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WHO WE ARE

Imagine Theatre is LA’s Equity theatre for young audiences.

In the summer of 2020, Imagine Project changed its name to Imagine Theatre. New name, but the same exciting mission!

MISSION

Imagine Theatre strives to build an empathetic and inclusive society, across cultures, by immersing young people in theatre that celebrates gender equity, diversity, and civic engagement.

VISION

The role of live theatre is indispensable to shaping the way our children connect to each other and the rest of society. Through the stories we tell and the communal experience of theater, we imagine a future guided by kind and courageous people who have the motivation and inner resources to make the world a better place.

CORE VALUES

We promise to tell relevant stories that spotlight female heroes.
We promise to champion kids, especially girls, with the courage to find their own voices.
We promise to create experiences accessible to kids from all economic backgrounds.
We promise to hire local artists and pay them real wages.
We promise to produce plays that are inclusive of stories from LA’s diverse cultural fabric.
We promise to be the vehicle for social change in a way that only professional theatre can be.

LEADERSHIP

ARMINA LAMANNA

FOUNDING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Armina began her stage career at the age of six in the former USSR. Directing experience includes: The Tale of Turandot at Imagine Project, A Woman of No Importance at Sacred Fools, Fair at OC-Centric New Play Festival, The Maids at ETC, Little Armenia at The Fountain Theatre, Who’s Your Baghdaddy?, Red Light Winter, Pushkin at Boldino all at The Chance Theatre’s On the Radar, We Wait at Moving Arts (Car Plays), Fast & Loose at Sacred Fools, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, A Lie of the Mind, The Zoo Story, and Hello Out There all at Temple Theatres, and Pushkin at Boldino at the Philly Fringe Festival. Armina is the author of Pushkin at Boldino; she also translated and adapted Gogol’s The Government Inspector for The Lantern Theatre. Armina was the producer of Pushkin at Boldino at the Philly Fringe Festival, and the Co-Producer for the above-mentioned The Maids and Little Armenia in Los Angeles. She was the recipient of the Samuel Fels Fund Dramaturgy Internship in 2007, an invited lecturer of American plays at the Arlekin Theatre in Moscow, Russia in 2008, and one of the recipients of the Outstanding Women of 2019 Honor from the AACC. Armina is a member of SDC, AEA, and DG, and is an Adjunct Professor of Theatre at GCC. She holds an MFA in Directing from Temple University.

www.arminalamanna.com

LAURA HILL

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Laura is a seasoned theatre art professional with more than twenty years of broad-range arts management and producing experience. She first worked with the award-winning Deaf West Theatre across many capacities, including Managing Director. There, she also produced many of the company’s critically acclaimed mainstage and TYA productions. Hill also served as Managing Director at other top LA intimate theatres—Antaeus and Rogue Machine—as well as working at Center Theatre Group and the Pasadena Playhouse. In addition, she has produced more than twenty-five theatrical shows (most as a single producer), including several LADCC, LA Weekly and LA Ovation award-winners. She is currently on staff at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts as their Production Administrator.

STAFF

Operations Coordinator

Shushanik “Lily” Buludyan

staff@imagineprojectca.com

IMAGINE THEATRE AMBASSADOR

PENNY JOHNSON JERALD

Penny Johnson Jerald is Imagine Theatre’s official Ambassador. She is currently starring as Dr. Claire Finn on FOX’s science fiction comedy-drama series The Orville. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School, and a NAACP Image Award and Screen Actors Guild Award-nominated actress. “The only way to make real change in society is to visually see the possibilities. Theater allows for unfiltered intimacy between audience and performers. This intimate setting is the beginning of what can be.” -PJJ

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

ALEX ZONIN

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

Alex Zonin started his acting career at the age of five in a Russian film called That Man We Call Friend. His theatrical career began shortly after, when at the age of six he was writing, directing, producing, and acting in a Sci-fi play with his kindergarten friends. A few years later it evolved into the leading role of a kid in the play Nurse, sharing the stage of the Central Academic Theater of Russian Army in Moscow with N.I. Pastukhov and S.A.Sadkovskaya. His professional career in television and VFX postproduction began over two decades ago. A true renaissance man, Alex went on to start his own advertising agency, and a web and media development company. He holds a degree in Computer Graphics and Animation from the Russian State University of Cinematography. Alex founded Imagine Theatre with Armina LaManna, and is the Founding Board Chair.

JACK MEGRABYAN

BOARD MEMBER/Treasurer

Jack Megrabyan has been a leader in the banking industry for the past eighteen years. He is currently the Branch Manager of Umpqua Bank in Glendale, CA. In 2012, Megrabyan started a De Novo Branch in Glendale, CA for Opus Bank. As the Branch Manager, Megrabyan successfully grew the branch to maturity. In this role, Jack was known for helping small & large local businesses grow and thrive. Megrabyan is a former Board Member and Treasurer of Caesura Youth Orchestra in Glendale, California where he successfully obtained multiple grants for funding projects for the Orchestra. Jack recently joined California Bank and Trust as a Vice President, Relationship Banker in Pasadena, CA. In this role, Megrabyan builds intimate relationships with local businesses in order to best serve their financial needs with the vast resources offered by the California Bank and Trust. He is a graduate of University of Phoenix.

Megrabyan is an uncle to seven nieces and nephews, and is a father to twins – the joy of his life. As a father, Megrabyan knows firsthand the importance of developing young minds and that’s why he joined the IT Board of Directors.

ANNE-MARIE OSGOOD

BOARD MEMBER/SECRETARY

Anne-Marie Osgood is an Entrepreneur and Performing Artist with broad experience in multiple industries. She has been involved in theater for over forty years with an extensive career as a Dancer, Singer, Actor and Choreographer in New York, Los Angeles, regionally and abroad. She has performed on Broadway, in National Tours, appeared with several dance companies, and has choreographed over 50 corporate industrials. After moving to the West Coast, she reinvented herself and found success as a Host & Spokesmodel for such companies as Toyota, Nissan, Sprint, Leader Instruments, Kangen Water, Mattel and many others. Osgood is an advocate for the arts in education, and currently teaches Musical Theatre for the ArTES Magnet High School where she gets to live her passion everyday through her students. When she is not teaching, she is focused on her entrepreneurship and is busy building a successful home business as an independent distributor with Direct Cellars. She is also dedicated to mentoring business owners helping them grow their own companies. Anne-Marie Osgood holds a BFA in Dance & Composition from University of Arts in Philadelphia, and received her teaching credential from Cal State LA.

TAMAR KEVONIAN

BOARD MEMBER

Tamar Kevonian grew up in Los Angeles and received her BA in Theatre Arts from Cal State Northridge (CSUN), and MBA from Pepperdine University. After a decade in the furniture industry and traveling the globe, she launched Mosaix Magazine, the first of its kind lifestyle magazine focusing on the Armenian diaspora living in North America. Afterwards, she took her knowledge of the industry and the community, and applied it at Yerevan Magazine where she became deeply involved in all aspects of the publication from editorial to management, briefly serving as its executive director. Now, she looks forward to applying her education, business and community knowledge to expanding Imagine Project. Kevonian has been a big proponent of girls and their hidden power, and looks forward to promoting that strength through IP’s work. She currently lives in Glendale with her husband Chef Sevan Abdessian and their two daughters.