The Team
Photo on this page: “Chandelier and Pyramidals” by Greg Dunn
A tenured Professor of Theater at UC San Diego, Kim’s research and productions center on the contradictions of human behavior. After a life-long fascination with the human brain, she has developed an embodied training that synthesizes neuroscience with theatre techniques to stimulate and expand optimal creative thinking for people in all fields of endeavor. At UC San Diego her class Cultivating the Creative Mind reaches students across majors, and she has devised and taught a series of intensive workshops for faculty, post-docs and graduate students on Communicating Science. She is a member of the Sanford Fellowship, housed at UCSD’s Center of Empathy and Compassion, which trains doctors to communicate effectively with their patients.
Before coming to UC San Diego, Kim was the Associate Artistic Director at Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, CT. More recently, her productions of O’Neill’s Anna Christie and A Taste of Honey at The Odyssey Theatre won several Los Angeles theatre awards for best direction and production. Kim is a recipient of the TCG/NEA Directing Fellowship, was nominated for the Alan Schneider Directing Award and was Associate Director with Michael Mayer and Tour Director of Angels in America National Tour.
Kim’s other teaching credits include ten years on faculty at Northwestern University and the School at Steppenwolf, as well as being a visiting and guest professor at schools such as the University of Chicago, Brown/Trinity Consortium, Wesleyan University, and NTI at The O’Neill Center.
Kim Rubinstein
Claire Kaplan
Claire is a performer and teacher specializing in devised ensemble theatre and classical work. She was a founding member and Director of Education with the Hungry River Theater Company in Ridgecrest, CA in 2012, and is the current co-artistic director of The West. She now works in San Diego, Chicago, and Berlin.
Claire designed a theatre curriculum and taught classes at every school in the Sierra Sands school district. She has created and taught acting intensives for high schoolers and adults. She taught voice and movement for actors at Columbia Chicago, and sat on a panel for personal storytelling.
She has performed original, award-winning work in Los Angeles, San Diego, Ridgecrest, Chicago, Edinburgh, and Berlin, and recently toured her folk-rock family myth campfire story “Olympia! Olympia! Olympia!” Regional credits include: South Coast Rep, The La Jolla Playhouse, East West Players.
Claire received a full scholarship to get her MFA in European Devised Performance Practice from ArtHaus Berlin and Columbia Chicago. She studied theatre at the British American Drama Academy in London and the University of California, San Diego, where she received the Milton Saier Award for Acting.
Dana Martin
Dana Martin (she/her) is an Actor, Director, Educator and Critic based in Los Angeles, CA. She teaches classes, workshops and private sessions online and in-person for actors, artists and the creatively curious throughout Los Angeles and Orange County. Her heart-lead approach to creativity intuitively blends yoga and meditation, expressive movement and imagination-based practices within the container of the 10 Facets of the Creative Mind.
Dana is the Vice President of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, a regular contributor to online Theatre Journal Stage Raw and a frequent guest on the podcast Stages of Our City. She serves as a mentor through the Z. Clark Branson/ Stage Raw Equity and Inclusion Initiative for Young Journalists in partnership with the Grow Program at Wallis Center for the Performing Arts. She’s worked extensively with Stella Adler Studio’s Outreach Program, co-facilitating acting classes in detention centers in New York City and Los Angeles County.
Selected performance credits include: Rocket to the Moon (Harold Clurman Lab Theatre), Still Dance the Stars (Chicago Dramatists/New Light Theater Project), La bohème (LA Opera), Hamlet (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival), A Phrasal, Likewise Me (Third Culture Theatre). Selected directing credits include: An Iliad (Pendragon Theatre), Men on Boats (Stella Adler Art of Acting Studio), The Glass Menagerie (Forestburgh Playhouse), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (New Light Theatre Project), The Understudy (Bull and Bearer).
Dana is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA and has an MFA in Performance from University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Cassidy Paradis
Cassidy is a graduate of Brown University where she received her B.A. in Contemplative Studies with a focus on the cognitive underpinnings of artistry and performance. Prior to Brown, Cassidy studied and worked at UC San Diego, where she assisted with several workshops teaching STEM faculty and PhD candidates how to communicate their research more effectively to a broader audience.
She also assistant directed the world premiere of Liliana Padilla’s How To Defend Yourself (dir. Kim Rubinstein) and the Stage Raw-nominated west coast premiere of Stockholm (dir. Kim Rubinstein). In summer 2019, Cassidy interned at the Ojai Playwrights Conference, where she was a writing/directing intern for Kate Cortesi’s new play Love (dir. Christina Baldwin). She also produced and assistant directed the short film 400 Fathoms Deep (dir. Joëlle Dong) and worked on the set of and in post-production for the upcoming TV series Boned.
Cassidy has additionally served on the board of several organizations including the college theatre producing group Shakespeare on The Green, and continues to serve on the board of directors of the Maasai Girls Education Fund.
Cassidy is from Washington, D.C. and currently lives in Los Angeles.
Nika Belinsky
Nika is an Actress/Artist with over 5 years of experience in Social Media and Marketing. After achieving a degree in Public Relations from Penn State University, she furthered her career by managing multiple social media accounts and event coordination.
Nika has been working with Kim Rubinstein for many years, developing the philosophy and core methods for The Creative Mind Lab. She continues to work with the team in developing brand voice and strategy through various social media platforms.
