Standing Up and Standing Out

Date: Monday, January 11, 3:00-5:00pm

About the Teaching Artist: Tina Stafford is thrilled to collaborate with this daring company, bringing relevance, and challenging audiences to think outside of the box. She has most recently been seen in Asolo Rep's 2019-2020 Season in Murder on the Orient Express and Into the Breeches. She spent two years on the road with the first national tour of the Broadway musical Once. Leading roles around the country: York Theatre, 59E59, Soho Rep, Prospect Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Buck’s County Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Goodspeed Musicals, Cleveland Playhouse, Cincinnati Playhouse, Cape Playhouse, Westport Country Playhouse, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Arena Stage, Geva Theatre Center, Kansas City Rep, the Utah, Texas and Maine Shakespeare Festivals, among many others. Proud AEA member.

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Brush up your Shakespeare

Date: Monday, February 8, 3:00-5:00pm

About the Teaching Artist: Diana Coates is a Chicago based actor, director, and teaching artist who received her Master of Fine Arts in Acting from Regent University. Some of her performance work includes Isabella in Measure for Measure, Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Antony in Julius Caesar, Paulina in Winters Tale, and the titular role in Henry V. She recently made her debut with Asolo Repertory Theatre in last season’s Murder on the Orient Express and Into the Breeches. Passionate about theatre and storytelling for young audiences, Diana has partnered with a number of theatre companies including the Virginia Stage Company bringing summer programming to the Tidewater region and Pegasus Theatre of Chicago’s Young Playwright’s Festival where students explore writing for the stage using their varied experiences and voices. “Everyone’s story is worth telling.”

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Lightning in a Bottle: Understanding the Alchemy of Musical Theatre

Date: Monday, March 8, 3:00-5:00pm

About the Teaching Artist: Dr. John L. Cornelius, II is a member of ASCAP and the American Federation of Musicians (AFofM) and his output includes a number of chamber works, orchestral works, and song cycles. He has also written, along with his collaborator, Michael J. Bobbitt, several works for the lyric theater including Garfield: The Musical with Cattitude, Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds (Nomination - Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play - Helen Hayes Awards 2014), Mirandy and Brother Wind, Say It Ain’t So!, The Yellow Rose of Texas, and The Bingo Long Travelling All-Stars and Motor Kings, Both Garfield and Three Little Birds are licensed through R&H Theatricals and Mirandy through New Plays for Young Audiences. His most recent concert works include Chansons Creoles, a song cycle whose text is by gens de colour of 19th-century Louisiana, Three Creole Songs commissioned by the Kingwood Chorale, Song of Houston and The Kashmere Cycle, song cycles commissioned by Houston Grand Opera’s HGOCo., and Fulfilled, a Passion Week Cantata. His new chamber opera, What Wings They Were, a commission from HGOCo, premiered in May 2016. His most recent works include a set of Cowboy Songs and Sweet Freedom’s Song: a Fantasia on the hymn-tune America. Dr. Cornelius is a native of Jackson, Mississippi and is a Professor of Music at Prairie View A&M University.

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The Actors Body: Movement & Creativity 

Date: Monday, April 12, 3:00pm-5:00pm

About the Teaching Artist: Levin Valayil is a performing artist, educator, and lifelong learner. Favorite theatrical roles include: Mowgli, Jungle Book (US/Canadian Tour,Asolo Rep); Dharun Ravi, Craig Carnelia’s Poster Boy (Public Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival); Raj, Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding (Berkeley Repertory Theatre. New Musical Workshop: Bhangin It (LaJolla Playhouse). Film: “Lipreaders” dir. by Erick Spink, “Click Next to Continue” dir. by Abdul Jackson. Levin has trained with Steppenwolf Theater company in Chicago on Viewpoints, Meisner, and voice, with clown training from Christopher Bayes (Yale Drama School.) He is currently in training to become an Alexander Movement Technique Teacher and a Feldenkrais instructor. Levin holds his B.M. in voice/piano performance and music therapy from Berklee College of Music and his Masters of Fine Arts in musical theater from Boston Conservatory. www.levinvalayil.com  

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The Power of Playful Presence 

Date: Monday, May 10, 3:00-5:00pm

About the Teaching Artist: HELEN JOO LEE made her Asolo Rep debut this season as Mary Debenham in Murder on the Orient Express and Connie in The Great Leap.  She performed on the famed The Second City stages in Chicago as a permanent replacement in Fantastic Super Great Nation Numero Uno (e.t.c. Stage / 41st revue)and understudied in Dream Freaks Fall From Space (Main Stage / 106th revue). She is also a proud member of the all-Asian improv group Stir Friday Night. Television and film credits include Chicago Med, Empire, The Chi, Later Days, Teacher, and Canal Street. Before she was a performer, Helen graduated cum laude with a degree in Art History and Education from UCLA and spent a decade in the classroom as a 3rd grade and ESL teacher here in the States and in Melbourne, Seoul, and Rome. She can be seen currently in a national commercial for Lowe's. 

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