We are so excited to share this alphabetical listing of TheatreFest 2016’s twenty-one Special Guest Artists with their bios! Special thanks to Gary Cooper, Cindy Sorelle, Roxanne Schroeder-Arce, and Joan Lazarus, along with the College University (C/U) Committee chaired by Mike Burnett, PlayFest Committee chaired by David LeMaster, and DesignFest Committee chaired by John Landon for their hard work and dedication in connecting these experts to TETA. We are looking forward to the opportunity to convene in Dallas this year where these incredible guest artists are sure to inspire and empower us to Dream Big! Make Magic! And Make a Difference!
See you in a workshop in January!
Best regards,
Jackie
Jackie deMontmollin
TheatreFest 2016 Special Guest Committee Chair
BARRY BUSBY is the Associate Broadway Choreographer to Denis Jones. Associate Credits include: Honeymoon in Vegas (Broadway/Asst. Chor.) Dallas Theatre Center’s Pre-Broadway run of Moonshine: That Hee Haw Musical, Pre-Broadway run of Holiday Inn (Goodspeed), Piece of My Heart (Off-Broadway Signature NYC), Johnny Baseball (Williamstown), White Christmas (Zach Scott Theatre), Thoroughly Modern Millie (Papermill), My Fair Lady (International tour-Singapore), Chicago, Grease, Spamalot (MUNY), Disaster! (Triad NYC), Legally Blonde (NCT), Workshops: Moonshine, Holiday Inn, Sugar Babies. Performing credits include: Broadway’s Honeymoon in Vegas (Dance Capt.), 1st National Tour/Detroit productions of White Christmas, Chicago, Buddy!, Oklahoma! w/Kelli O’Hara, Swing!, Urinetown, Hairspray, Meet me in St. Louis, Hello Dolly! w/Rachel York. Upcoming: Barry returns to Broadway with Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn! Barry is proud to be a native Texan!
Workshop:
Musical Theatre Choreography
A workshop that will explore how to create choreography for a wide range of skill sets while telling the story through the movement.
KEN CERNIGLIA is joining us to talk not only about his work in professional theatre but also about his important initiative to preserve the archives of our American theatres, and you will want to meet this person who has done so much for audiences of all ages. He is Dramaturg and Literary Manager for Disney Theatrical Group in New York City, where since 2003 he has developed over fifty shows for professional, amateur, and school productions, including The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Tarzan, Beauty and the Beast jr., and The Lion King Kids. For Disney Editions, he edited Newsies: Stories of The Unlikely Broadway Hit and Peter and the Starcatcher: The Annotated Script of the Broadway Play.
In addition to his Disney catalog, Ken’s recent freelance dramaturgy projects include Oliverio: a Brazilian Twist on Dickens (Kennedy Center), Bridges (Berkeley Playhouse) and Hadestown (New York Theatre Workshop). Ken is also resident dramaturg for Seattle’s Fisher Ensemble, artistic director of Two Turns Theatre Company, co-founder of the American Theatre Archive Project, and President-Elect of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA). He holds a Ph.D. in theater history and criticism from the University of Washington and presents and publishes his scholarship internationally. FYI, his name is pronounced “chairneelia.” Welcome to Texas, Ken!
Workshops
Exercising Artistic Vision While Honoring Copyright
Learn how to get the most out of your cast & production while respecting the intentions of your show's authors.
Behind the Scenes with Disney Theatricals
Ever wondered how a show gets from idea to the Broadway stage? Come get the scoop from an "inside man"!
Rena Cook is the Wick Carey Endowed Professor in the Arts at the University Of Oklahoma Peggy Dow Helmerich School Of Drama where she teaches voice, speech and dialects. She also teaches Directing at the University of Houston on their Summer MA for Theatre Educators. In her 20 year career, she has served as voice and dialect coach for over one hundred shows including Cosi, The Real Thing, The Beauty Queen of Leenane and Richard Ill. She has conducted the voice master class for the national Irene Ryan Finalists at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival in Washington, D.C. Rena holds an MA in Voice Studies fmm the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, an MFA in directing from the University of Oklahoma. She is the author of two books: Breath in Action which she co-authored with Jane Boston and Voice and the Young Actor which is widely used in high schools throughout the country. She has taught at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and at Central School in London. Her voice workshops are favorites at Thespian Conferences throughout the US and UK.
Workshop
Voice in Action
Play your way to a more expressive voice with toys to illustrate essential aspects of voice work that underpins all of acting.
Robin Flatt co-founded Dallas Children’s Theatre in 1984. As a member of the DALLAS THEATRE CENTER Resident Company, she served as Assistant Artistic Director of MIMEACT, THEATRE-In-The-Parks and was on the Graduate Faculty for 24 years. She holds an MA Degree from Baylor University and her directing credits include many of the major titles in the youth theatre canon and well as acclaimed world premiere productions commissioned by DCT. Ms. FLatt is the recipient of the Center for Nonprofit Management Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Leadership, the 500 Inc.’s prestigious Ken Bryant Visionary Award, Dallas Historical Society’s Excellence in Community Service for Creative Arts, and the YWCA Centennial Award. She served on the Boards of AATE and ASSITE/USA, had been inducted into the College Fellows of American Theatre, and served as treasurer for the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America from 1999-2014.
Workshop:
Dallas Children’s Theatre: From Fledgling Start up to National Leader
Follow DCT’s journey from its initial $500 launch to $4M budget, its home facility, professional season, DCT Tours and Academy.
Developing Latino/a plays
Robyn will discuss working with playwrights to develop new Latino/a plays at the Dallas Children’s Theatre.
A Special Gift for DCT for our members:
Dallas Children’s Theatre is generously granting a member discount to
Dallas Theatre Center’s “A Year with Frog and Toad”! Members simply need to call the box office and mention that they are a TETA member and they will receive a special discount of $23 per ticket for Section A and $15 per ticket for Section B. That is 30% off of the regular price!
Note: Members will need to purchase in advance to get this discount. For more info on this title visit:
http://www.dct.org/subscribers/
Anne Fletcher, Professor, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, is the author of Rediscovering Mordecai Gorelik: Scene Design and the American Theatre, co-author with Scott Irelan of The Process of Dramaturgy and Experiencing Theatre, and an upcoming volume on American Playwrights of the 1930’s (eds. Murphy and Listengarten). Forthcoming chapters appear in Women, Collective Creation and Devised Performance (eds. Proudfit and Syossoyeva); Bloomsbury Anthology on American Tragedy (ed. Palmer); Experiments in Democracy (with Cheryl Black, eds. Black and Shandell); Arts Integration in Education, with Seymour Simmons (eds. Mardirosian and Lewis). She served as a Book Review Editor for Theatre Topics, is an MATC Fellow,chaired ATHE’s book award committee, and served on ASTR’s Oscar G. Brockett essay award committee. Winner of the SIUC College and University Distinguished Teacher Awards, CORE Instructor Award, Winthrop University Phi Kappa Phi Teaching Award, honored for innovative teaching by Region III KC-ACTF, she has extensive experience in theatre pedagogy.
C/U Academic Symposium Keynote Speaker
Workshop:
Meeting the students where they are: Creating Meaningful In-Class Exercises
Based on their interests, participants will be guided to create constructivist, multiple intelligence-based, interactive in-class exercises.
We are in for a fabulous time with Texas native GARY GARRISON, who is Executive Director of the Dramatists Guild of America, the national organization for playwrights, lyricists, and composers headed by our most honored dramatists. Prior to Gary’s work for the Guild, this accomplished playwright served as Artistic Director/Producer/fulltime faculty member at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts-Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing. AT NYU, Gary produced more than 45 festivals of new work in collaboration with literally hundreds of playwrights, actors, and directors. Many of you know him as the author of some of the best playwriting books for students at the graduate, undergraduate and even high school level, and his collection of short plays, Verticals and Horizontals, was published in 2014.
Gary is the best-known short-play authority and festival adjudicator in the US and is known to universities as the leading critic respondent both at ATHE’s yearly conference short-play festival and the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. In 2014, the Kennedy Center honored him by instituting the “National Gary Garrison Ten-minute Play Award” given to the best ten-minute play written by a dramatist each year. Gary is truly a Master Teacher in every way. Welcome home, Gary!
Workshop
Survival Skills for the Playwright
What does it mean to be a playwright in this day and age? Survival skills for exactly that.
Kelsey Kling is the curriculum coordinator for fine arts at Texas Education Agency (TEA), an active adjudicator with TTAO, and an actor and director in Austin. A passionate arts advocate, she has served on several non-profit boards that seek to promote and recognize theatre as well as theatre education and outreach. She holds a BFA and MA in Theatre.
Workshop:
State of the Arts: Updates on HB 5
Get updated on education law and rule that affect fine arts programming and advocacy in our state.
KAREN KOHLHAAS is a cofounder of the Atlantic Theatre Company. Karen has directed many Atlantic mainstages as well as for the New York Shakespeare/Public Theatre, ARS Nova, St. Luke’s Theatre, Naked Angels, Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York Live Arts, IRT, Culture Project, Alley Theatre Houston, Menagerie Theatre Cambridge, UK and the Practical Theatre in Sydney. Karen is a Senior Teacher in Atlantic’s NYU and Conservatory programs, and teaches her own advanced acting, directing, monologue and audition classes. She guest teaches in the UK and internationally and is developing teacher training programs for her monologue technique. She’s the author/creator of three books and a DVD on her unique approach to rehearsing monologue auditions, including a teacher’s manual. Her website www.art-and-audition.com. She is currently directing a documentary, “Tennessee Williams in the Mississippi Delta: The Love of Things Irreconcilable” (www.TennWmsDelta.com)
Workshop:
Fearless Audition Technique: How to Enter the Audition Room
Working with participants Karen will show how to consistently handle audition room entrances (and exits!) with confidence and ease.
Directing the Monologue: How Actors Can Self-Stage
From her book THE MONOLOGUE AUDITION, Karen shows how actors can use directing principles to create specific, fun monologue staging.
Bob Lavalle: Scenic Designer/Television Production Designer, Bob has designed for Dallas Theater Center; nine productions and will be designing their upcoming production of Dreams Girls, the Fort Worth Opera; Three Decembers, five years as Resident Designer for UNT School of Opera, Trinity Shakespeare Festival, Dallas Children’s Theatre, Casa Manana Theater; Resident Designer five and half years designing over 70 productions, Amphibian Stage, Zack Theatre, Shakespeare Dallas, African American Repertory Theater of Dallas, Cara Mia Theater, Four time Guest Artist Designer at the University of Oklahoma School of Drama recently Rocky Horror, Art Director five years University of Oklahoma Commencement Ceremonies. Television Production Designer; fourteen years PBS’ Barney and Friends; Production Designer; 50 hour long Home Videos for Hit Entertainment. Senior Designer; three years at Peter Wolf’s Dallas, Texas.., Feature Film Production Design includes Searching for Sony, Barney’s Night Before Christmas the Movie and The Land of Make Believe.
Workshops:
Set Designs for Theater
A Visual presentation on Live Theater Set Designs, Process and Productions.
Initial Design Ideas to Final Production.
Television Production Design
A Visual presentation on Television Production Designs, Issues and Concerns of Designing for Four Camera Video.
David Lozano serves as the Executive Artistic Director of Cara Mía Theatre Co. and specializes in writing, directing and producing original bilingual plays for the Latino community in North Texas. Notable mainstage productions include To DIE:GO in Leaves, by Frida Kahlo (devised by Cara Mía’s artistic ensemble), Nuestra Pastorela (co-written with Jeffry Farrell), and The Dreamers: A Bloodline (devised by Cara Mía). The Dreamers: A Bloodline, the first in a trilogy on immigration, was named the “Best New Play of 2013 by Local Writers” by TheatreJones.Com. David is currently co-writing Deferred Action, the second installment of the trilogy with Lee Trull for a Cara Mía co-production with the Dallas Theater Center, set to premiere at the Wyly Theatre in April 2016.
Workshop
Fundamentals of Performing with Theater Masks
Cara Mia, Executive Artistic Director, and ensemble member, Frida Espinosa Muller, will demonstrate the fundamental techniques for supporting theater masks with the body, voice, and breathe.
College/University (C/U) Special Guest
Mark PaladiniMark Paladini has been casting in New York and Los Angeles since 1987. His casting credits include the feature film Closing the Ring for director Richard Attenborough (Shirley MacLaine, Christopher Plummer, Pete Postlethwaite, Brenda Fricker, Mischa Barton, Neve Campbell) which enjoyed a gala premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Additional feature film credits: New Line Cinema’s The Mask, Mortal Kombat, Mr. Nanny, and Disney's Spy Hard. Representative television credits:Beverly Hills, 90210, Babylon 5 and The New WKRP in Cincinnati Off-Broadway:The Property Known as Garland. Mark is co-executive producer of three motion pictures. Mark's theatre directing credits include the New York premieres of Everyone Will Be a Talk Show Host for Fifteen Minutes and Shake, Rattle and Kill. Mark studied with Uta Hagen in New York for three years after receiving his BA in Drama from the University of Washington in Seattle. Mark performed professionally in film, television, Equity summer stock, dinner theatre and Shakespeare in the Park prior to his casting career. Before leaving New York, Mark directed commercial auditions for two years at Three of Us Studios where he studied commercial acting with Joan See. Mark lives with his wife and two children in Virginia Beach during the school year and continues his professional work in Los Angeles during the summer. He’s currently a casting consultant for independent feature films throughout the year. For the past four summers, Mark has sat on a blue ribbon panel for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences to decide upon Emmy winners in several categories. Mark’s professional memberships include Actors' Equity Association, the Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the Casting Society of American, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and the Southeastern Theatre Conference.
Workshops
Casting for Film and TV-An Overview for Actors
CSA Member explains the job of the casting director to help actors understand the person behind the gate keeper.
The iPhone Scene Prep
Combining Uta Hagen’s fourth wall exercise with Practical Aesthetics, teachers will learn a new tool for students to personally connect to a scene.
JULIA PERLOWSKI is a member National Teacher Corps for the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. Her training in teaching the works of Shakespeare and other literatures in dynamic ways stems from a National Endowment of Humanities grant received in the summer of 2006, which enabled her to train at the Folger for a month with instructors and scholars from all over the country. She received a fellowship to the GLOBE in 2008 where her skills were strengthened. Julia currently presents Shakespeare workshops for the Folger at the National Council Teachers of English, the American Alliance for Theatre Educators, the Florida Association for Theatre Educators annual conference as well as to teachers in Gujarat India, Karakow, Stockholm and St. Lucia. In 2010, Julia received the Reba R. Robinson Award from the Children’s Theatre Foundation in partnership with the American Alliance of Theatre and Education. Given biennially, this prize recognizes a secondary school teacher for outstanding achievement in, and commitment to, teen theatre.
Julia has been a Drama, Reading and English instructor at Pompano Beach High School in South Florida for the past 10 years and is currently Director of Theatre Programs at Parthum Middle School in Lawrence, Massachusetts where she is contributing to a successful experiment in education reform under Receiver Jeffrey Riley.
Workshop:
Image Theatre as a tool for Actors and Directors
In this session, participants learn to use theatre games to connect students’ and actors’ lives the lives of characters in dramatic text. We will also learn how to harness the tools of Boal-based Image Theatre to deepen understanding of dramatic text.
THERESA REBECK is a widely produced playwright throughout the United States and abroad. New York productions of her work include Dead Accounts at the Music Box Theatre; Seminar at the Golden Theatre; Mauritius at the Biltmore Theatre in a Manhattan Theater Club Production; The Scene, The Water’s Edge, Loose Knit, The Family of Mann and Spike Heels at Second Stage; Bad Dates, The Butterfly Collection and Our House at Playwrights Horizons; The Understudy at the Laura Pels Theater in a Roundabout Theatre Company production; and View of the Dome at New York Theatre Workshop. Omnium Gatherum (co-written, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2003) was featured at the Humana Festival, and had a commercial run at the Variety Arts Theatre. Her newest work, Poor Behavior premiered at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in 2011. Dead Accounts, commissioned by the Cincinnati Playhouse, premiered January 2012. Seminar continues to run on Broadway.In television, Ms. Rebeck has written for Dream On, Brooklyn Bridge, L.A. Law, American Dreamer, Maximum Bob, First Wave, and Third Watch. She was the creator of the NBC drama Smash. She has been a writer/producer for Canterbury’s Law, Smith, Law and Order:Criminal Intent and NYPD Blue. Her produced feature films include Harriet the Spy, Gossip, and the independent features Sunday on the Rocks andSeducing Charlie Barker, an adaptation of her play, The Scene. Awards include the Mystery Writer’s of America’s Edgar Award, the Writer’s Guild of America award for Episodic Drama, the Hispanic Images Imagen Award, and the Peabody, all for her work on NYPD Blue. She has won the National Theatre Conference Award (for The Family of Mann), and was awarded the William Inge New Voices Playwriting Award in 2003 for The Bells. Mauritius was originally produced at Boston’s Huntington Theatre, where it received the 2007 IRNE Award for Best New Play as well as the Eliot Norton Award. She has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize (Ominium Gatherum, co-written). Other awards include the PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award, the Athena Film Festival Award, an Alex Award, a Lilly Award and in 2011 she was named one of the 150 Fearless Women in the World by Newsweek. Ms. Rebeck is originally from Cincinnati and holds an MFA in Playwrighting and a PhD. in Victorian Melodrama, both from Brandeis University. She is a proud board member of the Dramatists Guild, a Contributing Editor to the Harvard Review, an Associate Artist of the Roundabout Theatre Company, a Playwright Adviser and Board Member of the LARK and and has taught at Brandeis University and Columbia University. She is currently a Distinguished Professor of Theatre at The University of Houston, School of Theatre & Dance.
Workshop:
Interview and Q & A with Theresa Rebeck
Ms. Rebeck will share her knowledge of the industry, interviewed by Dr. Robert Shimko of The University of Houston. The floor will be opened at the end of each session for questions from members.
ALVARO SAAR RIOS’ plays have been performed in New York City, Hawaii, Milwaukee, and all over Texas. His recent play Luchadora! Received its world premiere at First Stage (WI) and is published by Dramatic Publishing. Other plays include Seguin: Unsung Texican Hero, Bienvenidos a Milwaukee/Welcome to Milwaukee, and The Mole Hill Stories, a bilingual adaptation of Lois Ehlert’s children’s books. Rios holds an MFA in Writing for the Stage and Screen from Northwestern University. He has received commissions from many theatres including Houston Grand Opera, First Stage, The Alley Theatre, and Honolulu Theatre for Youth. Originally from Texas, Rios currently lives in Milwaukee and is an Assistant Professor of Playwriting at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Workshop:
Adapting a Folktake into a play
Learn how to adapt a play from a folktale. No playwriting experience is necessary.
Joseph Robinette is a Tony Award nominee and Drama Desk Award nominee for the libretto of the acclaimed A Christmas Story, the Musical. He is the author or co-author of 55 published plays and musicals. His works have been produced at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre,Madison Square Garden Theatre and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York,the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle,the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, the BBC in Britain,in all SO states and in 21 foreign countries.Twelve of his works have been translated into foreign languages,and another five have been anthologized. Robinette collaborated with E.B. White on the authorized stage version of Charlotte's Web, and he wrote the musical version with Charles Strouse (Annie and Bye, Bye, Birdie). Other dramatizations include The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Anne of Green Gables and Debbie Macomber's A Gift To Last and The Inn at Rose Harbor. He is the recipient of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education's Distinguished Play Award for Sarah, Plain and Tall and the Children's Theatre Foundation of America medallion for his "body of dramatic works for family audiences in the United States and beyond."
Since 1993, Lisa Schmidt has designed and taught theater, dance, storytelling and creative writing workshops for Big Thought. Named National Young Audiences Staff Member of the Year in 2001 for her program design, Lisa was nominated for a 1999 Herb Albert Award for her work on Creative Solutions, a theater job skills training program for youth on probation which received the President’s Committee on Arts and Humanities Coming Up Taller award in 1994. As Director of Big Thought’s Center of Excellence, Lisa recruits and trains novice teaching artists while continuing her work in program design. Lisa is also a professional actress and director, receiving numerous Dallas Critics Forum awards, and since 2010 has directed an annual musical theater production created by a cast of 35 adults with intellectual disabilities. Lisa graduated with honors from Southern Methodist University with a BFA in theater, and guest lectures at SMU on teaching artistry.
BIG Thought Dallas is a non-profit 501c3 organization whose mission is to make imagination a part of everyday learning. BIG Thought’s Vision: We envision communities where every learner is immersed every day in opportunities to imagine, create and succeed.Curiosity. Collaboration. Problem-solving. Resilience. In the 21st century, kids need these skills more than ever, and Big Thought can develop them. At Big Thought, our approach to innovative learning combines core academics with community resources to help develop the capacities our young people need to thrive. Big Thought is one of the most respected education nonprofits in the country. Big Thought and its leaders have been recognized by two different U.S. presidential administrations – Champion of Change and Coming Up Taller Award for innovative programming – at costs that are well below the national average. For more information about BIG thought please visit their website at http://www.bigthought.org
Workshops:
Theatre Games for Social Emotional Learning On-your-feet fast-paced workshop led by Big Thought’s Lisa Schmidt models the integration of Social Emotional Learning into theater games.
Theatre with Special Needs Teens
Lisa Schmidt of Big Thought will share her experiences & strategies for devising work with special needs teens.
Laurel Serleth has been a K-8 Creative Drama educator in the historic Evanston, IL District 65 Drama program for 30 years. In her work with students she uses both story and process drama to help children reach the ‘big’ questions; questions they must wrestle with both in and out of character. She regularly presents at state and national conferences and has received the American Alliance of Theatre and Education Creative Drama Award and the Illinois Theatre Association Creative Drama Award. She has taught summer teacher institutes at the University of Wisconsin, Southeast Institute for the Arts, Tennessee Arts Academy, Lewis and Clark College, National Lewis University and mentors Northwestern University theatre majors. In collaboration with her district’s drama department, she has developed curriculum based drama assessments for grades 3, 4, and 5 and an extensive K-8 Drama Curriculum. She has a BA in English/Theatre and a MA in Interdisciplinary Arts Education from Columbia College, Chicago.
Workshops:
Process Drama: Jump In and Let’s Make One Together
Leading as Teacher in Role, Laurel will ask participants to take on the Mantle of the Expert, and together they will actively participate in developing a Process Drama which can be adapted for any grade level.
Explore and Experience Creative Drama Strategies
Participants will be actively engaged in a drama using strategies such as tableau, narrative pantomime, good angel/bad angel, mantle of the expert, inner monologue, hot seating which can be used with both Story and Process Drama for grades K-8. These strategies are appropriate for middle and high school during the rehearsal process to explore character and conflict.
LAKE SIMONS is an artist specializing in devising theatre productions that utilize movement and puppetry. Lake served as puppetry associate for both the Broadway production of War Horse and the national tour. She has created over a dozen original productions as well as collaborated on multiple theatre projects as a puppet designer and director. Over the last sixteen years Lake as been a guest director and designer at Hip Pocket Theatre in Fort Worth, Texas. Lake was nominated for a 2014 Doris Duke Impact Award and has been awarded six Jim Henson Foundation Grants for her original puppetry productions. She holds theatre degrees from University of North Carolina School of The Arts, and Ecole Internationale de Theatre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, France. www.lakesimons.com
Workshop:
Puppetry and Movement
We will explore how the puppeteer brings the puppet to life and how to create the illusion of weight and space.
MICHAEL BENJAMIN WASHINGTON is best known as Donald Jordan on the NBC hit 30 Rock. Stage credits include Mamma Mia! (Directed by Phyllica Lloyd, original Broadway company); the 2005 revival of La Cage Aux Folles (dir: Kathleen Marshall/Nonesuch Records). La Jolla Playhouse: The Wiz (Tinman-dir: Des McAnuff); Memphis (Gator-dir: Christopher Ashley); Letters to Obama (playwright-reading); Blueprints to Freedom (playwright.Bayard-dir: Phylicia Rashad). He is an alumnus of the National Young Arts Foundation and served on the Writing Adjudication panel where he co-wrote the Foundation’s gala this winter under the direction of Bill T. Jones. He is a Presidential Scholar of the Arts and teaches YoungArts Master class workshops in Los Angeles. Training: B.F.A. –New York University-Tisch School of the Arts. Two time national champion for National Forensic League. Member: The Broadway Inspirational Voices.
Workshop:
Continuing the Legacy
From the journals of all the directors he has worked with over 20 years as a professional actor, Mr. Michael Benjamin Washington will give insight as to how he continues the legacy of their teachings.
Demond Wilson is a proud graduate of Southern Methodist University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Theatre Arts with emphasis in Directing and a minor in Education. Demond taught in the public schools for 7 years and directed state finalist 5A UIL One-Act Plays 5 out of the 7 years of teaching. In his first year of teaching he directed the state championship play A View from the Bridge in 1998 at James Martin High School. Upon transferring from Arlington to Carrollton, Demond founded the theatre arts program at Creekview High School in 1999 and went to state four more times winning his second state championship in 2001 with the play Side Man. Currently Demond is the President and owner of the company The Perfect Performance,LLC where he flies all over the nation directing and mentoring students and teachers with onsite workshops as well as online seminars with emphasis on both Theatre Arts and Oral Interpretation. Through the Perfect Performance Demond directed two state championship One-Act Plays Lebensraum 2007 and The Elephant Man in 2008 in Pennsylvania. Demond is also the President and founder of the non-profit organization The National Individual Events Tournament of Champions which mentors teachers and hosts a National Speech Tournament that awards college scholarships to students nationwide.
Workshops:
One Act Play survival Kit
Demond Wilson takes you through his proven process from beginning to end of how to create a successful One-Act Play experience.
Get the Most out of your Rehearsal for One-Act Play
Demond Wilson works directly with students on scenes from a play as he shares his proven techniques of getting the most out of actors in rehearsal.
Joaquín Zihuatanejo is an award winning teacher, poet, and World Poetry Slam champion. Sometimes brutal but always honest in his poems and stories Joaquín strives to capture the duality of the Chicano culture. He has been called by critics, "one of the most poignant and passionate performance poets in the country, melding equal parts comedy, poetry, and story telling into a crowd pleasing display of verbal fireworks." Joaquín was a National Hispanic Cultural Center Artist in Residence and is the only poet on the planet to win both the Individual World Poetry Slam Championship held in North America and the European World Cup of Poetry Slam held in Paris, France, making him for a time the number one ranked slam poet on the planet. His work has been published in Prairie Schooner, Mas Tequila Review, Di-Verse-City, San Diego Poetry Annual, among other anthologies and publications. He is the author of Barrio Songs, Of Fire and Rain, Family Tree, Like & Share, and his latest effort, Fight or Flight from Coolspeak Book Publishing. Fight or Flight is equal parts poetry and short fiction. You can find his work at artspeakspoet.com. Joaquín is currently pursuing his MFA in poetry from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Joaquín has two passions in his life, his wife Aída, and poetry, always in that order.
No comments:
Post a Comment