Round 4

CHRISTINA APATHY, Perseverance Theatre, Douglas AK

Christina plans to attend Theatre Mitu’s South India Artist Intensive to explore an artist’s personal mythology as citizen of the world in 2010. In 2011 Christina will participate in the Teacher Development Program at the Actors Center. In 2012 she will take a course in The Moving Body at the London International School of Performing Arts to gain a deeper understanding of the dynamic forces at the core of the artist’s existence, attend a puppetry festival in Portugal the Sibiu Theatre Festival in Romania, and spend time at the Kneehigh Theatre in Cornwall, UK.

HEATHER SIMMS, McCarter Theatre Center, Princeton NJ

Heather will travel to Jamaica to audit courses on Caribbean Dialectology, the socio-historical background of Caribbean Language and women’s narrative in the African Diaspora. She will also study Afro-Caribbean dance. She will then travel to London for additional voice training, and to observe the Jamaican-founded Talawa theatre company. She will then travel to Ghana to participate in the African Culture Through Arts program to explore Ghanaian storytelling traditions. In the final phase of her fellowship, Heather will curate a reading series at the McCarter that will introduce the McCarter community as well as other actors and directors to new voices.

J. NICOLE BROOKS, Lookingglass Theatre Company, Chicago IL

In preparation for a role in an opera based on a slave settlement in Colonial Brazil, Nicole will learn Afro Brazilian Samba, Portuguese and Capoeira to prepare for travel to Brazil for a deeper insight into Brazilian culture. She will also develop her circus skills at the Actors Gymnasium, and continue studying with master teachers David Downs of Northwestern University and Mary Ann Thebus of Artistic Home.

STEPHANIE BERRY, Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York NY

Stephanie will study voice at the Linklater Center for Voice and Language in New York, yoga and meditation at Harlem Holistic Studios and Improvisation classes at HB studios. She will travel to Sierra Leone to study storytelling with village griots and attend storytelling festivals including the Zora Neale Hurston Festival, the Gullah Festival and the Hane Native American Storytelling Festival. She will collect stories from a diverse section of Harlem residents, and present her findings in a production celebrating the living history of West Harlem.

PAULA PLUM, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Boston MA

Paula will travel to France to study Mask Play, Characters, Melodrama and Characters and Writing at the Ecole Phillipe Gaulier, take two Mask intensives at Dell’Arte International and study at the Ecole Mime in Montreal. She will also develop a new original work based on the life of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, and offer master classes on Mask and working with sexuality onstage.