Board & Staff

Reanna Armellino is a New York-based actor, singer, and producer. A member of SAG-AFTRA and AGMA, she works across stage and screen and has drawn strong critical notice for her acting work: Local Theater NY called her “spot on as Jackie-O” in The House of Yes — “funny, scary, but in a very disturbingly sexy way” — and Theater Pizzazz praised her Irina in Three Sisters for a nuanced arc from “childlike coquettishness” to a “sobered, almost solemn” maturity. She has also performed with Theater 86 under director Aleksey Burago, including in The Snow Queen and a 2024 winter production of Dante’s Inferno, and has directed for Greenhouse, most recently “prudently” shepherding the company’s Ten Minute Play Soirée (Theater Pizzazz). She pairs a working artist’s perspective on producing and programming with an active performing career.

John Edward Cantrell is Choirmaster and Organist at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where he directs the parish music program and presides at the church’s celebrated 55-rank, three-manual Von Beckerath organ (built 1967). He holds a Master of Music in Organ Performance from Yale University and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Louisville, and studied with Melvin Dickinson, Thomas Murray, and Martin Jean, with additional coaching from Susan Landale, Ludger Lohmann, and Charles Kriegbaum. Regarded as one of New York City’s most versatile church musicians, Cantrell has performed as organist, pianist, and multi-instrumentalist in venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to European cathedrals and rock arenas across the United States, England, Ireland, and Western Europe. Colleagues describe him as a ‘musician’s musician’ whose ‘skilled leadership, coupled with his warm personal flair,’ has raised the musical life at St. Michael’s to new heights. His deep involvement in the artistic and liturgical life of St. Michael’s — the parish that houses The Greenhouse Ensemble — makes him a natural bridge between the congregation and the resident theatre company.

Lucas Daniels is an actor, director, and Artistic Associate at The Purple Rose Theatre Company in Chelsea, Michigan, one of the country’s leading homes for original American plays. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre with a specialization in Acting and a Minor in Digital Media Arts and Technology from Michigan State University in 2011, and completed the Purple Rose Apprenticeship Program in 2011–12. He received his Actors’ Equity Association card in 2012 while understudying at the company, and is a member of Equity today. Since rejoining Purple Rose full-time in September 2021, Lucas has assistant-directed a series of new-play premieres and revivals at the theatre, including Pickleball, the 2023 revival of Diva Royale, Office Christmas Party, Grinch in Fight with Rudolph, Police Called, and the world premiere of The Classic King. In his artistic-associate role he also helps steward the theatre’s licensing catalog, auditions, and season planning. A Chelsea native who grew up around the Purple Rose’s resident ensemble of playwrights and actors, Lucas continues to help develop and stage new work there, with a personal interest — reflected in his digital media minor — in the intersection of live performance, media, and design.

The Rev. Julie M. Hoplamazian is Associate Rector of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side — the parish that hosts The Greenhouse Ensemble. From May through September 2025 she led the parish as Acting Interim Rector during its rector transition. A second-generation Armenian-American raised in Philadelphia, Julie attended the Armenian Sisters Academy and worshipped in her local Armenian Apostolic parish before discerning a call to the Episcopal priesthood. She earned a B.S. in Music Education at Gettysburg College and an M.Div. at Princeton Theological Seminary, and coordinated college ministries at the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America before her ordination in the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island in 2012. Her prior parish ministry includes Grace Church Brooklyn Heights and the Church of St. Luke. A lifelong ballet dancer, in 2020 she founded Faith on Pointe, an online ministry that explores dance as spiritual practice through drop-in Zoom classes, six-week ‘Prayerful Plie’ intensives, workshops, and her ‘Raising the Barre’ sermon series. She writes for Faith+Lead and Enter the Bible and lives in New York with her dog, Amos.

Recently performed in The Coney at the Detroit Opera House benefitting the Children’s Foundation of Michigan and the Detroit Creative Project. Mr. Jbara made his directorial debut with the feature film of Adam Seidel’s hit Off-Broadway play Original Sound now streaming on AppleTV and Prime Video. Screen credits include the season premiere of 911 airing October 15 on ABC, series regular “Uncle Jim” in the upcoming Through the Woods, 15 seasons as DCPI Garrett Moore on the hit CBS police drama Blue Bloods and Senate Hearing Chairman Magnuson in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer for which he received a SAG Award. Mr. Jbara won the 2009 Tony Award, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award for Featured Actor in a Musical as ‘Dad’ in Billy Elliot the musical. He also originated leading roles in the Broadway productions of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Victor/Victoria, the 1994 revival of Damn Yankees! and replaced James Naughton as Billy Flynn in Chicago in 1997. Film credits include Broken City, Big Miracle, Tangled, Remember Me, Enchanted, In & Out, Jeffrey, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, One Fine Day and World Trade Center. TV credits include Nurse Jackie, Treme, Law & Order, Monk, The Unit, Grounded For Life and Friends. Jbara is the voice of Pastor Wilson Knox for the Adventures in Odyssey radio series and has voiced characters for Family Guy, Rocket Power, American Dad!, the Cleveland Show, Glenn Martin DDS, Higglytown Heroes and As Told by Ginger. Proud University of Michigan Alumnus. Graduate of The Juilliard School (BFA 1986). www.GregoryJbara.com

Doug Kleiman is a lifelong Upper West Side resident and Executive Managing Director at RIPCO Real Estate’s Manhattan office, where he has worked since 2012. He began his commercial real estate career in 2000, focusing on landlord and tenant representation, and has represented brands including AG Jeans, Orwashers Bakery, SLT, Aveda/Scott J Hair Salon, and Motorino Pizza in transactions across Manhattan. He holds memberships in the International Council of Shopping Centers and the Real Estate Board of New York. Kleiman is a seated member of Manhattan Community Board 7 — the district covering the Upper West Side — and has served on its Business & Consumer Issues and Transportation committees, appearing regularly in board meeting minutes from at least 2014 onward, including a stint as Vice-Chair. His civic work has focused on the ground-floor commercial life of the neighborhood the Greenhouse Ensemble calls home.

Ethel Sheffer is an urban planner, civic leader, and educator who has been one of the Upper West Side’s most consistent voices in neighborhood planning for more than four decades. She is Principal of Insight Associates, a consultancy providing advice and research in planning, land use, community organization, and the public review process. A longtime member of Manhattan Community Board 7 — the district covering the Upper West Side from 59th to 110th Streets — Sheffer has served as its Chairperson and has led or co-led the Tri-Board Task Force on Columbus Circle, the Riverside Center Working Group, and the Task Force on Zoning from 96th to 110th Streets. She served three terms as President of the New York Metro Chapter of the American Planning Association and was named an APA National Fellow in 2012. She has taught for many years at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and previously taught political science at Brooklyn College. She has also served as a Commissioner on the New York City Public Design Commission. Sheffer was inducted into the 2024 Manhattan Jewish Hall of Fame. She was married to Isaiah Sheffer, the founding artistic director of Symphony Space, and was a close partner in that Upper West Side arts institution’s growth over thirty-two years.

Fay Van Alstyne Simpson is the Artistic Director of Impact Theatre. She has devised and directed original work for the last two decades. Informed by her 20-year career in dance and theater, Fay created The Lucid Body, a psycho-physical process of introspection, exertion, and mental challenge that empowers actors and dancers to express their fullest potential. She conducts workshops and coaches actors on TV, stage, and screen. She runs a Teacher Training Institute that has certified 25 teachers worldwide. The 2nd edition of her book The Lucid Body: A Guide for the Physical Actor (Allworth, 2008) was released in August 2020.

Simpson is Head of Movement and an Arts Professor in the Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts, NYU.

An IPA (Intimacy Professionals Association) certified Intimacy Coordinator, Fay has choreographed over 20 plays and ballets.

Frank Tangredi is a playwright who has enjoyed a long association with Hazen Cuyler and Greenhouse. In 2015, his play God, Sex, and Getting Even was Greenhouse’s very first full production. Three years later, Greenhouse produced Dads, Dates and Other Disturbances, an evening of his short plays and films. In 2023, Greenhouse produced Muse, which has since been picked up for November 2026 publication by Next Stage Press. Other works include Pastoral; A Disturbances at Hemingsford Hall; Lifeline; and Galatea.