the collective
Carolina Pilar Xique, Producing Artistic Director
Carolina Pilar Xique is a multi-hyphenate theatre actress, director, writer, and producer. An LA Native, she received her B.A. in Theatre Arts Performance from CSU Long Beach, acting in theatrical & musical productions such as Vagina Monologues, Macbeth, Funfair, Stop the World, I Want To Get Off, and After Orlando with Cal Repertory Company. Carolina specializes in devised theatre, having produced productions such as Dreamers: Aquí y Allá (voted “Best Play” by the OC Weekly), Generation XYZ, Mi Amiga La Luna, and Contigo Theatre Company's Stitching Stardust. She directed Venus in Fur, and musically directed First Date, West Side Story, Mulan Jr., and High School Musical. As an actress, Carolina has participated in multiple productions and readings, including Playwright Arena's reading of Brown Face, Project Nongenue's reading of A Tempest, and most recently, the 2022 Paul Robeson Festival's staged reading of Negra. In October of 2021, she was awarded the Individual Artist Fellowship Grant of $5000 from the California Arts Council to aid in the development and production of a staged reading of her longtime project, Wilber's Dream, held in September of 2022.
She has worked with multiple acclaimed Los Angeles arts companies and organizations, including Independent Shakespeare Co., La Plaza de Cultura y Artes, Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative, Circle X Theatre Company, Playwrights' Arena, Greenway Theater Court, Projected Nongenue, BLKLST, the recently disbanded LA STAGE Alliance, and now works at The Music Center for Gloria Molina Grand Park as Program Coordinator. In 2020-2021, she served as Artistic Director for Streamlight Theatre Company in Long Beach, which had been the producer of the virtual event, The Festival of Healing, as well as the popular, pandemic-safe Halloween event, Chiu's Haunted Drive-Thru. She is currently working with the BLKLST, a BIPOC created and led mechanism of accountability through transparency and community oversight in the Los Angeles Theatre Community, to create a podcast educating and commenting on the work still needed to bring true anti-racist theatrical practices to the Los Angeles community. Most recently, she has worked with Thumbprint Studios, Chicago, Mental Haus, and the Long Beach Playhouse in producing for their 24-hour theatre festivals, respectively. Her artistic work reflects her mission to bring voice to Latinx/Afro-Latinx experiences and to uplift the theatre community in Los Angeles.
Victoria Melkonyan, Producing Artistic Director
Victoria Melkonyan (they/she) is a West Asian artist based in California. Through the lens of actor, director, and writer, Victoria actively pursues, uplifts, and creates stories for and by People of the Global Majority. They are an alumnus of California State University, Long Beach with a BA in Theatre Performance and have studied with the SITI Company. Through both their art and activism, they hope to increase visibility for SWANA (MENA) and all who are absent from the mainstream in various performance/storytelling mediums.
As part of their tenure as Artistic Director of Theatre Threshold, Victoria produced many topical works such as LatinX, Out of Silence, Growing Up Gay, etc. as well as devising and directing 11.03.2020, and performing in Venus in Fur and devised piece Generation XYZ. Victoria also originated the role of Calypso in Take the Stage Productions’ Rover the Bear. Most recently, Victoria’s play CHEETOS, CHAI, AND CHANCE was produced by Streamlight Theatre as part of their Festival of Healing. Currently, they serve as the Director of Outreach & Education at Thumbprint Studios and curate the quarterly play reading event Thumbprint Reads & Listens, focusing on expanding the canon and highlighting underrepresented voices. They are also part of the BLKLST Collective, working to make LA theatre a more safe and equitable space for all. From the very beginning of their artistic career and education, Victoria has made it a point to face systemic issues head on and embraced the art of calling in and calling to action in everything that they do.
Jesse Bosworth, Production Manager
Jesse Bosworth is a young theatre professional from Long Beach, California who fell in love with the theatre at the age of 4. He got his start working in small community theatres where he has done shows such as Old Black Magic (Olio Theatre Works), Somberton Senior Center Presents the Nutcracker (The Found Theatre) and Assassins (Long Beach Playhouse). He attended Cal State Long Beach where he earned his BA in Technical Theatre and Design and worked many of the student devised pieces in Threshold. He can usually be found behind the scenes at Knott’s Berry Farm making sure their main stage shows run without issue and is looking forward to coming back once this pandemic is over. He is extremely excited to start this company of artists and can’t wait to see where it goes.