
Barbara Ziff
Chapel Hill, NC


Gina Giampaoli
San Miguel de Allende, MX
Gina has a MA in Education, teaches Spanish and English, and is a freelance translator. Her experience on stage began with ballet as a child growing up in San Miguel and transitioned to theatre while attending college in Querétaro where she joined El teatro de la media luna. She has performed on stages in Mexico and the United States and has directed numerous plays including The Nerd and The Vagina Monologues. Some of Gina’s favorite roles are Gertrude Garnet in The Lady in Question, Titania in A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream, Tansy in The Nerd, and Anita in West Side Story. Gina is delighted to be part of The Improv People.

Chris Kapilla
Seattle, WA
Since moving to San Miguel, Chris has found that he loves anything to do with theater — as long as it doesn’t involve memorizing a script. As such, he has enjoyed writing several plays with San Miguel Playwrights, making things up on the fly with The Improv People, and acting script-in-hand on several local stages (and one bar).

Eli Hans
Mexico City, MX
Eli is an actor, director and acting coach. He began acting very early on (his specialty was award-winning tantrums), and eventually attended The Stella Adler Acting Academy. As a professional actor, he has worked in TV, film and video, musical and theatrical productions and has enjoyed a successful voice-over career for nearly two decades. He spent a few years at San Diego's Old Globe Theater as director of a renowned bilingual theatre education program. In addition to theatre, Eli enjoys woking as a life coach, and leading transformational workshops with his partner in crime, Joseph Bennett. Visit his website here. He is the artistic director of The Improv People.

Joseph Bennett
San Diego, CA
Joseph is the founder and managing director of The Improv People. He began playing in theatre in elementary school, and has studied acting, ballet, jazz dance, comedy and improv. He's been lucky enough to teach improv, stand uP comedy, art and several personal growth workshops in San Miguel. Joseph is also an accomplished assemblage artist and practicing hypnotherapist and life coach.