Resident Artists

Erika is a proud member and co-founder of Chance Theater alongside her husband, actor/director Oanh Nguyen and is a recent graduate of the Fieldstone Foundation’s Emerging Leaders Group, a recipient of the Annie Anaheim Accolades Award for her service to the community, and a member of the Anaheim Arts Council Board of Directors since 2007 (where she served as president for two years). She has studied with Anne Reinking at The Broadway Theatre Project, the Boston Conservatory, USC, and in London with the British American Dramatic Academy and the Royal Shakespeare Company through Skidmore College in New York. At an early age she was a professional singer with The Los Angeles Children’s Chorus where she was privileged to perform with such talents as Peabo Bryson, Barry Manilow, Andre Previn, Yo-yo Ma, Doc Severinsen and Luther Vandross, to name a few. She can be heard singing on the soundtracks of “Hero”, “The Dark Half” and “Merry Christmas from Doc Severinsen and The Tonight Show Orchestra”. Her opera credits include Die Frau Ohnne Schatten and El Gato Montez with Placido Domingo at The Music Center, Carmina Burana at the Hollywood Bowl, and The Magic Flute at UCLA’s Royce Hall. In more recent years she sings Ragtime music locally and has performed at Steamers Jazz Club with the Orange County Ragtime Society, Old Town Music Hall, and at “RagFest” for the past 10 years. Favorite Chance shows include: Jerry Springer: The Opera (Ovation Recommended, LA Times Critic’s Choice, Back Stage Critic’s Pick), Little Women (Chancie Award-Best Actress), Evita (Chancie Award - Best Actress), I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Into the Woods (Back Stage Critic’s Pick and Garland Award Honorable Mention - Ensemble, Chancie Award - Production), Cabaret (Garland Award Honorable Mention - Actress), Closer Than Ever (LA Times Critic’s Choice), Lee Miller: The Angel and The Fiend (OC Weekly Award), and As You Like It (OC Register Best Performance). Erika is also the resident costume designer and has been nominated for two Ovation awards for The Who’s Tommy and Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical, as well as received Chancie Awards for The Who’s Tommy, Hair, Evita, and Anne of Green Gables.

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Oanh co-founded Chance Theater in 1999. He serves as the Producing Associate at South Coast Repertory, as part of TCG’s New Generations Program. Oanh was awarded the Outstanding Artist Award by Arts Orange County and is a recipient of the TCG Nathan Cummings Young Leaders of Color fellowship. He was also inducted into Anaheim High School’s Hall of Fame. Oanh is on the board of the Network of Ensemble Theaters and on the advisory board of the Anaheim High School Performing Arts Conservatory. He’s a proud member of SDC, SAG and AFTRA. Directing credits include: west coast premiere of Po Boy Tango at East West Players, and at the Chance - the world premieres of The Boy in the Bathroom (Back Stage Critic’s Pick) and The Girl, The Grouch, and The Goat by Tony Award winner Mark Hollmann, Three Days of Rain (O.C. Register’s Top Ten and O.C. Register’s Best Directors), Bash, Lee Miller: The Angel and The Fiend (commissioned by the Getty Museum), Goodnight Children Everywhere, Tape, Closer Than Ever (L.A. Times Critic’s Choice), Porcelain (GLAAD Media Award Nomination, Back Stage Critic’s Pick, O.C. Register’s Top Ten), Cabaret (Back Stage Critic’s Pick), Into The Woods (Back Stage Critic’s Pick), The Laramie Project, Jesus Hates Me (remounted at South Coast Repertory), Inventing Van Gogh, Frozen, The Last Five Years, Sunday in the Park with George, Assassins, Rabbit Hole (Back Stage Critic’s Pick), Hair (LA Weekly GO!, five Ovation Award nominations, including Best Director and Best Musical, and six LADCC Award nominations, including Best Director and Best Revival), Merrily We Roll Along, Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter (Ovation Recommended), and the Chance’s original staging of The Who’s Tommy (recently remounted at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, five Ovation Award nominations, including Best Director and Best Musical, three LADCC nominations, two Garlands, Back Stage Critic’s Pick).

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Originally from a small mountain town near Yosemite, Jennifer studied theater at both the University of Southern California and the British American Drama Academy. Since then she has performed on stages across Southern California and is thrilled to have found her artistic home at Chance Theater where she has been a Company Member since 2007. Performances at the Chance include the Southern California premiere of Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter (Ovation Recommended), the West Coast Premiere of Jesus Hates Me (Chancie Award-Best Supporting Actress), Rabbit Hole (Back Stage Critic’s Pick), and Frozen. You may also have seen her deflecting bullets as Wonder Woman in the West Coast Premiere of The Superheroine Monologues. Additionally, Jennifer has performed at The Oval Theatre in London and in the remounting of Jesus Hates Me at South Coast Repertory. She has lent her face to the long-running CW show “Smallville” and her voice to the “Bratz Babyz”. In addition to acting, Jennifer enjoys swordfighting, Irish music, and pursuing her lifelong goal of developing a superpower. She is grateful to be a part of this amazing group of artists, and for the endless support from her friends and family, especially Ken, her lobster.

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Marc is very happy to be a Chance Theater Company Member. In 1984, he was introduced to theater when he selected drama as an elective for his junior year in high school and liked it immediately. In 1994, Marc did a production of Little Shop of Horrors at Rancho Santiago College (now known as Santa Ana College), where he met future Chance Theater founders Oanh Nguyen and Jeff Hellebrand. Marc first performed at the Chance in A History of the American Film as Mickey (plus 4 other smaller characters) and soon became a Company Member. For the next two years, Marc performed in 10 productions at the Chance. In 2004, Marc had to drop out of the company due to the discovery of a tumor about the size of a ping-pong ball on his optic nerve. His surgery was successful, but he moved up to the Seattle area to stay with family to recuperate. While he was up there, he attended the Seattle Film Institute where he received a Filmmaking Certificate. Marc moved back to California in September 2007 and became a Company Member again in June 2008, this time with the focus on being a technician.

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A native of Omaha, Bill graduated with his Masters in Music from the University of Nebraska -- Lincoln. He began working in theater first as a music director, directing such shows as Sweeney Todd, And the World Goes Round, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Not content to spend all of his time behind the piano, however, he often ventures to the other side of the stage as well. His favorite roles tend to be British playboys (Jack Worthing -- Ernest in Love), greasy pimps (Marcus Lycus -- A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum), and smarmy Southerners (Rev. David -- The Foreigner). A private music instructor, Bill has served as music director at the Chance for Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park with George, and Hair, among others. He has also appeared on stage in Evita, Anaheim Home Companion, and Anne of Green Gables.

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Masako joined Chance Theater in 2003 as a stage manager and lighting designer. Her Chance Theater credits include Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?, The Eight: Reindeer Monologues, Evita, among others. Her credits outside the Chance include Ganga...Life as a River, Much Ado About Nothing, Cabaret, Medea, Patient A and The Last Night of Ballyhoo. Masako received her BA in Theater and Communications from Concordia University, Irvine.

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Kelly is a UCLA Theater graduate, has been a choreographer, director and dance teacher for twenty years and has directed and choreographed musicals in Los Angeles and New York. She recently choreographed the Southern California Premiere of Jerry Springer: The Opera and The Who’s Tommy at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, both to much critical acclaim. She has been a proud company member of Chance Theater for six years where her favorite projects have included the professional world premiere of The Girl, The Grouch, and The Goat, by the Tony Award-winning composer of Urinetown, Mark Hollman and HAIR (LA Weekly Critic’s Pick) which garnered her nominations for Best Choreography for the 2009 Ovation Awards and the 2009 LA Drama Critics’ Circle Awards. Over the years, other favorite choreography credits have included Cabaret, Chicago, A Chorus Line, Crazy For You, 42nd Street, Dreamgirls, and two original musicals, Keep Movin’ On, featuring the music of Sam Cooke, and What’s Going On, featuring the music of Marvin Gaye, both written and directed by Mark E. Swinton. Kelly would like to thank her Mom and John for all their love, support and flexibility.

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Unable to convince her dad to finance a theater degree at USC, Karen earned a Bachelor of Science there in Dental Hygiene, and spent the following years working and raising children. She discovered the Chance in 2001, became a Company Member in 2003, and still balances that commitment with a full-time dental hygiene career. Chance Theater acting credits include Little Women (Marmee), Trail of Tears (Tamara), Spring’s Awakening (Mrs. Gabor), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Hippolyta), Love’s Hollow (Kate), The Cherry Orchard (Liubov Ranyevskaya), Diary of Anne Frank (Mrs. Van Daan - Back Stage Critic’s Pick; OC Register’s Best Ensembles of 2005), A Christmas Story (Mrs. Parker), Hot N Throbbing (Charlene Dwyer - Garland Award Honorable mention: Best Ensemble), Coyote On A Fence (Shawna - Back Stage Critic’s Pick; Chancie Award Best Supporting Actress), Frozen (Nancy Shirley), Variations On A Theme: The Best (multiple roles), Rabbit Hole (Nat), Jesus Hates Me (Annie), The Seagull (Arkadina), Edward Albee’s The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? (Stevie), Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter (Cheryl), and the Southern Calfiornia premiere of Up. She also stage managed Never In My Lifetime (Back Stage Critic’s Pick), and assistant stage managed Assassins. She had a feature role in the independent film “The Telemarketers-36 hours”, and has previous stage credits to include A Streetcar Named Desire, The Graduate, and others. She spent years training with Bill Hickey and Lonny Stevens, but credits Oanh Nguyen for teaching her everything stage-worthy.

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