Zara Aina's Team USA

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Executive Artistic Director

Caroline Grogan is a New York-based actor, voice-over narrator, and teaching artist. Her most recent theater credits include Bedlam: Arcadia, Persuasion, The Crucible (Boston & NY), SOCIETY’s Beginning Days of True Jubilation and The Strangers Came Today. Television credits include FBI: Most Wanted and Bedlam: The Series. In addition to performing, Caroline is the Education Director & Social Media Manager for Bedlam Theatre Company, Executive Artistic Director of the arts nonprofit, Zara Aina (zaraaina.org), and she runs her own classes for kids in NYC. Caroline is a clown passionate about exploring art with young people! She is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. http://www.caroline-grogan

Zara Aina Board 

Deirdre is retired from many years of service as a trustee of the Rhinebeck Central School District Board of Education, having been elected for five consecutive terms and serving as Board president for two terms. She is a trained mediator with the Mediation Center of Dutchess County, mediating family, workplace and small claims cases. She is also a trained facilitator and volunteers with a Poughkeepsie-based project helping to facilitate community meetings. Deirdre raised two children who went through the Rhinebeck public schools and, previously, has been a community organizer in public housing, a public health educator and a bookseller.

Zara Aina Board & Treasurer

Henry is a 7th grade Social Studies teacher at Bulkeley Middle School in Rhinebeck, NY.  Henry has created a dynamic program at the middle school about Madagascar and created and leads the Madagascar Connect program for CultureConnect.  MadagascarConnect is a two-year education and travel program for high school students to learn about and experience the culture of Madagascar.

Zara Aina Board

Ashley Garrett is an American photographer based in New York City. She specializes in production photos for theater, music and dance, and portraits for

individuals and groups. Her work has been exhibited in New York, Boston, Berlin, London and Rome. Prior to becoming a full time photographer, Ashley spent close to 20 years managing the All Souls Soup Kitchen, a privately funded organization that serves more than 25,000 hot sit-down meals each year. Ashley serves on the boards of the NYC Autism Charter School (where she also teaches photography), Statement Arts (a not-for-profit organization dedicated to bringing the creative and performing arts to underserved children), George School and Buckingham Friends School. Ashley has an AB in theater from Smith College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Artistic Director Emeritus/Head of Advisory Board

Justin Cimino received his BFA in Drama from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, training at the Meisner Studio. He has trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. As an actor, he has performed Off-Broadway and in many other productions in NYC. He has been a teaching artist for over 15 years. 

Justin teaches acting and movement in the BFA Acting Program, and acting in the Commercial Dance Program, at Pace University. He has directed and taught clowning and devising at NYU Tisch, Columbia University, The Studio/NY, The Public’s Shakespeare Initiative, Terry Schreiber Studio, Smashworks Dance Company, and Terry Knickerbocker Studio, where he has built out Clown and devising levels I-IV. Justin has taught classes in solo show creation, and has workshopped his own solo work with Austin Pendleton at the Director’s Company. 

Founder

An American stage, screen and voiceover actor, Bryce Pinkham is most widely known for originating the role of Monty Navarro in the Tony Award-winning production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder, for which he was nominated for a Tony, Grammy, and Drama Desk Award. He also notably appeared opposite Elisabeth Moss in the Broadway revival of The Heidi Chronicles as Peter Patrone, for which he was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award and a Drama League Award for distinguished performance. His other Broadway credits include originating roles in Ohio State Murders, The Great Society, Holiday Inn, Ghost, and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.