Working as a professional actor for the past 30 years, Laurence Ballard has performed in over 150 productions in regional theatres across America. Internationally, over a three-year collaboration with Suzuki Tadashi and his The Tale of Lear project, he performed in Toga-mura, Mito City and Tokyo, Japan. In 1990 he traveled to the former Soviet Republic of Georgia to appear in the award-winning children’s film, The Falcon, the first co-production of its kind between the US and the USSR. Awarded a Fox Foundation Fellowship in 1999, he went to London to study Alexander Technique, voice at the RSC, and to audit productions in the West End and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. A native of Washington State, he presently resides in Savannah, Georgia. As a director, he has directed productions for Seattle's ACT Theatre, the Washington State Arts Commission, Cornish College of the Arts, and the University of Washington.Also an instructor and teacher, he is currently a Professor of Performing Arts at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). From 1995 through 2002, he taught at Seattle's Cornish College of the Arts Theater Department as an Adjunct Associate Professor.

Vincent Brosseau a native of France, performed with dance companies in France, South America and in the United States prior to graduating from The Julliard School and receiving his M.F.A. from Ohio State University as a fellow. He has worked with Anna Sokolow, Paul Taylor, Anna Markar, Remy Charlip, Hector Zaraspe, Francis Patrelle and others. Mr. Brosseau directed his own modern dance company, Brosseau Danceworks, based in Charlotte, N.C., from 1992-98. He is the recipient of the North Carolina State Arts Council Choreographer Fellowship as well as many other grants and awards. Prior to his position at SCAD, Mr. Brosseau held positions either as faculty or director in the dance programs at the University of California Santa Barbara, Kent State University in Ohio, Akron University in Ohio, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, DeSales University in Pennsylvania, the University of Nevada Reno and the University of Wyoming.

Mark Gallagher holds an MFA in Acting from the University of Washington and a BA in Theatre from DeSales University where he was an Irene Ryan Acting Award finalist. Recent directing credits include the NYC premiere of Nixons in Purgatory, The Laramie Project, Fen (which featured MFA students from the U of Washington's Professional Actor Training Program) and the Seattle premieres of The Shape of Things, This Is Our Youth, I.S.O. and Bat Boy: The Musical. Also recently, he directed Hedwig and the Angry Inch (the first independent production since the play’s inception) which ran for six months and was the recipient of a Seattle Weekly Award. Mark has been invited to direct the play in Cape Town, South Africa. Other recent credits include the rock musical Pigs, and an outdoor production of Othello for Wooden O Theatre Co. and Cymbeline (Co-Director) which toured Seattle parks. His multi-media adaptation of “Einstein’s Dreams” for Annex Theatre was chosen as one of the top productions of '00 by CitySearch/Seattle. Additional credits at Annex Theatre include the world premiere of The Second Greatest Story Ever Told (for which Mark collaborated with playwright Bernadette Flagler on the final script which went on to win the Jane Chambers National Playwrighting Award) and Morticians in Love which was chosen as an outstanding production of the year by the Seattle Times. He collaborated with composer and NEA grant recipient Chris Jeffries on the new musical The Beastie Book and The Promise. His production of Lovers won top honors in the New City Theatre’s Director’s Festival. He has been awarded several grants by the Seattle Arts Commission to work with choreographer Amii LeGendre on adapting such authors as J.D. Salinger, Raymond Carver and Amy Bloom’s work into theatre/dance pieces. Other directing credits include The Illusion, On the Razzle, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Grapes of Wrath, Nicholas Nickleby, Our Country’s Good, Little Shop of Horrors, The Real Inspector Hound, The Learned Ladies, The Visit, and the rock opera, Arthur Beakler and the Mathematastics. As an actor, he has worked with Seattle Rep, Intiman Theatre, Philadelphia’s Wilma Theatre, D.C.’s Present Stages, Maine’s Penobscot/Acadia Repertory Theatres and the Colorado, Montana, and Seattle Shakespeare Festivals. His original solo piece, Holy Thursday was invited to premiere at On the Boards, the Northwest’s leading alternative performance venue. Mark has also taught theatre at the UW School of Drama, Seattle Rep, The Bush School, Duet Theatre and Youth Theatre Northwest.

Vivian Majkowski (Vocal Coach) holds an M.FA. in voice and speech from the American Repertory Theatre (ART)/Moscow Art Theatre School Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. She has been the vocal coach for the SCAD productions Oliver Twist, Lie of the Mind, Lend Me a Tenor and Proof this season. She was the 2007 Season Vocal Coach for TheatreWorks in Colorado. Prior to that Vivian was the voice, text and dialect coach for Mikhail Bulgokov’s Zoya’s Apartment at the Moscow Art Theatre American Studio. She is also a private coach for actors, educators and business professionals.

Sharon Ott has been a leading figure in the American theatre for the past 21 years. She has directed plays throughout the country for organizations such as The Manhattan Theater Club, The Public Theater, and Playwright’s Horizons in New York, The Arena Stage in Washington D.C., The Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, The Seattle Opera, The San Diego Opera, Opera Colorado and many others. She was the Artistic Director of the Berkeley Repertory Theater in Berkeley, Calif. for 13 years and the Seattle Repertory Theatre for 9 years. Ms. Ott has received numerous awards for her work including the 1998 Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre (Berkeley Repertory Theater), the Bay Area Theatre Critics’ Awards for Best Direction for The Tooth of the Crime and Heartbreak House (Berkeley Repertory Theatre), the Hollywood Dramalogue Awards for Best Direction for The Ballad of Yachiyo (South Coast Repertory Theater) and The Lady from the Sea (Berkeley Repertory Theater), and The Elliot Norton Award (Boston) for Best Production for The Woman Warrior (Huntington Theater). Ms. Ott is a National Executive Board Member for the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.

Dawn Testa holds B.A. and M.A. in Speech and Theatre Education, with emphasis in costume design and a newly acquired MS in Psychology from Emerson College in Boston, Mass. Her film, television and theatre career spans 25 years. As a stylist with a long list of television commercials and print ads to her credit she was head of production for Comstock, stock photo agency in New York City, N.Y., in charge of orchestrating all aspects of commercial shoots for 5 years. Ms. Testa has worked as designer in the fields of opera, dance and film including credits on Good Will Hunting and Amistad. Ms. Testa is in her 10th year at the Savannah College of Art and Design where she has designed costumes for over 60 productions.

Hal Tiné teaches Production Design for the Production Design Department at SCAD and has designed the School of Performing Arts productions of Lend Me A Tenor, Guys & Dolls, The Marriage of Bette and Boo and Oliver Twist. As a nationally recognized Scenic Designer Mr. Tiné’s professional work includes the designs for the Broadway productions of The Trip Back Down and Jerry’s Girls and as Associate Designer, the Metropolitan Opera productions of Les Troyens, Le Prophete, and Un Ballo In Maschera. In addition he has designed over 200 productions for Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, Regional Theater, Opera, and Network and Cable Television. He has also designed exhibits or special projects for The New York Philharmonic, The Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Smithsonian American History Museum, The Dallas Museum of Art, The Brooklyn Museum of Art and The New-York Historical Society where his exhibit, French Founding Father is currently on view.

Mark David Tymchyshyn received his M.F.A from Wayne State University where as part of the Hilberry Repertory he won the national Irene Ryan competition held in Washington D.C..  He has worked professionally in New York and Los Angeles for over 20 years.  He was a regular on the Gregory Hines Show and played Gavin Kruger on As The World Turns, as well as guest starring in such shows as Seinfeld, Cold Case, Boston Legal, Crossing Jordon, and The George Lopez Show.

(more biographies will be added soon)