JACKSONVILLE PERFORMING ARTS Company
Performing Arts Theater in Jacksonville, NC
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Our Voices In The Community
Here at JPA it really does take a village!
Come and meet the team.
Nikki Dyba is the President and Creative Director of JPA. She has been immersed in Theater for most of her life. Nikki has performed in London, Oxford, and Stratford-upon-Avon. Nikki loves the arts and the benefits it gives to our youth and so founded the JPA Youth performers program in 2017. Recently Nikki has joined the world of Playwrights with three Productions under her belt, not to mention writing and choreographing part of the Fire Prevention program for Camp Lejeune Fire Prevention Department. Always finding ways to create , Nikki is the creator and founder of "Theatrics" An award winning Artisan product that follows the Montessori Philosophy for development, creativity and independent play. Nikki believes that Community Theater is for the community and by the community. It is ageless and timeless and brings joy to many at any age, whether as a performer or a spectator.
"if you are going to make something.... make a difference"
Victoria is a Vocal Director for JPA. Victoria graduated from CCCC with an AFA in Theatre, and an AA degree. She is now at UNCW to pursue a BA in Theatre Performance with a Minor in Musical Theatre. She certainly has a string of accolades, including placing 3rd in her category for the NC Musical Theatre NATS singing competition in 2019 and 2021, and scoring as a regional qualifier in 2020. She advanced to the Mid-Atlantic Regional round each year, placing 1st in 2020 and 2nd in 2021 (with 1st Place in the sing-off round). For the past two years, she has moved on to the National round of the competition, making it as far as the Quarter finals, and Semi-finals. She has also previously scored as the #1 Alto 2 in the state of NC for the NCMEA choir, and been President of both the CCCC Music Club and Tri-M International Music Honors Society. Victoria has co-directed 10 productions with JPA, and cannot wait for its bright future! Victoria is also on the Board of Directors for our Teen Outreach program.
Jennifer Bullock ,AEA,SAG,AFTRA,AVGA. Formerly a Rockette at Radio City. Jennifer is a true Broadway veteran with productions such as "Catch Me If You Can, Chicago, Spamalot, The Wild Party, Never Gonna dance, On The Town, Aint Broadway Grand, Curtain, Anything Goes" Jennifer also has an impressive repertoire to include National Tours, NYC Theater, Regional Theater and TV appearances.
Jennifer will be working with our Intro to Theater, a specialized program for our Thespians with disabilities plus other fun and fabulous ideas to help our aspiring actors, dancers and vocalists become a trifecta and follow their dreams with the immense knowledge and expertise of Jennifer!
Zoë Collins is a honors graduate from the University of Southern Mississippi where she received her Bachelors Degree in Theatre. Instead of focusing on one department, she studied General Theatre to be experienced not only in the performing arts, but the technical side of Theatre as well. Zoë is passionate about bringing theatre into our community to show that you don’t have to be a performer to be apart of the arts. During her College Career Zoë also studied abroad in London for performance where she participated in numerous master classes at RADA and LAMDA. Some of her memorable theatrical roles include: Constance in USM’s production of The Three Musketeers and Olivia in CCAC’s production of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. In her more technical side of training, Zoë creates SFX makeup looks for personal clients and collaborated with Terror on the Coast for their haunting season. Zoë is overjoyed and blessed to help bring theatre to the community with JPA!
Roshun is a vocal Director with JPA and is lead acting instructor for our Schools division. Roshun is a retired Navy Chief and a youth music & worship leader at New Life Family Worship center. Roshun started singing the National Anthem for the USO , Jacksonville center in 2018 and has since sang at the Carolina Panthers stadium and for the ACC tournament championship and many other fabulous events along the way. Roshun has been in many JPA productions to include Sister Act, Christmas Carol and our famous JPA variety shows. Roshun believes that you should bloom where you are planted.
Anessa Gonzalez is one of our Youth Directors here at JPA!!!! We love how Anessa has works with our younger 7-10 years of age Youth Performers Anessa is pursuing her Bachelors in education and has performed in numerous shows. Some of her roles include Frenchy in Grease, Helena in Midsummer Night's Dream and Charlotte in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella . Anessa loves working with our younger age group and we can certainly say ,they love Miss Anessa!
Brittany Bell is our vocal coach and a Nashville recording artist! You can check out some of her music videos on YouTube under " Britt Lane Music." While living in Nashville she taught voice lessons for 7 years. She also has extensive background in theatre having started theatre classes and musicals when she was 8 years old. Brittany loves to teach and work with children and is very passionate about singing!
When not teaching you can find her out and about with her two children! She also loves playing the guitar and writing songs. Brittany also offers guitar lessons for beginners. Brittany is so excited to join the JPA Village.
Marissa Weber is our Stage Combat Instructor. Marissa joined JPA in the summer of 2021 for our “Back to Broadway” production. Her stage credits include Mrs. Cratchit in “The Christmas Carol Experience”, performances in our variety shows and our 2022 Murder Mystery, and most recently LeFou in “Beauty and the Beast: The Broadway Musical”. In addition to her role, Marissa arranged the stage combat sequences, earning her first theatrical billing as a Fight Choreographer. Since late 2018, Marissa has been a member of The Shadow Players, a sword fighting comedy pirate group, traveling up and down the eastern seaboard with them to perform at a multitude of events and festivals. Marissa is now the first Lady Pirate for ECU and has made history doing so! In conjunction with her life as a swashbuckling pirate reenactor, Marissa became a professional mermaid, “The Siren Sorsha”, and earned her PADI Mermaid and Advanced Mermaid certifications in July 2022. Her life is full of adventures, and she is proud to share in them with JPA!
Nina Speranza is our "Show Troupe Director , Nina has performed in many productions with JPA to include Killer Reviews, Death of a hot sauce salesman, Christmas around the World and Disney Under the Stars to name a few. She is an all round actress, vocalist and dancer and has supported JPA from the start. Nina will be running our Show Troupe division to make sure our performers are all organized, scheduled and ready to go for any upcoming shows.
Nina is also an assistant Director for some of our Youth Productions and loves spending time with our actors. Nina is also on the Board of Directors for our Teen Outreach program.
Patti Aultman is our "Grand Dame Costumier" . Patti has been with JPA since 2017 and has not looked back since. She is a wiz with a needle and thread and has an immense love for creativity . Patti also performs with the JPA cast and is always our fabulous comic relief. Patti has performed in "Death of a hot sauce salesman" ,"Christmas around the World" "The USO Express" "Killer reviews" and "The Saggy Awards" Patti is always our go to for repairs, fixes and solutions. She creates some amazing costumes and we can never wait to see what will be her next production!!
Joe Speranza has also been with JPA since we opened . Joe told us he came to see one of our shows and immediately felt at home. That is the best compliment we could get. Joe is our super fabulous lighting guy and makes sure every production has the ambiance needed to showcase our productions. You may have seen Joe in many of our productions, most famously as AndRoger in our Christmas spectaculars and of course in our highly popular Murder Mysteries.
Peter Dyba is 'The Sound Guy" for JPA. Yes, he even has a T-Shirt! Peter has been with JPA since day one and has been the backbone to it all! Designing sets, working on sound equipment and fixing any issues and troubleshooting anything we need. Pete is also the Roger part of Roger AND Roger and loves to interact with the audience and always makes sure everyone is having a great time. Peter also updates any technology, always adjusting our web site and dealing with Ascap, MTI and BMI for rights to production. He designs all tickets and has recently taken over the design of all programs. All in all Peter Dyba is in himself a one man show and we could not run as smoothly as we do without him!!