew. Jisselle wants to thank her friends and family for their continued support. As a senior, she hopes to finish off her last year at Leyden strong.

A Leyden community member Frank has been working at Leyden for the past 12 years. This makes him the "new guy" with this seasoned Teatro Leyden staff and he wouldn't have it any other way. Like many directors Frank was an aspiring actor from birth but found his true passion directing when he was just 16 and took over a failing community theatre group. Frank has an effusive passion for education and theatre and loves that Teatro Leyden affords him the opportunity to share that passion with such an amazing group of students each and every show.

Vic has had the honor to produce hundreds of shows, tech direct for three All-State productions and serve on committees for 7 Illinois High School Theatre festivals. During Vic's time at Leyden his students were able to expand their experience with work on college and semi-professional productions. Victor is a member of three different theatre boards: USITT-Midwest, Illinois Thespians, and the Illinois Theatre Association. Victor was also given the opportunity to serve as the Executive Director of the 2020 Illinois High School Theatre Festival – the oldest and largest non-competitive theatre festival in the world. Lastly, Vic would like to give thanks to everyone who helped in creating and launching this production of WAVE. It has been a joy to see this group of staff and students dedicate themselves to molding this script and production into something truly extraordinary.

Gabe has been with Leyden Theatre since 2009 but has been doing theatre since high school and has never stopped. An electrical engineer by trade Gabe has a passion for theatre tech especially stage lighting and enjoys doing everything he can to transfer that passion to the students. He would like to give a special shoutout to all of the students past and present - everything that we do here is for them.

Rich has taught for 28 years here at Leyden. He is a Spanish AP/AP Lit Instructor, Soccer Coach and Costa Rica trip sponsor as well as Teatro Leyden's resident cultural advisor. Rich's love of theatre came when he saw "Gabriel Garcia Marquez: "El Coronel no tiene quien le escriba" performed by a theatre company from Venezuela. This was a life changing moment that he will never forget and it is why he does Teatro Leyden.

Nancy García Loza (she/her) is a self-taught pocha playwright rooted in Chicago, Illinois and Jalisco, México. She is Mexican American, no hyphen. Her audio drama Brava: a folktale con música launched Make-Believe Association’s inaugural season (with mention from the The New York Times). She is currently under commission from: Steppenwolf Theatre, Goodman Theatre, and Albany Park Theater Project. She has enjoyed residencies with: Goodman Playwrights Unit, Fornés Playwriting Workshop, Oregon Shakespeare Festival Black Swan Lab, SPACE on Ryder Farm Institutional Residency, Chicago Dramatists, The New Harmony Project, and more. During the 2020/21 season, various projects were halted by the pandemic including five world premieres. Since 2018, she has been under commission to develop a bilingual, original full-length play for Teatro Leyden's students. Returning to Teatro Leyden this season, she is thrilled to experience the world premiere of Wave!

Dr. Ruffolo has taught at Leyden for the past 32 years. Over that time he has taught AP Physics served as the Activities Director, Student Council Sponsor and Italian Foreign Exchange Coordinator among many other roles. His Leyden theatre experience began in the Pit Orchestra in 1991 and he has been apart of almost every season since then in some capacity. His favorite Leyden theatre experience was playing in the Pit for Godspell.

Kitzia is an alumna of West Leyden. She dedicated her 4 years of high school to theatre, spending almost all of her free time doing anything from acting to carpentry and lighting design and even stage managing and assistant directing. After a 3 year hiatus from theatre, she has now returned for the world premiere of Wave, lending a hand in teaching and mentoring the students. This experience has reignited her passion for theatre and she hopes to participate in future productions at Leyden.