Jean Shelton is considered one of the finest acting teachers in the country. Her career began in New York City in 1947 when she began acting at the American Repertory Theatre with Broadway actor/director Wendell Phillips whom she later married. She was closely associated with Stella Adler, Harold Clurman, and Lee Strasberg, (considered the founders of the American method style of acting) among many others. She acted and directed in New York during the 1950's and onetime for Tennessee Williams in his first play Hello from Bertha in 1956 to his delight.

Matthew Shelton is the son of two well-known artists, Jean Shelton and the late Robert Elross. After graduating from the University of California at Santa Barbara he began studying and acting in plays to begin what he considers his true formal education. Besides his parents, early artistic influences came from Broadway actor/director and Group Theatre member Wendell Phillips. He studied acting in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Other artistic influences came from two Russian Director/Actors Oleg Liptsin (Russian Academy of Theater Arts, Moscow) and Sasha Tihiy (Moscow Shukin Theatre School). After a series of San Francisco play performances, he received his Equity Stage card by performing in Orphans at the Marin Theatre Company to wide critical acclaim. As a natural comedian one of his performances in Laughing Wild was reviewed as "easily the finest comedic performance on the San Francisco stage." As a performer he has acted in classics such as; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Long Days Journey into Night, Of Mice and Men, Death of A Salesman, The Seagull and others.

Julie Dimas-Lockfeld has taught acting classes in San Francisco since 1980. She began teaching Movement for Actors at the Stage Group Theatre School, under the direction of Wendell Phillips, where she trained for 10 years and was a member of Stage Group's Ensemble Theatre Company. She later taught similar bodywork and inspired ongoing acting classes, as a founding member of the Phoenix Theatre where she also acted and directed. In 1996, she received a Bay Area Performing Artist Fellowship Award studying with a wide variety of film and theatre artists including, Cory Adams, Margie Haber, Richard Seyd and Ed Hooks.

Catherine is an award-winning actress residing in San Francisco. She began her serious quest for a life in the theatre in the late 80's, studying at the Jean Shelton Studios. She became a company member with the Actors' Theatre of SF, performing in numerous productions, receiving various nominations and awards for her performances from the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, and received many nods from Dean Goodman Dramalogue Awards. Upon embarking on the career of motherhood, Catherine's role with the company shifted to Associate Artistic Director, and co-directed many award winning productions with Christian Phillips. Once her children were both of school age, Catherine hit the pavement again as an actor, and began an ongoing relationship with the critically acclaimed resident theatre company of Intersection for the Arts, CampoSanto, where she is a company member. She has performed in over 10 world premieres with the company, having the great fortune of working first hand with such renowned writers as Jessica Hagedorn, Denis Johnson, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Octavio Solis, Luis Saguar, Greg Sarris, Dave Eggers, Vendela Vida, Junot Diaz, and Naomi Iizuka. Catherine is also an associate artist with the California Shakespeare Theatre. Credits with the theatre include Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Polina in Tom Stoppard's translation of The Seagull, Bardolph and Vernon in Henry IV, the Widow in All's Well that Ends Well, Emilia in Othello, various characters in the ensemble of The Life And Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby, Mistress Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Queen Margaret in Richard III, and Corine in Triumph of Love in a co-production with San Jose Rep.

David is an Oakland, California native who has worked in many Bay Area Theatre venues including; Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Playhouse West, Shelton Theater, Shotgun Players, Theatre Works, Multi-Ethnic Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and the Black Repertory as well as numerous smaller venues throughout the Bay Area. His most recent performances include; John Patrick Shanley’s Defiance, Marcus Garoley’s Love is a Dream House in Lorin, Lorraine Hansberry’s From Okra to Green’s, and James McClure’s Pvt. Wars.

Joseph Graham is a writer, filmmaker, actor and director living and working in San Francisco. In 1997, after creating animations for MTV and studying filmmaking with underground maverick George Kuchar at the SF Art Institute, Graham and his Partner, Bill Parker, formed the production company AltarBoy Productions. Their first film, the poetic short Breath, won numerous awards worldwide, and their instructional video, Feminine Image vol. 1, was used by Felicity Huffman as training for the film Transamerica.