WELCOME

FULL TIME TEACHERS, ADMINISTRATORS AND GUEST ARTISTS
From the Professional Theatre, Music and Dance Community

  ACADEMY DIRECTOR

Tom Fulton:
Producer, Director, Curriculum Development, Acting (Stanislavski), Shakespeare, Voice for the Stage, Musical Theatre, Script Analysis, Sense Memory/Experiencing (Stanislavski), Technique, Characterization, Directing, Private Audition 

ME (Kent State 2012) BFA  Professional Theatre (1975 Southern Methodist University, Dallas Texas); Certified Career Technical Educator, State of Ohio, Department of Education.  Executive Director, Fairmount Center for the Arts; Artistic Director - Center Repertory Theatre, Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, Cleveland Theatre Company, Cain Park Summer Theatre.  Actor/Director - Cleveland Play House Company;   Adjuct Professor of Theatre, Case Western Reserve University, Cuyahoga Community College, Cleveland State University; Director of Drama, Gilmour Academy; Chairman, Actor's Equity Liaison Committee; Professional Actor, Director, Teacher; Member AEA

Bernadette Clemens -
Professsional Theatre Teacher and Director of Marketing

Acting, Audition, Styles, Voice for the Stage, Clowning,

B.A. in Theatre from Barnard College at Columbia University, certificate from British American Drama Academy's Oxford University campus, M.A. in English Literature from Case Western Reserve University. Member of Actors' Equity Association and American Federation of Television & Radio Artists. Over ten years' teaching, college audition coaching, and directing students in Northeast Ohio. Teaching residencies include Beaumont School, Laurel School, Ruffing Montessori, Gilmour Lower School, Shaker Heights Recreation, Heights Youth Theatre, Fine Arts Association, Dobama Theatre, and Oberlin College. Performance credits include numerous professional theatres in New York and Northeast Ohio. Member of AEA and AFTRA.

Caitlin Van Neil
Administrative Director
Costume Designer, Costume Workshops, Costume Practicum

 

Ben Needham
Theatre Complex Manger (Main Stage, Studio Theatre, Rehearsal Halls)
Lighting Design, Set Design, CAD Design, Technical Director, Technical Theatre Track Instructor, Theatre Renovation
Performing Arts Center, Studio Theatre and Complex Manager

MFA (University of Georgia, Athens – Scenic Design, Computer Animation for Performing Arts); BA (Case Western Reserve University - Theatre Arts) Adjunct Professor University of Georgia, Lakeland Community College, Lake Erie College, Kent State University) Light & Set Design Constitution Hall, Washington DC – Horatio Ager Association) Theatre Design and Renovation Atlantic Lyric Theatre; Technical Director, Set and Lighting Design, Cedar Point Amusement Park, Atlantic Lyric Opera, Laurel School, Fine Arts Association, Case Western Reserve University and many theatres in Northeast Ohio.

GUEST ARTISTS

Mitchell Fields
Theatre History, Acting for the Camera, History of Film, Improvisation, Shakespeare, Acting, Director, Improv Show, Guest Actor.

M.A. (Master of Arts, Columbia University) Ohio Department of Education - Certified in English 7-12, Drama K-12, and Acting; Adjunct Professor at Baldwin-Wallace College - Improvisation, Film and Theatre.  Curriculum Director - Second City Cleveland; Associate Director -  Cleveland Theatre Company, Artistic Director of the Fine Arts Association of Willoughby, 30 year teacher of Dramatic Arts, Film and Speech, Beachwood High School. Professional actor and director.  Member of Actors Equity Association and the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists.

Marcia Snavely
Music Director, Accompanist

Youseff Hamid
Planning Director Academy-Music (The new 2012-14 Music "Major" for The Academy), Internal Affairs, Assistant to the Director

Andrew May
Visiting Guest Artist from New York City
Comedy, Classical Theatre, Director, Actor

Graduate, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London England; BFA (Illinois State University, Acting, Directing) ); Associate Artistic Director Great Lakes Theatre Festival; Associate Artistic Director Milwaukee Repertory Theatre; Actor, Director, Artistic Associate – Cleveland Play House; Professional actor, director, teacher. Member Screen Actors Guild, Actor’s Equity Association, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists)

Abby Lausin
Choreographer, Dance Master Classes

Julie Kolibab
American Theatre, Dialects, Director

MFA, BFA (Case Western Reserve University) Lancaster University Lancaster England – Theatre; Ohio Department of Education, Certified Substitute Teacher; Producer Kids’ Playwriting Festival, Dobama Theatre; Director, Accent on Youth Producer, Arts Club Theatre – SOHO NYC; Educational Theatre Director Ensemble Theatre, Adjunct Professor Case Western Reserve University, Hathaway Brown School, Laurel School. Professional actor – Cleveland Play House, Great Lakes Theatre Festival, many theatres throughout Northeast Ohio. Member Actors Equity Association.

Wendy Kriss
Movement, Tai Chi, Director

BFA Kent State University, Theatre; State of Ohio Department of Education, Certified Substitute Teacher; Four Year Certificate Corporeal Mime Technique, with Etienne Decroux, Paris France. Non Violent Communication – Rita Herzog. Ohio Arts Council Artist in Residence Theatre Movement; Shaker Height High School Theatre Department Substitute Teacher - Theatre Movement, Director; Qigong Academy, Tai Chi Instructor, Board of Mental Retardation, Tai Chi Instructor, Adjunct Professor, Cuyahoga Community College, Aging Initiatives, Tai Chi, Way of the Artist.

Dusten Welch
Laban Technique, Stage Combat (Hand to Hand, Foil, Sabre, Knives, Broadsword)

Colleen Williams
Production Stage Manager.

Sarah Lynne Nicholas
Stage Manager