Chelsea Cylinder | Co-Founder, Artistic Director

Chelsea is a Philadelphia-based actor, singer, teaching artist, and producer. She is the Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Pier Players Theatre Company. Chelsea is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. She regularly produces and acts in the company’s shows. Her acting credits within Pier Players include The Angry Grammarian (Lisa), Mars Doesn’t Want Us (Earth), The Café Mocha Murders (Ivy), and Larry’s Late Show (Angie).

Outside of Pier Players, Chelsea has also produced and performed in shows throughout the Greater Philadelphia and TriState areas. She has acted in shows with The Media Theatre, 11th Hour Theatre Company, The Broadway Theatre of Pitman, OperaDelaware, New Light Theatre, Ocean City Theatre Company, MusiCoLab, Theatre Ariel, Family Stages, Green Light Group Productions, East Broadway Theatre Project, Beacon Theatre Productions, and more. She has also produced shows with The Media Theatre, 11th Hour Theatre Company, Green Light Group Productions, White Box Theatre, the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, and New York’s Rogue Theater Festival.

When not working on shows, Chelsea can be found tutoring students in standardized tests, filming episodes of her podcast Cylinder Cylinder, planning out her dessert options for the day, and working toward becoming the spokesperson for Tastykake.

Chelsea is so excited and grateful to be part of this fantastic group. She had dreamt of forming a theatre company, but she wasn’t convinced it would actually happen — until she met her dream coworkers: Julianne, Kate, and Vanessa. She is thrilled to be able to promote and support new works in Philadelphia, and she can’t wait to continue working on more Pier Players shows!

You can read more about Chelsea on her website at www.chelseacylinder.com and on her Instagram @cecylinder.

Julianne Kastner (She/They) | Co-founder, Marketing Director

Julianne is a Philadelphia-based theatre artist, multimedia creator, and a graduate of DeSales University. Powered by gay audacity, Julianne is happiest when they can learn new hobbies, hang out with their partner (her greatest adventure), and mindlessly scroll on Facebook Marketplace. A lover of books and small businesses, Julianne is the mind behind The South Philly Book Crawl and frequently leads tours of their favorite literary institutions. When not managing Pier Players’ social media accounts, they play and edit for the award-winning TTRPG podcast Wing Women. She has performed regionally with Hedgerow Theater, Aporia Artists Collective, The Hum’n’bards Theater Troupe, Please Touch Museum Playhouse and the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival.

Kate Brighter | Co-Founder, Director of Education

Kate is a Philadelphia-based actor, dancer, choreographer, and teaching artist. She is a graduate of Temple University’s Theater Program. Select credits include: An Unfinished Herstory, The Cafe Mocha Murders, Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire; Almost, Maine; All This Intimacy; O Brother Where Art Thou; Larry’s Late Show Murder Mystery; Mars Doesn’t Want Us; Bistro Romano Murder Mystery. She is also a member of ArcheDream for Humankind blacklight mask and dance theatre company.

Outside of Pier Players, she works in Higher Education, is always outdoors, and adores cooking competition shows.  

Vanessa Torres | Co-Founder, Director of External Events

Vanessa is a Coatesville-based theatre and film actor. With Pier Players, she has appeared in Larry’s Late Show (as scene-stealing Mildred Chesky), Mars Doesn’t Want Us (as the dramatic planet Venus), and The Café Mocha Murders (as the always-angry-but-hilarious barista Soma). Outside of Pier Players, her acting credits include The Murder Mystery at the Murder Mystery (with Brian D. Taylor), Jesus Theatre (with The Salvation Army), and Without Wings (with Philly Children’s Theatre). 

Vanessa has also used her passion for thrift shopping to create great costumes for some of Pier Players’ productions. She most recently costume-designed The Café Mocha Murders and plans to continue costuming future productions.

When not acting, Vanessa works as a veterinary technician at her local veterinary hospital. In her downtime, you can find her with a cat in one hand and a book in the other.