About
Mission Statement
We are committed to contributing a beautiful reflection of the broad scope of the human experience, for the purpose of healing separation and disharmony, and to unite in our common desire for helpful interrelationship with one another, through theater performance and community activities focused on goodwill and well-being.
We share a particular love for the art form of the Everyman-style Medieval mystery, morality and miracle plays of the Middle Ages, not as a quaint artifact of European history but as examples of representative art-iculation of human development, much like the Sanskrit epic, Mahabharata and Ramayana, the Zorastrian Avesta, the Egyptian mysteries, the Greek comedy and tragedy form and other cultural oral and written traditions.
We seek to establish a thriving community of theater lovers, performers, visual and movement artists, musicians and composers, supporters and others who wish to be a part of bringing meaningful text, story and literature to the stage in live performance.
Join us!
Worldstage Theatre & Co.
is a multidisciplinary ensemble company of theater artists, using sound, color, speech, text, performance, music and movement to bring the best of classical theater as well as new works to the stage. TEAM
Jenny Leonhardt, Artistic Director
Jenny trained in theater first at California Institute of the Arts, and then studied speech and drama with Peter and Barbara Bridgmont at the Chrysalis Theatre School in London, while working backstage at the National Theater with Sir Anthony Hopkins, Daniel Day-Lewis, Joan Plowright and others. She completed an undergraduate degree in creative writing at Bryn Mawr College, and a five-year training in Spacial Dynamics movement. She has performed in and directed plays internationally, including May in Sam Shepherd’s Fool for Love, The Wife in Mamet’s Edmond, Beatrice in A View from the Bridge, and Paulina in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, Gussie in Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, and roles in Quartermaine’s Terms, Our Country’s Good, Da, and many others. She co-directed The Lark by Anouilh, Momo with it’s playwright William Ward at Harlemville, NY and she has acted in films like Buster’s Mal Heart and Holidays, television series like The Office and The Middle on NBC/Universal, Better Things on FX Networks and Room 104 on HBO, as well as in national commercials. She has written and directed several films, as well as adapted a novel by Jakob Wassermann, Casper Hauser, into a play for performance Off-Broadway. A playwright, published author and poet, she has also toured and released original music with her own band.
Alice Gilmartin, Managing Director/Dramaturg
Alice has been involved in theater and the performing arts since her early years. She began her musical training on the flute which she played in several orchestras, and performed in plays throughout her school years. She earned a Masters degree in Psychology, Mental Health and Rehabilitation and completed a Waldorf education teacher training in Sacramento. She has a background steeped in the archetypes of world religions, mythology and Jungian psychology and dreamwork. She spent many years as a community outreach director for regional community programs and acted as workshop director and weekly radio co-host for an internationally-renowned health program on the west coast of Florida. She married musician, counselor and philosopher, Stephen McCarthy, working as a program director for his clients throughout their marriage and has released his music and teachings worldwide on her own record imprint.
Dana Williams, Art Direction & Movement
Dana spent his formative years learning at Highland Hall north of Los Angeles. After graduating from High Mowing School in New Hampshire, he earned his Bachelor's degree in history from CSUN in Northridge Calif. He studied at the Spring Valley Eurythmy School in upstate New York for four years, graduating with a diploma to teach the movement art. As a master teacher, he taught full time at Highland Hall Waldorf School for over forty years, including such subjects as painting, black and white drawing, eurythmy, History of Art and Architecture, Descriptive and Projective Geometry, and directed the senior year students in the medieval Oberufer Three King's Play annually. He served as Faculty and High School Chair, Chair of the College of Teachers and on the Board of Directors for fifteen years and the Teacher Oversight Committee for about 30 years. He has toured with a small movement performance group in the Western United States from Milwaukie to Santa Fe to Ashland and San Diego, as well as at a school in downtown L.A. In addition to his work with Worldstage Theatre & Co, he currently also teaches through the WISC Waldorf Teacher Training program in Northridge.
Aaron Gilmartin, Sound Designer
Aaron has been a consummate music professional for over thirty years, since he graduated from Berklee School of Music. He has toured extensively worldwide with his own and others’ bands, as a guitarist utilizing many styles. He has released an album of his own, called Dream of a Boy Who Could Fly (2012). His virtuoso playing is featured since the 90s on many of the Happy Traum music school videos and recordings, Homespun Tapes, with some videos of his teaching reaching over a million views on YouTube. He has composed for Broadway shows and performed a duo called Sueno con Serpientes. He lives in Los Angeles with his son, Cooper.