We’ve proudly taken to the stage with each and every one of these talented improv’ers – if we were a mob family (an absolutely preposterous supposition that our lawyers categorically deny, by the way), we’d totally be a consigliari for all of them.
Alumni
Anne McElvain
Anne McElvain grew up in the small agricultural town of El Centro, 107 miles east, in the middle of the desert. In the days before cable TV, MTV, HBO and video games were invented, the children rode real bicycles outside in 100+ degree temperatures, fried eggs on the sidewalk, and got real dirt on their clothes and faces. They watched grass grow, learned the intricacies of drying paint, raised lambs in 4-H club, and tipped cows for excitement. Yes, just like in the movie “Cars,” and the people often looked and sounded exactly like Tow Mater. They wore cowboy hats and boots, and listened to twangy country music.
Anne has some secrets up her sleeve, including the location of the last known Special puffy Quesadillas, which violate every healthy eating plan on the planet, and a few from Saturn and Mars, too.
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Breezy Fabian
I realized my life just had no purpose. Sure, I spent time as a spy for the CIA, and a brief stint as a ninja assasin in Japan, but still it was as if my life was empty.
Even after my affairs with the prince of Monocco and countless movie stars, I was still unfulfilled. It was then that I began my own commune, (what some non belivers may call a cult) known as the sunshine pussycats. Oh, and did some improv with some group calling themselves ‘The Hinges’.
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Brooke B.
Brooke dabbled in acting by taking roles in Oscar-winning films such as The English Patient and Dude, Where’s My Car. After starring opposite Brad Pitt in Troy, and being traumatized by the amount of oil on his body, she decided to retire from acting. She now works in an undisclosed position at an undisclosed location. Secret agent? Maybe…
Chrystal Rose
Chrystal Rose left the Hinges in 2009 and moved to Charlotte, North Carolina. A multi-tasker at heart, Chrystal blogs about dating and relationships, is working on publishing a memoir, teaches pole fitness classes, manages over 100 promo models and is working on starting her own marketing firm.
In her spare time, she likes to goof around laugh at herself and make silly improv videos. As an alumni of the Hinges, humor plays an enormous role in her everyday life. Chrystal is currently seeking others to form a troupe so she can bring a slice of the Hinges to the Queen City.
Back to top ↑Jacqueline Lopez
Last year’s winner for “Best Dance Single” at the Los Angeles Music Awards, Jacqueline (aka J Grace), a sultry, stunning twenty-three year old singer/songwriter of Filipino/Mexican extraction, was born in New York City, grew up a California girl on the sunny beaches of San Diego, graduated from the prestigious University of Southern California, and she mixes it all up again in her new CD “A Global Soul”.
Few American pop performers take the idea of global pop hip-hop so literally. Inspired by her love of traveling and experiencing other cultures and belying the typical portrayal of the sexy young pop star as vacuous and empty-headed, her songs reflect gypsy worldliness and humanity as well as her own sharp wit and insight.
Back to top ↑Jenna Carlson
From her humble Midwest beginnings, Jenna was alienated from absolutely everything interesting for most of her life. Like most farm kids, she spent her days entertaining herself – riding horses, making mud pies, and building forts –pretty much developing her crazy creative imagination.
During her gangly adolescence, the acting bug bit and bit hard. While most girls were out dating,Jenna was singing and performing on stage. This passion and lack of social skills lead to degrees in both Musical Theatre and Music Business from the esteemed University of Nebraska at Kearney (not the Lincoln one, but still a great place to be a theatre nerd).
In 2007, Jenna got her professional entertainment start being host for Central Nebraska’s FOX affiliate, Fox 4 & 17. After a blur of two years, covering farm shows and telling what’s “coming up next” on Family Guy, Jenna packed up her Honda Accord, Loretta, and headed out West.
Back to top ↑Jessica Mandeville
Having spent recent years engaged as a fashion correspondent, improviser, actress and recording artist, no one would ever believe that she grew up a nature child– whittling sticks, leading feather hunts and foraging for berries between thorny trees. But that’s exactly what you do when you live in the woods of West Chester, Pennsylvania without cable.
At Syracuse University, Jessica honed her skills and jazz hands and struggled to keep warm. She graduated magna cum laude with a major in musical theatre and a masters in layering.
Times are exciting these days! Jessica has enjoyed covering Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week and performing offensive comedy sketches on MTV. She has also secured a reliable contract with Time Warner Cable. She gets 1,057 channels.
Get to know more about Jessica at her site, www.jessicamandeville.com.
Back to top ↑Lauren Magnuson
Lauren hails from all over this great nation, most recently transplanting from Boston. It was there she also learned that driving five miles can and will take 45 minutes and that Dunkin’ Donuts coffee is a basic human right (get with the program, San Diego.)
She has dabbled in theater and acting all her life, with a slowly developing sense that life is inherently funny. It is with this steadfast philosophy that she ventures into the improvisational unknown.
Lauren spends much of her spare time away from improv trying to achieve the bird of paradise in yoga class, perfecting rap songs for karaoke, and watching animal videos on YouTube.
Back to top ↑Linda Pharathikoune
Linda is a trained film actor who also has been doing some stand up comedy during her hiatus from the Hinges.
She loves drinking Leinenkuguls, eating mangos, talking in a British accent after a few glasses of wine, and playing ping pong with her girlfriends.
Back to top ↑Merrick McCartha
In the mean time, YES, Merrick is that guy in the Cox Communications and King Stahlman Bail Bonds commercials!
Check out photos from some of his other pieces: Act Adept site.
And his performance this season in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is not to be missed.
Back to top ↑Michelle Zabuska
Life has been a whirlwind since leaving The Hinges, and Michelle is right in the midst of it all. Since getting married, Michelle has moved far away from her San Diego roots and bid L.A. farewell… but all is not lost. She still continues to do theatre and hopes to eventually settle on the east coast with dreams of Broadway. Her comedic skills on the other hand…well, sketch writing helps keep her wit sharp.
Monique Fleming
Monique Fleming now resides in Portland, OR. You can catch up with Monique’s film and photography at her site, www.moniquefleming.com
Sean Fitzgerald
After the dreams of becoming a night manager of a Blimpie Subshop in Grand Rapids, MI were crushed by an incident with the meat slicer that will “never be talked about again”, Sean decided to join the military. Realizing that world domination is not as easy as it sounds, he decided to go a different avenue, improv comedy. So, ten years after taking one acting class at University of San Diego (fighting Toreros!) he felt he was more than qualified to audition for the Hinges.
Sean now resides in South Carolina
Back to top ↑Sumrall Howell
Sumrall spent her formative years in Oklahoma, Land of the Tumbleweeds, where repeated attempts to reconcile the duality of a life raised by wolves and socialites met with frustration. She does not want to hear your jokes about “Hilbilly Handfishing” (it’s just not that funny) nor does she appreciate references to “The Grapes of Wrath” when discussing her exodus to California…though she acknowledges the literary reference and probably considers you a hipster.
Since becoming infected with snarkiness at an early age, Sumrall now uses this affliction to her advantage to combat phonies, hipsters, and the occasional historical reenactor. In her most neutral state, Sumrall would be considered calm, genteel, passive, and extremely well-mannered, however she is given to bouts of sarcasm and nasty letter writing…so don’t piss her off, ok?
Back to top ↑Taylor Wilson
Taylor has gone to North Carolina, but will soon be chilling in Northern Cali, hopefully making a slow comeback to San Diego.
