2007-08 Guest Artist Biographies

Master Teachers

Jason Butler Harner - Actor
Jason Butler Harner graduated from Theatre VCU with a BFA in Acting in 1992. His first play was What I Did Last Summer, directed by Gary Hopper in then named Shafer Street Theatre.He is currently starring on Broadway in Tom Stoppard’s landmark trilogy The Coast of Utopia alongside 40 actors including Billy Crudup, Ethan Hawke, Martha Plimpton, Brian F. O’Byrne , Amy Irving and Richard Easton. A frequent presence in Off-Broadway theatres, he garnered an OBIE Award for his radical reinterpretation of Tesman in New York Theatre Workshop’s acclaimed Hedda Gabler and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for his performance in The Paris Letter at the Roundabout Theatre. Other Off-Broadway credits include Orange Flower Water (EDGE Theatre), Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (Lincoln Center), Juno and the Paycock (Roundabout Theatre), Crimes of The Heart (Second Stage), The Ruby Sunrise ( The Public), An Experiment with an Air Pump (Manhattan Theatre Club), Five Flights (Rattlestick), Henry VIII (New York Shakespeare Festival),  Loved Less (VIA Theatre), Macbeth (The Public, with Alec Baldwin and Angela Bassett), and Tony Kushner’s revival of Hydriotaphia, or the Death of Dr. Browne.

After graduating from VCU, he was an apprentice at Actors Theatre of Louisville, and subsequently moved to New York City where he earned an MFA in Acting from New York University. Most recently he has appeared in the award-winning Coast of Utopia at the Lincoln Center Theater. He has been fortunate to act in theatres across the country with a broad spectrum of directors and plays, most notably in The Glass Menagerie at The Kennedy Center, opposite Sally Field; at the Mark Taper Forum in The Cherry Orchard, opposite Annette Bening and Alfred Molina; in the American premiere of The Invention of Love at the American Conservatory Theatre opposite James Cromwell; and at the Dallas Theatre Center in the title role of Hamlet.  He has also been seen on the stages of Seattle Repertory, Yale Repertory, Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Berkshire Theatre Festival, Commonwealth Shakespeare Festival, and the Adirondack Theatre Festival.

Recent television credits include appearances in each of the Law and Orders, with Kyra Sedgewick on The Closer, and as ‘Dandruff Donnie’ on Hope and Faith.’ Film appearances include the indies Garmento, Nylon, Trifling with Fate, Robert DeNiro’s directorial debut The Good Shepherd , and the forth coming action adventure release of NEXT starring Nicholas Cage and Julianne Moore.

His training and exposure to a number of methods has enabled him to not only work in all the mediums, but also on a variety of material ranging from classical to new American plays, as well as an extensive palette of performance styles.

Kabby Mitchell, III – Choreographer
Kabby Mitchell is a choreographer, educator and performer and has danced with the Dance Theatre of Harlem, the Nederlans Dance Theater, Civic Light Opera, Oakland Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet. Kabby has been a dance instructor for more than 20 years having taught ballet, modern jazz, and Haitian dance at schools and dance academies in Seattle, Iowa, and Mexico. In Seattle, Kabby has worked with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Cornish College of the Arts, University of Washington, and Ewajo Dance Workshop. He is currently on faculty at the Evergreen State College in Olympia. His local choreography credits include work with Spectrum Dance Theatre, The Group Theater, Seattle Repertory Theater, Bathhouse Theatre, A Contemporary Theater and the Civic Light Opera. Kabby’s signature choreography is seen in the annual presentation of Black Nativity, directed by Jacqueline Moscou at the Intiman Theatre, and most recently in the production of For Colored Girls…directed, by Dr. Tawyna Pettiford-Wates. He also frequently contributes his time to help programs that support the development of young urban dancers and is a supporter of local art and theatre companies whose goal is to serve the under served community through the arts.

TONY MEOLA, Sound Designer
Tony Meola’s Broadway work includes over thirty sound designs for Laugh Whore; Man of La Mancha; Sweet Smell of Success; Copenhagen; Kiss Me, Kate; Footloose; The Lion King (Drama Desk Award); The Sound of Music; Juan Darien; A Christmas Carol (MSG), Steel Pier; Forum; The King and I; Moon Over Buffalo; Smokey Joe’s Cafe; Guys and Dolls; Five Guys Named Moe; She Loves Me; The Red Shoes; and Anything Goes. London includes Kiss Me, Kate; The Lion King; Smokey Joe’s Cafe; and Anything Goes. National and international work include The Lion King, Les Misérables, Mozart, Der Gloeckner von Notre Dame. Off-Broadway includes Here Lies Jenny and The Normal Heart. Meola is a graduate of Ithaca College’s Department of Theatre Arts.

Guest Directors

Clay McLeod Chapman – TBA
August - September 2008
Clay McLeod Chapman is the creator of the Pumpkin Pie Show, a rigorous storytelling session backed by its own live soundtrack. In its ten years of existence, the Pumpkin Pie Show has traveled to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival ('98), the New York International Fringe Festival ('97, '99. '01), the Romanian Theatre Festival of Sibiu ('97, '01), as well as performed at such various venues as colleges, theatres, and theme parks in and around the country. The Pumpkin Pie Show continues to perform within New York City—including PS 122, the Red Room, the Kraine, St. Marks Theatre, the CSV, the Zipper, the Belt, the Culture Project, and Coney Island, USA, just to name a few.

Chapman is the author of rest area, a collection of short stories, and miss corpus, a novel—both published by Hyperion books. miss corpus was recognized in part of The New Yorker's "Reading Glasses" series in 2003. His short story "late bloomer" was recently made into a film by director Craig Macneill, winning the audience award for best short at the Lake Placid Film Festival—as well as an official selection at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Most recently, "late bloomer" was the recipient of the Brown Jenkins Award at the 12th Annual H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival.

He is the author of such plays as bar flies (Galapagos Art Space), redbird (The Culture Project), jewish mothers (The Culture Project), No Exitway (New Voices for the Theater), duct-tape to family-time (Yellow House theatre), lee's miserables(Sycamore Rouge) and volume of smoke (Firehouse Theatre). Chapman was a contributing author to One Ring Zero's "As Smart As We Are" album, featuring Paul Auster, Rick Moody, AM Homes, Margaret Atwood, and others. 

Mark Ramont – Twelfth Night
January - April 2008
Mark Ramont is in his fourth season as the Associate Producer/Artistic for Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC.  Other professional positions have included associate artistic director for New York’s Circle Repertory Company, Artistic Director for Capitol City Playhouse (Austin, Texas) and Artistic Director for the Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, New York.  As a director, he has directed the world premieres of Walking the Dead, Dalton’s Back, The Colorado Catechism (all at Circle Rep) and Mad River Rising (Vermont Stage Company, winner of Moss Hart Award for Outstanding Production, New England), among others.  He has won awards for his productions of Jeffrey, Amadeus, Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning, Juliet), Lips Together, Teeth Apart, Mass Appeal and Agnes of God.  He has directed for numerous theatre companies, including the Alley Theatre and Stages Repertory Theatre in Houston, the Round House Theatre in Bethesda, Dorset Theatre Festival (18 seasons), and Cortland Repertory Theatre.  As a theatre educator, he was the Director of Theatre at Rice University and was an adjunct at Sam Houston State University.  Some of his students have gone on to receive graduate degrees from Yale School of Drama, New York University’s Tisch School for the Arts, California Institute of the Arts, and the University of California at San Diego.  He has guest directed at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, Sam Houston State University, and North Carolina School of the Arts.  He is the recipient of the Prince Grace Foundation’s Statuette Award for Sustained Excellence and holds a BA in Theatre (Directing) from California State University, Fullerton, an MFA in Directing from the University of Texas at Austin, and completed an internship with the Asolo State Theatre in Sarasota, Florida.  He is a member of SSDC, a site reporter for the National Endowment for the Arts, and a judge for the Helen Hayes Awards in Washington, DC.

Guest Artists 2006 - 2007

Patrick Graybill – American Sign Language Translator and Interpreter

September 18 – 22, 2006

Patrick Graybill was born in Kansas just before World War II began. He is one of seven children: three of his sisters and a brother are deaf, and he has a hearing sister, who is a certified sign language interpreter. He graduated from the Kansas School for the Deaf, where he was inspired by a eloquent Deaf teacher whose storytelling ability made him think seriously about becoming a storyteller. He also saw his older sister in a school production of Tom Sawyer, which planted the idea of acting in his head.  He graduated from Gallaudet College with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1963 and a master’s degree in education in 1964. He then was a member of the National Theatre of the Deaf from 1969 to 1979, and was an artist-in-residence for three weeks at the Methodist Ladies’ College in Melbourne, Australia, in 1995. He has consulted with interpreters for interpreted productions at University of Maryland, Arena Stage, and Shakespeare Theater, Washington, D. C., 1992 – 1995, and has taught Creative Drama in the Classroom and Storytelling for the Department of Graduate Studies at Western Maryland College, Summer Sessions of 1995 – 1998. Patrick has acted in the Deaf West production of The Gin Game, 1991 and in the Milwaukee Repertory Theater production of Our Town in 1991 and, again, in 1992. He has taught Sign Language, Storytelling, and Acting in the Department of Performing Arts in the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, one of the colleges of Rochester Institute for Technology, Rochester, New York, and has translated seventeen plays into ASL, directed twelve plays, and acted with students in nine productions. Taught Acting, Storytelling and Resources for the Actor in the Professional Theatre School of the National Theatre of the Deaf, 1971 - 1996. He retired three summers ago as a performing arts and literature professor for twenty three years at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and serves as a permanent deacon for Emmanuel Churc h of the Deaf, a Catholic church in Rochester, New York.

Leland Faulkner - Improvisation

September 24-30, 2006

Leland Faulkner is a performing artist, film-maker, producer, and director of both film and theatre projects. Professional theatre training began in 1973 with Tony Montanaro the acclaimed master mime and actor. Leland’s film on the life and work of his mentor premiered July 16th, 2006. Titled Theatre & Inspiration, it is currently on the film festival circuit. He was the Artistic Director and co-owner of The Celebration Barn Theatre in South Paris, Maine, from 1989 – 1993. As director, Leland expanded the roster of teachers to an international level, bringing acknowledged masters from a variety of disciplines and countries to this most creative of spaces. His currently tours his one man show World of Wonder, a family theatre program that appeals to all ages through the art of shadowgraphy, the actor's imagination, the mime's technique, and the conjuror's craft. World of Wonder has toured extensively around the U.S.A and to the International Arts Carnival in Hong Kong, on an extensive tour of Japan underwritten by the Asian Arts Presenters Association, (in conjunction with the Kageboushi shadow theatre company), The International Children's Festival in Calgary, Canada, all over the West Coast, and the East Coast. He is a recognized master of the art of shadowgraphy (hand shadows), and has lectured on this unique art to some of the most informed magicians and magic collectors of our time. Leland was engaged as a consultant to Castle Rock Pictures, to create and model a hand shadow segment for their computer animation department.

Joanne Akalaitis – Director and Writer

Oct. 23 – 27, 2006

Independent theatrical director and writer. Cofounder of Mabou Mines. Joanne Alalaitis has staged productions at American Repertory Theatre, Lincoln Center Theater, New York City Opera, Goodman Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Court Theatre, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Guthrie Theater. Andrew Mellon Cochair of Directing Program, Juilliard School. Former artistic director, New York Shakespeare Festival; artist in residence, Court Theatre. Staged works by Euripides, Shakespeare, Strindberg, Schiller, Beckett, Genet, Williams, Philip Glass,and own work. Recipient: Obie Award for Sustained Achievement, Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts grants, Edwin Booth Award, Rosamund Gilder Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatre, and Pew Charitable Trusts National Theatre Artist Residency Program grant.

Toni-Leslie James – Costume Design

Nov. 13 - 17, 2006

Toni-Leslie James has designed costumes for the Broadway productions of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, One Mo' Time, King Hedley II, The Wild Party, Marie Christine, Footloose, The Tempest, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Twilight Los Angeles 1992, Angels in America, and Jelly's Last Jam.  Internationally, she has designed productions for The Royal Court Theater and the Chitchester Theatre Festival in England.  Major opera and dance designs include productions for the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Houston Grand Opera, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Ballet Hispanico.  Toni Leslie James  also spent three years as the head costume designer for the CBS soap opera “As the World Turns”. Recipient of the American Theater Wing Award, Irene Sharaff Young Masters Award, LA Drama-Logue Award, FANY Award, The Connecticut Critics Circle Award and nominated for a Tony Award, Drama Desk (3)  American Theatre Wing Award (2), Audelco Award (3), FANY Award (2), the National American Theatre Award and the NAACP Image Award.

Avery Brooks - Performance

TBA

Avery Brooks was born into a musically talented family. His maternal grandfather, Samuel Travis Crawford, was a tenor who graduated from Tougaloo College in Mississippi in 1901. Crawford toured the country singing with the Delta Rhythm Boys in the 1930s. Brooks also is musically inclined having played jazz piano, and has performed as the great baritone/actor/scholar Paul Robeson in the play entitled Paul Robeson. He sang the lead in the A. Anthony Davis opera X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, and performed as "Theseus" and "Oberon" in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream at Washington's Arena Stage. Long affiliated with Rutgers University, he was the institution's first Black MFA graduate. Additionally, he served as the National Black Arts Festival's (NBAF) Artistic Director throughout the 1990s in Atlanta, Georgia. An actor, activist, musician, director, and educator of epic proportions, Brooks was quoted in an interview about his work with NBAF and his performances: "If I were a carpenter, I'd find a way to empower using that skill. I'm using as much as God has given--my mind, my voice, my heart, my art forms. This is the highest form of expression on the planet from God, to me, to you".

Peter Von Mayrhauser – Production Stage manager

TBA

Peter von Mayrhauaser has most recently worked as the Associate Director and Production Stage Manager for Broadway’s Chitty Chitty Bang (April – December 2005) and now returns to Phantom of the Opera from the Broadway production of Sweet Smell of Success starring John Lithgow and directed by Nicholas Hytner. Peter worked previously with Mr. Hytner on the landmark production of Carousel at Lincoln Center. Prior to that, he served as Production Stage Manager for many Broadway musicals, such as Michael Bennett's A Chorus Line, Bob Fosse's Dancin' and Tommy Tune's productions of My One and Only and The Will Rogers Follies. Dramas include the award-winning Children of a Lesser God, directed by Gordon Davidson, and Drinks Before Dinner, directed by Mike Nichols. In addition, Peter was, for five years, a General Manager and Producer. With his partner, Barbara Darwall, he produced several Off-Broadway shows, including Beirut and The Widow's Blind Date and general managed the Tony Award-winning production of All My Sons with Richard Kiley.

Philip Adelman – Talent Agent

April 5 – 8, 2007

Philip Adelman has been a talent agent since 1979, co-managing the New York Office of The Gage Group since 1980, where he has represented Oscar, Tony and Emmy winners.  He played a part in discovering and helping develop the early careers of Halle Berry, Woody Harrelson, Bill Pullman, Liev Schreiber, Bebe Neuwirth, Adam Sandler, among many others. Current clients include Sutton Foster, Gary Beach, Shirley Knight, Drake Hogestyn and Tovah Feldshuh. In prior varied lives as a director/composer/lyricist/writer, Mr. Adelman directed theater (including Raffi: A Family Concert on Broadway, on national tour, and for The Disney Channel), composed scores for theater and television, developed, and written for sitcoms, and served as writer/head writer for many network game shows, including The $25,000 Pyramid (for which he is most fondly remembered for having written the category “things that are purple.”). Mr. Adelman served as president of The National Association Of Talent Agents from 1994-2005.

Drew Fracher – Director of The Nerd

Aug 14 – Sept 29, 2006

Drew Fracher is a Fight Master and past President of the Society of American Fight Directors. His work as a Fight Director has been seen at theatres throughout the United States, including Actor's Theatre of Louisville, Missouri Repertory Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, The George Street Playhouse, the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and the Alabama, Georgia and Kentucky Shakespeare Festivals. Recent fight credits include Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and Hamlet at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Henry V at the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, Othello and Henry V pt. 1, at the Georgia Shakespeare Festival, The Three Musketeers at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and OTHELLO and HAMLET at the Actor's Theatre of Louisville. Drew. Fracher is an honorary member of the British Academy of Dramatic Combat, the British Academy of Stage and Screen Combat (formally the Society of British Fight Directors) and the Nordic Stage Fight Society. As a director his work has been seen at the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, the New American Theatre, the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, the Georgia Shakespeare Festival and the Burt Reynolds Institute for Theatre Training. His most recent directing projects include, Henry IV, pt. 1, Wild Oats, Hamlet, A Christmas Carol, Henry V and the world premiere of Zorro which he co-authored.

Heather Davies – Director of Medea

Sept 13 – Nov 10, 2006

Heather trained at Ryerson University Toronto and Webber Douglas Academy London. Theatre credits as Director include Copenhagen, Neville’s Island (Watermill Newbury); Stratford Talking (RSC); The House of Bernarda Alba, The Rose Tatoo, The Merry Wives of Windsor (Guilford School of Acting); The Witch (RSC Bootcamp – the Swan); Osmond the Great Turk and Edward IV part 2 (Globe Education – Read Not Dead); Parlour Games, Charlie Coote’s Boys and Girl on a Tank (play readings, New Directions series, Watford Palace); So Sing Already (New End Theatre); The Pager Girl (Etcetera); Bring Me Sunshine (Riverside Studios and Assembly Rooms Edinburgh) and numerous educational and corporate workshops. As Associate Director: Propellors, The Winters Tale (UK International Tour); A Midsummer Nights Dream (Comedy Theatre); Calico (Duke of York’s Theatre West End); The Jacobean Season (RSC); The Malcontent, The Roman Actor, The Island Princess, Edward III and Eastward HA! (the RSC won an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement) and The Beaux’ Stratagem (University of Southern Florida, Tampa). As Assistant Director: Julius Caesar, Hamlet and Love in a Wood (Yvonne Arnaud, Guilford), The Best of Times (Vaudeville Theatre). As actor: Napoleon (Shaftesbury Theatre); Female Parts (Edinburgh Pleasance and Battersea Arts Centre); Fairy Evergreen in Jack and the Beanstalk (Salisbury Playhouse); Burning Blue (Ambassadors); Sister Margaretta in The Sound of Music (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Elizabeth in Aspects of Love (both on a national tour and in the West End).

Guest Artists 2005 - 2006 

BT McNicholl – Guest Director, Shakespeare in Hollywood

BT McNicholl (Lyricist/Co-Author/Director) won the 2002 "Tony" Award in Australia (the Helpmann) for his direction of Barry & Fran Weissler and IMG's production of Cabaret. Recent credits include acclaimed revivals of Jerome Kern's Very Good Eddie (Goodspeed Opera House) and a new adaptation of The Cherry Orchard (Best Production, Dorset Theatre Festival). On Broadway, he has directed for the Roundabout Theatre Company; internationally, he staged Disney & Kenneth Feld's musical version of Winnie the Pooh, currently on tour. He has also been associated with James Lapine, Jerry Zaks, Rob Marshall and Sam Mendes on a number of Broadway plays and musicals. Winner of a BMI Award and a Drama League grant, McNicholl has directed new works at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center and popular productions of She Loves Me and Noel Coward's Fallen Angels, among others. Working with Betty Comden and Adolph Green, he directed Kristin Chenoweth in their musical Billion Dollar Baby at the York Theatre Company, and also produced the show's critically acclaimed cast album. He staged the World Premiere of the new musical Camila at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, and was the associate director for the Broadway production of The Civil War.

Casey Biggs – Guest Director, The Three Sisters

An Award winning director, Casey Biggs has directed productions of Hamlet for the Odyssey Theater in Los Angeles, Richard The III as well as Macbeth for Circus Theatricals, Hedda Gabler, Therese Raquine for Pacific Resident Theater. In New York he directed Standup Shakespeare starring Alfred Molina and F. Murray Abraham, Stacy Keach in The Evening of Macbeth, and Lynne Redgrave in The Rest is Silence. He co-wrote and directed Prince of Players, a one-man show about Edwin Booth and Love Shakespeare for the John Houseman’s The Acting Company. He will be directing The Three Musketeers for the same company next season.

He graduated from The Juilliard school as an actor and has performed throughout the US and Europe. He was a member of the Arena Stage company in Washington DC for ten seasons where he played Bill Cracker in Happy End which was filmed for PBS Great Performances, Petruchio In Taming of the Shrew, Jack Burden in All the Kings Men, Oberon in the premier of Shakespeare in Hollywood, Odysseus in the American premier of Derek Wolcott’s The Odyssey, George Bailey in the premier of the musical version of It’s a Wonderful Life. Also in DC he played Gantry in the premier of the musical Elmer Gantry. In Los Angeles he did the premier of David Mamet’s Speed the Plow, the LA production of True West, Marc Antony in Julius Caesar and Jack Burden in Hope of the Heart both at the Mark Taper Forum. In New York he did the New York premier of Tina Howe’ s Pride‚s Crossing, No Strings at City Center Encores, Eric Overmyer’s Dark Rapture, The premier of The Good German at Westport Playhouse, Exception and the Rule directed by Jerome Robbins and The Cradle will Rock both in New York and London directed by John Houseman. On film has appeared in Dragonfly, Auggie Rose, Broken Arrow, The Pelican Brief, The Shadow Conspiracy, and The Price of Freedom. On Television he starred in four seasons of "Star Trek Deep Space Nine”, "Snoops", "STAT", "Legacy", "Ali", "Appearances", Thirst, Enterprise, The X files, E.R., CSI Miami and numerous guest star appearances.

Kwame Kwei-Armah – Playwright & Actor

Kwame Kwei Armah first became a nationally recognized star as paramedic Finlay Newton in BBC’s hit TV show Casualty which aired from 1999 through 2004. In 2003, Kwame received the Screen National Film and Television Award for Favorite TV Actor. He has been a long time featured actor and celebrity for numerous shows for the BBC.

Additional acting credits include the films Cutthroat Island with Geena Davis, My West with Harvey Keitel and David Bowie and Three Kings with Vanessa Redgrave. His regional and London’s West End theatre credits include roles in Amadeus and Salieri, Henry V, Carmen Jones, Elegies for Dying Punks and Queens and Class K. Other awards include the Ghana Professional Achievers Man of the Year, an EMMA nomination for 2004 Best Actor, and 100 Black Men of Great Britain Award in 2003. He has appeared in many other BBC productions and has acted and directed theatre and film in Great Britain and the U.S.

As a playwright, Elmina’s Kitchen originally premiered at the National Theatre of London, was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play of 2003. The play went on to tour nationally before playing on the West End of London with Kwame playing the leading role. His second play Fix-Up was also staged at the National Theatre.

Other plays of Kwame’s including Hold On, A Bitter Herb, Blues Brother Soul Sisters I/II and Big Nose (an adaptation of Cyrano) have been produced at The Old Vic Theatre London, Theatre Royal Bristol Old Vic, Belgrade Theatre Coventry, Baltimore’s Center Stage and heard on the BBC3 and Radio 3. Other playwriting awards include the Evening Standards Most Promising Playwright Award of 2003, an EMMA nomination for Best play of 2004, a Screen Nation Award for Best Screenplay of 2004 and a BAFTA nomination for Best New Writer for Television in 2005. He recently received the 2005 Clarion Award for Best Drama.

Kwame has served as a writer in residence at the Bristol Old Vic London, a Governor of the University of the Arts London, a Board member of the National Theatre Development Council and a Goodwill Ambassador for Trade, and an Ambassador for London’s 2012 bid for the Olympics. He was educated at the University of the Arts London, Harrow College of Further Education and Barbara Speake’s Stage School.

Drayton Foltz – Production Director
Drayton Foltz arrived at Center Stage as Director of Production after serving as Production Manager for San Jose Repertory Theatre in San Jose, California; Court Theatre in Chicago, Illinois; and Pittsburgh Public Theater in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. So far in his production management career, Drayton has orchestrated co-productions with regional theaters around the United States as well as the Abbey Theatre in Ireland, participated in main stage season selections, served a a Commissioner for the United States Institute for Theater Technology, overseen all production-related budgets and timelines, been an active participant in the Production Managers’ Forum, and worked extensively with theatrical unions

Chip Bolcik – Voice Over Artist and Playwright
Chip Bolcik has made his living as an actor for 25 years.  In 1980, when answering machines were just coming into vogue, Chip started making silly messages on his.   Almost instantly, he was getting over 400 calls a day, including one from an advertising executive who’s message said, “Do you do voiceovers?”  Chip called back and said, “Sure I do.  What’s a voice over?”  In one hour’s work, Chip made as much money as he had made for a week at the Folger, and a new career was born. 

While continuing to perform at such theatres as The Huntington in Boston and the Kennedy Center in DC, Chip moved to New York and took up a career as a voiceover artist recording for TV and radio commercials.  His voice has been heard steadily on the air for Bounty paper towels, Pizza Hut, Pet Fresh carpet cleaner, Sticklets Gum, Wendys, McDonalds, Burger King, Marie Callendars, Denny's, Weight Watchers, E! television, The Letterman show, NBC, Discovery Channel, Discovery Health Channel, University of Maryland, Pepco, Southern California Edison, Trojans condoms,  Southwest Airlines, American Airlines, Club Med, The Bahamas, Macy's, Robinson's May, Kohls, The Gap, Duron paints, Benjamin Moore paints, A&P, Shoprite, HEB grocery stores, Kmart, Toyota, Chrysler, Ford, The Washington Post, The Newark Star Ledger, The New York Times, Time Magazine, People Magazine, Disney World, Disneyland, The Disney Store, Warner Brothers, Folgers coffee, Entenmenns, Dunkin' Donuts, Alka Seltzer, Anacin, Bayer, Pepto-Bismol, Del Taco, Fisher Price, Proctor & Gamble, Home Depot, AmTrak, Ben & Jerry's, Apple Computer, Dell computer, IBM, and Waffle House.

Chip also narrates programs for E!, National Geographic,  The Discovery Channel and half a dozen other outlets.  His voice is also heard in movies.
 
Over the past 7 years, Chip has found a third career writing plays, books and movies.  Three of his plays have been performed in the New York area including his favorite, Séance.  His fourth play, Breaking Up Is Hard To Do is currently searching for a home.  Chip has given birth to four movies and a book that are all wandering around looking for checkbooks willing to adopt them.  He resides in California with his wife of 20 years and two teenage children.

Jeremy Conway – Theatre VCU Alumnus, Production Designer
Jeremy Conway, the Sex and the City Production Designer, has a distinguished history of designing sets for stage and screen. Among his credits are the feature films Chill Factor, Up Close and Personal,Sabrina, and Jacob's Ladder. He won an Emmy® for his production design on the 2000 Olympic Summer Games in Australia and an ACE Award for Outstanding Art Direction on The Original Max Headroom Show. He has also received numerous other Emmy® nominations, including recognition for his work on Sex and the City, Late Night with David Letterman and USA Today: The Television Show.

Guest Artists 2004 - 2005

Casey Biggs - Acting

 Actor: No Strings in NYC, The Good German at Westport Playhouse, Shakespeare in Hollywood at the ARENA Stage in DC,L.A. premiere of Speed the Plow, Odysseus in the American premier of Derek Walcott’s The Odyssey directed by Doug Wager, Pride’s Crossing at Lincoln Center. N.Y. premiere Dark Rapture, Gantryin the premiere of the musical Elmer Gantry, Exception and the Rule directed by Jerome Robbins at Lincoln Center, The Cradle Will Rock directed by John Houseman in London, George Bailey in the premier of the musical version of It’s a Wonderful Life, Marc Antony in Julius Caesar at the Taper, et al. Ten seasons at Arena Stage in Washington D.C. Film: Dragonfly, Auggie Rose, Broken Arrow, The Pelican Brief, The Shadow Conspiracy, Price of Freedom. TV: Four seasons “Star Trek DS9”, “Snoops”, “STAT”, “Legacy”, “Ali”, “Appearances”, numerous guest star appearances. Founding member of two theater companies, Dearknows in N.Y.C. and Interact in Los Angeles.

Bob Croghan - Maskmaking
Bob Croghan has been designing masks professionally for over thirty years for theatre, dance, and opera. His masks have been featured at the Alliance Theatre, Syracuse Opera, Mill Mountain Theatre, Manhattan Marymount, and in over thirty ballet companies nationally. His innovative ballet masks for The Nutcracker are considered state-of-the-art. He has been teaching master classes in maskmaking for over two decades. International venues include Central School of Speech and Drama (London), Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and Escuela de Taller (Puerto Rico.) University master classes include Ohio University, University of Florida, Clemson, UNC Chapel Hill, University of Tennessee, and Winthrop University. He is dedicated to teaching non-toxic maskmaking media. 

Ron Nakahara, Director Metamorphoses

Ron Nakahara was born and educated in Honolulu, Hawaii.  While at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, he studied with New York actor Glenn Canon and Royal Shakespeare actor Terry Knapp as well as Japanese Kabuki and Kyogen masters, notably Nomura Mansaku, a National Treasure of Japan.  Vocally, he worked with acclaimed voice teacher and author Kristin Linklater and subsequently performed with her in Atlanta in the Paul Winfield-Richard Dreyfuss production of Othello. 
 
Ron has been an actor/director in New York City since 1979 and was designated a Senior Artist with that city’s Pan Asian Repertory Theatre in 1987.  He was then named Artistic Associate and continues in that position today in addition to acting and directing as needed.  He has worked at various NYC theatres including The Second Stage Theatre, NYSF/Public Theatre, LaMama, ETC, and Ensemble Studio Theatre.  He has also directed one-woman shows at Don’t Tell Mama and The Duplex, and worked extensively with and directed the Asian-American performance group SLANT at LaMama. Television and video work includes featured roles in “Whoopi”, “Law & Order”,  “Law & Order”, Special Victim’s Unit”, “The Cosby Mysteries”, “One Life to Live”, “As the World Turns”, and several episodes of “Hawaii 5-O.”

Guest Artists 2003-2004

Shozo Sato, Director, Theatre VCU’s Kabuki MacBeth

Shozo Sato has received national and international recognition for creating a new form of Kabuki in which the plots of well-known Western classics have been adapted to introduce a new genre in the conventions of Kabuki.  He has conceived, designed, and directed award-winning productions of Kabuki MacBeth (1978) followed by Kabuki Medea (1983); Kabuki Faust (1986); Kabuki Othello (1988); Achilles: A Kabuki Play (1991); and Iago’s Plot (1996).  These works have captivated and thrilled audiences throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Japan, and the United States. 

In 1964 Sato was invited to the University of Illinois as an “artist in residence” and then was appointed to the faculty where he established a new curriculum in Traditional Japanese Arts.  In 1969 Sato was appointed “artist in residence” at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (University of Illinois-Urbana) where he performed an Inaugural Program of Japanese Dance for the Center’s opening.

Professor Sato established the Illinois Kabuki Theatre at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts where his fusion of western and traditional Japanese theatre garnered national attention and critical acclaim by both Kabuki and theatre enthusiasts.

Sato was awarded a Professor Emeritus, an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, and a D.F.A. from the University of Illinois and an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Towson University.  He won the Critic’s Choice Award for “Best Director” at the Cairo International Experimental Theatre Festival as well as winning numerous honors and awards for his directing, including Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson, San Francisco’s Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Hollywood Drama Guild, South Africa’s Vita, and Baltimore Sun Awards for directing and design.  The Japanese Minister of foreign Affairs awarded Sato the Certificate of Commendation for his promotion of Japanese culture throughout the world.

In addition to his work in Theatre, Sato is also a master of the highest order of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, Ikebana (flower arrangement) and Sumi-E (Oriental brush painting).  He has published extensively on these subjects.

Shozo Sato retired from teaching in 1992 and moved to Northern California where he established a Center for Japanese Art.  He continues to freelance as a director and a Visiting Professor in Theatre. 

Michelle Shay, Director, Theatre VCU’s Breath, Boom                     
Michele Shay is an award-winning actress, director and producer.  As an actress Michele is best known for her Tony nominated performance in August Wilson's Seven Guitars for which she received Outer Critics Circle and NAACP awards. On Broadway, she originated the role of Woman #2 in Samm Art Williams' Home with the Negro Ensemble Company, and was seen in Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls. Off-Broadway includes: Titania opposite William Hurt in A Midsummer Night's Dream; Lisa Loomer's The Waiting Room; Split Second, Coriolanus with Morgan Freeman and Gloria Foster; Mustapha Matura's Playboy of the West Indies; and her Obie Award-winning performance in Matura's Meetings with Carl Lumbly. Her directing credits include: The Woman With Orange Hands at Actors Theater of Louisville; Joe Turner’s Come and Gone at Cal Arts; Blues for an Alabama Sky and Seven Guitars at North Carolina School of the Arts; Alice Childress’ Wedding Band at the University of Michigan; and A Celebration of the human Spirit through the Arts with Gregory Hines and Phylicia Rashad at Essex County College in New Jersey.  In Los Angeles she helped develop and direct In the Hood with Mrs Aronovitz a one- man show by and with comedian Joey Caymen, Everyday Divas, a one-woman show, by and with actress Elisa Perry and Ian Forest, a contemporary ritual theater musical by Tony Moss.  

A graduate of Carnegie-Mellon University, she has worked extensively as an actress in film, television, on and off-Broadway and in regional theaters including the Guthrie, Lincoln Center, Denver, ACT in San Francisco, the New York Shakespeare festival and the internationally acclaimed Negro Ensemble Company (NEC).

Patti D’Beck - Choreography
Patti D’Beck is a veteran of 13 Broadway shows.  Most recently she was the Associate Choreographer on a revival of Big River at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles with actors from DEAF WEST.  This spring she will continue her work onbrooklyn, a new musical headed for Broadway in August.  Her other credits include Annie Get Your Gun, Bells Are Ringing, Grease!, The Will Rogers Follies, My One and Only, Evita, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, A Chorus Line, Pippin, Seesaw, Applause, and pre-Broadway original musicals Busker Alley and Easter Parade..  She choreographed the opening number for the 1997 TONY Awards for Rosie O’Donnell, and has worked with Broadway directors and choreographers such as Tommy Tune, Bob Fosse, Michael Bennett, Jeff Calhoun, and Graciela Daniele.  Patti has personally coached Brooke Shields, Reba McEntire, Jon Secada,  Bernadette Peters, Tommy Tune, Sandy Duncan, Susan Lucci, Keith Carradine, Marla Maples, Lucy Arnaz, Rosie O’Donnell, and Lucy Lawless (Xena the Warrior Princess) to name a few.  She has worked as a Director, Choreographer, Associate Choreographer, Supervisor and performer.  Her experience spans Broadway, off-Broadway, regional theatre, summer stock, industrials, and TV.  Teaching experiences include New York and Pace Universities, dance conventions, master classes and seminars in Musical Theatre Choreography, Jazz, and Tap techniques.  She holds an M.A. and B.A. from New York University.

E. Frank Bluestein - Theatre Education
E. Frank Bluestein is the 1996-1997 Disney and McDonald's National Performing Arts Teacher of the Year and the 1994 Tennessee Teacher of the Year. In October of 1998, USA Today named Mr. Bluestein as one of the top 40 teachers in the United States. At Germantown High School in Germantown, TN, Mr. Bluestein serves as the chairman of the school's Fine Arts Department, founder and director of the school's theatre, the Poplar Pike Playhouse, and executive producer for the school's educational television facility. Under his leadership, the studios of GHS-TV have received over 50 first place Hometown Video USA Awards, and the Germantown High School Fine Arts Department was one of eight secondary schools in the nation to receive the prestigious Rockefeller Brothers Fund Arts in Education Award.

Avner Eisenberg - Physical Comedy
Avner Eisenberg is an internationally recognized “New Vaudevillian” who combines clowning, magic, mime, physical comedy, gymnastics, and the art of failure into a unique evening of clowning. He is best known for his endearing portrayal of The Jewel in The Jewel of the Nile with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. He has also been featured in the film Brenda Starr and on television shows Webster and Mathnet. Avner’s Broadway performances include his one-man show, Avner the Eccentric; Ghetto; and Exceptions to Gravity.  Avner won the New Faces of 1991 Award at The Edinburgh Festival, the grand prize and the public award at the St. Gervais International Humor Festival, and many other comedy awards. In 2002, he was inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame. Avner earned a BA in theatre from the University of Washington, attended Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris, and taught at Carlo Clementi’s Dell’Arte School of Physical Comedy in California.

Susie Cordon - Stage Management
Susie Cordon has been a stage manger since 1975 working on Broadway, Off-Broadway, National Tours and Regional Theatre. Her Broadway productions include: The Crucible, starring Liam Neeson and Laura Linney; The Judas Kiss starring Liam Neeson; Amy's View starring Judi Dench; Skylight, and Racing Demon — all directed by Richard Eyre; and The Invention of Love, directed by Jack O'Brien. Off-Broadway she has stage managed for: What Didn't Happen directed by Michael Wilson; June Moon directed by Mark Nelson; The Captain's Tiger directed by Athol Fugard; National Tours of Lettice and Lovage directed by Michael Blakemore and starring Julie Harris; An Inspector Calls directed by Stephen Daldry.  Cordon was also stage managed at the McCarter Theatre where she spent the first four years under the Artistic Directorship of Emily Mann.


Randy Houston Mercer - Makeup, Hair & Wig Design
Randy Houston Mercer is a professional makeup, hair and wig designer and has worked internationally in fashion, film, theatre and television. Recent films include personal makeup artist to Barbara Streisand for The Mirror Has Two Faces and key and personal makeup artist to Sir Anthony Hopkins for Meet Joe Black. Broadway designs include Hairspray, La Boheme, Titanic, Sunset Boulevard, Chicago, Big, Smokey Joe's Cafe, Guys and Dolls, Crazy for You, The Heidi Chronicles and the almost-Broadway production of Whistle Down the Wind. He has keyed many television shows and received a 1996 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Makeup. Randy also designs makeup and hair for Broadway Bares. Randy is an alumnus of Theatre VCU.

Lynn M. Thomson -Dramaturgy
Lynn M. Thomson is a dramaturg, teacher, and director. She received an M.F.A. in Directing from Temple University and a Ph.D. from New York University. Between 1997-2001, she was Head of the MFA Concentration in Dramaturgy in the Department of Theater, Brooklyn College, where she refashioned and expanded the curriculum.  She added new courses in dramaturgy to foster collaborations between directors, playwrights, and dramaturgs while exploring revivals and new play development. In addition, she developed methods for teaching collaboration; she designed and implemented the Brooklyn College Theater Education Initiative, a multilayered project for training teaching artists. She has also taught and/or been a guest artist at New York University, the University of Iowa, and the University of Evansville, among others.

Guest Artists 2002-2003
Scott Ellis - Broadway director
1776 (Drama Desk, Outer Circle and Tony Award nominations - Best Director, Best Revival); Steel Pier (Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Tony nomination - Best Director, Best Musical); Company (Tony Award nominations - Best Revival); She Loves Me (Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, tony Award nominations - Best Director, Best Musical. Most recently: A Little Night Music with Jeremy Irons and Juliet Stevenson (L.A. Opera) and with Victor Garber, Judith Ivey and Zoe Caldwell (NYC Opera); Terrence McNally’s Dedication or The Stuff of Dreams (WTF). Broadway: The Boys From Syracuse, Arthur Miller’s The Man Who Had All the Luck with Chris O’Donnell, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Rainmaker with Woody Harrelson and Jayne Atkinson

Kathleen Raitt - Broadway producer
On Broadway Ms. Raitt has been Associate producer of Bully starring James Whitmore; Legs Diamond starring Peter Allen; Grand Hotel, The Musical (winner of five Tony Awards); the musical version of The Sarlet Pimpernel adn the Frank Wildhorn epic event musical, The Civil War. She has been nominated for two Tony Awards and one Drama Desk. A former dancer Ms Raitt is currently Vice Prsident of Corporate Relations with the international chain of entertainment venues, Nederlander Organization, Inc.,

Arthur Lessac - Voice coach and master teacher
Arthur Lessac is among the most highly regarded teachers of voice, speech, singing and movement in the training world. Among the three generations of actors, singers, and dancers touched by his teaching are Martin Sheen, Beatrice Straight, George Grizzard, Faye Dunaway, Irene Daily, Carol Haney, Chris Lloyd, Michael Douglas, Frank Langella, Michael OKeefe, Peter Scolari, Morris Charnovsky, Linda Hunt, Nina Foch, and Cathrine Malfitano. His two books, The Use and Training of the Human Voice: A Bio Dynamic Approach to Vocal Life and Body Wisdom: The Use and Training of the Human Body, have become required reading for countless students and remain a lasting contribution to the field of acting and performing.

Eduardo Sicango - Broadway and regional theatre set designer
Internationally recognized set designer for operatic, theatrical, cruise liner, dancing, and ice show productions,

Wendall Harrington - Broadway projection designer
Lighting designer for: Putting It Together, The Civil War, Ragtime, Into the Woods (revival), Steel Pier, Company (revival), Having Our Say, Beauty and the Beast, The Who’s Tommy,  The Will Rogers Follies as well as many more Broadway productions, as well as faculty member of Broadway Lighting and Sound Master Classes

Tracy Davis - Feminist theatre historian
Tracy C. Davis (Ph.D. University of Warwick) holds a joint appointment in the Departments of English, Theatre, and Performance Studies, and is Director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Theatre and Drama at Northwestern. She is the author of Actresses as Working Women: Their Social Identity in Victorian Culture (1991), George Bernard Shaw and the Socialist Theatre (1994), The Economics of the British Stage, 1800-1914 (2000), and co-editor of Playwriting and Nineteenth-Century British Women (1999) and Theories of Theatricality (2002). She is General Editor of the Theatre and Performance Theory series for Cambridge University Press.

David Clemmons - NY casting director
Clemmons Casting is credited with casting: The Boy From Oz, The Civil War. National Tours include: Cinderella, The Civil War, Cats, Swing!, Fosse, Jekyll & Hyde, Chicago, Starlight Express. Off-Broadway: Bat Boy, Love, Janis, The Prince & The Pauper, Zanna Don’t!, The Donkey Show, They Wrote That?, and the 2000 revival of Godspell at the York Theatre.

Guest Artists 2001-2002

Phil Adelman - NY Talent Agent
Owner of The Gage Group Talent Agency with offices in new York and Las Angeles. President of National Association of Talent Representatives - New York.

Bill Roudebush - Regional theatre director
William Roudebush has been directing for over thirty years at such theatres as: Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Cleveland Play House, Syracuse Stage Company, Theatre Virginia, The GeVa Theatre, Walnut Street Theatre, Florida Studio Theatre, Mum Puppettheatre , The Miami and Palm Beach Opera Guild,s and many other’s. In New York he was Artistic Director for the TEN MORE BY NOONAN series at the John Houseman Theatre as well as directing for Ensemble Studio Theatre, The American Folk Theatre, The Mint Theatre Company, The Actors Outlet, Pulse Ensemble Theatre, The Sammuel Beckett Theatre and the Village Gate where he researched his soon to be produced new musical VILLAGE GATE FOLLIES. Bill has been based in Philadelphia for the past eight year’s where he works as a freelance director/writer. His recent revival of EQUUS was nominated for eight Barrymore awards and won five including Best Overall Production of a play, Best Ensemble and Best Director.  Bill is also an educator having taught at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, The University of Memphis, The University of the Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University along with being Theatre School Director for the Walnut Street Theatre for four years. He is currently Creative Director for Lombard Entertainment as well as an Adjunct Professor at Temple University.

Andrew Sabiston - Musical theatre librettist

Tim Williams - Musical theatre composer
Selected theatre credits: Big Mama! The Willie Mae Thornton Story (Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding Musical Direction), Bunkhouse, Swingtime, Rise Again (Lunchbox Theatre); The Collected Works of Billy The Kid, Respectable (Alberta Theatre Projects); The Glass Menagerie (Theatre Calgary). Award-winning composer, musical director, record producer and touring blues musician.

Francesca Zambello - Opera director
Francesca Zambello, a philosophy graduate, divides her career between theater and opera. Her staging credits include: La Khovantchina at the English National Opera (Lawrence Olivier Award), Tannhäuser and The Master Singers at the Royal Opera of Denmark, the world production of Philip Glass’ Orpheus at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lucia di Lammermoor at the Metropolitam Opera, Benvenuto Cellini at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Billy Budd at the Covent Garden (Lawrence Olivier Award), the Grand Théâtre de Genève and the Opéra National de Paris (Grand Prix de la Critique), among many others. She was artistic director of Skylight Music Theater for many years. Among her future production projects are “Peter Grimes” at the Nederlandse Opera and “La Dame de Pique” at the Covent Garden.

Guest Artists 2000-2001

Mary McDonnell - Academy Award nominated actor: Dances With Wolves, Sneakers, Passion Fish
Renowned stage and screen actress Mary McDonnell graced East Coast stages for two decades before getting her major screen breakthrough in Dances with Wolves (1990). Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on April 28, 1952, McDonnell was raised in Ithaca, New York, and graduated from the State University of New York at Fredonia. After a few seasons in regional repertory, she established herself on Broadway with such successful 1980s plays as The Heidi Chronicles. She made her film debut in 1984’s Garbo Talks; three years later, she was showered with critical adulation for her portrayal of mining town landlady Elma Radnor in director John Sayle’s Matewan. Further adulation and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination followed for McDonnell’s portrayal of Stands with a Fist, a white woman raised by the Lakota Sioux, in Kevin Costner’s Dances with Wolves (1990). One year later, she starred in the PBS “American Playhouse” dramatization of Willa Cather’s O Pioneers!, and also did starring work as the wife of an immigration attorney (Kevin Kline) in Lawrence Kasdan’s acclaimed Grand Canyon. Her film career has continued with roles in films big and small, ranging from Sayles’ excellent Passion Fish (1992) to the 1996 blockbuster p to Kasdan’s Mumford (1999), which cast McDonnell as a dissatisfied housewife with a mail order catalog obsession.

Randy Mell - Actor: Broadway, regional theatre
Randy Mell received his training at The Juilliard School in New York City and has spent over 25 years as a professional actor, teacher and speech consultant. He has performed leading roles on Broadway, off-Broadway and in major theatres throughout the United States, Europe, and Australia. His film and television appearances include Cookie’s Fortune, Grand Canyon, Wyatt Earp, Law and Order, Nash Bridges, as well as many TV. movies and mini-series. He has been a visiting artist and teacher at Vassar College, Virginia Commonwealth University, Northwestern University and The University of Texas. Since 1997 he has worked as a speech consultant for a variety of national and international firms including Bear Stearns, Disney Online, Warner Brothers, NASA, Alcatel, and Orly International.