Our Team
Tom Eubanks – Founding Artistic Director & Playwright-in-Residence
Playwright and Director, Tom hails from the Ojai Valley in southern California. He has received multiple awards for acting, directing and designing in southern California. He first directed at Ojai Art Center Theater at age 20. After a long hiatus to build a business, he returned in 1996 to acting, directing, and play writing. He’s directed the area’s best casts and helped bring new works to local stages, serving as Chairman of Ojai Art Center Theater from 1997-2003 and 2006, and, from 2004-2018, as Artistic Director for Elite Theatre Company in Channel Islands. In 2019, he co-founded The Beacon Theater Company in Ventura, California, which was forced to close after one season due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Tom’s plays, American Right, Perfect Quiet Place, The Art of Something, In the Midst of All that is Good, At the End of the Day, Thespis Thinks, How to Make God Laugh (one-act) and Self-Storage (one-act) have been produced by Elite Theater Company, Santa Paula Theater Center, Senga Classic Theater and Theater 23.
Cassandra Barbato - Director of Marketing & Media
Cassandra Barbato has extensive experience in performance, public speaking, event planning and leadership in a variety of nonprofit organizations. After gaining her Master's Degree in Classical Guitar performance, Cassandra became an adjunct professor at Azusa Pacific University, a private Christian university, She also served there as Azusa Conservatory of Music's Head of Guitar department for nine years and the Associate Director for three years.
At the Azusa Conservatory of Music she founded and built a children's guitar department that included a comprehensive training program, performing classes, competitions, and a locally touring youth worship band that also wrote and recorded original music. As the Associate Director she created processes that tripled enrollment, implemented a multi-tiered mentorship program, and founded and ran summer programs that culminated in large fundraising performances for the school.
Throughout Cassandra's time at the Azusa Conservatory, she developed an online presence by creating websites and content, including filming and editing videos for YouTube and social media, and recorded, edited and published more than 500 episodes for her podcast Your Daily Meds.
During the 2020 pandemic, Cassandra, her husband Joe and her two children made the decision to leave California and in March of 2021 they moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, where they feel like they found their home. She is currently a Director for KARM Stores.
Hannah Morin - Director of Network Marketing & Webmaster
From an early age, Hannah was deeply immersed in the world of live theater. A member of a “theater family,” her theatrical journey began at the age of 5 in a production of Charlotte's Web and age 10 in the role of Gloria in Wait Until Dark at the Ojai Art Center Theater in Ojai, California. Hannah was an enthusiastic member of the Ventura, California, theater community, acting at various area theater companies. However, her true passion in theater was revealed in her talent for writing and directing, working with her father on writing and acting a play called At the End of the Day, which was produced by Elite Theatre Company in Channel Islands for their Pachyderm Project.
She has since merged her love for theater with a passion for self-discovery and personal growth. This transformative journey unearthed a passion for fitness and a desire to share her knowledge and experiences with others as a fitness content creator.
Tom Ireland - Construction Manager
Tom Ireland was a late-comer to theater, appearing on stage for the first time in 2008 with a fledgling theater company in a production The Odd Couple. But he found that theater was an excellent outlet not only for his new love of acting, but also his skill in engineering and construction of theater sets. In the following 15 years, Tom played an integral role in the construction and preparation of dozens of production set designs in East Tennessee.
His handiwork has been seen in the re-creation of everything from a walkup apartment in Manhattan (The Odd Couple), to a dungeon in London (Sherlock’s Last Case), to a Roman square in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Tom’s approach to set construction is to take the director’s vision and craft a stage environment that achieves the director’s goal while maintaining a creative and safe performance space for the actors.
Steven O'Shea - Managing Producer
A recent transplant from Northern California, Steven joined Knoxville theater scene as an actor, landing roles in And Then There Were None and Art, both at Theatre Knoxville Downtown, and the role of Davis Cotton in the World Premiere of Thespis Thinks with Theater 23. Steven enjoys set design and construction and has helped with set construction on several shows here in Knoxville.
In California he performed at the Historic Woodland Opera House (1989-1993, 2015-2019) and Davis Musical Theater Company (2017-2018). Since moving to Knoxville, he decided to produce quality local theater and has recently begun working as a producer for Theater 23. While he has a love for performing, he also has a desire to be a part of building the community and producing shows that share theater in its purest, simplest, and timeless form.