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Who We Are
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Living Literature,
a collective of Rhode Island based artists and educators, teaches literature
through a unique and imaginative experience of getting participants on their
feet and allowing observers to see the story unfold. We are a
non-profit organization. Many of us teach, direct and perform at other
organizations in the New England area and beyond. |
Since our beginning in January of 1996, we
have created more than 50 presentations based on poems, stories,
novels and plays. We have presented the works of 30 different authors, and
made presentations in 20 schools in the southeastern New England area.
We
are listed in the
Education Roster of the Rhode Island State Council of the Arts. |
Tanya Anderson is a graduate of
Trinity Repertory Company's MFA acting program. Prior to this, she received
her BFA, with honors in acting, from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She has
performed on Trinity Repertory Theatre's main stage in who's Afraid of
Virginia Woolf?, and The Cider House Rules, Parts I & II, and
more recently in The House of Yes, at Boston's Coyote Theatre. She
also does commercial and voice-over work. Tanya is a resident artist for
Brown University's Arts Literacy program, where she takes her skills into
public school classrooms.
Angela Brazil
is a member of Trinity Repertory Company's resident acting
company, appearing most recently in The Long Christmas Ride Home and
Homebody/Kabul. She has also worked in several regional theatres and
festivals around the country. She is a teaching artist with Brown
University's ArtsLiteracy program, working in local area high schools and
middle schools, and teaches acting at Perishable Theatre. Angel a has
an MFA in Acting from the University of Iowa.
Ivy J. Brunelle is a graduate of the Trinity
Repertory Conservatory and holds an MA from Rhode Island College in Theatre.
She has performed in Providence theatre since 1988, working at Perishable
Theatre, Alias Stage (now The Gamm), Newgate Theatre and Trinity Rep. As a solo artist, she
has produced and performed in her
original productions of Waking the Witch and The Shapes of Things,
which combine acting, dance and music to tell her stories.
She also performed in half a dozen RISD films. She is a reference librarian and has a Masters in Library and Information
Science from URI.
Sharon Carpentier
has worked with Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre (Alias Stage),
Newgate Theatre, Perishable Theatre, The Players at Barker Playhouse and
Looking Glass Theatre. She also has worked with the Manton Avenue Project, a
local model of the 52nd St. Project in New York that features plays written
by 8-10 year olds from the local community. She has toured with the National
Theatre of the Performing Arts and has performed numerous voice-overs for
commercial and industrial venues throughout New England.
See also
Danny Colbert
received his BA in Theatre from the University of Maine, and
attended graduate school at West Virginia University. In Morgantown, he
taught acting as well as oral interpretation of literature. Danny has
performed with the Georgia Shakespeare Festival, the Orlando Shakespeare
Festival, and New York's Creative Voices Theatre. Since moving to Providence
three years ago, Danny has appeared in several mainstage productions at
Perishable Theatre as well as two seasons as a member of Perishable's Shows
for Young Audiences touring company.
Sandy Murphy Crowe
is an attorney employed by the Rhode Island Department of
Administration. Since graduating from law school in 1981, she has also
studied acting during her off-work hours and working with the Cumberland
Company, 2nd Story Theatre, Alias Stage and NewGate Theatre. Ms. Murphy
Crowe also serves as the group's Treasurer.
Nehassaiu de Gannes is a graduate of Brown University (MFA in
Creative Writing, Poetry) and Trinity Rep Conservatory, where, as a student
and member of the resident acting company, she performed significant roles
in several Trinity Rep productions including A Preface To The Alien Garden,
The Cider House Rules, Skin of our Teeth and Proof. In 2003, she was named
Trinity Rep Co.'s Peter Kaplan Fellow. Other acting credits include work at
Perishable, Providence Black Rep, The Gamm, National Black Theatre Festival,
Shakespeare & Co. and Toronto's Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People.
Passionate about teaching even before her collaboration with Brown
University Graduate Playwrights led her to a life in the theatre, Nehassaiu
has taught Poetry Workshops, English Lit, African American Studies and
Theatre Appreciation at Philadelphia's University of the Arts and Temple U.,
Moses Brown School, RISD, RIC and Providence ¡City Arts!. Her awards include
The Providence Athenaeum's Philbrick Poetry Prize, a Perishable Theatre
International Women's Playwriting Festival Prize, a Rhode Island Foundation
New Works Grant, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Individual Artists
Grant, and a commission from Rhode Island's All Children's Theatre. In
February 2006, Nehassaiu premiered her one-woman show, Door of No Return, at
Rites & Reason Theatre.
Margarita DeSanto has been a jewelry designer for 25
years for both retail and wholesale outlets. She is a graduate of the Americab Academy for the Dramatic Arts and has performed in a number of
Rhode Island groups, including the RI Playwrights, 2nd Story Theatre, Bright
Lights, and Short Attention Span Theatre. Margarita designed and taught
"Turning Your Art into a Business" through Brown Learning Connection, and
has also addressed groups as a featured speaker, notably, "Self Employment"
through a RI women's network, and "Being a Craftsperson" to a Jamestown
group, and other talks through RISCA. In her work she has helped teach
individuals how to apply acting techniques to
business
Robert Dunbar Hoffman has performed in film, television
and theatre throughout New England and his native Minnesota. He toured New
England in his critically acclaimed one man show, Beethoven 1809, in
the role of Ludwig van Beethoven. He has performed in productions at the
Boston Playwrights' Theatre, Penobscot Theatre Company, Worcester Foothills
Theatre, and Trinity Rep Theatre. As the Producing Artistic Director of HeartWorks Theatre, an educational theatre program in residence at Lowell
General Hospital, in Lowell MA, he hosts a health education television show.
He also hosts of a gourmet food show, Food New England. Robert's
credits also include numerous industrial films, commercials, and voice-overs
for clients throughout New England. His teaching experiences include working
with inner city youths, as well as students in area high schools, and at the
All Children's Theatre. Robert is Executive Director of the Providence
Maritime Heritage Foundation, where he oversees the operation of the
Continental Sloop Providence, which is used as a Classroom Under Sail,
instructing school children on our rich maritime heritage. He is a graduate
of Trinity Rep Conservatory.
Elizabeth Anne Keiser
is an Artist in Residence with the ArtsLiteracy Project
through Brown University. She has performed and worked with both
ArtsLit and with the Providence Black Repertory Company for more than 4
years. She has worked in hundreds of schools and with more than 20
educational theater companies (including the 52nd Street Project and MTC in
New York). Her plays for children and adults have been performed in New York
and Providence. She has two literacy shows that tour to area schools,
including Reading Changed My Life, a testimonial packed with 103 ways (one
for every year of a 103-year-old reader's life) in which reading can change
one's life. Elizabeth is a member of AEA , SAG and NYTW (New York Theater
Workshop). Most recently, she performed with the Manton Avenue Project, her
play was performed at the Carriage House, and a student-written fable
project was performed at the Blackstone River Theater as part of a grant
through RISCA.
Hurtis Mitchner is currently employed as a Program
Manager for the State of Rhode Island where a co-worker, Sandy Crowe,
referred him to LIVING LITERATURE. Two years ago, Hurtis took a voice-over
class that reignited an interest that lay dormant since achieving a
Bachelor's degree in business. "It is my 'presence' that motivates me to
pursue my interest in acting/storytelling, and I look forward to a lasting
experience with LIVING LITERATURE as I pursue this interest."
Mark Peckham a native Rhode Islander, was
co-founder and co-Artistic Director of Wickenden Gate Theatre in Providence.
As an actor, he performed in Providence and Boston at Alias Stage, NewGate
Theatre, Boston Playwrights', The Nora Theatre Company, and New Theatre,
Inc. Mark spent three years running a violence prevention theatre program in
Central Falls with "at risk" children for Rhode Island Youth Guidance. He
has worked in Cranston middle schools on a drug and alcohol awareness
program, and currently teaches at The All Childrens' Theatre Ensemble. Mark
also tours middle and high schools performing the Rhode Island Legacy series
for RICH.
Hope Pilkington, a retired Providence elementary school teacher with thirty years
of service to the Providence school department, has performed in Rhode
Island theatres for the last twelve years. She has performed with Alias
Stage, NewGate, Cumberland Company, Matunuck's Theatre-by-the-Sea, First
Stage Providence, Perishable, and Kaleidoscope Theatres. She also appeared
in Musical America's national tour of The Music Man. Most recently,
Hope acted in Trinity Rep's Steinberg New Play festival and Alias Stage's
Everyman, Hot'L Baltimore, Tuck Everlasting, The Great Gilly Hopkins,
and A Wrinkle in Time. A Rhode Island native, Ms. Pilkington is a
graduate of Rhode Island College, and has studied acting at the Trinity Rep
Conservatory Extension, Perishable Theatre, and H. B. Studios, in NYC.
Barry Press - Artistic
Director has an MFA
from the Yale School of Drama, and an AB in Speech/Theatre from Bates
College. Professionally, he has been an active actor/director/teacher for
over twenty years. As an actor, he has worked Off-Broadway, as well as at the
Merrimack, Seattle, Yale and Trinity Repertory Theatres, among others. He
has directed at the Roger Williams College, Idaho Shakespeare Festival,
American Stage (Florida), Worcester Forum Theatre, and a number of theaters
in Seattle. He was a co-founder, performer and one-time producer of Seattle TheatreSports, an international improvisational performance event, which has
an active educational outreach program. He has taught at Princeton
University, University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College, College of the
Holy Cross, Eckerd College (Florida), University of Washington, Trinity Rep
Conservatory, Perishable Theatre Arts School, and has been a Guest Artist
and Teaching Associate at Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English
for eighteen years, at both its Vermont and Alaskan campuses. Through
National Endowment for the Humanities grants, he has brought his skills as
both actor and teacher into a variety of middle and high school classrooms,
from Alaska to Florida. Mr. Press is the founder and Artistic Director of
LIVING LITERATURE, listed in the Education Roster of the Rhode Island State
Council of the Arts, as is his own writing program, ImproWriting.
David Rabinow is a graduate of the Trinity Rep Conservatory MFA acting program.
He performed in Trinity Repertory Company's productions of WIT and
A Christmas Carol, in the Somerville Theatre Co-op's productions of
Spinning Into Butter, and in Boston TheatreWorks' production of
Molly's Dream. He was also a finalist for the 2002 Heideman Award for
the best ten-minute play at The Actors' Theatre of Louisville.
Peter Sampieri is a graduate of the Trinity Rep Conservatory with an M.F.A. in
Directing. While at the Conservatory he directed The Lesson, Oh
Dad, Poor Dad..., Awake and Sing!, The Cherry Orchard, and
Marat/Sade. He was the first student in the history of the Trinity
Repertory Company to direct a professional mainstage production (Wit,
2002). At Trinity Rep he also directed The Taming of the Shrew and
A Christmas Carol. Other directing credits include The Grapes of
Wrath, Red Noses, Crime and Punishment, and A Clockwork
Orange at The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre in Providence. Also: an
outdoor production of Othello, for the Mixed Magic Theatre; A
Bright Room Called Day and Talk to Me Like the Rain for the
Elemental Theatre; Merrily We Roll Along at Providence College; and
the world premiere of Yemaya's Belly at the Portland Stage
Company. Mr. Sampieri is an adjunct faculty member at Rhode Island
College. He is a 2002 recipient of the Pell Award Scholarship for Artistic
Excellence.
Anne Scurria has worked Off-Broadway in regional theatres around the country
and has been a member of the Tony award winning Trinity Repertory Company
for years. She has taught at the University of Rhode Island, and continues
to teach at the Trinity Rep Conservatory. She has been a Guest Artist and
Teaching Associate of Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English for
ten years; and under whose NEH sponsored grants, has been an artist in
schools around the country. Anne has a BA from Trinity College, and is a
graduate of the Trinity Rep Conservatory.
Kelly Seigh is a graduate of the MFA acting program at Trinity Rep
Conservatory and also holds a BA in Elementary Education from Stonehill
College. She has performed with such companies as North Shore Music
Theatre, Trinity Rep, The Gamm and The Elemental Theatre Ensemble. Kelly
spent two years as the theatre director for The Boys and Girls Club of
Pawtucket and currently teaches and directs for All Children's Theatre.
Jen Swain is a local actor, director and teacher. A native of Rhode Island,
she is a graduate of the Trinity Rep Conservatory, with an MFA in
Acting and Directing. She has directed and/or appeared in productions for
the Trinity Rep Summer Shakespeare Project, the Sandra Feinstein-Gamm
Theatre, Perishable Theatre, 2nd Story, Brown University, and All Children's
Theatre. She currently teaches at Rhode Island College and the Perishable
Theatre Arts School. She enjoys mask making, and the creation and adaptation
of new pieces.
Clare Vadeboncoeur is a Trinity Rep Conservatory graduate. She holds a Masters of
Arts Degree in Theatre and Dance and a C.M.A. (Certified Movement Analyst)
from the Laban Institute of Movement Studies in New York. She has been
granted certification in RI as a Professional Teacher of Elementary
Education and Life Professional Teacher of Theatre and Dance. Clare brings a
multi-faceted approach to her work by combining her skills as actor, dancer,
choreographer, storyteller, and educator. She has taught and entertained
audiences of all ages in educational, therapeutic and professional settings.
She has appeared on Trinity Rep's main stage in The Seagull, A Christmas
Carol and Into The Woods. Other favorite roles include "Marlene" in Top
Girls, "Ingrid" in Christmas on Mars, "the Soothsayer" in Antony and
Cleopatra and "Barb" in Swimming in the Swallows. She is founder and
Artistic Director of Good Heart Productions, where she creates and performs
story telling programs for children. Clare is listed on the arts in
Education Roster of the Rhode Island State Council on the arts and the RI
Very Special Arts Roster.
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