Faculty

We bring different perspectives to the table, but we’re united by a love for purposeful work, thoughtful design, and real connection.

Michael Lugering

With a vision for building something meaningful, our founder brings a blend of big-picture thinking and hands-on experience. They set the tone for everything we do.

Founder

Christian Cooper

Instructor

  • Christian Cooper holds a BFA in Acting from Florida Atlantic University and a MFA in Acting from the University of Southern Mississippi. He also studied Shakespeare at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. Favorite credits include Casa Valentina (Jonathan/Miranda), Proof (Hal), Torch Song (Ed), The Little Foxes (Leo) and the title character in Hamlet. Christian also does Improv Comedy and is a founding member of Improv Therapy, the in-house, adult improv troupe at Barclay Performing Arts. When not onstage, Christian teaches acting and theatre classes at New World School of the Arts as well as Broward College, and Barclay Performing Arts.

  • The Expressive Actor technique has been life changing for me. It helped me discover my body as an instrument and learn to own my space. I've learned to create dynamic characters with my body and voice.

  • Phone: (239) 989-5740

    Email: CCooper4@mdc.edu

Instructor

T. Fulton Burns

Instructor

  • JANELLE M. LANNAN is an early childhood music educator, voice teacher, and performer in Atlanta, Georgia, teaching The Music Class to young children and their parents (themusicclass.com). In New York, she was an active contributing member and performer with Emerging Artists Theatre Company (eatheatre.org) and Anonymous Ensemble (anonymousensemble.com). Currently, she teaches private voice at the New School of Music in Dunwoody, GA based in the Lugering Expressive Actor approach and has found it exceedingly successful (newschoolofmusic.com). She continues to perform in Atlanta and is a proud member of SAG/AFTRA.

  • For more information please visit www.janellelannan.com

  • T. FULTON BURNS is currently the Director of Acting & Performance at the University of South Alabama’s (USA) Department of Theatre. Fulton began his theatre career as a dancer in the Southeast region with companies like Charleston Ballet Theater and Greenville Ballet. Fulton is a Certified Teacher with the Expressive Actor, YogaFit, Dueling Arts International (DAI), the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD) and the National Michael Chekhov Association (NMCA). Burns is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographer’s Society (SDC). His directing credits include: The Complete Works of WLLM SHKSPR (abridged), The Serpent, and Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Amadeus, Cyrano de Bergerac, Anything Goes, The Three Musketeers, and I Hate Hamlet. Burns is an award winning Advanced Actor Combatant. His fight direction credits include: Extremities, Othello, The Beaux Stratagem, Romeo and Juliet, The Illusion, Man of La Mancha, Hamlet, and Children of Eden. Burns has served as an artist/teacher in residence at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, Columbia College, Auburn University, South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts & Humanities, and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Janelle M. Lannan

  • STEPHEN REYES is a New York-based performing artist/instructor. He is co-founder of the Kinetic Space Theatre Ensemble. He received his MFA in Theatre Performance from UNLV in 2001. He also holds a B.A. in Spanish & Drama from the University of Arkansas. He has taught the Lugering Method for 5 consecutive semesters at UNLV and has studied under the supervision of Mr. Lugering for 3 years as a student, instructor, and actor in performance. His performance credits include Romeo in the Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival’s Romeo and Juliet and the title role in Nevada Conservatory Theatre’s inaugural season production of Hamlet. He has also performed in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and in the Utah Shakespearean Festival’s Pirates of Pinzance and The Tempest. His New York credits include Alyosha in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov Pt. 1 (The Culture Project), Laertes in The Hamlet Project (La MaMa E.T.C.), and dancer in The Breasts of Tyresias (Williamsburg Arts Center). At present, Stephen is training and introducing the Lugering Method as a guest artist at the performance studio Espacio Seis with the Colectivo de Arte 619 and teaching English Expression & Language Arts with the faculty at the Villa Maria Academy in Santiago, Chile.

David Shamburger

Instructor

  • DAVID SHAMBURGER teaches in the Musical Theatre program within the School of Music at Belmont.  He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.  After spending some time in New York, David returned to teach in the Undergraduate and Graduate programs at UNLV.   After returning for a short stay in New York, his love for teaching drew him to the University System of Georgia where he taught Theatre at Middle Georgia College for five years while continuing to perform and direct in the region.   David left Georgia to become Director of Performance Studies in the Department of Theatre at Huntington University, Indiana where he eventually became Chair of the department.  Though his area of emphasis is Voice and Movement, he has a wide knowledge of performing and teaching Shakespeare and makes little distinction between the acting demands of the Musical and that of Classical Theatre.   The acting and voice technique he teaches is based on the Linklater approach to freeing the voice along with influences from M. Lugering (The Expressive Actor), F. M. Alexander, Rudolph Laban, Constantine Stanislavsky, and the external method of Susanna Bloch's, Alba Emoting.   David has been a resident member of the Granbury Opera House in Texas, the Horse Cave Repertory Theatre in Kentucky, Clinton Area Showboat Theatre (CAST) in Iowa, McLeod Summer Playhouse in Illinois, and Saint Michael's Playhouse in Vermont.   Some of his favorite musical theatre experiences  include roles in  GYPSY, ANYTHING GOES, KISS ME KATE, FOREVER PLAID, 1940'S RADIO HOUR, DAMN YANKEES, CRAZY FOR YOU, MAN OF LAMANCHA, 110 IN THE SHADE, INTO THE WOODS, I DO! I DO!, and JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR.  David also enjoys teaching, performing and directing Shakespeare.  His experience includes KING JOHN, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, JULIUS CAESAR, ROMEO AND JULIET, and AS YOU LIKE IT.  Other performance credits include THE CRUCIBLE, YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU, NOISES OFF, WAIT UNTIL DARK, TARTUFFE, THE CHERRY ORCHARD. He was also in the original cast of AND THE ANGELS SING, A NEW MUSICAL REVIEW, which premiered at the Odessy Theatre in Los Angeles, CA. In New York City, David worked as a performer, director, and composer. His musical Compositions have been performed and heard in several plays and Caberets across the country. 

    David is happily married to Kristi Brannon-Shamburger and they have four beautiful children, twins, Emma Jo and Charles Aubrey, Abigail Olivia, and Wesley Matthias.  He attributes his career to mentors Jack Wann, Tim Fink, and Michael Lugering for their invaluable teaching and owes all of his successes to God and his relationship with Jesus Christ.

Marybeth Holloway

  • LAURA SYDONIE graduated from the University of Birmingham with a first class honors degree in Drama and Theatre Arts She has also studied across the Atlantic at TVI Studios in LA. Stage roles include Carol in Shakers on an International Tour for On Cue Productions; Aladdin for Extravaganza Productions in Middlesborough and Tell Tale Productions in Boston; Jane in Dream Catcher at CPT, London; soloist in Bernstein's Mass at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London; soloist for National Tours L'of a Night and Just for You; Jadis in the French speaking production of Un Pont ver le Passe for the European Theatre Company; George's Mum in the national tour of George's Marvellous Medicine and Aunt Gwen in Tom's Midnight Garden for Birmingham Stage Company'; Crystal in Kissing Sid James at the Eye Theatre; Sister Leo in Nunsense at the Nuffield, Southampton and Electra at Aspendos in Greece for Actors of Dionysus. On television Laura has worked on the Switch for the BBC. She is the Artistic Director of Sulis Productions which recently toured Adelaide, Montreal and Avignon. Her one woman show A Friend of Dorothy has toured the world over and was nominated for the Best Production 2004 at the Montreal Fringe Festival. Laura met Michael Lugering while they both were performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She subsequently came to NYC to study the "Lugering Method." Subsequently, her production company Sulis Productions brought the "Lugering Method" to the England for the first time with a multiple city tour featuring workshops at the Actor Centres in London, New Castle, Birmingham and Manchester. Later, Laura returned to United States to study exclusively with Michael Lugering at his home in Las Vegas, NV. She is the first member of the Expressive Actor Faculty in the United Kingdom.

Kristi Shamburger

Instructor

  • KRISTI SHAMBURGER has her Bachelor of Music (Music Theatre) from Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio and an MFA in Music Theatre from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and joined the MTSU faculty in 2010. She is an AEA performer and has worked in such regional theatres as Skylight Opera Theatre (Milwaukee, WI.,) Lyric Opera Cleveland (Cleveland, OH.,) St. Michael's Playhouse (Colchester, Vt.,) The Odyssey (Los Angeles, CA., ) and more. She taught theatre and music theatre courses and choreographed for Middle Georgia College, Huntington University and Belmont University before joining the MTSU theatre faculty. Most recently she has directed the following MTSU musicals: The Drowsy Chaperone and the Sold Out production of Les Miserables in Tucker Theatre, as well as, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Guys and Dolls, Hansel & Gretel, Into the Woods & 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. She is currently teaching Music Theatre Performance, Voice for the Actor and theatre.

Anna Lisa Fischel

Instructor

  • ANNA LISA FISCHEL is an actor and educator currently living in Philadelphia, PA. She is an Equity Membership Candidate and holds an MFA in Theatre Performance from the University of Southern Mississippi and a BA in Stage and Screen Acting from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Additionally, she has trained at The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, studying Shakespeare and Physical Theatre. Anna Lisa has collaborated with The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre, The Lantern Theatre Company, and Theatre Horizon (a 2017 recipient of the prestigious National Theatre Grant from the American Theatre Wing) as a Teaching Artist, and as an actor with Historic Philadelphia Inc., portraying Betsy Ross at The Betsy Ross House, and Rebecca Franks and Eva Baen at the National Museum of American Jewish History. She has over 10 years of experience in The Expressive Actor, and is thrilled to be a certified teacher of the work. 

Sean Boyd

Instructor

  • SEAN BOYD is a recognized faculty member of Michael Lugering's Expressive Actor Technique and is first to attain the distinction of Associate Teacher. He has invested most of his personal development towards the understanding and development of the physical life of the actor, with particular focus on the integration of psycho/physical connection and its use as a source of behavioral and character development. Boyd spent the summer of 2009 at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art studying movement and character as it applies to the texts of Shakespeare. Sean also brings his experience as a RYT200 certified teacher of Vinyasa and Hatha Yoga into his voice and movement work.  

    A member of the Actors’ Equity Association, he has acted for regional theaters across the country including the Sacramento Music Circus, the Nevada Conservatory Theatre, the Neil Simon Festival, Bard in the Quad and the Genesis Shakespeare Company. Sean continues to stay busy in the New Orleans film/tv market as well appearing I Love You Phillip Morris, The Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans, Dallas Buyers Club, Breakout Kings and Treme. As a fight director and instructor, Boyd has directed fights for regional theaters and independent film features in Nevada, California, West Virginia and Missouri, including the latest national tours of Camelot and Peter Pan. 

    He is a recognized Fight Instructor, Fight Director and Master Theatrical Combatant with Dueling Arts International, an Actor/Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors and a 1st Degree Black Belt in Shotokan Karate. Boyd has been teaching martial arts, yoga and theatrical combat for over 20 years and has worked with Dueling Arts International since 2000. 

    Sean is the Associate Professor of Movement & Acting at the University of Southern Mississippi, where he teaches Michael Lugering's Expressive Actor Technique to both MFA and BFA theatre students.

    MFA in Performance - University of Nevada, Las Vegas
    MA in Theatre - Oklahoma State University

Kristen Loree

Instructor

  • KRISTEN LOREE, Professor of Performance at the University of New Mexico (MFA in Acting from NYU Tisch School of the Arts) and is also an Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework. Kristen teaches Voice for the Actor, Speech and Dialect, Movement, Performance Art and Acting for Camera. Her solo works (By Language Embellished: I, Ursonate, VIXIN and The Tribulations of a Lesbian Folk Singer) have taken her all across the country. Kristen has directed a plethora of shows, including Frankenstein, Life During Wartime, Plunda and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. She can be seen (and heard) on television, commercials, radio and film (Breaking Bad and Unspeakable, most recently). Her favorite stage roles include Stephanie in Duet for One, Puck in Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Mary in The Women. Kristen is a founding member of Sol Arts a community performance nonprofit.

Chrissy Wright

Instructor

  • CHRISSY WRIGHT received her MFA in Theatre Performance from UNLV in 2001. As well as being a professional actress, she is the Head of the Dance Studies Program at American Heritage in Plantation Florida. Being involved in theatre and dance her entire life, Chrissy’s work; not only, as a performer but also a Director/Choreographer, has been seen all over the world. She was introduced to the Lugering Method during its inception at UNLV. Through the work she discovered an integrated method of voice and movement training that is not only appropriate for actors, but for singers and dancers as well. In the Fall of 2007, Chrissy re-organized the voice, movement program at American Heritage introducing the Lugering Method as the primary method of training.

  • Julie Heaton is the Director of the Theater Program at Salt Lake Community College. In addition to teaching acting and directing classes, she works as a voice artist and film actress, and has been featured in numerous television and radio commercials all over the country.  She has worked as a choreographer and director at the Barlow Arts Conservatory, Desert Star Playhouse, and the Junior Shakespeare Company at the University of Utah. She currently sings in the world-renowned Mormon Tabernacle Choir under the direction of Dr. Mack Wilberg and Dr. Ryan Murphy.  She began her career in stage acting and musical theater in 1996, received a B.A. in Theater Studies from the University of Utah in 2001, and an MFA in Performance from the University of Las Vegas, Nevada in 2004.   While attending UNLV, she studied and helped develop the 1st edition of The Expressive Actor, written by master teacher Michael Lugering.  Julie is dedicated to teaching young actors about the principles of  the Lugering Method, which empower actors to integrate the voice with the body in order to create a believable character.  She taught the method for 4 consecutive semesters during her time at UNLV, and continues to use its principles in her own work and the classroom.  Julie is a member of the Actor's Equity Association.

Shelley Lynn

Instructor

  • Shelley Lynn is an adjunct theatre instructor at The University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the College of Southern Nevada focusing on physical theatre and devised performance. She is the founder of The Vision Space – a performance and life coaching company designed to maximize human potential in education and the arts. Currently based in Las Vegas Nevada, Shelley spent sixteen years between the UK, Boston and Colorado making original theatre and directing while earning her BA in Performing Arts from DeMontfort University, Leicester UK and a Masters in Performance Studies at Queen Mary University of London. In this time she worked with numerous professionals as a dramaturg, coach and director including Obie award winning Robbie McCauley, writer, director Tim Etchells of Forced Entertainment, and Paula Murray Cole and Richard Schechner in their development of physical theatre practice, rasaboxes. In 1998 she co-founded Performance Works theatre dance company based in Colorado, with choreographer Katherine Hooper – and launched the East Coast version, BoSoma, with Hooper in 2004. She is a certified Expressive Actor teacher in the Lugering method and a Yoga Alliance 200 hour Ashtanga yoga instructor. Today, alongside running The Vision Space, Shelley directs emerging artists from the local community as well as seasoned performers from Cirque and other national touring companies.

Matthew Sandoval

Instructor
Instructor

  • MARYBETH HOLLOWAY was born in New Jersey and raised in Rhode Island. She minored in theater at Longwood College in Farmville where she performed in various mainstage productions. A high school drama teacher for 2 years in Orlando where she produced and directed over 10 productions, she left to pursue her graduate degree at Actors Studio in New York City where she worked Off-Broadway on Sam Shepard's newest play, God of Hell and Off-off Broadway on Stuart Vaughan's As You Like It. She holds an MFA in Theatre at Rhode Island College. She has performed with various regional, summer stock, and community groups and has numerous film/tv credits. She is currently a Professor at the University of South Carolina, Lancaster.

Lynne Perkins Soccer

Instructor

  • LYNNE PERKINS SOCEY serves as Convener and Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts for Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, where she directs and teaches a variety of acting, movement, directing, and genre/style classes. A founding board member of The Richmond Shakespeare Festival, Lynne has also served as Artistic Director of Picture This (an educational outreach using improvisational & interactive theatre techniques to facilitate group problem-solving), as Co-Producing Director of Off the Cuff (imagination education and improv performances) and as Producer and resident director for Bridgework Touring Theatre (original plays designed to help elementary and middle school students throughout the Midwest and East Coast deal with real life challenges.)
     
    A graduate of Indiana University and the Florida State University / Asolo Conservatory of Professional Actor Training, Lynne’s acting credits range from Hamlet, Othello, A Christmas Carol and Ah, Wilderness! at the Indiana Repertory Theatre to The Crucible at Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, All My Sons at Syracuse Stage, King Lear at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Spoon River Anthology at the Asolo Repertory Theatre and Steel Magnolias, Fiddler on the Roof, Nunsense, and Smoke on the Mountain: A Sanders Family Christmas at Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre. She has directed for Indiana Repertory Theatre, Human Race Theatre Company, Beef & Boards, Phoenix Theatre, Lilly Theatre – Indianapolis Children’s Museum, Richmond Shakespeare Festival, and Brown County Playhouse as well as a variety of colleges, universities and summer theatres.

Burton Tedesco

Instructor

  • BURTON TEDESCO is the Instructor/Director of Theatre at Naugatuck Valley Community College in Waterbury, CT. He holds a BA in Theatre Performance from the University of South Florida and a MFA in Theatre Performance from the University of Southern Mississippi. Before moving to Connecticut, he was a full-time instructor of Arts and Humanities at Delgado Community College in New Orleans, LA. While at Delgado, Burton taught various acting classes, Theatre History, and stage combat. He has directed several productions including: Rebecca Gilman’s Boy Gets Girl, Ken Ludwig’s Moon Over Buffalo, and Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors.

    As an actor, he has worked with several theatres in Central Florida and as a resident actor/fight director for the Charleston Stage Company in Charleston, SC. While in Hattiesburg, MS, he was a proud member of the Southern Arena Theatre acting company for 3 seasons. During his time in New Orleans, Burton served as fight director for productions of Lilly’s Revenge, Wolves, and Venus in Fur all with Southern Rep Theatre and Born Yesterday and Spring Awakening at Delgado Community College. Currently, Burton is the resident fight director at the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival at Tulane, directing violence for productions of Romeo and Juliet, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and Dead, Hamlet, and Julius Caesar. He has also appeared as an actor in several of the festival’s productions, playing such parts as: Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, Dr. Caius in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and several supporting parts in Hamlet. Some of Burton’s favorite roles include: A Player in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Cinna the Poet in Julius Caesar, Hitch in Hitchcock Blonde, Macbeth in Macbeth, Egeon/ Nell in Comedy of Error, Gayev in Cherry Orchard, Fredrick Fellows in Noises Off, Captain Nimrod in Nevermore, Lynch in Finer, Noble Gases, and Jake in A Lie of the Mind, His film credits include: Hotcakes, Trailer Park Jesus, the A&E series Breakout Kings, and the NBC pilot proposal Near Death.

Stephen Crandall

Instructor

  • STEPHEN CRANDALL received his M.F.A. in Performance from the University of Nevada Las Vegas in 2007. While at UNLV, he performed with the Nevada Conservatory Theatre in A Man for All Seasons (Roper), The Gamester (Valére), Inherit the Wind (Hornbeck), Private Lives (Victor), Twelfth Night (Orsino), The Glass Menagerie (Tom), and You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Charlie Brown). Stephen has also performed with Sacramento Music Circus in 1776 (Thomson) and The Sound of Music (Herr Zeller), and is a proud member of Actor’s Equity Association. During his graduate training, he concurrently studied and taught the Lugering method for six semesters, with an additional semester taught after graduation. This work has become the foundation of his acting practice and philosophy, and he is thrilled to be among a growing faculty dedicated to sharing this method of integrated voice, movement, and acting technique. Stephen is currently an Assistant Professor of Theatre at West Texas A&M University, where he teaches all levels of undergraduate acting. He began teaching the Lugering method as the primary voice & movement training at WT in the fall of 2011. Stephen has most recently directed productions of Tartuffe, By the Bog of Cats, and The Children’s Hour at WT, and performed as Freddie in Noises Off with Merely Players.

Jonathan E. Shultz

Instructor

  • JONATHAN SHULTZ is an actor that has worked professionally in NYC, Los Angeles and Las Vegas in theatre, film, television, voice-overs and commercials.  He is a member of AEA, AFTRA, and is eligible for SAG membership.  Jonathan holds an MFA in Acting from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, as well as a BA and an AA in Theatre from UNLV and Grayson County College, respectively.  Some of his notable theatre credits include performing in Kari Margolis' THE HUMAN SHOW Edinburgh Fringe Festival and The Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., and the title role in Wole Soyinka's OYEDIPO AT KOLHUNI, an adaptation of Oedipus at Colonus which was directed by Mr. Soyinka and performed in Delphi, Greece. While at UNLV he had the honor and privilege of being mentored by Michael Lugering, author of the book The Expressive Actor: Integrated Voice, Movement and Acting Training.  Jonathan studied directly with Mr. Lugering for 10 consecutive semesters and taught The Lugering Method for six consecutive semesters, as well as assisting Mr. Lugering with the creation of the book. He continues to teach The Lugering Method with Mr. Lugering, assisting with the two annual Expressive Actor Intensives in NYC, San Francisco, and Las Vegas since 2004. On his own, Jonathan brought The Lugering Method to NYC at the New Dance Group and several independent workshops, as well as teaching workshops in LA, theatre departments in Texas, and the American College Theatre Festival. The work is the foundation of his craft as an actor, and one of his greatest joys in life is sharing the revolutionary technique with actors.  In 2010 Jonathan moved home to Texas to pursue his passion of teaching and is thrilled to be offering this work to the actors of the Austin theatre community at the State Theatre School of Acting and Ballet Austin's Butler Community School.  He is an associate teacher of The Lugering Method, and an Adjunct Faculty member of Austin Community College’s Drama Department

Stephen Reyes

Instructor
Instructor

Julie Heaton

Laura Sydonie

Instructor

Contact Us