Meet the Team
Rory Smith (Co-President)
Rory Smith (she/they) is a junior Acting BFA major at California State University, Long Beach. She has also recently begun pursuing a Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies minor. Rory is dedicated to intersectional feminism, meaning not only equality between all genders but also the active dismantling of heteronormative, white supremacist, patriarchal systems. The work is a lifelong effort to which she is fully committed. She is currently working with the Feminist Theatre Makers team on a devised piece about voting and civic engagement for the 2021 Week of Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity at CSULB. She is a California transplant from Boston, MA who is hoping to use art and activism in her career to imagine, organize, advocate, and educate towards a better world.
Mattie Limas (Co-President)
My name is Mattie Limas, pronouns are they/them. It is currently my second year as a member of SATA and first year as a member of Feminist Theatre Makers. I think with feminism, as the old saying goes, "the personal is the political." (Audre Lorde) Feminism has always meant liberation to me as a BIPOC non-binary person because intersectional feminism addresses the ways in which all axes of oppression are linked and therefore cannot be singled out. By accepting the proliferation of gender as well as the presence of non-gendered people, we can move toward a culture that does not allow the gender binary to legitimise women being regarded as lesser than men, and furthermore, any human to be considered innately inferior to another.
Eileen Hope Tran (Marketing)
Having spent most of her life in the Bay Area, Eileen Hope Tran decided to take the big leap in moving down to Southern California back in 2017 to pursue her BA in Theatre Performance with a Minor in Dance. Eileen will be going into her final year of university this upcoming 2020-2021 school year, in the hopes of graduating and setting out to achieve her goals of becoming a well-known Asian film actress. She first set out on her exploration of feminism and what it means to be a feminist back in a Feminism Club in her high school, when she hadn't known that she had already identified as a Feminist all along. Eileen seeks to create a space in which Asian actresses like herself are able to go to the theatre or turn on the TV, and see people that look like them sharing and recreating stories that they can personally relate to themselves as fellow Asian creators. She aims to raise awareness and rid our world of the oppression of each marginalized group one step at a time, including, but not limited to, fighting for the implementation of more accurate portrayals of Asian female representation in media and entertainment.
Jackie Jimenez (Marketing)
Jackie Jimenez was born and raised in Southern California. Growing up in a big family with many positive role models who taught her to not let society’s expectations and limitations define her and what she wants to be, Jackie likes to say she has been a feminist since she was born. She is a junior at CSULB and pursuing a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Psychology with a minor in Theatre. Jackie believes feminism is about empowerment and movement towards equity across all genders, communities, races/ethnicities, and identities. She believes being a feminist is not about one person’s experience and life being more important than another. It’s about examining how the systems and norms in today’s world have either benefited or put a specific group of individuals at a disadvantage and what can we do to ensure that there is equity for all people. Incorporating the methods she learned as a Psychology major on how to combat inequity, Jackie strives to educate and share these methods with all audiences by using the power and expression of art. As a person who strongly values empowerment, education, representation, and advocacy, she hopes by using all forms of art she is able to bring awareness to global issues and events happening in the world today that many often turn a blind eye to. Jackie is beyond grateful to Feminist Theatre Makers for giving her the opportunity to serve as the Marketing Assistant this semester. She is ecstatic to work with everyone involved in this incredible organization and bring awareness to all creative works on global female, queer, and BIPOC issues.
Rhiannon Lewis (Blog Writer)
Rhiannon Lewis (she/her) is a freshman Theatre Performance major at CSULB. She grew up in La Mirada, CA and has always been connected to Long Beach. Feminism has been important to her since middle school, so in high school she joined and became president of the “women encouragement” club. Truthfully, it was a feminism club, but they were not allowed to use words such as ‘feminism’ or ‘empowerment’ because some people thought those words had negative connotations. She realized that a lot of people think that feminism is a dirty word, but to her it has always been something that means inclusivity and providing opportunities for everyone, regardless of anything. Historically that has not always been the case, but she hopes to turn the theatre into a space where people of all backgrounds can share their truth through storytelling; she hopes to see stories that are different than hers represented. Her goal for this semester and beyond is to share how beautiful of a thing feminism can be with everyone.
Britney Gomez-Landeros (Member-at-Large)
Britney Gomez-Landeros is a freshman at CSULB majoring in Theatre, and a proud feminist. Although this is her first semester working with FTM, she have been a feminist since 2002. (She was born in 2002). She is a member at large, and happy to help in any way that she can. She's from Fontana, California, but has moved around her entire life-- she even lived in Mexico for a short period of time-- so she's seen a lot. She is a feminist because she realized the world has been run by white cishet men for too long. So many voices go unheard and so many battles go unfought, and it hurts her heart. If she can help just one person in her lifetime, that'd be great. If that happens by advocating for change. That'd be great. She doesn't know that much about life, like at all, she's only 18. But she does know that spreading love doesn't hurt. Her feminism spreads love. For all. Always.
Rachel Post ('20 - Graduate Contributor)
Born and raised in Northern California, Rachel moved to Southern California to pursue their BA in Performance Studies at Cal State Long Beach in 2017. In 2018, they took over as President of the Feminist Theatre Makers and has led the group in many projects, including their most recent devised piece, "How to Love a Feminist". Feminism has always been a topic Rachel is passionate about, especially after discovering Gloria Steinem in the 6th grade. Since then, much of their life has been about fighting the good fight and making good art while doing it. They are fiercely protective of the people close to them and committed, sometimes to a fault, to everything they pursue. Gender is a concept that Rachel is constantly questioning, both within their own life and within the current societal structure. Has it become an outdated means of identity? How much do we really need gender roles in contrast to how much we depend on them? If you are made of 50% genes from your father and 50% genes from your mother, how and why can one trait (i.e. genitalia) determine your place in the world and your relationship with yourself? What kind of limitations does gender bring that we can fight to break through? The pursuit of the answers to these questions is never-ending. So for the time being, Rachel simply believes it is best to Stay Tender and Question Gender.