Artistic and Production Staff
David Catanzarite
Founding Artistic Director
David Catanzarite is both a master stage director and expert educator with thirty years of teaching experience. He has directed more than 100 professional and college productions on both coasts, Chicago, and Toronto. Catanzarite worked as a resident artist in (the new) South Africa, and met Nelson Mandela during the country’s first free presidential elections. He toured twice in (the former) Catanzarite began his teaching career at the age of 21 as an adjunct theatre instructor at Stanford University. He is currently on the Theatre faculty at California State University, San Bernardino Palm Desert Campus, and is Lead Senior English teacher at Rancho Mirage High School. He served full-time as head of the Directing programs at Pomona College (Claremont, CA) and Towson University (Baltimore, MD). He has also taught classes at UCLA; the University of Southern California; the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts; the California State Universities at Los Angeles and Northridge; and five California community colleges.
Catanzarite served on the committee that wrote California’s first Visual and Performing Arts Content Standards in 2001, and leads professional development trainings for teachers throughout the state.
He has taught theatre at every grade level in the California public schools. From 2002 to 2006 he was a Visual and Performing Arts Adviser for Los Angeles Unified School District Local District 7, serving 82,000 K-12 students in Watts and South Central Los Angeles. He then became Assistant Principal at USC/32nd Street K-12 Performing Arts Magnet.
Catanzarite co-directed a A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Ben Donenberg for Shakespeare Festival/Los Angeles, which was attended by more than 40,000 spectators on the Los Angeles Cathedral Plaza. He worked for two seasons as Directing Assistant for New Plays Development at the Mark Taper Forum under Oskar Eustis, Jose Luis Valenzuela, and Robert Egan. In 1999 the German Consulate of San Francisco commissioned him to direct a marathon reading of Faust I and Faust II at Berkeley Repertory Theatre for Goethe’s 250th birthday.
At Green Room Theatre, Mr. Catanzarite has directed Twelve Angry Men, To Kill A Mockingbird, several melodramas, and a production of Gift of the Magi that toured African American Churches across the Coachella Valley. For Green Room’s Summer Conservatory he directed sold-out productions of Fiddler on the Roof, Oliver, and Mary Poppins at the 400-seat Indian Wells Theatre; his production of Tuesdays with Morrie, starring Hal Linden, was one of Indian Wells Theatre’s first hits. At College of the Desert he directed award-winning productions of At Risk, Our Town, and Blood Wedding; at Palm Springs High School he directed a record-breaking production of Phantom of the Opera, as well as Hairspray and The House of Bernarda Alba. His productions have garnered numerous Desert Star Awards, a Los Angeles NAACP Image Award Nomination, and numerous “picks of the week” in the Los Angeles Times and LA Weekly.
Founding Artistic Director
David Catanzarite is both a master stage director and expert educator with thirty years of teaching experience. He has directed more than 100 professional and college productions on both coasts, Chicago, and Toronto. Catanzarite worked as a resident artist in (the new) South Africa, and met Nelson Mandela during the country’s first free presidential elections. He toured twice in (the former) Catanzarite began his teaching career at the age of 21 as an adjunct theatre instructor at Stanford University. He is currently on the Theatre faculty at California State University, San Bernardino Palm Desert Campus, and is Lead Senior English teacher at Rancho Mirage High School. He served full-time as head of the Directing programs at Pomona College (Claremont, CA) and Towson University (Baltimore, MD). He has also taught classes at UCLA; the University of Southern California; the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts; the California State Universities at Los Angeles and Northridge; and five California community colleges.
Catanzarite served on the committee that wrote California’s first Visual and Performing Arts Content Standards in 2001, and leads professional development trainings for teachers throughout the state.
He has taught theatre at every grade level in the California public schools. From 2002 to 2006 he was a Visual and Performing Arts Adviser for Los Angeles Unified School District Local District 7, serving 82,000 K-12 students in Watts and South Central Los Angeles. He then became Assistant Principal at USC/32nd Street K-12 Performing Arts Magnet.
Catanzarite co-directed a A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Ben Donenberg for Shakespeare Festival/Los Angeles, which was attended by more than 40,000 spectators on the Los Angeles Cathedral Plaza. He worked for two seasons as Directing Assistant for New Plays Development at the Mark Taper Forum under Oskar Eustis, Jose Luis Valenzuela, and Robert Egan. In 1999 the German Consulate of San Francisco commissioned him to direct a marathon reading of Faust I and Faust II at Berkeley Repertory Theatre for Goethe’s 250th birthday.
At Green Room Theatre, Mr. Catanzarite has directed Twelve Angry Men, To Kill A Mockingbird, several melodramas, and a production of Gift of the Magi that toured African American Churches across the Coachella Valley. For Green Room’s Summer Conservatory he directed sold-out productions of Fiddler on the Roof, Oliver, and Mary Poppins at the 400-seat Indian Wells Theatre; his production of Tuesdays with Morrie, starring Hal Linden, was one of Indian Wells Theatre’s first hits. At College of the Desert he directed award-winning productions of At Risk, Our Town, and Blood Wedding; at Palm Springs High School he directed a record-breaking production of Phantom of the Opera, as well as Hairspray and The House of Bernarda Alba. His productions have garnered numerous Desert Star Awards, a Los Angeles NAACP Image Award Nomination, and numerous “picks of the week” in the Los Angeles Times and LA Weekly.
Melanie Jones
Managing Director
A native of Los Angeles, Melanie Jones has always loved and been involved with music and performance. Growing up in a family of music lovers, it was not unusual to hear the sounds of Nancy Wilson, Hugh Masekela or Oscar Peterson playing on a early Sunday morning. Of course, her favorites were the Jackson Five and Karen Carpenter and by the time she was 15, she had become a top drummer at a very prominent church in Los Angeles.
After attending San Francisco State University, Melanie moved back to LA to pursue a career as a drummer and also began volunteering at the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center. During that time, she led various groups including Lesbian, Bi-Sexual and Transgender support groups. It was through her volunteer experiences that she became seriously involved with the nonprofit sector and became an employee of the LA Center. As the Director of Community Outreach & Education, she managed the Senior, Youth, Adult Education, and Career Center programs for many years. Melanie has also worked with the political organization Equality California doing door-to-door campaigning for Marriage Equality. Additionally, after moving to Palm Springs almost 10 years ago, Melanie continued her work in non-profit management with Desert AIDS Project.
Of course today, you can still find Melanie performing in Palm Springs as a Drummer/Performance Artist and traveling around the world to photograph & experience the beauty of other countries & cultures.
Isn’t life grand?!~
Managing Director
A native of Los Angeles, Melanie Jones has always loved and been involved with music and performance. Growing up in a family of music lovers, it was not unusual to hear the sounds of Nancy Wilson, Hugh Masekela or Oscar Peterson playing on a early Sunday morning. Of course, her favorites were the Jackson Five and Karen Carpenter and by the time she was 15, she had become a top drummer at a very prominent church in Los Angeles.
After attending San Francisco State University, Melanie moved back to LA to pursue a career as a drummer and also began volunteering at the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center. During that time, she led various groups including Lesbian, Bi-Sexual and Transgender support groups. It was through her volunteer experiences that she became seriously involved with the nonprofit sector and became an employee of the LA Center. As the Director of Community Outreach & Education, she managed the Senior, Youth, Adult Education, and Career Center programs for many years. Melanie has also worked with the political organization Equality California doing door-to-door campaigning for Marriage Equality. Additionally, after moving to Palm Springs almost 10 years ago, Melanie continued her work in non-profit management with Desert AIDS Project.
Of course today, you can still find Melanie performing in Palm Springs as a Drummer/Performance Artist and traveling around the world to photograph & experience the beauty of other countries & cultures.
Isn’t life grand?!~
John Alex Houlton
Literary Advisor
John Alex Houlton was born and grew up in the north of England, served in the Royal Air Force, and earned his BA degree at Oxford in English language and literature. He first came to the United States for an advanced degree in Theatre, Film and Television at UCLA. His professional career was in British Government service in the United States, at the British Consulate-General in Los Angeles, largely in public affairs. During that time he produced five television series for US television, shot in Britain, and six large multidimensional British Festivals in the Southwestern US. His final position was as Co-Creator and Director of the British Film Office in the United States. He was awarded both an OBE [Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire] and an MBE [Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire] for his services.
On retirement, John Alex was free to make use of his talents for theatre -- directing and acting, as well as for writing fiction. He had founded Theatre 40, an Equity waiver theatre in Beverly Hill some 50 years ago, and rejoined the company in 2002 to act and direct, before moving to Palm Springs in 2006. His first collection of short stories was published also in 2006, and he has had a novel published every year since that. He writes both historical and contemporary gay-themed books, usually in the mystery and relationship genres.
After settling down in Cathedral Cove, he became involved with local theatre, working with such groups as Palm Canyon Theatre, Desert TheatreWorks, Dezart Performs, S2 Ss S, and Green Room Theatre. He has been nominated for six Desert Theatre League Awards and has won three. John Alex was married to the late Christine Evenson Houlton for 33 years, with two adult children and four grandchildren [number five is expected shortly]. He is now happily partnered with Michael Patino. He still enjoys working out at the gym, but has gradually and sadly given up riding and owning horses.
