Faculty Biographies
Department Chair
Professor Richard E. T. White
Original Works/Directing, Rehearsal/Performance, Senior Seminar
Richard came to Cornish after a three-year residency in Japan, where he was a visiting professor of English at Toin Yokohama University and Resident Director at Tokyo's Theatre Company Subaru. Richard has directed at regional theaters throughout the U.S., including the Old Globe Theatre, the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Atlanta's Alliance Theatre, the Berkeley Shakespeare Festival, American Conservatory Theater, the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and Seattle's Seattle Repertory, Intiman and A Contemporary Theatres. Recent directing credits include American Buffalo, The Goat and Hedda Gabler at ACT in San Francisco and The Clean House at Milwaukee Repertory Theater. With librettist/performer Rinde Eckert and composer Paul Dresher, he developed and directed the electronic opera Slow Fire, which has been performed throughout the United States and Europe. He has served as Artistic Director of San Francisco's Eureka Theatre and the Wisdom Bridge Theatre in Chicago and has taught acting at UC Berkeley, the Berkeley Shakespeare Festival Institute and the Drama Studio London at Berkeley. Richard holds a BA in drama from the University of Washington and did graduate work at UC Berkeley. A member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers since 1985, he has received nine Bay Area Theater Critics' Circle Awards and eight Drama-logue Awards for Outstanding Direction.
Core Faculty
Associate Professor Ellen Boyle
Voice I & II, Yoga
Ellen holds a BFA from the University of Michigan in Musical Theater and an MFA in Acting from the Professional Theater Training Program located at the University of Delaware. As an actor she has performed internationally in Greece, Cyprus and Germany and nationally with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Rep, Seattle Opera, Seattle Children's Theater and the Bathhouse Theater. As a Dialect and Text Coach Ellen has served at the Seattle Rep, Intiman, ACT and Bathhouse Theaters. She has been teaching Voice and Speech since 1987 and has completed her Yoga Alliance 500-hour Yoga Teacher Training in the Vini Yoga tradition. She currently teaches at the Yoga Tree in Seattle, Washington. Ellen will appear as Clytemnestra in the Seattle Opera's Fall 2007 Production of Iphigenia in Tauris.
Professor Bonnie Cohen
Acting Fundamentals
Bonnie has performed with Missouri Repertory, Ithaca Repertory, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Oregon Repertory Theatre, and The Group Theatre, as well as off-Broadway and in films and television. She has been a professor at Cornish College for over twenty years, and has taught everything from Shakespeare to improvisation. At present she teaches Fundamentals of acting in the sophomore year. She began directing several years ago and has found it most rewarding. In addition to teaching at Cornish, she has focused her creative abilities on working with under-served populations. She developed an improvisational theater company with mentally ill actors in an effort to break the stigma surrounding their illness. This project received national attention and was featured on NPR Morning Edition. She worked as a drama therapist at Echo Glen Children's Center, a state correctional facility for adolescents, where she used Drama Therapy techniques to engage addicted youth in the 12-step recovery program. She received a BFA from the University of Texas, an MA from the University of Missouri, an MFA from Cornell University, and a Certificate in addiction studies from Seattle University.
Associate Professor Kathleen Collins
Original Works Directing, Audition Techniques
Kathleen Collins received an M.A. and an M.F.A. in Theatre from the University of Washington. While in graduate school, she was one of the founders of the Seattle Children's Theatre. As the Artistic Director of the Honolulu Theatre for Youth, the only professional theatre in the state of Hawaii, Kathleen's productions toured all the Islands of Hawaii as well as Samoa and the 1982 World's Fair in New Orleans. Kathleen was the Artistic Director of the Fulton Opera House in Lancaster, Pennsylvania where she led the professional mainstage program, as well as the professional touring program for young audiences. Recent directing assignments include My Only May Amelia, The Gingerbread Boy and Harriet's Halloween Candy at Seattle Children's Theatre. She has directed staged readings for ACT and Seattle Rep. Kathleen has taught at the University of Hawaii, and her alma mater. She has directed over 70 professional productions and, in addition to teaching at Cornish, has also taught at Lesley University and the University of Washington.
Adjunct Associate Professor Robin Lynn Smith
Acting Workshop
Robin has worked for over 20 years as an actor, director and teacher in Chicago, Boston, New York and Seattle. In New York, she directed Sam Shepard's Curse of the Starving Class off-Broadway at the Promenade Theatre. As artist-in-residence with Seattle Repertory Theatre, she helped to develop their outreach program and directed several productions, including Marvin's Room, Frankie and Johnnie in the Claire de Lune and City of Gold. She has also directed in Seattle at The Empty Space, New City, Seattle Children's Theatre, and Intiman Theatre, where she is an affiliate artist and directs the Living History touring program. Robin is a co-founder and studio director at Freehold Theatre Lab in Seattle, where she also teaches and directs. She has also taught at New York University's Graduate Acting Program, the University of Washington's Professional Actor Training Program, the University of Puget Sound and Bellevue Community College. She holds a BFA in acting from Boston University and an MFA in directing from New York University Tisch School of the Arts and she is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.
Professor Robert MacDougall
Movement for Actors, Stage Combat I and II
An actor, stuntman, and fight choreographer whose work has been seen internationally, Bob co-founded Proteus Theatre Company and Shakespeare Plus Theater Company as well as 'The Sword and the Play' stage combat workshops, and he has toured nationally for many years. As a fight choreographer he has worked at theater companies nationwide, including Seattle Repertory Theatre, Dallas Shakespeare Festival, Central Coast Shakespeare Festival, and Pacific Conservatory for the Performing Arts. He is the 1992 recipient of the Patrick Crean Award for excellence in the field of stage combat. He is a certified fight director with the Society of American Fight Directors and a fightmaster with the Society of Australian Fight Directors. He is president of Fighting Arts International and serves on the board of directors of United Stuntman's Association and has worked as a stuntman, actor and stunt coordinator on several television shows and films, including: Drugstore Cowboy, Dogfight, Twin Peaks, and Northern Exposure. He has taught in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America, including the University of Washington, University of Denver, University of Indiana and the National Theatre Conservatory. He is a certified Feldenkrais practitioner and licensed massage therapist and holds black belts or teaching certificates in several martial arts. Bob holds a BS from Humboldt State University.
Professor Kathryn Mesney
Advanced Acting, Directing Workshop
An actor, instructor, and voice and dialect coach for over 20 years, Kathryn has worked in most of Seattle's major theaters, including Seattle Repertory Theatre, ACT, Intiman, Empty Space, The Group and Seattle Children's Theatre. Prior to teaching at Cornish, she taught in the BFA Actor's Training Program at Ithaca College and at the KIIS Broadcasting Workshop in Los Angeles. Major roles in the theater have included: Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker, Clytemnestra and Thetis in The Greeks, Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest, Dull Gret/Angie in Top Girls, Miss Elena in Dear Miss Elena, Madame Giselle in The Workroom, and multiple roles in Sarajevo: Behind God's Back, The Dining Room, and Wenceslaus Square. Her film and television credits include Seven Hours to Judgment, NBC's Hot Pursuit, CBS's The Lame Duck, and ABC's Mystery Dance. During her 20-plus years at Cornish, she has directed You Can't Take It with You, Mother Courage, Fen, E/R, Dark of the Moon and Pericles Unchained, among others. Kathryn received a BS from the State University College of New York at Brockport and her MA from the State University of New York at Binghamton, where she studied and taught with Arthur Lessac.
Associate Professor Timothy McCuen Piggee
Text Analysis, Music Theater
In addition to teaching at Cornish, Timothy has taught classes for the Seattle Children's Theatre, Freehold Studio Theatre and served as artistic director of Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center Theatre Camp. As an actor, Timothy has appeared with the Denver Center Theatre Company, Arizona Theatre Company, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage and Pioneer Theatre Company, among others. Northwest credits include roles at the 5th Avenue Theatre, ACT, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Empty Space Theatre, Village Theatre and Seattle Children's Theatre. Recent roles include Tom in The Glass Menagerie with Milwaukee Repertory Theatre and Hastings in Richard III with Intiman Theatre. Timothy has directed many productions at Cornish, including Hedda Gabler, The Laramie Project and The House of Bernarda Alba. He received a BFA from the University of Utah and an MFA from The National Theatre Conservatory at the Denver Center.
Assistant Professor Kate Myre
Advanced Vocal Technique, Voice Skills and Dialects, Audition Techniques, Voiceover and Commercial Voice Skills
Kate received her MFA in Acting from Brandeis University. Selected Regional credits include: Boston's Publick Theatre as Rosalind in As You Like It, The Boston Repertory Theatre in Baby With The Bathwater, Chiswick Party Theatre Company as Ann in All my Sons, and StageWest in Massachusetts as Elsa in The Road to Mecca. Since moving to Seattle, Kate has worked with the Seattle Shakespeare Festival as Gremio in Taming of the Shrew and as Lady Macbeth. Kate also served as SSF's company vocal coach for several seasons. In August of 1996, she had the honor of meeting Arthur Miller and performing the role of Patricia in his play The Last Yankee. With the assistance of Mr. Miller, Kate was brought to New York to recreate the role for the Signature Theatre Company under the direction of Joseph Chaikin. Kate has worked with the Seattle Children's Theatre, ACT, Cornish College, The Immediate Theatre, Toast Theatre, and The Boston Repertory Theatre. At Cornish, Kate has directed productions of The Cripple of Inishmaan and Fen.
Professor Hal Ryder
Literature of Theater and Acting Classical Texts
Hal has directed plays and taught acting for almost 35 years. Hal founded and is CEO of Educational Arts Resource Services (EARS, Inc.), dedicated to the creation of support material/ media for Arts Education. In 2007 EARS received grants of over 135K and toured 4 Latin American countries with theater workshops and hosted an exchange program with some of the workshop participants. In a program sponsored by Freehold Theater, Hal taught drama workshops to men at the Monroe Correctional Center. He served as artistic and executive director of Open Door Theatre, a company helps prevent child sexual abuse. He has run theater companies in London and Florida and Washington and headed the postgraduate professional training at the Drama Studio at Berkeley. He served as a drama specialist on the Navajo Reservation, and as the director of Sitka Arts Fine Arts Camp in Alaska. In fall 2004 he was a visiting artist in Lahore, Pakistan. Hal is an actor and member of SAG and AFTRA. He holds a BA from the University of Washington, is a graduate of Drama Studio London, and attended the University of Arizona and the University of Miami.
Associate Professor David Taft
Auto-Cours, Physical Techniques, Clown
David is a freelance movement coach and mask consultant for stage and television who has worked in movement theater for over 20 years with numerous ensemble companies, including Two Penny Theater, the Stained Glass Company and Creation Company. He has worked off-Broadway for five seasons with movement artists and directors including Peter Lobdell, Susan Mosakowski and Ken Kelleher. He has acted locally at New City Theatre, On the Boards, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Freehold and performed in the Allegro Dance Series with choreographers Erika Angelakos and Orjan Andersson. At Cornish, David directed the 1995 Commedia dell'Arte production The Three Cuckolds and co-directed the 1999 Sophomore Ensemble original work 010100. He has trained with Michael Howard and Carlo Mazzone-Clemente, is a graduate of the Dell'Arte School and holds an MIT from Seattle University.
Professor John Kendall Wilson
Auto-Cours, Theater History
MFA, University of Georgia
BA, LaGrange College
For John's bio, see Performance Production Faculty
Adjunct Faculty
Adjunct Instructor John Abramson
Acting Fundamentals
John has been working in the theatre for over twenty years as an actor, director, producer, and teacher. He received his BA in theatre from the University of Kansas and his MFA from the University of Washington Professional Actor Training Program. John has performed with Seattle Repertory Theatre, A.C.T., Empty Space, Seattle Children's Theatre, and Printer's Devil, among others, in plays including Still Life with Iris, Hedda Gabler, The Seagull, The Winter's Tale, Glengarry Glen Ross, and Fool For Love. His directing credits include The Long Christmas Dinner, Arturo Ui, The Birthday Party, The Taming of the Shrew, and original adaptations from authors such as Raymond Carver, John Berger, and Russell Banks. He has taught at the University of Washington, Willamette University, Seattle Children's Theatre, and Freehold Studio. John has served as an associate artist at Capitol Hill Arts Center and Freehold, and is currently the Artistic Director of The Community Theatre. At Cornish John directed Pullman Car Hiawatha and Marat/Sade, and will be directing Balm in Gilead this fall.
Adjunct Instructor Karen Armand
Advanced Stage Makeup, Stage Makeup
Karen Armand, theatrical makeup instructor, at Cornish since 1996, has worked all over the world for the last 28 years in opera, theater, dance, TV and print. Her most recent work can be seen locally in magazines, newspapers, and on stage at the Pacific NW Ballet.
Adjunct Instructor Tinka Gutrick-Dailey
Dance for Actors
Tinka began her training in New York City with the prestigious Harkness Ballet and went on to tour the world extensively in a number of Broadway shows as well as being principal/soloist with the American Dancemachine for 10 years. She has served as assistant to Lee Theodore and Agnes DeMille, and has worked with some of Broadways' most notable choreographer/directors. She has taught Theatre Dance throughout the country including LA and NY's High School for the Performing Arts. She continues to teach, study, and perform many different styles and techniques including, African, Brazilian, and East Indian and Cuban. Tinka currently is in her 14th year teaching at Cornish College for the Arts, where she has taught in both the Theater and Dance departments, and continues to teach master classes with PNB, Arc Dance Company and Spectrum Dance Theatre. As well as coaching and teaching for the 5th Avenue Theatre, in Seattle.
Adjunct Instructor Gretta Harley
Music Director, Composer, Cross Discipline/New Performance Workshop, and Musical Theater Workshop
Gretta is and has been a working composer and performer in Seattle for the last 17 years. Her music has appeared at Bumbershoot, Richard Hugo House's Cultural Inquiry, Seattle Fringe Festival, television documentaries, films, music videos and several music recordings, including the recent release of Seattle Harmonic Voices. She was the Music Director for Sarah Rudinoff's Last Year's Kisses; the Tribes Project's Dreams About Teeth; and several Cornish productions including: Tales From Ovid, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, Mail Order Bride, Peer Gynt, The Beggar's Opera as well as her own Foxes in Boxes and Insomnia and other things that keep me up at night... She is a co-founder of Home Alive and produced its first CD on Sony Records. She is certified in Dalcroze Eurhythmics and runs a private teaching studio for voice, piano, guitar, and composition.
Adjunct Instructor Elizabeth Heffron
Playwriting
Elizabeth's plays include Mitzi's Abortion, which won the 2005 ACT Theatre New Play Award and was produced by ACT in July, 2006, and New Patagonia, produced by the Seattle Repertory Theatre and selected for the 'Alternative Reading Series' at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York. Her new play, BONITA, received a Seattle Dramatists reading this past June, and she is currently working on a piece about the early nuclear industry through a Sloan Foundation commission with ACT Theatre. Her plays have also been seen locally at Annex Theatre, 14/48 Festival, New City Theatre, and Freehold Theatre, where she's finished a third season working with Robin Lynn Smith and the inmates of the Washington Correctional Center for Women. She is the recipient of several grants from the Seattle Arts Commission, as well as a Playwriting Fellowship from Artist Trust and the Washington State Arts Commission. She's a principal playwright at Seattle Dramatists, and a member of the Dramatists Guild. Elizabeth received a Bachelors of Science in Psychobiology from UCLA.
Adjunct Instructor Bill Johns
Acting Fundamentals for Non-Majors
Bill Johns has been teaching acting, mime, playwriting, storytelling and circus skills since 1980. As a certified K-12 teacher, he has worked in a number of public schools and currently teaches drama at the Overlake School in Redmond. Before his work at Cornish, Bill was on the drama/dance faculty at the University of Georgia. As an artist-in-residence, he has taught over 100 residencies throughout the Southeast and Northwest, teaching theater in diverse situations including prisons, shelters, the Georgia Governor's Honors Program and numerous professional actor training programs. As an arts advocate, Bill was a member of the Southern Arts federation, the Kennedy Center's "Arts 2000" national arts education goals committee, and has written curricula and resource guides for the State of Georgia. Johns also works regularly as a stage and commercial actor, and has worked locally at A Contemporary Theatre, Intiman, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Seattle Children's Theatre and numerous fringe theaters, as well as in films, TV, commercials, industrials and voice-overs.
Adjunct Instructor Marya Sea Kaminski
Acting
Marya Sea Kaminski is a performer, director, and writer. Her acting credits include My Name is Rachel Corrie and The Time of Your Life at Seattle Repertory Theatre, Moonlight and Magnolias at Intiman Theatre, Simone Alone at La Mama ETC in New York City, and The Cherry Orchard at Annenberg Center in Philadelphia. Marya Sea has created over twenty solo shows and has performed her original work at On the Boards in Seattle, PS 122 in New York, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Marya Sea is a Founding Member and Co-Artistic Director of the Washington Ensemble Theatre. At WET, she has directed Adam Rapp's Finer Noble Gases and Jordan Harrison's The Museum Play and performed in the national premiere of Jane Martin's Laura's Bush and in Sarah Kane's Crave. She holds a BA in English and Theatre Arts from the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA from the University of Washington. Marya Sea also teaches at Eastside Preparatory School and Freehold Studios. She was awarded "Best Performing Artist" in 2006 by the readers of the Seattle Weekly and honored on the Theatre Short List for The Stranger's Genius Awards.
Adjunct Instructor Alyssa Keene
Speech I & II
Alyssa Keene has worked as an actor, voice talent, musician, and dialect coach in Seattle since 2000. She has coached dialect for numerous theaters including Seattle Children's Theatre, 5th Ave., ACT, Seattle Repertory Theatre, CHAC, Taproot Theater, Book-It Repertory Theatre, Village Theater, Seattle Shakespeare Company, and Theater Schmeater. As an actor, she has worked at the Intiman Theater, Seattle Children's Theater, Theater Schmeater, ACT, CHAC, Consolidated Works, Open Circle Theatre, Balagan, and others. Alyssa has done on-camera and voice-over work for several regional and national companies, including Microsoft, Coldwell Banker, Taco Time, Tractor Supply, Albertson's, Hoyle Card Games, Northwest Source, HerInteractive, and Tulalip Casino. Alyssa has been an adjunct faculty member of the theater department at Cornish College of the Arts since 2002, teaching speech and dialects as well as teaching with the Young Actor's Institute at Seattle Children's Theater. She is also a member of the local country band Purty Mouth.
Adjunct Instructor Carys Kresny
Directing
Carys Kresny has created work for stages ranging from A Christmas Carol on a tabletop to Opening Day in Giants Stadium with the USC Marching Band and 59 jugglers. She has collaborated with a diverse range of performers and producers, among them opera singers, jugglers, juvenile detainees, jazz musicians, inanimate objects, actors, and children. Carys directed the Flying Karamazov Brothers in the Berkeley production of L'Universe and in Catch! which originated here at ACT and toured nationwide. Past productions include Cymbeline (Footlight Award for "Best Local Shakespeare"), As You Like It, The Changeling, Penetralia, The Cherry Orchard, Camino Real, Endgame, Ruthless!, Told You Once, Top Girls, The Caucasian Chalk Circle and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Carys has taught and directed at Cornish, the University of Washington, Olympic Community College, Northwest Actors' Studio, and The Annie Wright School and worked in various venues--from Seattle Opera to the Vail Theatre Festival.
Adjunct Instructor Rick MacKenzie
Stage Management for Actors
Rick is the Production Manager for the Cornish Theater Department, where he has designed scenery, lighting and sound for many productions. He is a graduate of the Performance Production Department.
Adjunct Instructor Keira McDonald
Physical Technique, Ensemble Creation
Keira McDonald is a self-producing theatre artist. Her solo show Showerhead was featured at The Mae West Fest, Re-bar, Frontera Fest (Austin, TX.), Estrogenius Festival (New York, NY) and The Uno Solo Festival (Victoria B.C.) Her other solo show The Bridesmaid was developed at The Comedy Tree (London, U.K.) and was featured in Theatre Off Jackson's SPF1: NoProtection Festival. It also toured the Canadian Fringe Circuit to critical acclaim and sold-out houses in 2007. She is the Co-founder and Director of SPF: Seattle Solo Performance Festival which is co-produced by Theatre Off Jackson. She has worked with young actors at The Northwest School, Seattle Children's Theatre Drama School, ACT, Seattle Repertory Theatre's Education Department, St. Joseph's School, Youth Theatre Northwest and others. She holds a B.F.A from Texas Tech University in Theatre Arts and an M.F.A. in Lecoq based Acto- Created Theatre from Naropa University/London International School for the Performing Arts.
Adjunct Instructor Lisa Norman
Voice and Speech
Lisa has worked in New York, Los Angeles, London, Nashville and points in-between. Regional acting credits include Dangerous Liaisons, Hamlet, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Dancing at Lughnasa, Measure for Measure, and numerous commercials and industrials. Film/TV appearances include Disney's Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken, Matlock, and Our Very Own, with Allison Janney. With an MFA degree in Acting from the Univ. of Tennessee, she later studied voice and Shakespearean text with Cicely Berry (former RSC Voice Master). She has taught on the faculties of the Univ. of South Carolina, the Univ. of Tennessee and Marymount Manhattan College (NYC) and is a theatre/ film vocal coach (recently for Intiman and Village Theatre). Productions coached at Cornish include This is the Rill Speaking, Orpheus Descending, Peer Gynt, Language of Angels, and The Dancers. In 2007 she adapted and directed The Beggar's Opera. Member: SAG, AFTRA, AEA, VASTA.
Adjunct Instructor Jodi Rothfield
Audition Techniques, Auditioning for the Camera
Jodi Rothfield, CSA, is Seattle 's busiest Casting Director. Principal casting for film has included The Ring, Smoke Signals, Sleepless in Seattle, Georgia, American Heart, and Life, or Something Like It. Talent searches include Speed Racer, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Sesame Street, The Deep End of the Ocean, Mercury Rising, Hearts In Atlantis, Stepmom, Signs, Ten Things I Hate About You and Empire Records. Jodi has worked on TV Pilots, Feature Films and episodic TV for Miramax, American Playhouse, TriStar, Warner Brothers, Disney, Touchstone, Paramount , Universal, NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, the WB and 20th Century Fox. TV credits include the television series The Fugitive and Citizen Baines. She has also cast many national commercials. Jodi is a graduate of the University of California/Berkeley and attended Smith College.
Adjunct Instructor Chuck Sheaffer
Special Topics in Film History
Chuck Sheaffer earned his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota, where he studied cinema, philosophy, and poetics (and where he held the Harold Leonard fellowship in film study). Chuck’s focus on film reflects a broad interest in the relation of creative intellect to civic and institutional coherence—an interest further cultivated through a thirteen-year stint with the U.S. government, where Chuck wrote policy for natural-resource management, designed websites for public outreach, and parachuted from airplanes to manage remote wildfires. Chuck writes about cinema as an index to the articulation of civic ideals in all contexts (whether creative or institutional), and in addition to teaching film history at Cornish, he also teaches courses in technical communication at the University of Washington. (Chuck still spends time in the mountains, too—though he now travels by land rather than by parachute.)
Adjunct Instructor Jeanmarie Williams
Contemporary Theater Studies
Jeanmarie Williams is a PhD candidate in Theory History and Criticism at the University of Washington. She holds an MFA in Playwriting from the University of Virginia and a BA in Theatre Arts from Drew University. She has presented papers in graduate debut panels at ATHE, IFTR and MATC. Her plays have been produced at small professional theatres around the country - including StreetSigns in North Carolina, the Hudson Backstage in Los Angeles, and SecondStory Rep in Seattle. Her NYC credits include PS/NBC, the Looking Glass Theatre, and HERE Arts Center. SCIENCE FAIR and TO MOSCOW! are published by Playscripts, Inc. Jeanmarie is a member of the Dramatists Guild.