Agendas and Minutes
The board of directors meets every second Tuesday of the month and meetings are open to all. To attend a board meeting, email the Secretary for the location (may be virtual).
To view CPT Board agendas and minutes, click here.
Rick Steinberg — Executive Director
Professional Experience: Rick studied at NSU, now called UNLV, in Las Vegas. During this time, he worked for Food Fair Markets as third man. When Food Fair was sold to Smith’s Food King, Rick was given the opportunity to become second man with Mayfair Markets in Oregon. While there, he was able to attend Lane College and the University of Oregon. At this point he was offered his own store in Washington State where he worked until he moved to California in 1977 to pursue a career with Albertson’s. He stayed at Albertson’s in different capacities, including Store Director, until his retirement.
Theatrical Experience: Rick had his first brush with theater in his kindergarten class when he was 5 years old. It was such a disaster that he didn’t try again until Pipe Dream in 1981. Since that time, he has worked nonstop at the theatre in just about every capacity. He has run lights, sound, been a stage manager, backstage crew, actor, Producer (which he will never do again), Set Designer and spent 9 years on the Board as Executive Director. He has won awards for both Directing and Set Design. While having directed in other places, both in LA and Ventura Counties, he considers Conejo Players his home and family.
Beth Eslick — Executive Producer
Professional Experience: Beth has three degrees: one in Elementary Education, one in Reading Specialty, and one in Fashion Design. She’s worked as an educator and an office manager, and is now a professional costume designer and owns her own business, Beth Dressed. She designs for several different theatres in and around Southern California.
Theatrical Experience: Beth has been active at Conejo Players since 2005, and has served as its Costume Custodian since 2007. She is a proud Honorary Life Member of CPT, and a winner of the Golden Sweatshirt Award. Beth has been the Executive Producer since 2016 — in addition, she costume designs; stage-manages; produces; has run lights and sound; has worked as the House Manager Coordinator; and often teaches workshops.
Jim Diderrich — Executive Technical Director
Dana Marley-Kolb — President
Professional Experience: Dana received her BFA in Theater from UC Santa Barbara, followed by graduate studies at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. She then worked as an actor and director based out of Los Angeles for more than 10 years. Outside of her work in the theater, she is a 30 year partner in her family’s commercial real estate business.
Theatrical Experience: The daughter of a director and an actress, Dana grew up in the theater. She worked as an actor throughout her 20’s, switching to directing in her 30’s. During those years she co-founded The Strolling Players, a group that performed staged readings of Shakespeare and other classics for various bookstores. She was also a founding member of the Pasadena Shakespeare Company, where she won several directing awards. Moving to the Conejo Valley to start a family, she took several years off from the theater, but returned to performing right here at CPT 10 years ago. Picking one local show a year while her children were small, she has found herself on this stage 6 thrilling times of 10. The last year or so has found her behind the scenes as well, as dramaturg for Reduced Shakespeare (Abridged), and as director for 2 Car Park Theaters and the streamed Daddy Long Legs.
Elena Mills — Vice President
Professional & Theatrical Experience: Elena was born and raised in Russia. She started to perform at the age of 6 and continued through school and university. Elena studied Russian Language and World Literature and became a High School teacher at the age of 21. She was a Manager of High School Theater and directed numerous plays through her teaching career. She directed plays by Shakespeare, Golgoni, Chekhov, Ostrovsky, Schwarts and other Russian playwrights. Over 20 years ago Elena moved to America and started her new life here. She was volunteering in different places: Civic Arts Plaza as an usher, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks elementary schools as an art teacher, and in 2007 she started to paint sets at Conejo Players. All these years Elena worked as a set designer and painter, costume designer, producer, director assistant, actress, box office member and House Managers Coordinator, trying to help her favorite place to thrive and prosper. She is honored to continue her work at Conejo Players as Vice President, dedicating her time and energy for a place she calls home.
Eve Kiefer — Secretary
Jeremy Zeller — Treasurer
Professional Experience: Jeremy holds a degree in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and worked in the newspaper industry for more than half a decade. After several years as a specialties editor for the Ventura County Star — where his duties included writing, editing, print and web design, and photography (among others) — he now works as an office manager at an Ameriprise Financial independent franchise.
Theatrical Experience: Jeremy caught the theatre bug at age 7 and has been involved (either on or off stage) ever since. His first involvement at CPT was as an usher in 2010, and he has worked on numerous productions since — including as the director of the Conejo Improv Players.
Toni Thompson — Business Director
Andrew Costello — Facilities Director
Ritchie Filippi — Media Director
Professional Experience: Ritchie is a media, commercial, and film producer/director. Ritchie has worked as the Director of Production Operations and a Senior Producer for a creative production agency for 11 years. Before that, he worked freelance in film and television as a production manager and camera operator. Ritchie has produced videos for NBC Sports, Sony Pictures, Nintendo, Salesforce, Discovery, and Sesame Street, to name a few. He is also a member of the Producers Guild of America. In addition to producing, he directed a feature film (released in 2014) and led the social media team for the movie’s release. Ritchie considers himself fortunate to have had the opportunity to observe and learn from directors such as Steven Speilberg, Jon Favreau, and David Fincher while working on set.
Theatrical Experience: Ritchie had the pleasure of seeing The Lion King on Broadway in its first year and can still remember what it felt like when the opening music began. In the years that followed he has seen more shows than he can remember, both on Broadway and in Los Angeles. As his son, Logan, began to perform with Conejo Players in 2020, Ritchie began to volunteer in various capacities. He has helped tear down sets, usher, and work concessions. Last year, he produced and edited a series of CPT 65th Anniversary Gala social media commercials. When CPT went virtual in 2020, Ritchie jumped in as the technical director and streaming engineer on The Last Train to Norbic, The Mountain Top, and School House Rock JR, using his professional skills to make sure that the show would continue to go on. Ritchie has also led the filming of social media commercials for other local theaters; filming video content and still images for productions of Bring It On, The Addams Family, Annie JR, and High School Musical.