Like the productions themselves, the makeup of our cast and crew is always a work in progress. It often changes from show to show. This page reflects the cast and crew for our May 2026 show, Mothers & Fathers & Kids, Oh, My!
LENNON SMITH (Director) has directed five shows for NST, dating back to 2023. She’s a native of the Bay Area, where she directed dozens of plays, classes and musicals. Since moving to Oregon in 2021, she’s picked up where she left off. She also leads another troupe in Sherwood in presenting Theatre Stories. Lennon met her husband, NSTer George Mauro, on stage years ago while they were in a show together!
MAK KASTELIC (Music Director and keyboardist) has music directed with the Oregon Children’s Theater, Lakewood Center for the Arts, Clackamas Community College and the Broadway Rose Theatre, among others. He often appears with vocalist Kimo Camat. Mak will occasionally take the stage himself, as he did at the Funhouse Lounge, playing Riff Raff in Rocky Horror Picture Show.
SARA KING (Stage Manager) is in her first NST production, but she is no stranger to the Portland theater scene. She directs, stage manages and house manages at several local theaters. She can often be found at the Funhouse Lounge in southeast Portland, one of the area’s most intimate theaters. Sara also has a big voice, which you’ll hear dsuring Mothers & Fathers & Kids … Oh, My!
GEORGE MAURO (Graphics Guru, band member) is multi-talented for sure! He’s performed onstage with NST, as he did in May 2025, playing Lawrence Welk in Battle of the Bandstands. An accomplished bassist, he’s also taken part in NST shows as a member of the band. He also brings his considerable technical skills to the fore as our graphics guru. George had a hand in everything you’ll see projected on the screens above the stage.
ERIC MARGESON (Sound/Video Tech) was bitten by the dual bugs of TV and tech way back in high school in the San Francisco Bay Area. This led to a 40-year career as a broadcast engineer, including locally at KOIN and KATU, Now that he’s retired, he shares his technical expertise and creativity with NST and with area churches, including Rise Church. During our shows, he is often the busiest person in the room!
DIANA MOSSMAN (Choreographer) is an NST featured dancer as well as one of our costumers. She first began ballroom dancing as a young teen with her grandfather — how cool is that! She’s studied with top ballroom professionals and many national champions, learning 13 different dances. This is Diana’s fifth NST production, giving her many chances to kick up her heels. From the horah to expressive ballroom, she does it all!
AUDREY PERINO (Assistant Music Director) does double duty for this show: as always, she’s a member of the ensemble, but she’s also the Assistant Music Director. Audrey was a member of the NST audience for many years before joining the ensemble in 2019. She and her husband of 50 years, NSTer Ken Kane, can often be found at area piano bars and also on AARP’s SeniorPlanet.org Open Mic Night twice a month.
JUDY PRENTICE (Props Manager) has been intrigued by the backstage aspects of theater ever since high school. “I love rehearsals and working behind the scenes,” she says. “I used to dream of being a Broadway chorus line performer but have never been a good singer and I’m not built as a dancer. The next best thing is to enjoy any kind of live shows.” Judy also books our Summer and Winter Stock shows and serves as our Stock series mixmaster DJ!
MARTHA SEVCIK (Visual Tech) is doing her third NST show. A member of Salem’s Children’s Educational Theater as a youngster, Martha has worked both onstage and off. She’s performed internationally with the PD Rebels Performance Project, a dance group for people with Parkinsons. She supports the King City Chorus by video recording their performances. When not in a theater, you’ll find her out in the field in a ladies’ “rockhound” group.
RACHEL ZIERDT (Choreographer) wears many hats for NST. She’s our president, as well as a performer and our choreographer. Upon moving to Oregon a few years ago, she jumped into performing with both feet … as any choreographer would! She’s a dancer with The Beat Goes On Marching Band. She’s also a Rose City Singer and a member of the Rock Voices Chorus. All of this on top of being a proud grandmother of six!
MELANEY BAKER, a native of San Jose, moved with her husband to Oregon City a year ago. After she retired, she rekindled a love of performing dating joined the back to high school. And she’s jumped right in, in Oregon: in 2025 she appeared in Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean with Sherwood’s STAR Society. In 2026 she’s joined her husband Dave’s reader’s theater project, Wireless Playhouse Radio.
KAREN BLAKE is performing in her third NST show. She moved to King City in 2023. A native of Waltham, Mass., She worked for 50 years as a registered nurse, but now in retirement she’s tending to her own well-being. That includes returning to a lifelong love of music. Like many NSTers, she’s also joined the King City Chorus. In addition, Karen is passionate about animals and, of course, her kids and grandkids.
LINDA BRINEGER grew up on an Oregon dairy farm. She wasn’t so much a singing cowgirl as she was a girl who’d sing to the cows! A few years later she got to sing with Paul Revere & the Raiders. More recently, she joined the King City Chorus, with other NSTers. One singing group led to another and now, here she is! In addition to performing, Linda is also our backstage hair stylist and foremost purveyor of cast hugs!
RALPH COX is currently NST’s longest-running performer. This is his 21st season with NST. He thought about hanging up his vocal chords (if you can do that!) in 2025, but we’re glad he changed his mind. He’s also performed with the King City Chorus, Mask & Mirror, Tigard Pops, the Brush Creek Playhouse in Silverton, the Tualatin Valley Harmony Masters and very locally with the Rise Church Men’s Chorus.
BONNIE FAZIO is appearing in her third NST show, but she crossed paths with some of us long before. She and Ron Hansen worked on shows at the University of Oregon back in the day. And she and Audrey Perino were community choirsters at Marylhurst University several years ago. Choral trips have taken her to Turkey, Uruguay and Argentina. As a Jonathan Griffith Singer, Bonnie’s even recorded at London’s Abbey Road Studios.
RON HANSEN has entertained audiences since the age of 12. A University of Oregon theater major, he’s acted, directed or sung in hundreds of productions, both choral and theatric. Some of his favorite roles include Harold Hill in The Music Man, Daddy Warbucks in Annie, Tommy in Brigadoon, Billy Crocker in Anything Goes and Fagan in Oliver. He also works behind the scenes as a member of various non-profit theater boards.
ROBIN HELÉNE is a native of New York’s Hudson Valley, who moved to Portland in 2023. She grew up with parents who performed in community theater (and brought her to rehearsals) so, once she was old enough, she gladly followed suit. A couple of her favorite roles are Reno Sweeney (Anything Goes) and Madame Dubonnet (The Boyfriend). “Generating a smile or a sigh in the audience moves me most.”
DIA HOWES spent her career in Los Angeles, working mostly behind-the-scenes in movies, TV, radio and special effects. Her projects spanned from Gladiator to Desperate Housewives. She also sang and danced in local L.A. productions before moving to Oregon a decade ago. For NST, Dia performs onstage and everywhere else, depending on the show. Offstage duties include costuming and being our Snack Mom!
KEN KANE wears many hats for NST. He develops some of its spring shows, maintains the NST Website and Facebook group, is its podcast host, and edits the printed show program. He joined NST in 2023 at the urging of his wife of 50 years, NST member Audrey Perino. As such, he’s cheered on her musical escapades over the years, and joins her at any local piano bar that will have them.
MARCIA LEANNA was our Chevy Girl (a la Dinah Shore) in May 2025’s Battle of the Bandstands. She’s performed in several NST productions and will be part of our Summer Stock mini-show series in July 2026. She’s devoted to her 19-year-old cat Miss Sapphire. “She has been loyally and lovingly by my side, through the ups and downs of my life.”
JEROME MARTIN III is one of NST’s featured dancers and, when you think about it, is there a dance he doesn’t know?! The East and West Coast Swings, the Lindy Hop, the Cross-step Waltz, Night Club Two-step, Salsa, Foxtrot, Cha Cha and Zydeco are just some of the dances in his wheelhouse. Jerome studies with Uwe Hessinger and Colleen Suzanne at Connect to Dance. He also dances with the Portland Tap Connection.
JONI MILLER fondly remembers being introduced to part-singing as a kid at summer camp in Rhode Island. She’s been singing and acting ever since, as a third-grade teacher, with community theaters and choirs and, since 2017, with NST. She says, “It’s a real thrill to perform in front of a group of people and see the audience reactions.” When Joni’s not onstage, she’s doing her best to get you in our seats as NST’s Publicity Director.
LYNNE NEILSON is performing in her third NST show. But she’s no stranger to performing since she’s been singing in choirs and playing handbells for four decades. She’s one of 150 singers in Tualatin’s Celebration Community Choir, a gospel group whose members represent 46 area churches. Though a relative newcomer to NST, she’s jumped right in, serving on our board of directors and working behind the scenes.
DIANNE POLIVKA is appearing in her fourth NST show. A native of Ohio, its school choruses and church choirs, Dianne’s been singing as long as she can remember. She moved to the northwest in 1980 – first to Portland, but then she spent 35 years in Olympia, where she sang with the Olympia Chorale and Light Opera. She moved to King City in 2024 and started singing with the King City Chorus and the Tualatin Presbyterian Church choir.
JAN ROSENTHAL is our resident Canadian, hailing from Winnipeg, though she’s lived in Portland since the 1970s. A veteran of over 80 shows, she’s acted locally with Lakewood, Broadway Rose, Mask & Mirror and LOoP (Light Opera of Portland), among others, over the past half-century. Jan’s performed with NST since 2012, is the Vice-president of NST, and directed our November 2025 show, Happy Holidays, Weather Permitting.
ALI GOODWIN ROSKAM says “I really love doing what I do.” And she does a lot! At 16 she was recording in Hollywood. In the mid-1960s she was touring with a Young-Americans type group. In the 1970s she was dancing at USO shows with a Polynesian ensemble and, as you’ll soon learn, Oh boy, does she know poi! Once she moved to Oregon in the 1990s she directed and choreographed for the Classy Cats, a female group she founded.
CAROL SCHULTZ, a native of Rupert, Idaho, spent many years with The Variations, a women’s singing group which performed across the Gem State, as well as in the Idaho and Utah statehouses. She started honing her vocal skills as a teenaged singing car hop. In fact, she was once named A&W Root Beer’s Idaho Car Hop of the Year. “Oh, I entertained ’em!” she remembers fondly, flashing the same smile she unleashes onstage.
STAS TRILISKY is of NST’s featured dancers, often pairing with Diana Mossman. He was born in Moldova, grew up in Israel, and started kicking his heels up at age 4. He trained with top teachers, which led to him becoming Israel’s 10 Dance Champion. He’s spread his love of dance through teaching and competing. A choreographer and coach for over 25 years, Stas runs Poetic Motion, his dance business. “I aim to inspire those who are touched by the art of dance.”
PATRICK WINTERS is another of NST’s dual threats. He’s a performer and one of our sound techs … not a surprise when you consider that he spent his career in Hollywood creating sound effects for films. Before our shows, he’s micing everyone up. He shoots our NST Focus podcasts, too. And he’s also creating a movie documentary about the “talkies” – the early days of sound on film.
Northwest Senior Theatre 