Staff
Whitney Weston Co-founded Greenway Arts Alliance with Pierson Blaetz in 1997. A lifelong activist, Whitney is committed to keeping the arts and community working together. She is a former Arts Commissioner for the City of West Hollywood’s Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission and, both within and outside of Greenway, Whitney has produced and performed in hundreds shows which have earned her recognition from the NAACP, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, LA Weekly and the 2011 Women in Theatre Red Carpet Award. Whitney has also been recognized for outstanding service by the LA Mayor’s Office, LA City Council and LAUSD’s School Board and Administrators’ Union. Whitney is also the recipient of the 2019 Rainbow Award from Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival for her dedication to diversity and contributions in fostering non-traditional and multicultural theatre works.
Pierson Blaetz
Co-Founder/Artistic Director
Pierson Blaetz co-founded Greenway Arts Alliance, along with Whitney Weston` in 1997. He has spent a lifetime bridging the worlds of art and business. As a social entrepreneur he has founded three businesses including “Free Time,” a volunteer placement service, “InfoLink,” an information retrieval service and Greenway. As an artist, Pierson has produced, directed and performed in numerous film and theatre projects and has earned recognition from The Drama Circle Critics, NAACP, Garland Awards, LA Weekly and way back when The Drama-Logue Award for best male performance. Pierson has been recognized for outstanding service by the Mayors office, LA City Council, and LAUSD’s School Board and administrators union. Current Board memberships include The Melrose Business Improvement District, Friends of Fairfax and Greenway Arts Alliance.
Mohammed Ojarigi
Producing Director
Mohammed Ali Ojarigi was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He received his bachelor’s degree in theater arts from UNLV. He is the founder/Artistic Director of the former Moments Playhouse Theater in East LA. A highly requested acting coach, Mohammed has helped introduce some of Hollywood’s top rising stars through his academy (BizB4 Show). Mohammed is an award-winning actor/playwright for his theatre works that include “Greenwood 1964” a fictional reenactment of a trip made by Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte, which was commissioned by the prestigious Guthrie Theater in May 2021 (virtually). Also, for his 2012 NAACP Theater Award play, now short film, “Your Land” (available on Amazon Prime). As Producing Director of Greenway Arts Alliance his mission is to promote innovation, artistic collaboration across all spectrum of Arts; working with high school students, community artists, and professionals of diverse backgrounds to make the theater a vital hub of excellence which celebrates diversity and historically underrepresented communities. www.ojarigi.art
Tom Brown
Technical Director
In 1989 Thomas left his 10-year Technical Director job at Spelman, in Atlanta, in order to pursue his Masters degree from UCLA. Before he had even graduated, in 1992 with his master’s degree in set design, Thomas had already begun designing professionally in Los Angeles. Since that time, he has designed for over 2000 productions in a variety of entertainment formats – including television, theater, musical concerts, award shows, theme parks and film. He also served as Concept and Convention Art Director for five years with THE NATIONAL INDIAN GAMING ASSOCIATION. He proudly designed several gala entertainment events in Washington, DC. for the 2009 Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama.
In television he has served as either Art Director or Production Designer for a variety of network and
cable programs on ABC, NBC and FOX-TV. He has done extensive work with BET serving as Production Designer/ Art Director for numerous productions with them, including their first cable sitcom “COMIC VIEW: AIN’T NOTHIN’ BUT A WOMAN” and their perennial music showcase show “VIDEO SOUL SPRITE NITE”. He has also served as Art Director for the national network shows, TOTALLY HIDDEN VIDEO for FOX-TV, SOUL TRAIN for KTLA, as well as Art Director for the HBO Comedy Specials, SINBAD: BRAIN DAMAGED and CHRIS ROCK:BORN SUSPECT.
TBA
Audience Services Coordinator
Description coming soon.
Elisawon Roberts
Front of House Manager
Elisawon is an actor and writer hailing from Texas, who has been captivated by theater and the performing arts since an early age. Diving into speech & debate, competitive theater, and prose and poetry throughout middle and high school, they eventually assumed the role of head of the costume department for their high school theater. This experience sparked a deep passion for behind-the-scenes work, which continued through college alongside employment in the costume shop. While attaining a bachelor’s degree, Elisawon co-founded and served as co-president for the college’s Black Student Union, and is aspiring to extend their leadership to new possibilities. One of those possibilities has led them to become the new FOH Manager at Greenway Court Theater; they are looking forward to growing with the GCT family.