VASTA Newsletter: 98 - Winter p. 19

	Vol. 12 No. 1VASTA WInter 98 p. 19

cancer on December 28 after a long and valiant fight against the disease and is survived by her husband, ASH Artistic Director Kent Thompson, and their four year old son Alexander Tucker Thompson. Jan says, "This is a very painful time for all of us and I find I've lost both an important open friendship and a brilliant working partner. Her gifts to us were many and we still feel her lasting presence and influence on our work and lives."

Elisa Lloyd, Emory University, joined the Theatre Studies faculty in the fall as a Lecturer teaching voice, speech, and acting. She coaches for Theater Emory (the on-campus Equity theater) and this spring will coach Theater Emory's productions of Pillars of Society and Lion and the Jewel. In addition, she has coached this season at the Alliance Theatre, recently finishing Valley Song and A Christmas Carol, and Beast on the Moon, and is currently teaching voice and speech in the Alliance Intern Program. Later this spring she will coach Blood Knot at Theatrical Outfit, starring Kenny Leon and Tom Key, directed by David Bell. She has also been coaching the season at Actor's Express, including productions of Wonderful Town and The Birthday Party. In March and April, Elisa will be playing the title role in Candida, directed by Chris Coleman, at Actor's Express.

Christine Morris, Duke U., is coaching Orpheus Descending at Duke this spring, and also coaching the professional production of the new musical Kudzu, co-produced by Duke and Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC, which will move to Ford's after a short run at Duke in February.

Ellen O'Brien, Guilford College, will coach Measure For Measure at People's Light and Theatre Company (Malvern, PA) in January, and will teach a class in Voice Production for Classical Theatre for City of Oaks School of the Arts in Raleigh, NC in the spring.

Carol Pendergrast, East Carolina U,

did various "busman's holiday" activities during Christmas break. She continued research on "hoomi" or bi-tonal vocal production in London and Paris and attended the 4th International Festival of Women's Voices in Liege, Belgium. While in London, she made use of the British Library and the National Sound Archives and saw several productions of new plays at the National Theatre. She also popped up to Stratford-upon-Avon for the opening banquet of the RSC Theatre Voice Conference to say "Hi" to Cicely and Andrew and the VASTA members attending the conference: BettyAnn Lesseberg-Lange, Claudia Anderson, Trudy Kessler, and Kate Burke. In Paris, Carol enjoyed using the library and seeing videos on voice at the Ethnomusicology Dept. of the Musee de l'Homme, guided by the head of that department, Dr. Tran Quang Hai; she also attended a workshop on bi-tonal voice taught by him. VASTA member Lise Olson made a weekend excursion from Liverpool to Paris to join the workshop. Carol's other Paris activities included giving two lectures to classes in the Theatre Dept. of the University of Paris and attending the opening night of Arianne Mnouchkine's new pro- duction at the Theatre du Soleil.

Judith Sullivan resigned from the Alliance theatre in June '97 to pursue her work as Speech Coach for Holiday Inn, Bell South and other major corporations. She also worked extensively with "Pat and Betty," the TV spokeswomen for Reynolds Wrap. Judith continues her work for CNN and this past year began working with the International Professional Program which brings journalists from all over the world to CNN to continue training. She is still one of Atlanta's top voice-over artists and can be heard on commercials for Waffle House, Bell South, Kroger, etc.

Erica Tobolski, U. of South Carolina, has been busy during her first semester at USC teaching a graduate course in Mask Improvisation in addition to voice and acting classes. She coached productions of Frankenstein and Picasso at the Lapin Agile and will coach As You Like It and a new adaptation of The Oresteia in the spring. In February, Erica performed in a reading of Crossings for the Irish Studies Conference held at U. of South Carolina.

Elizabeth Wiley, The College of William and Mary, recently coached productions of Crazy for You and The Caucasian Chalk Circle, both at William and Mary Theatre. In the spring she will coach productions of Blithe Spirit and Angels in America. She will be the featured voice person at the Virginia Tea Party, a stage combat workshop bringing together internationally renowned fight directors from the Society of American Fight Directors and the British Academy of Dramatic Combat. The workshop will be held April 24-26 at the College of William and Mary. For further information on this workshop, contact<ddoersch@machine1.hrfn.net>

East Central

Debra Hale was promoted to Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre and Drama at Indiana University, Bloomington. She has coached sixteen shows in the past year and a half, including I.U.'s professional summer playhouse in Brown County. She participated in the International Voice Teacher's Intensive conducted by Patsy Rodenburg at the Royal National Theatre Studio. Debra will be directing Savage in Limbo in the Linklater workshop this summer in Rochester.

Shanna Beth McGee, Case Western Reserve U., acted in the Great Lakes Theatre Festival production of A Christmas Carol. She was the

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