Board of Directors

Susan Lyles

Co-founder, President and Executive Director

Susan Lyles is the co-founder of the Denver, Colorado based not-for-profit, And Toto too Theatre Company. The inspiration for the company had been cultivated throughout her acting career, which began during her teenage years. Prior to creating And Toto too, Susan signed with Farrell Talent Management in 2001, providing her inroads where she appeared in several national commercials, industrials and local productions such as: Seuss, Seuss, Seuss with Memory Productions, The Food Chain with the Theatre Group and Accomplice with Conundrum State Productions.

Before relocating to Denver, Susan spent many years acting for the Wichita Center for the Arts, Wichita Community Theatre, The Wichita Summer Theatre and spent four years as a Selma Miller Theatre Scholar. Susan's Wichita credit includes: Rita in Pump Boys and Dinettes, Iphagenia in The Greeks and Popeye in the Miss Fire Cracker Contest, for which she was nominated for an Irene Ryan Scholarship Award providing recognition, honor and financial assistance to outstanding student performers wishing to pursue further education.

During her acting career, Susan spent six years in Chicago where she produced her first shows under the name of And Toto too. Susan has produced two original one acts that ran for four weeks and was produced for a budget of $330. To pay the bills, Susan worked for LaSalle National Bank, part of the ABN AMRO Banking Network, where she managed multi-million dollar accounts, affording her the necessary finance and business experience.

Susan graduated from Wichita State University with a BA in Speech Communications with an emphasis in Theatre Performance and was a board member and director with MJM Productions. Additional credits include the 1980's teen slasher film, Night Screams, Casting Antigone and Uncovering the Truth about Jesus. Susan also studied at the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Darren Smith

Board Member, Treasurer

As technical director for And Toto too, Darren is responsible for the technical operations of the theater, determining technical staffing and equipment requirements for productions, and acts as the central coordinating point for the designers, the stage management team, the craftspeople, etc. – throughout each production. With more than 30 years of experience both on-stage and in almost every capacity behind the scenes, Darren brings a wealth of ideas and best practices to And Toto too.

Darren is not, despite what a 'vanity search' on the internet may lead you to believe, an editor and writer specializing in travel directories and feature magazine stories, an Australian rugby league player, the 1997 World Irish Dancing Champion, a football player for the Grand Valley State University Lakers, a new age composer living in Texas, or a Christian comedian and illusionist. He lives in Denver with his wife, son, and their two dogs, and is also the co-founder of the leading B2B customer reference company Point of Reference.

Stefanie Jones

Board Member

Stefanie Jones, founder and president of Stefanie Jones Public Relations, Inc. (SJPR), is a seasoned communications professional with an unbridled passion for public relations. She began her career in Washington, D.C. as a lobbyist for an environmental non-profit where she worked on developing legislation and succeeded in having bills passed that protected marine populations from over fishing by marine vessels. In 1996, Stefanie moved to Denver and transferred her lobbying experience into a career in public relations.

Since then, she has managed dozens of successful and innovative PR programs and generated tremendous exposure for clients in industry publications, newspapers, national magazines, television news programs, radio broadcasts and more. Prior to founding SJPR, Stefanie built her expertise working for two prominent, global PR agencies, Alexander-Ogilvy and The Hoffman Agency, where she managed a wide spectrum of programs for large companies and start-ups. She then became the corporate PR manager for Exodus Communications, Inc., before taking up an executive-level role managing corporate and marketing communications at software start-up deuxo, Inc.

Building upon her agency PR and corporate communications experience, Stefanie founded SJPR in August 2002 and has grown it into a services company that consistently impresses clients with creative strategic insight, PR know-how, influencer relationships and a passion for delivering top-tier results. SJPR’s clients include Alpine Access, Taos Ski Valley, Microsoft, McKee Wallwork Cleveland, Harvard Communities, The Natural Stone Council and Detour Bar.

Stefanie was nominated for the Denver Business Journal’s 2007 “Forty Under Forty” award and is often quoted in the press about public relations issues on a national scale.

Lorraine Scott

Board Member

Lorraine Scott has been involved in many areas of theatre for over 30 years. Originally from Kalamazoo, Michigan she holds a B.A. in theatre from Western Michigan University and a M.F.A. in Directing from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. She has been teaching, administrating, directing, and performing in the Denver area for the last ten years. For the last two years she has been Director/Actor Coordinator for Playwrights Showcase of the Western Region. Currently she teaches theatre with the Metropolitan State College of Denver and is the Colorado Representative to the Rocky Mountain Theatre Association. Her next acting role will be in “Arsenic and Old Lace” with the Littleton Main Street Players.

Paula Friedland

Board Member

Paula is a certified coach, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and the cofounder and President of The Key, p.c., a coaching and consulting company. She works as a trainer, executive and life coach, and public speaker. Paula's background also includes extensive work in the employee health field, as a management consultant and corporate trainer. Currently, Paula works with individuals, with groups, and also designs and delivers trainings to organizations, in a variety of areas, from stress management to conflict resolution, to leadership development.

Before working in the corporate world, Paula worked extensively in the theatre, in New York City and abroad. She played Sheila in the European tour of HAIR for nearly 2 years, and worked in regional theatre doing such shows as A CHORUS LINE, SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM, and HELLO DOLLY, among others.

Upon relocating back to Colorado from New York several years ago, she performed at the Oriental Theatre and also did several shows with the Irish Theatre Company, Tir Na Nog.

Theatre is a lifelong passion and pursuit for Paula, and she is currently working on creating ways to bring theatre into the corporate world, and bridging the gap between business and art.

Scott Gibson

Board Member

Scott is a Denver-based playwright/actor/director. He is co-founder and artistic director of Conundrum Productions, a not-for-profit theatre company founded in 1998 and still operating today. Scott was co-winner of the Rocky Mountain Theatre Association's playwriting competition in January 2005. His original works have been produced in Denver at The Bug, The Arvada Center, The Denver Center (as part of the Colorado Fine Arts Festival), and at Changing Scene Northwest in Seattle. He has directed and acted in a variety of venues around Denver and Evergreen.