Our Staff

Artistic Director

As a performer, Mr. Ruhala has worked on and off-Broadway, in Film, TV, Ballet, Opera, Cabaret, and Videos, throughout the world. As a director, producer, and choreographer, Mr. Ruhala has created innovative stagings of over 40 original and classic works. He works for the National Endowment for the Arts as a panelist adjudicating grants. Mr. Ruhala founded the Broadway Training Center in New York, a not-for-profit performing arts center, and served as the Executive/Artistic Director for 13 years. Mr. Ruhala’s expertise has a foundation of over 35 years in the entertainment industry as a director, choreographer, writer, (and probably the one he would say he still enjoys the most?)… TEACHER! In fact, his greatest satisfaction still comes today from sharing what he’s learned from entertainment and the arts over such a long and successful career in the entertainment industry. He especially likes to connect with the young  dancers, actors, singers, performers that will always remind him of a boy many years ago that discovered his inner artist and met a dance teacher, who would become his mentor and give him the knowledge and the skills he would need to make his dream come true. It is here Mark finds his greatest passion and love for the craft of theater.

Artistic Director

Celina Matos Ruhala has many facets to her work. She is a Performing Arts Educator & Performer, a Reiki Master & Integrated Movement Specialist. Before moving to MI in 2004 and forming the Ruhala Performing Arts Center with her husband, she served as the Administrative Director of the Broadway Training Center (BTC) in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY. At BTC, Ms. Ruhala also served as an instructor of dance, musical theatre, pre-school and ensemble classes, as well as being a leading player in many BTC Productions. She trained as an actor with Larry Silverberg, world renowned for his teaching of the Sanford Meisner technique. As a Reiki Master and Integrated Movement Specialist, Celina has supported many young people and adults in their healing and accomplishing their individual goals. More information about Reiki and Integrated Movement can be found on the Health & Well Being page.

Technical Director/Instructor

Alexander Trice is a Director, Performer and Designer originally from Oxfordshire, UK. He studied at Wayne State University’s Department of Theatre & Dance in Detroit, MI.

As a Stage Director, he has worked with several new-works festivals in Chicago, IL (Arci-Text, Light Bulb Factory, BYOT, Whiskey Radio Hour). He has also directed in New Orleans, LA; for New-Fangled Opera (Persephone), and for several theatres in metro Detroit: Theatre Nova, TLC Productions, Detroit Fringe Festival, and the Detroit New-Works Festival. 

He has directed full-length productions for Slipstream (The Merchant of Venice), Spotlight Players (The Boarding House), and Portable Folio Productions (King Lear, As You Like It). He was Properties Master and Assistant Director of Opera Modo’s productions of Carmen & Albert Hering in Detroit, MI. 

He has performed with The Lyric Opera of Chicago (Eugene Onegin) and The Arc Theatre (Chicago, IL), Puppet-Art (Detroit, MI), The Great Lakes Symphony Orchestra (L’ Historie du Soldat), Detroit Opera, Flint Repertory Theatre (Assassins), The Detroit Institute of Art, Shakespeare Royal Oak (Macbeth, Taming of The Shrew), Slipstream, Mind-The-Gap (The Birthday Party), Monster Box (The Pillowman, The Real Inspector Hound, etc.), Box-Fest Detroit, Detroit Fringe, TLC Productions (Canton, MI), etc. Additionally, he has performed in Escape Rooms, as well as five years as an Anthem Singer and Boxing Ring Announcer for The Detroit Golden Gloves. He still performs professionally as a Mascot representing such famous corporate brands for PBS, Kellogg's cereal, and Peppa Pig.

Alexander has worked as a stagehand for Puppet-Art, The Berman Centre for the Performing Arts, and Meadow Brook Theatre. His scenic designs have been seen at Theatre Evolve (Chicago, IL: Krugozor), Open Book Theatre (Trenton, MI: The Lifespan of a Fact), The Ringwald, art4artillery (Detroit, MI), 4Theatresake (Detroit, MI), Slipstream, Burns Park Players (Ann Arbor, MI: Spamalot), and The Professional Youth Theatre of Michigan (Ypsilanti, MI: Matilda, Junnie B. Jones), etc. 

He has Stage Managed and or Technical Directed productions for art4artillery, Box-Fest Detroit, Detroit Feminist Collective, Less-Than-Three Productions (Detroit, MI), Detroit Broadcasting Company, The Ringwald Theatre, The Berman Centre for the Performing Arts, Mind-The Gap, Detroit Irish Rep., Warren Symphony Orchestra, etc.