A note from
Jackie deMontmollin
TheatreFest 2015 Special Guest
Committee Member
I am so
excited about TheatreFest 2015! The
programming has some amazing workshops planned for all of you including 23
Special Guest Presenters and one surprise Featured Presenter!
The convention schedule is online,
so you can start planning your time in Houston at TheatreFest 2015!!!
Here is the
link:
Another great
part of TheatreFest 2015 is the city of Houston itself. There are some exciting things happening in Houston TheatreFest weekend that you may want to check
out while you visit….
·
The
Hobby Center for Performing Arts will present The Book of Mormon
·
The
Houston Symphony will be hosting Sutton
Foster
·
Stages
Reparatory Theatre presents The Search of
Signs of Intelligent Life in The Universe
·
Main
Street Theatre presents Putting it
Together by Stephen Sondheim
The list goes
on and on of exciting opportunities waiting for you both at TheatreFest and in
the city of Houston! This link will
provide you with details of all of the great theatre that Houston has to offer:
That being
said, there is so much planned for TheatreFest 2015 you will literally never
need to leave the hotel!!!! Please look
at the schedule and peruse the listing below of some very special guests who
will be celebrating Theatre Education and YOU in Houston at TheatreFest 2015!
We look
forward to seeing you all in Houston the last weekend in January!
Special Guest
Presenter Tom Lee
Contemporary Puppet Manipulation
Tom Lee is a designer, director and puppet artist based in New York City. He was part of the original Broadway cast of the Tony award-winning play War Horse with puppetry by the Handspring Company of South Africa. Mr. Lee has performed puppetry at the Metropolitan Opera, NY Philharmonic, St. Ann's Warehouse, La MaMa Experimental Theatre among others. His own designs for theater and puppetry have been produced in New York and abroad, including the upcoming Scarlet Ibis, a chamber opera with puppetry premiering in January 2015 at Here Arts Center. Tom is on the theater faculty of Sarah Lawrence College and has taught puppet manipulation at Lincoln Center Theatre, Fordham University, Rutgers University, the University of Hawai'i and New York's Movement Theater Studio. Mr. Lee studied traditional puppetry in Japan with his teacher Koryu Nishikawa V, master of the Kuruma Ningyo (cart puppetry) technique. www.tomleeprojects.com
Special Guest
Presenter Karen Kohlhaas
Directing the Monologue
Fearless Audition Technique
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 UH 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)
Special Guest
Presenter Demond Wilson
The Perfect Performance
Keys to Success in Directing the UIL One Act Play
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.
Special Guest
Presenter Dianah Dulany & Comedy Sportz Houston
Building A Character
Gotta Have a Gimmick
ComedySportz Houston Improvisation Performance
Match Saturday Night!
Dianah Dulany has worked as a professional improvisor and instructor for over 25 years, beginning her improv career in New York City before moving to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to manage a non-profit theater company. There she performed with ComedySportz-Milwaukee for four years before being offered the opportunity to open her own club. She brought ComedySportz to Houston, Texas in 1990. She has studied under Dick Chudnow (founder of ComedySportz), Keith Johnstone (founder of Theatersports), Paul Sills (original director of Chicago's The Second City), and Charna Halpern (co-founder of the ImprovOlympic, now know as The iO) among others. Dianah is the founder and owner of ComedySportz-Houston and currently acts as Producer and Artistic Director of the company.
Special Guest
Presenter Mary Sutton -The Alley Theatre
Staging STEM: Drama Boosts Test Scores in
STEM
Downloading
the “Absurdist” Sensibility for the Twitter Generation
Mary Sutton, Alley Theatre’s Director of Education. With 24 years as an arts educator, she has designed curriculum from pre-K through college throughout the United States and Europe in core subjects, viewpoints, acting, playwriting and conservatory training. She has developed award-winning programs such as -- the nationally popular “Oskar” tours dealing with resiliency and bullying to the arts integration programs; Concepts at Play for TheatreWorks | Silicon Valley and Staging STEM for the Alley Theatre. She created, designed and implemented the Arts Integration Network in California—a mentorship arts integration teacher training program highlighted by the Kennedy Center’s Partners-in-Education Initiative. Additionally she worked in the NEA’s Rural Arts initiative where she pioneered Applied Theatre Techniques from 1990-1998. Ms. Sutton is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School for the Arts in acting and The American Repertory Theatre’s Institute for Advanced Theatre Studies at Harvard in directing.
Special Guest
Presenter Rena Cook
Voice in Action
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.
Special Guest
Presenter Brian Guehring
Teens Devising: Using Improv to Create Issue Based Theatre
Playwriting with Teens
Brian Guehring is the Playwright in Residence and Education Director of the Omaha Theater Company for Young People, whose education department does drama and dance education outreach for every single child in over 66 local schools each school year, reaching over 27,000 students). Brian is also the co-founder and director of Pride Players, an award winning teen theater troupe which uses improvisation to explore gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and straight allied teen issues. As a playwright for young audiences, his scripts have been produced by theaters all over the country. His scripts for young audiences Stronger than Strong: Great American Tall Tale Heroines, The Brave Little Tailor.
King Chemo are published by.Dramatic Publish1ng. He earned his MFA in Children's Theater/Creative Drama from University of Texas at Austin B, rian is currently serving on the national board of Theater for Young Audiences/USA His.website is www.brianguehring.com.
Special Guest
Presenter Leraldo Anzaldua
An Exploration in Staged Violence
LERALDO ANZALDUA is a Certified Teacher of Stage Combat with the Society of American Fight Directors. He is a Houston based Actor, Director & Fight Director. He has voiced over 100 Anime Titles and performs Motion Capture for Film and Video Games. He is currently the Resident Fight Director for Houston Grand Opera.
Anzaldua received a Master’s Degree in Acting from the University of Houston School of Theatre & Dance Professional Actor Training Program.
Special Guest Presenter Rachel Bush
The Art of Stage Management
Rachel Bush is an Equity Stage Manager and has worked with such talents as Tony & Emmy Award Winner James Whitmore; Tony Award Winners: Bill Irwin, Michael Rupert, John Glover, Ed Sherin, Pam Mackinnon, and Phyllis Frelich; Obie Award Winners: Brandon Dirden, Andre De Shields, and Leah C. Gardiner; Seth Gilliam, Jeff DeMunn, and James Rebhorn, among others. Some of her extensive theatre credits include Steppenwolf’s Broadway revival of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Off Broadway productions at the Mint Theater, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, The York Theatre, and Signature Theatre, Pioneer Theater Company, Philadelphia Theater Company, Syracuse Stage, Children’s Theater of Minneapolis, Santa Fe Stages and The Peterborough Players (Gus Kaikkonen, AD). Rachel collaborated on innovative world premieres such as The Ladies Man - Charles Morey, Adrift in Macao - Christopher Durang & Peter Melnick, According to Goldman - Bruce Graham, Prymate - Mark Medoff, A Picasso - Jeffrey Hatcher, Killers and Other Family - Lucy Thurber, Mme. Bonards Bath - Israel Horovitz, and Passions of Mabel Dodge Luhan - Leslie Harrell Dillen. At the University of Houston, she had the pleasure of working with award winning playwrights Edward Albee and Mark Medoff. She served as Production Coordinator for CBS Television’s 48 Hours and stage manages TEDX Houston.
Rachel serves as the Head of the Stage Management program at The University of Houston School of Theatre & Dance.
Special Guest
Presenter Dr. JoBeth Gonzalez
Ensemble Power: Fostering Critically
Conscious Rehearsals of Broadway Musical Ensembles
Teen Suicide and Human
Trafficking: Exploring ways Teens
Influence Public Perception Through Theatre
Jo Beth Gonzalez holds an MFA in Directing from the University of Minnesota and a Ph.D. in Theatre from Bowling Green State University. A twenty-eight year veteran of secondary theatre education, she teaches theatre grades 8 through 12 at Bowling Green High School in Bowling Green, OH. The BGHS Drama Club showcased Jim Leonard’s Anatomy of Gray as a Main Stage Performance at the 2013 International Thespian Festival. Gonzalez is the author of Temporary Stages: Departing From Tradition in High School Theatre Education (Heinemann 2006) and Temporary Stages II: Critically Oriented Drama Education (Intellect 2013). She is the recipient of the 2002 Wilson National Mentor’s Award to a High School Drama Teacher from the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America. Gonzalez is a member of the College Board’s Grades 6 – 12 Arts Advisory Committee and serves as president of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education.
Special Guest
Presenter Dr. Peter Duffy
Devising Through Source Materials
Your Brain on Drama
Dr. Peter Duffy heads the Master of Arts in Teaching program in theatre education at the University of South Carolina where he prepares future teachers to become drama educators. He teaches courses on drama-based pedagogies and arts integration. He is a director and is a former public school teacher, education director, and a New York City teaching artist. His research interests include devising new works in community settings, cognition and the arts, culturally responsive pedagogies and performed research. He serves as the Director of Research for the International Drama/Theatre Education Association (IDEA) and is a member of AATE. Peter’s work in arts education is nationally and internationally recognized. He is 2013’s proud recipient of AATE’s Win Wright Special Recognition award. His latest book, A Reflective Practitioner’s Guide to (mis)Adventures in Drama Education – or – What Was I Thinking, will be available in June 2015 from Intellect Publishing.
Special
Guest Presenter Julia Perlowski
Image Theatre as a Tool
for Directors
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.
Special Guest
Presenter Laurel Serleth
Experiencing Immigration Through
Process Drama
‘The Golden Touch’ A Process Drama
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.
Special Guest
Presenter Adam Noble
EXTREME PHYSICIALITY: Staging Intimacy & Violence
Adam Noble has worked as professional actor and movement specialist for nearly 20 years, performing regionally across the United States, and abroad.
He is the co-founder and artistic director of the Dynamic Presence Project, a company focused on the revitalization and proliferation of movement theatre and physical storytelling.
As a freelance movement consultant, Adam has helped to shape characters, build ensembles, and construct movement vocabularies for operatic, cinematic and theatrical projects. He is a trained stuntman who has taught movement and stage combat both nationally and internationally, and he has choreographed the intimacy and violence for over 100 stage and film productions.
Adam currently serves as Associate Professor of Acting and Movement at the University of Houston. He is a member of the Actors Equity Association, a Fight Director and Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors, and the Treasurer for the Association of Theatre Movement Educators.
Special Guest
Presenter David Rainey -The Alley Theatre
Using improvisational games developed
by Viola Spolin to unlock basic truths of acting, action and imagination
DAVID RAINEY is in his 15th season as a Alley Theatre Resident Company member. He is also founder and Executive Artistic Director of The Landing Theatre Company. A graduate of The Juilliard School, he received the Drama Division’s highest honor, the Michel and Suria Saint-Denis Prize. Nationally, he has performed for Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage Company, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, the National Actors Theatre, the Guthrie Theatre, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Acting Company, New York Shakespeare Festival, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Ford’s Theatre, Asolo Theatre Company, Dallas Theatre Center, Shakespeare Festival LA, Crossroads Theatre Company, Stark Naked Theatre Company, HSF, Houston Grand Opera, among others. He served as adjunct professor at the University of Houston-Downtown from 2005-2013, and was its first Artist-in-Residence in Drama. He has received numerous awards and nominations for acting and directing, and he teaches privately.
Special Guest
Presenter Claremarie Verheyen
Tricks for Middle Age Make-Up
During her forty years as a theatre artist, Claremarie Verheyen has designed over 400 productions including drama, opera, dance, high-fashion, film, video, television, circus, and commercials. She is an Associate Professor of Theatre at The University of Houston where she teaches costuming and makeup design on the graduate and undergraduate levels. She serves on the advisory board of the Houston Community College Fashion and Marketing Program. She is the costume designer for the Houston Children’s Theatre Festival, The Notre Dame Shakespeare Initiative, and Shakespeare by the Book. Her costume designs have been produced by many theatres including: The Alley Theatre, The Country Playhouse, The Classical Theatre Company, Main Street Theatre, The Ensemble Theatre, The Lab Theatre, Mildred's Umbrella, Houston Community College, Stages Children’s Theatre, Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival, and World Wide Stage in China. A recent production of "The Vibrator Play" earned her the award as Houston’s "Outstanding Costume Designer". She has been the featured costume designer in our own Texas Education Theatre Associations' convention and has been the recipient of TETA's “University Educator of the Year Award.” She will be the featured, guest designer at the spring USITT. SW regional symposium. Ms. Verheyen offers seminars in resume and portfolio preparation and makeup technology and design.
Special Guest
Presenter Dr. Robert Shimko
Introducing Dramaturgy
Dr. Robert B. Shimko is the co-editor, with Dr. Sara Freeman, of the book Public Theatres and Theatre Publics. Dr. Shimko’s scholarly writing has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, and he is the Book Review Editor for the journal Theatre History Studies. Additionally, he is the Literary Director of the Houston Shakespeare Festival and has worked as a professional dramaturg in theatres across the country, including several productions each at the Guthrie and Alley theatres. Dr. Shimko is an Associate Professor of Theatre History & Dramaturgy at the University of Houston where he heads the BFA program in Playwriting/Dramaturgy. Dr. Shimko recently received the University of Houston Teaching Excellence Award, UH’s top teaching honor.
Special Guest
Presenter Jonathan Middents
Sound editing and playback
LED Lighting Introduction
Jonathan Middents has worked on over 330 productions at a variety of theatres and has consulted on the design or renovation of ten theatres. His recent design work includes sets for the Houston Shakespeare Festival 2013 productions of As You Like It and Antony and Cleopatra, lighting for the 2014 HSF productions of Henry IV Part 1 and Two Gentlemen of Verona, sound for The Philadelphia Story, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, and the 10-Minute Play Festival, all at The University of Houston, and scenery and lighting for Little Shop of Horrors at UH-Downtown. A Rice University graduate, Jon received his MFA from Florida State University and has served as Designer/Technical Director at University of Texas at Austin, UH-Clear Lake, and Indiana State University. Jonathan has been the Production Manager and a designer at the University of Houston School of Theatre & Dance since 1983, and is head of the School’s Production Area.
Special Guest
Presenter Paige Willson
Mask Making
Costume Problem Solving
Paige A. Willson started her mask making as a dancer and performer, influenced by many different mask cultures, styles and construction techniques; she creates lightweight, wearable works of art. She was the crafts master/ milliner at the Alley Theatre, where her mask work could be seen in productions such as: A Christmas Carol, The Crucible, The Pillowman, Cyrano De Bergerac, Eurydice and Much Ado About Nothing. Her masks have been on display at Art on Broad, in Augusta, Georgia and in the Faculty Exhibit at Rice University. Some of her costume design credits are, Houston Shakespeare Festival: A Midsummer Night's dream 2010, 2002, Much Ado about Nothing, Othello The Tempest, As You Like it, The Taming of the Shrew 2011, 2004, The Winter’s Tale, Two Gentleman of Verona and Henry 4 Part 1. Sweeny Todd for Generations, a Theatre Company, Kimberly Akimbo for Mildred’s Umbrella, the premier of Now This by Scott Kaiser, Purple for Karen Stokes Dance and Natural acts in Artificial Water by Stephan Koplowitz Task Force. Paige is currently an Assistant Professor of Costume Design and Technology at the University of Houston.
Special Guest
Presenter Jim
Johnson
Introduction to British Accents
An Introduction to New York Accents
Jim Johnson, the Director of The School of Theatre & Dance at The University of Houston, works professionally as an actor and as a voice and dialect coach and is a founder of Accent Help.com. Jim is an Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework, an Associate Editor for the International Dialects of English Archive, and a member of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association. He received his MFA in Acting from the University of Nebraska--Lincoln. He formerly served on the faculty of The Theatre School of DePaul University and taught at the Acting Studio in Chicago, Illinois. He is currently represented by Pastorini-Bosby Talent Agency and is a member of Actors' Equity.
Special Guest
Presenter Becky Valls
Laban / Bartenieff for Actors (High
School)
Learning Science through MovementLeam
how to teach science concepts through creative movement and role playing.
(Elementary)
Becky Valls, Associate Professor of Dance at the University of Houston, teaches dance education, history, and technique. She directs the Young Audiences Touring Company and received the 2013 Teaching Award in the College of Liberal Arts. She produces & choreographs the Memoirs of the Sistahood series, multi-disciplinary works, with sculptor Babette Beaullieu (New Orleans) and film maker Deborah Schildt (Anchorage). They received grants from Houston Arts Alliance and National Performance Network to produce/tour Chapter One(2007), Chapter Two: House (2009), Chapter Three: Ave Maria (2011), and Chapter Four:Sacred Trails (2013).\n2013 Valls created choreography for Core Performance Company in Atlanta and her new work, Web, was performed in Atlanta and in Tampa. Recently, Valls's solo Red Square was performed at the Tempe Performing Arts Center, Ruth Page Center Chicago, and WestFestDance Festival in NY.
Special Guest
Presenter Richard Silberg
Drama Techniques to Support English
Language Learners
Through his 30+ years as an educator, Richard Silberg has taught multiple subjects to thousands of students in Berkeley, California. For the past 18 years he has served as a teacher of Drama and English Language Development at the middle school level where in addition to his drama classes he has created a course, English through Drama, using drama to facilitate newcomer students' development in English. He is also teaching a course on Academic Language Development, utilizing drama techniques to facilitate long term ELL students' abilities to write and access complex texts and vocabulary. He has studied devising theatre techniques with Joan Lazarus, Anne Bogart’s SITI Company, and at ACT in San Francisco, and tries to implement these techniques into his middle school drama program. He is an actor and playwright and a storyteller of traditional and personal stories and is currently creating a storytelling performance of Homer's Odyssey.
Special Guest
Presenter Lara Dossett
Laura Dossett is the Program Coordinator for the University at Texas at Austin's Drama for Schools Professional Development program and a lecturer for an Arts Integration class run out of UT's College of Fine Arts. She holds an MFA in Theatre from The University of Texas at Austin's Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities program. Before attending graduate school, Lara worked in the Chicago Public Schools through artist residencies with Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Writers Theatre, and Timeline Theatre in Chicago. She has worked throughout the country and internationally instructing teachers on how to facilitate powerful learning through the arts. Lara has presented her practice-based work and research at several national conferences including the American Alliance of Theatre Educators, Southeast Center for Education through the Arts, and internationally at the International Drama in Education Institute (IDEIRI) in Limerick, Ireland. Her most recent projects include facilitating Drama-Based Instruction professional development in South Australia and Croatia.
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