WHO’s WHO

Les Hanson - Artistic Director
Les Hanson (Founding Artistic Director) – Mr. Hanson formed the West Coast Ensemble in 1981 and has served as the Artistic Director since its inception, overseeing its growth from a company of 20 theatre artists working out of a Hollywood storefront into one of Los Angeles’ foremost 99-seat theatre companies. He holds a Masters of Arts degree in Theatre and Communications from the University of Montana, and produced and managed the premiere season of the Montana Repertory Theatre. He has served as artistic director, guest director and choreographer for many stock Theatres throughout the Northwest, staging the musical comedy An Italian Straw Hat and the operas The Girl of the Golden West and How The West Was One. Mr. Hanson served as guest artist at Scotland’s Edinburgh Festival and performed in and directed a nine-country tour of The Fantasticks for the USO. For West Coast Ensemble Theatre, Mr. Hanson directed The Balkan Women, Don Juan in Chicago, A Soldier’s Play, Diary of a Scoundrel, Some Rain and Playboy of the West Indies. As Artistic Director, Mr. Hanson’s duties include the supervision of all artistic programming including the selection of a four-show MainStage and four-show Second Season; oversight of all productions including selection and supervision of creative staff; consultation with and dramaturgy for new playwrights; coordination of a Directors Lab for training new directors and a Playwrights Unit to nurture emerging writers; supervision and participation in WCE’s Theatre Conservatory; and management of theatre staff including business manager, managing director and marketing director. He is proud to have introduced more than 100 new plays and playwrights to Southern California.


Karen Austin - Acting Instructor
Karen Austin’s feature film credits include "Summer Rental" (John Candy’s wife) & "Jagged Edge". She has starred in over a dozen movies for television including "Laura Lansing Slept Here" (with Katherine Hepburn), "The Hillside Stranglers" & the mini-series "Celebrity". She has re-occurred on numerous television series including "Murder One", "Hill Street Blues", "St. Elsewhere", "Live Shot", "The Trials of Rosie O’Neil", "LA Law", "Girlfriends", "Rodney" and has “guested” on multiple dozens of others. Full resume @ www.imdb.com. Her most notable stage work includes the lead in NUTS (@ the LA Stage Company) for which she won the LA Drama Critics Circle Award, Daddy’s Dying Who’s Got the Will directed by Del Shores, NAMES at the Strasburg Institute in which she played Stella Adler, and the premiere of John Ford Noonan’s Talking Things over With Chekhov. She began her stage work in Chicago with the Body Politic & in England with the Oxford Mummers. She holds an MA in Dramatic Literature from Northwestern University. She serves on the Screen Actors Guild Board & Actors Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She has lead workshops for The Actors Institute, The Screen Actors Guild Conservatory, currently holds weekly classes through the West Coast Ensemble and coaches privately.


Andrea Covell - Company Manager
Ms. Covell has been on the management team of West Coast Ensemble since 2004. After graduating from college, she moved to Los Angeles in 1978 to pursue an acting career, making numerous television appearances including "Our House," "thirtysomething," "L.A. Law," and "Simon & Simon." She also had a recurring role on the popular 80’s sitcom, "ALF." On stage, she has performed with Friends and Artists Theatre in Hollywood, where she starred in the original, country western musical, Blue County, and in The Threepenny Opera. She was also a member of Theatre East where she appeared in The Disenchanted, Four Legs Good, Dead End at Sunset and Savage in Limbo. During her time at Theatre East, she served on the Theatre’s board of directors as recording secretary. In the late 1980s, Ms. Covell began work as a casting associate with Meryl O’Loughlin. In the 1990’s, Ms. Covell left casting, and began working as a paralegal and a proofreader at a large law firm in downtown Los Angeles where she is currently employed. Since re-starting her acting career, she has appeared in West Coast Ensemble’s productions of Greetings!, Five Tellers Dancing in the Rain, and Floyd Collins. As the Company Manager for West Coast Ensemble, Ms. Covell is responsible for all membership-related activities for this 150-member ensemble including coordinating company auditions, interviews and orientations; ongoing review and revision of Company policies; tracking of dues payments and fulfillment of required work commitments; and mediation between membership and management.



Suzanne Doss - New Works Development Director
Miss Doss began her involvement at West Coast Ensemble in 1992 in WCE’s Intern Program, a conservatory program dedicated to training actors in all areas of theatre. After completing this program, she began her career as a stage manager, working on such critically acclaimed productions as The Human Comedy, Macabaret and the world premiere play Someone’s Knocking. She soon began working as a stage manager for other theatre companies including The Musical Theatre Guild and The Neurotic Young Urbanites. As West Coast Ensemble’s resident Assistant Director, Ms. Doss has worked on critically acclaimed productions of The Diary of Anne Frank, Merrily We Roll Along, A New Brain, the Ovation-nominated Sunday In The Park With George, Wonder of the World and Floyd Collins. Ms. Doss attended Whittier College where she studied Theatre Arts. After working as a nurse’s aide for the Orange County Department of Education/Special Education Department, she began a career as a bookkeeper and business manager. She currently works for Gelfand Rennert and Feldman, one of the top entertainment business management firms in the country. As the New Works Development Director, Ms. Doss is responsible for West Coast Ensemble’s original play development program. Her specific duties include working with WCE's Artistic Director to identify new plays that are appropriate for development; coordinating readings of new works and establishing a new works production calendar; and coordination between playwrights and creative staff for the continued development of new works.



Richard Israel - Associate Artistic Director
Mr. Israel has been on the management team of West Coast Ensemble Theatre since 1994. He holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from the University of Arizona and has spent the last 15 years as an actor, director and Theatre manager. During the past ten years at West Coast Ensemble, Richard has directed a wide array of plays and musicals including the L.A. premiere of Adam Guettel & Tina Landau’s groundbreaking musical Floyd Collins (BackStage West Garland Award for Direction); the west coast premiere of David Lindsay Abaire’s Wonder of the World (L.A. Times Critic’s Choice); the recent adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank and the original musical Vanishing Point (Winner, 1999 Jonathan Larson Award). Richard is a Resident Director for the Nine O’Clock Players, the performing arts wing of the Assistance League of Southern California. He was also a guest director at Galveston Island Musicals where he directed My Fair Lady and at Idyllwild Arts Academy, where he directed Peter Parnell’s The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket. As Managing Director for West Coast Ensemble Theatre, Mr. Israel is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the organization including establishment of the annual production and fundraising calendar; oversight of all aspects of production for all MainStage and Second Season shows; oversight of the Families-At-Play program; coordination with Business Manager and Producing Director; and coordination of the annual season subscription program including design of printed materials and development of the marketing plan.

JJ Jackman - Fundraising Director

JJ Jackman joined West Coast Ensemble in 2000, completing the WCE Intern program in the fall of that year. He has appeared on stage in productions in North Carolina and Los Angeles, including lead roles in Tim Kelly's Dracula and Nicky Silver's Pterodactyls. His one-act play entitled Love and Cookies was produced by WCE in April of 2005. As a Managing Director of WCE, JJ oversees the fundraising committee, planning and implementing all non-production-related fundraising throughout the year for the company. JJ is currently the Director of Admissions for the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). A proud native of North Carolina, he holds a BA in Psychology from Wake Forest University and an MBA from the University of Phoenix.


Claudia Jaffee / Jaffee and Associates - Business Manager

Ms. Jaffee has been on the management team of West Coast Ensemble Theatre since 1986. Born in Tehran, she received her BA in Theatre from California State University Northridge. After establishing herself as a private acting instructor, Ms. Jaffee began directing Theatre in 1986 with a specific concentration on original works. In addition to her work as West Coast Ensemble’s business manager, Ms. Jaffee is also a resident director at the Theatre. Her directing credits include Biloxi Blues, the world premiere of Full Court Press, the world premiere of the South African plays Still Born/Big Boys, Unidentified Human Remains And The True Nature Of Love (Top 10 Plays of the Decade, Entertainment Weekly), Kimchee and Chitlins (NAACP Award, Outstanding Play), The Grapes of Wrath (L.A. Weekly Award for Best Revival, 2001) and To Kill A Mockingbird. Ms. Jaffee is the principal in Jaffee & Associates, a business management firm that she launched in 1999 after 20 years of managing The Wald Organization. Jaffee & Associates caters to a client list of professional individuals and businesses, managing all aspects of their financial needs. Clients include high-end retail, European designers of high-end fashion, jewelry manufacturers and clothing manufacturers. In addition, the firm caters to a small group of producers, directors and actors in the entertainment industry. As the business manager for West Coast Ensemble, she is responsible for the management of all financial aspects of the Theatre’s operations including production and overhead budgeting and financial planning.



David Elzer / DEMAND PR - Publicist
Mr. Elzer has been the Marketing Director for West Coast Ensemble Theatre since 2001. Through his company, DEMAND PR, Mr. Elzer specializes in the marketing and publicity of Los Angeles theatre. DEMAND PR currently represents The Antaeus Theatre Company, Apartment A, Celebration Theatre, Circle X Theatre Company, Colony Theatre, Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, Laguna Playhouse, REPRISE! Broadway’s Best, Rubicon Theatre Company, Theatre Tribe, Third Stage Company, West Coast Ensemble and West Coast Jewish Theatre. David also oversaw the publicity for the Los Angeles production of Disney's The Lion King. Prior, he was Vice President of Publicity for Paramount Classics and Vice President of Marketing and Publicity for Trimark Pictures. He also served as Director of National Publicity at 20th Century Fox. Some of the film publicity campaigns he has worked on include: “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “True Lies,” “Eve’s Bayou,” “Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss,” “ALIEN3,” “The Virgin Suicides,” “Toys,” “Robin Hood: Men In Tights,” “Slam,” “Another Day in Paradise,” among many others.
Mr. Elzer is also a producer of theatre, serving as an associate producer on the New York, Chicago and South Florida productions of Jewtopia. Additionally, he served as a producer on the Los Angeles production of The Laramie Project, at the Laguna Playhouse; Basic Training at the 2nd Stage and Shyness Is Nice and Catalpa at Alliance Repertory Company.