company

Victoria Evans Erville (Artistic Director)

Ms. Evans Erville has worked as a director, arts educator or education director with many theater companies throughout the Bay Area including: San Francisco Shakespeare, Brava! For Women in the Arts, California Shakespeare Theater, Theatreworks, B Street Theatre, Marin Theater Company, Lorraine Hansberry, and Colorado Shakespeare Festival. Most recently, she was the Artistic Director of the African-American Shakespeare Company and was Woman's Will's Managing Director for the 2008 - 2009 fiscal year.

El Beh

Ms. Beh is an actor and cellist who made a splash in her first appearance with Woman’s Will in the dual (and title) role of Shen Te and Shui Ta in 2008’s Good Person of Szechuan. Other recent performances include The Country Club with Dragon Productions, Seussical with Berkeley Playhouse, Cradle Will Rock and Urinetown. Ms. Beh is a graduate of UC Berkeley’s Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies.

Sarah Eismann

Ms. Eismann, a native of New Jersey, got her BFA in Drama and Biology at Tisch School for the Arts at NYU. Among others, she has worked with the National Theatre Conservatory in Denver, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, the Tony Award winning Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, California Shakespeare Theatre, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Center REP, Pear Avenue Theatre, Playhouse West, and can be seen performing regularly with the long form improv troupe Middle School Poetry.

The child of elementary school teachers, Ms. Eismann has taught, at the elementary, middle, and high school levels: improvisation, voice, movement, acting, and all aspects of Shakespeare. Among others, she has worked with California Shakespeare Theatre, Marin Shakespeare Company, Leap…Imagination in Learning, CLAP Arts, Peninsula Youth Theatre, Children's Musical Theatre of San Jose, The California Theatre Center, The San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Kids on Camera, Solano Youth Theatre and was a guest tap dance artist at Castilleja School in Palo Alto. She is also an SAT, PSAT and ACT tutor with Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, and, having been a competitive swimmer for 10 years prior to teaching, has also been a swim instructor for about 15 years, currently at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center.

Marilet Martinez

Ms. Martinez first appeared with Woman’s Will as Romeo in 2007’s Romeo and Juliet, and has also appeared in the company’s Good Person of Szechuan as well as taught a variety of yourth classes for the company. She has performed with various Bay Area theater companies including Custom Made Theatre Co., Teatro Visión, and Busbarn Theatre. She is also a teaching artist for Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

Leontyne Mbele-Mbong

Ms. Mbele-Mbong is a graduate of Macalester College with a BA in Dramatic Arts. She has appeared with Woman's Will as Lady Macbeth/2nd Witch in Macbeth, the Duke of Buckingham in Richard III and Orsino in Twelfth Night. She has appeared in the Bay Area with Lamplighters as various virtuous maidens, as Paquette in Candide, and Queenie in Show Boat; with TheatreFirst in Map of the World and World Music; with Solano College in Intimate Apparel as Mayme (ARTY award, best supporting actress); with ACT's First Look in The Road Weeps, The Well Runs Dry as Mary South; with Central Works as the title role in Andromache, and most recently as one of the 4 lovers in Midsummer/4. This summer, she completed "American Soil," a local independent short film. She serves as Trustee on the Lamplighters Board of Directors, and as company member for Woman's Will. 

Carolyn Power

Carolyn Power recently portrayed a nurse both in Woman's Will's Romeo and Juliet and in an episode of the hit TV show Chuck on NBC. She also played the parts of Toby in Neil Simon's The Gingerbread Lady at The Dragon Theatre in Palo Alto and Helicanus in a production of Pericles at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art's London Acting Shakespeare program. Other performances include Lady Montague in Marin Shakespeare Company's Romeo and Juliet and Mrs. Darling/Narrator in Peter & Wendy at Town Hall Theatre in Lafayette. Film work includes: "Greens," "Bust A Shalom," "Imprint," and "Planet of the Blacks." Ms. Power holds an M.A. in theatre from San Francisco State University. A member of both SAG and AFTRA, she is the voice of Long's Drugstore training program.

Acquenetta Summers-Wong

Ms. Summers-Wong is a new member of Woman's Will, having appeared in both 2006 productions, as Olivia in Twelfth Night and several roles in the 365 Days/365 Plays Project. She has also recently been seen in Teatro Vision's production of Eduardo Machado's The Cook as Rosa. Her past credits include Fefu and her Friends (Cecilia), Beyond the Tracks, Women and Wallace, A Raisin in the Sun (Beneatha), and Grapes of Wrath. She was also a member of San Jose States' Touring Company, played the title role in Brava Theatre Company's production of CiCi's Fire, and performed with the Tabia Theatre Company in their productions of From the Mississippi Delta and Women Behind Walls. Since receiving her BS in Health Sciences from San Jose State, Ms. Summers-Wong has designed and implemented numerous programs that employ theatre, education and other direct communication methods to promote physical and mental health in youth populations through the YMCA FutureChoice Program, East Valley Community Clinic, Alum Rock Community Center and Community Solutions. She specializes in conflict resolution and delights in helping previously conflicting groups and individuals overcome hostility and mistrust by identifying common interest and goals.

Erin Merritt (Founding Artistic Director, retired)

Founding Artistic Director Erin Merritt is an actor, director, producer, and arts educator who ran the company from its inception in 1998 through June 2009. Raised in Berkeley, Ms. Merritt studied, taught, and performed with The Berkeley/California Shakespeare Festival, The San Francisco Shakespeare Festival (where she first developed arts curriculum), The Carmel Shake-speare (sic) Festival, and Massachusetts' Shakespeare & Company before forming the all-female Shakespeare company Woman's Will. For Woman's Will, she has directed ten productions, acted in five and choreographed fights for five. Other favorite experiences include work with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Willows Theatre Company, Carmel Ballet Theatre, Center Repertory Theatre, and Shotgun Players. Favorite roles played include Li'l Bit in How I Learned to Drive and the title role in Sylvia; favorite directing experiences are Lord of the Flies and Happy End. Ms. Merritt earned a BA in Theatre from Reed College, Portland, Oregon, where her thesis, Logical Brecht: what he did, why he did it, how we do it, has been used as a text in the Theatre Department since 1990. Ms. Merritt left the company in 2009 to move with her family to Los Angeles. She remains the company's number one fan.