Managing and Artistic Director & Co-Founder

Caroline Breder-Watts has enjoyed a diverse career in the arts for the past 30 years, with projects in radio, theater and film. She received an AA in Theater from Palm Beach State College working under the great Watson B. Duncan III and Frank Leahy, and received a BA in English and Film Communications from Florida Atlantic University. After managing movie theaters for American Multi-Cinema for several years, she returned to her theater roots as Director of Communications for the late, great Florida Stage. Caroline also started a concurrent career in public broadcasting in 1992 at WXEL-FM in Boynton Beach, FL and spent the next 19 years in a variety of capacities, most notably the as the creator, host and producer of two programs on the arts, South Florida Artsview and Listening to Movies. She has also worked as host, arts reporter, producer and fundraiser for Classical South Florida and WLRN in Miami, and most recently as Broadcast Fundraising Manager for Ideastream Public Media in Cleveland, Ohio. Caroline has served as adjunct professor of Voice Acting at Baldwin-Wallace University and is a RAISE teaching artist, working with the Center for Arts-Inspired Learning and Young Audiences Arts for Learning.

Caroline has played a variety of roles in Radio on the Lake Theatre’s history, including actor, director, producer, stage manager and music coordinator. She co-founded the company with her husband, John Watts, helped to develop relationships with numerous venues in South Florida, coordinated the company’s monthly tours throughout Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, and spearheaded WLRN Radio Theatre, a monthly broadcast of those performances. She also developed and managed Arts Radio Network, one of South Florida’s earliest podcasting sites.

A lifelong film enthusiast, Caroline has developed programs for many organizations, including the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival, the Humphrey Bogart Film Festival and the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers, and has lectured on film and served on many screening panels. She is a board member of the Cleveland Silent Film Festival, and currently produces a podcast for The Columbus Moving Picture Show in Columbus, Ohio (visit iTunes for the latest episodes), and hosts a revised version of Listening to Movies on WBWC 88.3 FM in Berea, Ohio. Caroline is also the host of WLRN’s Saturday Night at the Movies.

Email: caroline@radioonthelaketheatre.org

Executive and Artistic Producer & Co-Founder

John Watts has spent the past 25 years as a producer for both audio and video productions, which have taken him from South Florida to Australia to Barcelona, Spain. He founded Radio on the Lake Theatre in 2002, and serves as the Sound Effects Artist, Designer and Editor for all productions. While living and working in South Florida, he brought ROTLT programming to numerous venues, including the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, the Humphrey Bogart Film Festival and the Studios of Key West, developed educational outreach programs, and worked with Lighthouse for the Blind, conducting “touch tours” of sets and sound effects prior to performances. He received a Knight Foundation grant to develop and present the radio playwriting program Inspired By…, in which professional playwrights created new radio plays based on NPR news stories. The plays were performed at Florida International University’s Wolfsonian Theatre and aired on public radio station WLRN as part of its monthly WLRN Radio Theatre series.

Since arriving in Cleveland in 2016, John has forged numerous partnerships. Working with BFA students at Baldwin Wallace University, he created the Radio on the Lake Theatre Presents… series. This homage to the classic radio drama programs of the 1940s and 50s currently airs on WBWC 88.3 FM in Berea. He partnered with Playwrights Local to develop PL Radio, a series of original radio plays by Northeast Ohio playwrights that is podcast on Playwright Local’s website. and the BorderLight International Theatre + Fringe Festival, with whom he created the world premiere of Under the Sycamores, A Secret Path Audio Experience in Cleveland’s Historic Erie Street Cemetery. John now focuses on ROTLT’s robust education program, partnering with the Center for Arts-Inspired Learning for projects including radio playwrighting and podcasting.

Email: john@radioonthelaketheatre.org

Artistic Associate and Playwright in Residence

Em Beer (they/them) is an author and playwright based in the Cleveland area and a teaching artist for Radio on the Lake Theatre. They have been creating stories for decades and have spent years improving that craft. Their first theatre experience was in third grade when their class wrote, produced, and starred in an operatic production about a lonely fish named Gilbert. Em continued to act throughout their adolescent and teenage years. They recently graduated from Baldwin Wallace with a BA in Creative Writing. During their time in school, they wrote two stage productions, a short novel, several articles, and countless short stories, as well as serving as the Managing Editor of the Copy Desk for BW’s student newspaper, The Exponent. Em has been published in The Exponent and BW’s literary journal The Mill. They are overjoyed to be part of the Radio on the Lake Theatre team.

Email: em@radioonthelaketheatre.org

Lead Teaching Artist and Editor

Yuval Tal is an actor and teaching artist for Radio on the Lake Theatre based in the Cleveland area. Yuval’s love of theatre started in middle school, and ultimately carried her to earn her BFA in Acting from Baldwin Wallace University. Yuval has worked with Radio on the Lake Theatre as an actor in recent years in various Creakerbox Radio plays, including Cat Wife, Bon Voyage, and Vinyl Skin. Yuval has also directed the Creakerbox Radio plays A Letter to Three Wives, Casting the Runes, as well as a variety of Sixty Second Stories. Yuval has loved every moment working with the Radio on the Lake creatives, and is thrilled to share the joy of creating through Radio on the Lake.

Email: yuval@radioonthelaketheatre.org

Board Member & President

Natalie Bauman’s love of storytelling began while listening to radio mysteries as a child, and eventually led to her professional work as a video producer, director and writer. For over 35 years, Natalie has created programming for PBS and other broadcast channels, and marketing, training and educational pieces for numerous corporate, non-profit and educational audiences. Natalie taught numerous scriptwriting, creative writing, film studies and video production classes at the Raymond Walters College at University of Cincinnati. Since returning to her hometown of Cleveland in 2003, Natalie worked directly with families, Holocaust Survivors and senior living facilities to create personal documentaries. This work led to the founding of The Digital Mosaic with the custom SimplyTold app, which enabled user-generated content for community and collective storytelling. She is a certified Arts Educator, teaching Digital Media programming through the Center for Arts-Inspired Learning. Natalie now serves as the Creative Services Manager for Step2, a toy and home goods manufacturing company.

Board Member at Large

Robin Carreon is an experienced Development professional with over 26 years in public media. Her career began at KCET in Los Angeles and is currently with Ideastream Public Media in Cleveland as Senior Manager of Sustaining Donors and Engagement.

She has a passion for theater which can be traced back to the age of 8 and Lorain, Ohio’s Century Park production of Mary Poppins where she had her first role as Chimney Sweep #2.

Don’t ask about her favorite show – it depends on the day, but a list will include Ragtime, Rent, Hamilton, Into the Woods and Once on This Island.

Robin has done volunteer work with The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Westlake United Methodist Church, Flat Rock Homes and The Cleveland Food Bank.

She lives in University Heights, Ohio with her husband John and enjoys attending the theater, singing along to showtunes in the car and practicing yoga in the park.

Board Member & Secretary

Heidi Harris, a native of North East Ohio, brings to the board over two decades of experience in theatre education as well as 30 years of professional acting experience. Currently a member of the Acting Faculty at Baldwin Wallace University, Heidi has also taught performance classes at Illinois State, Illinois Wesleyan, and Palm Beach Atlantic Universities. Her professional theatre administrator experienc includes creating and facilitating K-12 programs as Director of Education for the (now defunct) Florida Stage theatre company in Palm Beach, as well as serving as their Director of Individual Giving. A professional actor and proud member of Actors’ Equity, Ms. Harris holds an MFA in Classical Acting from the Academy for Classical Acting at the George Washington University, and a BA in Theatre from Florida State. She has completed and performed in programs at the British American Drama Academy (Oxford), Oxford University (UK) The Globe Theatre (London), and the Moscow Arts Theatre School (Russia). In addition to appearing locally at the Beck Center for the Performing Arts, past acting credits include sharing the stage with Tony Award winner Frances Sternhagen and extensive tv/film voiceover work - including the animated film “The Ark” which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival.

Board Member at Large

Monica L. Gerrek,PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Bioethics in the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University and the Co-Director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics at The MetroHealth System. She earned her BSBA in Industrial and Labor Relations from Bowling Green State University, her MA in philosophy from Cleveland State University, and her PhD in philosophy from the University of Kansas. After completing the two-year Cleveland Fellowship in Advanced Bioethics at the Cleveland Clinic, she began her career at Case Western and MetroHealth. During the past 13 years, she has also served as a Bioethics Consultant/Educator for SummaHealth, a member and then chair of the American Burn Association’s Ethical Issues Committee, and on the Education Committee for the Academic Consortium for Criminal Justice Health. Monica has taught numerous classes, given hundreds of presentations, and has published several articles.

Personally, Monica has a lifelong love of the arts, thanks to her dance teacher Dee Hillier, her high school Humanities Club faculty lead Ann Joy, her high school drama teacher, Lynn Curtis, and especially her mother, Mary Lou Gerrek, who supported her interests and spent a lot of hours in the car doing so, and her father, Mike Gerrek, whose hard work allowed her to participate accordingly.

Board Member at Large

Anna Huntsman is a radio news reporter, adjunct professor and lifelong theatre lover. She covers Akron and Canton government and politics for Ideastream Public Media, Northeast Ohio’s NPR member station. She is a fill-in host for “Morning Edition” and “Sound of Ideas” and a board member of the Akron Press Club. She also teaches an audio storytelling class at Kent State University. Huntsman graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Kent State, where she also hosted a satirical news segment and acted in a sketch comedy show. In her spare time, Anna enjoys listening to podcasts (and showtunes, of course), hiking, and playing with her adorable yet mischievous black cats, Harry and Marv.

Board Member at Large

Harpist and musicologist Emily Laurance is currently Visiting Associate Professor of Musicology at the Oberlin Conservatory and editor of the American Harp Journal. Before relocating to Ohio, she served as chair of music history at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She is a frequent concert lecturer, including for the Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Chamber Music Society, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress where she did research on the social history of the early pedal harp in Federalist America. In 2022 Emily founded the Cleveland Silent Film Festival & Colloquium, an event dedicated to presenting classics of the silent era with live musical accompaniment by the best specialists in the craft; she is currently planning the second festival for fall 2023.

As a harpist Emily has performed with Luciano Pavarotti, Josh Groban, Leonard Bernstein, and Senator Ted Kennedy, among others. Emily is currently principal harp for the Firelands (Sandusky) Symphony Orchestra and performs regularly with ensembles throughout Northeast Ohio. Emily formerly served as principal harp with the Stockton Symphony and was harp faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University. Her recording credits include Luciano Berio's Sequenza II on Neuma Records as well as the Squirrel Nut Zippers album Perennial Favorites, which won the Recording Institute Association of America's Gold Sales award. She received her Ph.D. in musicology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and degrees in harp from the Oberlin and the New England Conservatories.

Film Programming Partner

Ygal Kaufman is a journalist with Ideastream Public Media, creating stories for the radio, TV and web. He graduated with a Bachelor of Art in film from Penn State University and a Master’s degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His passion is the art of film, and classic film in particular.

Ygal created and curates the screening series, Community Movie Night with Ygal Kaufman (CMNYK), which has been running weekly at the Darkside Cinema since 2014. His screenings are steeped in cinematic history, featuring newsreels, cartoons, interviews, commercials, oddities, ephemera and other treats from the eras of the features. He also screens silent films with live music, with the aid of Sonochromatic, Corvallis’ renowned silent film accompanists. CMNYK has also screened films at the historic Majestic Theatre in Corvallis, the Clinton Street Theater and Joy Cinema in Portland, and Playhouse Square in Cleveland, OH. Ygal also curated film series for the Oregon Jewish History Museum and Center for Holocaust Education (OJMCHE) in downtown Portland.

Resident Composer

Michael Phillips composes and performs music for Radio on the Lake. He lives in Cleveland, OH, with his wife Heidi Harris (professor, actress, ROTL board member, and sometime director for CreakerBox Radio) and their cat Megan (keeper of the hair ties and inspiration for a number of catchy cat-themed tunes). Professionally, Michael has taught English, practiced as a mental health therapist, and now runs field training for a prescription benefit manager. He picked up a guitar at age 11 and wrote his first – admittedly not very good – song soon after. He is currently studying classical and jazz guitar and likes to write pop tunes. He is excited and pleased as punch to be collaborating with Radio on the Lake.

Artistic Coordinator, Radio on the Lake Theatre Presents…

Gioianna DiGiorgio is an actor, director, and artistic coordinator for Radio on the Lake Theatre. She is native to Long Island, New York, and is currently pursuing a BFA in acting and a minor in music at Baldwin Wallace University. Her directing credits with Radio on the Lake include Camera Obscura, Frankenstein, and What Can and Cannot be Seen, and some of her acting credits include Take Me Out to the Graveyard, The Time Machine, and Gevangenpoort. Besides this, she has taken part in many theatrical productions both on and off campus, and is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA. She has a great love of theatre in all of its many forms, and is both honored and grateful to be a part of the creative team of Radio on the Lake, helping to bring vibrant stories to life, live on the air!

Teaching Artist

Alex Minyard (she/her) is beyond thrilled to be working with such amazing storytellers. Native to Milan, Illinois, Alex recently received her degree in Acting & Directing from Baldwin Wallace University. Alex loves theatre in every shape and form - though some of her favorite onstage experiences have been: Iris (The Nether), Audrey (Little Shop of Horrors), and Vera (And Then There Were None). She feels extremely lucky that most of her favorite offstage experiences have been when working with Radio on the Lake, especially when she has the chance to direct.

Teaching Artist

Emily Polcyn is an actor and theatre maker based in Cleveland! Emily recently graduated from Baldwin Wallace University’s BFA in Acting with a minor in Arts Management. At BW, she developed a love of Shakespeare, a passion for accessible arts education, and a relationship working with Radio on the Lake Theatre as both an actor (“The Whole Town is Sleeping”) and a director (“Summer Night,” “The Coffin in Studio B”). Her love of theatre first stems from being cast in her elementary school play, and she’s excited to share that same arts education access as a teaching artist with ROTL. Other passions include stage combat, reading, and cats. Emily also works in Arts Administration with Dobama Theatre in Cleveland Heights.

Email: emily@radioonthelaketheatre.org

Teaching Artist

Shannon Sharkey is a theatre, film, commercial, and voice actor, as well as an arts educator, and diversity, equity, and inclusion educator from Cleveland, Ohio. She is an alum of Cleveland State University holding bachelor’s degrees in both theatre and communication. Shannon is grateful to have graced stages and/or worked in various capacities at many of Cleveland’s major theatres including, but not limited to, Karamu House, Cleveland Public Theatre, and Cleveland Play House. Shannon previously served as an actor/educator at Idaho Shakespeare Festival during their 2020 Idaho Theatre for Youth educational tour. Most recently, since theatre has returned, Shannon has been seen onstage in Ohio Shakespeare Festival’s production of The Taming of the Shrew as Tranio. In addition to Cleveland Public Theatre’s National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of Panther Women: An Army for the Liberation, where she was humbled to play the incomparable Angela Davis. Shannon is represented by The Talent Group in Cleveland/Pittsburgh and Heyman Talent in Columbus/Cincinnati.

Head Usher & Director of Feline Experience

Mimi Watts is a seven-year-old tuxedo cat who constantly interrupts rehearsals and recordings by being unbelievably cute and demanding to be petted. She might have difficulty showing you to your seat, but she will definitely give you lots of love to make up for it.