Damian Lewis began performing at the age of 10 in the musical tour of the play Dreams Over Drugs.  He completed and won first place awards at the DTASC Junior High School competition.  He later attended the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts where he studied drama.  In his senior year he received a first place award from the Arts Recognition and Talent Search competition held in Miami, Fl.  Upon graduation, he continued his studies in drama and received his BFA from The Julliard School in New York.  While at Juilliard, Damian began teaching and directing youth from various schools in plays that were performed at the 92nd Street “Y” in New York.  In the fall of 2000, Damian returned to LACHSA where he began  to teach acting, movement, voice and speech, and Comedia del Arte.  He also directed The Amen Corner by James Baldwin for the 2001-02 theater season and is currently co-directing Drums in the Night by Bertolt Brecht for the 2002-03 season.  Meanwhile, Damian’s career as an actor continues to thrive with appearances in Frasier, One on One, One Life to Live, Guiding Light, Trinity, Chicago Hope and various commercials and plays.  He is currently working on A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Andrew Tsao, to be performed at the Edinburg Theatre Festival in 2004.

Classes
1st Year Acting

Vicky Silva is a nationally recognized expert on the interdisciplinary aspects of mime, movement and theatre. She has been instrumental in designing, integrating and implementing theatre arts skills with social science curriculum as well as language arts development and physical education in K through 12. Ms. Silva has created numerous new works for the theatre, including Of Myth and Legend, World of Dark Enchantment and Hear the Drum. As a touring artist, Ms. Silva received support from the California Arts Council, NEA, Department of Education, Bank of America and numerous other support foundations. Ms. Silva has directed many workshops for schools and colleges and has been guest lecturer/performer for national conferences and symposiums. Some of these include: Children's Theatre Association, National Conference of English Teachers, California Dance Educators, Very Special Arts Fair, Los Angeles Workshop for Exceptional Individuals, Orange County Arts for the Handicapped and California Association for the Gifted, The Educational Theatre Association of America, and L.A.'s Best under the auspices the Leonard Bernstein Center at the Grammy Foundation. She has worked as an artist in residence for the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, was a guest presenter for the Stanford Lively Arts Marcel Marceau Fiftieth Anniversary Tour and was an invited panel member in the recent Ten Chimneys (home of actors Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne) Conference on Secondary Teacher Training in Wisconsin.
      Ms. Silva helped design the theatre curriculum presently used at Arts High. She was twice honored as a Presidential Arts Scholar Distinguished Teacher by the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars and the National Educational Association. She is a Ruth Asawa Fund Distinguished Artist Mentor. Ms. Silva lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Jim, and her two children, Natalie and Daniel.

Classes
1st Year Acting
1st Year Movement

Jeremy Guskin, who teaches First Year Voice and Speech is an accomplished actor whose film credits include Admiring Melora, Simone, Kennedy Space Center, Smoke and Mirrors, The Son of Sam Greenbaum, The Last Days of Flannel Daphne and Damned.  On television he appeared in Angel-WB, Six Feet Under-HBO, Do Over-WB, Septuplets-Fox Pilot, ER-NBC, Even Stevens-Disney, Roswell-WB, The Geena Davis Show-ABC, Hang Time-NBC, The King of Queens-CBS, and Jag-CBS.  As a stage actor, Mr. Guskin appeared in Midsummer’s Night Dream, MacBeth, The Bear, The Wedding, Electra, The Lower Depths, Charlotte’s Web, The Duchess of Malfi, Murder Mayhem, Fortinbras, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. He has experience performing using Standard British, Cockney, Australian, Irish, Indian, and Iraqi accents.  He plays the Alto Saxophone, Tambourine and Ukulele.  He is skilled in Commedia Dell’arte, karate, capoera and stage combat.  Mr. Guskin received his BA at Connecticut College and his MFA at Carnegie Mellon University.  He had additional training at Yale Drama Schol, Moscow Art Theatre School, R.A.D.A.-London, and National Theatre Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.

Classes
1st Year Voice and Speech

Octavio Tizoc Gaitan-Diaz is a graduate from LACHSA. Mr. Gaitan-Diaz (Call him "O") will co-teach First Year Stagecraft/Design and ROP Stagecraft with Mr. Panman. Mr. Gaitan-Diaz majored in communications at Pasadena City College before going right into the professional theatrical technical field. He is a member of I.A.T.S.I. Local 33 and I.B.E.W. Local 45. His television credits include KCBS/KCAL TV-News. He coordinated the world's largest news merger between KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV and was selected employee of the month. At KCBS/KCAL he worked as an E.N.G. Technician, Audio Technician, Electrician, Carpenter and Painter. For Telemundo/SONY, Mr. Gaitan-Diaz was the Set Director for Los Beltran and Solo En America. He wrote and acted in the TV show Illegal Interns Television. He was a Production Assistant and Electrician on Surviving L.A., There's Nothing Funny About Serial Killers and My Family/Mi Familia prodcued by Francis Ford Coppola. His work in the theatre has been extensive. As Master Electrician, Scenic Painter, Carpenter, Production Manager, Audio Technician, Lighting Director, and, yes, Stuntman, Mr. Gaitain-Diaz' credits include the Japan America Theater & Cultural Community Center, Goethe Institute, Actor's Gang Theater, Willie Bietak Productions, S.P.A.R.C/Cesar Chavez Center UCLA, Colony Theater, Canon Theater, UCLA Royce Hall, Renaissance Entertainment, Plaza De La Raza/Latino Theater Company, Bilingual Foundation of the Arts, and Theater Geo.

Classes
1st Year Stagecraft