Instructors
Adrian Gonzalez
Adrian Gonzalez (he/him) has been active at the Hideout since 2018. He has been doing improv since high school and graduated from Southwestern University with a BA in Theatre. Adrian has a passion for fantasy and regularly performs with his Magic: The Gathering themed troupe The Misplays. Adrian has co-directed several shows including The Quest, So You Think You Can… and the B. Iden Payne winning #Found. His favorite improv game is Hell Dub.
Email: gwarzalez@gmail.com
Andy Crouch
Andy (he/him) is Education Director at The Hideout Theatre and Lead Facilitator for their professional development and corporate team building program Hideout at Work. He’s been improvising since 2001 and has directed shows like Maestro, Theatresports, Fakespeare, Start Trekkin’, Live Nude Improv, and Fandom: Improvised Fan Fiction—but his big passion is teaching: sharing the transformational and empowering ideas of improv to anyone willing to listen.
Email: acrouch@hideouttheatre.com
Ashley Park
Ashley Park (she/her) is an actor, award-winning writer, and comedian hailing originally from San Antonio (#GoSpursGo). She kicked off her improv journey in 2018 at the Hideout, and can you believe it, no regrets! Ashley performs sketch comedy regularly around town, and has trained at multiple theaters, including being invited back for The Groundlings advanced writer’s lab in Los Angeles. She loves character work of all kinds and can’t wait to help you develop your own.
Email: ashley@ashleyparkhere.com
Caeriel Crestin
After jumping into classes in 2011, Caeriel (they/them) fell in love with improv and the Hideout and just refused to leave! These days, Caeriel wears many hats at the Hideout. In addition to being an instructor, they are also the Classes Registrar and Director of the Incubator Program. They have directed many shows, including: The Game Show Show, What They Do in the Darkness, 183 Dewberry Lane, and Soundstage 23.
Caeriel is interested in growing our diverse community, creating a warm, engaging scene for people from all walks of life, and helping people find greater joy and fun in their lives through improv. Besides improv, Caeriel also loves dogs, sci-fi, D&D, and board games.
Email: caeriel@hideouttheatre.com
Chuy Zarate
Estevan J. (Chuy) Zarate (He/Him) is an actor/director/coach from San Antonio who has been improvising for audiences for 32 years. He is a member of The Big Bash at The Hideout Theatre, The Known Wizards (Merlin Works faculty troupe), Stool Pigeon at ColdTowne, and more duos than he can count. He teaches all styles and formats being that he has a very eclectic tool belt to reach into. If there is a scenario to be performed in, he has probably performed it. With specialties in improv singing and grounded/character-driven scenework, Chuy has coached hundreds of kids, teens, students and adults for years to multiple successes.
Email: iguanaz@att.net
Danielle Daverona
Danielle (she/her) began her improv journey in 2017, and is a performer, teacher, and award winning director (Best Directors for Dr. Boo’s Creepy Neighborhood). She leads workshops on art, improv, & creative problem solving. Her goal as a teacher is to help people utilize improv techniques in and outside the theatre, and to empower people deeply understand, trust and appreciate themselves and their choices! She has co-directed shows like Out of This World, Zaria Party, Middle Schoolers, Dr. Boo’s Creepy Neighborhood, and can regularly be found directing or playing in Maestro. Outside of improv Danielle is a full time artist, dedicated cat and plant parent, as well as a consumer of all things true crime!
Email: danielledaverona@gmail.com
Katy Wiggins
Katy Wiggins (she/her) was raised doing musical theater at Hits Theater and Miller Outdoor theater in Houston, honed her improv skills on the stages of UCB and the Magnet Theater in New York City, and is now incredibly grateful to be teaching improv and performing at The Hideout. She is passionate about creating a warm, inclusive environment in class. If she’s not in a theater somewhere, she’s probably reading or watching something spooky and British. Katy is also the creator of the popular ghost story podcast Scary Stories from Camp Roanoke, so if you have a ghost story definitely tell her.
Email: katyrwiggins@gmail.com
Kenny Madison
Kenny Madison saw an ad for improv auditions at a bus stop in 2008. He moved to Austin in August 2014 and was directing improv shows by September. He’s done improv in New York, Chicago, San Antonio, one city in Kansas, and more. He’s a big deal. Also, he graduated from University of Oklahoma with a bachelor’s in Film and Video Studies. You might have also heard him interview cast and crew from the TV show Ted Lasso at lassocast.com. Kenny worries about people, so he works with new students on trusting their own voice first. He believes that folks can’t move forward until they can make themselves laugh. From there, he makes sure that you’re having a good time being yourself in front of strangers and in front of your classmates.
Email: kendalmadison@gmail.com
Kristen Drenning
Kristen Drenning (she/her) is an improvisor and storyteller in Austin. She has trained locally at The Hideout, Merlin Works, ColdTowne, and Fallout Theater. She also completed the advanced studies programs at UCB, Groundlings, and Second City Conservatory. She has been a frequent performer at storytelling events such as Testify, Stories on the Lawn, The Moth, and Fallout Storytelling Hour. You can often find her performing with her troupes, Sorry for Partying, 48, Trouble, and Antisocial. She was in the cast of numerous shows including Blvd. Q, Murder They Improvised, Into the Metaverse, and The Emma Dilemma. She teaches improv to children through Coldtowne’s Excused Absence program and to neurodivergent teens through Hideout’s Building Connections program.
Email: kristen.drenning@gmail.com
Mallory Schlossberg
Mallory (she/her) has more than a decade of improv experience. A native New Yorker she performed on the Magnet Theater house team The Jezebelles from 2013-2015. Since moving to Austin in 2017 she’s directed multiple shows at The Hideout, including Grand Misery, That! Big! 80s! Musical! and the B. Iden Payne-nominated The Sound of Made Up Music. She wrote the book, lyrics, co-wrote the music, and directed the B. Iden Payne award-winning virtual production Human Resources: The Musical in 2020. She is SUPER passionate about musical improv and loves nothing more than spreading the joy to all who want to stand center stage and sing!
Margaret Hunsicker
Margaret Hunsicker (they/she) has been improvising on and off the stage for 16 years. Along with her Theatre BA from UCF, she minored in Interactive Performance with a focus on improvised narratives and audience participation. She began at the Hideout in 2014, diving headfirst into the Austin improv community by participating in and creating several award-winning shows. She also worked classroom programs at Creative Action, a local arts nonprofit. She then spent 3 years in Chicago, studying and performing at Second City and The Annoyance Theaters. Margaret returned to Austin in 2023 and currently works from home using her background in social justice and interactive acting to train corporate teams in DEI, classroom education, and human resource management. She is a member of the core American Berserk Theatre company. Margaret also enjoys sculpting, painting, and everything about cats.
Email: margarethunsuck@gmail.com
Mickey May
Mickey May (She/Her) is an original Austinite, pre-planned Virgo, and likes long walks in the woods (as long as it’s under 85 degrees). She started improvising in 2015 on her college troupe as has been playing at the Hideout since a serendipitous Maestro in 2017. (Technically she started improv in high school but we don’t talk about those years.) She has a B.F.A and an M.F.A in creative writing and focuses on character and story on and or stage. From working on devised plays on mental health, improvised musicals, to writing award winning scary stories, Mickey lives for the artistic side of life and wants to make everyone feel welcome in this space.
Mykel Jewell
Mykel Jewell (he/him) originally hails from NYC and has been living in Austin since 2014. A fervent and die hard sponge of all the wonderful benefits of improv since 2020, Mykel has trained internationally with theaters in the UK, Germany, Bangladesh and many more theaters across the world and right here in Austin. Being exposed to such a variety of voices in the improv space has fostered a deep passion in Mykel for advocating for the promotion of diversity in the arts. As the Hideout’s Head of Diversity Outreach, Mykel’s foremost focus is to encourage highlighting the traditionally under-represented voices in all performance arts spaces.
Email: mykel.jewell@gmail.com
Paulina Fricke
Paulina (she/her) was terrified of acting without a script until she took her first class at The Hideout in 2018. Since then, she’s been making stuff up and performing in shows like Maestro, Love on Deck, Out of This World, and more. Paulina is a professional actress and studied at The Groundlings in LA, Beverly Hills Playhouse, Carol Hickey Acting Studio and Fallout Theatre. She teaches acting and Dance at Zach Theatre.
Email: paulinafricke@gmail.com
Rebecca East
Rebecca East (she/her) is from Houston and has been living in Austin since 2016. She came to Austin to pursue her B.F.A. in Theatre Education from the University of Texas and has since taught kids of all ages at Zach Theatre, The Paramount Theatre, and as a middle school teacher in Austin ISD. She has been a performer and theatre artist her whole life but is most passionate about all things improv. She has been practicing improv off and on since 2012 and has been a part of multiple productions at The Hideout as a student, actor, and technician. It is one of the greatest joys of her life to be able to share laughter with others.
Email: rebecca.east40@gmail.com
Rose Frezza
Rose (she/her) is a native Austinite, improviser, and communications specialist. She was kind of boring until she took a life-bending class at the Hideout in 2013. Helping others discover the joy and freedom that improv brought her is one of her greatest privileges. Rose has trained at multiple theaters in Austin and at The IO Theater in Chicago. She performs regularly at The Hideout and around the country with her all-female troupe Physics Curse. Rose holds a master’s degree in advertising/PR from UT Austin and is a producer of the Out of Bounds Comedy Festival.
Email: rosemariefrezza@gmail.com
Sid Desai
Sid Desai (any/all) has been doing improv since 2015 and teaching at the Hideout since 2023. They have been a part of Gigglepants and the B. Iden Payne Award winning Butterfly Defect. They love narrative improv with a focus on earnest character work. You can read Sid’s blog (sidrdesai.substack.com) to learn more about their style of improv and also tabletop role playing games. At The Hideout they’ve been in many shows including Game Show Show and Put Your Lips Together and Blow and have directed Swashbuckled, Killertown, and The Bollywood Improv Show. They also won a Maestro once.
Sophie Hard
Sophie Hard is from Northern California and grew up unable to ask a question in class without her face turning red. She moved to Los Angeles after college and took an improv class hoping that she could learn to be funny on stage and make new friends along the way. After going through Second City’s program in 2015, she ended up in a professional improv conservatory through Impro Theatre, improvising such genres as romcom, Tennessee Williams, ghost stories, and Jane Austen. She currently directs and performs in Jane Austin Improv, winner of a B. Iden Payne award for best new improv troupe in Austin.
Email: sophiehard365@gmail.com
Tess Hermes
Tess Hermes has been performing, directing, producing improv for over a decade. Her teaching style is playful and honest. She values feedback to help students stretch themselves. Staying present and connected is the heart of improv is one of her core beliefs.
Email: tessehermes@gmail.com