THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26TH, 2019, 11:15 AM
Director Courtney Brown speaks about Kent State University's production of The Hunchback of Seville. The production runs from October 3rd-9th at Kent State University's Wright-Curtis Theatre; for tickets, contact the box office at 330-672-2787.
DIRECTOR
Courtney Brown is professional actor and a voice and speech specialist. She has trained extensively with Anne Bogart’s SITI Company in New York, and is a Certified Lessac Voice and Body Trainer. Acting credits include: Porthouse Theatre, Mamai Theatre, Cleveland Public. Regionally, Know Theatre of Cincinnati, Actor’s Express in Atlanta, GA. NYC: Stage Left Studios , Ensemble Studio Theatre. Vocal/dialect coaching credits: House of Blue Leaves, Bonny and Clyde, You Can’t Take it With You, My Heart is the Drum, Bus Stop, Irena’s Vow, Macbeth. As the resident vocal/dialect coach for Dobama Theatre for the 2017/’18 season: Brownsville Song (B-Side For Tray), Sherlock Holmes: The Baker Street Irregulars, Appropriate.
Professor Brown regularly presents original research at international conferences such as the Annual Lessac Conference and SETC. International teaching engagements include, Gaiety School of Acting, the National Theatre School of Ireland, and the International Porthouse Academy.
Previously, Courtney served as Voice and Movement Specialist at Texas Tech University.
Other specializations include the creation of original works of highly physicalized theatre. She is the co-creator several works of movement theatre, including The Wait, which was a critical success at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, as well as A Day and Fault/Line, which premiered at the MeetFactory in Prague, Czech Pepublic.
IF YOU MISSED THE EVENT, WATCH THE RECORDING BELOW:
Director Terri Kent spoke about Kent State University's production of Hair. The production runs from November 1st-10th at Kent State University's E. Turner Stump Theatre; for tickets, contact the box office at 330-672-2787.
Professor Kent is the coordinator of the School of Theatre and Dance's B.F.A. Musical Theatre program and is the Producing Artistic Director of 
Porthouse Theatre, Kent State University's summer professional theatre. She is a member of Actors' Equity Association, SAG/AFTRA, the Society of Directors and Choreographers, and the National Alliance for Musical Theatre.
An accomplished director, actor and educator, Kent’s research focuses on the development of the Kent Movement Method, which combines the methods of Laban and Stanislavski, and its application to musical theatre performances. Currently, Kent is exploring the creation of two new musical theatre exercises called “The Split Song” and “Exchanged-Role Duets” and investigating the role of human mimicry in the performance of two actors working in collaboration. As a director, Kent maintains an interest in the reconceptualizing of classic musical theatre pieces to fit into contemporary budgets and non-traditional spaces.
She has performed regionally and internationally. Area credits include Cain Park, the Ensemble Theatre, Cleveland Play House and Great Lakes Theater. She has performed in a variety of roles ranging from Lady Macbeth in Macbeth to Dolly in the musical Hello Dolly!
Ms. Kent has directed off-Broadway at the 13th Street Repertory Theatre and internationally where she directed Steel Magnolias in New Delhi, India; Macbeth in Maudera, India and a tour of an original multi-cultural play, Aesop’s Fables and Foibles. She has also served as Assistant Director and Movement Coach for a number of productions at Great Lakes Theater Festival. Ms. Kent has directed locally at Cain Park, the Halle Theatre, Weathervane Theatre and the Working Theatre. She directs regularly at the School of Theatre and Dance and at Porthouse Theatre. Her Porthouse directing credits include classics such as Brigadoon, West Side Story, Oklahoma!, Guys and Dolls, My Fair Lady, Oliver! and South Pacific as well as more contemporary pieces such as Urinetown, Rent, The Spitfire Grill, and Hairspray.
IF YOU MISSED THE EVENT, WATCH THE RECORDING BELOW:
On February 4th at 9:15am in the Wright-Curtis Theater, director Fabio Polanco and the production team will speak about Kent State University's upcoming production of Parade. The production runs February 21 - March 1 at Kent State University's E. Turner Stump Theatre; for tickets, contact the box office at 330-672-2787.
DIRECTOR
Professor Polanco is the 2018 recipient of Kent State University’s Outstanding Research and Scholarship Awar
ds and the 2013 recipient of Ashland University’s Taylor Excellence in Teaching Award.
A member of Actor’s Equity for more than two decades, his acting credits include “Thenardier” in the Broadway national tour of Les Miserables, Missionaries at Brooklyn Academy of Music directed by Elizabeth Swados and starring Josie DeGuzman, the U.S. premiere of David Hare’s adaptation of Brecht’s The Life of Galileo directed by Mark Wing-Davey at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in California, Arthur Miller’s Resurrection Blues at The Signature Theatre Company, A Christmas Carol at McCarter Theatre directed by Scott Ellis, as well as performances at Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Cleveland Play House, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Cain Park, Porthouse Theatre, Arden Theatre Company, and Dobama Theatre.
Film and television credits included the soon to be released An American Pickle starring Seth Rogan, The Lifeguard starring Kristen Bell, The Next Three Days directed by Academy Award winner Paul Haggis and starring Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks, the The Ides of March directed by George Clooney and starring Ryan Gosling and Marisa Tomei, “Downward Dog”, “Guiding Light,” and “As the World Turns,” along with work on many commercials, industrials, and advertisements for television, radio, print, and the internet.
Directing credits include La Gringa; Intimate Apparel; Macbeth; Bus Stop; The House of Blue Leaves; Night Train to Bolina; Sunday in the Park with George; Measure for Measure; The Spitfire Grill; Guys and Dolls; Return to the Forbidden Planet; Dead Man Walking; Jesus Christ Superstar; Anyone Can Whistle; Godspell; Sweeney Todd; True West; Cloud Tectonics; Waiting for Lefty; I Love, You’re Perfect, Now Change; Circle Mirror Transformation which was selected as an Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Region II Alternate Production; and the Midwest premiere of Elizabeth Swados’ Missionaries for which he was a finalist for Northern Ohio Live! Magazine’s Award of Achievement in Theatre.
Polanco is the founder and advisor for Latin/x in Theatre, Kent State University’s first Latin/x student theatre group. His writing on links between acting methodology and the psychology of optimal experience has been published by the Stanislavski Studies and Routledge. He is also a certified teacher of the Michael Chekhov technique.
He received his M.F.A. from Case Western Reserve University and his B.A. from Temple University.
Today's Hours: 
Ask Us
My Library Account