EXECUTIVE STAFF
Lynda Zimmerman - Founder and Executive Director
Lynda Zimmerman received her undergraduate education at Boston University and graduate education at New York University. In 1974, Ms. Zimmerman co-founded CAT while she was finishing her graduate studies at New York University. She has spearheaded the growth and outreach of CAT's educational theater programs in New York City schools throughout the last 35 years. During the past two years, Ms. Zimmerman led CAT in its transition from New York University to The City University of New York. She also worked to secure CAT's independent 501c3 status. In 1993, under the directorship of Ms. Zimmerman, CAT's Paul A. Kaplan Center for Educational Drama was created to offer expansive professional development in educational drama methodology. She was instrumental in securing funding for the Center and continues to oversee its operations. As part of CAT's transition to CUNY the Center offers graduate level courses and the nation's first Master of Arts in Applied Theatre, in partnership with CUNY's innovative School of Professional Studies.
Chris Vine - Artistic and Education DirectorChris Vine has worked for over 30 years in the related fields of theatre-in-education, professional community theatre and young people's theatre. He was a founding member of Perspectives Theatre Company (now called New Perspectives), England, and the Artistic and Education Director of Greenwich Young People's Theatre (GYPT), London, one of the foremost educational and youth theatre companies in the U.K. Chris's directing and teaching have taken him to many countries worldwide, including Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Japan and Tanzania. Since coming to New York in 1993, he has responded to many requests for workshops and seminars from across the USA; his specialties include theatre-in-education (TIE), creating original theatre with young people, teaching through drama and Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed.
Nancy S. Clarke - Director of Finance and AdministrationNancy S. Clarke joined the Creative Arts Team as Finance and Administration Director in February 2005. Previously, she was a fulltime independent consultant, having founded Embury Arts Consulting to assist arts organizations and other non-profits with planning, administration, technology, and Internet strategies, with a specialization in helping individuals and organizations new to the Internet. She has consulted with organizations on strategic, development, and technology planning, as well as web planning and development and Internet marketing. Nancy has more than 25 years of professional experience in the nonprofit field, including long-range planning, administration, fund development, grantmaking, and Internet projects. She served as Executive Director of the American Music Center for many years and previously as program officer at the National Endowment for the Arts. She holds a BA in Music from Brown University and a MBA with honors from Boston University.
Jane Savitt Tennen - Director of DevelopmentJane Savitt Tennen joined the Creative Arts Team as Development Director in February, 2007. Previously, she was interim director of the WNYC Radio capital campaign, where she helped lay the groundwork for significant gift cultivation, and director of the NYU Heyman Center, where she oversaw a rise in enrollment and developed a strategic targeted online marketing campaign. From 1986 to 2004, Ms. Tennen was a fulltime, independent development consultant and writer for nonprofits. In this capacity, she worked with CAT, Turtle Bay Music School, The Newark Museum, the Children's Museum of Manhattan, Henry Street Settlement, and others, and was writing director for the 2nd NYC Kids Culture Catalogue (Knopf, 1998). Earlier, she worked at New York University, The Door, and Philadelphia's Walnut Street Theatre. Ms. Tennen earned her MFA in nonprofit theatre administration at Yale Drama School and her BA in classics at the University of Pennsylvania.
PROGRAM STAFF
Gwendolen Hardwick - Associate Artistic Director; Director, High School Program
Gwendolen Hardwick studied dance, acting and speech at the Afro-American Studio for Acting and Speech and was a founding member of Ernie McClintock's 127th Street Repertory Ensemble. She continued her studies in theatre and received her degree from New York University- Tisch School of the Arts. Her career in the theatre spans over thirty years as an actor, writer, director, producer and educational theatre specialist. As an actor her treasured moments on the stage have been creating the role of Egypt Brownstone for the Off-Broadway production of NO ! written by Alexis DeVeaux; portraying Betty Shabazz in El Hajj Malik; creating the role of Mrs. Breedlove in Toni Morrisson's The Bluest Eye, adapted for the stage and directed by Ellen Lewis and appearing in the Obie award winning production of Gertrude Stein's Photograph directed by the famed Broadway director, James Lapine. She is the author of five plays for young audiences. Two plays, One of the Boys and Minus One toured the New York City public schools and were presented at the National Black Theatre Festival, Winston-Salem, 1999 and 2001 respectively. Other writings appear in the anthology Gaptooth Girlfriends: The Third Act, and Learning Through Theatre: New Perspectives on Theatre in Education, edited by Tony Jackson. In her capacity as CAT's High School Program Director she has designed and implemented special projects for the Fresh Air Fund, Nickelodeon, The Women's Sport Foundation, The National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball and the Liz Claiborne, Inc. initiative against domestic violence. Internationally, she has developed and implemented educational theatre models with theatre companies in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Jamaica and the Republic of Ireland. She spearheaded CAT's Bilateral Educational Support Through Theatre project (B.E.S.T.) - a three year collaboration with three South African universities- developing and directing theatre pieces addressing HIV/AIDS education and health issues affecting women and children.
Erika Ewing - Director, Elementary/Middle School Program
Erika Ewing is a
multi-talented professional actress, writer, and director daring to live out
her divine potential. Erika holds a B.A in Theatre from Smith
College, Northampton, Massachusetts
where and was the proud recipient of the Denton M. Snyder Acting Prize. Her
love the theatre led her to New Brunswick, New Jersey where she received her M.F.A in Theater Arts
from Rutgers University,
Mason Gross School
of the Arts and was awarded the Patricia Roberts Harris Fellowship for her
outstanding accomplishments in Acting.
In April 2004, Erika was honored by 98.7 Kiss-FM Wake-Up Club as
"Phenomenal Woman" for her artistic achievements. Presently, Erika is an
Adjunct Professor for CUNY's School of
Professional Studies and CAT's Paul A.
Kaplan Center
for Educational Drama, teaching "Literacy, Drama, and Dramatic Writing." Erika is also a resident playwright,
director, and curriculum developer for
CAT-the leader in applied theatre education.
Erika produces original
episodic interactive dramas. Exclusively,
Erika works with trained acting professionals looking to supplement their
artistic pursuits and/or expand their expertise as highly skilled teaching
artists. Her directing credits include: Hamlet, A Modern Adaptation Westbury
School District, Angels Unaware, the American Theatre of Harlem and the
Off-Off-Broadway production The Fall, at the Looking Glass Theatre,
where she was the Assistant Director and cast as "the Shady Character",
receiving favorable reviews. Erika has appeared in many theater productions and
staged readings around the city, including a staged reading directed by Ted
Lange, Four Queens-No Trumps, at the Duke Theater on Broadway, and the
Gabrielle Lansner Dance Theater Company's production Salt Chocolate.
Television: ABC's All My Children, CBS's, As The World Turns, talk
show host for Manhattan
Neighborhood Network-TV, Video Culture and The Next Level Talk Show. Music:
the theme song "Can You?" written and performed for the independent film
For Charity's Sake. Radio: 98.7 Kiss-Fm, Wake-Up Club's Kiss
and Tell Radio soap opera. "The life I live inspires the art that I
create."
As an Actor, Teacher, Director and Musician, Keith Johnston has been
performing professionally in theater, film, television and radio for over 30
years. He's known for his reoccurring role as the UPN anchorman on HBO's "Chris
Rock Show", Winston in the original cast of the off-Broadway hit Ave X
and several regional productions of Spunk as Guitarman. Musically and theatrically Keith has
toured the world performing with such artists as Jon Hendricks, Lisa
Lisa and Cult Jam, Living Color, Brian McKnight, Shirley Murdock and Olu
Dara. He is part of the "NYC Reggae Collective" and the neo-jazz quartet "Color
4" and is featured on the albums of both.
Among his many accomplishments, Keith is the co-founder of Back-A-Yard
theatre and the Artistic Director of the American Theatre of Harlem;
producing, since June 1997, Cultures Collide Film Festival, Seasons one-act
festival, plays, short films, readings and actor's workshops. He studied fine
arts and graphic design at Kingsborough
Community College and School of Visual Arts. He holds a BA in Creative
Writing from NYU, and studied music and drama at Henry Street Settlement, Brown University,
Jazzmobile, HB studio and the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. Keith has
been working for the Creative Arts Team since 1992. He is the co-founder of the
Parent Team and Program Director for Adult Services. He has directed and
conducted interactive workshops throughout NYC's school system, homeless
shelters, Rikers Island,
Corporations, Conferences, New York University, and Seeds of Peace in the Middle East. He
wrote, directed and co-produced a film series for NYU's Child Study
Center called "Thriving
Teens". Mr. Johnston is the first to
bring the arts to the Black Male Initiative on CUNY Campuses and devised and
implemented workshops and lectures addressing HIV, parenting and
violence for the B.E.S.T. project in South Africa's Townships, Colleges
and Universities. "Heal the World with Art"
Carmen Kelly (AFTRA, SAG, AEA) has worked extensively
in professional theatre, film and television for over thirty years. She earned
her BA in Speech and Drama from Spelman
College, Atlanta Georgia
where she was the recipient of the Jerome Award for Creative Achievement. While
in Atlanta,
Carmen was a founding member of artistic director Walter Dallas' Proposition
Theatre Company. She holds a MA in Educational Theatre from New York University. Carmen also studied at Tisch School
of the Arts (NYU) renowned studio The Actors' and Directors' Lab in New York City. Some of
her cherished theatre roles are "lady in orange" in For Colored Girls... National
Tour; "Chicky" in Fuchsia, Nuyorican Poets' Production; "Susan"
in In the Boom Boom Room at the Clurman Theatre. Carmen has
directed productions at New York City's Perry
Street Theatre, Nuyorican Poet's Café, Mabou Mines, and Theatre for the New City. She
collaborated with Van Lier Playwright Janis Astor del Valle to co-produce Where
the Senoritas Are, an award winning play that received outstanding reviews
in The New York Times and accolades in Washington DC
as a benefit for the Whitman Walker Clinic, and the Women's Playwright
Collective. Her film and television credits include. The Answer and Malcolm
X by celebrated director Spike Lee; Beatstreet, directed
by Stan Lathan; Law and Order; Guiding Light; One Life to Live; and
As The World Turns. Radio credits include 98.7 Kiss-FM, Wake-up Club Kiss
and Tell Radio soap opera. In her
capacity as Director of CAT's Special Projects Program, she has designed,
developed and implemented innovative educational theatre models throughout New York City. She
spearheaded the collaboration and development of the professional training
initiative with NYU's School
of Law, a program that
specializes in providing interactive learning experiences in client relations
for law students and faculty. She has trained and directed a staff of teaching
artists to implement drama-based curricula for a diverse after school and
special needs populations in public schools throughout NYC. Carmen has
presented and trained Theatre-In-Education (TIE) work at the American Alliance
of Theatre and Education (AATE) conferences in North
Carolina, Colorado, and Washington DC.
Internationally she has trained and presented TIE work and been a keynote
panelist on Applied Theatre at the International Drama and Education
Association (IDEA) conferences in Norway
(2001) and Canada
(2004). Her professional memberships
include Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Theta Alpha Phi Honorary Theatre Arts
Fraternity, AATE, and Americans for the Arts.
Helen Wheelock - Director, Early Learning Through the Arts Program
Helen Wheelock
joined CAT in 1994 as an actor/teacher with the Elementary
Program and moved to the NYC Wolf Trap/Early Learning Through the Arts Program
in 1996. Since then she has been intricately involved with the development of
ELTA's issue-based curriculum and their highly successfully
teacher-training/mentoring model piloted in NYC Head Starts. As a Senior
Actor/Teacher, she was a point-person for ELTA's collaboration with Wolf Trap
in the stART smART program, a three-year project that sought to integrate
technology with teacher-training. Helen took over the Program Director position
in January of 2007. Additionally,
Helen has collaborated extensively with CAT's senior Youth Theatre, both as a
director and production manager. She also has developed a robust career as a
freelance journalist specializing in women's basketball. Currently she is
columnist for the Women's Basketball
Coaches Association's Coaching Women's Basketball and is a regular
contributor to the Women's Sports Foundation. Her articles and blogs are both available online. Helen earned her B.A. in theater from Middlebury College,
and her Masters in Educational Theatre from NYU.
Helen White
trained at the Rose Bruford College in London, and has worked extensively in
professional theatre as a director and actor for companies such as Honolulu
Theatre for Youth, Hawai'i; Egnstreatret Theatre, Denmark; Roundabout Theatre,
Nottingham; Half Moon Young People's Theatre, London; Dr. Fosters Travelling
Theatre, Stroud. She was the Artistic and Executive Director of the New
Perspectives Theatre Company in England
for 5 years. Several of her shows toured nationally: Moll Cutpurse
transferred to London; Flight was produced
three times, in England, Denmark and Lithuania. Helen is
currently the Director and Co-founder of the CAT Youth Theatre, at the Creative Arts Team, and in 2000 was awarded the Youth Theatre Director of the Year by
the American Alliance for Theater and Education. Under her direction, the Youth
Theatre has performed at the United Nations, the AATE conference in Chicago, and as part of the SPIRIT International Youth
Theatre Festival in London,
England in 2000, as well as the Contacting the World International Youth Theatre Festival in Liverpool, UK, in 2008. She
is the Director of The Paul A. Kaplan Center for Educational Drama, and as a member of the faculty specializes in classes on
youth theatre, and creating original theatre with young people. She has also
taught and directed for New York University's Program in
Educational Theatre, CAP 21 Studio and The American Place Theatre's Urban
Writes program.
CAT Offices - 101 West 31st Street, 6th Floor - New York, New York 10001
