Jan Glasband – Actors' Repertory Theatre of Simi

Jan Glasband brings and extensive background in developing cultural and performing arts programs in Simi Valley. Born and raised in Los Angeles, CA and a graphic artist by trade, her appreciation of the arts led her to creating Performance Arts Workshops for children in 1989, mainly out of a desire for her own daughters to have the same culturally enriching experiences she had as a child. Understanding the importance of the arts and the potential impact it has on the lives of children and the community, it became inevitable that PAW would grow into Actors’ Repertory Theatre of Simi, the theater company that opened the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center in 1995 with a production of You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown. In the ensuing years, ARTS has grown into a regional theater company, producing well over 100 fully staged musicals, American classics and Shakespearian works at the Cultural Arts Center. Over the years ARTS has also offered classes in acting, voice, theatrical performance and dance, created and produced the popular Ghost Tour in Strathearn Historical Park, and continues to offer ARTS’s Summer Musical Theatre Workshop for Kids, a six-week summer camp theatrical training program for children 8–15 and a free, classical theater workshop for high school aged kids; “Literature in Action.” Jan trained professionally as an actor with David Ralphe, has performed on stage with various Ventura county theater companies in a variety of productions and roles, and has had the honor of working with a creative team that is one of the best in the area. ARTS is one of the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center’s mainstay producers of live musical theater and an organization under the umbrella of the not for profit Simi Valley Cultural Association. Although her work as artistic director for ARTS, producer of ARTS’ many theatrical endeavors and directing the “occasional musical” keeps Jan “on her toes,” she still maintains close ties with her love of teaching by vocally directing the children’s chorus whenever the opportunity arises.