Faculty Bios
Norman Allen is an affiliated teaching artist at the Shakespeare
Theatre Company. Allen’s plays include Nijinsky’s Last Dance (Helen
Hayes Award, Outstanding Play), In The Garden (MacArthur Award, Outstanding
New Play) and, most recently, On The Eve of Friday Morning, which
premiered at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. His work has been commissioned
and produced by the Kennedy Center, Signature Theatre, Olney Theatre Center
and the Washington Ballet. Allen has twice received the Capital Region Emmy
Award for his work with PBS and has written on the arts and current affairs
for numerous publications, including Smithsonian and The Washington
Post. Current projects include a commission from the Karlin Music Theatre
in Prague. His work for the theatre is published by Playscripts, Inc.
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 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 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 recently relocated to Washington, D.C., from Los Angeles,
where she appeared on American Dreams, ER and All of
US and was a member of the improv troupe The Berubians.
Andy Englishhas been an affiliated teaching artist with the Shakespeare
Theatre Company since receiving his MFA from the Academy for Classical Acting
in 2006. He has appeared on STC's stage in Richard III, Titus Andronicus and The Taming
of the Shrew. He has performed with Ford's Theatre, Virginia
Shakespeare Festival, Swine Palace, The Tennessee Williams Festival, LaMaMa,
E.T.C. and The Culture Project, among others. English is also a teaching
artist with Imagination Stage, where he will be directing teens in a production
of Hamlet as part of the International Shakespeare 24 project this
spring. He is a founding member of The Acting Shakespeare Company
and holds a certificate in Acting Shakespeare from the Royal Academy of Dramatic
Art.
Elizabeth Forte is a Master Teaching Artist
at the Shakespeare Theatre Company.She has appeared at the Shakespeare Theatre
Company in The Duchess of Malfi, Romeo and Juliet, Don
Carlos, Coriolanus, The Country Wife and The Trojan
Women . In D.C. she appeared at the Studio Theatre as well as at Round
House Theatre, and her regional credits include productions at the Cleveland
PlayHouse, New Jersey 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 and the
University of Maryland. She currently teaches in the Department of Theatre
at the University of Maryland and has taught at Catholic University and the
Academy for Classical Acting. She holds an MFA from the University of Alabama/Alabama
Shakespeare Festival, a BA from Illinois State University and is completing
work on her dissertation for the Theatre and Performance Studies Program
at the University of Maryland.
Casey Kaleba is an affiliated
teaching artist with the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Recent work as a
fight director in the capital area includes Blood, Sweat and Fears with
Molotov Theatre, Kit Marlowe with Rorschach Theatre, Reefer Madness at Studio
Theatre SecondStage and three seasons with the National Players. University
productions this year include UMBC, UMD-College Park, American, Gallaudet
and McDaniel College. In addition to lectures or demonstrations for the Kennedy
Center and Folger Library, Kaleba served on the faculty of the 2007 Paddy
Crean Workshop. He is a member of the Society of American Fight Directors,
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, where he teaches stage combat
and theatre history.
Gary Logan is the Director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s
Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University in Washington,
D.C., and is a Voice, Speech and Dialect Coach for the Shakespeare Theatre
Company at the Harman Center for the Arts, as well as numerous other regional
theatre companies, including: the Arena Stage, Everyman Theatre, the Studio
Theatre, Ford’s Theater, the Folger, the Chautauqua Theater Company and the
Stratford Festival of Canada. He is the author of The Eloquent Shakespeare:
A Pronouncing Dictionary for the Complete Works—With Notes to Untie the Modern
Tongue (University of Chicago Press, forthcoming).
Andrew Long has appeared at the Shakespeare Theatre Company
in Lady Windermere’s Fan, Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, Coriolanus (title
role), Don Carlos, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet (Carter
Barron), King Lear, The Merchant of Venice, Richard II, The
Duchess of Malfi, Tamburlaine and Edward II. Andrew
appeared 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 and Signature
Theatre. Regionally he has appeared at the Guthrie Theater, Cincinnati Playhouse
in the Park, 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. 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 D.C. 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. This spring he will direct Tennessee Williams’ The
Eccentricities of a Nightingale for American Century Theater and The
Stinky Cheese Man for Adventure Theatre.
David Muse is the Associate Artistic Director at the Shakespeare
Theatre Company. Recent directing credits include Frankie and Johnny in
the Claire de Lune at Arena Stage, The Bluest Eye at Theatre
Alliance, 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, Pericles at the Shakespeare Theatre
Company Free for All (original direction Mary Zimmerman) and Antony and
Cleopatra at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. Muse has helped to develop
new plays at numerous theatres including Arena Stage, Geva Theatre, New York
Theatre Workshop, Kennedy Center, Ford’s Theatre and the Shakespeare Theatre
Company. He is a graduate of Yale College and the Yale School of Drama.
Audra Polk is the Resident Teaching Artist for the Shakespeare
Theatre Company. Polk has been an affiliate teaching artist with the Shakespeare
Theatre Company, Round House Theatre, Interact Story and The Legacy Project
(Helen Hayes). Polk’s previous Master Acting Classes have included Acting
for Business Professionals and Characterization. As an actor, Polk has worked
locally and nationally with: the Kennedy Center, Woolly Mammoth, African Continuum
Theatre, Plowshares, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Old Globe. She
received her BA in Radio/TV Productions from the George Washington University
and her MFA from the Academy for Classical Acting at the Shakespeare Theatre
Company.
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: the
Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Smithsonian Associates, Center Stage, the
Sitar Center, the Theater Lab, Creative Cauldron and the Center for Inspired
Teaching.
Brad Alan Waller is an affiliated teaching artist at the
Shakespeare Theatre Company. Waller has served the Washington theatre community
as a fight choreographer and teacher of stage combat since 1989. Waller is
a certified teacher of stage combat through the Society of American Fight Directors,
and is an Honorary Member of Fight Directors Canada and the New Zealand Stage
Combat Society. He has taught at international stage combat workshops in Canada,
Britain, Norway, Estonia, Australia and South Africa. Waller enjoys research
into the 16th century fighting systems and served as guest curator of “The
Sword and the Pen” exhibit at the Folger Shakespeare Library in 1995. Brad
is honored to have received “The Maestro’s Buckle” award from Paddy Crean,
and “The Henry Marshall Memorial Award for Distinguished Service” for his international
contributions to the Art of Stage Combat.
*Faculty subject to change.
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