Virtual Fall Conference 2020
CTAM VIRTUAL FALL CONFERENCE 2020
Monday, October 12 – Saturday, October 17
ABOUT THE VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
This year we are offering a full week of classes led by well-respected instructors from all over the nation (although many come from our great state of Michigan). All of our classes this year are FREE and will be available on our YouTube channel after the conference ends. We are also offering three roundtable sessions (also free!) on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Last, but not least our keynote speaker, Kristopher Geddle, will be our featured class on Saturday evening followed by our yearly meeting (and then our last roundtable).
Please join us for any and all webinars that interest you. Classes are typically an hour long, though some may run over and roundtables will be roughly an hour as well. Start times are EST. There is an individual registration for each session so make sure you sign up for all of the ones you want! There is a form at the bottom of this page to submit questions to any webinar in advance. Once you register for any zoom you will also get an automatic email reminder of the class or roundtable 1 week, 1 day and 1 hour prior the start time.
Although all classes are FREE you can still make a donation by clicking the link below.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 12
[6 pm] CLASS: Disaster Recovery for Community Theatres / Patrick Hardy
Watch the video here!
CLASS DESCRIPTION: This presentation will address the 5 biggest challenges community theatres in Michigan will face as they reopen during COVID-19 and how to solve them. It will cover volunteer management, production, operations and much more. It will also cover what are the likely long-term modifications that will need to be made in communication, leadership, and other elements of the theatre.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR: Patrick Hardy is CEO of Hytropy Disaster Management™, a leading disaster management company in the US for cultural institutions. A Certified Emergency Manager®, Certified Risk Manager® and a FEMA Master of Exercise Practitioner® he has extensive experience working in the public, private and non-profit sectors in disaster management from micro-businesses to Fortune 500 companies such as Google, Merck, and Parsons Corporations. During the BP Oil Spill in 2010, he was in charge of 23 emergency sites and thousands of employees in three states.
In the summer of 2012, he became the first small business owner ever to be selected as the National Private Sector Representative to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), spending three months in Washington D.C. constructing the first model small business disaster planning framework.
Patrick has been featured on Good Morning America and other national programs, and has been published in dozens of industry publications. His experience is so extensive, he has been termed “America’s Disaster Planner™”.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13
[6 pm] CLASS: Creating Faux Food for the Stage / Michael Wilson
Watch the video here!
CLASS DESCRIPTION: Prop Master Michael Wilson from Grand Rapids Civic Theatre, will demonstrate how to make and create faux foods items from very versatile and inexpensive silicone clay that looks very realistic on stage. Using the faux sub sandwiches he made for the lunch lady in the production Junie B Jones. Michael will demonstrate the steps of how to prep, use, and craft with this medium.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR: Michael Wilson has been creating props for stage productions for over 25 years. Not only is he the Prop Master for Grand Rapids Civic Theatre, he also has created props for Opera Grand Rapids, Circle Theatre, Grand Valley University, Aquinas College and Mason Street Warehouse. Over the years, Michael has developed a special focus on the creation of specialty and faux food stage props.
[7 pm] ROUNDTABLE: Intimacy on Stage / Moderated by Keeley Stanley-Bohn / Panelists: Elaine DiFalco Daugherty & Deb Hertzberg
Watch the video here!
ROUNDTABLE DESCRIPTION: This panel will provide an overview of the emergence and development of the specialization of intimacy direction. Foundational principles of the work and protocols for directors and actors will be discussed as well as how to apply the principles to offstage interactions with members of the production team.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Keeley Stanley-Bohn has worked as a professional actor and director at theatres across the nation, with increasing forays into Eastern Europe. Beginning her professional career as a company member with the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, she then moved on to Los Angeles (Mark Taper Forum, the Hudson), New York (Lincoln Center, American Jewish Theatre, Riverside Shakespeare), and Chicago (Theatre Wit, The Den). Most recently in Eastern Europe, Keeley directed an invited performance of The Fireflies, at the Theresienstadt concentration camp outside Prague, for the international project Performing the Jewish Archive. Recipient of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival’s National Directing Fellowship, Keeley has also been an Artist-in-Residence at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., where she worked with such international artists as Ming Cho Lee and Viacheslav Dolgachev. Currently, Keeley is a Professor of Theatre at Central Michigan University, where she directs and teaches acting, directing, stage combat, dialects, and Theatre and the Holocaust.
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
Elaine DiFalco Daugherty is an educator, director, writer, and intimacy choreographer who recently completed her MFA in Theatre Pedagogy. She teaches in the Theatre and Dance Department at Central Michigan University and previously taught at the University of Maine. Elaine has studied best practices in staging intimacy with Theatrical Intimacy Education, Intimacy Directors International, and Heartland Intimacy Design, and has worked as the intimacy director for In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, and Punk Rock at CMU. Outside of academia, she is a member of Midland Center for the Arts’ Production and Programming Committee and co-host of the center’s podcast, Full Circle. She lives in Mount Pleasant with her Technical Director husband and three theatre-loving children.
Deborah Hertzberg is a NYC based puppeteer, costumer, and theater maker. Recent puppet fabrication and performance work include SNL, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, documentary film George Saunders: On Story, Muppets Most Wanted, Auntie Panda, Avenue Q (Broadway), Little Shop of Horrors (Broadway), Heineken, Optimum On-Line, and many other projects. Deborah’s original puppet works include, Zwerge, for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center; the award-winning Nosferatu for NY Fringe; and her family show, Animals in Winter. Deborah serves as the Costume Shop Supervisor for the Department of Theater at Brooklyn College and is a Lecturer for her course Puppetry for the Theater. For Brooklyn College she has designed puppets for She Kills Monsters and Camino Real. Published works include An Avant-Garde Approach to Comprehensive Puppet Performance Training for Puppetry International. BFA-Acting from UConn, MA Puppetry UConn, and MFA Design U-Idaho. She received grants from the Jim Henson Foundation, Puppeteers of America, and NYSCA.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14
[6 pm] CLASS: Showbusiness for a Reason / Betsy Willis
Watch the video here!
CLASS DESCRIPTION: The success of a community theatre certainly depends on production quality, entertaining staging, and audience pleasing productions, but for most theatres there is also a need for effective leadership from its Board of Directors/Trustees. The Board must understand the business side of running a theatre, be aware of the need to supplement earned income with unearned income (and know the difference), and act as the conduit for community relations. The degree to which each of these needs is important depends, to some degree, on the size of the theatre’s budget and its stage of development. By the end of the workshop(s), participants will better understand the responsibilities of Board members, how to build an effective Board for now and for the future, and what your Board members need to know to be successful. Additionally, each of you will leave with a better, more effective water cooler/elevator speech to share with patrons or community members.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR: With over 17 years of theatrical management to her credit, Betsy Willis is one of the most highly regarded community theatre Development Directors in the state. Her depth of experience encompasses board development, staff training, budgeting, and oversight of daily operations. Betsy’s passion for fund development in general and grant writing led her to create corporate sponsorship programs, plan fund raising events, and understand that community theatres need to have strength in business as well as creativity in order to thrive. Formerly the Development Director of Old Town Playhouse in Traverse City, Betsy is now the position Development Coordinator at Grass Roots Natural Area. Additionally, her consulting business, which specializes in development, grant writing and strategic planning continues to thrive she currently serves as a grant panel reviewer for the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, and received her Certificate in Fund Raising Management from the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, IUPUI in 2014.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15
[6 pm] CLASS: Developing a Technical Theatre Program for Youth / Melissa Bornemann
Watch the video here!
CLASS DESCRIPTION: Youth Theater is vital to the longevity of community theater programs. It is far too often the technical side is ignored or seen as a second choice or consolation prize. Join us as we tell the story of how a technical theater program for children went from concept to reality.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR: Melissa Bornemann is a lifelong resident of the Great Lakes Bay Region. She has been performing since the age of 9 and has been seen on several stages in the area. She gained an interest for theater in high school and has been playing on both sides of the curtain ever since. She is a mother, performing artist, coach and self-proclaimed organizer.
Melissa has worked on over 20 productions on stage, been a part of over 10 production crews and Assistant Directed 2 Children’s shows. She is a member of the Midland Center for the Arts’ Youth Theater board and has worked with kids from ages 8 to 21 for 3 years. Over the past year, working with Center Stage Theater staff and volunteers, Melissa developed and piloted a successful youth theater program with 9 kids from 6th – 8th grade.
[7 pm] ROUNDTABLE: Stage Management / Moderated by Mary Jo DeNolf / Panelists Amy Spadafore, Rhonda Lehan, Brett Finley & Jamie Ware
Watch the video here!
ROUNDTABLE DESCRIPTION: Join us for an in-depth conversation with a panel of the theatre’s greatest asset, Stage Managers. We will be discussing best practices that are in place in both volunteer based and professionally staffed theatres. With Covid-19, how will their role change and how will they enforce new guidelines backstage?
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Mary Jo DeNolf has been with Grand Rapids Civic Theatre since July 1998. In this position she not only works with the volunteers but assists with the day to day operations with ticketing and facilities overall.
As a workshop leader, Mary Jo has lead workshops on the State and National level on Volunteer Management and Front of House procedures. Currently representing GRCT on the Resource Roster for the American Association of Community Theatres (AACT) in both of these areas.
Mary Jo served on the Community Theatre Association of Michigan board for six years serving as President, Vice President, Secretary and currently serving in the Administrator position for CTAM since July. Mary Jo is also active with the National organization of AACT and served as co-chair for the 2015 National AACTFest held at Grand Rapids Civic. Currently Mary Jo works part time for AACT as the onsite Event Coordinator for the National Festival. In her spare time, she works as a production assistant for KBO Group, Grand Rapids and Behind the Scenes, Memphis TN and Stage Manages occasionally in the Grand Rapids area.
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
Amy Spadafore was born and raised in Saginaw County and holds a BS in Arts Management from Western Michigan University. She is a self-taught stage manager, having gotten her start in Miami, FL with Shakespeare Miami in 2008. Since then she has stage managed over 20 productions. Amy directs occasionally and acts whenever she gets a wild hairdo. In 2019 Amy was a member of the first class of MCACA’s Rising Leaders program, a life-changing experience that she encourages all young arts leaders in Michigan to try to take advantage of. In the past 10 years Amy has worked in multiple facets in and around community theatre, including but not limited to production work, the development of education programs, community outreach events, and artistic collaborations with other arts and culture organizations in the region.
Amy is currently the Managing Director of Pit & Balcony Community Theatre in Saginaw, Michigan. As Managing Director, Amy oversees all day-to-day business operations including fund development, marketing, education, and production activities. During the 2019-2020 season Amy served as the Resident Stage Manager at Pit & Balcony, training four assistants to develop their skills and fill a personnel gap for future productions.
Outside of her work at Pit & Balcony, Amy is currently most involved with the Arts & Cultural Engagement (ACE) Collaborative, of which she is the founder. This grassroots effort began as a community-wide reciprocity agreement between arts and culture organizations in order to collaborate and expand cultural influence in Saginaw and in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis has become a cooperative fundraising, marketing, and support system.
Amy is involved with arts advocacy on local, regional, and state levels and hopes to have a long and fulfilling career as a leader in the nonprofit arts world.When she is not at the theatre or trying to change the world, Amy is most likely cooking, painting, reading, or planning a grand adventure. Whenever you see her you can almost guarantee her loyal sidekick, Orville the Theatre Pug, is not far away.Amy is most grateful to have successfully turned her hobby into her career and to be able to do it with people who value community theatre and all it offers to its participants both onstage and off.
Rhonda Lehan stage managed her first show in 1999 and was hooked! So much so that she switched her college major to theatre. Since then, Rhonda has worked with many local community, educational, and professional arts programs. Some of her favorite productions include NUMBER THE STARS at the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre, Secret Garden for Grand Valley State University’s Opera Theatre program, Having Our Say with Ebony Road Players, and One Night With Fanny Brice for Jewish Theatre Grand Rapids. In 2017, she was invited to teach the Stage Management Master Class for the Community Theatre Association of Michigan. Rhonda runs the Mill Creek Middle School Drama Club and the Comstock Park High School Drama Club. She is an office manager for IATSE Local 26, Grand Rapids’ professional stage-hand union.
Brett Finley lives in Ann Arbor, MI and works as a freelance stage manager for opera companies around the country. She spent 10 years on the University of Michigan faculty teaching stage management, and frequently works for the UM Opera Department mentoring student stage managers. She also trained with the MET program, Creating Original Opera, where an opera is created from scratch with school children, including writing, composing and implementing an original opera. She co-created 2 original productions at the Ann Arbor Waldorf School. In recent years, she has stage managed productions for Opera Omaha, San Diego Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago / Scenario – Two, Opera Southwest, Palm Beach Opera, Opera Carolina, Santa Fe Opera, The Opera Festival di Roma, Glimmerglass Opera, San Francisco Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, Ft. Worth Opera, New Orleans Opera, Opera Grand Rapids, Michigan Opera Theatre, Michigan Shakespeare Festival, The Opera Theatre of St. Louis.
Jamie Ware studied Stage Management at SUNY Potsdam. During her college years, she was ASM for an Opera production and was SM for her Theater Department’s Mainstage production. She fell in love with musicals after graduation by taking her first freelance gig with a nonprofit in upstate NY for The Music Man. Jamie found her way back home to Midland, MI where she became resident stage manager at Midland Center for the Arts for 2 years. She left in 2010 to stage manager and produce a concert series at Six Flags America outside DC. In 2012 she moved to NYC and became the production assistant to the Stage Management team for Sister Act on Broadway. Since then she freelances as a Stage Manager for New York Theater Music Festival, Broadway Cares Equity Fights Aids and music festivals.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16
[6 pm] CLASS: Character Study / Ben Zylman
Watch the video here!
CLASS DESCRIPTION: Participants in this workshop will move well beyond the fundamentals of acting. With an emphasis on multi-faceted character creation we will focus on the impacts of environment, relationship and back story. Additionally, we will focus on the art of performing comedy. If you want to be a better actor, this is the workshop for you.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR: Ben Zylman, a multi-award winning actor/director with over 125 productions to his credit, has conducted workshops and master classes throughout the Midwest. He has worked with Jerry Seinfeld, Chita Rivera, Mayim Bialik and Renée Taylor as well as with Grammy award-winning artists Meredith Arwady and Timothy Nordwind.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17
[4 pm] KEYNOTE on Diversity in Theatre / Kristofer Geddie, Venice Theatre
Watch the video here!
KEYNOTE DESCRIPTION: Diversity, equity, inclusion and an invitation to the Party: Our world is changing, our theatre is changing and we must change. How do we begin, where do we begin, and when? Let us have a blameless conversation on the changing dynamics of the theatre world and particularly the community theatre world to help us talk less and act more.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Kristofer Geddie, a North Carolina native, trekked to Florida from New York city to play Coalhouse Walker in Ragtime at Venice Theatre, and never left. He is currently the Director of Diversity and General Manager. Kris holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from Mars Hill University, is currently enrolled in graduate school at Goucher College for a Masters in Arts Administration and has been seen numerous times on stage at Venice Theatre. Kris has also had the privilege of directing The Jungle Book, Crowns, School House Rock Live!, Fences, and Ain’t Misbehavin’. Prior to coming to Venice, Kris had been seen performing on stages around the world. Some other favorite theatrical experiences include; cruising the world as a 5-year Company Manager and Principle Singer for Jean Ann Ryan Productions on Norwegian Cruise Line; Twelfth Night; The Secret Garden; the premiere of the one-man show Bert Williams, Broadway Star; Angels in America; Dreamgirls; and hanging quite a few times as Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar.
In addition to Kris’ duties at Venice Theatre, he serves on the Ambassador Circle for Embracing our Differences, is the treasurer of the Florida Theatre Conference, the Florida State community theatre representative and is thrilled to serve as a Board Member of the Friends of the Venice Public Library and American Association of Community Theatre.
When that stuff is done for the day, Kris likes to cook, collect cookbooks and African American Memorabilia.
[6 pm] ROUNDTABLE: Where do community theatres go from here? / Moderated by Mary Jo DeNolf / Panelists: Bruce Tinker & Dexter Brigham
Watch the video here!
ROUNDTABLE DESCRIPTION: Theatres have now been shut down for months, income is scarce, and the future is unclear, at best. How do we continue to achieve our missions when we are forced to stay apart? Join our panel of theatre experts as we ask, and discuss, the hard questions. As a community, we must come together in order to move forward. The show must go on, just not right now.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Mary Jo DeNolf has been with Grand Rapids Civic Theatre since July 1998. In this position she not only works with the volunteers but assists with the day to day operations with ticketing and facilities overall.
As a workshop leader, Mary Jo has lead workshops on the State and National level on Volunteer Management and Front of House procedures. Currently representing GRCT on the Resource Roster for the American Association of Community Theatres (AACT) in both of these areas.
Mary Jo served on the Community Theatre Association of Michigan board for six years serving as President, Vice President, Secretary and currently serving in the Administrator position for CTAM since July. Mary Jo is also active with the National organization of AACT and served as co-chair for the 2015 National AACTFest held at Grand Rapids Civic. Currently Mary Jo works part time for AACT as the onsite Event Coordinator for the National Festival. In her spare time, she works as a production assistant for KBO Group, Grand Rapids and Behind the Scenes, Memphis TN and Stage Manages occasionally in the Grand Rapids area.
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
Bruce Tinker celebrated his 20th Season as the Executive and Artistic Director of Grand Rapids Civic Theatre and School of Theatre Arts in 2019. Entering its 95th year, Civic Theatre is one of the leading community theatres in the country. It is housed in a state of the art facility and serves over 80,000 patrons, 700 volunteers and 2000 students each year. Bruce has directed over 100 plays and musicals for community, professional and university theatres. Recent productions for Civic Theatre include Mamma Mia, And Then There Were None, Shrek The Musical and Ragtime. Bruce has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from University of Evansville, Indiana and a Master of Fine Arts in Directing from University of Nebraska. Prior to his work with Civic, Bruce was the Managing Artistic Director for the Fargo-Moorhead Community Theatre in Fargo, North Dakota and served on the board of the American Association of Community Theatre (AACT).
Dexter Brigham serves as the Director of Theatre Programs for Midland Center for the Arts where he oversees community theatre and comedy programming. Recent projects include a production of Mamma Mia which sold over 9,000 tickets and was the first regional co-production of three community theatres, and a newly commissioned, modern adaptation of A Christmas Carol by Claire Frances Sullivan. Current projects include a Covid-era series of performances of every play in the Shakespeare canon, and an outdoor festival of one-act plays by playwrights of color coming in the spring. Prior to coming to Michigan in 2013, Dexter was the founder and artistic director of Festival 56, a summer theatre festival in Princeton, Illinois for 12 years. He lives in Midland with his two sons and wife, Laura, a casting director and acting coach.
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