Photo by Heather Ligouri Esposito
|
I believe in creating safe, supportive, and fun environments where students can do their best work. My approach to teaching theatre is an active one where students are challenged to put their focus outward toward their partners. Choices should be inspired by a blend of textual clues and their own personal experience.
I serve as an adjunct professor in the Theatre Department at Southern Connecticut State University where I teach acting and stage combat as well as directing full productions for the Main Stage and the Lab Space. My 2022 production of Rob Matsushita's play Civil won the Golden Hammer Award at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. I am a faculty instructor at ACES-ECA Magnet School in New Haven where I teach classical acting styles, directing, and college preparation. My approach to high school students is no less rigorous and I strive to instill high standards of excellence. An ECA student of mine won first place in the English Speaking Union's Greenwich Branch Shakespeare Competition. |
On Elm Shakespeare Teen Troupe's As You Like It:
"...In the teen troupe’s hands, it found a perfect formula: 16 young people dealing with remote learning, social isolation, quarantine-era claustrophobia, a literal plague, and the emotional stew of teenagedom. There is, perhaps, no better group to act out this strange and funny interpretation of complex, hormonal and at times befuddled humans released back into the natural world...Often, actors waded through Elizabethan language—a feat that some adults still don’t manage to pull off—to find the timelessness and bite underneath." -Lucy Gelman, New Haven Arts
"...In the teen troupe’s hands, it found a perfect formula: 16 young people dealing with remote learning, social isolation, quarantine-era claustrophobia, a literal plague, and the emotional stew of teenagedom. There is, perhaps, no better group to act out this strange and funny interpretation of complex, hormonal and at times befuddled humans released back into the natural world...Often, actors waded through Elizabethan language—a feat that some adults still don’t manage to pull off—to find the timelessness and bite underneath." -Lucy Gelman, New Haven Arts
Romeo & Juliet, ACES-ECA 2024
Henry V, Elm Shakespeare Teen Troupe 2023
On Elm Shakespeare's Teen Troupe Henry V:
"Cast members of Elm Shakespeare Teen Troupe’s production of Henry V burst onto the stage in a rush of sound and energy…The cast switched out roles and became the chorus with speed, dash, and often humor...Thus the audience was treated to heated debates among the war-weary English troops as well as moments of mirth…political machinations among the French And…Henry’s own political moments cementing his status as a cunning and charismatic leader…" - Brian Slattery New Haven Independent
"Cast members of Elm Shakespeare Teen Troupe’s production of Henry V burst onto the stage in a rush of sound and energy…The cast switched out roles and became the chorus with speed, dash, and often humor...Thus the audience was treated to heated debates among the war-weary English troops as well as moments of mirth…political machinations among the French And…Henry’s own political moments cementing his status as a cunning and charismatic leader…" - Brian Slattery New Haven Independent
