Claudia Anderson
Claudia Anderson studied with Kristin Linklater and was designated a Designated Linklater Voice Teacher, and has also studied with Richard Armstrong of the Roy Hart Theatre Frankie Armstrong and Janet Rodgers, authors of Acting and Singingthe Archetypes. She worked with Louis Colaianni with his Phonetic Pillows, and collaborated to develop a speech curriculum for the multicultural classroom, authoring with him the accompanying textbook, Bringing Speech to Life. A founding member of The Voice and Speech Trainers Association, she has served on their Board of Directors as board member, secretary, and Director of Conferences. Nurturing her life-long passion for musical theatre and Irish music, she coached Court Theatre's productions of The Dead three times. She has served as voice and dialect coach for productions at Paramount Theatre, Court Theatre, Writers Theatre, The Mark Taper Forum, and A Noise Within. At The Theatre School, she served as voice, text, language and dialect coach in productions. She hasheld faculty appointments at Cal Arts, Southern Methodist University, Northern Illinois University, Wright State University and Edgewood City Schools in Ohio.
She is a singer, songwriter, and actor-musician, playing folk and Irish music; she has also performed in cabaret venues including Davenport's in Chicago and Cinegrill and La Gardenia in Los Angeles.
John Bridges
- DePaul Emeritus Society; Former Assistant Dean, Director of Admission and Alumni Relations
- MA Western Illinois University; BA English, University of Illinois at Chicago
- Emeriti Staff
John joined DePaul in 1978, and began his time at The Theatre School as Box Office Treasurer, before moving into many other positions including Budget Manager, Office Manager, and eventually Director of Administration, Assistant Dean, and Director of Alumni Relations. He served as The Theatre School’s chief administrative officer and alumni relations liaison until his retirement in 2014. He supervised the school's admissions operations, served as advisor to the school’s student government association and to ST*RS (students in their final year who raise funds to help offset the costs of annual graduate showcase activities). John was insturmental in creating the Graduate Showcase program, and served as advisor to the G.O.D. Squad (school orientation program in effect since 1979) and G.O.D. Squad 2 (pairing students in their final year at TTS with an alum).
At The Theatre School, he has been an adjunct faculty member, has served on numerous faculty and staff search committees, and on the Dean Search committees in 1998-99 and 2000-01. He was also President of the DePaul University Staff Council for the two years he served on the council. In 1997, John created the online alumni newsletter, "Theatre School News," published monthly, and posted and archived at The Theatre School website. It has become one of the school's primary recruitment, advertising and development tools. In addition, he created "Things To Do This Weekend," a weekly listing of theatre activities in the Chicago area that have a TTS alumni/student/faculty/staff connection. In 1999, John was the first Theatre School faculty or staff member to receive a Vincentian Endowment Grant, which he used to create and implement a fine arts program at a Chicago grade school. In 2000, he was the first Theatre School recipient of a DePaul University Staff Recognition Award. In the Spring of 2009, he participated in the Vincentian Senior Leadership Heritage Tour to France, and also co-taught a Discover Chicago class at DePaul from 2008 until his retirement.
John is a member of Mensa. He is a founding board member of the Eclipse Theatre Company and an award-winning and published photographer. In addition to having served as the production photographer for over three hundred Theatre School productions for over a quarter of a century, he has also done production and publicity photo calls for dozens of professional theatres in the Chicago area.
Barry Brunetti
Barry has studied acting with David Downs and with Stephen Strimpell at the Herbert Berghof Studio in New York where, in a previous life, he appeared Off-Broadway in featured roles in Irma La Douce and City Of Life. Regionally, favorite roles include Salieri in Amadeus, Nathan Detroit in Guys And Dolls, Richard in The Lion In Winter and Jaspers in Keep Tightly Closed in a Cool, Dry Place. In Chicago he has appeared as George in American Theatre Company's remounting of Scapin at Theatre on the Lake, Tom French in Element Theater's production of The Secret Rapture at Victory Gardens, and Frank in Element's production of Private Eyes at The Theatre Building. Regional directing credits include Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, Equus, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, and Dracula. At The Theatre School, his directing credits include Pinocchio 3.5 and The Kingdom of Grimm for Chicago Playworks. For the Showcase series, he has directed Dinner at Eight (with Donald Ilko); Life's a Dream, adapted by Adrian Mitchell and John Barton; and most recently Seamus Heaney's The Burial at Thebes. Chicago directing credits include critically acclaimed productions of Naomi Wallace's One Flea Spare (Chicago premiere); Howard Barker's No End Of Blame and Ariel Dorfman's Death And The Maiden for Timeline Theatre; and Differences in Jealousy for Collaboraction Theatre.
Linda Buchanan
Linda Buchanan has designed for theatres around the country and abroad, including the Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Northlight Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theatre, The Alley Theatre, Arena Stage, Huntington Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse, Indiana Repertory Theatre, St. Louis Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Yale Repertory Theatre, Hampstead Theatre Centre, Opera Northern Ireland and more than 30 productions at Court Theatre, where she was Resident Designer from 1977 to 1984. In addition to her theatrical scene design work, Linda was Design Director of R.D. Design Associates from 1985 to 1989, and has designed exhibits, restaurants and special events, such as the opening ceremonies of the State of Illinois Building. She received Joseph Jefferson Awards for House and Black Snow at the Goodman Theatre, and I Hate Hamlet at the Royal George, a Helen Hayes Award for Dancing at Lughnasa at Arena Stage and numerous Joseph Jefferson Citations. Linda has also been honored with a Merritt Award for Design Collaboration. Her work has been published in Interiors, Exhibit Designer, Contract, Backstage and Entertainment Design/TCI (now Live Design). Linda has also taught at Columbia College and the University of Chicago. She is a member of United Scenic Artists.
Bill Burnett
- Professor Emeritus
- MFA Ohio University
- Emeriti Professor
Bill is a certified practitioner of the Feldenkrais® Method, and served as a member of the Performance Faculty, specializing in breathwork and dialects as well as all aspects of voice and speech. At the Griffin Theatre he directed Astounding Science Fiction, Generations, and Independence (which received a Jeff citation for Ensemble). At The Theatre School, Bill served as the Vocal Coach for dozens of productions. His Theatre School directing credits include Antigone, Women of Trachis, and Electra (all by Sophocles), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Anna Karenina, and many workshop and Introduction to Performance productions.
Steve Carmichael
- Professor Emeritus
- MA University of Cincinnati
- Emeriti Professor
Steve Carmichael served as the Head of the Theatre Arts Department and Head of the Lighting Design Program at the Barat Campus of DePaul University. He has designed lights for Upstream Theatre in Saint Louis, Theaterwork in Santa Fe, Chicago Ballet Arts, the University of Alabama, SUNY New Paltz in NY, and the Phoenix Theatre in Arizona (among many others). Professional lighting credits also include, among others, The American Theatre Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre, New Dramatists, Julliard School of Music, Aspen Music Festival, and the Cincinnati Playhouse-in-the-Park. He co-founded and served as the resident Lighting Designer for Shakespeare on the Green, a professional outdoor summer festival that featured Chicago equity actors and was free to the public.
Nan Cibula-Jenkins
Nan has designed costumes for opera, ballet, film, television and theatre productions. Her costume designs have been seen in David Mamet's feature films House of Games, Things Change and Homicide as well as in Mamet's Broadway production of Speed The Plow and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Glengarry Glen Ross, for which she received a Hollywood Dramalogue Award. She has designed costumes at Goodman Theatre, Court Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Lincoln Center, Alliance Theatre (in Atlanta), Kansas City Repertory Company, McCarter Theatre in Princeton, Manhattan Theatre Club, Hartford Stage Company, Arena Stage, Seattle Repertory Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre (in Seattle), the Kennedy Center, New York Shakespeare Festival, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where she received a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Costume Design for Much Ado About Nothing. Nan is the recipient of the Michael Merritt Award for Design and Collaboration. In 2017, >DePaul University granted her the Via Sapientiae Award, the institution’s highest recognition for excellent service and accomplishment.
John Culbert
In Chicago, John has designed scenery and/or lighting for the Buckingham Fountain, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Goodman Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre, Garfield Conservatory, Field Museum of Natural History, Drury Lane Theatre, Timeline Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, Chicago Children's Theatre, Chicago Opera Theatre and more than thirty productions at Court Theatre. He has received recent Jeff Award's for the lighting for Court Theatre's The Illusion and for the Goodman Theatre's Mirror of the Invisible World. Recent Chicago productions include Court Theatre's Porgy and Bess and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Chicago Shakespeare Theater's Romeo and Juliet and Timeline Theatre's The Farnsworth Invention. John has also designed scenery and/or lighting for the Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Singapore Rep, Berkeley Rep, Shakespeare Theatre and the McCarter Theatre. Recent Chicago productions include Court Theatre's The Misanthrope and Tartuffe, Chicago Shakespeare Theater's Romeo and Juliet, and Sweet Charity at Writer's Theatre. At The Theatre School he has designed productions of The Misanthrope, Streetcar Named Desire, The Rose Tattoo, The Women, The Snow Queen, Rip Van Winkle and Stage Door.
Anastasia Gonzalez
- DePaul Emeritus Society; Former Budget Manager
- Emeriti Staff
Anastasia worked at DePaul University for 31 years, working at the DePaul bookstore prior to joining The Theatre School to fill the position of Accounts Manager. She was later promoted to Budget Manager/Administrative Assistant to the Dean, and worked closely with the Dean on all financial aspects of the school. In this role, Stacy manages the school's finances in compliance with DePaul guidelines while remaining flexible to meet the rigorous and sometimes unusual demands of budgeting for our theatrical productions. She moved The Theatre School forward on the various upgrades and new systems that the University has developed over these years, making sure that the school’s production life continued without any delays, and provided warm and personalized support for all members of the community. She started the practice of using accounting students as student workers, providing students with practical experiences in managing the accounting of theatrical productions, events, and academic programs at the school. She has also been involved with several smaller theatres including Zephyr Dance Company and was a board member for a short time. Stacy was also instrumental in the financial planning around the school’s transition to the new building, which opened in 2013. Over the years she has developed a great love and respect for the theatre, and is especially thankful for her participation in The Theatre School's 2013-14 production of Our Town, directed by Damon Kiely.
Elizabeth (Betsy) Hamilton
- ehamilto@depaul.edu
- Professor Emerita
- BFA University of Texas; Advanced Degree, Mary Wigman Schule
- Emeriti Professor
Professor Hamilton graduated from the University of Texas with degrees in acting and dance. She went on to receive her advanced degree from the Mary Wigman Schule in West Berlin, Germany. Upon returning to the states she returned to the University of Texas as an instructor and then spent a lengthy tenure in the Dance and Theatre departments at California State University Long Beach. During that period she also was a guest professor at Penn State for two years. She also began working, for three summers at the Ashland Shakespeare Festival (in Oregon) as the assistant choreographer and lead dancer. The next 13 summers were spent as choreographer of the mainstage shows and director, designer and developer of the outdoor “Green Show” at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah. Betsy joined The Theatre School in 1984. Her areas of expertise were Movement for the Actor, Choreographer/Director, Modern Dance, Musical Theatre and Historical Dance forms. In 1986 she became the Head of Movement and was instrumental in establishing the movement curriculum for actors within the Performance Area. One of her first acts as Head of Movement was to introduce yoga and Feldenkrais into the movement curriculum. In view of this, Betsy became a certified Feldenkrais Practitioner and a life-long yoga student. In the early to mid ‘90s she became Chair of the Performance Program and during that period was given full professorship. Among the shows she directed and choreographed for The Theatre School’s Showcase Series were Terminal, Into The Woods, Women of Troy, Assassins, and A New Brain. For Chicago Playworks for Families and Young Audiences she directed/choreographed such shows as The Nightingale, The Dragon That Lived Downstairs and The Little Prince. She directed numerous other productions for The Theatre School at various levels of producion, including numerous Introduction to Performance productions, and studio/workshops. In 2003 Betsy received the Excellence in Teaching Award from DePaul University, and upon her retirement in 2008 was given the status of Professor Emeritus.