Board Members
Kerie Darner
Board Chair (She/her/hers) Kerie Darner is a local actor, singer, and proud 2020 graduate of The Actors Conservatory’s two-year accredited program. She has also trained at Lee Strassberg in NYC and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. She has over 20 years of stage experience and has had the privilege of working with several other local theater companies, and many groups in the San Francisco Bay Area. Kerie also has over 20 years of experience as a technical corporate recruiter and human resources professional, managing global teams and recruiting highly sought- after technical talent for Fortune 500 companies. Kerie believes TAC is uniquely positioned to help artists of all ages and in all stages of life continue to grow. She and her husband live in Happy Valley and have an annoying cat, a wonderful dog named River, and a miracle son who keeps them on their toes. Kerie hopes her practical experience as an artist, mother, businesswoman, and general theater lover will continue to bring value to the board of The Actors Conservatory.
Shari Moore
Treasurer Shari Moore is the Part-Time Operations Director for Columbia Presbyterian Church in Vancouver Washington. In this role, she has responsibility for Finance, Facilities, IT and special projects, working with pastors, program staff and volunteers. Prior to that, she was with the Area Agency on Aging and Disabilities of Southwest Washington (AAADSW) as their Head of HR and was promoted to the Head of HR and Facilities. Over the course of her 30+ years in HR, she has held senior HR leadership roles at Fortune 500 companies such as NetApp, Hitachi Data Systems, and Hewlett-Packard, in addition to leading the HR function at mid-size companies, start-ups and nonprofits. Shari has also been an adjunct instructor/lecturer for almost 20 years, having taught at both Golden Gate and San Jose State Universities at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, concentrating in Accounting with a minor in Psychology, from California Polytechnic State University and an MBA from Yale University. She served on the Dean’s Advisory Council for the School of Business at Cal Poly, is on the Advisory Board for the Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative, and consults on a variety of business and HR issues. She is looking forward to contributing her organizational and business expertise to The Actors Conservatory, as she believes strongly in the mission of the organization and keeping spaces for artists to learn and grow. Shari and her husband Brian live in Woodland Washington, where they enjoy the peace and quiet of not being “in town,” but are close enough to enjoy all that the Portland metro area has to offer. Their dog, Dakota, also enjoys having room to roam! They also enjoy cheering on the Portland Thorns as season ticket holders and traveling with their daughter, a student at James Madison University in Virginia (go Dukes!).
Janet Stinson
Secretary Ms. Stinson’s career encompasses her passion for written language in all its forms in both the private and public sectors, with an emphasis on educational settings. While raising three children and furthering her education a couple college classes at a time, Ms. Stinson was the sole proprietor of Professional Note Reading Services, providing note reading and proofreading expertise specifically to court reporters for almost 30 years. Her passion for words served her well in this private-sector capacity. After amassing enough credits to re-enter college as a sophomore, Ms. Stinson returned to school late in life and obtained a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Education. She received her first teaching assignment as an elementary school reading specialist at the ripe old age of 50. Working with struggling readers in Grades K-5, Ms. Stinson was able to share her love of reading as she created individualized reading instruction for each student. Her passion for words served her well in this public-sector endeavor. Recently retired, Ms. Stinson continues her passion for reading instruction with online tutoring. Having joined Language Skills Therapy, a nonprofit consortium of highly skilled tutors, she not only works one-on-one with a variety of students, she is also on the board of directors as the Investment Officer, overseeing the growth and disbursement of the reading scholarship endowment. Ms. Stinson’s love of theater was a result of a painful high school experience — being the firstone cut from cheerleading tryouts. With all of that dramatic energy needing a place to go, she dipped her toe in the thespian realm as a chorus member of the musical “Kiss Me Kate,” and found that live theater was just another medium for written language. Since that time she has continued to attend a multitude of local theater productions and is a longtime member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Education: BA in Arts & Letters, minor in Spanish from Portland State University M.Ed. from Portland State University ESL Endorsement from Portland State University Reading Endorsement from Portland State University Intel Teach to the Future Certificate Equity Certificate Program for School Leaders from Lewis & Clark College
Margie Boule
Member at Large Margie Boule brings years of experience as a performer and as a board member to the TAC board. Since making her professional stage debut at age 16 in Los Angeles, Margie has performed in over 150 professional plays, musicals, and operas at theaters across the nation and Europe. She is a 50-year member of SAG/AFTRA. She has acted in films and TV shows, recorded hundreds of commercial jingles and done voiceover work for commercials and documentaries. She also has performed improv for 25 years in Portland and at festivals across the nation, and has taught music improv at colleges and universities across America and in Europe. While Margie pursued a career in TV, radio and print journalism, she continued to perform and has, since retirement, done a wide range of plays for Portland and Seattle. She is a playwright whose work has been performed in Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles and at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Margie has served in leadership positions on college, medical research and corporate boards of directors. She is delighted to help foster growth at The Actors Conservatory.
Grant Byington
Member at Large Grant Byington loves to rehearse. That’s why, in his 50+ years of professional theatre experience he has ushered countless plays, musicals, cabaret acts and operas from conceptualization to performance. Likewise, he has performed similar activities for various boards of directors and governing bodies. A Montana native, Grant’s theatre administration experience began with the Missoula Children’s Theater, where he served as a publicist and production coordinator for an international children’s theatre company as well as an all-volunteer community theater program that boasted more than 500 volunteer performers, musicians and technical theatre workers. He also served as a staff representative to the MCT board. While in Montana, Grant was a founding member of Montana Players, Inc. and served in a similar capacity for that nascent company, writing bylaws and overseeing the budgeting and grant-writing process before moving to the Pacific Northwest. In 1992, Grant joined the staff at Thomas A. Edison High School, where he taught Drama and Englishand served as the board secretary. His performing experiences led him to the Northwest Classical TheatreCompany, where he served as publicist and acting company member before renaming the company, establishing a more solid non-profit status and serving as president of the board and executive director through 2020. In his “day job” Grant works as an External Communications Manager for NTT DATA, Inc., a global leader in IT services and systems integration. He currently oversees budgets in excess of a million dollars U.S., and leads a team of marketing communications social media managers from 30+ countries.
Will Futterman
Member at Large Will is a graduate of The Actors Conservatory from the class of 2022, and has spent the last 15 years working in theatre both on and off stage. After receiving his Bachelors of Film and Television Production from Full Sail University, he moved to Bend, where he worked for the Cascades Theatrical Company. At Cascades, Will worked as assistant manager for three years, where he managed the box office and front of house, and built strong relationships with donors. Following this, he joined the board and was elected Vice President. He spent the following three years overseeing play selection, the hiring of directors, and creation of the season calendar and relevant marketing materials. He moved to Portland in 2017 and has worked for several different theatre companies in the area including, Lakewood, Twilight Theatre, New Century Players, and Clackamas Rep. He is excited to work with TAC in a new capacity as a member of the board, and help to further education in the arts.
John Knowles
Member at Large John is a Circuit Court Judge Pro Tem for the State of Oregon, as well as a professional mediator and arbitrator. He has acted in many productions, the latest being It’s a Wonderful Life, the Musical, for Stumptown Stages. He is on the Board of Directors for Mask and Mirror Community Theatre and has produced many of its shows. John is also an accomplished musician with an album online (“John Knowles, Classic Country”). He has an agent in Nashville and recently wrote several songs with Nashville songwriters and recorded one that is on country music stations around North America (“Hello Goodbye”). He is excited to be joining the TAC Board of Directors!
Kelley Marchant
Member at Large (She/her/hers) Kelley Marchant has been teaching, directing, and performing theatre for over 40 years. She came back to her hometown of Portland in 2001 after teaching and performing in southern California for 13 years where she received her MA in Theatre from Cal State, Los Angeles, and worked as a regular on a Fox children’s program for four years. Some highlights of her theatre involvement in Portland include The House of Blue Leaves, Landscape of the Body and The Heidi Chronicle at Profile Theatre, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Steel Magnolias and Angel Street & God of Carnage at New Century Players, and The Giver, and Charlotte’s Web at Oregon Children’s Theatre. She was a founder and the artistic director of New Century Players, a local community theatre company for 16 years. Kelley has taught theatre at both the high school and college levels and took over the Rex Putnam HS Theatre Department in 2007 where she produced and/or directed 5-6 productions a year until she left to teach internationally in 2020. She has taken high school students on educational theatre trips to New York City and London over a dozen times. Besides New Century Players, her board experience includes working with the Southern California Educational Theatre Association, and the National Educational Theatre Association along with being a board member for the Oregon Chapter for 9 years. Her experience with these boards included developing a College Audition program for local students and building connections with local professional theatre companies. She continues to judge for the International Thespian Festival and the Oregon State Thespian Conference. Most recently, she took the leap to teaching theatre internationally and spent four years working at The American School of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Kelley, and her husband, Phil, moved to Islamabad, Pakistan in August 2024, where she is now rebuilding a middle and high school theatre program at the International School of Islamabad. She and Phil come back to Portland twice a year and when she can, Kelley continues to work in various venues, teaching in several different programs and working on independent film projects, industrials, and commercials.