Master Acting Classes Faculty Bios | The Shakespeare Theatre Company

| Donate | Mailing List | For Subscribers | Search

THE PLAYS TICKETS CALENDAR PLAN YOUR VISIT ABOUT US SUPPORT EDUCATION ACADEMY MFA

Faculty Bios

Vanessa Buono 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 recently joined the Shakespeare Theatre Company as their 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 kindergartener’s 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.

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, 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 member of the Society of American Fight Directors, Fight Directors Canada, and the Nordic Stagefight Society, he has taught at the University of Maryland, College Park, Old Dominion University, George Mason University, and currently teaches at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Andrew Long is a veteran of the Shakespeare Theatre Company stage where he recently appeared as Jaques in As You Like It, Albany 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 (most recently in I am My Own Wife). Regionally he has appeared at the Guthrie Theater (most recently in M Butterfly), 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.

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.

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.

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.

Jerry Whiddon joins the Master Acting Class program as a guest teaching artist. Whiddon is founder and former Artistic Director of Street 70 Theatre as well as founder and former Producing Artistic Director at Round House Theatre. His recent directing includes: Lost in Yonkers, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Orson's Shadow, Nixon's Nixon, and Speed the Plow. Recent roles include Ray—Blackbird (Studio) Trigorin – Seagull on Sixteenth Street (Theatre J), Moss—A Body of Water, the Librarian—Underneath the Lintel, and Francois—Wintertime, (Round House). Whiddon has also worked in film, TV, and voice-over work and has taught and directed at University of Maryland, Catholic University, George Mason University. Additionally, Whiddon coaches individuals/leaders in the corporate and political sector for speeches and presentations.

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 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 and Measure for Measure. 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.

*Faculty subject to change.