Biography

Katha earned a BA from California Polytechnic University in Pomona, an MFA from the University of Oregon and is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Business Executive Education Program. In the 80’s, she moved to New York with her theatre company ‘For Play Improvised Theatre’ and pioneered the Improvisational Herald format (the long form) into the NY Improv Comedy scene. Katha won a MAC Award (Manhattan Association of Cabarets) for Best Comedy, two Backstage Magazine Bistro Awards for Best Director and Best Comedy and NY Post’s Bill Ervolino named her one of the year’s ‘Most Exciting’ Improvisers. For many years worked at Henry Street Settlement serving first as the Arts-in-Education Coordinator and then Director of After-School and Camp Services where she was responsible for six after-school sites and three camps. During her tenure she was recognized by NY State Education for exemplary After-School Programming, and she received the 2015 PASEsetter Award for her years of leadership in the field. Katha has vast experience in producing engaging events, exciting, innovative programming and has spent over thirty years developing youth and bringing people together via theatre arts, film, and video.

Donald Preston Cato is an experimental and feature film maker with a strong academic background, a BS and BLA in Landscape Architecture from Michigan State and an MLA from the University of Oregon where he also studied extensively in the department of Motion Graphics. His films have screened at an international and eclectic group of venues and festivals: Anthology Film Archives, National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Lincoln Center, the Dylan Thomas Center in Wales (Best Feature for Be My Oswald in 2006), RealHeART Toronto Film Festival (Best in Venue for Be My Oswald in 2007) and Everglades Film Festival, South Africa. He was the Director of the Eugene Filmmakers Cinematique for 4 years while he distributed films from China and in 1978, he was one of the first western filmmakers allowed into China to create an immersion documentary: China: Behind Silk Curtains which screened on Peking TV China and at Portland Art Museum, Oregon.  His stop motion film, Pipeline Patrol screened in the 27th Festival International Du Film Amateur, and at the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art. His first feature Dixie Lanes, starring Karen Black, Hoyt Axton & Moses Gunn was released in over 40 countries in 1989 and was twice the CBS movie of the week. In 2013 he co-directed and co-produced the short My Kansas which had a respectable festival run with multiple wins for directing. My Day, on which he was the Director of Cinematography, Editor, Sound Designer & Co-Producer brought home several Best Actress awards for Judith Roberts & several Best Short awards in both 2013 and 2014. Currently, Preston teaches at the New York Digital Film Academy.