MEG SCHAEFER, PHD directed her first New Players production in the spring of 1989. Since then, she has directed over 40 shows and served in numerous other capabilities, including producer, artistic director of Summer New Players, and supervisor of the Junior Company Program. Dr. Schaefer, who was named artistic director of the New Players Company in 2005, believes that the most important function of theater is to broaden and deepen our understanding of the human condition. She is a process oriented director whose rehearsals focus on collaborative work among the actors and director to explore a play's text and characters. During the summer of 2003, Dr. Schaefer received a grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities to participate in a month-long intensive workshop on teaching Shakespeare with Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, Massachusetts. She was also named Ridgewood High School Teacher of the Year in 1999. In addition to her work with the New Players Company, Dr. Schaefer has directed shows for Bergen Community College, served as associate producer for Georgetown University's Mask and Bauble Theater Company, and worked for McCarter Theatre's Education Department as a visiting teacher artist. Her undergraduate and graduate degrees are from Georgetown and the University of Virginia. In 2005, she successfully defended her dissertation on integrating drama techniques and textual analysis in the teaching of Shakespeare and was awarded a Ph.D. in Educational Theatre from New York University.
Brandt Belknap, technical director, RHS '94, has been working in the technical side of theatre and live performances for over 12 years. Brandt has spent much of the last five years touring with Cirque du Soleil's show Dralion as the Head of Automation and Assistant Technical Director. He continues work with Cirque as a 'Fly-In' and is currently assisting coordination of the transfer from Europe to Japan. Prior to Cirque Brandt spent two years in the Sonoran Desert working as ATD for the Arizona Theatre Company. When not working with NPC or traveling with Cirque, Brandt can often be found working for Shaw and Young Metal Works in NYC or freelancing at various professional theatres. Brandt fondly remembers first stumbling into the Little Theatre 16 years ago and credits that experience as the start of his current career in the theatre. He is proud to work with such an amazing staff and student body. He is particularly excited to be building a new technical theatre program for NPC and even though he previously asserted he couldn't imagine teaching, after the past year has found himself happily disabused of this notion.
Steven Borowka is excited to once again be a part of the New Player Company. Steve is a graduate of SUNY Bingingham where he received a B.A. in Comparative Literature and Theatre. After spending some time in Manhattan as an actor, Steve obtained his M.A. in Education Theatre from NYU. This year marks Steve's 6th summer as Camp Manitou's resident theatre director. He is also the proud co-owner of Acting Manitou, an acting camp created for serious acting students. Steve has directed for the education departments at the McCarter Theatre, Passage Theatre Company, NYU, Scarsdale High School, Grove Street Playhouse and Hofstra University. He currently teaches theatre at Hunter College High School. He is excited to announce hat his play A Family Secret will be published later this year. Thanks to his parents for their endless support.
Tim Brownell returns to the New Players Company for his third season as a director. Previously with NPC, Tim directed Big Mary, Haroun and the Sea of Stories and Play Lab, as well as writing Romeo and Juliet: to the Max, This is Hamlet, and Mythical for the Junior New Players. Tim is in his first year as a drama teacher for the Brearley School in NYC. He also freelance teaches for the McCarter Theatre, where Tim spent the previous four years as coordinator of their after school program. During the summer, Tim directs for the Imagination Stage in Bethesda, Maryland. After which, Tim travels to Oakland, Maine where he directs an overnight theatre camp called Acting Manitou that he co-founded four years ago with Steve Borowka (www.actingmanitou.com). A graduate of Middlebury College '02 and Ridgewood High School '98, during which Tim was a member of NPC and credits Dr. Schaefer with providing him his greatest theatrical inspiration. Tim dedicates his work this season to Megan Ketch.
Jeffrey G. Haas, the Company's resident orchestra director, has been director of bands at RHS since 1988. In 1990, he joined the NPC staff and has led the pit orchestra for over 25 different productions. In 1997, the Paper Mill Playhouse recognized The Secret Garden pit orchestra with a "Rising Star" award. Mr. Haas holds degrees in music education from Syracuse University and Columbia University and has received many awards as an outstanding music educator in the state and nation. Mr. Haas is a member of the International Association for Jazz Education and the New Jersey Music Educators Association, has served as conductor of the Region I Junior Jazz ensemble, the Bergen County Band and the Orange County (NY) All County Jazz Ensemble. A professional saxophonist, Mr. Haas has appeared with New York Voices, Rob McConnell, Freddie Hubbard, and as soloist with the Ridgewood Symphony and the Ridgewood Concert Band. He has served as a music education clinician at the University of Massachusetts, Montclair State, and at the NJ Music Educators Association convention. Mr. Haas lives in Glen Rock with his wife and two children.
Jack Jacobs, New Players lighting designer, has worked with the company for several years. He is also production manager/resident designer at Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture where he has lit over eighty concerts, plays, operas and telethons, including Jammin' in the Bronx, which was done for PBS. Over the part 10 years, Jack has worked as an associate designer with Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer on Criss Angel Mindfreak at the WWF and as lighting coordinator on Harlem Song at the Apollo Theater. Also, as an associate designer with David Agress, Jack has lit several projects including the Rainmaker Show at Foxwoods Casino, Victoria's Secret Angels Launch and ITT Sheraton World Conference.
Anita J. La Scala, Set Designer, is delighted to be a New Player! Design Credits at NPC: A Christmas Carol, Is There a Comic in the House?, Into the Woods, Charlotte’s Web, Durang-a-thon, MacBeth and Once On This Island. Other design credits include: Stage Door, Twelfth Night and The Secret Garden (Bergen Academies), Beauty and the Beast (Harlequin Productions), Lost in Paradise (Axial Theatre), Trojan Women: A Love Story (Michael Howard Studio), The Green Bird and The Moon’s a Balloon (Purchase Theatre Ensemble), 8 Minute Madness (Turtleshell Productions). Anita assists on Broadway, Off-Broadway and Regional Theatre Productions as well as designs and art directs on various independent films.
Louisa Luisi, a Ridgewood High School English teacher, is an actress, director, and writer and has been performing in community, university, and professional productions for over ten years. She has held leading and supporting roles in productions that include Angels in America, The Trojan Women, and Death of a Salesman. Louisa has also performed as an ensemble member in the educational drama Untitled. In 2003, She had the honor of working with the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, as she held the leading role of Scheherazade in Tales from the Arabian Nights. She is the author of the full length play Tough Crowd and has written a number of one-act plays including Lessons Learned, which was staged last winter by Porch Light Productions. Last year, she worked with Porch Light in Verona, NJ directing Battle of the Sexes and The Shape of Things. This past summer, she worked with New Players for the first time and directed Nit Wits. Currently, Louisa is obtaining her Master's degree in English Education. She would like to thank all of the talented members of New Players and dedicated staff for all of their hard work and long hours. She would especially like to thank Meg, Laurie, Steve, and Tim for welcoming her with open arms.
Barbara Noto has served as the administrative assistant for the theatre program during the academic year and summers for many years. She handles the box office and front of house details and is an invaluable partner to the staff and students.
James O'Connell has been active in theatre since the bug bit him in a Dallas area high school. Since that time, he has been active in several areas of theatre including technical theatre, acting, directing, playwriting, and research. He is currently the Master Carpenter for New Players and the Assistant Technical Director for Columbia University’s graduate theatre program. He is also a member of Actor’s Equity Association, has maintained active relationships with the Peterborough Players and the American Shakespeare Center, and is the former Owner/Artistic Director of a children’s theatre company in Virginia called Golden Duck Productions.Laurie Sales, recently moved to Groton, MA to take on the role of Artistic Director of the Campbell Performing Arts Center at the Groton School. Though this new post has led to a relocation far from her beloved NPC home, Laurie remains involved in the development of New Players and in the thriving Junior New Players Program. Formerly the Associate Director of Education at the McCarter Theatre, Laurie has been teaching theatre for almost ten years. As a professional director Laurie has worked at the Arena Stage, Hartford Stage, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Children’s Theatre Company and the Melbourne Theatre Company in Australia. She is also a member of the Tectonic Theatre Project in New York with which she has developed two new works. Laurie is proud to be collaborating on several projects at the moment including the original piece, Missing/Captured which she co-wrote with fellow NPC alum Kelly Van Zile. This summer Laurie will return to CTC in Minneapolis to direct a revival of FAME, the musical. Laurie misses the New Players desperately and hope to return to the Little Theatre next summer to work, once again, with this exceptional group of theatre artists; a group to whom she is forever indebted and deeply devoted.
Jennifer Schriever, Lighting Designer, Recent Designs: A Streetcar Named Desire, The Winter’s Tale (Berlind Theatre, Princeton); Once On This Island, Macbeth, Much Ado about Nothing, Dark of the Moon (New Players Company); Other Peoples Money, Lend Me a Tenor (John W. Engeman); Epic of Sunjata (The Loft); As Far As We Know (Flamboyan); Having It Almost (NYMF); PrimeTime (Theatre Row). Broadway Associate Design: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, You're Welcome America, American Buffalo, 13 – A New Musical, A Catered Affair, Cymbeline, The Vertical Hour, The Color Purple, The Threepenny Opera. Opera: Dr. Atomic (English National Opera); Off-Broadway Associate: Emmet Otters Jugband Christmas, In The Heights, Evil Dead The Musical, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The House in Town. NYC Assistant Design: The Pajama Game, Two Gentlemen of Verona The Musical, Sweet Charity, Good Vibrations, A Raisin in the Sun, Fiddler on the Roof. BFA: Purchase College
Keith Trevor Sattely is the director of choral activities at Ridgewood High School, where he conducts the Concert Choir, Chamber Choir, Vocal Jazz Ensemble and Chorale. He has also served as a student and an assistant director to the Rutgers Glee Club, and is currently a rehearsal assistant for the Riverside Choral Society in NYC. Mr. Sattely holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Recent performances include Schoenberg's Gurrelieder with the Philadelphia Singers and Philharmonic Orchestra in Academy Hall and Carnegie Hall, Mozart's Mass in C-minor and Idomeneo with the Mostly Mozart Festival in Avery Fisher Hall, and Orff's Carmina Burana with the Collegiate Chorale in Carnegie Hall.
Kelly Van Zile, a graduate of RHS. Bio to come...
