What is Penguin Productions?
Penguin Productions unites youth leadership and adult mentorship to co-create theater and cultivate a healthy, equitable, thriving future through:
-Empowering confident, thoughtful youth leaders
-Making invigorating, inspiring, joyful theater
-Creating diverse, inclusive spaces where everyone belongs
-Nurturing artistic discovery and growth
-Providing cost-free programming
Meet the Penguins
Tera Winter
Tera is a passionate techie and proud jack of many trades, wielding the spreadsheet and the drill in roughly equal measure. She is a senior at West Seattle High School, and joined Penguin in spring of 2023 on the design team of Hand to God. Favorite credits include Hand to God (Props), The Good Doctor (Director), Animal Farm (Set Designer), The Effect (Stage Manager), and Falsettoland (Stage Manager/Production Manager). As Producing Director, she is focused on giving teens opportunities for their ideas and leadership to be realized onstage.
Shana Bestock
Shana is a writer, educator, theater artist, and non-profit leader based in Seattle, WA. She has directed over 200 productions with youth ensembles and overseen over 120 professional productions. Shana works with both classic and contemporary texts, and has commissioned, produced, and directed many world premieres. Shana is currently ACT Theatre’s Artistic Associate, Education and Engagement. She is also a Fulbright Specialist, working internationally at the intersections of theater, social justice, and community building. She was a member of the ArtEquity cohort of 2016-17 and of the Leadership Tomorrow Class of ’21, engaging with cross-sector leaders around regional issues through an equity lens. From 2001-2016, Shana served as Seattle Public Theater’s Artistic and Education Director. Through her creative and community work, she strives to increase our capacity to connect, reflect, and create in order to make a more curious, compassionate and creative world.
To learn more about Shana, visit www.shanabestock.com
Aaron Alonso
Aaron is a Production Manager and Stage Manager based in Seattle. He is currently the Artistic Programs Manager at Seattle Repertory Theatre and has worked at various theatres across the country, including at: Village Theatre, The 5th Avenue Theatre, Showtunes Theatre Company, The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, The Kennedy Center, and his alma mater of Western Washington University, where he holds a BA in theatre arts with an emphasis in stage management and technical theatre. Select favorite productions: Fat Ham, Quixote Nuevo, Islander, Lydia and the Troll, Between Two Knees, and I’m Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter (Seattle Rep); Disney’s Newsies, A Christmas Story, In the Heights, School of Rock, Les Misérables, The Lion King Jr., and Hairspray (Village Theatre KIDSTAGE); A Christmas Story (The 5th Avenue Theatre); Tiger Style, Ugly Lies the Bone, Power Play, and Bright Half Life (2014 National Playwrights Conference, Eugene O’Neill Theater Center). Aaron thanks his family, friends, and mentors as he valiantly attempts to put his theatre degree to use. His motto: “MacGyver it!”
Nadia Hammon
Nadia is a senior studying linguistics at the University of Washington. Her previous theater experience includes acting in Young Americans’ Theatre Company’s 2023 season. She has always enjoyed drawing and theater, and she is looking forward to combining those passions in her work at Penguin. In her free time, she enjoys playing cello, creative writing, baking, and crochet.
Production History
Penguins Who Took Flight
Anna Klein, Sarah Albertson, Kyna Shilling, Kayla Brooks, Bella Zhou, Noelle McCabe, Linda Yan
Kyle Gerstel, Producing Artistic Director Emeritus
Kayla Brooks
Sara Albertson
Anna Klein
Eileen MacDonald
Noelle McCabe
Kyna Shilling
Valentine
Wulf
Linda Yan
Bella Zhou
