David Alford
- Auditions: The Callback
- Auditions: the Monologue
- Introduction to Voice & Diction for the Stage
David attended the Juilliard School’s Drama Division where he won the Suria and Saint-Denis Prize for Excellence. In 1994 he received a William and Eva Fox Fellowship for the formation of Mockingbird Theatre in Nashville and served as the company’s Artistic Director until 2004 when he became Executive Artistic Director at Tennessee Rep. Recent acting credits for Tennessee Rep include The Crucible, Speed-the-Plow, Three Days of Rain, Holiday Memories, Oleanna, and 1776. Recent directing credits for Tennessee Rep: It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, Dearly Departed, The Winter’s Tale (a collaboration with Nashville Shakespeare Festival), The Santaland Diaries, and Inherit the Wind. Film and television credits include principal roles in A Death in the Family (PBS Masterpiece Theater) and The Last Castle (Dreamworks), among others. Mr. Alford co-wrote and starred in Adrenaline, a winner at the 2007 Nashville Film Festival. His plays include Clara’s Hands, Ghostlight, and Spirit: The Authentic Story of the Bell Witch of Tennessee.
Holly Allen
- Auditions: TV and Film
- Film Scene Study: On Camera
Holly is the in-house casting director for Film House, a large and active production company in Nashville. She auditions and casts hundreds of actors every year for projects produced by the creative teams at Film House. Ms. Allen received a BA in Theatre Arts from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California and her Master’s degree in Acting from the University of Idaho. She has taught at the university level as well as community colleges and independent acting schools for over a decade. Many of the actors in Nashville who become eligible for the Screen Actors Guild, do so through working with Film House. She continues to look for and cast new talent in military commercials for the American Forces Radio and Television Services. Ms. Allen is also a professional performer and acts in many local plays, films, commercials, industrials, and voiceovers.
Pam Atha
- Musical Theatre Dance–Jazz
Pam, a native Arkansan, came to Nashville over 20 years ago in hopes of breaking into the music industry. Her path led sideways towards a performing artist career, encompassing music, dance, theatre, choreography and teaching. While earning her BSE in dance from the University of Arkansas, she was turned-on to modern/contemporary and interpretive dance in the tradition of Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham and Jose Limon. She was a founding member of Tennessee Dance Theatre, a modern dance company under the direction of Donna Rizzo and Andrew Krichels and enjoyed 13 years with them. Teaching was a way to support her performance ‘habit’, and she taught all levels of modern, jazz, tap, fitness and ballroom to children and adults alike for studios, public schools and universities in the area and beyond. While teaching at Cumberland University in Lebanon, she earned her MAE and developed the dance program there. Pam is proud to be a teaching artist for Artsmart, an aesthetic education program sponsored by TPAC Education. She continues to balance her teaching and performing careers and directing/choreographing for theatres in the area.
Ross Brooks
- Auditions: Insights from the Other Side of the Table
Ross is the Artistic Director of People’s Branch Theatre, Nashville’s professional progressive theatre. Mr. Brooks is an accomplished actor, director and playwright. He performs regularly with Tennessee Repertory Theatre, the Nashville Children’s Theatre, and the Nashville Shakespeare Festival. He is a graduate of the Creative Writing program at Boston University and an alumnus of the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, where he studied playwriting with Nobel laureate poet and playwright Derek Walcott as well as Heidemann Award-winning playwright Kate Snodgrass. Mr. Brooks has had works produced by Kentucky Repertory Theatre and by People’s Branch. His play WONDERLAND, part of PBT’s 2004-2005 season, was acclaimed by critics and audiences alike. He is a teaching artist-in-residence at the Nashville Children’s Theatre, and he has taught and directed for Columbia State Community College’s Commercial Entertainment Division. Ross is the 2010 recipient of the Individual Artist Fellowship from the Tennessee Arts Commission.
René Copeland
- Auditions: Insights from the Other Side of the Table
- Producing 101
René is Tennessee Rep’s Producing Artistic Director and holds her MFA in Acting and Directing from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Since she joined Tennessee Rep in 2004, her directing slate has included Darwin in Malibu, Glengarry Glen Ross, Sweeny Todd, Doubt, The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?, Noises Off, Three Days of Rain, The Crucible, Speed-the-Plow, Intimate Apparel, 1776, and Oleanna. Before joining the staff of Tennessee Rep, she completed a decade with Mockingbird Theatre, beginning with its first show, Becket. She eventually directed a majority of Mockingbird’s productions, including Of Mice and Men, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Glass Menagerie, Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, Hamlet (co-directed with David Alford), and The Night of the Iguana. She has directed for other theatres in Nashville, including Nashville Children’s Theatre, Nashville Shakespeare Festival, and Chaffin’s Barn Dinner Theater and has extensive acting and teaching experience on the professional, collegiate, and high school levels, including Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts. She serves as an artistic consultant of the Tennessee Shakespeare Festival and has twice been named Best Director by the Nashville Scene, most recently in 2007.
Lane Davies
Lane, a graduate of MTSU, was the original Mason Capwell on NBC’s Santa Barbara, an international hit seen in over 53 countries. He was seen not too long ago as the late Dr. Cameron Lewis on GeneralHospital for ABC Television, and as Elliot’s dad, Dr. Simon Reid, on Scrubs. Other credits include starring roles in four prime-time series, Good & Evil, The Mommies, Woops!, and The Crew. He appeared regularly as the psychopathic time-traveler Tempus on Lois & Clark - The New Adventures of Superman, and recurred on 3rd Rock from the Sun as Chancellor Duncan, and on The Practiceas Kyle Barrett, among other shows. Television credits also include some 50 guest-star appearances on such shows as Seinfeld,Working, The Nanny, Ellen,Jesse,Coach,Major Dad, Clueless,Married With Children, and Just Shoot Me. During 30 years as a stage actor, Mr. Davies performed such roles as Hamlet, Macbeth, Petruchio, Henry V, Prospero, King Lear, and Cyrano de Bergerac in companies from San Diego to Providence, Rhode Island. Tennessee audiences saw him recently as John Barrymore in Tennessee Rep’s I Hate Hamlet and as director for Tennessee Rep's production of The Underpants. He is Artistic Director of the Tennessee Shakespeare Festival which marked its inaugural season with June’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which Mr. Davies directed and appeared in as Oberon. As Artistic Director for the Santa Susana Repertory Company, a professional resident theater company in Ventura County, CA, Mr. Davies has produced and/or directed over 30 productions and guided the company from its inception in 1988 and also founded and still works closely with the Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival in Thousand Oaks, California, now in its 11th season.
Denice Hicks
- Auditions: Insights from the Other Side of the Table
Denice is the Artistic Director of the Nashville Shakespeare Festival, a position she held from 1998-2002 and since 2005. Educated at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Pa, she moved to Nashville in 1980 to perform at Opryland. Ms. Hicks was an original company member of the Tennessee Repertory Theatre, and was among the founders of both the Darkhorse Theater and of People’s Branch Theatre. An Ingram Fellowship award winner, her work has been praised by the Tennessean, Nashville City Search, and The City Paper, among other publications, from which she has received “Best Actor” and “Best Director” acknowledgments. A teaching artist and advocate for Arts in Education, she has edited and directed touring productions of Shakespeare's works, developed and facilitated workshops for students of all ages, and designed and implemented the Apprentice Company Training Program for Nashville Shakes. Ms. Hicks also does film, video, and voiceover work.
Robert Kiefer
- Tableaux: Artful specificity
Robert, an actor and director with 40 years of experience in theatre and film, believes that every person has something important to express. Actors just do it for a living. He has directed everything from Beckett to Shaw to Shakespeare, with some opera thrown in for spice. He excels in working with actors of all ages and levels of experience to explore and draw out strong performances that probably surprise the actors themselves more than anyone else.
Carol Ponder
- Noises On: Discover the Voice You Didn't Know You Had
- Tableaux: Artful Specificity
Carol, a performing artist since 1958 (yes, you read that right) and professional theatre artist since 1969, stopped many years ago counting how many plays, cabarets, and reviews she'd done at 100. In 1998, she began focusing more of her artistic power on singing, making three critically-acclaimed recordings of music based in Southern Appalachia with several more in the hopper. She has worked with most area theatres including Tennessee Rep, Nashville Children's Theatre, Nashville Shakespeare Festival, Mockingbird Theatre, and Cumberland County Playhouse. She has been teaching almost as long as she's been acting, especially helping people of all ages unlock the potential of their own voices. A professional Teaching Artist since 1987, she received the first national Teaching Artist Fellowship, spending last fall at the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, CA.
Rod Reiner
- Musical Theatre Dance: Jazz
Rod Reiner began his dance training at the age of three and performed professionally at the age of five at the Saint Louis Municipal Opera (“The Muny”). He danced at the Muny for 15 seasons, during which time he worked with celebrities such as Ann Reinking, Ann Miller, Barbara Eden, Peter Marshall, Carol Lawrence and Joel Grey. Rod graduated with a degree in Theater and Dance from Webster University. From there he moved to New York and performed in the Broadway show, Hellzapoppin, starring Jerry Lewis and Lynn Redgrave. While in New York, he performed in a tour of Camelot with Rock Hudson and in television, dinner theater, Off-Broadway, and regional theater productions.
He later moved from New York to Nashville to join the creative staff of Opryland USA. He was the first professional dancer with Nashville Ballet (then Nashville City Ballet). Rod’s work as a free-lance choreographer includes music videos with Hank Williams, Jr., (“All My Rowdy Friends”) and Crystal Gayle (“Nobody Want to be Alone” and “Touch and Go”), as well as numerous industrials, commercials, dinner theaters, clinics, and stage shows.
From 2001–2004 he was an Assistant Professor of Dance at Viterbo University in LaCrosse, Wisconsin where he taught tap, jazz, ballet, and musical theater courses. He has also taught dance for the private dance studios, Vanderbilt University, as well as the Southern Association of Dance Masters and Tennessee Association of Dance.
Rod currently serves as deputy director of the Tennessee Arts Commission where he oversees the management of all 22 grant programs involving the visual arts, performing arts, community arts development, arts education, folklife, and arts access.
Jamie Scott
- Make Your Headshot Work for You
Jamie was born and raised in Nashville. She holds a BFA in fashion design and merchandising from O’More College of Design in Franklin. Jamie served as an intern and design assistant to Tennessee Rep’s Resident Costume Designer, Trish Clark, for the Homecoming season. She began and continues to manage Tennessee Rep’s thriving costume rental program in addition to her duties as design assistant.
Lauren Shouse
- Workshop Director
- Producing 101
Lauren holds a Masters in Performance Studies from UNC-Chapel Hill, where she adapted and directed a production of The Time Traveler’s Wife for Wordshed Productions. Upon graduation, Ms. Shouse worked in London, UK with Producer/Director Hugh Wooldridge. There she served as Production Executive to The Night of 1000 Voices (A Tribute to John Kander and Fred Ebb starring Joel Grey and the cast of Avenue Q) at The Royal Albert Hall. Her other UK credits include: Assistant Director of The Night of 1000 Voices at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast, Assistant Director of The Gift of Music at Roundhouse Theatre—London—and Production Executive of An Evening with Michael Parkinson at Theatre Royal—Windsor. Ms. Shouse moved to Nashville in fall 2007 and has recently directed Religion and Rubber Ducks for Ovvio Arte and Parallel Lives for Street Theatre Company. She has served as a teaching artist for Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts, Tennessee Shakespeare Festival, Harpeth Hall and Nashville Shakespeare Festival. She serves as Tennessee Repertory Theatre’s Artistic Associate.
Bruce Stegmann
- Musical Theatre Dance: Jazz and Tap
Bruce Stegmann started teaching and choreographing in Cincinnati, Ohio. Since then he has taught for the major dance organizations NADAA, PDTA, DMA, and CNADM across the United States, and has conducted master classes and performed throughout Europe and the U.S. He has taught regularly on the faculty of several tap festivals around the world, and has performed with many of the tap legends, including Jimmy Slyde, Dianne Walker, Brenda Buffalino, Robert Reed, Van Porter, Sam Weber, Gregory Hines, and Savion Glover, just to name a few. Apart from choreographing for television, theater, dance companies, and universities, Bruce has also choreographed for the U.S. Army Soldier Show, and for a U.S. Rhythmic Gymnastic champion. In addition, he worked in Musical Theater throughout the Mid-West. He is the founder of Especially Tap Chicago, which has won both national and international acclaim. Besides teaching with his wife at their school, Bruce is currently creating shows for Celebrity and Norwegian Cruise Lines, and teaching at various Nashville schools and at workshops and conventions around the US. Bruce offers private lessons for preparations for auditions and competitions and choreography for musical theater, videos and shows.
David Wilkerson
- Stage Combat: Unarmed
- Stage Combat: Rapier 101 and 102
David is celebrating his 10th year in the Nashville area, where he has worked professionally as an actor, stage manager, and fight choreographer. He is entering his fifth season of stage managing shows at Tennessee Rep. He has also managed the stages of the Nashville Shakespeare Festival, Mockingbird Theatre, and the Tennessee Shakespeare Festival. In addition to acting for Tennessee Rep, Nashville Shakespeare Festival, and People’s Branch Theatre, he has choreographed fights and/or taught combat workshops for Tennessee Rep, Nashville Shakespeare Festival, Nashville Opera, People’s Branch Theatre, Tennessee Shakespeare Festival, Vanderbilt University, and many other educational institutions and professional theatres. This fall he will be the Fred Coe Artist in Residence at Vanderbilt University Theatre focusing on Stage Combat.
Martha Wilkinson
- Auditions: Insights from the Other Side of the Table
Ms. Wilkinson has been involved in professional theatre for 25 years and has performed in theatres both locally and regionally. She has performed in more than 16 shows with Tennessee Rep, which include: Dearly Departed, Noises Off!, Idols of the King, A Streetcar Named Desire, Crimes of the Heart, Dinner with Friends (which earned her a “Tennie” award from the Tennessean), The Underpants, and Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd for which she received the 2009 Toast of Music City Best Actor Award. In addition to performing, Ms. Wilkinson has been the Artistic Director/Publicity Coordinator for Chaffin’s Barn Dinner Theatre for 10 years. She received her training from the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Berry College and North Carolina School of the Arts. Ms Wilkinson is also a director, having directed many shows over the past 15 years.
Hugh Wooldridge
- Musical Theatre Master Class
Internationally-renowned Musical Theatre Producer/Director Hugh Wooldridge will visit Nashville to lead a unique musical theatre master-class for Tennessee Repertory Theatre. Most recently Mr. Wooldridge adapted and directed the Tim Rice and ABBA musical, Chess in Concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall with Josh Groban, Idina Menzel, Adam Pascal and Marti Pellow, introduced by Sir Tim Rice himself. In addition to directing many international tours including Jesus Christ Superstar and The Rocky Horror Show, Mr. Wooldridge has specialized in devising, directing, and producing large-scale celebratory events around the world including the global tours of The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber in Concert, An Evening with Alan Jay Lerner in New York and London, the Richard Rodgers Award and the inaugural Bernard Jacobs Award in New York, An Evening with Hal Prince in Munich, Sondheim Tonight in New York and London, and Who Could Ask For Anything More? – the Centenary Celebration of the Gershwins at the Royal Albert Hall, London. For 21 years he was Director of the Andrew Lloyd Webber, Sydmonton Festival where he directed the first productions of Cats, The Phantom of the Opera and Song and Dance.
For a full bio, please visit www.hughwooldridge.com.
