Aleksandra Wolska, founder, artistic co-director
Jerilyn Kass, dramaturg, artistic co-director

Theater Between is not an art organization or a permanent ensemble of artists; rather, it is a fluid site of exploration, experimentation and research into the nature of the performance that chooses happenings, ritual, committed solo work as well as the rhythms of the natural world as its main field of activity. As such, it functions in everyday life as well as in staged events, workshops, filmmaking and encounters with wild nature, exploring performance as the fundamental energy of human and non-human expressivity. 

                                                                                       Points of View 
  1. We live in a time of heightened anxiety about the state of our world  marooned in old stories of separation, aberrant individualism, conquest and dominion.
  2. As theater artists, we address this crisis through the medium of performance whose raison d'etre is relationship:  the in-between. This relationship comes into being within our living biosphere whose role is central to any performative act. 
  3. We believe that we need to release the old stories that keep us shackled to malfunctioning ideologies, and need new myths rooted in the interconnectedness of all life. 
  4. We examine the ancient paradigm of the microcosm, in which the human body enfolds and reflects the universe, applying that paradigm to the theater itself, regarding it as cosmos in miniature. We see that paradigm as an antidote to the prevailing ethos of separation.
  5. We believe that through performance we can re-enact our world anew by harnessing the power of imagination and summoning the potency of wild nature. 

Aleksandra Wolska, Founder & Artistic Co-Director

​Aleksandra is a theater artist, writer, filmmaker and performance scholar. She holds an MFA in Directing (Boston University) and a Ph.D. in Dramatic Criticism (Stanford University). Her directorial credits range from originally devised productions to plays by Shakespeare, Ionesco and Beckett. Among others, she directed all wear bowlers (Drama Desk Nomination) and machines machines machines machines machines machines machines (Obie Award) with Rainpan 43, which showed at Here Arts Center in NYC and other national and international venues. 
Formerly an Assistant Professor of Theater Arts at the University of Minnesota, Aleksandra is an independent scholar working on a book Theater of the Spheres: The Art of  Staging Cosmos. As a filmmaker, she wrote and co-directed the documentary "The Heart of a Bell", which premiered at Pacific Rim Film Festival in 2011. She works and lives in Santa Cruz. Past work 

Jerilyn Kass, Artistic Co-Director

Jerilyn is an educator,  dramaturg/editor, and poet. She is the founder and owner of Freedom Test Prep, a wholistic SAT and ACT prep company which transforms students' thinking about themselves and their capabilities so that they can access greater power and joy. Her insight into human behavior and her sensitivity to the possibilities within have helped her craft gorgeous poetry and co-create plays with depth and interest.  She co-directed The Wall at the Santa Cruz Fringe Festival and authored the poetry book What I Couldn't Tell You. Jerilyn lives and works in Santa Cruz.

Jarek ​Truszczynski, Actor

Jarek is a theater and film actor, designer, and composer. Before immigrating to the USA, he established himself as a versatile performer and theater artist in his native Poland, becoming a member of the National Theater of Warsaw. A co-founding member of Stanford Theater Institute, he played the part of the Old Man opposite Geoff Hoyle in The Chairs (Ionesco), Gogo in Waiting for Godot (Beckett), Tukros in Ajax (Sophocles). At Stanford, he played Khlestakow in Inspector General (Gogol), Woyzeck in Woyzeck (Buchner) and Feste in Twelfth Night (Shakespeare). His other notable roles include Stanley in Streetcar Named Desire (O’Neil) and Macheath in Three Penny Opera (Brecht). In 2017, he played Mr. Martinelli in Never Here, a feature film with Sam Shepherd and Mireille Enos. Jarek has designed stage sets for several productions for local and national companies. He works and lives in the Bay Area.

Mathew Schreiber, Sound Artist

Mathew is a composer, sound designer, improv guru, and theater artist. His work as a composer is rooted in his love for the sounds of the world: a roaring train, a distant car alarm, a songbird, the thundering surf. When composing for theater, he undertakes a deep journey, letting his emotional body guide him like a compass into what each moment needs to bring the scene to its fullest expression. His experience in experimental and improvisational theater inspires and informs his work. Website