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2019 THESCON CLINICIANS Danielle Bayliss is a professional aerial dancer and acrobat, and owner of High Expectations Aerial ​ Arts Studio in Memphis, TN. She teaches and performs aerial arts and partner acrobatics locally and regionally. A former competitive gymnast and gymnastics coach, Danielle has over 12 years of experience performing in the air, and has completed over 50 hours of teacher-training with the New England Center for Circus Arts. Carole Choate Blankenship, soprano, is Elizabeth G. Daughdrill Chair in the Fine Arts and Chair of ​ Music and Theatre at Rhodes College. Dr. Blankenship has performed recently in Sintra, Portugal; The Lilypad, Boston; The Foundling Museum, London; Brisbane, Australia; and Dartmouth and Providence Colleges.. Dr. Blankenship has led voice masterclasses in Melbourne, Australia, at Wheaton Conservatory, Texas A & M Corpus Christi, and Missouri State University, among others. Also, Dr. Blankenship currently serves as President-elect of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Frank Bluestein is the 1996–1997 Disney National Performing Arts Teacher of the Year ​ and the 1994 Tennessee Teacher of the Year. USA Today named Bluestein as one of the top forty teachers in the United States in 1998. Until his retirement in 2013, he served as chair of the Germantown High School Fine Arts Department; as artistic director of the school’s theatre, the Poplar Pike Playhouse; and, as executive producer for the school’s three-million-dollar, Emmy Award-winning television studio. Graduates from his program include Saturday Night Live star Chris Parnell; film, television and stage actress Missi Pyle; ​ ​ Emmy winning casting director (Desperate Housewives & NYPD Blue) Scott Genkinger; ​ ​ ​ ​ NPR reporter Debbie Elliott; Tennessee Shakespeare Company founder and artistic director Dan McCleary; and Blue Man Group actor Wes Day. Bluestein is a past winner of the American Theatre Association’s John C. Barner Award and has served as an arts advisory panelist for numerous organizations, including the National Endowment for the Arts. He spent several years as director of shows at Opryland, USA, and most recently wrote and directed the national touring production of Beale Street Saturday Night starring blues legend ​ ​ Joyce Cobb. In 2013, Bluestein was inducted into the Educational Theatre Association’s Hall of Fame in Minneapolis. Sarah Christine Bolton has a BFA in dance from Belhaven University and has more than 20 years ​ experience performing and teaching as a ballet and modern dancer. She has been training, performing, and teaching as an aerial artist for six years, and is currently an instructor at High Expectations Aerial Arts in Memphis, TN. Elaine Bromka – Film, TV, Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theater -- roles ranging ​ from Much Ado's Beatrice to Shirley Valentine. Girls, The Sopranos, Sex & the City, E.R., Dharma ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ & Greg, all the Law and Orders, Providence, Playing for Time with Vanessa Redgrave and Catch a ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Rainbow, for which Ms. Bromka won an Emmy. Cindy, the Uncle Buck mom, and the crazed Stella ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ in Days of our Lives. Her Off-Broadway one-woman First Ladies show, “TEA FOR THREE: Lady ​ ​ Bird, Pat & Betty,” (teaforthree.com) tours nationwide. Smith College phi beta kappa and guest artist ​ ​ ​ ​ at over 100 colleges and high schools. http://elainebromka.com/ ​ ​ Mark Castle is the chair of Samford University’s theatre program and teaches acting and directing ​ classes. His recent productions include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Moon Over Buffalo ​ and The Pajama Game. He has acted and directed with Theatre Downtown, Birmingham Festival ​ ​ Theatre, Muse of Fire, and regionally with Greenbrier Valley Theatre in Virginia. His short play The ​ Night the Widget Broke was published in Stage This Too by Fn Productions, and performed in ​ Australia at the Sydney Short & Sweet Festival in 2008, and a section of his play The Somerset Case ​ recently had a reading at Westminster Hall, in the Houses of Parliament, UK as part of the UNESCO International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade & Its Abolition. Madia Cooper-Ashirifi, is a Liberian dance educator, West African and Social Dance Performing ​ artist, choreographer, and modern technique educator. She is the Department Chair and Assistant Professor of Dance at Brenau University in Gainesville, Georgia. Madia shares her culture and knowledge of West African and social dances to all ages. She is excited to share her talents at the Tennessee Thespian Conference. Paul Draper is a Comedy Presenter, Mind-Reader, and Speaker, who has appeared on the History ​ Channel, A&E, HBO, Hallmark, the Travel Channel, HGTV, and shows like Hell’s Kitchen, Pawn Stars, Ghost Adventures, Mindfreak, and House Hunters. Draper has appeared with David Copperfield, Lance Burton, and Teller of Penn & Teller as an expert for the History Channel. He has performed for HBO Comedy Fest at Caesar’s Palace and hosted companion documentaries for Steven Spielberg’s Poltergeist. In Las Vegas, he has headlined for many casinos including the Orleans Casino and Planet Hollywood V Theater, in addition to his seven years as house magician for the Venetian Hotel & Casino. The International Magicians Society awarded Draper a Merlin Award for World’s Best Corporate Performer. Recently, Draper has performed at Yale, USC, Apple, YPO, the Magic Castle in Hollywood, Off-Broadway, and the Magic Circle in London. In addition to his corporate shows and lectures, Paul Draper is frequently called upon as an expert in fields ranging from magical history to human consciousness. As an anthropologist and member of the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness, Paul Draper studies Native American ghost dancers, South American cannibals, and spiritualists. Amelia Fischer is a professional actor, director, and fight director based in Atlanta, GA. Amelia has ​ worked for theatres from Washington DC to Washington state, including: The Alliance Theatre, Tennessee Shakespeare Company, Theatrical Outfit, Georgia Shakespeare, Virginia Shakespeare Festival, Classical Theatre Company, Shakespeare Walla Walla, and Houston Shakespeare Company. Anime fans have heard her voice several characters for Sentai Filmworks, including Jibril in No Game No Life. Amelia is an SAFD certified Actor Combatant and is proud to have received her MFA from the University of Houston’s PATP, her BA from Coastal Carolina University, and trained with the Gainesville Theatre Alliance. www.AmeliaFischer.com ​ Jeffrey Frame is professor of dramatic arts at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Tennessee ​ and has taught theatre and film for more than 30 years. A veteran director and actor, he as produced over 100 plays/musicals and has directed more than 60 of them, including: Singin’ in the Rain, The ​ ​ ​ Little Mermaid, Children of Eden, Seussical, The Secret Garden, Into the Woods, Little Women: The ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Musical, My Fair Lady, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, Macbeth, ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Hamlet, Playboy of the Western World, The Glass Menagerie, Tartuffe, La Bête, etc. Dr. Frame’s ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ teaching includes coursework in various acting techniques including Meisner, Viewpoints, improvisation (Spolin and Johnstone), and Shakespeare. He also frequently speaks on topics in theatre, film, television, and literature at professional conferences and has been an active member of the Popular Cultural Association of the South (PCAS), the American Alliance for Theatre and Education (AATE), the Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC), the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), the Tennessee Theatre Association (TTA) and the Tennessee Philological Association (TPA). Dr. Frame is the 2002 recipient of Trevecca’s Faculty Member of the Year Award. Bobby Funk is a full professor at East Tennessee State University. He teaches a variety of ​ performance classes, including, Play Direction, Acting I, Period Acting Styles, and The Audition Process. Born in Pennsylvania, Bobby is a life-long Pittsburgh Steeler fan. He did his undergraduate work at Western Carolina University. He then went on to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and then to receive his MFA Degree in Acting and Directing from UNC-Greensboro. He has worked professionally as an actor and director Off- Broadway and in regional theatres across the country, including Barter Theatre, where he has worked as both an actor and director. He is the author of the book, The Audition Process: A Guide for Actors. He recently ​ ​ completed, with Jeremy Brown, a screenplay about the USS Wyoming in the Civil War entitled, For ​ ​ ​ God and Country. Bobby has also written a number of plays including, Robin Hood: Marian's ​ ​ Revenge, Co. Aytch: Memoirs of a Confederate Soldier, The Dream Continues: The History of the ​ ​ Civil Rights Movement in America, The Brave and the Free, River Rising: TVA and the Town of Butler and Hear That Whistle Blow . Erwin Train A Coming. Hear That Whistle Blow . Erwin Train A Coming was selected to perform at the Kennedy Center as part of the finals of the Kennedy ​ Center American College Theatre Festival. Bobby is a single father. His two children are Kennedy and Duvall. Jen Gillette resides in Memphis, Tennessee working as Assistant Professor of Costume Design for ​ University of Memphis. Costume design credits include Digging Up Dessa and Bud, Not Buddy at the ​ ​ ​ ​ Kennedy Center; Three World Premieres for the Washington Ballet;

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