Teaching Artist Bios: Tanzania Team
Kate Cook is a member of the faculty at Illinois State University, where she teaches movement for the actor with a particular focus on the Alexander Technique and Rudolph Laban's effort action work. Kate enjoys new play development; she has helped workshop plays for Enda Walsh, Richard Kalinovski, Aline Lathrop, J.R. Sullivan, and Rahul Varma. Kate's acting credits include: Utah Shakespeare Festival, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Dallas Theater Center, Chicago Dramatists, Classical Acting Company, and Willamette Repertory Theater. Upcoming work includes Elizabeth Bennett in Pride & Prejudice at Round House Theatre in Bethesda, MD. Kate is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association. Kate is thrilled to be joining ITLP this summer.
Karis Danish lives and works in NYC as a quadruple threat actor/singer/writer/economist. She has degrees in music performance and an M.F.A in acting from Florida State University's Asolo Conservatory. She has worked as an actor in regional theaters around the country including the Asolo Repertory Theater and Cape May Stage as well as independent films that occasionally pop up at your local film festival. She enjoys cultivating the work of emerging playwrights and composers and has work-shopped new material in New York City with New Georges Theater, Project;Theater, NYU and The P.I.T. She believes in the importance of story, hers and other peoples, and endeavors to create the space in life where the two intersect. She's also a member of Actor's Equity.
Lauren Lanker is thrilled to be joining the ITLP team in Tanzania this summer. Originally from New York, she currently lives with her husband Mark in Columbus, Ohio, where she teaches English & theatre to the talented and creative students at Canal Winchester High School. Highlights of the year for her include coordinating the annual Poetry Out Loud competition and directing and choreographing the spring musical. Recent directorial endeavors include Godspell & Side by Side by Sondheim. Lauren received a B.A. in English-writing with a theatre minor from Wheaton College, Illinois, where she was a four-year member of the theatre company WorkOut. She obtained an M.A. in Educational Theatre & English Education from New York University's Steinhardt School in May 2009 and was blessed to have the opportunity to study community-engaged theatre in Dublin, Ireland. She has an ever-growing passion for the development of original theatre as a means of bringing voice to the voiceless, and she looks forward putting this passion into play in Tanzania this summer. Let the adventures begin!
Abby Jackson is an actor and teaching artist currently living in New York City. In the past, she has worked with the Shakespeare Theatre Company (Washington, DC), Will Power to Youth, and in several smaller community organizations teaching theater to students of all ages and backgrounds. Most recently, she has been facilitating a theater group with participants from a wellness cafe for those in recovery from homelessness, addiction or mental illness. Abby believes strongly in the power of theater to cultivate compassion and transform communities. She is so looking forward to emerging from the desk of her day job and into the joy of collaborating with students, teachers, and artists in Tanzania!
Felicia Bertch mostly just likes stories and laughter. She has traveled the globe collecting other people’s stories, hijacking her way into those stories and subsequently learning the best and most laugh-worthy ways to share these stories with anyone who couldn’t come along in person. Felicia received her MFA in Acting at The University of South Carolina, studied at the LeCoq School in Paris, and currently works as a clown and an actor in Chicago. She teaches Modern Dance and Theater Movement classes/workshops at various institutions in the Chicago area, including Wheaton College, Columbia College, and The University of Chicago. She is also a theater choreographer and performance devisor. Since Felicia considers children to be the physical embodiment of story and laughter, she has spent the past 20 years teaching, nannying, playing with, and observing them in every imaginable way. This is never boring. She has made every effort to include children in her life’s story and is so grateful for the opportunity that ITLP has given her towards that end. www.feliciabertch.com
Laura Stewart studied acting at Wheaton College, IL and at the National Theater Conservatory's intensive program in Denver.She has also worked as a writer and editor for nonprofit organizations. Last year she served as a Fellow in Uganda with International Justice Mission (a human rights agency that provides legal representation and psychosocial services to victims of violent oppression).
Laura has also taught French classes to young children, and tutored inner city youth in Denver. She is grateful for the opportunity to return to East Africa and to bring together art and justice issues.
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