Cynthia helped establish Wine Country Theatre six years ago and has been our dynamic leader since day one! She has been busy, serving as Executive Director, Board Producer, Treasurer, Concession Manager, Props Mistress, and Thrift Shop Hunter Extraordinaire, in addition to performing and directing. She was last seen in the 2019 production of Over the River and Through the Woods, where she played the doting, Italian grandma. Her most recent work as a director was last Fall's production of Brighton Beach Memoirs. Cynthia earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Theatre Arts Performance and has performed in over forty productions. She studied with Stella Adler and was a member of the prestigious Group Repertory Theatre in North Hollywood. In addition to performing, she pursued a career in Arts Administration. Cynthia served as Executive Director for SLO Little Theatre, Pacific Repertory Opera, Pioneer Players, Classic American Theatre and as Arts Grants Coordinator for the SLO Community Foundation. Cynthia is also a credentialed teacher and taught Drama at Paso Robles High School, Nipomo High School and the Atascadero Fine Arts Academy. Cynthia appreciates all the volunteers and audiences who have sustained Wine Country Theatre. Cynthia is in love with the theatre and the way it can unite a community and bring us together to enjoy a shared experience.

Thomas grew up in Paso Robles, and is an alumni of Paso Robles High School. There he began participating in student productions, which is where he first met directors John Lambie and Cynthia Anthony. He graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Music Composition from UC, Santa Barbara before moving back to Paso and becoming involved with Wine Country Theatre. He has played several roles with the company including Perchik in Fiddler on the Roof and Tulsa in Gypsy, for which he was also credited with the musical direction. By day, he travels to schools in the region delivering historical presentations to elementary schools.

As a teenager, Kent sang in the Atascadero High School honor choir and related festivals/competitions and was in drama for three years where he met and became life long friends with Pioneer Players founder Frances Rafferty Baker.

While in the United States Army, Kent did his basic training at Fort Polk, Louisiana where he was chosen to carry the honor flag for his platoon on their 20 mile hike. His Advanced Individual Training was completed at Fort Bliss, Texas, after which time he served as a radar operator at a missile site outside of Bitburg, Germany before being promoted to orderly room clerk.

He attended Fresno State University and later received a Bachelor's degree in Dental Technology from San Francisco City College. He was the first member to participate in the "technicians in dental office" program at the University of the Pacific. Kent worked as a dental technician in Salinas and San Luis Obispo and then managed a dental lab in Gilroy California for several years.

Kent was a member of the Paso Robles Pioneer Players theatrical group from its start and was in 35 of their shows. He received the Pioneer Players top award, the "Franny", Pioneer Players Lifetime Achievement Award, and Pioneer Players' Richmond Johnson Award of Excellence.

He is the only living founding member of the Atascadero Historical Society (Treasure of El Camino Real) and is a lifetime member.

Kent has been Atascadero's Citizen of the year, Roblan of the Month with the Paderewski Festival Committee and is a Founding Member of the Paderewski Festival. He is a Founding Member of the Atascadero Printery Foundation as well as a current Board member. He is a member in good standing with the Northern Region of the Rolls-Royce Owners Club, as well as the national organization, and is also a long time member of the Freewheelers Automobile club of Northern California.

Locally, Kent has spent the past 26 years as a volunteer with Coats for Kids in Atascadero and Paso Robles. He is an original volunteer member of the ECHO moving committee which houses the homeless and moves them from church to church. Likewise, he is a founding member of the Avila Valley Railway Museum and a current member of the SLO Railroad Museum. He has served as the Colony Days Royalty Chairman since 1980 and is a founding member of the Tent City re-enactment group. He is also a founding board member of Project Theatre Foundation, which is now Wine Country Theatre, of which he remains a board member.

As an automobile enthusiast, Kent's automobiles have been used at Hearst Castle for historic research and most recently drove Drew Carey and Lord Richard Taylor to the castle on behalf of the SLO film festival. His different Cadillac convertibles have been used over the years for high school homecoming events, Colony and Pioneer Days parades, Santa Margarita Days of the Dons, as well as for the weddings of close friends. In 2014, He drove Miss America, Laura Kaepler, for a Hospice cancer research fund raising event around the county from San Luis Obispo, Templeton and Paso Robles. He drove Juanita Booker in the Salinas Rodeo downtown parade and to the fairgrounds for her rendition of the Battle Hymn of the Republic (which she also sang at President Regan's second inauguration.)

Kent collects many different things [many of his possessions wind up on stage in various Wine Country Theatre productions] but mainly, automobiles and automated musical instruments. He has traveled extensively throughout Europe enjoying museums and cathedrals, especially those with pipe organs.

Garrett Larsen was born and raised on the Central Coast. His first taste of performing was with choir in elementary school. He followed this up with after-school acting and set building programs at Paso Robles Youth Arts Foundation. He continued his involvement into high school where he met and worked with both Cynthia Anthony and Laurie Zenobio, who were educators at the time, and are now fellow board members at Wine Country Theatre. Garrett has worked on almost all of WCT's productions, either behind the scenes, or on stage as an actor amd singer. Garret'ts main role on the board is as technical liaison to any directors, new and old, to the company and as its lighting designer. By night he may be a thespian, but by day he performs as a tour guide at Hearst Castle. Garrett's two main loves are creating and performing. To anyone who has attended a WCT production, his wishes to thank you for your support of live local theater!

After 25 years as a pilot for Delta Airlines, Beth started performing with Wine Country Theater in 2013, as a nurse in the chorus of South Pacific. Over next five years she has had roles in numerous plays in San Luis Obispo county, including Yente in Fiddler on the Roof, Mariette in The Dinner Party, Pantalone in The Servant of 2 Masters, Aunt Alma in Guys and Dolls, Zelda Fitzgerald in The Last Flapper. . ..and has done stand up comedy at several venues around the local area.

Today she performs as a member of an Improv group in Los Angeles, and as an actor in television and movies. Beth is very happy to be a member of the Wine Country Theatre Board, which she has been nearly since its inception.

Kristen Saunders has been with Wine Country Theatre since its earliest days, having played lead roles in the first two productions, It Had To Be You, and Guys and Dolls. The new kid in town, she continued her back-to-back performing streak on the central coast in SLO Little Theatre's next four productions, Frost/Nixon, A Christmas Story, Singin' in the Rain, and Sylvia. She honed her improvisation skills performing both in classes and at character children's parties before returning to Wine Country Theatre to join the board. In between directing Gypsy, and Over the River and Through the Woods for WCT, Kristen assisted with stage managing Mary Poppins and Young Frankenstein for Paso Robles Youth Arts Foundation. After supporting several other WCT production both in front of the house, at the tech booth, or backstage, she returned to performing most recently in Brighton Beach Memoirs before producing To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday.

Born with a passion for theatre, Kristen has enjoyed performing onstage since the age of five. She is experienced in musicals, Shakespeare, and vaudeville, having appeared in independent film, web series, and industrial work. With her B.F.A. degree in Theatre-Acting from UC Santa Barbara, she performed in dozens of lead roles for Bay Area stages (Northside Theatre Company, Shady Shakespeare, Broadway West, Gaslighter Theatre, Big Lil's Cabaret) before moving closer to family in Paso Robles. She is so thankful to contribute as part of our vibrant artistic community and share the stories that reflect our human condition.

Veronica Surber has been a part of Wine Country Theatre since its beginning, appearing in one of its first shows, I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change!. Since then, she has been in three other Wine Country Theatre productions: Fiddler On The Roof, Next To Normal, and Little Women: the Musical. Veronica found her passion for musical theatre 17 years ago when she was cast as The Baker's Wife in a production of Into The Woods at the young age of 21. The fire for musical theatre was sparked and she hasn't stopped since. In real life, Veronica is a mother of two children, Charlotte and Cody, and is working on receiving her Multiple Subject Teaching Credential in San Luis Obispo County. She also serves as Secretary on the Wine Country Theatre Board of Directors.

Lindsey Taylor, originally from San Pedro, California, lives with her husband and two boys in Paso Robles. She attended Hamilton Music Academy (high school) in Los Angeles and then continued her dance and theater majors at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) in New York City. She has performed in various regional theater productions some of her favorites include, West Side Story (Anita), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat (Wife/ Dance Captain), Violet (Mabel/Choreographer), and City of Angels (Bobby/Gabby). After moving back from Manhattan in 2007, Lindsey was the resident choreographer for The Relevant Stage Theater Company at the Warner Grand Theater in San Pedro, California. In her time with TRS, she choreographed and directed Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change! In 2019 Lindsey was thrilled to join the cast of Wine Country Theater's production of Little Women and, gratefully, assumed a seat on the Wine Country Theater Board of Directors. Lindsey is a dance teacher and Varsity Cheer coach for Templeton Unified School District as well as a Certified Nutrition Coach.

"The theater is the only institution in the world which has been dying for four thousand years and has never succumbed. It requires tough and devoted people to keep it alive." - John Steinbeck, Once There Was a War

Laurie is President of the Board of Directors, the company webmaster, and is responsible for executing all print and web media. To this end, she creates the posters, playbills and manages this website. In addition to her duties involving promotion, Laurie coordinates and executes all manner of company business, from ticketing, to concessions, to assistance with costumes, props, sets, music and whatever other details may arise and need handling. With her, Laurie brings a professional background in the entertainment industry. "In a former life" she was a development executive at Aaron Spelling Productions and Vice President of Creative Affairs for Gary Nardino Productions. For the past 30 years she has been a resident of Paso Robles, taught school in the Paso Robles school district, and has just retired her single subject teaching credential (in English) to devote herself to the arts.