Lee Boek
artistic director
An integral part of Public Works Improvisational Theater since the 1970s, Lee Boek took over as Artistic Director of the company in 2001 after founding member Marlene Rasnick’s passing. This California native, born in 1941, has had successful careers as a Fundamentalist Evangelist preacher, radio host, actor, writer, producer, union organizer and champion for the under-served & wronged. A staple of the Silverlake arts community, Lee continues to be on the forefront of accessible, socially-relevant performing arts productions.
Lee has been with the company since 1979. He has helped to create, direct and perform in virtually all of the original plays and performance art pieces produced by the company since then. He has also been seen on television on Mama’s Family, Webster, Home Improvement, and MADtv. Before moving to Los Angeles in the late seventies, Boek was a well-known performer and radio personality in Northern California, where he went by the stage name of Brother Lee Love.
Paul Sands
director of paul sands projects, acting director
At the age of 11, he started at Viola Spolin's Children's Theatre Company. From here, he attended Los Angeles State College before moving to Paris when he was 18. In Paris, Sand met Marcel Marceau, who was so impressed by his talents that he asked Sand to join his touring mime troupe.
In 1960, along with Alan Arkin and others, Paul Sand was a cast member of The Second City improvisational comedy troupe in Chicago. In 1966, he co-starred with Linda Lavin and Jo Anne Worley in the off-Broadway production The Mad Show, inspired by Mad Magazine.
In 1971, Sand received a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play for his work on Broadway in Paul Sills' Story Theatre and two Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Performances on Broadway in Story Theatre and Metamorphosis. One of Sand's fellow cast members in Story Theatre was actress Valerie Harper, who, in 1970, had been signed to play Rhoda Morgenstern on the CBS-TV situation comedy The Mary Tyler Moore Show. During that show's first season, Sand was cast as Robert C. Brand, a tax auditor, who falls in love with Mary Richards (Moore) in the 11th episode "1040 or Fight". MTM Enterprises produced Friends and Lovers, in which Sand portrayed Robert Dreyfuss, a double bass player in the Boston Symphony Orchestra who falls in love easily but has little success with women. It premiered in the fall of 1974. Despite some favorable reviews and decent ratings, it was considered a disappointment and was cancelled in January 1975 after fifteen episodes had been filmed.
Sand also appeared in such motion pictures as The Hot Rock with Zero Mostel, The Second Coming of Suzanne alongside Sondra Locke, and The Main Event starring Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal.
In the fall of 1986, Sand, along with comedian Rosie O'Donnell, joined the cast of the NBC sitcom Gimme A Break starring Nell Carter, then approaching its sixth year on prime-time television.
Peter Kors
development of children theater projects
Actor, stage director, and master teaching artist Peter Kors brings a wealth of professional experience into the classroom. He has designed and facilitated student and professional development workshops for The Music Center and every other major arts organization throughout Southern California. As The Music Center’s teaching artist lead coach, Peter mentored teaching artists new to the roster. He also specializes as a writing coach and director for high school student-generated plays.
As an actor, Peter has been featured in films (“Confidential Report,” “The Strawberry Statement”), on television (“The West Wing,” “Bram and Alice”), and on stage at the Mark Taper Forum (“Tales of Hollywood,” “According to Coyote”); he has done voice-over work for dozens of feature films and television shows. His directing credits include “Francheschina’s Trick” (Theatre of Marvels), “Coming Close,” “Confessions of a Pulpeteer,” (Public Works Theatre), “The Way of the World” (Classical Theatre Lab), and “Mother” (Climate Change Action Festival).
A co-founder of Dell’Arte International, a world-renowned acting school in Northern California, Peter teaches mask theatre workshops for professional actors in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York. Kors adapts fables and folktales to guide students through a creative playmaking experience celebrating the joy of performing. For very young students Peter has developed a specialized curriculum focused on interpreting visual texts and steady beat rhythmic work.
Paul Andrade
Producer, Writer, Stage Manager
Paul Andrade has been an invaluable volunteer for Public Works ever since 2010 and has grown into an important member of our company serving now as our Stage Manager, and a Producer. Paul is a writer and important promoter of all things Public Works Improvisational Theatre.
Anna Broome
secretary of the board
Anna Broome is a Los Angeles poet who has published in various anthologies and journals including Acts of Light, LA Art News and Spectrum 17. Broome performs for local troupes including Public Works Improvisational Theatre’s Storyphile at venues including Beyond Baroque and Art Share LA. She produces and hosts the Anna Broome Room, a monthly, free-to-the-public live-performance art show for the last ten years at Art Share LA. Broome studied poetry at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington with Pulitzer Prize nominee Michael White. “Women Napping with Animals”, her collaborative project with Ted Meyer, was published in 2014. Her first collection of poetry, “Orthodox Bats”, was published in 2019. Her second collection “Sex Ed: A Prerequisite at Columbine” was published in 2022. Her new collection “An Irregular Bone” is due for publication this year.
