BOARD MEMBERS
Darren Lee Cole
Artistic Director and Board President
Having influenced Off-Broadway and the theatre industry as a whole for the past 35 years, Darren Lee Cole has built his career around producing groundbreaking works, directing stellar performances, and teaching some of the world’s finest actors.
Darren truly learned about theatre from the legendary John Houseman and has been inspired through him in his producing, acting, and directing. Darren has produced over 150 productions through Cole Theatricals in New York, Los Angeles, Sweden, Canada, England, Scotland, Costa Rica, and many other states and countries. Darren became Producing Artistic Director of the SoHo Playhouse in 2004 where he has produced or directed an additional 50 groundbreaking works that have won many of Off-Broadway’s most prominent theatre awards.
Charles De Portes
Board Member
Charles de Portes is the President Emeritus and Co-Founder of ESR, one of the world’s largest real estate development firms. Charles retired from President to Non-executive Director of ESR, and Chairman Emeritus of the Capital Committee in January 2021, after serving as Director and Executive Director from 2016-2019, responsible for overseeing the overall private equity capital raising, and operations and business development.
Charles has over 30 years of real estate investment experience, including more than 20 years in the logistics and New Economy sectors in Asia. He has overseen the development and acquisition of over 1,000 real estate assets across Europe, Asia and North America, and led the raising of over $15 billion in private capital raises during his career. He was the co-founder and co-CEO of AMB BlackPine from 2003 to 2006 and a member of the AMB Property Japan Advisory Committee from 2006-2008. In addition, Charles was the Head of Acquisitions and Capital for Europe and Asia for Prologis from 1998 to 2003. Prior to this, he worked in real estate principal investments at Goldman Sachs in New York, London and Paris.
Graduating Dean’s List in International Political Economy from the Johns Hopkins University, Charles also holds an MBA from INSEAD, France and is fluent in English, French and Spanish. Charles was recipient of the Global Entrepreneur award from INSEAD in 2022.
Dr. Keith Boman
Board Member
A native of southern Nevada, Dr. Keith Boman is a noted cardiologist who was named one of the best doctors in the city by Las Vegas Life magazine. He planned and implemented the first automatic defibrillator program in casinos in 1997, which subsequently became the standard for all casinos.
With a passion for both his community and the arts, Dr. Boman helped found The Meadows School in Summerlin, and was one of the visionaries and leading proponents to see The Smith Center in downtown Las Vegas come to its fruition. The Boman Pavillion at The Smith Center is named in Dr. Boman’s honor for his years of dedication to the project, and he currently serves as The Smith Center’s Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Dr. Boman’s commitment to community and the arts is reinforced by his decades of involvement with leading cultural organizations such as the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, Super Summer Theatre, Nevada Ballet Theatre, Las Vegas Philharmonic, Las Vegas Music Festival, among many others.
Victoria Bradshaw
Board Member
As Partner at the public affairs consulting firm California Strategies, Victoria Bradshaw uses her unrivaled breadth of state government employment, benefit, workforce development and economic development experience to help clients navigate California’s extensive regulatory red tape and create effective public-private-partnerships.
Bradshaw served as Cabinet Secretary and Deputy Chief of Staff under both Governor Pete Wilson and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Additionally, she has served as Secretary of the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, the California State Labor Commissioner, Director of the Employment Development Department, Board Member of the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board, Executive Director of the Employment Training Panel under Governors Wilson and Davis, Chair of the Economic Strategy Council, Chair of the California Workforce Investment Board, Board Member of the California Association for Local Economic Development, and Chair of the Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley.
Before coming to the public sector, Bradshaw served in several executive positions in the retail industry, including Vice President of Human Resources for the BATUS Retail Group in New York and Vice President of Human Resources of Marshall Field & Company in Chicago.
Sally J. Rapp
Board Member
Sally J. Rapp has over four decades of entrepreneurial and leadership experience in healthcare management, beginning as an Administrator with the largest public skilled nursing company in the nation. In the 1990s, Sally founded her own company, which owned, leased, operated or managed multiple skilled nursing and assisted living facilities in Northern California. During her career, she has been very active in the state of California and National healthcare sectors, having served in senior leadership roles in multiple healthcare related associations, including serving as President of several regional chapters representing nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
As a leader for political and non-profit organizations, Sally served as the Chair of Political Action Committees in California and Nationally, where she oversaw fundraising and the Committees’ political objectives. Though now retired, Sally continues to lead as the President of the prestigious Two Turnberry Place Homeowners Association, as well as President of the Newport Towers Homeowners Association in Newport Beach, California.
Jena McIntosh
Board Secretary
Jena McIntosh has been mastering the art of real estate for over 30 years, specializing in the most luxurious condos in the heart of the city, offering the ultimate in sophistication and elegance. With three decades of experience, Jena is widely recognized as one of the top luxury high-rise real estate agents in Las Vegas with an elite and international clientele. Her undeniable tenacity, unique approach, and deep knowledge of the market has garnered over $1 billion in luxury high-rise real estate sales.
A California native, Jena began her journey with a passion for interior design in Los Angeles. This creative foundation not only fueled her success in flipping homes but also equipped her to guide her clients in transforming their own spaces into something extraordinary. Before diving into real estate, Jena also made her mark as a top-selling gemologist at Tiffany & Co.’s iconic Rodeo Drive store—where she learned the art of building relationships that last. Today, many of her clients have stuck with her for decades, not just as clients but as friends. Jena’s charm, much like a fine wine, has only gotten better with time, blending elegance with a dash of New York wit—a combination that keeps her clients coming back, year after year.
Britt Lafield
Board Treasurer
Britt Lafield has been working in New York Theater as an actor and producer for over 30 years. He has been associated with SoHo Playhouse for over 20 years as the General Manager, Managing Director and Producer, having even produced his own wedding on the stage in 2011.
Devoted to creating new and exciting productions and helping younger theater artists, Britt has been involved in producing several of New York’s most prestigious theater festivals including the New York International Theater Festival, the Planet Connection Festivity, founding the Rave Theater Festival and culminating in creating and producing the Fringe Encore Series at SoHo Playhouse for the past 15 years. Britt is committed to finding and bringing new work and artists to the stages of SoHo Playhouse to create the best working lab for exciting theater in New York City and Las Vegas.
Huntridge Theater Project Advisors
Fisher Dachs Associates
Theater Planning and Design
Fisher Dachs Associates is one of the world’s leading theatre planning and design consultants. FDA’s mission is to help their clients plan and design vibrant, innovative, and technically superb performance spaces and cultural buildings for a wide range of uses. Locally, FDA is proud to have been the design firm engaged for The Smith Center for the Performing Arts.
Founded by legendary Broadway lighting designer Jules Fisher, and under the direction of Joshua Dachs, FDA has over 50 years’ experience in providing guidance to over 1,000 performing arts projects in dozens of countries across five continents. These range from small community theatres to major cultural centers and includes theaters for drama, dance and musicals; concert halls; opera houses; multi-purpose touring venues; higher education and academic institutions; corporate auditoriums and event spaces; rock’n’roll clubs and popular music venues.
FDA’s staff includes experts with backgrounds as set and lighting designers, musicians, architects, stage technicians, production managers, producers, stage managers, and more. FDA’s goal is to craft buildings that are great places to visit, work or perform in, and that function equally well for the artist who work in the space, the technical staff who keep it running smoothly, and the management team that has to operate it successfully.
Paul Schmitt
Senior Vice President, Whiting-Turner Contracting Company
Paul Schmitt joined Whiting-Turner Contracting Company in 1985 upon his graduation from Virginia Tech with a BS in Civil Engineering. After 35 years with the firm, he is currently Senior Vice President overseeing the company’s Southwest region. Paul has lived in the Las Vegas Valley since moving to Henderson in 1997.
Whiting-Turner is a nation general contracting and construction management firm with 35 offices nationally including Las Vegas, and Reno, Nevada. They provide a diverse portfolio of construction services including pre-construction, general contracting, construction management, and design/build delivery in all commercial market sectors. Whiting-Turner is consistently ranked in the ENR top ten commercial construction contractors.
Since 1909, Whiting-Turner has been guided by the principles of integrity, excellence and dedication to customer delight while serving their clients and dedicated to providing secure, rewarding career paths for its employees.
Gary Leffler
Principal Leffler Marketing Consultants
Gary Leffler is an arts administration, marketing and development professional with over 30 years experience in the performing arts sector, with a focus on theatre, music and dance.
After working in Chicago with non-profit theatre companies and emerging Broadway producers, Gary joined Broadway In Chicago as the organization began developing Chicago’s Downtown Theatre District in the 1990s. The new entertainment district would ultimately include five Broadway caliber theaters, including the restoration and renovation of two historic but long-abandoned theaters. As part of the leadership team for Broadway In Chicago, Gary worked with the Mayor’s Office of Special Events to launch city sponsored festivals for theatre and music, as well as creating a successful tourism campaign focused on the arts and culture sector as an important visitation driver.
In 2007 Gary moved to Las Vegas to work for a theatrical producer with five musicals in five casinos along the Strip. His growing desire to impact the success of local arts organizations led to a decade of success with Nevada Ballet Theater leading their branding and growth initiatives. Now, as an independent arts administration consultant, he helps non-profit arts organizations grow and prosper through innovative thinking and bold strategy.
Kirsten Brandt
Executive Director, Nevada Conservatory Theatre Chair, Department of Theatre, UNLV
Prior to joining UNLV Kirsten Brandt was associate chair and artistic director of the department of film and theatre at San Jose State University. Brandt is an interdisciplinary artist and educator whose practice embraces inquiries into gender, technology, and politics. An award-winning theatrical director, playwright, and producer with over 20 years of experience, her passion lies in igniting the imagination of audiences through visceral storytelling and visual poetry to encourage dialogue and ethical engagement. She specializes in musical theater, experimental theater, devised and ensemble created events, Shakespeare, and the intersection of live performance and digital media.
For seven years, she served as executive artistic director of the Sledgehammer Theatre (San Diego’s leading alternative theater) where she produced 25 productions including 11 world premieres, five west coast premieres, and directed 15 productions.
She received her bachelor of arts in theatre from University of California San Diego, where she took part in the education abroad program in Birmingham, England. Her MFA in interdisciplinary arts from Goddard College focuses on gender in performance, performative technologies, and environmental justice. She is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, The Dramatists Guild of America, and the National Theatre Conference.
Lisa Portes
Chair, Theater and Dance University of California San Diego
Lisa Portes is an educator, director, advocate and leader whose aim is to define and promote a new American narrative that is driven aesthetically and politically by the world we are becoming rather than the world we’ve been. She seeks to forge an American theatre that expands our understanding of who we are, blows open our assumptions of what our world looks like and extends us into the great, big, messy experience of being human in the 21st century.
In 2012 she co-founded the Latinx Theatre Commons (LTC), a national advocacy network and thinktank that promotes Latinx stories as central to the American story. She serves as champion for the LTC Carnaval—a tri-annual festival of new Latinx plays produced in Chicago.
Portes has created work regionally for California Shakespeare Theatre, the Cincinnati Playhouse, Children’s Theatre Company, the Denver Center, Guthrie Theatre, Olney Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Round House Theatre, Seattle Rep, South Coast Rep and the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival. In Chicago she has directed projects for Goodman Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Teatro Vista, Timeline Theatre and Victory Gardens. New York credits include productions at Playwrights Horizons and Soho Rep, and developmental work at New York Theatre Workshop, the Flea Theatre and the Public Theatre.
Portes cut her teeth at the La Jolla Playhouse where she served as Assistant and then Associate Director for The Who’s Tommy staging its Toronto, London, Frankfurt, US, UK and Canadian National Tours. Portes serves on the executive board of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and is an alumni of the board of The Theatre Communications Group.
Kenny Rampton
Co-Founder and Artistic Director Jazz Outreach Initiative
Trumpeter Kenny Rampton grew up in Las Vegas, and studied music at both UNLV and the Berklee College of Music. In 1989, he moved to New York where he quickly established his reputation as a versatile musician, touring and performing with a veritable who’s who in jazz. Kenny’s first road gig was a world tour with The Ray Charles Orchestra. After leaving the Ray Charles band, Kenny went on the road with legendary jazz drummer Panama Francis and The Savoy Sultans and soon thereafter, with The Jimmy McGriff Quartet. As a sideman, Kenny has also performed with jazz greats Wynton Marsalis, Jon Hendricks, The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, The Lincoln Center Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, Chico OFarrill’s Afro-Cuban Jazz Big Band, Lionel Hampton, Charlie Persip and Supersound, Illinois Jacquet, Dr. John, Edy Martinez, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Reuben Wilson, Charles Earland, Tony Monaco, Clark Terry, Slide Hampton, Marcus Roberts, Christian McBride, Geoff Keezer, Richard Bona and a host of others.
Kenny Rampton joined the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis as a full time member in 2010. He also leads his own groups in addition to performing with the Mingus Big Band, The Mingus Orchestra, The Mingus Dynasty, George Gruntz’ Concert Jazz Band, and The Manhattan Jazz Orchestra (under the direction of Dave Matthews).
In 2017 Kenny co-founded Las Vegas’ Jazz Outreach Initiative (JOI), a non-profit organization dedicated to connecting the language of music to the language of life through education, outreach and performance. Heavily influenced by and connected to Jazz at Lincoln Center, JOI creates and executes numerous education and outreach programs impacting students across the valley. In addition, JOI is home to the Jazz Vegas Orchestra, a professional big band comprised of Las Vegas’ top jazz musicians, using the universal language of music and the very American art form of jazz to make life in Las Vegas even more JOIful.