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Board |
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Board Officers
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Megan Ann Rasmussen, President
Joette Pelster, Vice-President, Finance & Development
Karen Sharp, Vice-President, Membership
Ernie Nolan, Vice-President, Communications
Michael J. Bobbitt, Secretary
Ruth C. Mercado–Zizzo, Treasurer
Brian Guehring, Member at Large to the Executive Committee
Official International Representative to ASSITEJ International
Kim Peter Kovac, ASSITEJ Vice President
Home Office Administrative Assistant
Chris Garcia Peak |
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Megan
Ann Rasmussen, PRESIDENT
Producing Artistic Director, Firehouse Theatre for Youth
1134 Laurelwood Drive, Fruit Heights, UT 84037
W: 801-543-2574 F: 801-543-2547
meganannrasmussen@msn.com
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Megan Ann Rasmussen
is Producing Artistic Director of the Firehouse Theatre for Youth that
she founded outside of Salt Lake City, Utah in 2003. Megan Ann’s
articles and photography have been published in TYA Today, AATE’s
Stage of the Art, NEXT and on the TYA/USA web-site. Recently
she was appointed editor of the ASSITEJ International newsletter that is
published three times a year to ASSITEJ centers in 85 countries. Megan
Ann and her husband, David, live outside Salt Lake City with their three
children. |
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Joette
Pelster,
VICE PRESIDENT, FINANCE & DEVELOPMENT
Executive Director, The Coterie Theatre
2450 Grand Blvd., Suite 144, Kansas City, MO 64108
W: 816-474-6785, ext. 229 F: 816-474-7122
jpelster@coterietheatre.org
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Joette Pelster
is the Executive Director at the Coterie Theatre in Kansas City,
Missouri. She was one of the primary creators
of the Dramatic AIDS Education Project. She assisted in bringing the
Gem Theatre for Cultural and Performing Arts, a new theatre in the 18th
and Vine Historic District, into operation. From 1986-1993, she was the
Executive Director of the Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey. While
there, she spear-headed the creation of AileyCamp, a nationally
replicated program in six cities. Her background is in arts
administration and includes extensive community arts coalition
experience. Joette has also been the Marketing Director for Kansas
City's Folly Theatre and was a founding member of the Nebraska
Director's Theatre. |
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Ernie Nolan,
VICE PRESIDENT, COMMUNICATIONS
Director of Performance Studies and Assistant Professor of Theatre
Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts
Northside 101
1700 Mishawaka Ave.
South Bend, IN 46634-7111
W:
574-520-4268
F:
574-520-4317
Email|Photo
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Ernie Nolan is a proud graduate of
the University of Michigan Musical Theatre Program (BFA Musical Theatre)
and The Theatre School at DePaul University (MFA Directing). An Artistic
Associate of Emerald City Theatre in Chicago, his ECT credits include
directing and choreographing the Chicago profession al premiere of HIGH
SCHOOL MUSICAL, SEUSSICAL, THE JUNGLE BOOK and adapting and directing
SNOW WHITE: AS PERFORMED BY TJ BARKER AND HIS TROUPE OF THEATRICALS. As
a Resident Artist at The Coterie Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri,
recently named by TIME magazine as one of the top theatres for young
audiences in the country, his credits include directing and
choreographing. |
Karen Sharp,
VICE PRESIDENT, MEMBERSHIP
Education
Director, Seattle Children’s Theatre
201 Thomas
Street
Seattle,
WA 98109
W:
(206) 443-0807 x
1126
F:
206-443-0442
Karens@sct.org |
Karen Sharp
is a 1982 graduate of the Goodman School of Drama. She
has taught and coordinated arts education programs throughout the Puget
Sound region for over twelve years. Ms. Sharp began teaching for SCT in
1998 and has taught numerous classes for students ages 3½ through
eighteen years old. In 1999 Ms. Sharp joined the SCT staff and has
worked as Education Outreach Coordinator, Drama School Director and,
since 2005, as SCT Education Director where she oversees both the Drama
School and Outreach programs. She has taught and developed curricula for
classes at local universities and for classroom teachers in which
participants learn how to integrate drama into classroom curriculum. |
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Ruth C. Mercado-Zizzo, TREASURER
Director of Education, Citi Performing Arts Center
270 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02116
W: 617-532-1259 F: 617-532-1340
ruthcmercado@gmail.com
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Ruth C.
Mercado is the
Director of
Education, Citi Performing Arts Center. She previously worked with
The People's Light and Theatre Company in Malvern, PA. Ruth received
her Master of Fine Arts in Theatre for Youth from Arizona State
University and is a graduate from The Wharton School of the University
of Pennsylvania. |
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Michael J. Bobbitt, SECRETARY |
Michael J. Bobbitt
is the Producing Artistic Director of Adventure Theatre,
DC Area’s longest Running children’s theatre. He has directed,
choreographed and performed at many theatres in the DC Metropolitan
Area. His National and International credits include the NY Musical
Theatre Festival, Mel Till is 2001, and 1996 Olympics. He studied
creative writing and music at Susquehanna University and theatre and
dance at The Washington Ballet, The Dance Theatre of Harlem, The
American Musical and Dramatic Academy and NY University’s Tisch School
of the Arts (Cap 21) and has taught theatre and dance at George
Washington University, Catholic University, Montgomery College, Howard
University, and the Washington Ballet. Michael serves as a Commissioner
for the Montgomery County Commission for Children and Families. For his
writing Michael has received numerous grants – including a grant from
the National Alliance of Musical Theatre. |
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Brian Guehring, Member at Large to
the Executive Committee |
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Kim
Peter Kovac,
Director, Theatre for Young Audiences, Kennedy Center for the Performing
Arts
PO Box 101510, Arlington, VA 22210
W: 202-416-8837 F: 202-416-8297
kpkovac@kennedy-center.org
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Kim Peter Kovac is Director of
Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences in Washington, DC, which
commissions, produces, tours and presents performances for children,
young people and families. He’s helped develop nearly seventy-five new
plays, operas and dances for young audiences and is a major architect of
New Visions/New Voices, the Center’s program to help develop new
TYA plays. |
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Board Members
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Dolores
Apollonia Chávez
MEMBER-AT-LARGE
Executive Director, Common Ground
4878 Granada Street, Los Angeles, CA 90042
W: 302-258-8676
commonground05@sbcglobal.net
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Dolores Apollonia
Chávez is the Founder of Common Ground and Executive
Director of Company of Angels. As Producer for P.L.AY./CTG she produced
numerous productions that toured throughout Los Angeles, the Mark Taper
Forum, the Kennedy Center and Scotland. She has also served as a
consultant with the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the NEA. |
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Megan Alrutz
Assistant Professor of Applied Theatre and Community Cultural Engagement
University of Texas at Austin
1608 West 8th Street
Austin, TX 78703 |
Megan Alrutz
recently joined the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin as an
assistant professor of Applied Theatre and Community Cultural
Engagement. For five years prior, she was a theatre professor and
coordinator of the MFA program in Theatre for Young Audiences at the
University of Central Florida, where she directed ArtsBridge, Digital U,
and many other community-engaged projects. She earned a Ph.D. in Theatre
(with an emphasis in Theatre for Youth) from Arizona State University,
and a B.A. in Theatre from Rutgers University. Dr. Alrutz is a scholar,
director, dramaturg, and teaching artist whose creative and scholarly
interests focus on applied theatre and community-based devising,
intersections of live theatre and digital storytelling to explore issues
of voice and identity, and investigating arts integration and
drama-based pedagogy for the university classroom. She recently
represented TYA/USA at the International Directors Seminar in Hamburg,
Germany and she is currently co-editing Playing with Theory in Theatre
Practice (Palgrave MacMillan 2010) and serving as the editor for TYA
Today. |
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Chris Anthony
Associate Artistic Director,
Shakespeare Festival/LA
1238 W. 1st Street
Los Angeles, CA 90026
W:
213-481-2273 x 16
F:
213 975-9833
Chris@Shakespearefestivalla.org |
Chris
Anthony is a director, teacher, actor and administrator
specializing in community-based art making. Holding an MFA from
CalArts, she has taught in venues ranging from Elementary
Schools to Adult Correctional Facilities. Chris began her career
with The Black Rep in St. Louis where she recently directed
Othello. She has worked with the award-winning Will Power to
Youth program for over a decade. In addition to producing Will
Power and other programs for youth, Chris also designs a
professional development programs for classroom teachers and
teaching artists. Her other professional affiliations have
included Plaza de la Raza, Cornerstone Theater, and Young Native
Voices.
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Roger
Bedard
Arizona State University, 4219 E Bannock, Phoenix, AZ 85044
W: 480-965-2032 F: 480-965-5351
roger.bedard@asu.edu
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Roger L. Bedard
holds the Evelyn Smith Family Professorship at Arizona State University
where he heads the Theatre for Youth MFA and Ph.D. Programs and directs
ARTSWORK: The Kax Herberger Center for Children and the Arts. He
teaches graduate level courses in theatre for young audiences and
dramatic theory and criticism. |
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Doug Cooney
is a writer in Los
Angeles. His plays and musicals for young people include The Beloved
Dearly, Imagine, Nobody’s Perfect and the stage
adaptation of The Very Persistent Gappers Of Frip – and have been
commissioned and produced by the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center
Institute, South Coast Rep, the Mark Taper Forum, among many others. He
is an internationally recognized novelist, published by Simon & Schuster
Books for Young Readers. As a community-based artist through Florida
Stage, he has worked extensively in literacy-challenged high schools,
the juvenile justice system, disabled communities and among the homeless
under grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Florida
Division of Cultural Affairs, the MacArthur Foundation and Theater
Communication Group. |
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Scot
Copeland
has been Producing Director of Nashville Children’s Theatre since 1985.
He has directed more than one hundred plays for young audiences and has
written twelve. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University
of Montevallo in Alabama and his MFA from the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro. He has served on the boards of the Southeastern
Theatre Conference, the American Alliance for Theatre and Education, and
served two terms as President of ASSITEJ/USA. He is a current trustee
of the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America. |
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Jeff Frank
is First Stage Children’s Theater’s Artistic Director. He earned a BFA
in Acting/Directing from UW Whitewater in 1987 and an MFA in Child Drama
from the University of Utah in 1990. Jeff served as the Artistic
Director of Project Interact at Zachary Scott Theater Center from
1990-92. After teaching and performing throughout New England for 2
years, Jeff served as the Director of Outreach for PA Stage in
Allentown, PA. Jeff was hired as Education and Academy Director at FSCT
in 1996, and was named Artistic Director at FSCT in 2003. Jeff has
directed over 30 professional productions including world premieres of
12 DAYS – A MILWAUKEE CHRISTMAS, THUMBELINA, SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON, and
A MIDNIGHT CRY, and has consistently garnered praise for his work with
young performers and adults and his ability to help craft plays that
inspire and excite young people and their families. In collaboration
with Oregon Children's Theatre, First Stage commissioned and premiered
Lois Lowry's adaptation of her novel GOSSAMER which Jeff directed. |
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Marty Johnson
is currently the Artistic Director for iTheatrics, a New York-based
company that specializes in musical theatre educational programs for
students, teachers, and schools. Specifically, he develops materials for
all of Music Theatre International’s educational programs including the
TYA, School Edition, Broadway Junior and
Kids Collection
series. Previously, Marty served as the Director of Education at North
Shore Music Theatre, where he created the company’s first school touring
program and the award-winning Youth Performance Academy. Before that he
was the Director of Education at Virginia Stage Company, and the
Director of Drama/Theatre for Youth at Karamu House. Marty is the former
Chair of the Professional Network for the American Alliance for Theatre
and Education, and received an MFA in Theatre for Youth from the
University of North Carolina at Greensboro. |
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David Kilpatrick,
Manager of Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences in Washington,
D.C., is particularly focused on overseeing the program’s national
touring initiative. He also assists with the Kennedy Center’s script
development efforts, and contributes to season planning, including
bookings, commissions and New Visions/New Voices. David was
formerly Education Outreach Coordinator at Walnut Street Theatre in
Philadelphia, coordinating a local touring company that reached more
than 40,000 students each year in schools across the Delaware Valley.
He received his Masters in Educational Theatre at New York University in
2002 and spent two years afterwards as an Education Associate for The
New Victory Theater. David has taught for NYU’s Study Abroad programs
and worked with the Jim Henson Legacy, a non-profit organization
committed to celebrating the work of the world-famous Muppet creator. |
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Barry
Kornhauser
TYA Director/Playwright-In-Residence, Fulton Opera House
P.O. Box 1865, Lancaster, PA 17608
W: 717-394-7133, ext. 105
bkornhauser@thefulton.org
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Barry Kornhauser.
Fulton Theatre Playwright-In-Residence and Associate Director.
Barry was the 2009 winner of the AATE’s Charlotte Chorpenning Award.
Other honors include the AATE Distinguished Play Award, IUPUI/Bonderman Award, Helen
Hayes Best Play Award, Ivey Playwriting Award, “Best Practices” prize,
ASSITEJ Observership and “Best Plays of Decade” Commendation,
fellowships and grants from NEA, TCG, Mid-Atlantic Arts, PCA;
invitations to New Visions/New Voices, One Theatre World. Max, Sam,
Ariel’s dad. |
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Joan
Lazarus
Associate Professor of Theatre, Head, Theatre Studies Program, Executive
Dir., UT Connections Youth Theatre, Department of Theatre and Dance
1.162 Winship Building D3900, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
78712
W: 512-232-5326 F: 512-471-0824
j.lazarus.td@mail.utexas.edu
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Joan Lazarus
has served as a teaching artist, consultant, K-12 arts educator, member
of numerous national boards and advisory committees and past President
of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education. She is currently a
professor at The University of Texas at Austin and is author of
Signs of Change: New Directions in Secondary Theatre
Education. |
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Gillian McNally
currently serves as Assistant Professor of Theatre Education at the
University of Northern Colorado, where she teaches both undergraduate
and graduate level students. She has directed Bocon and Holes
and supervised the touring production of Tomato Plant Girl.
Prior to UNC, she served as the Resident Teaching Artist for People’s
Light and Theatre. At the University level, Ms. McNally has taught for
The University of Texas at Austin, Temple University, West Chester
University and Arcadia University. Her writing has been published in
Stage of the Art and Theatre for Young Audiences Today. A
proud Longhorn, she holds an M.F.A. in Drama and Theatre for Youth from
the University of Texas at Austin and a B.F.A. in Acting from Webster
Conservatory of Theatre Arts. |
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Rosemary Newcott
has been directing, acting and teaching at the Tony Award-winning
Alliance Theatre since 1988, and now serves as its Artistic Director of
Theatre for Young Audiences. Directing credits there range from the
world premiere of Einstein Is A Dummy to the acclaimed high
school Collision Project. She has also directed at the Horizon Theatre,
Center for Puppetry Arts, Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, Virginia Stage
Company, Seaside Rep and more, and holds extensive stage and film acting
credits. A recipient of the prestigious Grace Foundation Award, Newcott
was named PBA Lexus Leader of the Arts and Best Director by The
Atlantic Journal-Constitution for the 2001-02 season. In 2005 she
received the GTC Distinguished Career Award and in 2008 became a
recipient of a Princess Grace Special Project Grant. |
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Honorary
Members
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Ann Shaw
FOUNDING PRESIDENT, Theatre for Young Audiences/USA (formerly
ASSITEJ/USA)
VICE PRESIDENT and MEMBER OF HONOR, ASSITEJ International
1810 Calle de Sebastian D-1,
Santa Fe, NM 87505
H: 505-986-1699 F: 505-986-1699
annmimishaw@aol.com |
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Nat Eek
PRESIDENT, Theatre for Young Audiences/USA (formerly ASSITEJ/USA)
PRESIDENT and HONORARY PRESIDENT, ASSITEJ International
800 West Imhoff Road, Norman, OK 73072
H: 405-329-0705, 505-983-5689
nateek@telepath.com |
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Harold Oaks
PRESIDENT, Theatre for Young Audiences/USA (formerly ASSITEJ/USA)
TREASURER and PRESIDENT, ASSITEJ
International
923 West 20 North
Orem, UT 84057
hrijoaks@yahoo.com |
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Scot Copeland
PRESIDENT, Theatre for Young Audiences/USA (formerly ASSITEJ/USA)
Nashville Children's Theatre
724
Second Ave. S.
Nashville, TN 37210
W:
615-254-9103
F:
615-254-3255
scopeland@nashvillechildrenstheatre.org
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About the Board
The TYA/USA Board is a volunteer board. If you are
interested in more information about the TYA/USA board,
please contact TYA/USA. |
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