FACULTY AND STAFF

Faculty and staff mem­bers are cho­sen for the Texas Arts Project based on the indi­vid­ual teacher’s pro­fes­sion­al and instruc­tion­al expe­ri­ence. All fac­ul­ty mem­bers are of the high­est cal­iber and com­mu­ni­cate with stu­dents in a pos­i­tive, con­struc­tive, and encour­ag­ing man­ner. The core fac­ul­ty has an estab­lished pro­fes­sion­al rela­tion­ship allow­ing them to work close­ly with one anoth­er to guide each stu­dent to his or her next level.

Every stu­dent, regard­less of his/​her goals, should receive the best pos­si­ble train­ing. The fac­ul­ty and staff take pride in mak­ing sure all stu­dents receive per­son­al­ized train­ing and indi­vid­ual atten­tion. No two artists are alike. Therefore, it is very impor­tant for each stu­dent to know how to approach his or her craft in a safe and thought­ful manner.

Our stu­dents are taught the val­ue of fine arts so they may become a life-long sup­port­er of the arts regard­less of the paths they may choose.

Ginger Morris

River City Rockfest

Ginger Morris, Artistic Director 

Ginger grad­u­at­ed with a BFA in Theatre from the University of Texas at Austin. She worked as Stage Manager or Production Manager for var­i­ous Austin Musical Theatre Productions, where she man­aged the AMT Performing Arts Academy for six years. Ginger has direct­ed pro­duc­tions with St. Edward’s University, Zilker Theatre Productions, Arts On Real, Second Youth, and Austin Scottish Rite Children’s Theatre. She has also been guest direc­tor and/​or chore­o­g­ra­ph­er for sev­er­al schools in cen­tral Texas and con­ducts the­atre work­shops all over Texas. As the Director of Education and Outreach for the Long Center, she cur­rent­ly runs Texas Arts Project, Summer Stock Austin, The Greater Austin High School Musical Theatre Awards, and the College Audition Program. She is founder/​director of Texas Arts Project, a nation­al­ly rec­og­nized arts sleep-away camp at St. Stephen’s School. She is a proud co-founder of Summer Stock Austin, where she has direct­ed Footloose, West Side Story, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Little Shop of Horrors, Sweet Charity, The Producers, Pippin, Into the Woods, and The Addams Family. Ginger has been the Producing Director of the Greater Austin High School Musical Theatre Awards since its incep­tion in 2014. She is direc­tor and coach for the College Audition Program, prepar­ing high school stu­dents for col­lege auditions.

Nick Mayo

nickmayopicNick Mayo, Head of Acting

Nick is a grad­u­ate of the Juilliard School, where his favorite projects includ­ed One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, As You Like It, The American Clock, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Listener, Henry IV, The Realm of Chelm, Kitty Kitty Kitty, The Workroom and Platonov direct­ed by John Stix. He made his debut on Broadway on The Ritz. He went on to per­form in South Pacific and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. He would even­tu­al­ly move from his career in New York City to Austin, TX where he direct­ed She Loves Me at St. Edward’s University. That show won him the 2016 Austin Critics Table Award for Best Musical. Nick has taught class­es, work­shops, and mas­ter class­es for Interlochen Arts Academy, The Juilliard School, North East School of the Arts in San Antonio, The Kennedy Center Summer Educational Center, and The Shubert Organization edu­ca­tion­al outreach.

Dustin Gooch

Dustin Gooch, Head of Filmmak­ing
Dustin got his start in Austin many years ago after attend­ing St. Edward’s University and join­ing Austin Musical Theatre. He moved to New York to work for The Schubert Organization for a cou­ple years before going back to col­lege to study film­mak­ing. Dustin received his B.F.A. from The University of North Carolina School of the Arts School of Filmmaking in 2009 with an empha­sis in direct­ing. He has worked as a writer, direc­tor, edi­tor and actor on numer­ous inde­pen­dent short and fea­ture films since grad­u­at­ing. He has head­ed the film­mak­ing pro­gram at Texas Arts Project since 2015, mod­el­ing the pro­gram after the edu­ca­tion he and his fel­low teach­ers received at UNCSA.

Jacob Scott

Jacob Scott, Director/​Choreographer — TAP Junior
Jacob Scott (Junior Camp Director/​Choreographer) is return­ing to Austin after a five year hia­tus dur­ing which he per­formed at sev­er­al region­al the­atres, earned a BFA from the Webster Conservatory, became a mem­ber of Actor’s Equity, and moved to New York City. His work in the city includes lead­ing numer­ous short films, por­tray­ing Romeo in the Shakespeare pod­cast “Lend Me Your Ear”, star­ring in the web­series “Tipping Point”, and star­ring in the read­ing of a new musi­cal “Parallel Lines”. In addi­tion to his act­ing work, Jacob (Jakob Skot) wrote, record­ed, and pro­duced the sin­gle “Wait”, now avail­able on iTunes and stream­ing on Spotify and every major ser­vice. Jacob is thrilled to be return­ing to TAP Camp where he was priv­i­leged to expe­ri­ence five years as a camper and two as a coun­selor, dance instruc­tor, and act­ing coach.

Corie Melaugh

Corie Melaugh is a music direc­tor, vocal coach, pianist, and orchestrator/​arranger in the Oklahoma City metro area. She earned degrees in piano and vio­lin per­for­mance from Oklahoma City University (OCU) and a mas­ter of Music in Vocal Coaching from the same. She has worked at renowned sum­mer fes­ti­vals around the US, includ­ing Brevard Music Festival, College Light Opera Company, and Opera in the Ozarks. Internationally, she serves as music direc­tor for OCU’s per­for­mances and sum­mer inten­sives with the Tianjin Conservatory of Music in Tianjin, China, has par­tic­i­pat­ed in Tango Sin Fin’s Tango for Musicians work­shop in Dresden, Germany, and giv­en mas­ter­class­es in musi­cal the­atre accom­pa­ni­ment and song per­for­mance at the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music in Kawasaki, Japan. She is co-founder and music direc­tor of The City Cabaret, co-founder and past music direc­tor of OCU OPERAtions, and a founder and music direc­tor for the OKC-based Fresh Paint Performance Lab, spe­cial­iz­ing in devel­op­ment of new works. For the past three years, she’s served as a music direc­tor and orches­tra­tor for Summer Stock Austin (SSA) and Texas Arts Project. Recent projects include The Kelli O’Hara Awards (OKC Broadway), Annie Get Your Gun (SSA), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (SSA), Walk: A New Musical (Fresh Paint Performance Lab — WORLD PREMIERE), and Bernstein’s Mass (Canterbury Voices).

David Valdes

Guest Artist, Acting Instructor
David was the Director of Theatre at St. Paul’s School for 9 years. Before that, he was the Director of Theatre for the Theatre Focus pro­gram at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School. Prior to com­ing to St. Stephen’s, he was Theatre Department Chair and Arts Facilitator (fif­teen years) at one of the top ten nation­al­ly ranked per­form­ing arts high schools in America. David was award­ed “arts edu­ca­tor of the year” from the Milwaukee Magazine in 1998. He has direct­ed many award win­ning plays and musi­cals in Milwaukee and many of his for­mer stu­dents have gone on to study at the some of the top pre-pro­fes­sion­al act­ing pro­grams in the coun­try. His goal as a the­atre edu­ca­tor is to make it clear to stu­dent actors that the class­room is an exten­sion of the stage and that the stage must always be a class­room. His goal is to guide actors through a “process” rather than a “prod­uct” ori­ent­ed cur­ricu­lum. David has his under­grad­u­ate degree from the University of Wisconsin and has MFA grad­u­ate train­ing from Boston University and Minnesota State University.

Jamie Askey

Dance Instructor and Dance Captain, Senior Camp

Jamie Askey is a pro­fes­sion­al dancer in NYC. She also teach­es and chore­o­graphs around the area. She recent­ly worked for RWS and Associates on Holland America Line and for Matt Davenport at HersheyPark. While work­ing on Holland America Line she had the priv­i­lege of work­ing with the stars from ABC’s Dancing with the Stars for a spe­cial at sea addi­tion. Along with that, she has also worked with ME Dance Company and Dawn Branch Works in Orlando, Florida. You can vis­it her at www​.jamieaskey​.com and fol­low her on Instagram @jamieaskey.

Kristie Copeland

Guest Choreographer, Senior Camp

Kristie Copeland has been a the­atre direc­tor at Cedar Ridge High School for the past sev­en years. Prior to start­ing the the­atre pro­gram at Cedar Ridge, Kristie was a dance and the­atre teacher in Round Rock ISD from 2007 — 2010 at Hopewell Middle School. She holds her teach­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in the­atre, dance and phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion. Kristie grad­u­at­ed from Abilene Christian University in 2004 with a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Theatre with an empha­sis in musi­cal the­atre. Following grad­u­a­tion from col­lege, Kristie moved to New York City to audi­tion and pur­sue a career as a musi­cal the­atre per­former. While in New York , Kristie worked for a chil­dren’s the­atre com­pa­ny. However, in the fall of 2005 she returned to Texas to serve as the asso­ciate the­atre direc­tor at Cooper High School in Abilene. Kristie has been teach­ing, direct­ing and chore­o­graph­ing for stu­dents of all ages for over fif­teen years. She has chore­o­graphed and direct­ed musi­cal pro­duc­tions such as Bring It On, Ragtime, In the Heights, CATS, Footloose, Guys and Dolls, Beauty and the Beast, and numer­ous oth­er musi­cal reviews for school. She has also taught and chore­o­graphed for dance stu­dios includ­ing the Greater Austin Dance Academy (GADA) in Round Rock. In addi­tion, she has taught dance for the Jewish Community Center sum­mer musi­cal the­atre work­shops, class­es for the Abilene Performing Arts Company, chore­o­graphed for the Cooper High School Cougarette drill team spring shows and oth­er school productions.

Christa Oliver

Guest Choreographer, Senior Camp
Christa Oliver is proud to be a Lecturer in the Dance Department at Texas State. Since relo­cat­ing to Texas in 2012, she has taught and chore­o­graphed for Zach Theatre, The Austin School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Austin Community College, Huston-Tillotson University, and The Jewish Community Centre. Throughout her aca­d­e­m­ic teach­ing career she has taught cours­es in Dance History, Choreography, Classical Ballet, Limon, Dunham, Cunningham, Graham, Horton, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Tap, Liturgical, African and Musical Theatre Dance.

Sara Burke

Guest Choreographer, Junior & Senior Camps

Bio Coming…

Previous Staff:

Daniel AdamsCarson AlexanderCarla Anderson | Kelly BalesMichael BaxterMichelle Brandt | Coy Branscum | Travis Brendle | Buckner CookePaul DavisLisa del RosarioRona EbertTaylor EdwardsKasey EgglestonMichael FarissDavid GallagherKirk German | Angela Gutiérrez | John HowreyMonique HuffStacey HustonHeather Huggins | Erik James | Larry LehewRobin LewisJill Leberknight | Meg Matthews | Katie McDowell | Dr. Michael McKelveyGinger Morris | Aaron Moten | Melissa Rosenberg | Jacob Scott | Alan Shorter | Dustin Struhall | Marita Stryker | Scott Thompson | Justin Triezenberg | David Valdes

Stacey Huston

Jazz Choreographer, Senior Camp
Stacey is hap­py to be involved with TAP as often as pos­si­ble. After grad­u­at­ing from UT with a Business degree, she attend­ed The University of California at Irvine and grad­u­at­ed Cum Laude with a degree in Dance, Theater and open-by-audi­tion-only Choreography pro­gram. At UC Irvine and an away-pro­gram in NYC, she stud­ied dance, voice and act­ing under such renowned greats as Susan Stroman, Uta Hagen, Donald McKayle and Harry Garland to name only a few. Stacey has been involved in part­ner danc­ing in one way or anoth­er for over 13 years. She test­ed out and is cer­ti­fied through American Style Gold lev­els and com­pet­ed heav­i­ly in International Latin for 3 years. Her rank­ings include top six place­ments in Rising Star events in many nation­al com­pe­ti­tions like California, Nevada, Washington, Virginia, and Florida. Upon com­ple­tion of her com­pet­ing career in 1996, she was ranked 7th in the U.S. and 13th in the World in Rising Star Latin and Jive styles. Her vast expe­ri­ence includes Feature Films, Television appear­ances, Commercials, Special Gala events, and stage pro­duc­tions. Her most recent work has been 5 years with stage show pro­duc­tions in the­aters and hotels in California, New York, Philadelphia, and final­ly over­seas on cruise ships. She has quite lit­er­al­ly been around the world and back.

Larry Powell

Acting Instructor
Larry Powell is a play­wright, actor, direc­tor, and teacher. New York Credits: Actors Theatre (The Christians, The Mountaintop). Regional Theatre: Goddess at The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center (2013 National Music Theater Conference); The Brothers Size at Everyman Theatre; Marcus, Or the Secret of Sweet at City Theatre; Brokeology at Kansas City Repertory Theatre; The Task at Quantum Theatre; and Bronzeville at the Robey Theatre Company (NAACP Theatre Award Nomination). New York Credits: Brokeology (u/​s) at Lincoln Center Theater; Ruby Place Nest on the Ground at Signature Theatre; Dutchman at Labyrinth Theater Company’s NYNY Festival; Sakharam Binder at 3‑Legged Dog; Dunkfest ’88 at Ars Nova; and The Fire This Time Festival, among oth­ers. Additional Credits: Powell is a grad­u­ate of Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama (Roth-Levine Acting Award).

Daniel Sandoval

Acting Instructor
Danny holds a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University’s pres­ti­gious School Of Drama. He has per­formed in NYC, region­al the­atres, and films. He was in The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife on Broadway with Linda Lavin, Michele Lee, and Tony Roberts. He has worked with young artists as a the­atre teach­ers, pri­vate act­ing coach, and work­shop presenter.

Carson Alexander

Counselor, Acting Teacher, Residential Director
Carson Alexander (BFA in Acting, Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University) loves TAP CAMP! He grad­u­at­ed from St. Stephen’s where he stud­ied act­ing through­out high school and was active on the Helm stage. Carson is a New York City res­i­dent, where he starred in a one-man show Off-Broadway. Theatre has been his pas­sion since he was 13 and he hopes to make it his life work.

Carla Anderson

Guest Artist
Carla Anderson (Professional Dancer; BFA in Dance, Conservatory of Music, Univeristy of Missouri, Kansas City) has stud­ied dance for 20 years. She has worked as a dancer for Crystal Cruises, mul­ti­ple the­atre com­pa­nies across the coun­try, Oakland Ballet, Anaheim Ballet, and Albany Berkshire Ballet. She has also danced in numer­ous films, music videos and indus­tri­als. She cur­rent­ly teach­es dance and works as a chore­o­g­ra­ph­er and guest art­sist on the West Coast.

Kelly Bales

Director/​Choreographer, Junior Camp
Kelly Bales served as Director/​Choreographer for TAP Junior for the past 5 years and Choreographer for TAP Senior in 2009. She has taught for Austin Musical Theatre and Footworks Academy. Kelly has worked as assis­tant direc­tor and chore­o­g­ra­ph­er for a num­ber of mid­dle and high schools and most recent­ly for Summer Stock Austin. Kelly was an orig­i­nal mem­ber of Austin Musical Theatre’s Junior and Senior Companies and par­tic­i­pat­ed in over a dozen pro­fes­sion­al shows with Austin Musical Theatre at the Paramount Theatre. Kelly also played the role of Irene in Crazy For You at Zilker Hillside Theatre and occa­sion­al­ly per­formed with The Small Stars, an Austin rock band.

Michael Baxter

Choreographer/​Dance Instructor
Michael is a pro­fes­sion­al actor, singer, dancer, teacher and chore­o­g­ra­ph­er (AEA Member). He cur­rent­ly resides in New York City after hav­ing received his BFA with Departmental Honors in Musical Theatre from The Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University. Selected per­for­mance cred­its include – NYC Theatre: The Cradle Will Rock (Theatre Ten Ten). Regional: The Drowsy Chaperone & Guys and Dolls (STAGES St. Louis); Guys and Dolls (Riverside Theatre in Florida) 42nd Street, The Producers & My One and Only (St. Louis MUNY); Kiss Me Kate (The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis); She Loves Me & Godspell (Hope Summer Repertory Theatre). Other select­ed per­for­mances cred­its include: Oklahoma! (Will Parker), Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (Lead Performer), Angels in America: Millenium Approaches (Prior Walter) & Cabaret (Emcee). Recent chore­o­graph­ic cred­its include: The Producers & My Fair Lady (Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre), Man of La Mancha (Insight Theatre Company).

Michelle Brandt

Movement Teacher, Counselor, Dance Captain
Michelle Brandt is a grad­u­ate of St. Edward’s University. Her per­for­mance cred­its at St. Edward’s include City of Angels, The Stronger, and On the Town. She also served as the chore­o­g­ra­ph­er for the main­stage pro­duc­tion of Peer Gynt. Michelle is a found­ing com­pa­ny mem­ber of DA! Theatre Collective, a move­ment based act­ing com­pa­ny in Austin. As a DA! mem­ber, she has assist­ed sev­er­al work­shops teach­ing the Droznin System of phys­i­cal actor train­ing at T.E.T.A and in local mid­dle schools. Michelle has spent over ten years study­ing and train­ing in clas­si­cal bal­let, the Cecchetti Method, tap, jazz, lyri­cal dance, mod­ern dance, act­ing, and voice in the greater Austin area. She cur­rent­ly resides in New York City.

Travis Brendle

TAP Junior Director/​Choreographer
Travis is cur­rent­ly a res­i­dent Install Production Stage Manager for Norwegian Cruise Line, putting new enter­tain­ment expe­ri­ences onboard the fleet of 13 Norwegian Cruise Line ships. He just opened the crit­i­cal­ly acclaimed The Illusionarium onboard the brand new Norwegian Getaway. The show, the only mag­ic event in the round ever con­ceived, was con­ceived by Las Vegas Headlining Magician Jeff Hobson, direct­ed by Astaire award win­ning direc­tor Patti Wilcox (B’way: Motown, A Night with Jannis Joplin) fea­tur­ing scenic design by mul­ti Tony Award Winning design­er David Gallo (Memphis, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Drowsy Chaperone) Costume Design by mul­ti Tony and Academy Nominee Eduardo Sicangco and an score by Emmy win­ning com­pos­er Edward Kiessel. Having stage man­aged musi­cal the­atre, opera, dra­ma, cir­cus and mag­ic, some favorite cred­its include the world pre­mière work­shop of One For My Baby: The Music of Harold Arlen, the off-broad­way revival of Carrie, Assassins ‚Thoroughly Modern Millie and Oklahoma with SummerStock Austin, and the region­al pre­mieres of Becky’s New Car and The Marvelous Wonderettes at the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati. He also spent three months in Las Vegas as the stage man­age­ment intern for The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil in 2009. Travis is a grad­u­ate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) with a BFA in Theater Design and Production with an empha­sis in Stage Management. He is a grad­u­ate of the St. Stephen’s Theatre Focus Program and loves com­ing back to TAP as often as possible.(Camper in ’04, Councilor in ’06, and Production Manager in ‘07/’08/’10). He is a proud mem­ber of the Actor’s Equity Association. His next project will be a brand new pro­duc­tion of Pricilla Queen of the Desert aboard the Norwegian Epic.

Buckner Cooke

Head of Filmmaking, Senior Camp
Buckner is a grad­u­ate of the University of North Texas. Buckner has been work­ing pro­fes­sion­al­ly for over ten years. His work in the music indus­try has been broad­cast both nation­al and inter­na­tion­al­ly on MTV and he served as the Music Video Judge at the 1999 SXSW Film Festival. In 1999 he co-found­ed Red Frame Productions, a full ser­vice pro­duc­tion com­pa­ny in Austin Texas. Since that time, Buckner has worked as a Producer, Director, Director of Photography, and Sound Mixer for sev­er­al diverse types of film and video projects. Over the course of the last sev­er­al years Buckner’s work has been screened at film fes­ti­vals includ­ing SXSW and Slamdance as well as being broad­cast nation­al­ly on PBS and ABC. Buckner has been the head of Filmmaking for Texas Arts Project since its incep­tion in 2003.

Paul Davis

Technical Design, Senior Camp
Paul is an active set design­er in and around Austin. He has also worked as a scenic artist for the Dallas Theatre Center, Portland Stage, and Connecticut Repertory Theatre; and as Scene and Costume Designer for Finborough Theatre in London, England. In 2004, Davis was nom­i­nat­ed for his work on The Importance of Being Earnest, as well as a B. Iden Payne Award for The Drawer Boy. His stu­dents have placed among the top in the state at the Texas Thespian Convention for set, cos­tume and mask design. Many have also qual­i­fied for National Competition is Set and Lighting Desgin.

Lisa del Rosario

Co-Head of Dance/​TBallet & Modern Teacher & Choreographer, Senior Camp
Lisa began her dance stud­ies at the Margo Marshall School of Ballet and the Cleveland San Jose School of Ballet. She con­tin­ued her train­ing as a pres­i­den­tial schol­ar­ship stu­dent at the University of Texas at Austin where she received her B.F.A. in Dance. She also stud­ied clas­si­cal piano and vio­lin for many years and in her lat­er years Pilates, Yoga, Tai Chi, Vipassana Meditation, Taoist Meditation, and the Feldenkrais Method of move­ment edu­ca­tion. Lisa danced pro­fes­sion­al­ly in the Philippines with The Philippine National Folk Dance Company, Bayanihan. She cur­rent­ly dances local­ly with Moving Voices Dance, Sharir/​Bustamante Danceworks, Sheep Army/​Elsewhere Dance Theatre, Subclavian Groove Dance Company, Yellow Tape Construction Co., and oth­er inde­pen­dent chore­o­g­ra­phers. Lisa has taught and chore­o­graphed at the UT Informal Classes, the Dougherty Arts School, the McCallum High School Fine Arts Academy, and the Creative Movement and Pre-Ballet divi­sions of the Ballet Austin Academy. She is thrilled to be in her third sea­son teach­ing for the Texas Arts Project at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School. Lisa is also under­go­ing train­ing in New York City to become a Guild Certified Practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method.

Rona Ebert

Tap Teacher/​Tap Choreographer, Senior Camp
Rona began study­ing bal­let and tap at the age of 8, in many schools across the coun­try as she trav­eled with her mil­i­tary fam­i­ly. Arriving in Austin at age twelve, she began pro­fes­sion­al bal­let train­ing with Eugene Slavin and Alexandra Nadal (Slavin-Nadal School of Ballet). Under their direc­tion, she danced with Austin Civic Ballet (now Ballet Austin) for eight years. After grad­u­at­ing from U. T. with a B.F.A. empha­siz­ing graph­ic design, she joined Austin On Tap, a nation­al­ly tour­ing com­pa­ny based in Austin. Ms. Ebert trav­eled the with the com­pa­ny for five years and in 1990, joined Tapestry Dance Company, fol­lowed by Estampa Y Española, a local Flamenco com­pa­ny. A seri­ous injury put a stop to her career for two years. Upon recov­er­ing in 1996, Ms. Ebert began work­ing with Scott Thompson and Richard Byron, direc­tors of Austin Musical Theatre She was graph­ic design­er for the com­pa­ny until 2002, and has danced in their pro­duc­tions of Peter Pan, West Side Story, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Music Man and Celebrate Austin Musical Theatre, The Wizard of Oz as well as numer­ous Gala pro­duc­tions. In addi­tion to her pro­fes­sion­al career as a graph­ic design­er, Ms. Ebert has taught tap and bal­let for over 20 years at var­i­ous loca­tions includ­ing Austin Civic Ballet, The YMCA, the Slavin Nadal School of Ballet, and Austin Musical Theatre.

Taylor Edwards

Musical Theatre TA, Counselor, Vocal Assistant, Dance Captain
Taylor Edwards is a junior at Texas State University where she is pur­su­ing her BFA in Musical Theatre under the direc­tion of Kaitlin Hopkins. Texas State cred­its include Madeleine True in Lippa’s The Wild Party, Ermengarde in Lippa’s A Little Princess, and Vivian in Oklahoma!, as well as Reader in The D’Amboise Project, A Workshop under the direc­tion of Chris D’Amboise. Other cred­its include Nikki in Sweet Charity and Usherette in The Producers with Summer Stock Austin.

Kasey Eggleston

Guest Artist, Dance
Kasey Eggleston is an English Teacher at Dripping Springs High School. She has danced in numer­ous pro­fes­sion­al musi­cal the­atre pro­duc­tions with Austin Musical Theatre, Austin Playhouse, Zachary Scott Theatre and more.

Michael Fariss

Counselor
Michael Fariss is in his third year study­ing Acting at Webster University in St. Louis. He per­formed with Summer Stock Austin for five sea­sons. His final role was the Dentist in Little Shop of Horrors.

Lindsey Ferguson

Musical Theatre TA, Dance Captain, Dance Instructor, Counselor
Lindsey Ferguson hails from NYC where she is a per­former, chore­o­g­ra­ph­er, and dance instruc­tor. She has worked all over the world as a dancer and dance cap­tain with Celebrity Cruises. She has worked as a guest artist with Chicago Tap Theatre, a per­former on Sesame Street, and a teacher with the Joffrey Ballet School and Times Square Center for the Arts. She is also an aeri­al­ist and ball­room dancer.

David Gallagher

Residential Director, Acting Instructor
David Gallagher grad­u­at­ed from St. Edward’s uni­ver­si­ty in Austin, TX. He received his bach­e­lors in Theatre Arts and a minor in busi­ness and music. Currently he lives in New York City and has been for the past two years. He is a mem­ber of Actors Equity Association, which is the union for pro­fes­sion­al actors. Some of his New York cred­its include, “Othello” pro­duced by Wandering Bark Theatre com­pa­ny, “Estreies Verdes” with Full Stop Theatre Collective, and last year he had the won­der­ful oppor­tu­ni­ty to intern with the great Acting Company. He has been the Residential Director/​Acting Coach for Texas Arts Project for the past 4 years.

Kirk German

Residential Director, Senior Camp
Kirk German has worked in the arts and edu­ca­tion for over ten years in three states. At Middlebury College in Vermont, where he grad­u­at­ed with hon­ors with a degree in the­atre, lit­er­a­ture, and art his­to­ry, he worked exten­sive­ly as a play­wright, direc­tor, actor, and stage manger. He also worked as an RA, a fea­ture writer for the cam­pus news­pa­per arts sec­tion, and as a DJ for the local radio sta­tion. During the sum­mers, he taught exten­sive­ly for a vari­ety of the­atre camps and arts edu­ca­tion enrich­ment pro­grams, includ­ing a two-month stint as an RA and instruc­tor for the Exploration Summer Program in Wellesley, Massachusetts. After grad­u­at­ing, he worked for a year as an assis­tant dean and res­i­dence hall direc­tor at Middlebury College while also writ­ing and direct­ing for Middleground Children’s Theatre Company. Since return­ing to his home­town of Austin, Kirk has per­formed with sev­er­al com­pa­nies includ­ing Austin Lyric Opera, TexArts, Austin Playhouse, Different Stages, Naughty Austin, and Theatre at the J, for which he received the B. Iden Payne “Best Ensemble” award along with four oth­er actors. He has direct­ed sev­er­al children’s shows, includ­ing James and the Giant Peach for the Austin Scottish Rite Children’s Theatre and You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown for kidsActing. During the day, Kirk has hap­pi­ly worked for the past five years as a teacher of English and the­atre at Huntington-Surrey High School in Hyde Park.

Angela Gutiérrez

Counselor/​Dance Captain, Junior Camp
Angela Gutiérrez was born in Monterrey, México and began tak­ing dance les­son at an ear­ly age. She attend­ed tap camp for three years in a row get­ting the award for musi­cal the­atre major of the year in 2010. She’s won sev­er­al prizes in dif­fer­ent dance com­pe­ti­tions like Nuvo, LADF and Festival Nacional de Baile del ITESM. Currently she teach­es dance to young girls at a stu­dio in her home­town as well as chore­o­graph for the dance team at her university.

John Howrey

Musical Director/​Musical Theatre Instructor, Senior Camp
Adjunct fac­ul­ty at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and Curry College. Currently pur­su­ing his MFA in the Dynamic Media Institute at MassArt. Theatre cred­its include Bat Boy (Metro Stage Company, BroadwayWorld Boston Award), Sunfish (Stoneham Theatre), Oklahoma, Footloose, Les Miserables, 42nd Street, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Once Upon a Mattress (Stoneham Theatre’s Young Company), The Rocky Horror Show (Suffolk University), Pageant, Personals (Naughty Austin Productions), The Rocky Horror Show, The Santaland Diaries, (ZACH Theatre), You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown (Austin Musical Theatre), Merrily We Roll Along and Passion (Austin Circle of Theaters). John has taught for Stoneham Theatre, Austin Musical Theatre, Austin School of Music, ZACH Theatre and more. John is a graph­ic design­er. His Map of Musical Theatre History can be found in Strange Maps by Frank Jacobs or at chon​ny​.com.

Monique Huff

Guest Artist
Monique Huff is a Junior B.F.A Musical Theatre major at Ithaca College. Ithaca cred­its include Kit in Top Girls and Miriam in A Thousand Years, a work­shop. Her oth­er cred­its include play­ing Logainne Schwartzandbrubenierre in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Hangar Theatre.

Heather Huggins

Head of Dance/​Jazz Teacher/​Acting Teacher, Senior Camp
Heather has taught at Baylor University, Ballet Austin’s Musical Theatre Division, Musical Theatre Institute at St. Stephens Episcopal School, Footworks Dance Center, Zilker Academy, Performers’ Workshop, Young Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Kids’ College and DanceWorks. Regionally she has per­formed with Austin Musical Theatre, Broadway Texas!, Hyde Park Theatre, Vortex Repertory Theatre, Sharir + Bustamante Danceworks, Silver Star Productions, Waco Musical Theatre, Inc., Zachary Scott Theatre Center and Zilker Theatre Productions. Her recent per­for­mance cred­its include Rhonda in You’re No One’s Nothing Special, Frenchie in Cabaret, Kathleen in Chopper and Lilianna in Windblown, con­ceived by Kimmie Rhodes and direct­ed by Joe Sears. Heather is a grad­u­ate of the University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance, where she was a mem­ber of Dance Repertory Theatre under the direc­tion of Yakov Sharir, Lyn Elam and Jeffery Bullock. Heather received her MFA at the Boris Schukin Insititue at the Vakhtangov Theatre, a stu­dio of the Moscow Art Theatre (MXAT) in Moscow, Russia. She now spends most of her time as the Founder and Producing Artistic Director of DA! Theatre Collective.

Erik James

Musical Director, TAP Jr
Erik James is a clas­si­cal­ly trained pianist and com­pos­er liv­ing in New York City. Frequently play­ing and Music Directing cabaret and the­atre, New York knows him as a ver­sa­tile pianist, singer, and enter­tain­er. Erik also makes a liv­ing by com­pos­ing and pro­duc­ing music for TV and Film. His cred­its include the College Baseball World Series theme song, “Omaha” for ESPN, as well as many orches­tral, pop and rock library pack­ages for ESPN, Spike TV, and Inside Edition. Erik has col­lab­o­rat­ed with such musi­cians as Frank Black (of the Pixies), Stephanie J. Block (“Wicked”, “Pirate Queen”), Mario Cantone (“Sex and the City”), and Mark Mulcahy.

Robin Lewis

Guest Artist
Robin Lewis is a vet­er­an of sev­er­al Broadway stage pro­duc­tions includ­ing Disney’s Beauty & the Beast (dance cap­tain), A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden (dance cap­tain) and Fosse (includ­ing the film ver­sion) with Ben Vereen and Ann Reinking. Additional cred­its include the Off-Broadway pro­duc­tion of The Green Heart as well as the first nation­al Broadway tour­ing pro­duc­tion of Mel Brooks’ The Producers star­ring Jason Alexander and Martin Short. Lewis has taught for the University of Texas, Saint Edward’s University and has been a guest lec­tur­er for American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensives, Ballet Austin, the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Oklahoma University, Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, Camp Broadway in NYC, US Performing Arts Camp and oth­ers nation­wide. He has also been a guest teacher for, and holds mem­ber­ship with, the Musical Theater Educators Alliance and the Texas Educational Theatre Association among oth­ers. He is also a mem­ber of Actor’s Equity.

Jill Leberknight

Guest Artist
An actor in var­ied pro­fes­sion­al set­tings for over 20 years and enthu­si­as­tic teacher of the­atre, Ms. Leberknight has taught for some of the top per­form­ing arts orga­ni­za­tions in Austin and on the East Coast where she grew up. She believes in a strong edu­ca­tion­al foun­da­tion based on learn­ing tech­nique and strives to help stu­dents build their “trav­el­ing suit­case of per­form­ing tools.” She holds a BA from Penn State University and an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin.

Meg Matthews

Residential Director, Junior Camp
Meg is a Senior at TCU major­ing in Child Development and Spanish but is orig­i­nal­ly from Dripping Springs, Tx. She par­tic­i­pat­ed in a few musi­cals while in high school and was a mem­ber of the high school band. Meg is very excit­ed to be work­ing at TAP Camp this sum­mer and get­ting to work with the students.

Katie McDowell

Film TA, Counselor
Katie McDowell is major­ing in Radio/​Television/​Film at the University of Texas, Austin. She has direct­ed, writ­ten, pro­duced and filmed sev­er­al short films over the past five years that have run the fes­ti­val cir­cuit, includ­ing WorldFest, Berkeley Film Festival, and the Toronto International Film Festival. She has worked intern­ships in Toronto, Canada (CTV) and Austin, Texas. She recent­ly fin­ished shoot­ing her first fea­ture film with fel­low TAP camp alum, Andrew Edison. They won the Audience Award for Best Feature at Slamdance Festival 2011. This will be her sev­enth year with TAP camp and she can’t wait for TAP 2011.

Dr. Michael McKelvey

Musical Theatre & Voice Instructor; Senior Camp
Dr. McKelvey is the Head of Private Voice/​Associate Professor at Point Park University. He served as coör­di­na­tor of Music at St. Edward’s University for 6 years and received his Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Texas. Performance cred­its include work with Austin Lyric Opera, The State/​Live Oak Theatre, Austin Musical Theatre, Austin Shakespeare Festival, and Mary Moody Northern Theatre, Dallas Opera, Shreveport Opera, Theatre Three, Deep Ellum Opera Theatre, New Texas Music Festival. He has been a musi­cal and vocal direc­tor for Austin Musical Theatre, The State Theatre Company, and Austin Playhouse. This past year Dr Michael Mckelvey won Austin Critic’s Table award for best musi­cal direc­tion and received his third B. Iden Payne nom­i­na­tion. He has served on the fac­ul­ties of Concordia University, St. Stephen’s School, Broadway Texas/​AMT Academy, The Zilker Academy @ Footworks and Mountain View College. He also runs a pri­vate vocal stu­dio in north Austin, opened a new the­atre pro­duc­tion com­pa­ny in Austin, where he has won a num­ber of awards for Best Director and Best Musical Director.

Aaron Moten

Head of Acting
Aaron Clifton Moten, Juilliard Graduate, joins the Texas Arts Project fac­ul­ty as Head of Acting for 2014! Austin born, Aaron is a St. Stephen’s alum­nus and is eager to return to his roots for three weeks this sum­mer after hav­ing begun his very suc­cess­ful career in NYC. Aaron’s Broadway debut was in “A Streetcar Named Desire” with Blair Underwood, Nicole Ari Parker and Daphne Rubin-Vega. He has appeared on TV in “Happyish” (ShowTime), “Criminal Justice” (HBO), and “NCIS” (CBS). Most recent­ly, Aaron orig­i­nat­ed the role of Avery in the Pulitzer Prize win­ning play “The Flick.” The Playwrights Horizons Off-Broadway play gar­nered Aaron nom­i­na­tions for the Drama Desk Awards as well as the New York Times Clive Barnes Award for young actors and dancers. Aaron Moten cur­rent­ly resides in New York City. Originally from Austin, Texas, Aaron has per­formed local­ly to fan­tas­tic reviews, as Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd, Emcee in Cabaret, and Jimmy in Thoroughly Modern Millie. While study­ing Acting at The Juilliard School, Aaron played King Henry V in Henry V, Semyon Medvedenko in The Seagull, George in A Raisin In the Sun and many oth­er notable roles. We are so very for­tu­nate to have this amaz­ing teach­ing artist on our team!

Melissa Rosenberg

Director/​Choreographer, Junior Camp
Melissa Rosenberg is so excit­ed to be work­ing with TAPjr! A for­mer Austinite, she has been liv­ing in Chicago since grad­u­at­ing from Millikin University and has been paving her way as an actor. Most recent­ly, she com­plet­ed a US National Tour of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and worked with Light Opera Works in their New Musicals pro­gram to devel­op new musi­cal the­atre shows. She has also had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to be a teach­ing artist through American Theatre Company’s Bridge pro­gram, direct­ing a group of high school stu­dents in an orig­i­nal play, as well as an actor/​director with Prairie Fire Children’s Theatre. This is her fourth year work­ing with TAP and she could­n’t be hap­pi­er for the oppor­tu­ni­ty (and to be back in the Austin sun­shine). Thanks to Ginger for trust­ing and believ­ing, and to YOU, for shar­ing your kids with me. Not a day went by with­out a smile and the mem­o­ries cre­at­ed will bright­en my heart always.

Alan Shorter

Vocal Coach and Musical Theatre Director, TAPAdvanced
Alan Shorter received his BA in Acting/​Directing from Indiana University and his MFA in Theatre Arts with a Directing Concentration from Minnesota State University. Mr. Shorter worked as an Instructor, Music Director, Artistic Associate, Stage Director and Composer for The Children’s Theatre Company & School in Minneapolis. He served as Director of Music Theatre for Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, Graduate Assistant in the Department of Theatre and Dance for Minnesota State University and Musical Theatre BFA Program Coördinator/​Assistant Professor for The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Mr. Shorter has worked pro­fes­sion­al­ly as a Stage Director, Choreographer, Actor, Musical Director and Composer for col­lege depart­ments, orga­ni­za­tions and the­atre com­pa­nies across the coun­try. He is asso­ci­at­ed with The Kennedy Center/​American College Theatre Festival, The American Composers Forum, The American Federation of Musicians, The Theatre Communications Group and The Educational Theatre Association. Mr. Shorter is cur­rent­ly an Assistant Professor/​Performance Faculty for Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, TX.

Dustin Struhall

Musical Director/​Accompanist
Dustin grad­u­at­ed from Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, NJ in 2007 and high­tailed it back to Austin soon after. Since return­ing, his music edu­ca­tion con­tin­ues with work as an accom­pa­nist, vocal coach and music direc­tor. As a music direc­tor, he reg­u­lar­ly col­lab­o­rates with Stuart Moulton on his many musi­cal adven­tures. Other artists include Joe Hartman on vari­a­tions of his char­ac­ter “Cathy Dresden”, with Ginger Morris in the sum­mers as music direc­tor for the Texas Arts Project. Other cred­its as a music direc­tor include Anything Goes at McCallum High School Fine Arts Academy, and Songs from the boX with Cathie Sheridan. As a key­boardist, Rockin’ Christmas Party (ZACH), Little Shop of Horrors (NJ), Wizard of Oz (Broadway Texas), Guys & Dolls (Broadway Texas Academy), Into the Woods (VLA, ZTP), Sweeney Todd (Westminster Actor’s Company), and The Will Roger’s Follies (ZTP).

Scott Thompson

Guest Director/​Choreographer
Scott has over 20 years teach­ing expe­ri­ence. Though cur­rent­ly resid­ing and teach­ing in New York City, he has worked nation­wide at uni­ver­si­ties, con­ser­va­to­ries, dance acad­e­mies, and sum­mer camps. Scott has guest lec­tured at NYU, California State College at Fullerton, Birmingham University, University of Arizona and the College of the Desert in Palm Springs, California. Scott Thompson has won numer­ous awards for direct­ing and chore­o­graph­ing some of Broadway’s bright­est tal­ents in over 100 pro­duc­tions nation­wide. Scott direct­ed Tony Award win­ner Betty Buckley in her first GYPSY, coun­try music leg­end Larry Gatlin in THE MUSIC MAN and Tony Award win­ner Cady Huffman in DAMN YANKEES. For the Library of Congress, he chore­o­graphed an all-star Gershwin Gala fea­tur­ing four-time Tony Award win­ner Audra McDonald, record­ing star Dawn Upshaw and Tony Award nom­i­nees Lara Teeter, David Garrison and Wanda Richert. For Princess Cruise Lines, Scott Created, Directed and Choreographed a mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar pro­duc­tion show BROADWAY BALLROOM, which pre­miered on Princess Cruises new star ocean lin­er the Ruby Princess. Scott co-wrote and will direct/​choreograph One For My Baby, a new musi­cal in NYC.

Justin Triezenberg

Musical Director, Junior Camp
Justin grad­u­at­ed from Illinois State University in 2011 with degrees in the­atre and Spanish. Since then, he has played for numer­ous camps, con­certs, and full-length musi­cals. He cur­rent­ly lives in Naperville, Illinois (Chicago) but jumped at the chance to trav­el while doing what he loves. He’s very excit­ed to see the tal­ent that Texas has to offer!