Board of Directors for the Ojai Performing Arts Theater
JOAN KEMPER (Executive Producer and Founder). Joan’s commitment to the performing arts in Ojai is legendary. Her shows have raised money for several local nonprofits, among them the Ojai Unified School District, the Ojai Art Center Theater, The Libbey Bowl Foundation, the Ojai Valley Museum and now the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy. Past shows include Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus, the original musical Reunions, A Christmas Carol, a number of magic shows called The Stars of Magic, I Do! I Do!, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, She Loves Me, Grand Hotel, Man of La Mancha, numerous benefit concerts and Black Comedy…all to benefit Ojai’s arts scene.
CLAY CREASEY (Co-Chairperson) Clay retired in 2025 from AAA (Northern California), where he served for eight years as CFO and then as CEO. Prior to that he served as CFO at Toys “R” US and Mervyn’s. Born in Bakersfield and raised in St Helena, Clay and his five siblings worked on their family’s farm picking grapes, prunes, and walnuts, rising before dawn to feed dairy cows. Stanford was Clay’s escape from manual labor, where he degreed in statistics and got his MBA. At the tender age of 53 Clay discovered community musical theater when he auditioned on a whim for a part in Guys and Dolls. Bitten by the bug, he got a singing coach and went on to play Daddy Warbucks in Annie, Olin Britt in The Music Man, and multiple other gigs with his coach’s recital group. Retirement in Ojai now has Clay back to his roots, where he rides his tractor and plants alfalfa in his backyard. But NO cows!
KIM BARNES (Co-Chairperson) Kim’s Philadelphia theatrical roots began with youth lessons at the fabled Hedgerow Theater Co.; high school productions of The Boy Friend, Flower Drum Song, and South Pacific; and Cabaret with the Barley Sheaf Players. Kim’s future, however, was as an ad exec in the computer space in San Francisco until she leapt into an unplanned two-year sojourn in Aix En Provence, France. Upon return, Kim became a top producing realtor in Pacific Heights; was a member of the San Francisco Symphony League and founded “The Friends of Lafayette Park” which became a template for other City Park groups and thrives to this day. Kim and her husband, Clay Creasey, stumbled on Ojai in 2018 where she now finds herself living in an episode of Green Acres. When not doing whatever needs to doing, Kim and Clay tend their garden on their property dubbed "Maison Ojai." Most recently Kim played Little Red Riding Hood’s Granny in the 2024 OPAT production of Into the Woods.
BOB KEMPER (Chief Financial Officer) came to the theater at an early age of five with his debut in Skin of our Teeth, going on to have childhood roles in The Music Man and The Crucible before learning his talents lay in the production side of theater. He focused on lighting, sound and set design. Needing to earn a living, Bob embarked on a successful career in energy conservation, founding and selling two national firms. Bob is also an experienced real estate investor, broker and developer of over 25 years. He is currently a Broker at LIV Sotheby's International Realty, the most successful brokerage in Ojai. Bob has a history of involvement in many local nonprofit organizations, including board positions with the Ojai Chamber of Commerce, HELP of Ojai, the Ojai Valley, Valley Friends and Foundation, and of course, the Ojai Performing Arts Theater Foundation. Other significant community positions include; Teen Net, Ojai Valley Land Conservancy, Youth Foundation, Library Expansion Committee, Aquacenter Committee, and more.
STUART CROWNER (Board Member) Stuart is a veteran television producer whose non-fiction TV shows have appeared on all major commercial networks, PBS and several cable channels including series for Food Network, HGTV, TLC and DIY. Shows he’s produced include The People’s Choice Awards, Entertainment Tonight, Jenny Jones, The Mike Douglas Show, a number of Larry King specials and an Emmy for Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn. He helped Joan Kemper produce Yes, Virginia at OACT and I Do! I Do!, Twelfth Night, She Loves Me, Grand Hotel, Macbeth, Man of La Mancha, numerous musical fundraisers and Black Comedy for OPAT.
RICHARD CAMP (Artistic Director) Richard previously served as Artistic Director of the Ojai Art Center Theater, where his play Bless Your Heart enjoyed a critically and financially successful world premiere. His other playwriting credits include Diamonds, at NY’s Circle in the Square Theatre, directed by Harold Prince, Cuckoo Bird at NY’s Vortex Theatre, Waiting for Garbo at LA’s Colony Studio Theatre, and stagings of Credo, at LA’s Odyssey Theatre with Jean Smart and Richard Gilliland, and at L.A.’s Coronet Theatre with Bruce Davison. He’s written a host of TV shows in nearly every genre, and is a three-time Emmy nominee and Emmy winner, plus a Writers Guild Citation recipient for CBS’s Capitol. His directing credits include two madcap farces at the OACT, Black Comedy and See How They Run, plus Zero Hour, On Golden Pond (co-director with Craig Anderson), 33 Variations, and Night Must Fall.
MICHAEL ADDISON (Board Member) Michael Addison, the former Artistic Director of the California Shakespeare Festival, has an extensive background as a professional director. In addition to his productions of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and Macbeth in Ojai, his work has been seen at the Oregon, Utah, and Colorado Shakespeare Festivals, as well as the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the San Diego Repertory Theatre, the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura, and the Bathhouse Theatre in Seattle. Internationally, Addison has directed productions in Australia, England, Scotland, and Yugoslavia. In addition to his professional career Addison has deep academic experience, having served as Dean of Theatre at CalArts, and as Chair of the Theatre programs at UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego.
MICHAL GAINDANO (Board Member) Mike is from the midwest (Kansas) where she left at 20 for Arizona, she met and then married Don Gaidano. Through Don’s work as a CFO, they moved to Laguna Beach Ca, Boulder, Co., then on to England, with the final move when they retired to Ojai in 2014. She is a retired sales broker that involved marketing and advertising and consultant for manufacturing companies. In Arizona, she became active in fundraising, organizing events, party planning, and catering. Don is involved in improv and plays at the Ojai Art Center. She began costuming for several plays, opening night galas, fundraising for various plays and branches and served as Member at Large for the Art Center. Mike has also done an award brunch and cocktail parties for Ojai Film Festival and worked in fundraising for OjaiCares/Breast Cancer Awareness. Her new passion is planning theme parties and galas.
BILL WAGNER (Board Member) graduated with his Masters degree from Oberlin Conservatory of Music and has taught music classes with the Ojai Unified School District for over 30 years. He directs all the instrumental and choral ensembles at the high school and the Advanced Band at Matilija Middle School. His groups continue to garner first place awards in national festivals throughout the country, and his tenure has included three very special performances at Carnegie Hall and a European tour to Germany and Austria with 103 students. This year he will travel with the Nordhoff Music Department to New Orleans in April and will be conducting Legally Blonde in his 27th year of directing the school musicals.
MARY CRANE (Board Member) Born and educated in England, she attended Maidstone College of Art, where she studied under the renowned artist David Hockney. She graduated with a degree in Graphic Design and embarked on a successful career with an advertising agency in London.
A visit to the USA led her to meet her husband, Peter and together they settled down and raised three children. Her passion for the performing arts, fostered by her involvement in numerous theatrical productions in England, resurfaced when her children expressed an interest in acting. She embraced the role of costume designer and dedicated "theatre mom." Her husband, Peter shared her enthusiasm for the arts, and they collaborated on many musical productions in Ojai and the surrounding areas for ACT and OPAT. Today, she continues to costume productions with OPAT and manages its extensive wardrobe collection.
CLAY CREASEY (Co-Chairperson) Clay retired in 2025 from AAA (Northern California), where he served for eight years as CFO and then as CEO. Prior to that he served as CFO at Toys “R” US and Mervyn’s. Born in Bakersfield and raised in St Helena, Clay and his five siblings worked on their family’s farm picking grapes, prunes, and walnuts, rising before dawn to feed dairy cows. Stanford was Clay’s escape from manual labor, where he degreed in statistics and got his MBA. At the tender age of 53 Clay discovered community musical theater when he auditioned on a whim for a part in Guys and Dolls. Bitten by the bug, he got a singing coach and went on to play Daddy Warbucks in Annie, Olin Britt in The Music Man, and multiple other gigs with his coach’s recital group. Retirement in Ojai now has Clay back to his roots, where he rides his tractor and plants alfalfa in his backyard. But NO cows!
KIM BARNES (Co-Chairperson) Kim’s Philadelphia theatrical roots began with youth lessons at the fabled Hedgerow Theater Co.; high school productions of The Boy Friend, Flower Drum Song, and South Pacific; and Cabaret with the Barley Sheaf Players. Kim’s future, however, was as an ad exec in the computer space in San Francisco until she leapt into an unplanned two-year sojourn in Aix En Provence, France. Upon return, Kim became a top producing realtor in Pacific Heights; was a member of the San Francisco Symphony League and founded “The Friends of Lafayette Park” which became a template for other City Park groups and thrives to this day. Kim and her husband, Clay Creasey, stumbled on Ojai in 2018 where she now finds herself living in an episode of Green Acres. When not doing whatever needs to doing, Kim and Clay tend their garden on their property dubbed "Maison Ojai." Most recently Kim played Little Red Riding Hood’s Granny in the 2024 OPAT production of Into the Woods.
BOB KEMPER (Chief Financial Officer) came to the theater at an early age of five with his debut in Skin of our Teeth, going on to have childhood roles in The Music Man and The Crucible before learning his talents lay in the production side of theater. He focused on lighting, sound and set design. Needing to earn a living, Bob embarked on a successful career in energy conservation, founding and selling two national firms. Bob is also an experienced real estate investor, broker and developer of over 25 years. He is currently a Broker at LIV Sotheby's International Realty, the most successful brokerage in Ojai. Bob has a history of involvement in many local nonprofit organizations, including board positions with the Ojai Chamber of Commerce, HELP of Ojai, the Ojai Valley, Valley Friends and Foundation, and of course, the Ojai Performing Arts Theater Foundation. Other significant community positions include; Teen Net, Ojai Valley Land Conservancy, Youth Foundation, Library Expansion Committee, Aquacenter Committee, and more.
STUART CROWNER (Board Member) Stuart is a veteran television producer whose non-fiction TV shows have appeared on all major commercial networks, PBS and several cable channels including series for Food Network, HGTV, TLC and DIY. Shows he’s produced include The People’s Choice Awards, Entertainment Tonight, Jenny Jones, The Mike Douglas Show, a number of Larry King specials and an Emmy for Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn. He helped Joan Kemper produce Yes, Virginia at OACT and I Do! I Do!, Twelfth Night, She Loves Me, Grand Hotel, Macbeth, Man of La Mancha, numerous musical fundraisers and Black Comedy for OPAT.
RICHARD CAMP (Artistic Director) Richard previously served as Artistic Director of the Ojai Art Center Theater, where his play Bless Your Heart enjoyed a critically and financially successful world premiere. His other playwriting credits include Diamonds, at NY’s Circle in the Square Theatre, directed by Harold Prince, Cuckoo Bird at NY’s Vortex Theatre, Waiting for Garbo at LA’s Colony Studio Theatre, and stagings of Credo, at LA’s Odyssey Theatre with Jean Smart and Richard Gilliland, and at L.A.’s Coronet Theatre with Bruce Davison. He’s written a host of TV shows in nearly every genre, and is a three-time Emmy nominee and Emmy winner, plus a Writers Guild Citation recipient for CBS’s Capitol. His directing credits include two madcap farces at the OACT, Black Comedy and See How They Run, plus Zero Hour, On Golden Pond (co-director with Craig Anderson), 33 Variations, and Night Must Fall.
MICHAEL ADDISON (Board Member) Michael Addison, the former Artistic Director of the California Shakespeare Festival, has an extensive background as a professional director. In addition to his productions of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and Macbeth in Ojai, his work has been seen at the Oregon, Utah, and Colorado Shakespeare Festivals, as well as the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the San Diego Repertory Theatre, the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura, and the Bathhouse Theatre in Seattle. Internationally, Addison has directed productions in Australia, England, Scotland, and Yugoslavia. In addition to his professional career Addison has deep academic experience, having served as Dean of Theatre at CalArts, and as Chair of the Theatre programs at UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego.
MICHAL GAINDANO (Board Member) Mike is from the midwest (Kansas) where she left at 20 for Arizona, she met and then married Don Gaidano. Through Don’s work as a CFO, they moved to Laguna Beach Ca, Boulder, Co., then on to England, with the final move when they retired to Ojai in 2014. She is a retired sales broker that involved marketing and advertising and consultant for manufacturing companies. In Arizona, she became active in fundraising, organizing events, party planning, and catering. Don is involved in improv and plays at the Ojai Art Center. She began costuming for several plays, opening night galas, fundraising for various plays and branches and served as Member at Large for the Art Center. Mike has also done an award brunch and cocktail parties for Ojai Film Festival and worked in fundraising for OjaiCares/Breast Cancer Awareness. Her new passion is planning theme parties and galas.
BILL WAGNER (Board Member) graduated with his Masters degree from Oberlin Conservatory of Music and has taught music classes with the Ojai Unified School District for over 30 years. He directs all the instrumental and choral ensembles at the high school and the Advanced Band at Matilija Middle School. His groups continue to garner first place awards in national festivals throughout the country, and his tenure has included three very special performances at Carnegie Hall and a European tour to Germany and Austria with 103 students. This year he will travel with the Nordhoff Music Department to New Orleans in April and will be conducting Legally Blonde in his 27th year of directing the school musicals.
MARY CRANE (Board Member) Born and educated in England, she attended Maidstone College of Art, where she studied under the renowned artist David Hockney. She graduated with a degree in Graphic Design and embarked on a successful career with an advertising agency in London.
A visit to the USA led her to meet her husband, Peter and together they settled down and raised three children. Her passion for the performing arts, fostered by her involvement in numerous theatrical productions in England, resurfaced when her children expressed an interest in acting. She embraced the role of costume designer and dedicated "theatre mom." Her husband, Peter shared her enthusiasm for the arts, and they collaborated on many musical productions in Ojai and the surrounding areas for ACT and OPAT. Today, she continues to costume productions with OPAT and manages its extensive wardrobe collection.
The City of Ojai Honors Joan Kemper by Naming a Street After Her
OPAT is very proud of our CEO, Joan Kemper, and we are not the only ones! The City of Ojai decided that her contributions to so many organizations in Ojai were so remarkable that she deserved a street named for her. Ojai now has a “Joan Kemper Way” in Libbey Park. On September 9, 2020, civic leaders conducted a ceremony to reveal the new name. Afterwards, the Ojai Music Festival hosted a socially distanced celebration of Joan’s accomplishments, with many friends Zooming in to offer their love and admiration for Joan.