Visiting Faculty 2006-2007
Jonathan Berry is an Associate Artistic Director for the Griffin Theatre, Chicago - where his directing credits include DEAD END, TIME AND THE CONWAYS Jeff Nominations, direction and best production) PICNIC (Jeff Nomination Supporting Actress) and the Jeff recommended 5th OF JULY (co-directed with Rick Barletta). He has also directed THE ALTRUISTS for Mary Arrchie and 6 CHARACTERS for the Gift theater. Assistant directing credits include THE UNMENTIONABLES, THE WEIR, and MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN all at Steppenwolf. For 5 years, he ran the School at Steppenwolf, where he worked closely with Tina Landau to become a Viewpoints practitioner. He has completed coursework for an MFA in directing from
Mara Blumenfeld graduated from Northwestern in 1992 with a BS in Theatre, and has been working as a freelance costume designer ever since. In
Amanda Brown is an innovative creator and educator in the field of mime. In addition to training actors for the stage, she has developed educational curricula using the art of mime as a means to support academic and arts goals in schools, develop performance skills for musicians, and integrate diverse student populations representing multiple languages, ages and cultures. As a writer and performer of mime, Amanda’s work has been seen by audiences in and around the
Jen Collins is a resident stage manager at Chicago Shakespeare Theater where she has worked the past 7 years. Selected Chicago Shakespeare credits: Production Stage Manager for Seussical, the Musical, A Flea in Her Ear, Kabuki Lady Macbeth, The
Thom Cox is a founding ensemble member of the acclaimed Lookingglass Theatre Company of Chicago. Since graduating from Northwestern University in 1988, Thom has worked with Lookingglass as an actor, director, adapter, musician, and teacher, appearing in such productions as The Great Fire, The Master and Margarita, Steven Berkoff's West, Charles Mee's Summertime, The Jungle (adapted and directed by David Schwimmer), dreaming lucia (in which he played James Joyce), Algren in Nelson Algren: For Keeps and a Single Day, and Mary Zimmerman's productions of The Odyssey, The Arabian Nights, and S/M (among many others). Thom has been a teacher for most of his adult life, working with organizations such as the Performing Arts Group, Eileen Boevers Performing Arts Workshop, Piven Theatre Workshop, LakeShore Academy of Artistic Gymnastics, Lookingglass' Education and Community Program, Indiana/Purdue University in Fort Wayne, and DePaul and Roosevelt Universities. He is an original faculty member of the Actors Gymnasium of Evanston, for which he created Imaginastics, a storytelling and tumbling class which became the Gym's most popular class, and was cited by Chicago Magazine as Best Children's Drama Class (June 2004). Thom is teaching Acting for non-majors for us this fall.
Betsy Quinn is the Drama Teacher and Arts Department Chair at Haven Middle School in Evanston, IL. She earned her M.F.A. in Child Drama at Arizona State University, a M.A. in Educational Administration at Northeastern Illinois University and a B.A. in Communication and Theatre from St. Mary's College in Notre Dame, IN. She joined the faculty at Northwestern in 2003, teaching courses in Creative Drama and Advanced Creative Drama. Previously, she taught at both National Louis University and at Arizona State University. She has directed over 40 shows for and with young people at both Haven Middle School and at the Court Theatre in Chicago. Professor Quinn is currently the President-Elect of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education. She was the Associate director of Summer Theatre Lab at the University of Chicago Laboratory School. She also served on the Board of Directors of both the Chicago Children's Theatre and the Illinois Theatre Association. Betsy was the 1997 recipient of the Creative Drama Award from The American Alliance for Theatre and Education. She will be teaching Creative Drama for us winter and spring quarter.
Michael Rohd is the founding artistic director of Sojourn Theatre in Portland, OR, where his work as creator/director/performer includes The Justice Project (in a historic Federal Courthouse), the warehouse performance journey 7 Great Loves (Five Portland Drammy awards, including Production of the Year), and Passing Glances: mirrors and windows in Allen County, Ohio a documentary theatre piece about race and leadership supported by a 2001 Animating Democracy grant. Sojourn was recently awarded the Animating Democracy Exemplar award from The Ford Foundation and Americans for the Arts, one of 12 US arts organizations to get major 2 year operating support as an innovator in the field of arts and civic engagement. He is a recipient of Theatre Communication Group's 2001 New Generations Grant, and their 2002 Extended Collaboration Grant (as a playwright) with Atlanta's Alliance Theatre. His work outside of Sojourn as a creator/director has recently been seen in NYC, Berlin, Seattle, Idaho & Ohio. He is an associate artist with Cornerstone Theater Company in Los Angeles and an artistic associate with Ping Chong & Co in New York City. He is founding artistic director of Hope Is Vital, an international theatre and community dialogue resource, and author of the book Theatre for Community, Conflict, and Dialogue (Heinemann, 1998). Rohd holds an MFA in Directing & Public Dialogue from Virginia Tech University, and a BS in Speech/Theater from Northwestern University. Michael is teaching Devising Theatre for us this fall.
Laura Schellhardt holds an MFA in Playwriting from Brown University where she studied under Paula Vogel. Her plays have been produced in New York (SPF 2005, The Hangar), Seattle (Seattle Repertory Theatre, ACT), Chicago (Northlight Theatre, Serendipity Theatre, New Leaf Theatre, Citadel Theatre), Washington DC (The Kennedy Center), Providence (Trinity Rep, Brown University), Minneapolis (Theatre Limina), North Carolina (Center for Performing Arts), and Provincetown, Massachusetts (Provincetown Repertory Theatre, Provincetown Theatre Company). Original works include THE K OF D, THE CHAIR, COURTING VAMPIRES, SHAPESHIFTER, INHERITANCE, and JE NE SAIS QUOI. Adaptations include THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH, THE MYSTERIES OF HARRIS BURDICK, THE OUTFIT (Jeff Award Nominee), and CREOLE FOLKTALES. She is a recent recipient of the New Play Award from ACT in Seattle, a 2005 Dramatist Guild Playwriting Fellow, and was a participant in the 2006 SoHo Rep. Writer/Director Lab in NYC. THE K OF D was workshopped at the 2006 O‚Neill National Playwright‚s Conference, and was presented at The Kennedy Center in April 2006. She is also the author of Screenwriting for Dummies. She has been on faculty at The University of Central Florida, University of Rhode Island, Brown University and Northwestern where she received undergraduate degrees in Theatre and Creative Writing. She currently works at Northlight Theatre in Chicago. Laura is teaching Playwriting for us this winter.
Edward Sobel is the Director of New Play Development at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where he has directed the world premiere of Huck Finn, The Chosen, A Lesson Before Dying and the world premiere of Ten Percent of Molly Snyder. Other recent directing credits include: the world premiere of Brett Neveu’s Harmless and A Man for All Seasons at Timeline, the world premieres of Brett Neveu’s Heritage and American Dead at American Theatre Company, Below the Belt also at ATC; Self Defense, or death of some salesman, Be Aggressive and Faulkner’s Bicycle for Rivendell Theater Ensemble. At Steppenwolf he has overseen the development of two Pulitzer Prize Finalists: Man From Nebraska and Red Light Winter, as well as been the production dramaturg for August: Osage County, The Unmentionables, The Pain and the Itch, Lost Land, Pacific, Taking Care, Until We Find Each Other, Wendall Greene, Purple Heart, and The House of Lily. He holds an M.F.A. from Northwestern University. He is teaching along with faculty member Penny Penniston the Agnes Nixon Playwriting master class this Spring. 
Jessica Thebus is an associate artist with Steppenwolf Theatre Company and an Artistic Associate at About Face Theater. Recent projects include About Face Theatre's Pulp (Jeff nomination Best Director, After Dark Award, Best Production) and Winesburg, Ohio (Jeff nomination Best Director, After Dark Award, Best Director), A Midsummer Night's Dream at the University Of Notre Dame, No Place Like Home at Steppenwolf, an outdoor spectacle at the Field Museum, They All Fall Down at Lookingglass, Seven Moves at About Face, Salao: The Worst Kind of Unlucky with Redmoon Theatre (where she is a long time collaborator) Melancholy Play by Sarah Rhul and Abingdon Square by Maria Irene Fornes at the Piven Theater, where she is a long time member of the teaching staff. For Steppenwolf's Arts Exchange, she wrote Haymarket Eight (with Derek Goldman) and directed Whispering City and David Mamet's The Water Engine, which moved to Theater on The Lake, and most recently, A Tale of Two Cities. Jessica has also directed at Center Theater, Lifeline Theater, Collaboraction Theater and Caravan Productions, as well as touring internationally with the Bread and Puppet Theater. She holds a doctorate in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and has designed courses and taught at The University of Chicago, DePaul University, Columbia College and Roosevelt University. Jessica is teaching Toy Theatre for us this winter.
