2022 Spring Revels Artistic Team

Michael Cavazos
Spring Revels Stage Director

Michael is a Queer Chicano theatre maker and visual artist. He is a company member with Hand2Mouth and a founding member of Latinx company Moriviví Theatre. His collaborative digital project Distancias was featured in Hand2Mouth’s 2020-2021 season, in the 2021 Risk/Reward Festival and in Latino Theater Co.’s RE:Encuentro 2021 Theater Festival. Michael has worked with Imago, Milagro, Crave, Profile, Portland Center Stage, and Portland Playhouse. A teaching artist, he most recently taught in Egypt. Michael is one of five Oregon performing artists to receive the 2021 Oregon Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship for artists of outstanding talent, demonstrated ability and commitment to the creation of new work.

DeReau K. Farrar
Community Chorus Director/Musico

DeReau is Director of Music at First Unitarian Church of Portland, President for the Association for Unitarian Universalist Music Ministries, and on the Artistic Advisory Team for Resonance Ensemble. Prior to moving to Portland in 2016, he was a music director in Los Angeles where he worked with A Noise Within (The Threepenny Opera, A Christmas Carol), DC6 Singers (SxSW, Jessye Norman’s Stand Up Straight and Sing! Tour, Sundance, Norman Lear, Jerry Kohl), Monkeypaw Productions (Get Out), HBO (All the Way), Selah Gospel Choir (Coachella, RuPaul’s DragCon), California State University Los Angeles (A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum), The Verdi Chorus, The RED Stamp (The Wiz, Ragtime, Songs for a New World), MUSE/IQUE Symphony Orchestra, and others.

Yasmin Ruvalcaba Saludado
Spring Revels Playwright

Yasmin is a Portland-based director, writer, consultant and arts advocate. Yasmin is currently working at Advance Gender Equity in the Arts (AGE) as the Grants Program Manager; and is a consultant with Centro Cultural and Washington County Kids. Her time is also spent working with Portland Center Stage and Hand2Mouth as a teaching artist. Yasmin has been an assistant director at Artist Repertory Theatre and Bag&Baggage Productions. Yasmin is also an active writer in the community. Two of her monologues, Carmelita and Ruega Por Mi, were featured in Theatre Diaspora’s Here on This Bridge: The -ism Project. She is also honored to be a co-founding member of Moriviví Theatre.

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Lynn Mendoza-Khan
Spring RevelsSeñora 

Lynn comes from a musical family, she was brought up studying piano, violin, clarinet, and singing in choirs. Attending concerts was commonplace so it was of little surprise to the family that she continued to pursue music as a career. She has performed internationally as an opera singer. She has directed Musical Theatre and choirs. On occasion, she has given workshops and lectures across the country inspiring her colleagues and young musicians to foster their curiosity and musical goals as enrichment, understanding themselves and their place in the world. She recently moved to the Portland area from San Diego, California which was her home base for over 20 years. She is settling in with her husband and son, enjoying the splendors of the Pacific Northwest.

Noelle Simone
Spring Revels: Ada

Noelle Simone has been performing for over twenty years and an arts manager for five. They have received all their dance training at the Joel Hall Dancers & Center, Northside Dance Theatre, and Gus Giordano Jazz Dance School. They have worked with multiple dance companies and youth dance companies throughout the Chicago land area and love teaching. They have performed with Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul and have started a promising career in theatre, dance, and arts prison reform/rehabilitation. After receiving their B.FA. In Theatre Arts, with a concentration in Theatre Management and a Minor in Educational Studies from the Theatre School at Depaul University, Noelle has worked for youth advocates and arts prison reform orgs, such as Storycatchers Theatre, the Outside-In program at Depaul University, and Open Hearts open Minds here in Oregon. They have also taught theatre, dance, and youth-centered body positivity classes in juvenile detention centers across Chicago. They are currently working on revamping their solo show titled, Heavy is the head that wears the crown: The Mental Health Memoirs of a Black woman, set to hit the Portland Center Stage black box the last week in June of 2022.  They are also an adjunct faculty member at Port State university, teaching HipHop History and dance every Fall/winter/and spring and teaching community dance classes across PDX.  They have genuinely enjoyed their time with the Portland Reveals and hope to curate more beautiful work with them soon! In love and light.

Ricardo Vazquez
Spring Revels: Gabriel

Ricardo is a graduate of Portland State University with a BS in Theatre Arts.  He is excited to be making his debut with Portland Revels and to once again work with Michael Cavazos and Yasmin Ruvalcaba Saludado.  Some of his more memorable roles include: Hector in Amor Añejo, Polisteno in La Isla En Invierno, and Edward Weyland in Vampire Tapestry.  Ricardo would also like to take the time to thank you, the audience, for your support of local artists.  Without you, none of this is possible.

Jamie Villeda
Spring Revels: Mujer

Jamie is a genderqueer creative and actor. They appeared in the TV show, The Wonderland Murders, on Investigation Discovery and trained with Identity School of Acting in Los Angeles. Jamie was also chosen to participate in Cast Iron Studios’ Talent Diversity Initiative, sponsored by TNT, in 2016 and 2017. They are excited to make their debut with the Portland Revels in the premiere of Spring Revels: Un Pajarito Canta.

 

Matt Rowning
Spring Revels: Musico

Matt Rowning is a musician, actor and sound designer who is very happy to be joining the Revels for this production! Thank you to DeReau for this opportunity to play for you all and accompany this beautiful production. 

Selected credits: guitarist for Heathers the Musical and Footloose, Mark Cohen in RENT, Simon Zealotes in Jesus Christ Superstar, and sound designer for The God Cluster and Abundancia

Emily Hogan
Spring Revels: Understudy

Emily Hogan is a theater artist located in Portland, OR. A transplant from Lompoc, CA, Emily attended the University of Portland, studying acting and dramaturgy. Emily has recently worked with Shaking the Tree as the Stage Manager for MODELMINORITY and Chick Fight, and as the Assistant Stage Manager for Family. You may have seen Emily on the stage for Xmas Cuento Remix and Huinca at Milagro, and Made to Dance in Burning Buildings at Shaking the Tree. Emily has also been a dramaturg on numerous productions, including i defy you, stars (Do It For Mead), The Killing Fields (Orphic), and Jaffa Gate (Northwest Theatre Workshop). Emily is a middle child and a double Sagittarius.

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Mike Cino

Spring Revels Production Manager

Mike Cino (he/they) is a production manager, union stagehand, educator, and electrical engineering student. While most of his recent time and brain have been consumed by educational pursuits, queer interests, and parenting, he has also worked with Fuse Theatre Ensemble since very early in its life. Some recent credits of interest are backstage work done with Hamilton, Alice Cooper, Taylor Mac, Dua Lipa, and Justin Bieber. Mike is happy to be returning to Revels work, which he has been involved with onstage and off since 2000.

Jenn Lindell

Spring Revels Production Stage Manager

Jenn works as a paralegal at an immigration law office by day and is a freelance stage and production manager on nights and weekends. Since graduating from Reed College in 2014, Jenn has been happily immersed in Portland theatre, working with various companies around town. Favorite credits include Cabaret (Fuse Theatre Ensemble), King Lear (Portland Actors Ensemble), We’re All Gonna Die (The Reformers), Ghosts of Haddon Hall (Portland Revels), and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Experience Theatre Project). Jenn is a company member with The Reformers and loves making weird stuff with friends.

Johanna Ruefli

Community Chorus Stage Manager

Johanna has been with the Christmas Revels since 2014. She has been stage managing since 2006. When not in the theater, she can be found backstage at concert venues hosting the VIPs. She does all of this for her Springer Doodle Millie, and Siamese cats Lucy and Laurie. In her spare time she skydives and was involved in helping the rebellion defeat the empire.

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Sam Reynolds

Spring Revels Costume Designer

Sam has been involved in theatre productions since she was in elementary school – in other words, her love of theatre runs deep. After years of acting in plays and musicals, she decided to combine her love of sewing with her love of theatre and has been working on costume design teams since high school. Some of her favorite productions she’s worked on include  Into the Woods, Pirates of Penzance and Legally Blonde. Outside of the theatre world, Sam is a writer, painter, Reiki healer and general dabbler of creative pursuits.

 

Jon Timm

Spring Revels Projection Designer

Jon is a visual artist who uses video projectors, cameras & analog mixing gear to create his distinct style. Jon has collaborated with bands such as Mascares, Reptaliens, Sama Dams & Y La Bamba. As well as theater productions including Ruby Rocket Live! at the Vancouver Fringe, Edmonton Improvaganza, Miami Improv Festival as well as at MI Westide in LA & weekly at Curious Comedy Theater.  

 

Iain Chester

Spring Revels Scenic Designer

Iain has been involved in theatre for thirteen years. He currently works as a stagehand and scenic carpenter locally and was the Technical Director of Crave Theatre. Most recently he has worked as the Scenic Designer for Theatre Berk’s production of Ruby Lounge. Prior to that, Iain was a Carpenter for Oregon Children’s Theatre, the Technical Director for Milagro, a scenic carpenter for The Western Stage, and a scenic carpenter for Clackamas Repertory Theatre. Iain is also a member of I.A.T.S.E Local 28.

 

Drew Flint

Spring Revels Lighting Designer

Drew is pleased to be returning to the Revels. He was the Lighting Designer for the Portland Christmas Revels from 2000 to 2004. Recent lighting credits include Burn This and Speed The Plow for Asylum Theatre, LER for The Reformers, Never in My Lifetime for Portland Actors Conservatory, and the Portland Mini Musical Festival. He has also designed for Profile Theatre, Milagro Theater, CoHo Productions, and ART.

 

 

Meet our Board and Administrative staff