Erin Horst (DeSeure) has been falling in love with theatre since she was a small child and her love affair with the stage has never withered. One of her earliest experiences with the stage happened under the stars at the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival in Kansas City, where she first felt and understood the great works of William Shakespeare. She attended 11 performances of Hamlet that summer when she was just 13 years old. After that, she knew then her life was headed in a single direction – the stage. Erin couldn’t be more awestruck and grateful to be a co-founder of Legacy Stage with two other powerful and wonderful artists, Jami Witt Miller, and Lara Tenckhoff. Erin is passionately dedicated to Legacy Stage’s mission to create sustainable and delightful professional theatre. She believes in the theatre’s ability to transform humanity, to speak to our deeper identities as human beings, and to answer the question: what does it mean to be alive? Erin is a theatre lecturer at CSU Chico and acting teacher at Inspire School of Arts and Sciences. She earned her Master of Arts in Theatre History and Dramaturgy from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) and her BFA in Theatre Performance from Chapman University in Orange, California. Erin covets her weekend intensives with Shakespeare and Company during her undergraduate years and more recently in San Francisco. She longs for the days spent with her professors at UMKC and Chapman and wishes she could hang on their every word. Her directing, dramaturgy and acting credits hail from theatres across the country including The Coterie Theatre, Unicorn Theatre, Blue Room Theatre, California Regional Theatre, Performing Arts Society of at Chapman (PASC), Inspire, Shawnee Mission Theatre in the Park, Fruita Monument, Chico Women’s Club, The Barn Players, and Gladstone Theatre in the Park. Most recently, Erin directed the World Premiere of Matt Cox’s Witches?! In Salem!? at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019. She also served as a member and peer coach of the Butte County Office of Education’s North State Arts Education Consortium. Erin can’t quite decide what kind of theatre artist she is, so she does it all: actor, producer, dramaturg, director, and teaching artist. She lives in Chico with her husband, Kyle, and two children, James and Andrew.

Jami Witt is proud to be a Co Founder of Legacy Stage. Jami has appeared at professional theatres around the country including Triad Stage, The Clinton Area Showboat Theatre, and The Southwest Shakespeare Festival. Jami’s favorite credits include Elvira in Blithe Spirit, Laura in The Glass Menagerie, Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice, Waverly in Recent Tragic Events, Juliet in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire. Jami has also directed at both professional and university theatres including recent professional productions of Tuesday’s With Morrie and The Odd Couple. Jami received her BFA from Eastern New Mexico University and her MFA in Acting from University of North Carolina Greensboro. Jami is a theatre lecturer at California State University, Chico. She loves her dog Waverly, husband Matty, and sweet little girl Mattingly.

Lara Tenckhoff is a Chico local who has had a passion for theatre making from a young age. Out of high school she spent several years running the the Blue Room Theatre’s Youth Program before deciding to return to school herself at Chico State. During her time as a CSUC student Lara was blessed to be given opportunities at home and abroad- studying for a summer at a small physical theatre school in Northern Italy, Atelier Teatro Physico. Graduating in 2017 with a degree in Theatre Arts, Lara has spent the past four summers in Clinton, Iowa as the Associate Artistic Director for the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre. While at home in Chico she has been seen most recently directing and performing for the Blue Room Theatre. Some of her favorite directing credits include Bug, The 39 Steps, and A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. Lara believes deeply in the power of theatre to transform lives, and is grateful to have the opportunity to work alongside the wonderful artists of Legacy Stage to bring more theatre to her beloved hometown.