Kenny C. Gannon, PhD
Program Director & Alumnae Distinguished
Professor of Theatre
kgannon@peace.edu
In May 2009, Kenny was named the new Alumnae Distinguished Professor at Peace College. He holds a PhD in Theatre from Louisiana State University, an M. M. from Converse College, and a B. A. from Samford University; He has directed over 80 productions and acted in over 100. Recent acting projects for Kenny Gannon include Sigmund Freud in the Royal Court play “Hysteria” for Burning Coal Theatre, Roy Cohn in both parts of “Angels in America” for Theatre in the Park, and Jeremiah Mears in “God’s Man in Texas” for the Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre. Directing projects include “Little Women the Musical” for SART, “Cry Havoc,” “King Lear” with Eddie Levi Lee in the title role, “THEmisanthrope,” a new adaptation set in Las Vegas, “Uncle Vanya” with Michael Mattison set in the Mississippi delta in the 1930s, his own adaptation of “A Doll House” set in New York City in the 1950s, and “My Sister in This House” with Estelle Bajou, all for Peace College in Raleigh, North Carolina. Since coming to Peace in 1995, Kenny’s productions have regularly won rave reviews and many “Best of Triangle” awards from the Raleigh News and Observer, the Independent Weekly and the Classical Voice of North Carolina. His 2002 production of “Twelfth Night” set in the Louisiana bayou during Lent was named one of the year’s top five productions by the N&O.
His production of “Cat On a Hot Tin Roof” at Hot Summer Nights at the Kennedy featuring Melissa Kite, Lamont Wade and Michael Hunsaker was named one of the year’s best in 2005. His students have gone on to study at Juilliard, Harvard, VCU, ADA in New York and Los Angeles, and the Manhattan School of Music, among many other schools. He regularly brings in guest artists from all across the country to work with his students. He is particularly proud of his associations with playwrights Barbara Lebow, Tom Key and Eddie Levi Lee. He has directed numerous productions of “A Shayna Maidel” all in collaboration with Lebow and commissioned her to oversee the writing of new play for Peace College. Furthermore, under Kenny’s direction, Peace College produced the first American production of The Shared Experience’s adaptation of “Jane Eyre.” Playwright and Artistic Director Polly Teale came to Peace College to work with the students on the production and then flew with the cast to New York to see The Shared Experience production at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Jennifer Mann Becker, MFA
Assistant Professor in Theater, Resident Lighting Designer & Production Manager
jbecker@peace.edu
Jenni has an MFA in Theatre & Film Design from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Her credits as Lighting Designer for Peace College Theatre include "Suddenly Last Summer," "An Inspector Calls," "The Children's Hour," “The Curious Savage,” "King Lear," “Uncle Vanya,” “A Doll House,” "THEmisanthrope," "My Sister in This House," "Cry Havoc," "The Shape of Things," "Scapin" and "The Winter's Tale." In addition, Ms. Becker is the Resident Designer for the Peace College Dance Company. Other credits include Scenic Design for “Tartuffe” and “Crumbs from the Table of Joy” at Burning Coal Theatre; Scenic Design for "Glengarry Glenn Ross" and "The Clean House" at Deep Dish Theater Company; Lighting Design for "Patience" and "HMS Pinafore" at Durham Savoyards; Light Design for 2008 Halloween "Spooktacular" & 2008 New Year's Eve Concert at the North Carolina Symphony; Light Design for "ThiStory" at Even Exchange; Resident Scenic and Lighting Designer for College Light Opera Co. in Cape Cod; and Production Designer for Amnesia, winner of the 2000 Martin Scorsese post-production Award for a short film in New York City.
Wade Newhouse, PhD
Assistant Professor in English & Acting Coach
An assistant professor in the Peace College English department, Wade Newhouse has also spent his life thinking about theater. As a young teenager, he learned to act and improvise under the direction of Bo Thorp at the Fayetteville Little Theater, and in his undergraduate days at the University of North Carolina he appeared in eight productions as one of the founding members of the UNC Pauper Players. While teaching English at Cary High School, he developed an annual Shakespeare Festival and directed productions of “The Tempest,” “The Merchant of Venice,” “Macbeth” and “Hamlet” to expand the offerings of the Drama department there. After appearing in community theater productions of “Desire Under the Elms,” “Assassins,” and “Rosencrants & Guildenstern are Dead,” Wade has devoted his theatrical energy to improvisation theater and comedy. He spent three years learning the basics with the Chapel Hill branch of Comedy Sportz, then helped Matthew Krevat and Al Herr develop Raleigh’s Village Idiots in 1997. Since returning to Raleigh from graduate school, Wade has rejoined the Idiots and has performed with them as the group’s Assistant Director for the past three years. He also appeared in their productions of “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” and “The Bible: The Complete Word of God (Abridged)” at the North Raleigh Arts and Creative Theater. He continues to use his academic research in narrative theory to understand and create different contexts for scripted and improvised drama.
Eliza Laskowski, PhD
Lecturer in English & Dramaturg
Eliza’s involvement in the theatre began when she was a teen-ager, helping out with the summer musicals at her hometown community theatre. By the time she graduated from college, she had appeared in Tom Stoppard’s “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead”, Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest,” Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Patience,” and Craig Lucas’s “Reckless,” and done everything behind the scenes from paint sets to run a light board to produce three shows at Sewanee, where she earned a degree in English in 1996. During high school and college, she also sang with several active choirs and had the privilege to perform at the Kennedy Center, Winchester Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey, among numerous other locations in the United States and England. Eliza continued her studies in literature, with a master’s degree from The University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa in 1999 and a Ph.D. from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2006; concentrating on sixteenth and seventeenth-century drama, she focused her research on an elite form of entertainment called masque. Because masque was a complex union of poetry, music, dancing, scenic spectacle, and allegory, Eliza brings a unique interdisciplinary approach to the genre that combines her practical theatrical and musical experience with an academic focus on the intersections of performance practice, culture, and text. Eliza currently teaches in the English Department at Peace College, while offering textual and historical expertise for the production of sixteenth and seventeenth-century plays at Peace College Theatre.
Sonya Drum
Scene Designer
Peace College Theatre: “Uncle Vanya,” “A Doll’s House,” “King Lear,” “The Curious Savage,” “An Inspector Calls,” “Suddenly Last Summer,” “The Children’s Hour,” “Antigone,” Private Eyes;” “Eye of God,” “ Measure for Measure,” “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep,” and “ “Little Eyolf,” Burning Coal Theatre Company: “Company”, “Crumbs from the Table of Joy,” “All the King’s Men,” “Lipstick Traces,” “Taming of the Shrew,” “Safe House,” “90 in 90,”“Julius Caesar;” Duke University Theatre Studies: “The Special Prosecutor;” University Theatre at NCSU: “Sweet Charity;” Raleigh Dance Theatre: “Alice in Wonderland;” Streetsigns Center for Literature and Performance: “Tongue of a Bird,” “Pop Sadness,” Suitcases Packed,” “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men,” “A Midsummer Night's Dream,” “Antigone;” Manbites Dog Theatre: “Fit to Be Tied,” Shakespeare and Originals: Loose Lips Sink Ships,” Hot Summer Nights at the Kennedy: “The Last Five Years,” “Graceland/Asleep on the Wind,” “Proof,” Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “Starting Here, Starting Now.”
Caroline Boney Domack
Production Stage Manager
Hailing from Hamlet, NC, Caroline graduated from Peace and went straight to The Juilliard School. After finishing her program in stage management, Caroline stayed on to become House Manager for all the theatres at Juilliard in Lincoln Center. At Juilliard, Caroline met and married Tim Domack. They now reside in Raleigh and are busy with a growing family.
Tim Domack
Properties Manager
Tim graduated from the University of Central Florida as a theatre major. He worked with The Juilliard School as a prop artisan for seven years before relocating with his wife and son to the Raleigh area. Tim currently teaches tech theatre at Riverside high school and freelances with Peace, NC State, and the Carolina Ballet.
David Jensen
Technical Director
David is Technical Director for Peace on his available weekends. Previous shows include "Scapin", "Winter's Tale", "Uncle Vanya", "THEmisanthrope", "My Sister in This House", "Cry Havoc" and "The Shape of Things". David works full time as the Technical Director at NCSU University Theatre.
Jeff A. R. Jones
Fight Director
Jeff is a recognized Fight Director and Certified Teacher by the Society of American Fight Directors who has staged fights for theatre, opera, ballet and film. He staged fights with weapons ranging from swords to bread loaves on actors, singer, dancers, and even a giant dragon puppet. His fights have received rave reviews in both The Washington Post and The New York Times. He teaches classes locally and invites any interested parties to contact him: jarjones@nc.rr.com. At Peace College he has gouged out eyes in “My Sister in this House,” beaten people with crowbars and stabbed them with switchblades in “King Lear,” and punched, knocked down and shot them in “Cry Havoc.” Some other credits include North Carolina Theatre: “Camelot” (with Debby Boone), Virginia Stage Company: “The Beauty Queen of Lenane” (with Eileen Brennan), Asolo Conservatory Theatre: “American Buffalo” (with William Wise), Theatre Previews at Duke: “Birdy” (with Michael Pitt), Virginia Shakespeare Festival: “As You Like It,” Carolina Ballet: “Romeo & Juliet,” “Carmen,” “Don Quixote,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Messiah,” “Nutcracker,” “The Kreutzer Sonata,” “The Miraculous Mandarin,” Virginia Opera: “Rom̩o et Juliette,” “Otello,” “Pagliacci,” New Jersey Opera Theatre: “Romeo et Juliette,” “Pirates of Penzance,” Opera Illinois: “West Side Story,” Bare Theatre: “Macbeth,” “Titus Andronicus,” Parkway Playhouse: “As You Like It,” Duke University Theatre: “Macbeth,” “Pericles,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Gint,” “Fool for Love,” “Angels in America,” “Spring Awakening,” “Shadow of Himself,” “Why Things Burn,” “Mao II,” Florida State University: “The Rover,” “Carousel” (with Michael Piontak), Durham School of the Arts: “Henry IV, Part 1,” Raleigh Little Theatre: “As You Like It,” Independent film: “The Promise.” He is adjunct faculty at Duke University and has a secret life as resident scenic and costume designer for Carolina Ballet.
Guest Artists for 2010–2011
Byron Jennings
Crumbs from the Table of Joy
Byron is very excited to be making his Peace College Theater Debut. He is a Law Firm Office Manager by day and a passionate actor by night. Previous credits include Othello in Bare Theatre's production of William Shakespeare's "Othello," Lopakhin in Little Green Pig's Production of "The Cherry Orchard," Williamson in Deep Dish theatre's production of "Glengarry Glen Ross," and Adam in Justice Theater Project's production of "Someone Who'll Watch Over Me." Byron would like to thank the supporters of Triangle theater. The great work in this area would not be possible without your support.
Collette Rutherford
Crumbs from the Table of Joy
Collette Rutherford is a stage, film, and voiceover actor. A graduate of North Carolina State University, she has appeared on stage locally with the Raleigh Ensemble Players, Raleigh Little Theatre, Theatre in the Park and Deep Dish Theater Company, among others. Collette was most recently seen in NCSU's Theatrefest production of Agatha Christie's A Murder is Announced. http://www.colletterutherford.com
Hampton Rowe
A Shayna Maidel
Hampton is a graduate of DePaul University’s Theatre School. He has performed professionally in Chicago, Los Angeles and is glad to call Raleigh home once again. Local area credits include Jeff in “The Curious Savage,” The Duke of Cornwall in “King Lear,” Waffles in “Uncle Vanya” and Phillip in “The Shape of Things." Hampton has also performed in Chapel Hill at Deepdish Theater as Sean in “Orson’s Shadow” and Florindo in “Servant of Two Masters”. Hampton can be seen as Harker in the upcoming film “Wesley” and has also done local commercials and industrials. Most recently Hampton was seen in “Romeo and Juliet” starring Evan Rachel Wood at Raleigh’s very own Theatre in The Park.
Allan Maule
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Allan is a game writer, voice director, playwright, and actor. His performance work includes "How I Learned to Drive" (Meredith College), "The Shape of Things" (Peace College), "Charley's Aunt" (Theater in the Park), “The Cherry Orchard” (Delta Boys), “AutoBahn” (FATE), “Blue/Orange” (Manbites), “The Christmas Letters” (Ride Again Productions), and “White People” (StreetSigns). Allan's voice was featured in the MMORPG computer game “Fallen Earth.” Allan received his BA from Duke (Theater Studies and English), and his MA from UNC-CH (Performance Studies).
John Vettel
A Midsummer Night's Dream
John started performing onstage in high school way back in 1974—before most of the rest of the cast was born. Fast-forward to 1992, when John began his long, happy career performing for, and teaching music to, young children. In this guise, he is known and loved by the pre-school set as “Uncle John.” He has released two CDs of original music (“Hardley a Clown in the Sky” and “Play On, Uncle John”) and is currently at work on his third collection. In 2000, John discovered he was an Idiot. He has been performing since as part of Raleigh's Village Idiots, performing live Improv comedy regularly at North Raleigh Arts & Creative Theater.