Teaching Professionals
Teaching Professionals
Our faculty is made up of working professionals at the top of their field who are committed to educating the next generation of performing artists.
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Jorge Cacheiro, MFA |
Ion-Cosmin Chivu |
Lee Evans, EdD |
Grant Kretchik |
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Gian Marco Lo Forte |
Robert Meffe |
Rhonda Miller |
Amy Rogers |
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Ruis Woertendyke, PhD |
Adjunct Faculty
Acting and Theater Arts Adjunct Faculty
Mary Ellen Bernard |
Rachel Chavkin |
Michael G. Chin |
Carla Ching Playwrighting |
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Joseph Cotugno |
Crystal A. Dickinson |
Erica Miriam Fabri |
Erica Gould |
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Paul Guzzone |
Jennifer Holmes |
Chris Jensen |
Sabra Jones |
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Thomas Keith |
Graham Kindred |
Annie Levy |
Jamibeth Margolis |
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Robert Palmer |
Kellie Porterfield |
Ronald Rand |
Lester Thomas Shane |
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Theresa Squire |
Joanne Zipay |
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Musical Theater and Dance Adjunct Faculty
Janice Berringer |
Jodie Bentley |
Bob Cline |
Joshua Dean |
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Diane Dicroce |
Allison Easter |
Mark Fifer |
Lauren Gaul |
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Leslie Giammanco |
Mary Kate Law |
Stephanie Layton |
Jen Littlefield |
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Melissa Rae Mahon |
Ryan Scott Oliver |
Alisa Paradowski |
Michael Schulster |
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Mark Shanahan |
Andrew Smithson |
Aimee Steele |
Robert Sussuma |
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JoAnn Yeoman Tongret |
Marishka Wiersbicki |
David Wolfson |
Acting and Theater Arts Adjunct Faculty
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Mary Ellen Bernard With diverse production, management and performing experience in theatre, music and the arts Mary Ellen Bernard has worked onstage, backstage and in the planning stage. She is an accomplished lyricist and musical performer with three highly-praised CD’s and she is the managerial partner at Triple Z Music which specializes in music for special events and corporations. She was a founding member of Stage Left, a non-profit theater company and was Executive Director of the organization for five years producing an average of three shows a year in the New York city area. She has consulted for new arts organizations helping them build organizational infrastructure and marketing efforts. She was also Costume Supervisor for IBM’s Global Golden Circle events in Dubai and Hawaii. At Pace Mary Ellen teaches “How the Entertainment Industry Works” and for two years she was an instructor and advisor in the UNV 101 program. Mary Ellen’s performance experience includes theatre, cabaret, stand-up comedy and the occasional film and television appearance. She worked extensively on the acoustic music circuit and her CDs received reviewer praise and airplay on radio stations around the United States and in Europe. She has sung at clubs, theaters and festivals either as a featured act or opening for such artists as John Prine, Richie Havens, Tom Paxton and John Sebastian. Mary Ellen was also a promotional writer in the publishing business for many years working at The Literary Guild Book Club, Doubleday Publishing, Simon & Schuster and the promotion and advertising agency Practical Marketing where she was Vice President and Creative Director. |
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Rachel Chavkin is an Obie Award-winning director, educator, and the founding Artistic Director of the TEAM. With the TEAM Rachel has directed/co-authored Architecting (co-produced by the National Theatre of Scotland), Particularly in the Heartland, Give Up! Start Over! (In the darkest of times I look to Richard Nixon for hope), HOWL, based on the poem by Allen Ginsberg, and A Thousand Natural Shocks, and most recently Mission Drift, created in the blazing heat of a Las Vegas June and co-produced by New York’s P.S.122, Lisbon’s Culturgest, and London’s Almeida Theatre, with music composed by Heather Christian. Outside of the TEAM: Rick Burkhardt, Alec Duffy and Dave Malloy’s Three Pianos (NYTW – Dec ’10/Jan ’11, Ontological Incubator Series – Feb/March ’10, 2010 Obie Award); Keith Reddin’s Acquainted with the Night and Steve Yockey’s Wonder (NYU Grad Acting); the Agee/Evans Project (working title) created with playwright Molly Rice and composer Stephanie Johnstone (Spring 2011, Montclair State U residency); Canary, a bluegrass musical by Molly Rice with music by Molly Rice and Ray Rizzo (Rattlestick DirtyWorks June, 2008); collaborations with playwright/performer/activist Taylor Mac including his extravaganza The Lily’s Revenge (Act II) (HERE Arts Center, 2010 Obie Award) and Peace, co-written by Mac and Chavkin (Workshop, HERE Arts Center, 2007). She has also directed All the Great Books (Abridged) by the Reduced Shakespeare Company (Hangar Theatre), Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya (Classic Stage Company), and the NYC revival of Kurt Vonnegut’s Happy Birthday, Wanda June. Rachel is an Artistic Associate at Classic Stage Company, for whom she has directed a number of readings/workshops and served as Mandy Patinkin’s Shakespeare Coach, an alum of the Drama League Directors Project, the Women’s Project Director’s Lab, a New Georges Affiliate Artist, and a Usual Suspect at NYTW. She also teaches directing & performance at Playwrights Horizons Theater School within NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. B.F.A. NYU, M.F.A. Columbia. |
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Michael G. Chin Michael G. Chin is a professional actor (AEA, AFTRA, SAG) as well as a sanctioned Master instructor and choreographer with the Society of American Fight Directors. He serves as fight director in residence for both The White Horse and Pan Asian Rep in NYC. He’s taught/choreographed/consulted in the New York area on Broadway as well as The Mint, Murder-To-Go, Theatreworks USA, La Mama ETC, National Asian American Thea Co, Ma-yi, The Public, Negro Ensemble Company, The Vineyard, NYU, Henry St Settlement, Baruch College, The Drama League, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Montclair State Univ, New York Renaissance Fest and The NY Fringe Thea Festival . Nationally he has worked at The Barter, Celebration Barn, Burt Reynolds Inst for Thea., Muhlenberg Summer Festival, Univ of Tulsa, The Crossroads, Brown Univ, Cape Cod Community College, BYU, The Hangar, Dickinson College, Louisiana Tech, NY State Theatre Inst. Tennessee Rep, Merrimack Theatre, Off The Square Thea in Wyoming, Gainesville Theatre Alliance, Univ of Northern Colorado, IUP and Yale School of Drama. He received his B.A. in Theatre from Pace University. Mr Chin currently teaches at The Juilliard School, Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA, Brooklyn College as well as Pace University and teaches privately for Fights4. He is a student of Northern Style, Shaolin Long Fist Kung Fu. |
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Originally a poet from the LA, Carla Ching stumbled upon pan-Asian performance collective Peeling at the Asian American Writers Workshop and wrote and performed with them from 1998-2001. Full-length plays include TBA (2g/Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center), Dirty (finalist for the 2006 Cherry Lane Mentor Project and the 2008 Ignition Festival at Victory Gardens), Big Blind/Little Blind (Ma-Yi Labfest 2008) and The Sugar House at the Edge of the Wilderness (National Asian American Theater Festival workshop 2009). Short plays include “Multicultural Education” (commissioned by Ma-Yi Theater Company/Ohio Theater), and “Dissipating Heat” (finalist for the 2005 Heideman Award from Actors Theatre of Louisville). Member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab and The Women’s Project Lab 2008-2010. Carla is the recipient of a 2008 Urban Artists Initiative fellowship, a 2009-2010 Teachers & Writers Collaborative Fellowship and was nominated for the 2009 Wasserstein Prize. She attended Envision 2009, Voice and Vision’s developmental retreat. BA, Vassar College. MFA, Actors studio Drama School. Artistic Director of 2g. |
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Joseph Cotugno is a three time Emmy award winning cameraperson and twice nominated television director. His experiences have taken him from the historic 1980 USA gold medal ice hockey victory over the Soviet Union at the Lake Placid Olympics to the even more historic Presidential inauguration of Barack Obama. As the father of three daughters Joe decided to stay closer to home after his time traveling for ABC sports, continuing his career working as the Technical Director on one of ABC’s most popular soap opera’s of the time, Ryan’s Hope. He began directing in 1993 for ABC’s Loving, The City, One Life to Live and a number of episodes of All My Children. After that Joe directed the longest running soap of all time, Guiding Light up until is sad cancellation in 2009. His latest project has been to help develop SKYPE as a life line on the syndicated version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. He also worked with ABC-TV and Buena Vista this past year in his role as technical manager to build a Hi-Definition facility along with a tapeless recording environment for this coming seasons broadcasts of the show. He began teaching actors the art of multi camera shooting and technique in the late 90s for Ithaca University and also taught seminars at Rutgers University. His love of working with students who have a passion for acting along with video and film production brought him to Pace as an adjunct where he helped develop the current on camera system. His goal is to develop an Advanced Video Production class that will incorporate much of the new multi media technology used in the current broadcast environment. |
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Crystal A. Dickinson is a three-time AUDELCO Nominee who was nominated one of the top ten actresses in Atlanta where she also garnered a Suzi Bass Award for Best Ensemble for Metamorphoses and a Jenny Award for Best Lead Actress in Bus Stop. She has had the great pleasure to act and direct in a number of world and regional premieres with artists such as Pearl Cleage, Thomas Kail, Pam MacKinnon, Bruce Norris, Rueben Santiago-Hudson, Lucy Tiberghien, and Lucy Thurber. Currently, Crystal is a New York based actress whose off -Broadway credits include: Lincoln Center, Broke-ology; Playwrights Horizons, Clybourne Park (Pulitzer Prize Playwriting); Soho Rep, Born Bad; Manhattan Theater Club, u/s Ruined; Signature Theatre, The First Breeze of Summer; Negro Ensemble Company, Sun Down Names and Night Gone Things; and Atlantic Theater, Bottom of the World. Regional theater credits include: Contemporary American Theater Festival, Baltimore Centerstage, Alliance, 7 Stages, Georgia Shakespeare, Illinois Shakespeare, and Synchronicity. In television, Crystal enjoyed a recurring role as Janine on Tyler Perry’s House of Payne. She received her MFA in acting at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, and studied at the London Academy for Music and Dramatic Art. She served as an assistant professor at Spelman College and a guest professor at University of Illinois. She is a member of Lincoln Center Directors Lab and a proud volunteer at the 52nd Street Project. |
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Erica Miriam Fabri Erica Miriam Fabri is the author of Dialect of a Skirt, a collection of poetry published by Hanging Loose Press (November 2009). She is a writer and performer and a graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts and received her MFA in Poetry from The New School. Her work has been published in numerous literary journals and magazines and she has performed and facilitated workshops and seminars at: Cooper Union School of the Arts, New York University, Columbia University, Penn State University, The Brooklyn Public Library, Poet’s House, The Fortune Society, The Robin Hood Foundation, and the PEN Prison Writing Program. She has worked on projects as a writer, editor and performance director for The New York Knicks, HBO and Nickelodeon Television. She is also a spoken word mentor and curriculum writer for Urban Word NYC where two of her creative writing curriculums: Hip-Hop / Poetic Literature and Creatively College Bound have been published and widely used in High School, Community and Pre-College classrooms. She has been awarded a writer’s residency at the Omega Institute and has been a featured and/or visiting poet and performer for numerous art festivals and numerous outreach programs including drug rehabilitation centers, prisons and hospitals. Her first book, Dialect of a Skirt, was a finalist for the 2011 Paterson Poetry Prize and it was included on the list for: The Best Books of 2009 at About.com and made the Small Press Distribution’s bestseller list for June 2010 as well as the Poetry Foundation’s bestseller list for October 2010. She tours and performs solo, as well as with the hybrid music and poetry duo “The Robin and the Lady Poet.” |
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Erica Gould (Director, member SSDC) Erica Gould brings to her work as an adjunct professor at Pace an extensive background as an award-winning director, choreographer, and teacher. She has directed the premieres of new work by such eminent playwrights as Neil LaBute, Jose Rivera, Theresa Rebeck, and Rajiv Joseph, and has directed such noted actors as Sam Waterston, Liev Scheiber, Kathleen Chalfant, Phylicia Rashad, and Josh Lucas. Her productions as a director and director/choreographer (dance and/or fight) include numerous classical plays, new works, and musicals. Highlights include the world premiere productions of Neil LaBute’s autobahn and his one-act play Stand Up w/ Mos Def (MCC/Circle in the Square); Dirty Paki Lingerie (NYC and international venues); Troilus and Cressida (NY Stage & Film); As You Like It (The Shakespeare Theatre/ACA, DC); The Comedy of Errors (Hudson Guild); The Tempest (Fordham); Pericles (NJSF); Aphra Behn’s The Rover (New School); SpeakEasy, a theatrical event by LaBute, Theresa Rebeck, Rajiv Joseph, others (Joe’s Pub/Public Theater); The Minotaur by Anna Ziegler, w/ Mario Cantone, Jill Clayburgh, Campbell Scott (The Fire Dept/Players Club); City of Angels (U Buffalo); Max and the Truffle Pig (NY Musical Theatre Festival); At War: American Playwrights Respond to Iraq w/ David Strathairn, Bebe Neuwirth, Peter Sarsgaard (45 Bleecker/National Arts Club); her adaptation of Milorad Pavic’s Dictionary of the Khazars (Culture Project, Williamstown, Yale); and, for Pace, The Beggar’s Opera in February 2011. Her work on new plays includes directing development workshops and staged readings for Playwrights’ Horizons, Hartford Stage, ACT, NY Theatre Workshop, The McCarter, Baltimore CenterStage, the Vineyard, Cherry Lane, EST, and the Public, as well as staged reading presentations of new musicals, including The Bonfire of the Vanities with Melissa Errico, Chuck Cooper, and TONY-award-winner Adriane Lenox. A recipient of the Drama League Directors Project Fellowship, the Senior Boris Sagal Directing Fellowship at Williamstown, and the Gracie Allen and Golden Reel Awards for her work as a director of radio-theatre for NPR, she has worked w/ DAH Theatre Company in Belgrade through a TCG grant, and with Theatre Complicite in London. She was the inaugural recipient of the SDC Foundation’s Live On Screen Fellowship in directing for television, and recently wrapped shooting on her first film, Yatra, which she is co-directing with Dipti Mehta. She is currently working with the improv comedy group Naked in a Fishbowl, now performing at The Cherry Lane. |
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Paul has been an adjunct at Pace for twenty-four years teaching courses on the history of rock music and the business of entertainment. An award-winning musician, composer and producer, his work ranges from pop songs to corporate communications and commercials. His custom music for Toyota, Xerox and other corporations garnered two Telly Awards and a New York Festivals Award and has been featured in ads for Jaguar, Trident and other brands. Notable corporate projects include the launch of the new Chevrolet Sonic at the Detroit Auto Show and prestigious events for IBM in Japan, the Bahamas, Dubai and Hawaii. As bass player-vocalist in The Bacon Brothers band Paul has performed with them around the world and on national broadcasts including “The Tonight Show” and “The View.” Production work includes: recording Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline and other luminaries for the New York Times bestseller Philadelphia Chickens by Sandra Boynton; producing two albums by the acclaimed acoustic duo Aztec Two-Step; and co-producing three Bacon Brothers albums. For Lincoln Center’s “Meet the Artist School Series” Paul worked with cellist Stephanie Winters to create the interactive program “Bach to the Future” exploring musical innovation through the ages. He also developed a workshop to teach the art and science of modern recording to high schoolers. In the 80’s Paul produced and released his own album Dancin’ Room to critical raves and airplay. Also during that time he was a featured performer in National Lampoon’s Class Of ’86 at The Village Gate in New York. He is currently musical director for the new dance theater production Ballroom Rocks which will tour performing arts centers. |
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Jennifer is the Founder and Director of Global Empowerment Theatre (GET), an international non-profit organization that uses theatre to empower under-served young people around the world. Jennifer spends her summers directing theatre in East Africa and this year expanded GET to Bangalore, India. During the year, Jennifer devises theatre with at-risk youth in collaboration with the Dome Project in New York City. Jennifer has performed in theatre, film and television. She currently can be seen on The Sundance Channel as Stephanie in Approaching Union Square co-starring Christine Elise, which won numerous awards, including an award for Best Ensemble Cast. Jennifer originated the role of Young Estella in the world premiere of Great Expectations opposite Tony award winner Elizabeth Franz at The Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey. She played Emily Dickinson in The Belle of Amherst, directed by Christopher Grabowski. Jennifer worked on the soap opera, One Life to Live, and has done extensive voiceover work. Jennifer teaches theatre at Pace University, New York University, and Manhattanville College. She has devised and directed theatre in the United States, Ireland and East Africa. Most recently, she directed “The Syringa Tree” at Pace University. Jennifer has studied under Anna Deavere Smith, August Boal, Ben Kingsley, Fiona Shaw, Alan Rickman, Ian Wooldridge, Christopher Grabowski, Richard Digby Day, Earle Gister, Pati Hernandez of The Bread and Puppet Theatre and Mick Barnfather of Theatre de Complicite. Jennifer has been published in the International Journal on Learning and The Teaching Artist Journal. Her writings on educational theatre and Theatre for Social Change will be published in 2012 in two new books, one edited by David Montgomery and Robert Landy, the other edited by Philip Taylor. She is a member of AFTRA and Actor’s Equity. Jennifer has degrees in Drama from Vassar College and New York University and is currently a PhD Candidate completing her doctoral dissertation at NYU. |
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Chris Jensen Chris has been with Pace University since 2008 now serving as the Performing Arts Department Technical Director and Props Designer for all main stage productions. He is also one of the Performing Arts resident Set Designers. He recently was the set designer for Pace’s production of The Syringa Tree, Cloud Nine, and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. He is also the art department carpenter for The Martha Stewart Show where he received an Emmy for his work in set design, set dressing, prop design. His recent set/props credits for Television, Movies, and Theater include: Mad Hungry with Lucinda Wallace, Pet Keeping with Marc Marone, The Smurfs Movie, Men in Black 3, Emeril’s Table with Emeril Lagasse, Grilling It with Bobby Flay. Sally Hanson Summer and Fall line, Weddings Magazine, and numerous commercials. |
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Sabra’s Broadway debut was in Butterflies Are Free at The Booth Theater in New York (Eileen Heckart and Kier Dullea), which she subsequently also played in Los Angeles with Eve Arden and in Chicago with Gloria Swanson. Sabra was in the original company of Six Degrees of Separation at Lincoln Center, taking over the part of Ouisa from Stockard Channing. In Boston she was the ingénue in The Rehearsal, the pony girl in Jean Genet’s The Balcony, and played the lead in Indiscretions at the Wilma in Philadelphia as well as James Farentino’s wife in The Best Man in Chicago. In California she premiered the lead in 100% Alive, and was Madame Mertueil in the first American company of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, as well as television roles as Sara Teasdale in Law and Order, in Laverne and Shirley, Happy Days, and in The Nightflowers which opened to great acclaim in Dauville and Cannes. At the Metropolitan Opera she was The Dutchess of Krackenthorpe in La Fille du Regiment with Luciano Pavarotti and June Anderson and played Andromache in Les Troyens with Maria Ewing. At the Mirror Rep (opposite Geraldine Page, Anne Jackson, F. Murray Abraham, Elizabeth Franz, Anthony Hopkins, Juliet Mills, Maxwell Caulfield, Michael Moriarty, Steven Weber, Shirley Knight, Mason Adams, and Tovah Feldshuh) she appeared in Clarence, Hasty Heart, Ghosts, Paradise Lost, The Inheritors, Rain, The Madwoman of Chaillot (season nominated for Best Acting Ensemble and Best Overall Excellence by the Outer Critics Circle) The Time of Your Life, Joan of Lorraine, Gorki’s Children of the Sun (US premiere), Vivat, Vivat Regina and The Seagull, directed by the legendary Bobby Lewis. Three of these plays, Clarence, The Madwoman of Chaillot, and Vivat, Vivat Regina were all honored by being filmed by Lincoln Center’s Library of the Performing Arts and may be viewed there. A member of the Broadway League, Sabra is a Tony-nominated producer. A graduate of Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, Sabra was taught “The Method” personally by her father-in-law Lee Strasberg, who asked her to teach at The Strasberg Institute. In her private classes she taught Steve Buscemi, Campell Scott, John Lovitz, James Gandolfini, and numerous others. |
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Thomas has been a professional actor for twenty-five years with credits at theaters including The Public Theater, La Mama E.T.C, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Great Lakes Theater Festival, INTAR, Champlain Shakespeare Festival, P.S. 122, and Naked Angels, with directors and playwrights including Tom O’Horgan, Edward Cornell, Terry Gilliam, John Vacarro, Peter Hedges, Maria Irene Fornes, Jeff Weiss, Andrew Bergman, Jay Tarsis, Sharon Ott, Clifford Williams, Kathryn Long, and Ellen Stewart, and he has played principal roles in over forty television commercials. He has directed at Synchronicity Space, Dixon Place, The Knitting Factory, and the 92nd Street Y. Previous teaching credits include Ohio University, Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute, The Bowery Poetry Club, Southeastern Louisiana University, and La Mama E.T.C. Keith received his B.F.A. in Theater and M.F.A. in Acting from Ohio University and is a consulting editor for New Directions Publishing where he has edited over twenty volumes by Tennessee Williams including The Magic Tower & Other One-Act Plays and A House Not Meant to Stand for which he wrote the Introduction. He has also written articles and chapters for American Theater Magazine, Tenn at One Hundred, The Tennessee Williams Annual Review, Studies in Scottish Literature, and The Tennessee Williams Encyclopedia. |
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Graham Kindred Graham Kindred has been designing professionally in New York for the past 10 years. While here, he has worked on Broadway, at Lincoln Center, and Off-Broadway, including being a part of the Obie Award winning design team for the Vineyard Theatre’s production of Kayrol Island. Outside of the city, his credits range from Regional Theater to National Tours to Theme Parks with SeaWorld Orlando, to China, as a part of the Shanghai 2010 World Expo. Before moving to New York, Graham won the Illuminating Engineering Society Design award for Ascetical Lighting in Philadelphia. In education, Graham has been teaching lighting to aspiring design students for over 20 years. He earned a master’s degree from Temple University. |
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Annie Levy Annie G. Levy is a director, collaborative artist and educator who frequently works with Mythology and Ritual. Her directing work has been seen from Austin to Anchorage (and all around town too). New York Credits include The Jose Quintero Theater, the Tank, Space on White, HERE Arts Center, 78th Street Theatre Lab, The Meisner Theater, Theater For A New City, The Estrogenius Festival, The Theatre Lab, Irish Arts Theatre, Vital Theater Company and the Mint Theater. Annie’s international credits include the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Discoteca di Storia (Rome) and Acadia University. She is a co-founder of warner | shaw, a production company that creates theatre inspired by the fragments of collective narrative. She conceived and directed warner | shaw’s Six Seeds: The Persephone Project, a piece exploring the myth of Persephone and its relevance to contemporary womanhood as part of the 2011 curates theatre season at the Tank. Other recent directing credits include …Out of Here by Deanna Neil, Combat Dating by C.S. Hanson, and Sharon Is My Name by Daniel J. Kelly. She was the associate director under Sam Gold on the off Broadway hit, Circumcise Me and has assistant directed under John Dillon and Tracy Young. Annie is the recipient of a Spielberg Fellowship in Theatre Arts Education, an Oregon Shakespeare Festival directing assistantship and is a 2010 LMCC Uptown/Downtown Artist and a 2011 resident artist at Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center. Annie is a member of the Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab, an associate member of SDC, a founding member of the Northwoods Theatre Company and is the co-founder of Sweet: Actors Reading Writers, a monthly literary series. She is a co – recipient of the Paul Artist Residency at Indiana University to develop and workshop the next warner | shaw project, The Latvia Project, a piece exploring personal mythology and national identity, in January of 2012. |
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Jamibeth Margolis Jamibeth Margolis is now entering her 15th year as a professional casting director in New York. She was with Johnson-Liff Casting, Cameron Mackintosh, and Margolis-Seay Casting and is now out on her own as a freelance casting director. Previous credits include the Broadway and National Touring Companies of such hits as Les Miserables, The Phantom Of The Opera, Miss Saigon, Cats, and Jane Eyre as well as two dozen other shows on Broadway. She also currently casts for Off Broadway, National Touring Companies and shows for prominent regional theaters and all of the major theater festivals in NYC. Her casting office is dedicated to the development of new plays and musicals. Additional casting credits include multiple television pilots and on camera industrials for major US companies. Jamibeth is also an accomplished stage director. Recent theatrical directing credits include Family Dinner at the Beckett Theatre on Theatre Row and Do I Hear a Waltz? and Jekyll and Hyde at the Arvada Center Theater in Denver. Jamibeth served as assistant director to Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks on the recent Broadway revival of The Caine Mutiny Court Martial and also on Jules Feiffer’s A Bad Friend at Lincoln Center Theatre. She has also helmed developmental productions and readings of the following new works: Naked In Encino, Owl Creek, Far From the Madding Crowd, Plane Crazy, Great Googley Moo, 1812, and Warsaw (which is currently on track for a Broadway production in the next two years). Currently Jamibeth serves as Artistic Director For Musicals at the Midtown International Theatre Festival (MITF) where she fosters new writing talent and looks to bring a dozen new musicals to life each summer. Jamibeth also teaches musical theater, acting, and audition technique in studios all around NYC. She is also the Executive Director of the New Paradigm Theatre in Stamford, CT slated to open during the 2012 season. Jamibeth is a member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Casting Society of America, and the Stage Directors And Choreographers Society. She served as a Tony Awards Voter for three Broadway seasons. She holds a B.A. from Ithaca College in Drama/Directing. |
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Robert Palmer has been teaching as an adjunct faculty member in the Performing Arts Department of Pace University since 2007. He graduated with a BFA in Theater Arts from Pace in 2001. He went on to get his MFA in Acting from The Actors Studio Drama School at New School University in 2006 and his MA in Educational Theater from New York University in 2010. Robert has been working as an actor, writer, and producer in New York since 1997 and is currently a member of Mud/Bone Collective, creating site-specific theater in Lower Manhattan. As an educator, Robert has been an employee of Urban Arts Partnership, facilitating dramatic workshops to promote literacy in the public school system of New York City. Currently Robert is a full time Theater Teacher at School for Classics: An Academy of Writers, Thinkers and Performers in East New York, Brooklyn. |
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Kelli Porterfield Kelli Porterfield is a New York based comedian, actor, writer, storyteller and filmmaker. She has studied and performed comedic improvisation for over ten years at Chicago’s famed Second City and Improv Olympic and in New York at Upright Citizens Brigade and The People’s Improv Theater. As an actor, she has appeared on As The World Turns, Las Vegas and in the HBO pilot and upcoming series The Boring Life of Jacqueline. The solo comedy show she wrote and performs, Mirror Mirror on the Wall, was an Official Selection of the North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival, The Boston Comedy Festival and the Ladies Are Funny Festival. The show is currently enjoying a run at The People’s Improv Theater. As a storyteller, Kelli has performed at The Moth, Told, Fireside Stories, The Story Collider and The Soul Glo Project. On the film front, Kelli has been involved with the production, acquisition and distribution of the award winning films Precious: Based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire, The Maid and Dog Pound. She is the Co-Executive Producer of the film Old Cats which premiered as an Official Selection at The New York Film Festival and The Sundance Film Festival. Old Cats is slated for worldwide release in Fall 2011. Kelli received her Bachelors Degree from Denison University and her Masters of Fine Arts Degree from The Actor’s Studio Drama School. |
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Ronald Rand He continues performing his solo play, LET IT BE ART! as Harold Clurman, (seen on 5 continents, 12th year) – received two critically-acclaimed Off-Broadway runs, in 16 countries including London, Paris, Athens, Harare, Zagreb, Frankfurt, Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Tangier, Minsk, Vologda-Russia, Mumbai, New Delhi, Kerala, Paysundu, Eshksehir-Turkey, Tbilisi, 16 states across America. Upcoming: South Africa, India, Belgium, Bangladesh. Ron has taught his Acting Workshop, “Art of Transformation,” and classes on Shaw, playwriting, and directing at over 75 universities, theaters, and festivals around the world. Mr. Rand’s plays include IBSEN, The Site of Human Life; A River, A Seed. A Cloud, A Lamp, The Wind; & The Group! about The Group Theatre (World premiere –Illinois; directed a LAB presentation at Pace, 2011). His plays have been seen in New York City including The Actors Studio, Neighborhood Playhouse, The Clurman, York Theatre New Play Series, at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference, twice at the Great Plains Theatre Conference.Co-screenwriter with Joan Micklin Silver for the upcoming film of The Group Theatre story, THE GROUP. Founder/Publisher of “The Soul of the American Actor,” the only Newspaper in America dedicated to the art of the theater (14th year). Author of “Acting Teachers of America” published by Random House. In New York City, he has presented Exceptional Poets starring Ruby Dee; A Tribute to Harold Clurman & Robert Whitehead with Roy Scheider, and An Evening with Vijay Tendelkar. As an actor, he has appeared in several plays Off-Broadway including Julius Caesar with Richard Dreyfuss (BAM), regionally, and in over 200 films and television shows, including O’Keefe and Steiglitz opposite Christopher Plummer, and Homeless with Yoko Ono. Mr. Rand’s mentors include Stella Adler, Harold Clurman, Jerzy Grotowski, Joseph Chaikin, and Bobby Lewis. Member of The Actors Studio Playwright/Directors Unit. Graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. |
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Lester Thomas Shane’s work as an actor, director and writer has been seen on television, film, the New York stage and in regional theatre. Having studied under Edith Skinner at Carnegie-Mellon University, Lester has worked extensively teaching speech, voice, dialects and Shakespeare. While playing leading roles at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Lester served as the company Voice and Movement Master. In addition to Pace, Lester is on the faculty of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, The New York Film Academy, BTS School of Drama and the TADA! Ensemble. As a speech and dialect coach he has worked with T Schreiber Studios, Peccadillo Theatre, Boomerang Theatre Company, Mint Theatre, Sink or Swim Repertory Theatre, and Signature Theatre (Virginia). He was invited to give the keynote address at the 2001 National Teaching Training Institute sponsored by PBS. His directing credits include over fifty productions ranging from the classics to premiere productions of new scripts. Artistic Director, Shakespeare at the Met, Jacksonville, FL; Cleveland Public Theatre; Halle Theatre; Charlottesville New Play Festival; T.Schreiber Studio; Manhattan Theatre Club; The Production Company; Vineyard ; 45th St Theatre. As Director in Residence at The Basic Theatre, he directed the New York premieres of Shaviana, Bertolt Brecht: In Dark Times, The Haircut, and Santa Monica Threeway, revivals of Sure Thing, Let us Go Into The Starry Night and Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. In addition he has directed numerous readings and workshops and has worked with the literary departments of Manhattan Theatre Club, Westbeth and Hartford Stage. For A&E Biography series, Lester wrote James Brown, Tyrone Power, and Carmen Miranda. For AMC. 20th Century Fox: The First Fifty Years; and for Discovery, Nazis: The Occult Conspiracy. With Penelope Brackett he wrote Seven Keys to Success Without Struggle now in its second edition. His award-winning one-man show, Mortal Coil has been produced for video and has been incorporated into Columbia University and UCLA’s curriculum for training doctors on end-of-life care. Lester continues to tour the production nationwide. Lester is a member of AEA, SAG, AFTRA, SDC and VASTA. |
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Theresa Squire designs costumes for theatre, dance and film. Theresa has designed for Playwrights Horizons; PRIMARY STAGES, 2ND STAGE, Keen Company; The Hourglass Group including Beebo Brinker Chronicles; Atlantic Theater Company; Merrimack Repertory Theatre; Barrow Street Theatre; The Flying Machine; Cherry Lane; Epic Theatre Company; DR2 Kids Theatre; iTheatrics (national tours); Chautauqua Theatre Company; Dorset Theatre Festival; Tami Stronach Dance; Parsons Dance; The New Group including Rafta, Rafta…; and Soho Rep including Blasted. Her costumes were seen on Broadway in High Fidelity and The Lieutenant of Inishmore. |
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Joanne Zipay “Ms. Zipay has a passion and mastery of the text which is awe-inspiring.” – British Theatre Guide, 2002. As Founder and Artistic Director/Producer of Judith Shakespeare Company NYC, Ms. Zipay has served as Director/Dramaturg for over one-half of Shakespeare’s canon to-date, including the entire 10-play History Cycle; as well as Macbeth, which won a 1996 Off-Off-Broadway Review Award; and the acclaimed reverse-gender Julius Caesar, which was featured on national television’s Lifetime Live. Judith Shakespeare Company is dedicated to expanding the presence of women in Shakespeare performance, and also hosts the annual RESURGENCE play development series, which gives life to new plays written in verse and heightened language. Ms. Zipay began her career as an actress, with a BA in Education and Theatre from the State University of NY, and an MFA in classical acting from the University of San Diego. She has worked as a theatre artist, producer, and teacher for close to 30 years, for such companies as the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, Dallas Theatre Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, National Shakespeare Conservatory, Theatre for a New Audience NYC, Princeton Repertory Shakespeare Festival, Open Eye Theatre NY, Arts Alliance of the Lower Hudson Valley, NYC International Fringe Festival, and Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. She is a member of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA), which provided a special grant making it possible for her to travel to Virginia in the summer of 2007, where she served as “Master of Verse” on the Richmond Shakespeare Festival production of Henry 4 Part 1 at the historic Agecroft Hall. The Richmond Times-Dispatch said: “Joanne Zipay’s work as Master of Verse is obvious in the finely tuned diction and the beautiful rhythms of the poetry, which make the language shine throughout.” In 2008 she directed the Off-Broadway premiere of Elizabeth Rex by Timothy Findlay for Nicu’s Spoon Theatre, as well as the Pace University Theatre Department production of Macbeth in Schimmel Theatre Center NYC, Comedy of Errors for Collin College in Dallas TX, and Pericles at the Stella Adler Conservatory in NYC. She was invited to be a panel member at the 2002 International Dramaturgy Symposium at Mt. Holyoke College MA, and is a faculty member and director at both Pace University and Stella Adler Conservatory in Manhattan as well as Collin College in Dallas TX. She has designed and taught Arts-in-Education programming in the NYC schools as well as around the country throughout her career, and was recently commissioned to write a script for a living history project in upstate NY. Ms. Zipay is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society of America (SDC), teaches JSC’s Shakespeare Workshop for Actors, and coaches privately in NYC. |
Musical Theater and Dance Adjunct Faculty
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Janice Barringer Janice Barringer has danced professionally for over twenty years, performed for two U.S. Presidents, taught for most of the major dance conventions in the U.S. as well as in schools and companies around the world. She is internationally known as the author of “The Pointe Book” and “En Pointe” (published by Princeton Book Company, and writes extensively for all the dance magazines published in the U.S. Janice has produced numerous instructional ballet DVD's with accompanying CD’s. The 3rd edition of “The Pointe Book” will be on the shelves after the first of the year. In addition, she is producing a new ballet class CD with music from American composers, and is a guest lecturer at The Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington DC. |
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Jodie Bentley Jodie Bentley is an entrepreneur, career coach, teacher and professional actor in NYC. After graduating with a BFA in Acting from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts at the Stella Adler Conservatory, she discovered her other loves – sales and marketing. Jodie built her own highly successful sales and marketing company from the ground up. She cultivated years of experience in targeted branding, successful sales tactics, and outside-the-box marketing strategies. Her company laid the foundation for her success in the business of acting, and developing The Savvy Actor. The Savvy Actor is a national company that helps actors achieve their goals by teaching them to be smart business people. As an actor, Jodie has played leading roles in workshops of new musicals and plays at the York Theatre, New World Stages, The Workshop Theater and all over NYC. Some of her favorite regional roles include: Annie Get Your Gun (Annie Oakley), They’re Playing Our Song (Sonia), Sylvia (Sylvia), Prelude to a Kiss (Rita). She also works frequently in commercials, soaps, voiceovers and print. |
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Bob Cline Bob is founder of Bob Cline Casting in New York City. There he has helped to populate film, TV, commercials, over 50 national tours, and hundreds of regional theatre productions across the country He is presently directing Kiss and Tell for the Vital Theatre Company and Titanic for Montclaire Operetta Club. Other MOC credits include Side Show, the award winning, Showboat, and last season’s, Nunsense. His production of Crimes of the Heart has just closed at the Chatham playhouse, and he is looking forward to directing Das Barbecu for 4th Wall in the spring. Also this past year, Come Back to the Five and Dime… at Chatham Playhouse, Assasins for 4th Wall, and The Full Monty for Studio Players in Montclair. Other recent credits include Pippin, Into The Woods, To Kill A Mockingbird, A New Brain (PERRY award best director and production), Falsettos ( PERRY nomination best production), Violet (PERRY nom. Best director and production), Songs for a New World (PERRY nomination best director), Little Shop of Horrors, Is There Life After High School, and Godspell. At Pace, Bob teaches the Senior Audition Techniques class and his a proud faculty member in the BFA program at PACE University. |
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Joshua Dean Joshua Dean is a dancer, choreographer, aerialist, and Ohio University graduate. He has danced for the legendary Twyla Tharp and several NYC dance companies. His work as a choreographer and a performer has been seen in several regional theaters including Goodspeed Opera House, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, & The Old Globe. He is also a teacher of aerial arts for the Trapeze School New York and has performed aerial circus around the globe. Joshua is a member and co-founder of Suspended Cirque, NYC’s first aerial theater company. |
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Diane Dicroce Diane DiCroce is a professional actor/singer/dancer/director and teacher of Musical Theater Acting and Voice. Performing credits include Les Miserables (Broadway and National Tour), 42nd Street and My Fair Lady (USA, Canada, East Asia). As a working member of Actors’ Equity Association, Diane has spent the last 20 years performing many roles in Regional and Stock Theatre including: Penelope Pennywise in Urinetown, Cinderella in Into The Woods, Rizzo in Grease, Sister Robert Anne in Nunsense, Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof and many others. Directing credits include: My Way (Summerstock, Findlay, Ohio) and Songs for a New World (Seaside Music Theatre/UCF). Formerly an Assistant Professor of Musical Theater, teaching at the Graduate Level (Voice and Acting) for the University of Central Florida (in partnership with Seaside Music Theatre in Daytona, FL). Diane received her Master’s Degree in Musical Theatre from The Boston Conservatory in 1993 and holds a BA from the School of Communications at Penn State University. |
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Allison Easter Ms. Easter has taught modern dance at Pace University since 2006. She has been a guest teacher at many universities in the US and abroad, and was on the faculty at Marymount, and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College. Ms. Easter’s performing career spans modern dance, new music, musical theater, Off-Broadway, television, film and international touring. She has worked with Meredith Monk since the 1985 revival of Quarry, touring the US, Europe and Asia and appearing in 10 of her works. She can be heard on Ms Monk’s recordings, and received a Bessie Award for The Politics of Quiet. She revisited Quarry for the 2003 Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC performing and directing the chorus. In 2004 she produced Whose Country Is It, Anyway?, Ensemble Studio Theatre’s 9 day, 21 performance festival of political theater, for which she also choreographed and directed The War Piece (music by Meredith Monk and Maurice Ravel). She was the first American woman to appear in the Off-Broadway percussion sensation STOMP where she also served as Rehearsal Director, preparing the first two American touring companies. As an actor Ms Easter played “Vengeance” in Will Pomerantz’s A Tale of Two Cities, “Jerri Lewis” in Tony Zertuche’s Anchors, “Ms Porgy” in the feature film Vacuums, and “Anita Chambers” on Law & Order. She was featured in the Village Voice article “Breathtaking Performances” for her dancing with Susan Marshall and Company. Regionally, she has appeared at the Alley Theater (Houston), Actor’s Theater of Louisville, and at the Denver Center. She directed Pride and Soul for the NY Fringe Festival and choreographed Trojan Women at Pace University. |
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Mark Fifer Mark Fifer makes a living as a musical director, vocal coach, arranger/orchestrator and composer in New York City, balancing the worlds of pop/rock performance and musical theatre. As musical director/conductor (NYC/regional): Fame - the Musical (Macao, China edition), The Rocky Horror Show, The Who’s Tommy, Rent (regional premiere), Tits Fisher With Kitten’s Kiss, William Finn’s Elegies, Cabaret, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Factory Girls, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Bare, All Shook Up, Ragtime, Urinetown, Violet, West Side Story, and more. Recent concerts as MD include: Andrea Burns, Kimberly Stern, VP Boyle, Ric Ryder. His pop/rock transcriptions can be found in hundreds of audition books in NYC, LA, and beyond. Mark has served as Staff Music Director for Pace University’s BFA Musical Theatre program since 2004, and is a guest lecturer at the Stella Adler Studio and NYFA. Previously, Mark was on music faculty at Jacksonville State University. He and his wife Bess, a casting director, reside in Manhattan. |
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Lauren Gaul Lauren Gaul has been a Radio City Rockette for ten years. She has performed at the world famous Radio City Music Hall as well as toured all over the country. She received her Bachelor’s in dance from OCU and her MFA in dance performance and teaching from Purchase College SUNY. She is an adjunct Professor at Pace University in Manhattan in the BA dance program, and has taught for other universities like OCU, McComb College, and Purchase College SUNY. She was named Artist in Residence at the New York School for the Deaf where she helped create a dance curriculum for their school and taught for their summer program. She has choreographed industrials for Lady Footlocker, Sesame Street, and IZOD. She worked as an assistant choreographer on shows for Princess Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruise Lines, Maine State Musical Theater, the Down Town Theater Festival and many more. Her choreography has been featured at Jacob’s Pillow, Jazz Dance World Congress, and Broadway Dance Center Performance outlet. She is sought after as a dance educator having taught for conventions, competitions, studios, schools, and organizations all over the country and Canada. |
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Leslie Giammanco Leslie Giammanco is a voice teacher who specializes in musical theatre and classical techniques. Her Broadway, concert, operatic and cabaret credits include: Broadway/National Tours The Phantom of the Opera, Manhattan Philharmonic (Carnegie Hall) Minnesota Orchestra, Rochester Symphony, Duluth Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Bach Society, New Jersey State Opera, Minnesota Opera, Opera St. Paul, Steinway Hall, The Duplex, Judy’s Chelsea, Danny’s Skylight and nationally. Leslie’s been teaching voice at Pace’s Musical Theater program since 2007 and maintains private studios in NYC and Maine. Former teaching credits include NYU, Tisch School of the Arts, CAP21; The Hartt School, The University of Hartford; Adelphi University. Leslie received her BM from The University of Southern California and MM from Northwestern University. Opera awards include: The Metropolitan Opera, American Opera, Illinois Opera Guild, and San Francisco Opera Auditions. She is an active adjudicator and presenter of master-classes and clinics on musical theater and educational vocal programs throughout the United States. Member of NYSTA, NATS, AEA, and AGMA. Solo CD “Let My Song Fill Your Heart”. Owner of DivaGrams Entertainment in New York City. |
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Mary Kate Law Broadway credits include the latest revival of Inherit the Wind (onstage Gospel Quartet and Hillsboro-ian) with Christopher Plummer and Brian Dennehy; Sister Berthe in the revival of The Sound of Music with Rebecca Luker and Richard Chamberlain; Schotzi in Starmites (including a performance on the Tony Awards); and ENCORES productions of the first Broadway Bash following 9/11 and Bloomer Girl. Regional: NMTC at the O’Neill; Harrisburg Opera; Florida Studio Theatre: Vineyard Playhouse; Virginia Opera: Santa Fe Opera & Tanglewood. Film & TV: Down to Earth; Silent Fall & Law and Order. Ms. Law graduated with a performance degree from Wichita State University and received her MM from Yale University School of Music where she studied with Phyllis Curtin. In NYC Ms. Law studied with noted NYC voice teacher Joan Caplan. Formerly on faculty at Yale School of Drama, she currently teaches at CAP 21 and in the Musical Theater Program at here at Pace University. She enjoys living in the Village with her husband and young daughter. |
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Stephanie Layton Stephanie Layton is a pianist and graphic designer in New York City. Design credits include: The Approval Matrix (Bravo), Gossip Cop (TVGuide), The Battery’s Down (web series), Dirty Sugar Photography, and marketing projects for countless Broadway professionals and musicians signed to major record labels. Music credits: The Big Holiday Broadcast of 1959 (w/ Kelli O’Hara, Joanna Gleason, Chris Sarandon) at the Fairfield Theatre Company, Fame (Macau, China), nine national tours for TheatreworksUSA and AEG Themestar, Flanagan’s Wake (Soho Playhouse), Piaf: Love Conquers All (NY Fringe Festival), Cabaret, She Loves Me, The Who’s Tommy (all at Pace), and steady accompanist work with the NY Film Academy, Stage Door Connections, Actor’s Connection, and various casting offices. She also performs regularly as a vocalist with her swing band The Tickled Pinks, and was a faculty vocal coach at Music Theatre Bavaria in Germany this past summer. Stephanie holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from the University of Michigan. |
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Jen Littlefield Jen Littlefield began dancing in Colorado and continued her training in Los Angeles and Chicago, where she received her BA in Anthropology from the University of Chicago. During her time at the University of Chicago, she performed in, co-created, and directed multiple dance shows, and choreographed musicals for the University Theater Department. She was also a member of the Student Fine Arts fund, a grant committee that promoted student works on campus. Recent choreography projects in and around New York include: the new musical Eat, Drink, and be Merry (NY Fringe Festival), South Pacific (Maine), Carousel and Our Urban Jungle: A Benefit for ASTEP (Pace University), and the spring Jazz Choreography Enterprises benefit show. Associate and assistant choreography to Rhonda Miller: All Shook Up (Pace), Austentatious, Gemini: the Musical, and Common Grounds (NYMF), Nothing Like a Dame (also a performer) and Broadway Bares ’07 & ’08 (BC/EFA). Other credits include a commercial for Berkshire Bank, the music video for Sofia Strati’s single, This Can’t Be Love, and KTU’s Disco Ball in Atlantic City, where she performed with Bonnie Pointer, Carol Douglas, Tavares, Machine, and the Sugar Hill Gang. |
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Melissa Rae Mahon Melissa Rae Mahonis a multi-talented performer with a diverse career as an actress, dancer, singer, director, choreographer, costume designer, lighting designer, stage manager, and most importantly educator. She performs nightly in the hit Broadway revival of Chicago: The Musical having performed every female role including Roxie and Velma. Other Broadway: The Producers, 42nd Street, Cats, The Sound of Music. Additionally she has appeared in a dozen national commercials. Her choreography has been seen on the NBC’s The Today Show Halloween Special, The Astaire and Rogers film compilation, Broadway Bares, Dance Austria! premier at Lincoln Center 2010, and many special events on Broadway including Gypsy of the Year and the Easter Bonnet Competition. Melissa has received critical acclaim for her own performances as well as her creative endeavors as a director/choreographer. Melissa is also a member of IDEALab, a ground-breaking NYC based think tank, with a team of cross-discipline gurus each representing a different marketing or design discipline. Ms. Mahon has vast experience in production, and financial management of complex artistic projects and she is a skilled fundraiser, communicator, and innovator. |
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Ryan Scott Oliver Ryan Scott Oliver is currently writing the score for Disney Theatrical’s stage musical Freaky Friday, directed by Memphis’s Christopher Ashley. 2011 Lortel Award Nominee, 2009 Jonathan Larson Grant Recipient, 2008 Rodgers Award Winner. Music and lyrics for 35mm (directed by Daisy Prince), Darling (featured on NBC’s The Apprentice), Mrs. Sharp (Playwrights Horizons July 2009 starring Jane Krakowski, dir. by Michael Greif), Out of My Head, and the 2010 Writer’s Guild East Awards; a collection of his work, Rated RSO, played the Kennedy Center, Joe’s Pub, New York Musical Theatre Festival; Off-Broadway and elsewhere: TheatreWorksUSA’s We the People, Rosie O’Donnell’s Theater Kids, and cabarets worldwide. Upcoming commissions include Jasper in Deadland (for Pasadena Musical Theatre Program)and The Frog Prince, Cont. (with Chicago’s Emerald City Youth Theatre). Songbook now available: Music+Lyrics by Ryan Scott Oliver: Volume 1. More at www.ryanscottoliver.com. |
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Alisa Paradowski Alisa Paradowski was born and raised in Houston where she graduated from Sam Houston State University with a B.F.A. in Performing Arts. Now living in New York City working as a professional dancer and choreographer, she is an adjunct professor at Pace University teaching tap and hiphop. She has worked with artists such as Taylor Swift, Ne-yo, Le Ann Rimes, Freddie Prince Jr., and Clay Walker. She has choreographed flashmobs for Wells Fargo and Microsoft Office and been in commercials for XBOX, Nike, Footlocker, and Ford. She has taught for Joffrey Ballet School, DNA, and you can find her performing throughout the city with the tap company CPD Plus under the direction of Andrew Nemr. |
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Mike Schulster Michael Schulster graduated from NYU Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in 2001, and has taught and choreographed all over the world at workshops, conventions and Master Classes. He is the creator of the Revolution Tap method () whose goal is to grow tap dance programs and certify teachers to make tap dance accessible to all. Gregory Hines called Michael “The next generation of tap”. He is also the creator/choreographer of the Rock n’ Roll Dance show REVOLUTION. Combining Tap, and Irish dance with a live rock band, the show will prove to redefine the scope of dance and theater. Also, he has performed with Gregory Hines, Brenda Bufalino, and Barbara Duffy, as well as studied with Savion Glover and Buster Brown. Michael toured Europe as a soloist in the show ‘Fire of Dance’. At just 15 Michael was offered a contract in the off-Broadway hit ‘Tap Dogs’. He has performed at the international “Goodwill Games” as well as the 2000 NBA playoffs at Madison Square Garden. In addition, he has done choreography for Hilton Hotels, American Express, and Showtime Cable Network. Michael Can be seen in E*Trade’s Superbowl commercial campaign, entitled “I Wanna Dance”. |
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Mark Shanahan As an actor, Mark Shanahan was a member of the Broadway company of The 39 Steps (American Airlines and Cort Theatre), performed in the critically acclaimed Off Broadway revival of Tryst at The Irish Repertory Theatre, and was a member of the Off Broadway company of the long running hit, As Bees In Honey Drown (Lucille Lortel Theatre). Further New York Stage credits include Philadelphia, Here I Come! (Roundabout); The Shaughraun (Irish Rep), The Internationalist (13 Plawrights/45 Bleecker and Fairfield Theatre Company); The Appearance Of Impropriety (Judith Anderson); Madame Killer and Demon Baby (Ohio Theatre); and The Downwinders (Soho Rep) and many more. Regionally, he has appeared extensively at The Alley Theatre in such productions as Journey's End and Hitchcock Blonde (directed by Gregory Boyd) and The Westport Country Playhouse, notably in David Copperfield (directed by Joanne Woodward and Anne Keefe), Sedition and in Around The World In Eighty Days and Tryst, both of which garnered him Connecticut Critic’s Circle nominations for Outstanding Performance By a Lead Actor. Additionally he has appeared at Hartford Theatreworks, The Bay Street Theatre (directed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge), Pioneer Theatre, The Fulton Opera House, Merrimack Rep, The Denver Center, The Kennedy Center and others. Mark has been seen on television on David Letterman and All My Children, and in the films Safe Men, Bug, Kinsey Three, Endsville, Mad About Harry, The Face and Yellow. Mark is an Associate Artist of the Obie Award-winning Clubbed Thumb Theatre Company. As a director his work has been seen on such stages as The Alley Theatre, Fulton Opera House, The Cape Playhouse, The Depot Theatre, Westport Country Playhouse and Penguin Rep. He is an Edger nominated Playwright and award winning voice over artist. Mark is a graduate of Brown University and holds an MA from Fordham University. |
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Andrew Smithson Andrew Smithson is a music director, vocal coach, pianist, composer and arranger based in New York City. He has served as Music Director for regional productions of Ain’t Misbehavin’, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrel’s, Swing!, and The Producers. He was pianist for the Off-Broadway show Flanagan’s Wake. On tour, he served as Conductor for Gypsy, and Keyboardist for Aida (China) and Jesus Christ Superstar (starring Ted Nealy). Andrew was Music Director and Orchestrator for POPart: the musical in the 2010 NYMF Festival, and Ocean In A Teacup in the 2011 Midtown International Theater Festival. Before moving to NYC, Andrew was an adjunct instructor at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in the Musical Theater Department. |
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Aimee Steele received her BA in Music/Vocal Performance from Eastman School of Music and a Master of Music in Vocal Pedagogy from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is also a graduate of the Maggie Flannigan Acting Studio where she studied the Meisner technique. Aimée is an accomplished performer who has won first place in the Marlin-Engel, Neva Greenwood and the James A. Bland competitions. She has been a finalist and prizewinner in the National Association of Teachers of Singing as well as a finalist in the National Opera Association Competition. Aimée has been heard live on WSCL 97.5 Classical Radio in multiple performances for Celebration of the Arts concerts and has performed at the Washington National Cathedral and the Kennedy Center. Aimée’s years in Europe consisted of a touring production of Suor Angelica, singing the role of Suor Genevieve and in Austria she sang the role of Jenny in The Three Penny Opera by Kurt Weill. On her return to NYC, Aimée turned her focus to musical theater, cabaret and pop. Favorite musical theater roles include Maria in West Side Story with Rising Star Productions and the role of Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls. Aimee is now a dedicated teacher in New York City, where she is a Voice Instructor at Pace University and an Adjunct Voice Professor at NYU/Tisch, The New Studio on Broadway. Previously, she was an associate voice teacher with Liz Caplan Vocal Studios. She is a member of AEA, AFTRA and SAG as well as the New York Singing Teachers’ Association. |
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Robert Sussuma Robert Sussuma, MMus., Voice Teacher, draws on his expertise in Voice Performance, Estill Voicecraft and The Feldenkrais Method to tailor voice lessons to the needs of each student. His lessons focus on physical alignment and ease, self-awareness and vocal versatility, health and stamina-- aiming to build flexible minds as well as flexible voices! The greatest obstacle between us and great(er) singing is a lack of awareness--we just do not know (in any accurate sense) what we are doing! When you know what you are doing you can do what you want! Robert is a Certified Master Teacher and Course Instructor of Estill Voice Training and a Certified Teacher of Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement Lessons. He has performed as a Counter-tenor throughout the United States and Europe singing Early as well as Modern Classical Music. |
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JoAnn Yeoman Tongret JoAnn has performed and choreographed in theaters throughout the country including New York’s Lincoln Center, Playwrights’ Horizon, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Cincinnati Conservatory’s Hot Summer Nights and for the Royal Viking Cruise Ship Lines. She has worked with such personalities as Michael Bennett, Jamie Hammerstein, Shirley Jones, and Buddy Ebson. Her musical theater production, No Legs, tours to school districts and presents a “living history” of the American Musical Theatre. StarCloud Press recently published her book, Dream Dealer. Her musical A Little Mischief was produced in October, 2008 by TheaterWorks and her one-act And Lead Us Not Into Penn Station was accepted by the Albee Last Frontier Theater Conference Festival in Valdez, Alaska. Most recently she is directing in the cabaret sphere and her newest, History/Herstory, will be previewing at Urban Stages with a run at the Laurie Beechman in Spring of 2012. She is also currently attending the BMI workshop as a lyricist and is a member of Actors Equity, Society of Directors/Choreographers, and The Dramatists Guild. |
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Marishka Wierzbicki Marishka Wierzbicki has performed 18 principal roles in opera, operetta, and musicals in the US and abroad. She has been teaching voice for 23 years in the United States and abroad, including a private voice studio in Vienna. Her students have performed in numerous principal roles on Broadway, national tours, and international tours. She has been on the faculty of The Hartt School, C.A.P. 21, Conservatory of Performing Arts, Vienna, Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts Center, Manhattan School of Music Summer Voice Festival, and Intermezzo Young Artist Program in Brugge, Belgium, Portland, Maine, and Edinburgh, Scotland. Related disciplines include: dance with the Robert Joffrey ballet, and training in Linklater, Alexander, and Feldenkreis techniques. A composition student of Virgil Thomson, she wrote the musical score for “John Brown’s Body” by Benet. She holds a B.F.A. in Music and Theatre from Carnegie-Mellon University and M.M. from New England Conservatory of Music. Marishka is proud to be a coal miner’s daughter from West Virginia. |
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David Wolfson David Wolfson has worked as music director, composer, orchestrator, arranger, pianist, copyist or synthesizer programmer for performances in venues ranging from Broadway theatres to elementary school cafetoriums. He has served as music director and arranger for numerous regional and Off-Broadway productions, and has played in the pits of over twenty-five Broadway shows, including Les Mis, Miss Saigon, Mary Poppins, Thoroughly Modern Millie and Young Frankenstein. |
