Gamm Theatre Announces New Fellows for Milestone Season
The fellows will be an integral part of The Gamm's 40th anniversary season programming as they hone their professional skills and goals.
By: A.A. Cristi Sep. 10, 2024
The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre (The Gamm) will welcome three new fellows to its 2024-25 Gamm Fellowship Program. This fourth cohort of emerging artists of color includes Zelina Estrella Garcia, Allison “Sonny” Wong, and Ayrin Ramirez Peguero. Recent graduates of Rhode Island College, the Community College of Rhode Island, and the University of Rhode Island, respectively, the fellows will be an integral part of The Gamm's 40th anniversary season programming as they hone their professional skills and goals.
The 10-month Gamm Fellowship Program is a partnership between The Gamm and Rhode Island's public institutions of higher education. Fellows are paid a stipend to participate in an immersive experience. Over the course of The Gamm's 2024-25 season, fellows engage in select areas of creative, administrative, and educational theater making. Additionally, each is paired with an advanced career mentor who will provide guidance about making a living in the theater industry. All nine of the program's former fellows from the past three seasons are now working, performing, or pursuing additional training in the field. Autumn Mist Jefferson, a 2022-23 fellow, is The Gamm's full-time Education Associate and Fellowship Coordinator.
"As an alum of this program, I'm thrilled to bring this talented group of artists into our community," Jefferson said. "This new cohort represents a diverse range of voices and experiences, and I'm eager to see how their creativity, passion and commitment to the craft will shape the future of theater."
Gamm Artistic Director Tony Estrella added, "We are excited that our new group of fellows will be part of our 40th anniversary productions and celebrations. Big birthdays always make us look back on where we came from and where we're going. The fellows represent our future. As a URI graduate, I'm proud to help ensure that theater continues as a viable career choice for students of every walk of life. This old-fashioned trade is best handed down through the work itself. The day in and day out experience of this program helps turn our fellows into year-round theater makers, and prepares them for the reality of a life in show business.”
ABOUT THE FELLOWS
Zelina Estrella Garcia, a Providence native, graduated from Rhode Island College (‘23) with a B.A. in musical theater and a minor in dance performance. Through RIC, she is a Miranda Family Scholarship Fellow, an honor awarded to talented students from underrepresented populations who are pursuing a career in music, theater or dance. At RIC, she performed in Head Over Heels (Pythia), Spring Awakening (Female Ensemble), and Cabaret (Victor/US The Emcee). She also worked in the costume department. While at RIC, Zelina choreographed her own dance piece called To Be Transparent. It highlighted her experience as a Trans-Latina in modern day society, the mistreatment that happens to her community, and her past internal struggle. Theater artist Alison Russo, a frequent Gamm actor (Viola in Twelfth Night, Dora in An Octoroon) is Zelina's mentor.
Allison “Sonny” Wong of Barrington, R.I., received an A.A. in liberal arts, with a concentration in theater performance, from the Community College of Rhode Island ('24). At CCRI, their acting credits included Fool for Love (May), I and You (Caroline), Water by the Spoonful (Orangutan), Three Years from Thirty (Ashley), SHREW (Tranio), Clown Bar (Timmy), and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Sandra). Their technical theater credits at CCRI include Deathtrap (assistant stage manager), Othello (technical assistant), Yellowman (stage manager), and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (assistant director/dramaturg). They also performed and worked in technical roles around Rhode Island, including at Contemporary Theatre Company, Burbage Theatre Company, Spectrum Theatre Ensemble, and Mixed Magic Theatre. Sonny's mentor is Steve Kidd, an acting and directing teacher at Moses Brown School, as well as a Gamm actor (Hangmen, Sweat) and director (The Effect, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?).
Ayrin Ramirez Peguero holds a B.F.A. in theater with a concentration in acting from the University of Rhode Island ('24). Born in La Romana, Dominican Republic, she was raised in Providence. At URI, Ayrin appeared in Polaroid Stories; By The Way, Meet Vera Stark; Marie Antoinette; and Little Shop of Horrors. She has also performed at Burbage Theatre Company (Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, BLKS), Mixed Magic Theatre (Then and Now), and Trinity Rep/RILA Teatro en El Verano (La Mancha). Ayrin's mentor is Rodney Witherspoon II, an actor (Ironbound, It's a Wonderful Life at The Gamm), writer, director, and teaching educator, and a graduate of Brown/Trinity Rep's M.F.A. program.
ABOUT THE GAMM THEATRE
Founded in 1984, the non-profit Gamm Theatre is proud to tell stories that entertain, provoke, and engage seriously with the most important issues of our time. The Gamm further serves the public with educational programming that enriches the cultural and civic life of our community. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Tony Estrella and Executive Director Jason Cabral, The Gamm is a regionally recognized, award-winning theater and a proud member of New England Area Theatre (NEAT), a bargaining unit of the Actors' Equity Association.
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