Curricula Vitae in Theatre and Dance

Name	Personal Focus	Summary
Marina Arconti Instructor		Marina comes to UofSC from the Chicagoland area where she was the Costume Shop Supervisor at Northwestern University for over 10 years. Prior to Northwestern, Marina was Head Draper and Costume Shop Manager at Children’s Theater of Charlotte and Costume Technician at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. Marina has also done costume work for Chicago theatre and dance companies such as Goodman Theatre, Chicago Opera Theater, Joffrey Ballet and the Lyric Opera.
David Britt Senior Instructor	Theatre	David Britt appeared on stage at Theatre South Carolina in Measure for Measure, A View from the Bridge, Bus Stop, Dancing at Lughnasa and A Midsummer Night's Dream. He is from Raleigh, NC, where he appeared in more than 30 roles. He has trained at the New Actors Workshop in New York City and at the world renowned Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, MA. David also completed the Second City Comedy Improvisation Boot Camp.
Lyle Browne Instructor
Marybeth Craig Instructor		Marybeth Gorman is an actor, teacher, director, and voice and dialect coach based in Columbia. She has performed regionally with theaters including Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Utah Shakespearean Festival, Hippodrome Theater, Arden Theatre Company, and Walnut Street Theatre, and is a frequent dialect coach for Theatre South Carolina productions. Marybeth is a graduate of USC's MFA Acting Program and is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association.
Thaddeus Davis Associate Professor		Thaddeus Davis is an Instructor of Contemporary Dance at the University of South Carolina. As a teacher and choreographer, he has done residencies at The Juilliard School, Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, Butler University, Arizona State University, Ballet Austin Academy, and has served as guest faculty at The Alabama School of Fine Arts.
Jennifer Lynn Deckert Associate Professor		Jennifer Deckert is a native of St. Louis, Missouri where she began her training with Alexandra Zaharias. She received a BFA in ballet performance from University of Utah, performing with Character Dance Ensemble, Eastern Arts Ensemble, and Utah Ballet. Jennifer continued to perform for Utah Ballet as she received her MFA in ballet teaching, choreography, and research.
Dr. Peter Duffy Professor		Peter is the head of the MAT program in theatre education at the University of SC. Peter works mostly with students and teachers infusing theatre in to the basic curriculum both here and abroad. His research interests include using Theatre of the Oppressed techniques with youth and activating the basic curriculum through theatre.
Eduard (Eddie) Forehand Instructor		Eddie is interested in the application of dynamic alignment and kinesthetic awareness of the body as a way to assist in injury prevention. He has a desire to bring about a focus on individuality in dancing and help the student with tools on how to take responsibility for their own learning in an inclusive and positive environment. He is also a certified ABT curriculum instructor for levels pre-primary through level 5.
Ms. Maria Lisa Gavaletz Instructor	stage manager	Lisa comes to USC after a lengthy career as a freelance Stage Manager in NYC. Academic credits include dozens of show with NYU’s Graduate Acting & Design program and The Juilliard School. Other favorites include PA’ing on Broadway’s Footloose, 8 months on a one-woman show Nine Parts Of Desire, and several Shakespeare in The Parks. Proud member, AEA.
Mr. Samuel Douglas Gross Senior Instructor	Theatre and Dance	Sam Gross is a graduate of Indiana University where he earned an MFA in Theatre Technology. He specializes in mechanized scenery, computer controlled systems, electronics, set construction, and rigging. He has designed and built motion control systems for such productions as The Real Thing, Sweeny Todd, Romeo and Juliet, Sweet Charity, Dracula, and Pal Joey. He has overseen the construction of USC productions since 2005.
Kristy Hall Assistant Professor		Kristy Leigh Hall, Head of Costume Design, has worked in Chicago, Washington, DC, New York and regionally. She is the Costume Director with Chicago’s Definition Theatre Company. Her previous designs include: An Octoroon (Goodman Theatre and Definition Theatre), The Play About My Dad (Raven Theatre), I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Tosca and The Wizard of Oz (Skylight Music Theatre), The Who and the What and Pipeline (Victory Gardens), Byhalia, Mississippi, (Steppenwolf Theatre Company).
James Hunter Professor		Some of Jim Hunter's recent designs include the lighting design for The Lost Colony in North Carolina and the scene design for Thoroughly Modern Millie at Phoenix Theatre in Arizona which was awarded his second consecutive AriZoni Award for Excellence in Scene Design.
Scott D Keith Instructor
John Nicholas Kiselica Instructor		John Kiselica is the Assistant Technical Director and Instructor of Lighting & Sound here at The University of South Carolina, and is a graduate of West Virginia University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in lighting and sound design. He has worked on a national tour, Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, as the master electrician after a contract with Royal Caribbean International as a stage technician.Commercial theatrical work includes installing Prodigy Hoists, an automated rigging system.
Amy Lehman Associate Professor		Prior to joining USC in 2005, Amy taught at Towson University, MD, and at the State University of New York at Albany. She has taught undergraduate and graduate level courses on topics in theatre history and dramatic literature, ranging from 17th century French theatre to 20th century women playwrights. She has researched and published in the area of 19th century theatre and actresses, and has a book about Victorian women performers and mesmerism forthcoming from McFarland & Co., publishers.
Andre Megerdichian Assistant Professor		André Megerdichian has been performing professionally for over two decades with such companies and choreographers as the Limón Dance Company, Janis Brenner and Dancers, The Mary Anthony Dance Theatre, Soundance Repertory Company, Reidel Dance Theatre, Daniel Charon, and Seán Curran. For seven seasons he was a principal dancer with Dance Kaleidoscope, under the artistic direction of David Hochoy, former rehearsal director of the Martha Graham Dance Company.
Dr. Stephanie Milling Department Chair/Professor	Theatre and Dance	Dr. Milling’s creative and scholarly work revolves around the intersections of Women’s Studies and Dance, assessment, advocacy, and pedagogy.
Andrew J. Mills Senior Instructor	Theatre and Dance	Andy has designed professionally at Shakespeare Theatre's Young Company (Washington, DC), Charlotte Repertory Theatre, Carolina Opera, USC Opera, and Trustus. Andy currently teaches Intro to Theatre Design and Theatre Laboratory. He specializes in the area of properties, finding or building the most obscure of items. Andy is a Member of USITT.
Eric Morris Senior Instructor		Eric is a teacher, designer, painter and a writer. Born and raised in Augusta, GA, he is a graduate of Augusta College and earned his MFA in Stage Design from Western Illinois University. He has assisted, designed and produced for trade shows, ballet, opera, regional theatre, Off-Broadway and Broadway.
Valerie Pruett Senior Instructor		Valerie Pruett is the instructor and designer for hair and makeup at Theatre South Carolina. She is a registered artist with the SC Film Commission and the makeup artist for the Addy Award-winning media company, Mad Monkey.
Ms. Erica E Tobolski Professor	Acting, Voice Consulting, Accent Modification	Erica Tobolski is an actor and voice-over artist and is currently an Associate Professor at the University of South Carolina in the areas of Voice/Speech and Acting.
Nic Ularu Professor	THEATRE DESIGN AND PRODUCTION, PLAY WRITING	Professor Ularu has extensive design credits in USA and Europe, including theatres in Sweden, Northern Ireland and Romania. Nic Ularu was the head of scenography at the National Theatre of Bucharest - Romania, and served for four years as a board member of The European League of the Institutes of the Arts (ELIA), Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Besides his national and international design activity Nic Ularu is a playwright and director.
Ms. Olivia Sease Waldrop Senior Instructor		Olivia joined the University of South Carolina dance faculty in 2017 where she teaches ballet, contemporary, and composition. Additionally, she experiments with choreography in the mediums of live performance and dance film to develop creative collaboration methods with students and fellow artists.
Dustin Graham Whitehead Assistant Professor		Dustin Whitehead is an actor and director from Chicago IL. Dustin can be seen in numerous independent films as well as the nationally televised shows Chicago PD, Chicago Fire, and Your Worst Nightmare. Last year, he was in a production of An Enemy of the People at The Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Other Chicago theatre credits include Steppenwolf, Chicago Dramatists, American Theatre Company, Redtwist, The Inconvenience, Lakeside Shakespeare, and Congo Square.
Tanya Wideman-Davis Associate Professor	Race, gender, femininity, identity, and location, the traditional methodologies and ideologies of classical Ballet	Ms. Wideman-Davis has been noted by New York Dance Fax as distinctive for the power of her secure pointe work and her personality. Ms. Wideman-Davis has trained with some of the premiere schools in the country, starting with The Academy of Movement and Music, The Ruth Page Dance Foundation, The Joffrey Ballet School, Pacific Northwest Ballet, The Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, Chicago City Ballet, and The Dance Theatre of Harlem.
Lauren Wilson Assistant Professor		Lauren Wilson is a theatre director, playwright, actor, and teacher, specializing in physical performance styles and ensemble creation. She was a core faculty member at the Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre for twelve years, five of them as School Director. Lauren has directed, written, and performed in many productions with the Dell'Arte Company, and collaborated with theatre performers and ensembles from Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Canada, Finland, Italy, and the US.