Master Acting Classes Faculty Bios | The Shakespeare Theatre Company

Faculty Bios

Norman Allen joins the Master Acting Class program as a guest teaching artist. Allen’s work has been commissioned and produced by the Shakespeare Theatre Company, the Kennedy Center, Olney Theatre Center, the Karlin Music Theatre in Prague, and Signature Theatre, which presented Nijinsky’s Last Dance (Helen Hayes Award) and In The Garden (MacArthur Award), among others. Allen received two Capital Region Emmy Awards for PBS documentaries on the visual arts and frequently contributes commentary to WAMU-FM. The founder of the Signature in the Schools outreach program, he served as English department chair at Cesar Chavez Public Charter High School, where he taught for five years, specializing in reading instruction.

Wyckham Avery is an affiliated teaching artist at the Shakespeare Theatre Company and performed in its production of The Taming of the Shrew. Avery is the Ring Leader of Artistic Advancement for dog & pony dc and the Theatre Director of The New School of Northern Virginia. Locally she has performed, taught and directed for several theatres including Woolly Mammoth, Rorschach Theatre Company, Round House Theatre and The Folger Shakespeare Library. Avery also has worked with the American Shakespeare Center as an actor, director, manager and education coordinator for three national tours and a residency at the Folger. She has been a speaker at the Clemson Shakespeare Festival and an Education and Outreach consultant for the Greenville Shakespeare Festival. Avery received her MFA in acting from The Catholic University of America and trained at the Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre and the New England School of Circus Arts.

Vanessa Hope is the School Programs Manager at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. She is also a founding member of the Faction of Fools Theatre Company, devoted to the classical style of Commedia dell’Arte. She holds an MFA in Acting from Purdue University, where she taught Acting and Voice, and a BFA in Acting from the University of Maryland. She studied Shakespeare at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. Buono also conducts private acting, voice, presentation and interview coaching. Prior to working at STC, she lived in Los Angeles, where she appeared on American Dreams, ER and All of Us and was a member of the improv troupe The Berubians.

Dan Crane is an affiliated teaching artist with the Shakespeare Theatre Company. STC acting credits include Romeo and Juliet, Richard III and The Beaux Stratagem. Other regional credits include work with companies across the United States, including Folger Theatre, Imagination Stage, Kitchen Theatre, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, PCPA Theaterfest and Portland Center Stage to name a few. Dan is a Guest Lecturer at Duke Ellington School of the Arts and Howard University in Washington, DC, and serves as Associate Artistic Director of Enlightenment Theatre Project in Williamsburg, VA. He is a graduate of the Pacific Conservatory for the Performing Arts, holds a BFA from Ithaca College and an MFA from the Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University.

Jim Gagne is the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Resident Teaching Artist. Acting credits include, Jack the Ticket Ripper (Georgetown Theatre Company), We Won't Pay, We Won't Pay (The Hub Theatre), Heart of a Dog, Fool for Love (Spooky Action Theater), The Nature and Purpose of the Universe (Circle of Fools), Cymbeline (Dog and Pony DC), Ninja Motorcycle Babes (Notorious Women), One Man’s War (Triad Theatre), Uncle Vanya (Everyman Theatre), St. Joan, Romeo and Juliet (Olney Theatre Center), Midsummer Nights Dream, Our Town (National Players Tour 55). As a teacher Jim has worked with a wide variety of students ranging from kindergarteners to senior citizens. Jim received a BFA from The Hartt School at The University of Hartford.

George Grant is an affiliated teaching artist at the Shakespeare Theatre Company and has been a professional actor in radio, film, and theatre for 30 years. He has been seen at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC in The Tempest, Othello(w/Patrick Stewart), Peer Gynt and The Merry Wives of Windsor, and at The Washington Shakespeare Company, Catalyst Theatre, The Goodman Theatre in Chicago and The Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, among many others. His directorial work has been seen at Charter Theater in the renowned Am I Black Enough Yet, Gordon Productions (NYC), Lawrence University Productions, Actors Repertory Theater, The Kennedy Center's Page to Stage Festival and at the Washington Shakespeare Company. He has been a Visiting Professor of Theatre Arts at Lawrence University in Appleton WI, and at Howard University in Washington DC. He is on the faculties at The National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts and TheatreLab in Washington. Mr. Grant received a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from Lawrence University and a Master of Fine Arts from Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University.

Michelle Tang Jackson is an affiliated teaching artist with the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Other teaching credits include Young Playwrights' Theatre, the Smithsonian, and Arts-Bridge’s Shakespeare Alive program at the Mondavi Center in California. Jackson is an actor, writer, and singer and performs with the Faction of Fools, a theatre company devoted specifically to Commedia dell’ Arte. She wrote and produced the interactive educational show Ballads Unbound which exposed students to Renaissance song, drama, and dance. Michelle holds a B.A. in Theatre and B.A. in English from the University of California at Davis.

Mark Jaster joins the Master Acting Class program as a guest teaching artist. His skills in mime were developed in training with 20th-century masters Marcel Marceau and his teacher, Etienne Decroux, along with careful observation of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harpo Marx. Jaster served as teaching assistant to Mr. Marceau in a series of seminars in Michigan, and he teaches frequently in Artist residencies, theatres, and dance programs, including The Maryland Opera Studio and The American Academy of Ballet. In his solo performances, Piccolo's Trunk, A Fool Named 'O', and The Maestro, Mark combines live music on unusual instruments and non-instruments, (like the pipe and tabor and the bowed saw), outrageous acrobatics, (like a dive through an impossibly small wooden hoop), and hyper-advanced communication skills with honest, gentle humor. With Artistic Co-director, Sabrina Mandell, he has created and performed in a series of critically acclaimed works for Happenstance Theater, including two works that have toured to the NY Clown Theater Festival: Manifesto (2008), and Diz and Izzy Aster, Vaudeville's Late Bloomers (2010). Mark is also a proud member of The Big Apple Circus' Clown Care Program, performing at the Children's National Medical Center and Johns Hopkins University Hospital.

Casey Kaleba is an affiliated teaching artist at the Shakespeare Theatre Company who has served as fight director on more than 200 academic and professional productions, including the Folger Theatre, Signature Theatre, Round House Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Rorschach Theatre, Studio 2ndStage and the National Players. Kaleba serves on the faculty of Rapier Wit Studios in Toronto and the Paddy Crean Workshop. A Certified Instructor with the Society of American Fight Directors, he has been a guest teacher for Fight Directors Canada and the Nordic Stagefight Society. Casey has taught at the University of Maryland, College Park, Old Dominion University, and George Mason University.

Floyd King is a veteran of the Shakespeare Theatre Company stage and teaches comedy at The Juilliard School. His performance credits for the Shakespeare Theatre Company include Fool in King Lear, Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Malvolio in Twelfth Night, Master Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Corbaccio in Volpone, Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing, Dromio of Ephesus and Dromio of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors, Touchstone in As You Like It (1989) and Parolles in All’s Well That Ends Well (1988 - Helen Hayes Award). Other performance credits include appearances at the Studio Theatre, Alley Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Alliance Theatre Company, Syracuse Stage, the American Stage Festival and Woolly Mammoth.

Jenny Lord is the Resident Assistant Director at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Her directing credits include: Going Down Swingin’, Don Imbroglio (NYMF); The Filthy Habit (Manhattan Opera Theatre); A Christmas Carol (Dallas Theater Center); Bee-luther-hatchee (New Century Theatre); By Jupiter (42nd Street Moon); The Cherry Orchard (NYU); Angels in America: Perestroika (Stella Adler Conservatory); Street Scene (San Francisco State University); and several operas. As a choreographer, credits include California Shakespeare Theater, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, and Lyric Theatre of San Jose. She has also worked as an actor at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, California Shakespeare Theater, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, and many others. Jenny holds a BA from Yale University.

Sabrina Mandell joins the Master Acting Class program as a guest teaching artist. She is the founder and Artistic Co-director of Happenstance Theater. She has written, produced and performed prolifically since the company's founding in '06. Works have included Prufbox based on the TS Eliot poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”; The Seven Ages of Mime, Low Tide Hotel (voted Best Comedy of the 2007 Capital Fringe Festival); Manifesto! (a 2008 Capital Fringe hit with a subsequent run at the New York Clown Theatre Festival); and Cabaret CooCoo (Best Comedy, Capital Fringe Festival, 2009). They also created FarFar Oasis, a desert companion piece to Low Tide Hotel; Look Out Below! at Round House Bethesda and last summer's Fringe hit, Handbook for Hosts. Clown teaching credits include Washington Theater Lab, Constellation Theatre Co, Centerstage in Baltimore, Universite St Anne in Clare, Nova Scotia, and Round House Theater. Sabrina performs regularly with the Big Apple Circus’ Clown Care Program in DC and Baltimore, and as "LaLa", partner to A Fool Named “O” at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. She is also a visual artist and poet.

Dat Ngo is the Training Programs Manager at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Dat was formerly the Assistant Director of Education and Outreach for Philadelphia Young Playwrights and the 2003–2004 Directing Fellow for Philadelphia Theatre Company. Over the past nine years, he has served as a teaching artist in Brooklyn, Philadelphia and Washington, DC for the Coalition for Hispanic Family Services, Intercultural Family Services, Asian Arts Initiative, Arts and Technology Academy Public Charter Elementary and DC Arts and Humanities Collaborative. He holds a BS in Film and Television from Boston University.

Alan Paul is the Associate Director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company. At STC he has directed the Free-for-All production of Twelfth Night as well as numerous readings for the theatre’s Rediscovery Series. At STC he has assistant-directed 13 shows for Michael Kahn, David Muse, Rebecca Taichman, Gale Edwards, Mary Zimmerman, Jonathan Munby, and Maria Aitken. Other directing credits include I Am My Own Wife at Signature Theatre, numerous productions at the Source Festival, Man of La Mancha at Catholic University, and regional productions of Richard II and Six Degrees of Separation. Last season he directed readings for Georgetown University’s Tennessee Williams Centennial Festival, Arena Stage’s Edward Albee Festival, and Six Degrees of Separation at the Phillips Collection. Upcoming projects include a concert staging of The Boys from Syracuse for STC’s 2011-2012 season and the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s 25th Anniversary Gala Performance in October.

Nancy Robinette is a veteran of the Shakespeare Theatre Company stage, where she recently performed as Maria in Twelfth Night. Other STC performances include Birdie in The Little Foxes, Aunt Nonnie in Sweet Bird of Youth, Mrs. Malaprop in The Rivals, the Duchess of Berwick in Lady Windemere's Fan, Mistress Quickly in Henry IV, Toinette in The Imaginary Invalid, Mistress Otter in The Silent Woman, Lady Bountiful in Beaux Strategem, and Lady Wishfort in Way of the World. Other recent D.C. roles include Florence Foster Jenkins in Souvenir, Nancy in Frozen, and Mother Courage in Mother Courage and Her Children. She has performed at the Old Globe Theatre, the McCarter and Papermill theatres in New Jersey, and at Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts, and at the New York Theatre Workshop and Roundabout in New York. She has been a guest teacher at George Mason University, and has taught at Woolly Mammoth Theatre and at Signature Theatre.

Oran Sandel is an affiliated teaching artist at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Sandel acquired his improvisational skill set over the course of 23 years with Robert Alexander’s Living Stage Theater Company (Arena’s former improvisational community engagement theatre). Having left his position as Artistic Director there in 2001, he is now working as a freelance consultant, teacher, writer, director and performer. Recent teaching venues include: Adventure Theater, Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Smithsonian Associates, Center Stage, the Sitar Center, the Theater Lab, Creative Cauldron and the Center for Inspired Teaching.

Brett Scott joins the Master Acting Class program as a guest teaching artist. A New York City native, he is currently on the faculty at The Duke Ellington School of the Arts. He has also served on the faculty at Metropolitan State University of Denver, Red Rocks Community College, The Denver Center Theatre Academy, and The Durango Center for the Performing Arts. He has acted, directed and taught in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Arizona, and Denver. He was the Assistant Artistic Director of the Theatre Company “First Stage Alert” in Los Angeles. His Neutral Mask credits include teaching at The Denver Center, The International Thespian Convention, The Colorado State Conference, Red Rocks Community College, Denver School of the Arts, and The Educational Theatre Association. Some of directing credits include Oleanna(John Hand Theatre), The Miser(The Schompe Theatre), The Good Doctor(RMTC), Twelve Angry Jurors(D.E.T), The world premiere of Hello Bob by Robert Patrick, A Night of Beckett(Studio City Theatre) Some of his Regional Acting credits include Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Much Ado About Nothing, The Good Doctor, A Christmas Carol, John Brown’s Body, The Good Doctor, Arms And The Man, A Woman in Mind, The Three Sisters, Landscape of the Body, Endgame, The Crucible, Flowers for Algernon. Brett was recently nominated for an Arizoni Award in the Best Actor catagegory in the Southwest Shakespeare Company’s rendition of Much ado About Nothing playing Benedick. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Performance from The University of Miami and his Master’s of Fine Arts from The National Theatre Conservatory, part of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts

Craig Wallace joins the Master Acting Class program as a guest teaching artist. He has appeared in numerous productions at Shakespeare Theatre Company including the Tamburlaine, Edward II, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra and Romeo and Juliet. Other DC area credits include Permanent Collection, Tabletop and The Little Prince at Round House Theatre; Much Ado about Nothing, Othello in Othello, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet and Measure for Measure at Folger Theatre; Jitney at Ford’s Theatre; K2, All My Sons, The Great White Hope and Hot-n-Throbbing at Arena Stage; The Last Orbit of Billy Mars, Tommy J & Sally, Our Lady of 121st Street and Starving at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; Cherry Orchard, The Soul Collector(world premiere) at Everyman Theatre; Angels in America, Parts 1&2(Helen Hayes Award Nomination for Part 2) at Signature Theatre. Wallace has worked regionally at Shakepeare Theatre of New Jersey, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville and Shakespeare Santa Cruz. Wallace trained at Howard University, BFA. The Pennsylvania State University, MFA. Royal National Theatre, London.

Esther Williamson is an affiliated teaching artist with the Shakespeare Theatre Company. She is a company member with Taffety Punk Theatre and has been a proud participant in their unrehearsed Bootleg Shakespeare productions and their all-girl productions of Romeo and Juliet, Measure for Measure and Julius Caesar. She has also performed with Ford's Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Book-It Repertory Theatre in Seattle and many more. She is an Artistic Associate at Henley Street Theatre in Richmond, where she has served as a text coach and dramaturg. In addition to teaching with The Shakespeare Theatre Company, Esther provides individual coaching for actors. She holds B.A.s in Theatre and English from Seattle Pacific University and an MFA in Classical Acting from The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University.

*Faculty subject to change.