HB Artistic Council

McElwee, Theresa

TEACHING STATEMENT:

“I strive to inspire in my Voice and Speech students, a deep curiosity about the human condition. We reveal ourselves through our voices, and Speech is Identity. Now, more than ever, the world needs your voice and your willingness to speak your truth, with humanity and vulnerability, as well as clarity.

I am committed first and foremost to play. As a certified Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework® and as a student of other methodologies, I believe play is the ultimate goal of ‘the work.’ After all, when we go to the theater, we don’t speak of going to see a ‘work’ but rather, a ‘play.’

I strive to recalibrate and reassess my beliefs and approaches, daily, in order to teach who is in front of me. I am endlessly inspired and invigorated by the lessons I receive from my students.

My deepest desire is to offer you practical tools to empower you, and enable you to better serve your text. To speak with clarity and conviction, and to learn, in the words of Dudley Knight and Phil Thompson, ‘to listen with your mouth.’ I seek to foster a laboratory environment that is warm, inclusive, deeply curious and full of play.”

BIO:

Theresa currently teaches voice and speech at NYU Tisch School of the Arts and at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. At HB Studio, Theresa has taught Speech 1, Speech 2, Speech 3, Speaking Voice in the Hagen Summer Intensive and Hagen Teacher’s Lab, as well as special workshops for the HB community. In private practice, she works with actors, broadcasters, news anchors, and corporate clients. Theresa has taught introductory voice and speech at the New York Conservatory of Dramatic Art, as well as to high school students at the School for Film and Television Summer Program, and South of Broadway Summer Conservatory. Coaching credits include productions at The Signature Theatre, The Abingdon Theatre, NYU’s New Studio on Broadway, Boomerang Theatre Company and New Light Theatre Project. As a performer, Theresa appeared on Broadway in THE HEIDI CHRONICLES and I’M NOT RAPPAPORT, and in productions Off-Broadway, at Lincoln Center, and on PBS American Playhouse as well as many regional theatre productions across the country. A proud member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA, VASTA and The Voice Foundation, Theresa holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama and is a certified Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework®

Orlandersmith, Dael

Dael Orlandersmith is a playwright whose plays include STOOP STORIES, BLACK N’ BLUE BOYS/BROKEN MEN, HORSEDREAMS, BONES, THE BLUE ALBUM, YELLOWMAN, THE GIMMICK, MONSTER, and FOREVER. Ms. Orlandersmith was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and Drama Desk Award nominee for YELLOWMAN and the winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for THE GIMMICK. Dael is the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts grant, The Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, a Guggenheim, along with several other awards and honors. Her play, FOREVER, was commissioned and performed at the Mark Taper Forum/Kirk Douglas Theatre Fall of 2014, followed by performances at the Long Wharf Theatre Winter 2014/15, New York Theatre Workshop Spring 2015, and at Portland Center Stage Winter 2016. Her play UNTIL THE FLOOD was done at St Louis Repertory fall of 2016, at Rattlestick Theatre in 2018, Milwaukee Rep in 2019, at Portland Center Stage, ACT Seattle, the Arcola Theatre in London, The Galway Arts Festival at the Druid Theatre, and at the Traverse at Edinburgh Festival. The play is scheduled to be performed in Berlin at the Schaubruhner theatre in April of 2022 and at the Spoleto festival in Charleston, SC in June 2022. She is currently working on two commissions for Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland and Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. Ms. Orlandersmith is working on a Commission for Rattlestick theatre called WATCHING THE WATCHER, and has two plays opening at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre in 2022: NEW AGE, to be directed by Jade King Carroll, and ANTONIO’S SONG/I WAS DREAMING OF A SON, cowritten with Antonio Suarez Edwards and directed by Mark Clement. She is also working on a new work with writer/performer David Cale called ‘ YOU DON’T KNOW THE LONELY ONE, and is working on a new piece called SPIRITAS. In 2020 Ms. Orlandersmith received the Doris Duke award.

Nelson, Mark

Mark Nelson studied acting with Uta Hagen. He has appeared in New York in THE CHERRY ORCHARD with Jessica Hecht (Baryshnikov Arts Center 2022); ANGELS IN AMERICA (2018 revival); MY NAME IS ASHER LEV (Westside Theatre); TIMON OF ATHENS (The Public Theater); THE WINTER’S TALE (directed by Sam Mendes at BAM); THREE SISTERS (Roundabout Theatre); Tom Stoppard’s THE INVENTION OF LOVE (Lincoln Center); and as Einstein in Steve Martin’s PICASSO AT THE LAPIN AGILE. Regional theater work includes Shylock in THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (The Shakespeare Theatre, D.C.); Bluntschli in ARMS AND THE MAN (Long Wharf Theatre); Matt in TALLEY’S FOLLY (Berkshire Theatre Festival); the title role in UNCLE VANYA (Intiman Theatre); and all thirty-six roles in I AM MY OWN WIFE (Cleveland Playhouse). He played recurring roles on LAW & ORDER and SPIN CITY. He has directed plays off-Broadway and at many regional theaters, and taught at the Juilliard School, Princeton University, and Circle in the Square. Mark has received an Obie Award, a Drama Desk nomination, and the Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship.

McCorry, Marion

Studied with Uta Hagen. NY: ADAGIETTO (HBPF), EXTREMITIES, LADY FROM THE SEA, THE COMEDY OF ERRORS, IONESCOPADE, THREE SISTERS, and others. Regional: SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER, THE TRESTLE AT POPE LICK CREEK (Humana Festival ‘98, Actors Theatre of Louisville), DRACULA, LOTS OF LOVE GERTRUDE, EVER THINE THORNTON (Classics in Context Series A.T.L.), A PERFECT GANESH, DANCING AT LUGHNASA, LATER LIFE, THE SNOW BALL, and THE SUM OF US. Film: STEPHANIE DALEY,x THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR, SIGNS, SHE HATE ME, THE DOOR IN THE FLOOR, TWO LOVERS, SALT, and ALL GOOD THINGS TV: SPIN CITY, LAW & ORDER, SEX AND THE CITY, and 30 ROCK.