Our Team
Meet the One Table team — a talented group of artistic instigators with big dreams for themselves, their community, and the world. From Puerto Rico to Cambodia, Los Angeles to Chicago, our team of writers, producers, and directors want to bring their experience and love of theater to Tacoma. They are committed to bringing live theater to Tacoma audiences while also generating business for local restaurants, bars, and cafes, and are always looking for talented people who want to contribute their passion, presence, and ideas to an unconventional stage.
Derek Nunn
Writer/Director
Derek Nunn is an emerging writer and director returning home to Tacoma from Los Angeles with 15 years of film and television production experience. From award-winning independent production companies such as Steakhaus Productions, Hidden Empire, and Animus Films to networks and studios such as Warner Brothers, MTV, Paramount Pictures, Paramount Network, Vh1, Nickelodeon, Sony Pictures, BET, Comedy Central, and 20th Century Fox, Derek brings a resounding level of excellence to everything he touches. In 2020, Derek started his own production company, Magnum Opus Productions, with a focus on developing dynamic and innovative stories for film and TV that showcase uniquely underrepresented groups and demographics. Derek serves on the board of The Grand Cinema and the Tacoma Arts Commission.
Masahiro Sugano
Writer/Director
Born and raised in Osaka, Japan, Masahiro Sugano debuted his short animation HISAO at Sundance in 1999. His first feature SECOND MOON premiered at Busan in 2006. While living in Cambodia, Sugano made an award-winning documentary CAMBODIAN SON about a deported ex-gang member turned poet from the U.S. Sugano is an award-winning filmmaker whose accolades stretch from a 1997 Student Academy Award nomination to the 2020 Art Matters Foundation Award. He earned a BA in philosophy from Cal State Northridge and an MFA in film/animation from the University of Illinois-Chicago. His films screen internationally, in cinemas, museums, schools and prisons. Sugano currently lives in Tacoma and is a Senior Artist-in-Residence at the University of Washington Bothell where he teaches courses in art, filmmaking, and global studies.
Anida Yoeu Ali
Producer/Art Director
Anida Yoeu Ali is an artist, educator and global agitator born in Cambodia, raised in Chicago and transplanted to Tacoma. Ali’s artistic works span performance, installation, new media, public encounters, and political agitation. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach to artmaking, her installation and performance works investigate the artistic, spiritual and political collisions of a hybrid transnational identity. Ali’s works have been exhibited widely at the Haus der Kunst, Palais de Tokyo, Musée d'art Contemporain Lyon, Shangri-La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture and Design and the Seattle Asian Art Museum. She is a collaborative partner with Studio Revolt, a trans-nomadic artist-run media lab whose controversial works on social issues have agitated the White House and garnered international awards. She is a recipient of the 2024 Arts Innovator Award, the 2020 Art Matters Fellowship and the 2015 Sovereign Asian Art Prize. She received her M.F.A. from School of the Art Institute Chicago in Performance. Ali serves as a Senior Artist-in-Residence at the University of Washington Bothell and works between the Asia-Pacific region and the U.S.
Jesi Vega
Producer/Performer
In Tacoma since 2012, Jesi is an editor, story consultant, and founder of Represent Editorial. She has taught creative writing at Tacoma's High School of the Arts (SOTA), performed with Circle Up Productions, and leads storytelling workshops for writers of color. Raised in a Puerto Rican/Jewish household in a Bronx socialist cooperative, Jesi brings a multicultural/multidisciplinary perspective to her work. Originally trained as an actor and dancer, Jesi holds a BA in Theater/Film from Vassar College, a MA from the University of Chicago Divinity School, and a screenwriting certificate from Writers Boot Camp in Los Angeles. She was a longtime member of the Filmmakers Alliance independent film collective in LA, where she worked as a screenwriter and editor. Jesi is the grateful partner of a very funny middle school teacher (aka saint) with whom she shares four kids. Jesi writes about publishing and storytelling at: https://representstories.substack.com