WHO WE ARE

FOUNDER & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

With PCT, Felicity has written and directed Reindeer Games, The Nightingale, and The Unfinished Work of Camille Claudel. She made her Off-Broadway directing debut with the world premiere of {IN}TANGIBLE at Theatre Row in Manhattan. Felicity was one of the directors on the 2024 remount of The Speakeasy: The Age of Scofflaws, San Francisco's longest running immersive show.  Felicity is well known for her outstanding work as Artistic Director at Circus Center from 2021-2023, including her groundbreaking adaptation of The Secret Garden in 2021 and remounted at the Children’s Creativity Museum in 2022. Before the pandemic in 2020, Felicity's solo show Cara Vita: A Clown Concerto toured to San Francisco, Asheville, and London. Felicity directed and produced Circus Pop Ups! in 2021, a series of pop up performances at iconic SF locations that incorporated live circus and music. Felicity's film documentary of Circus Pop Ups! won the Audience Choice Award in the Circus International Film Festival 2022.

COMPANY MEMBER

Lex Baesen is a San Francisco based acrobat, dancer, and aerial artist. They’ve performed a wide variety of circus disciplines like dance trapeze, hoop diving, acrobatic dance, flying pole, silks, acrobatic jump rope, and columns/pyramids. They received their BA in Dance with a focus on performance and choreography from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2016. Lex is a company member of People’s Circus Theatre and was an Ensemble Member and the choreographer for their production of The Secret Garden in summer 2023. Lex played Comet in Reindeer Games in Fall 2023 and Dasher in Reindeer Games 2024. Lex created and performed the role of Assistant #2 inThe Nightingale.

COMPANY MEMBER

Yasmina is an Alumni of the San Francisco Youth Circus, the pre-professional performance program at Circus Center. She currently attends SFSU, double majoring in Cinema and Race & Resistance, with an interest in combining Film with Circus Arts. (Check out her film “Traversing Tarot” on YouTube, an official selection of the 2023 Circus International Film Festival) Yasmina collaborated with previous People’s Circus Theater productions; she enjoys character work and especially ensemble work! When onstage, she brings her full presence and expressive energy. When backstage, she is very quiet; because it’s backstage; and she doesn’t want to disrupt the show; obviously. Most importantly, she puts her all into everything she does, and hopes her love of Circus rubs off on the audience!

ACROBATIC COACH

Since 2011, Ariel has been teaching hand-balancing and partner acrobatics in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her training is shaped by thoughtful communication, trust, and accountability—values integral to partner acro. Ariel founded BACCES (BIPOC Acro Collective Care Ecosystem) to foster BIPOC representation in partner acrobatics and cultivate inclusive acro spaces. She is Board Vice President for CSAW (Connecting Circus Students Around the World), a nonprofit providing grants to BIPOC circus artists.  Ariel has been PCT’s acrobatic coach since 2024.

GRAPHIC DESIGN & MARKETING

Fernando performed in Off-Broadway productions including Mac Wellman’s Cellophane, Len Jenkin’s Like I Say, and A. R. Gurney’s Mrs. Farnsworth. He was a founding member of The Hive, an Off-Broadway theater company that staged successful runs of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Imaginary Invalid. Fernando taught at HB Studio, founded by Herbert Berghof and Uta Hagen, where he created the course English for Actors. His solo show just don't touch me, amigo premiered at New York International Fringe Festival in 2009 and was later restaged in New York, Buenos Aires, and Mexico City. He began working as a graphic designer in 2007 and serves on the advisory board of the Duke Ellington Center for the Arts.

STAGE MANAGER

Tanya is currently part of the Stage Management team at Club Fugazi for the circus show, Dear San Francisco and is an active member of the Board at 3Girls Theater Company. Theater has been a major part of her career path over the last 20+ years. Past collaborations include Gravity (SFBATCO), The Pajama Game, Snoopy!!!, and Sugar (42nd Street Moon), Jerry Springer the Opera, Baby (Ray of Light Theatre). She is a member of Actors’ Equity Association and has a BFA in Technical Theater from Emerson College in Boston.  

COSTUME DESIGNER

With a background in circus and immersive theater, Shelli specializes in creating costumes for circus, historical recreation, and fantasy. She works for "Dear San Francisco" at Club Fugazi and has been PCT's costume designer since 2024.

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Claire is a seasoned aerial and flying trapeze performer with over ten years of experience in the circus arts. She began her movement journey in rhythmic gymnastics at the age of ten, transitioning into circus at fifteen when she joined Les Aerielles, an all-aerial troupe performing throughout the Bay Area.  In addition, Claire works as a freelance producer, circus coach, and production manager. Whether she’s on set or flying through the air, her work is grounded in creativity, collaboration, and a deep love for performance. Claire has been PCT’s production manager since 2024.

Lorraine moved to the Bay Area when she was ten and has been in love with San Francisco ever since.  She is passionate about keeping the magic of performance art alive, and knows that musical offerings, theater shows and street performances cannot exist without fostering community engagement.  She met Felicity years ago through youth circus classes for one of her daughters, and is excited to support the People’s Circus Theater.  Lorraine holds degrees in forestry, landscape architecture, and city planning from U.C. Berkeley, and coauthored Trees of the Berkeley Campus (2017) after working in environmental consulting and investment banking.  She consults on local greening projects and is focused on the hands-on aspects of education, from helping schools publish tree identification books using students’ own keys and art work, to establishing field work and study abroad fellowships at universities.  She currently serves on community and parish councils and is working on a new book project.  Downtime is family time, unless she can steal away for a little tango dancing or taiko drumming.  

Jen is a seasoned nonprofit leader and philanthropy professional with 25+ years of experience in social impact and fundraising. Jen currently serves as Director of Institutional Giving at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, where she oversees the Food Bank’s philanthropic partnerships with corporations, foundations and government agencies. She has served in leadership roles at various prominent local and national organizations including NPower, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Community Action Marin, Hispanic Scholarship Fund, St. Vincent de Paul Society, and Santa Clara University’s Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship.

When her son Cole found his calling as a circus artist and dancer, Jen turned her skills to support the organizations igniting his passions. She fell in love with the way Felicity Hezed tells a story and integrates circus arts, and is deeply committed to nurturing the success of Peoples Circus Theatre in every way possible.

Personally influenced by childhood years spent in an impoverished inner-city projects in Boston, followed by high school years in affluent Marin County, Jen has a passion for creating socioeconomic, racial and gender equity and remains active in community service.

Jeff Raz has performed nationally and internationally for decades, starring in circuses, including Cirque du Soleil and the Pickle Family Circus, and as an actor in theaters from Berkeley Rep to Broadway. He is a graduate of Dell’Arte International, where he has also taught, and was the co-founder of Vaudeville Nouveau, S.F. New Vaudeville Festival, The Clown Conservatory and the Medical Clown Project. In addition, he has written four books and twenty plays, directed dozens of circus, dance, puppet, and theater productions and worked globally as a communications consultant.

After performing with People’s Circus Theatre from 2023-2025, Rosemary has transitioned into a role on the Advisory Board.

Rosemary Le is a circus artist specializing in the aerial cyr wheel.  She grew up with a varied movement background of dance, gymnastics, swimming, and martial arts, but always felt like a dancer at heart. In the throes of pursuing her PhD at Stanford University, she discovered aerial hoop in 2016, and it was exactly the physical and creative outlet  she needed. Her interest intensified upon discovering the San Francisco Circus Center, at which point she decided that a circus sabbatical was in her near future. Those plans were put on hold when the pandemic hit, but she spent that year delving into her own practice and art.

She has performed with companies such as Dahlias Entertainment and People’s Circus Theatre, at venues such as The Great Star Theater and The Children’s Creativity Museum, in productions such as the Moisture Festival and Paul Nathan's Dark Kabaret, in the Bay Area, Seattle, and beyond.

Dave Garrett is a long-time Bay Area theater practitioner and proponent. His professional path, both on-stage and behind the scenes, has always favored the creation of new works. He is currently the Director of Theater Experience and Rentals at the Children’s Creativity Museum. Dave is proud to have originated the role of Santa (v.o.) in PCT's first production of Reindeer Games.

Andrew is a software engineer who has worked with major Bay Area companies include Major League Baseball and PG&E. However, his true love is the arts. He began in the theater as a technician and actor before discovering circus. He trained clowning at Dell‘Arte and is known for his performance on America’s Got Talent as Flippy the Magnificent. He attended the Clown Conservatory at Circus Center, worked behind the scenes at Teatro Zinzanni, and still performs sometimes today.