Meet Crown Theatre
Hello, Welcome to Crown Theatre! We are a Non Profit 501 C-3, producing theatre in South Austin/Buda/Kyle. We strive to make live theatre accessible, educational, and fun. Our mission is to create a thoughtful and inclusive theatre home where we cultivate meaningful experiences through high quality performance and education for the South Austin/Buda/Kyle area.
Founding Members/Crown Board
Andreá Smith (Co-Producing Artistic Director)- Andreá has been active in the Austin theatre scene for nearly two decades as an actor, director, producer, set designer, costumer, and choreographer. She’s worked on a range of theatre productions, from Shakespeare to musicals, and everything in between, and has garnered 10 B. Iden Payne nominations (and a few wins) along the way, including: Best Director of a Play for Youth, Wiley and the Hairy Man, (Second Youth Family Theatre), Outstanding Set Design, Wiley and The Hairy Man, (Second Youth Family Theatre), Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for Youth, Charlotte’s Web, (Scottish Rite Theatre), Outstanding Small Cast Performance, Storm Still, (The Vortex), Outstanding Cast Performance, The Rover, (Hidden Room Theatre). Andreá is a former board member of the Hidden Room Theatre, and Penfold Theatre, as well as a company member for The Vortex and Shrewd Productions. By day, she works in Human Resources at a tech company, and she is the founder of an official 501(c)3 nonprofit, bakingforgood.org; which uses the power of flour to raise funds for Austin-based nonprofits in need.
Tobie Minor (Co-Producing Artistic Director)-Tobie is the Director of Stage Combat/Intimacy and teaches Movement at Texas State University and is the co-founder of Violent Crown. He has been a certified Advanced Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD) since 2000. He has choreographed violence at Texas State, Zach Theatre, Austin Shakespeare, Austin Playhouse, Hidden Room Theatre, and Penfold Theatre to name a few. He has been nominated and won many awards both locally (B. Iden Payne) and internationally (Falstaff Award), and his choreography has been featured at the Blackfriars conference and on The Globe stage in London. He is an award wining actor who's credits include several short films, commercials, voice over work, and a rather lengthy list of stage productions in Austin, Chicago, Colorado, and many points between, working with theaters like Creede Repertory, Austin Shakespeare, Zach Theatre, Austin Playhouse, Chicago Shakespeare, Stage Left Theatre, Looking Glass, Hidden Room, and Penfold Theatre. Tobie is currently working on becoming a certified Vocal Extremes Teacher/Coach with VCT (Vocal Combat Technique).
Professor Gabriel Peña
Board Member
Gabriel "Gab" Peña is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Southwestern University where he teaches Acting, Play Analysis, and First-Year Seminar courses. He holds an MFA in Acting from Pennsylvania State University and a BA in Theatre from Pomona College. Areas of research interest include Latine narratives, interdisciplinary frameworks for performance building, and somatic approaches to acting. He has served on panels and presented workshops at the Southeastern Theatre (SETC) and Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) conferences. As an Actor, his performances have included stage, camera, and voiceover work. As a Director, his recent projects include The Heidi Chronicles, and Native Gardens.
Amy Minor (Managing Director) began touring in Germany with the American Musical Theater Company as Luisa in the Fantasticks when she was 16 yrs old in bilingual German/English production. She holds a B.F.A. in theater from Stephens College and lived in Kansas City and Chicago for many years acting at various theater companies (Coterie, American Heartland, Chicago Shakespeare, Chicago Jewish Theater, Lifeline Theater, Barrel of Monkeys). Her favorite roles include Hen in the original musical ‘Click, Clack, Moo, Cows that Type’, and Petra in Sondheim’s ‘A Little Night Music’, and most recently Jenny Hill in ‘Big Fish’ at the Austin Playhouse Theater. Since moving to Austin in 2008, in addition to being a busy realtor and mentor, she has been diligently working on her other favorite role, being a mom to her two sons: Aiden and Liam. Amy is a founding member, and the managing director, for Crown Theatre and has served on the boards of several other amazing theater companies in Austin (Hidden Room Theatre and Penfold). You can catch her on stage in the fall in Jarrott Productions next show!
Stephanie Delk
Board Member
Stephanie Delk has been working in Austin Theatre for nearly two decades. She has worked as a digital marketing professional at Swash Labs since 2014. Stephanie holds a Degree in Music Business and Management from Berklee College of Music, Boston MA
Her diverse experience spans numerous theater companies around Austin, Texas, (Penfold Theatre, The Hidden Room, Whirligig, Fusebox, Shrewd Productions, and The Vortex.) providing her with a comprehensive understanding of theater operations from multiple angles.
Delk has 3 B Iden Payne Award nominations and two wins for her stage management work on Penfold Theatre’s RED and Whirligig's DEUS EX MACHINA. She is delighted to join the Board of Crown Theatre to lend her expertise to the operations and development of their season.
Jennifer Jennings (Education Director)- Jennifer Jennings
Jen is honored to be a founding member of The Crown Theatre with her beloved quaranteam. Fairly new to the production side of theatre, she served as director for the Vortex Rep’s Summer Youth productions of MR. BURNS and an original devised work entitled ANOTHER GREAT DEPRESSION. Favorite shows include A MILLION MORE TO GO (Jarrott Productions), ALABASTER (Shrewd Productions), WILD HORSES (Vortex Rep; 2018 B. Iden Payne Outstanding Actress in a Drama; Robert Faires' Top 10 (+1) Theatre Riches of 2017; 2018 Austin Critics Table Outstanding Performance by an Individual), STORM STILL (Vortex Rep), TERMINUS (Vortex Rep), SING MUSE (Vortex Rep), LEAR (Vortex Rep), MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (Penfold Theatre and Present Company), and AGENT ANDROMEDA (Sky Candy). By day, Jen is a middle school counselor, with a Masters in Education, with 20 years’ experience in public education and a mom to five-year-old Selah Jane.
Tyler Rouse
Music Director
Tyler began his music and acting journey in the DFW metroplex at a young age where he performed in numerous musicals. Since moving to central Texas in 2018, Tyler has continued his musical passion through accompanying, directing, acting, and teaching. He has served as the music director for Crown Theatre since its founding, but his contributions extend beyond our theater; Tyler is also a guiding force at RMT Music LLC, Buda United Methodist Church, and the Paramount Theatre Education program. Tyler recently worked at LaFenice and Different Stages as the Musical Director and is busy composing the music for several musicals, including our next Christmas show.
DR. BLANDINA CARDENAS
Board Member
DR. BLANDINA CARDENAS retired as President of the University of Texas PAN AMERICAN after a 50 year career in education and public service advancing access to equal educational opportunity for all children. For thirteen years she served on the United States COMMISSION on CIVIL RIGHTS and prior to that as the COMMISSIONER for Children, Youth and Families in the administration of President Jimmy Carter. She also served as Director of the Office of Minorities in Higher Education of the American Council on Education in DC. She has represented the United States in Paris, Copenhagen, the PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA, and as the official delegate to the InterAmerican Institute for Children of the Organization of American States. Dr. CARDENAS currently mentors emerging leaders and provides executive coaching to higher education Presidents.
Advisory Board Members
Libby Hollinger (Co-Education Director) is a lifelong Texan and long time educator. She studied Musical Theater at Texas State University and Theater Pedagogy at NYU. She loves being able to share the joy of theater with young actors and is thrilled to be a part of Crown Theatre- serving central Texas with passion and inclusion.
Beth Burns
Beth Burns began her career at the world-famous Groundlings Theatre in Los Angeles, where she worked as a teacher and performer for over ten years. She is an actor (Saturday Night Live, American Crime, Friday Night Lights), director, producer, and NEA award-winning playwright, studying under theatre luminaries José Quintero, Sydney Berger, and Edward Albee. Now, Burns is the Founder/Artistic Director of the award-winning Hidden Room Theatre, specializing in immersive/interactive new works and scholar-driven classics. The company toured the US and abroad, including stops at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Oxford University, the British Library, and the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-Upon-Avon. In the daytime, Burns is Director of Creative for archiving and technology company Inveniem, the driving force behind the Metallica Black Box, the Def Leppard Vault, and many more music icons' online museums.