ABOUT LEAH JOKI 

Leah Joki (Artistic Director) is an actor, writer, director and has a long history with the CDCR. Under the auspices of Arts in Corrections she taught and/or performed in almost every state prison in California.  Her career in prison spans over two decades.  She was the first Institutional Artist Facilitator at Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in Blythe and at the California State Prison – Los Angeles County in Lancaster. Her arts program at CSP-LAC (1994 – 2004) was profiled in The Los Angeles Times, American Theatre Magazine and The LA Weekly.  In November 2019 her full-length play, The Poppovichs,  was selected for the first Premiere Project of the Montana Playwrights Network and was produced at the Downtown Dance Collective.  In recent years Ms. Joki has been seen as Margrethe in Copenhagen, Marty in Circle Mirror Transformation, Anna Jedlikova in Pentecost, Perfect Love in The Arabian Nights, Sylvia in End Days, and Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Her one-woman show PRISON BOXING was produced by the Skylight Theater Company and was nominated by Stage Raw Theatre Awards for the best Solo Performance in Los Angeles in 2015. Her writing credits include the plays; The Year of Baldwin, Sheets, The Poppovichs, Hairball : The Demystification of How One’s Life Turns to Crap, The Big Picture and her memoir Juilliard to Jail is currently being developed into a film by Joe Manganiello and his production company 3:59 inc.  Ms. Joki directed former inmate Dan McMullan’s play Blythe for the Poetic Justice Project. She also created and directed PJP’s Time Will Tell. Recently she devised and directed the play FATHERS AND SONS with a group of inmates at California State Prison – Los Angeles County in Lancaster. Ms. Joki has a Masters of Fine Arts in Theatre from the Juilliard School and the University of Montana.

Nelo Butler (Actor) is an actor and writer in Los Angeles. He recently starred in the YouTube pilot series Cuisine de la ‘Pocalypse. His credits also include the lead role in Sammy, a student thesis film, and a starring role in the internet mini-series Space Car created by Zootown Production.  He studied theatre at the University of Montana, and continues his study of acting at the Beverly Hills Playhouse.  Most recently, Nelo worked with mentor Leah Joki on the productions of Lost and Found, at California State Prison – Los Angeles County.  He directed scenes from A Few Good Men and original work from the inmates. Nelo is a talented pianist and athlete, and is of mixed African American and Caucasian ethnicity. He recently worked as a script supervisor for Faith written by Kyle Weinghart.

Christian T. Chan (Actor) is a founding member of the NYC based Obie-Award-winning Vampire Cowboys Theatre company, He has taught stage combat privately through the Vampire Cowboys Rabid Vamps Fight Studio, and assisted at Ohio University and Columbia University.  He has choreographed for numerous NYC off-off Broadway productions and regionally.  He has been cast and taught in several outreach productions through the educational Periwinkle National Theatre and The Playground Theatre.  Select credits include: Los Angeles theatre: So You Want To Be a Vampire (Offending Shadows), Our Town (Actors' Co-Op), The End Times (Skylight Theatre and Playwright's Arena), Richard III (Eclectic Company Theater), A Strange Disappearance of Bees (Collaborative Artists' Ensemble). New York theatre: A Beginner's Guide to Deicide (Vampire Cowboys), Museum (Unity Stage Company) Taming of the Shrew (Brooklyn Repertory Shakespeare). Regional theatre: Three Sisters (Miami Theater Center), The Red Thread (Playground Theater).  Film: Reunion 108, Something's Different About Felix Weathers (with Barry Corbin). Television: Six Degrees of Everything, True Nightmares. He is also an adjunct professor at LACC and has taught through Arts in Corrections in California at the Men's Central Jail downtown LA and the California State Prison – Los Angeles County in Lancaster since 2016 through the Strindberg Laboratory. He worked under director Leah Joki on the LAC production of FATHERS AND SONS where he directed scenes from Henry IV Part I, Vietgone, and the original inmate-written My Father's Gone, which he helped workshop.  BFA Ohio University, MFA Columbia University.  Recipient of the Bob Hope Fellowship. Proud member of Actors' Equity since 2011.

Carol (Actor) is a Caribbean-American artist who lives to heal herself and others by using every creative bone in her body. She has worked as an actor, writer, director, producer and educator. In the theatre world, she has written and performed five highly acclaimed solo plays. Her first solo play, “Batman and Robin in the Boogie Down” received a Bronx Council on the Arts Award. It also received nominations for a Drama Desk award and an NAACP Theatre award. Her most recent solo play, “Tio Pablo” won Best Play and Best Actress at the Hollywood Short & Sweet Theatre Festival.

On screen, Carol has appeared in thirteen films, over twenty guest star TV roles and over fifty national commercials. Some of her notable TV credits include, “Criminal Minds”, “Bones” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” Her most recent film, “Lemon” was an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival. As an educator, Carol is an acting coach, teaches solo show workshops, has taught acting to Inner City youth and teaches in correctional facilities. She has taught at the California Rehabilitation Center, the California Institution For Men, Men’s Central Jail, and the Century Regional Detention Center. She is also fluent in Spanish. 

Whitney Wakimoto  (Actor) is a Los Angeles based actor, director and teaching artist. Whitney received her BFA from the University of Montana and then spent a few years in New York as a touring actor, working with such companies as the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey and the Montana Repertory Theatre. She then followed her passion for the craft across the country to sunny San Diego where she earned her MFA in theatre and her Equity card from the Old Globe/University of San Diego. Her favorite roles include Shin Te/Shui Ta in The Good Person of Setzuan (Montana Rep), Isabella in Measure for Measure (Old Globe), and Thyona in Charles L. Mee’s Big Love. Upon graduation from the Old Globe Whitney stayed on the west coast and found her home in Los Angeles. She continues to audition, take classes and enjoys the pursuit of honing her skills as an artist and director. As a contract artist teaching youth in recovery, inmates and formally incarcerated populations has become her second love. She most recently finished co-directing Fathers and Sons at the California State Prison, Los Angeles, under the direction and mentorship of Leah Joki.

Elizabeth Malone Alteet (Actor) is a Los Angeles based actor, director, contract artist, and drama therapist. Elizabeth received her BFA from NYU and MFA from Columbia University in Acting. NYC Credits include: OTMA (Atlantic Theater Co), The Great Divorce (Magis Theatre Co.), VANYA (Paisley in Blue Prod), The Caucasian Chalk Circle (PL 115), Shakuntala (Magis Theatre Co./La Mama). the role of Anastasia in the world premiere of OTMA by Kate Moira Ryan with Atlantic Theater Company. She later joined Magis Theater Company, a group of actors devoted to classic and original work, performing Off-Broadway in the premier of C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce, adapted for the stage by Magis and reviewed by the New York Times. With Magis, she also played Shakuntala in Shakuntala at LaMama. Elizabeth continued to Columbia University’s School of the Arts where she received her MFA in Acting. At Columbia, she began teaching alongside a professor at Barnard College with a group of undergraduate actors as well as Classic Stage Company, teaching Shakespeare workshops in NYC high schools. Upon graduation and after nine years in New York City, Elizabeth took a position teaching and directing theater with at-risk youth at The Monarch School in the woods of Montana. She joined the local theater, performing the lead role in Proof by David Auburn. At Monarch School, she directed Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle and Wilder’s Our Town as well as Shakespeare Under the Stars, scenes performed outdoors. Elizabeth worked on all aspects of the productions including directing, lighting design, costuming, sets, music composition, and stage-managing. While in Montana, she returned to NYC to perform in VANYA, a deconstructed version of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya in the East Village. She also started her work in Bethlehem, Palestine, creating original inter-generational productions, PalesTime and Me and My Grandma, with youth and older women through Diyar Dance Theater.  From there she accepted a position as an Assistant Professor of Theater at California Baptist University where she taught acting, voice, script analysis, and improvisation as well as directing Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl and Calderon’s Life is a Dream. While in Riverside, CA, she created an original piece of theater with local musicians and actors titled Something About that Name, a collection of original scenes tied together with the theme of being raised in church. She currently works with Reasons Eating Disorder Center as a Drama Therapist and as a contract artist, teaching youth with Autism, adults and youth in rehabilitation, inmates and the formerly incarcerated.  She has worked as a Contract Artist at California State Prison- Los Angeles County, California Institute for Men, California Rehabilitation Center, Men’s Central Jail, and Century Regional Detention Facility.   At CSP-LAC, Elizabeth was a part of a team of Contract Artists directing a collaborative piece with inmates on the B-Yard titled “Fathers and Sons,” under the direction of Leah Joki. As a performer, she most recently began work in comedy, training with Pretty Funny Women and The Wet Hippo Collective, performing at The Comedy Store, Flappers Comedy Club, and Scot Nery’s Boobie Trap.  Elizabeth currently works as the Case Manager and After School Program Facilitator for Friends Outside Los Angeles. She provides resources and support for the formerly incarcerated and those affected by incarceration as well as leading an after-school program for children of the incarcerated in Pasadena, CA.

Logan La Cross  (Actor)  attained two degrees in theatre, an Associate’s of Arts from Central Wyoming College in 2010, and in 2013 he graduated from the University of Montana with his Bachelor’s. During his collegiate career Logan performed in multiple university and community productions, including Perchik in Fiddler on the Roof, Marco the Magnificent in Carnival!, Preacher Haggler in Dark Side of the Moon, Tony Kirby in You Can’t Take It With You, King Duncan in Macbeth, and Rudolph in an original play titled Holocene. In 2015, Logan moved to Los Angeles to pursue a professional career in acting for tv and film. That same year he landed a lead role in the feature film “Visage: Silence has no Color.” He will appear in several episodes of the upcoming Oxygen Channel true crime series “In Ice Cold Blood” hosted by Ice T, and will be featured alongside British actor and longtime Dr. Who companion Frazer Hines in the upcoming feature film “Corral.”  Logan has studied commercial acting techniques at Mike Pointer’s school “Hey! I saw your commercial!” as well as taking classes at both the Upright Citizen’s Brigade and Second City. Logan performed in several Youtube shorts on different channels, been cast as a lead in several student and independent short films and most recently completed studying with Barnum’s Acting Studio, West Hollywood.  Over the past year, Logan has been involved with the Strindberg Laboratory assisting in teaching Theater Workshops at the Men’s Central Jail in Downtown Los Angeles, and California State Prison – Los Angeles County in Lancaster, CA. Most recently, Logan worked with mentor Leah Joki in conjunction with Strindberg Labs on the production of Fathers and Sons, a combination piece of scripted work and original inmate written scenes. Logan directed scenes from Between Riverside and Crazy, and helped coordinate with the prison staff and inmates to assure everything went smoothly. 

T Valada-Viars has over twenty-five years professional experience as an actor. Maggie in 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof',Anne in 'Burn This', Marjorie in 'Extremities',/film- Bubbles in'Bubbles', Janet in Blind Fate', /tv- Chita in pilot 'Public Access 81/2', McDonalds' Chaplin Ad, IHOP national commercial/ street mime -NYC Time Square /Improv- Batteries Optional, T'INK), as a stage director (in CA/NY/IA/LA/Croatia), as playwright and teaching artist. She has worked as an actor/director contracted through various theatres and organizations throughout the US (Riker's Island-Stella Adler NYC and Art of Acting Studio L.A. Outreach - Pitchess Detention Center/L.A. Men's Central Jail/Former L.A.Twin Towers Women' side/Lynwood Women's Jail ;independent collaborative artist in programs in CA Rehabilitation Center in Norco, Men's

Central Jail, Lynwood Women's Jail); other NY contracts with District 75 programs and lock down HS in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens-through Women's Projects and Productions Outreach; Town Hall Theatre Outreach; C.A.T. Winter Production Directing Team; and EstroGenis Festival. She worked as an an advisor and artist trainer for PArtners' Unlimited for its eight years working in adult and youth correctional facilities and communities directing original performances. Ms Valada-Viars has created/directed/performed with three professional touring companies: Actors on Tour; Batteries Optional Improv Company; T'INK Theatre. Currently, she is touring in an original production of 'Women in Blue' which is a collaborative work created between herself and three other women playwrights/actors in Southern California under Stone Catchers Collective. She will be coaching and directing Improvisation/ Creativity in July for the intensive summer NYSSSA / Theatre for the eleventh year and has been asked by Tommy Demenkoff, Artist Programing Coordinator for NYC Corrections to conduct a workshop at Riker's.