Performing Arts - Faculty
John Weckesser
Chair, Performing Arts Department
Graduate Study, New York University
MA, Wayne State University
BA, College of Wooster
John Weckesser received his MA in theatre from Wayne State University in Detroit on an acting fellowship. His career turned to theatre administration and among his credits are general manager for the New York City Theatre Workshop for the Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs; assistant casting director for the Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center; house manager for the American Place Theatre in New York; and co-founder and managing director of Arena Fair Summer Theatre in Wooster, Ohio.
Weckesser has acted in nearly 80 productions at the College of Santa Fe, including He Who Gets Slapped, Bus Stop, Fiorello! and Chicago. Also at the college, he directed A Memory of Two Mondays, A Place on the Magdalena Flats, and Carousel. He created the CSF Mobile Theatre, which for 11 years toured the state and parts of Mexico and established the Artist-in-Residence and Guest Artist programs in the Performing Arts Department. In 1990, in recognition of his contribution to the college, CSF dedicated the laboratory stage theater in the Greer Garson Theatre Center as the Weckesser Studio Theatre. Weckesser is the recipient of several National Endowment for the Arts stipends for studies in arts administration and has served on the New Mexico Arts Commission. In 2001, he received the City of Santa Fe Arts Commission Award for Excellence in the Performing Arts.
Jon Jory
President's Chair, Performing Arts Department
Honorary doctorates, The University of Utah, University of Louisville, Bellarmine University
As the producing director at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Jon Jory directed more than 125 plays and produced more than 1,000 plays during his 32-year tenure. He conceived the internationally lauded Humana Festival of New American Plays, the SHORTS Festival, and the Brown-Forman Classics in Context Festival. He was also the artistic founding director of Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Conn., and he has been inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.
Jory has directed professionally in nine countries. In the United States, he has directed productions at many regional theaters, including Washington, D.C.'s Arena Stage; San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater; Hartford Stage in Hartford, Conn.; the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, N.J.; Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis; and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Ore. He has received the National Theatre Conference Award and the American Theatre Association's Distinguished Career Award. For his commitment to new plays, Jory has received the Margo Jones Award twice, the Shubert Foundation's James N. Vaughan Memorial Award for Exceptional Achievement and Contribution to the Development of Professional Theatre, Carnegie Mellon's Commitment to Playwriting Award, and the Regional Theatre Tony Award.
George Johnson
Faculty and Technical Director, Performing Arts Department
BFA, The University of Texas at Austin
George Johnson has worked in production, lighting, set design, and technical direction at several theaters, including Seattle's A Contemporary Theatre; the Seattle Children's Theatre; the Third Coast Jazz Dance Company; the Capitol City Playhouse in Austin, Texas; Themescapes; and the Honolulu Theatre for Youth. He has taught at the University of Washington, the Capital Academy of the Performing Arts, the Fine Arts Academy of Rio Rancho High School, and Santa Fe Prep.
Johnson was the technical director for the Santa Fe Stages International Theater Festival and the Greer Garson Theatre Company. He helped to open the renovated Lensic Performing Arts Center, where he served as its technical director and created its professional internship program. Johnson has also worked for the Museum of International Folk Art, Adobe Productions, New West Productions, Hogle's Theatrical Supplies, Santa Fe Performing Arts, Pandemonium Productions, and Wise Fool New Mexico. His feature film credits in New Mexico include No Country for Old Men, The Astronaut Farmer, The Flock, Comanche Moon (a TV miniseries), and Beerfest. He is a member of IATSE Local 480 and a professional ski and snowboard instructor.
Gail Springer
Faculty and Musical Director, Performing Arts Department
MMEd, BMEd, The University of New Mexico
Gail Springer has coached actors in stage voice, dialect, and singing at the College of Santa Fe since 1980. Her performing experience includes musical theater, classical and contemporary song, dance, and piano.
In New Mexico, she has soloed with Serenata of Santa Fe, Canticium Novum, the Santa Fe Symphony, Santa Fe Pro Musica, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, the Santa Fe Women's Ensemble, and the Santa Fe Community Orchestra. She has also performed in Colorado, New York, Utah, and Singapore.
Victor Talmadge
Faculty, Performing Arts Department
MFA, California Institute of the Arts
BA, Cornell University
Victor Talmadge is an educator, actor, playwright, and director. He has taught at The Johns Hopkins University and New York University and served as an adjunct assistant professor at the City University of New York.
As an actor, he has performed in classical and contemporary plays on the New York stage and in regional theaters throughout the country. Most recently, he worked on Broadway in David Mamet's November. He played The King in the Broadway national tour of The King and I and was seen as Scar in the Los Angeles production of The Lion King.
Talmadge boasts extensive film and television credits, as well. He has worked with such notable directors as Francis Ford Coppola, William Friedkin, David Fincher, Michael Apted, and Chantal Akerman, among others.
His play The Gate of Heaven was awarded The Nakashima Peace Prize. It has been produced at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, The Old Globe theater, Ford's Theatre, and the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, as well as various venues around the country. It has been taught at New York University, Tufts University, and the University of California, Berkeley.
As a director, Talmadge has presented both experimental and classical pieces. He was the artistic director of The Victory Project, a multicultural, collaborative event with Columbia University MFA graduate theatre students, the New York City school system, and professional theatre artists, created as a response to the tragedy of 9/11.
Recently, he was commissioned by the Oakland School for the Arts in Oakland, Calif., to create and direct a documentary theater piece on the descendents of the Black Panther movement. He is a co-founder of the award-winning New York theater company, the Empire Stage Players.
Marcia Dixcy Jory
Faculty and Costume Designer, Performing Arts Department
BA, Wellesley College
MFA, Theatrical Design, NYU School of the Arts
Marcia Dixcy Jory has been a professional costume designer and a member of the United Scenic Artists union for more than 30 years. In Seattle, where she lived most recently, she designed regularly for A Contemporary Theatre (ACT) and designed costumes for the Seattle Repertory Theatre, The Intiman Theatre, and the Seattle Children's Theatre. In Louisville, Kentucky, where she lived from 1983 to 2000, she designed more than 70 productions as a resident costume designer for Actors Theatre of Louisville, including 30 premieres for the Humana Festival of New American Plays.
Jory's other regional costume design credits include the Guthrie Theater, Long Wharf Theatre, Hartford Stage, Arizona Theatre Company, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Florida Stage, The Louisville Opera, and the Opera Company of Boston under the direction of Sarah Caldwell. She has designed off Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club and Circle in the Square Downtown. For two years, she was the costume designer at Harvard University's Loeb Drama Center. Subsequently, she taught design and theatre studies on the faculties of Tufts University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Smith College, Bennington College, and Cornell University. She has also been a guest lecturer at the University of Washington.
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