· The Phoenix ·

Tom has lived in Petaluma and worked at what is now the Phoenix Theater for 28 years. He started learning theater management skills in the 7th grade when the building was the Showcase movie theater. After seven years in a combination of real estate sales and film theater services, Tom became full time manager of the Phoenix in 1983, which had evolved into a social center and meeting place for local area youth. Since that time he has aimed the Phoenix programming to that audience. In 1987, Tom began leasing the theater as a live music venue and de facto teen center.

Giovanni (Gio) Benedetti, founder & bass player in local favorite band, Toast Machine, recently graduated with distinction from Sonoma State University with a B.A. in Jazz Studies. Gio has taught bass privately for the last four years. For the last 11 years, he has played all styles of music for all kinds of occasions around the Bay Area. Gio has played with the Santa Rosa Youth Symphony, the Cotati Philharmonic, numerous SSU Jazz Ensembles, as well as in his own original projects.

"People look at the Phoenix and think it's just a bunch of lost kids… Kids making bad decisions. I was pretty wild and came from a broken home. I've walked the same paths. I know that when kids find a place where adults care for them, accept them, they are likely to make wiser decisions. They see how to love themselves because we love them. That's how I was saved.
—Cheryl Negrin-Rapaport, Phoenix Health Clinic Director

Cheryl Negrin has been involved in women’s health services and family practice services since 1968. She started at the Haight Free Clinic in San Francisco, volunteering as a reproductive health and drug abuse counselor. She also volunteered at Planned Parenthood in a similar capacity. Cheryl was one of the founders of the Petaluma Free Clinic and continued to coordinate it for 10 years. After the Petaluma Free Clinic closed in 2002, Cheryl opened the Phoenix Teen Clinic to fill the community's need. She is a family nurse practitioner, a physician’s assistant, has a masters of science in nursing, and is a certified public health nurse. She is the volunteer director of the Phoenix Teen Clinic and mentors teens to operate the clinic as health care workers and reproductive health educators. Cheryl is the Mother of four teenage girls.

Dave recently retired from a 19-year retail career with Safeway in San Rafael. He has spent 12 years in microbrewery sales and marketing in San Francisco, Marin and Sonoma counties. In 1999 he returned to Sonoma State University to get his MA degree in history the thesis of which is “The History of the American Teenager.” He has worked in the afternoons with his wife as a private tutor in her Learning Tree business for the last 12 years. In 2002 he, his son Dennis, and Tom Gaffey launched the Phoenix Theater free teen drop-in tutoring center. He has launched a teen writers and poets mentoring group, coordinating with Sonoma County’s many talented working writers and poets.

By 1990 Ian was one of the kids frequenting the Phoenix Theater. After befriending local favorite, The Conspiracy, in 1994 he was mixing the sound for all of the shows. In 1996 Ian replaced the previous house sound and lights equipment with a more up to date standard at his own expense. As a result of humble beginnings at the Phoenix, Ian now works for a national sound rental company and bands such as Tracy Chapman, The Irish Tenors, and The Dead. This ever growing knowledge is brought back to the theater and passed on to new generations of theater techies picked from today’s generation of Phoenix Family.