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ABOUT THE SUMMER PROGRAM CONSERVATORY LEADERS
SUSAN MERSON (SCP PROGRAM DIRECTOR) Began her career as an actress in New York starring in such Off Broadway hits as the original company of Jack Heifner’s VANITIES, spending time on Broadway under the direction of Franco Zefirelli, regional theatre and in Off Off Broadway developmental work. She relocated to LA where her acting career has included television and film work including work last season on GREY’S ANATOMY and MONK.
A veteran of new play development, she has led the Los Angeles Writers Bloc, which she co founded with writer Jane Anderson, which boasts such writers as Donald Margulies and Jeffrey Sweet as alums. She has served as Resident Playwright for the Jewish Women’s Theatre Project, Literary Manager of the Ensemble Studio Theatre and worked as a reader for such companies as Fogwood Films, TNT, Polygram among many others. She currently teaches Playwrighting at Cal State Fullerton. Her plays—one of which (HAIR: A REMINISCENCE) is a 2007 Heideman Award finalist at Louisville-- have been seen at theatres across the US and Canada. BOUNTY OF LACE a full length about contemporary Israel and Palestine won the Religion and Theatre Award at the 2008 ATHE Conference and was produced in Chicago at the Halcyon Theatre as part of the Alcyone Festival.. THE WHITE BIRCHES (Amazon Shorts), a ten-minute piece, was done at the ATHE conference in Denver 2008. She currently sits on the NY Board of the Ensemble Studio Theatre, leading the NY ARTS/ EST/ SUMMER CONSERVATORY PROGRAM. THE MARRIAGE SUITE , her newest play, is slated for a fall production at Theatricum Botanicum. Her novel, DREAMING IN DAYLIGHT, workshopped at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, debuted in April 09. She has written and performed eight solo performance pieces and her book YOUR NAME HERE; AN ACTOR WRITERS GUIDE TO SOLO PERFORMANCE is available in bookstores nationally
ROD MENZIES (SCP PROGRAM PRODUCER) is a member of EST-LA, where he serves on the Members' Council and as Coordinator of the Directors Round Table. For EST-LA he has directed numerous developmental readings and productions of new plays for Winterfest, the Studio 6 Series and the First Look Series. An award-winning director, his recent productions include: Pericles, for the Shakespeare Theatre, Washington DC; All I Ever Wanted, for the Santa Monica Playhouse; St. Alice of Chattahoochee, for the Carrie Mitchell Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse; Nora, for the Century City Playhouse; The Marriage Suite, for EST-LA's Winterfest; Two Rooms, for McCadden Place Theatre; and The William & Mary Chronicles, for the Santa Monica Playhouse. He is co-writer and director of Arturo's Window, a play with music, currently being developed for an Off-Broadway production at the York Theatre in New York City. He holds a Diploma in Acting from the Bristol Old Vic and a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre from York University, Toronto. For more than 20 years, he taught in nationally ranked college and conservatory programs, including Canada's National Theatre School and, most recently, the University of Southern California. He was a founding faculty member of the National Voice Intensive, in Vancouver, where he was head of Text Curriculum for 15 years. A noted Hollywood coach, with his own studio in Santa Monica, Rod's clients include Patricia Arquette, David Duchovny, Marishka Hargitay, Neil Patrick Harris and Alicia Silverstone.
DANA TARANTINO (NYAP THEATRE ADVISOR) is a professional stage director. She was awarded the Madolin Cervantes Grant from the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation at Lincoln Center. New York directing credits include: The Swede, Hamlet, Entrepreneurs, Cabaret, Hamlet, Finishing Stroke, Penguins & Peacocks, The House of Bernarda Alba, Man of La Mancha, Jesus Christ Superstar, Vanities, The Father, In the Gravy, and the off Broadway comedy, Lady L. For the APACHE Project, she directed The Arabian Nights, the 50th anniversary of West Side Story, and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. Her musical staging has been featured for the Coca-Cola Concert Series at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden, Town Hall, Westbury Music Fair, Trump Taj Majal, and other venues. She is on the boards of several cultural organizations in New York City. Tarantino was a student of the late Lehman Engel and a member of the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop, the Dramatists Guild, the Association of Italian American Writers, and the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC). She holds a Ph.D. in theatre from New York University.
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