Master Acting Classes Faculty Bios | The Shakespeare Theatre Company

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Faculty Bios

Elizabeth Alman, a Master Teaching Artist at the Shakespeare Theatre Company, began teaching for STC in 2000. She has appeared at STC in The Duchess of Malfi, Romeo and Juliet, Don Carlos, Coriolanus, The Country Wife and The Trojan Women. In DC she has also appeared at the Studio Theatre, Round House Theatre and her regional credits include productions at the Cleveland PlayHouse, New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, Illinois Shakespeare Festival and more than 30 productions at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. She served as vocal consultant at the Kennedy Center, Round House Theatre, Everyman Theatre, Catholic University, the University of Maryland and maintains a private practice of vocal and performance consulting in the Washington-metro area. She currently teaches in the Department of Theatre at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and Catholic University and has taught at the Academy for Classical Acting. She is a certified teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework® and a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Maryland College Park. She is a Shakespeare's Globe (London) Fellow and a Cosmos Club Foundation Scholar. She holds an MFA from the University of Alabama/Alabama Shakespeare Festival and a BA from Illinois State University.

Wyckham Avery is an affiliated teaching artist at the Shakespeare Theatre Company and recently performed in its production of The Taming of the Shrew. 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 Catholic University and trained at the Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre and the New England School of Circus Arts.

Vanessa Buono is the School Programs Manager at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. She holds an MFA in Acting from Purdue University, where she taught Intro to Acting and Voice for the Actor, 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 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.

Timothy Douglas joins the Shakespeare Theatre Company Master Acting Class program this season as a guest teaching artist. He recently directed the world premieres of Charles Randolph-Wright’s The Night is a Child for Milwaukee Rep, Line in the Sand for Virginia Stage Company and the critically acclaimed west coast premiere of Sarah Treem’s A Feminine Ending for South Coast Repertory in association with Portland Center Stage. He has also directed the world premiere of August Wilson’s Radio Golf, (the final installment of the August Wilson cycle) for Yale Repertory. Locally, he was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for directing Insurrection: Holding History at Theatre Alliance and this season will be directing Much Ado about Nothing at the Folger Theatre and Permanent Collection for Round House Theater (where he recently directed A Lesson Before Dying). He has served as the associate artistic director for Actors Theatre of Louisville (2001–2004) where, in addition to facilitating the Humana Festival of New American Plays in partnership with artistic director, Marc Masterson, he staged A.M. Sunday, All My Sons, Art, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Crimes of the Heart and Fences. Timothy is a graduate of Marymount Manhattan College (BFA) and Yale School of Drama (MFA).

Michelle Jackson is an affiliated teaching artist at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. She teaches Text Alive! and Camp Shakespeare and previously taught with Arts-Bridge’s Shakespeare Alive program at the Mondavi Center in California. Jackson is an actor, singer, and award-winning writer. She also 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.

Casey Kaleba is an affiliated teaching artist with the Shakespeare Theatre Company. With almost 200 academic and professional productions, his local work as a fight director includes the Folger Theatre, Signature, African Continuum, Rorschach, Studio 2ndStage and three seasons with the National Players. Recent university productions include UMBC, UMD-College Park, American, Gallaudet and McDaniel College. In addition to regular lectures or demonstrations at the Folger Library, Kaleba serves on the faculty of Rapier Wit Studios in Toronto and the Paddy Crean Workshop. He is a member of the Society of American Fight Directors, Fight Directors Canada, the Nordic Stagefight Society and Dueling Arts International as well as a graduate of the International Stunt School. He is currently working on his doctorate at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Floyd King is a veteran of the Shakespeare Theatre Company stage and teaches comedy at The Juilliard School. His performance credits for STC include Feste in Twelfth Night (2008 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor), Fool in King Lear, Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Malvolio in Twelfth Night 1998, Master Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Corbaccio in Volpone, Dogberry in Much Ado about Nothing 1992, 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 Theater, Alliance Theatre Company, Syracuse Stage, the American Stage Festival and Woolly Mammoth.

Andrew Long is a veteran of the Shakespeare Theatre Company stage where he recently appeared asAlbany in King Lear, Fainall in The Way of the World and Mark Antony in Julius Caesar 2008 and Antony and Cleopatra 2008. He has also appeared in Major Barbara, Edward II, Tamburlaine, Lady Windermere’s Fan, Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, as Coriolanus in Coriolanus 2000, Don Carlos, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet (Carter Barron), King Lear 1999, The Merchant of Venice 1999, Richard II 2000 and The Duchess of Malfi. Long appeared as Richard III at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and as Ben Jonson in Swansong by Patrick Page in NYC as part of the Summer Play Festival on 42nd Street. Locally he has appeared at Arena Stage, Studio Theatre (Helen Hayes Award), Theater J, Olney Theatre Center and Signature Theatre. Regionally he has appeared at the Guthrie Theater, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Pioneer Theatre, Chautauqua Theater and the Oregon, Illinois, New Jersey and Alabama Shakespeare festivals. He holds a BFA from the University of Nevada and an MFA from the Alabama Shakespeare Festival/University of Alabama.

Steven Scott Mazzola is the Audience Enrichment Programs Manager at the Shakespeare Theatre Company where he produces the free weekly concert series Happenings at the Harman. He holds an MFA in dramaturgy from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He was the assistant director for the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of Love’s Labor’s Lost at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Directing credits in the DC area include The Philadelphia Story, Drama under the Influence, The Autumn Garden, The Royal Hunt of the Sun, Tea and Sympathy, A Flag is Born, The Second Man, Picnic, Hotel Universe, In the Summerhouse and The Wizard of Oz. He recently directed The Eccentricities of a Nightingale for the American Century Theatre, Thicker than Water for the Capitol Fringe Festival and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for Adventure Theatre. He will direct Edward Albee’s Seascape this season.

David Muse is the Associate Artistic Director at the Shakespeare Theatre Company, where he most recently directed Romeo and Juliet (2008 Helen Hayes nomination for Outstanding Director and Outstanding Resident Play) and Julius Caesar 2008. Other directing work includes Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune at Arena Stage, The Bluest Eye at Theatre Alliance, Blackbird (Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Resident Play), Frozen and The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow (Helen Hayes nomination for Best Director and Best Production) at Studio Theatre Secondstage, Swansong at the New York Summer Play Festival and Antony and Cleopatra at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. David has helped to develop new plays at numerous theatres including Arena Stage, Geva Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, the Kennedy Center, Ford’s Theatre and at STC. He is a graduate of Yale University and the Yale School of Drama.

Adam Navarro joins the Shakespeare Theatre Company as a 2009-2010 Acting Fellow. He earned his MFA from California State University, Fullerton in 2009. For the past five years Adam has been actively involved with various non-profit organizations working closely with at-risk youth. Prior to receiving his BA, Adam was actively involved in competitive forensics. He has earned many awards including National Champion at the AFA National Individual Events Tournament in Long Beach 2004. Also, Adam is a three time regional finalist, two time regional winner and national champion at the American College Theatre Festival. Adam has recently appeared at the prestigious Williamstown Theatre Festival.

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.

Lorraine Ressegger is an affiliated teaching artist with the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Ressegger is an actor, fight choreographer and teaching artist who has recently returned to the DC area. Locally, she has taught for STC, Washington National Opera, Round House Theatre and at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles. Ressegger is a member of the Society of American Fight Directors and the Globe Fighters Guild and a founding member of dog and pony dc.

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: STC, Smithsonian Associates, Center Stage, the Sitar Center, the Theater Lab, Creative Cauldron and the Center for Inspired Teaching.

Esther Williamson is an affiliated teaching artist with the Shakespeare Theatre Company; she earned her MFA from the Academy for Classical Acting in 2005. She has performed with Ford's Theatre, Taffety Punk Theatre, the 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. She also teaches at Imagination Stage in Bethesda and has recently directed a production of The Tempest for their Shakespeare Project.

Matthew R.Wilson joins Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Master Acting Class program as an affiliated teaching artist. Wilson is Artistic Director of Faction of Fools Theatre Company, Inc., DC’s only theatre company devoted specifically to Commedia dell’ Arte. He teaches at Antonio Fava’s Commedia conservatory in Reggio-Emilia, Italy, and is an Adjunct Professor of Acting at George Washington University and George Mason University. He performs in DC-area SAG/AFTRA projects, and his recent Equity credits include The Great One-Man Commedia Epic (STC’s “Happenings at the Harman” & Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage), Shear Madness (Kennedy Center Theatre Lab), and Henry IV, Part 1 (Folger Theatre). BA, Columbia University. MFA, Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy for Classical Acting.

*Faculty subject to change.