Denise Santisteban has been working in performing arts her entire life, and is committed to what arts and culture bring to our communities and how it enriches them. She started working seasonally at the Festival in 1997 when she and her family moved from California to Connecticut. Somehow she never left, and over the past 25 years she has worked in almost every department of the Festival. As the Curator of the Tours and Storytelling Programs, she loves helping people discover what a great city New Haven is by finding them new eats, interesting places to see, and great stories to hear. Before moving here, she was a stage and production manager in the San Francisco Bay Area working at, among others, the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, the Aurora Theatre, the San Jose Civic Light Opera and the Magic Theatre. She received her BA in Theatre from San Francisco State University and her MA in Journalism from Quinnipiac University.
Denise has always loved how stories on the stage could touch and enhance people’s lives, which led her to become a member of the Institute Library Story Sharing Group and Ubuntu Storytellers. She has told at Tellabrations, The Mouth Off, Songs and Stories, New Haven Storytellers, and Story City Troupe. When not telling stories or organizing tours, you can find her in the studio creating costumes for various comic conventions, or out taking pictures of the world.