FREEHOLD THEATRE LAB / STUDIO: Love the art in yourself

FREEHOLD THEATRE LAB / STUDIO: Love the art in yourself
Freehold engages people from all walks of life in cultivating the audacity of spirit through the practice of theatre. A
creative haven since 1991, Freehold is a thriving collective of artists, teachers, and students collaborating to explore
both the mind and the heart.
Through education, experimentation, and performance, Freehold continues to work toward a theatre practice that
illuminates the human condition, and serves the full, diverse spectrum of our community. Freehold is dedicated to
realizing the potential of theatre as both mirror and communal conscience, facilitating our collective grappling with
timeless questions. To realize this potential, Freehold provides a place that nurtures:
• Risk in all aspects of the practice, including acting, playwriting, directing, solo performance, spoken word,
improvisation, and devised work.
• Research and experimentation in training and performance for working artists, inspired novices, and
willing audiences of every inclination.
Freehold is a Laboratory for working professionals, a Studio for emerging artists, and above all a Destination where
anyone with an inquisitive spirit can join in the celebration of the inherent risk of being human.
FREEHOLD THEATRE LAB
Our Theatre Lab provides a forum for experimentation by professionals, the development of new performance
material, and the rediscovery of classics. The Lab enables artists to explore new work - and new ways of working in order to forge a deeper connection between actor and audience, self and community, life and art.
Throughout its history the Lab has taken many forms. Projects of the Lab have included investigations and
productions of classic works that encouraged a deeper appreciation for the works and garnered awards and
accolades. The Lab has also hosted investigations and development of new works encouraging new voices and
perspectives and providing our community with a safe place to push the art form forward. The Lab has expanded
the horizons of the Seattle arts community by hosting collaborations between Seattle artists and internationally
recognized theatre artists. It continues to meet the needs identified by our community of professional theatre artists.
Our two current programs of the Lab are Engaged Theatre and the Sandbox Artists Collective.
The work of Engaged Theatre calls on us to be more courageous and honest in our art. Making our work radically
accessible poses certain artistic challenges that result in the expansion of the traditional boundaries of performance
and practice. We believe that theatre has a more lasting impact when artist and audience come together to share a
new experience; great stories can be the catalyst for generating meaningful inquiry around life’s largest issues, and
we encourage engagement and discourse at every level.
This philosophy extends out into the world around us as we seek to build authentic relationships through active
involvement. For example, the Engaged Theatre program connects Freehold to a variety of communities, including
Harborview Trauma Center, Washington Correctional Center for Women, and Echo Glen Children’s Center.
FREEHOLD STUDIO
Our Studio offers a safe place where anyone and everyone can take risks. Freehold’s students are encouraged to
move theatre forward—to transform, deepen, and clarify new ways of working. From introductory sessions for the
curious to master classes for practicing artists, the Studio offers an extraordinary range of disciplines and styles to
help students develop a comprehensive understanding of theatre craft and acting, and to develop an artist’s greatest
gift—a sense of truth—while developing the means to express this gift specifically and viscerally.
All Freehold teachers are working professional actors, playwrights and directors whose credentials include recognized
work on and off Broadway, in major motion pictures, on television, and in regional and international theatre venues.
The Studio has a per-quarter enrollment of more than 200 students, ranging from 19 to 74 in age, and from every
socio-economic and ethnic background. Freehold offers the only scholarship program for under-represented
populations in the Northwest.
p.1
Movement Class,
George Lewis, Instructor
ETI Students, Class, 2011
Lance McQueen and Luisa de Paula
ETI Shakespeare Recital, 2011
Parker Matthews and Luisa de Paula
p.2
[A]t our performances for the Purdy women’s prison and the Monroe men’s
prison, the audience was unlike any I’ve ever played for, or, more accurately,
they were the rawest audience I’ve ever played for. Untainted by past theatrical
experiences, they listened, experienced the play, and reacted in an honest and
completely unfiltered way. Out on those fields, on those hot summer days, the
intensity of connection between actor and audience was so much greater than it
ever could be at one of our ‘renowned’ playhouses. What will be the long term
effect of all this? That’s hard to say, but seminal moments are hard to shake.
And there’s no denying that five hundred or so, mostly forgotten, deeply scarred
men and women, along with twenty performers, all experienced a true and
profound human connection. This is a valuable program. This program does
change lives.
Tony Pasqualini
Founding Member of Freehold and Actor
p.3
TESTIMONIALS
Since its founding, ... Freehold has established itself as a center for training which contributes immeasurably
to the professional theatre of Seattle. Students from Freehold are most often recognized as talented,
serious, committed theatre artists with a unique and powerful passion for their work.
Laura Penn
Executive Director, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society
I’ll be honest Freehold is not for everyone. But for anyone like me, who feels that life should be transformative
and that every moment should have meaning then Freehold represents that better than any organization I
know.
Kathy Hsieh
Community Liaison, Civil Partners, Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs
Freehold is a stable and contributing member of our community. I am especially excited about your
Scholarship program for actors of color. It is a visionary program which brings several aspects of your
mission together, providing clear benefits to Seattle’s theatre community, as well as to the individual
recipients.
Norman B. Rice
Former Mayor Seattle, President and CEO, The Seattle Foundation
I have found that actors who have studied at Freehold come to the business of auditioning with a higher
level of preparation than their peers. ... I cannot recommend them highly enough for their pedagogical and
artistic endeavors.
Kurt Beattie
Artistic Director, ACT
Freehold is a unique institution. More than simply a fine theatre training studio, Freehold is a place where
faith in the human spirit has not yet been lost. Its teachers are committed to a transformative view of the
artistic process, and their influence has helped to bring about profound changes in the lives and work of
many of their students. Underlying all this is a belief that acting and theatre is more than merely a set of
techniques to be mastered, but is actually a way of being in the world.
Jay French
Freehold Student
p.4
Engaged Theatre Tour
Cymbeline, 2007
Réginald Andre Jackson and Marya Sea Kaminski
Engaged Theatre Tour
Merchant of Venice, 2006
Shamar Larkin and Kirsten McCory
p.5
Correspondence received following Engaged Theatre Tour of Othello, 2009:
I was deeply moved and that startled me. How can free people who, I imagine
live in such a comfortable world move me? Watching the performance I
realized that it is more than a performance. I think it would be more accurate
to describe it as an interaction, an interaction between the cast and the
audience, and the audience and the cast. An interaction that exists on a
different level than can be achieved from conversation or conveyed in a letter –
or through any other medium that I can think of.
Arthur Longsworth
Inmate, Monroe
p.6
FREEHOLD THEATRE LAB HISTORY
Sept. 1991
Freehold Theatre Lab Studio was founded in the fall of 1991 by John Billingsley,
Mark Jenkins, George Lewis, Tony Pasqualini, Ben Rankin, Robin Lynn Smith and
Larry Silverberg. The Pasqualini-Smith Studio (est. 1986) and the Mark Jenkins
Actors’ Workshop (est. 1985) combined to form Freehold.
Sept. 1992
The Time of Your Life, by William Saroyan, Directed by Tony Pasqualini. Featuring:
Reginald Jackson, Jane Jones, George Lewis, Mark Jenkins
Feb. 1993
The Birthday Party, by Harold Pinter, Directed by Mark Jenkins. Featuring: John
Billingsley, Jeff Klein, Robert Nairn, Marjorie Nelson, Tony Pasqualini, Myra Platt
Nov. 1993
The Tempest, by William Shakespeare, Directed by George Lewis and Tony
Pasqualini. Featuring: Jane Jones, George Lewis, Réginald Andre Jackson,
Mark Jenkins
Apr. 1994
Laboratory Investigation, The Seagull, by Anton Chekhov, Directed by Robin
Lynn Smith
Mar. 1995
Award Winning Production of The Seagull, by Anton Chekhov, Directed by Robin
Lynn Smith. Featuring: Tony Pasqualini, John Billingsley, George Lewis, Sol Miranda,
Erik Maahs, Steve Gins, Hussein Ali, Amy Perry, Patty Flynn, Lisa Burgett
Feb. 1995
All Powers Necessary and Convenient, Written and Directed by Mark Jenkins.
Featuring: Tony Pasqualini
Dec. 1995
Lab Investigation of New Patagonia, By Elizabeth Heffron, Directed by Robin Lynn
Smith. Featuring: Rick Tutor, Patty Flynn, Stefan Enriquez, Chris DeBoer
May 1996
Against the Grain: Men in Dance, choreographer Wade Madsen
June 1996
Cranky Destroyers, choreographer Stephanie Skura presents six new dance Works
June 1996 The Directors’ and Choreographers’ Lab - Master Development workshop –
Development of New Work, led by Choreographer Lee Eisler and Director, Robin
Lynn Smith
May 1997
Lab Investigation of My Last Year with the Nuns, Solo Performance Written and
Performed by Matt Smith
Fall 1997-1999
Intiman/ACT/Freehold Journeyman Program was created and designed to bridge the
gap between formal training and professional career. The Journeymanship Program
offered actors and directors work in the professional environment of Intiman’s
mainstage.
Spring 1998-2001
Annual Intensive Workshop with Gennadi Bogdanov
p.7
June 1998
Laboratory Investigation of An Altered Life, by Elizabeth Heffron, Directed by Robin
Lynn Smith. Featuring: Kathy Hsieh, Stefan Enriquez, John Paulsen, Jim Lynch
Nov. 1998
The Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky, Directed by Leonid Anisimov. This performance
was hosted by Freehold and was presented by honored artists from Vladivstock,
Russia and Leonid Anisimov’s company from Russia.
July 1999
Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov, Directed by Leonid Anisimov. Featuring: Mark
Jenkins, Marjorie Nelson, Anthony Lee, Annette Toutonghi and Tom Spiller. The play
was performed in Seattle at Freehold and in Tacoma at the Norton Clapp Theatre
as well as in 16 private homes around Seattle and viewed by Superior Court Judge
Janice Niemi, Pam Schell (wife of Mayor Paul Schell), the Rev. Samuel McKinney and
Seattle Center Director Virginia Anderson, among others.
Sept. 2000
Lab Investigation: A New Adaptation of Don Juan, Conceived by Jorg Bochow,
Authors: Moliere, Brecht, Pushkin, Directed by Gennadi Bogdanov
June 2000
The Lorca Project, Directed by Kate Whoriskey, Final 1999-2000 ETI Project.
Featuring: Jesse Sherfey-Hinds, Deb Prince
June 2000
Laboratory Investigation, The Three Sisters, by Anton Chekhov, Directed by Robin
Lynn Smith. Featuring: Kate Wisniewski, Richard Brestoff, John Paulsen, David
Churchill, Bart Smith, Todd Tressler, Katt Tait
Apr. 2001
Laboratory Investigation Seasons Such as These, by Mark Jenkins, Music by Carol
Sams, Choreography by Wade Madsen
Jan. 2002
Laboratory Investigation: The 18th Mitzvah by Mary Lathrop, Directed by Robin
Lynn Smith
July 2003-2011
Engaged Theatre Summer Tour, all productions directed by Robin Lynn Smith,
Original Music by Gino Yevdjevich (of the band Kultur Shock): The Tempest (2003),
Veronika Falling (2004, Based on the book Veronica Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho,
adapted by Amy Wheeler), The Winter’s Tale (2005), Merchant of Venice (2006),
Cymbeline (2007), Othello (2009), Julius Caesar (2010), Pericles (2011). Productions
have toured to partner organizations including Monroe Correctional Complex for
Men, Washington Corrections Center for Women, Tent City, Harborview, New Futures,
Echo Glen Children’s Center, American Lake VA Hospital/Fort Lewis McChord. In
addition, we offer free shows for the public.
Mar. 2004-2011
Engaged Theatre Residency at Washington Correctional Center for Women
Jan. 2007-2011
Engaged Theatre Residency at Monroe Correctional Facility for Men
Sept. 2008
The Sandbox Artists Collective was created. It is a membership based collective of
working theatre professionals formed as a place for mid-career artists to explore
their craft in the company of their peers.
Jan. 2009-2011
Engaged Theatre Residency at Echo Glen Children’s Center
p.8
All Powers Necessary and Convenient,
February 1995
Tony Pasqualini, David Churchill, Jennifer Ferguson, and Lori Larsen
p.9
FREEHOLD STUDIO HISTORY
1991
Freehold begins offering year round classes. From introductory courses for
the beginner to master classes for working professionals, Freehold’s Studio offers
comprehensive training which aims to develop an actor’s greatest gift – a sense
of truth – while developing the means to express that gift specifically and viscerally.
Freehold’s faculty are all professional actors, directors, and playwrights.
1994Freehold’s Diversity Scholarship is created. The scholarship supports the artistic
development of actors from under-represented populations who will generate
performance material that speaks to a broad spectrum of our communities.
1995
First annual Studio Series, a mentored festival of new works presented by Freehold
students. The Studio Series is an ensemble event intended to encourage Freehold’s
students to further their work in the performance arena; It is a great opportunity for
participants to take their craft - be it that of actor, director, writer, movement artist/
choreographer, performance artist, spoken word artist - to the next stage.
1999
First year of Ensemble Training Intensive (ETI), Freehold’s 10-month conservatory
program. Freehold’s ETI program was also offered in 2002, 2006, and in
partnership with New Century Theatre Company and Seattle Repertory Theatre in
2011. The Ensemble Training Intensive (ETI) was designed for emerging artists who
are ready to make a vocational commitment to the theatre.
The Birthday Party, 1993
Tony Pasqualini, Jeff Klein, John Billingsley
p.10
I came here starry-eyed, hoping to pave my way into equity theatre, film and/
or graduate school. Freehold opened these doors to me through its training
and resources; but as acting classes help me observe, speak and interact more
honestly and directly, in my daily life I most cherish the self-awareness I am
developing. What is living but clarity of intention, commitment to action, and
responding fully, in the moment? Acting has shown me how brave it is to live.
Heidi Lee
Freehold Diversity Scholarship Student
p.11
FROM THE PRESS
To see full stories of excerpts below, go to:
http://www.freeholdtheatre.org/content/press
“Seattle troupe takes ‘Julius Caesar’ out to new audiences - in prison” by Misha Berson,
The Seattle Times, July 9, 2010
Marjorie Petersen, the Monroe complex’s community-partnership programs specialist, sees benefits that
are less quantifiable but also positive. “I’m thrilled they come here,” Petersen says. “The inmates get so
much from it because it draws them out to talk about their own experiences and connects them to the
larger society.”
But even Petersen had her doubts initially about the focus on Shakespeare. “I thought: Really, are the guys
going to get it? I wasn’t sure. But Smith adapts the plays to make them very understandable.”
“Freehold’s Second Act”, by Zander Batchelder, Belltown Messenger, January 2009
For the students, the process is the result. Bringing characters to life brings themselves to life. And it realizes
part of Freehold’s vision, which is “to be truthful, illuminate the unseen, and articulate the unspoken.”
“Robin Lynn Smith 2008 11th Anniversary Recipient of the Gregory A. Falls Sustained
Achievement Award,” Theatre Puget Sound, May 2008
The Falls nomination committee, composed of Jean Falls, past award recipients and TPS Board members,
felt compelled to recognize the lifetime achievement of director and educator, Robin Lynn Smith. Her work
creating and sustaining community honors the collaborative nature of theatre and its impact on the Seattle
arts scene.
“Parks become stages for a slew of Shakespeare, plus a dragon for the kids,” by Joe Adcock,
The Seattle Post Intelligencer, June 29, 2007
“Working on the Monroe prison baseball field must be pretty much like it was to perform in Shakespeare’s
Globe Theatre,” says director Smith. “The audience doesn’t have to be there. They can just walk away if
they are bored. But that didn’t happen at all when we did ‘The Merchant of Venice’ there last year. What an
experience for actors! The audience really reacts, they talk back to the performers, they start conversations
among themselves when they lose interest -- like an Elizabethan audience would. There’s no code of polite
restraint and good theater manners. Actors love that immediate feedback. Their work becomes truer,
stronger, more generous.”
“A journey to redemption: Prison: for these women, writing and performing their stories is
more than a way to pass the time” by Adam Lynn, The News Tribune, March 30, 2004
Amy Wheeler [playwright]: “This play is about someone who left home and now is on her journey back. It is
transformational to watch them tell their stories and put themselves out there. They want to be better when
they leave here.” The play has practical applications for prison officials. Such projects help occupy the time
and energy of the inmates, keeping them out of trouble, they said. Inmates who rack up infractions can’t
participate, can’t tell their stories.
p.12
FROM THE PRESS
“Uncle Vanya An Intimate Painstaking Production”, by Misha Berson, The Seattle Times,
July 8, 1999
Watching the intimate Art Theatre of Puget Sound mounting of “Uncle Vanya” is, at its best, rather like gazing
at the night sky through an extra-high-powered telescope. Stars that seemed blurry to the naked eye grow
clearer. Planets you couldn’t see at all become visible. That’s the upside of this unusual production of the
Anton Chekhov classic, which has been performed in private living rooms around the Seattle area, and is
playing this weekend at Freehold Studio and next at Tacoma’s Norton Clapp Theatre.
“Acting classes a creative outlet – and stress relief” by M. Sharon Baker, Personal Journal/
Supplement to Puget Sound Business Journal and Eastside Business Journal, February
12-18, 1999
“Sometimes it’s a difficult thing to squeeze in,” said Dr. Tom Heller, 50 [a primary care internist] “But I feel so
alive when I’m doing it. The classes I’ve taken just stretch you. I work in such a narrow range that with acting
I can bust it wide open and be involved in something very creative. It makes the stress of work and day-today life more bearable.”
“Diving the depths: Vladivostok’s chamber theater brings a Russian masterpiece to Seattle”
by John Longenbaugh, The Seattle Weekly, November 18, 1998
It’s as though you’re not watching actors act. You’re seeing the externals, but you’re also seeing their insides
being revealed. This, and the close proximity of the audience, raises the performance to something truly
remarkable, even for an artist with as much experience as Jenkins. “It’s pretty high falutin’, but Leonid wants
to give an audience an opportunity to purify itself on the basis of the show. For myself, I have to say that it’s
a way of dipping into a new and deeper well.”
“Witch Hunt in Washington State: A new docudrama unearths Cold War History,” by Misha
Berson, American Theatre, February 1998
Particularly intriguing to Jenkins was the bombshell effect the hearings had on Seattle’s overlapping
academic and theatrical communities ... Perhaps the most stirring event, however, will be a special matinee
performance of the play [“All Powers Necessary and Convenient” by Mark Jenkins] followed by a reception
dedicated “to the defiant survivors” of the Canwell Committee probes, their family members and friends.
“Stranger Sponsored Spit Awards to Honor Local Fringe Theatre Work,” by Misha Berson,
The Seattle, Times, February 23, 1996
A workshop of Chekhov’s “The Seagull” staged by Robin Lynn Smith at Freehold Theater garnered an award
in the Classics category.
p.13
The Seagull,
March 1995
George Lewis, Steve Gins, Tony Pasqualini, Hussein Ali, Erik Maahs, Lisa Burgett, and Patty Flynn
p.14
Through the auspices of the Freehold Theatre Lab, I was able to develop my
full-length play, “New Patagonia”, using equity actors and experienced
director, Robin Lynn Smith. We did two staged readings of the work. The
second reading led to a workshop production at the Seattle Rep, and ultimately
to the Rep producing the play. Being able to work on the play in its infancy in
a supportive, yet professional environment was extremely helpful.
Elizabeth Heffron
Playwright
p.15
FREEHOLD FOUNDERS
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR AND FOUNDING PARTNER
Robin Lynn Smith has worked for the past thirty years acting, directing, and teaching in Chicago, Boston,
Seattle, and New York. She has directed Off-Broadway (Curse of the Starving Class at the Promenade
Theatre) and at regional theaters and is presently directing Freehold’s Engaged Theatre program, which
tours Shakespeare productions to prisons, projects, and juvenile detention centers. She served as an
artist-in-residence with Dan Sullivan at the Seattle Repertory Theatre, where she directed several
productions, including Marvin’s Room, Frankie and Johnnie in the Claire de Lune, City of Gold, and the
developmental workshop of Elizabeth Heffron’s New Patagonia. She has also directed in Seattle at the
Empty Space Theatre, New City Theatre, On the Boards, ACT Theatre, and Seattle Children’s Theatre,
and was an affiliate artist with Bartlett Sher at Intiman Theatre. At Freehold, she directed the award-winning
laboratory investigations of The Seagull, An Altered Life by Elizabeth Heffron, Three Sisters, The Winter’s
Tale, The Tempest, Cymbeline, Othello and Julius Caesar. She is the director of Freehold’s Engaged Theatre
annual residency with the inmates at the Washington Correctional Center for Women. Robin has been a
guest director and instructor at New York University/Tisch’s Graduate Acting Program and the University
of Washington’s Professional Actor Training Program and is presently on the faculty of Cornish College of
the Arts.
Ms. Smith is the 2008 recipient of The Gregory A. Falls Sustained Achievement Award and was recognized
by Washington Corrections Center for Women with their Volunteer of the Year award in May 2009. Ms.
Smith was also honored by Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation, as a finalist for the Fichandler
award. This Award recognizes directors and choreographers who are making a deep and extraordinary
contribution to the region in which they live and practice by cultivating a distinct regional perspective while
creating a significant body of work.
ADDITIONAL FOUNDING PARTNERS
John Billingsley has worked extensively in theatre, television and film. John graduated Bennington College,
in Bennington, VT, where he studied theatre with Nicholas Martin and literature with Bernard Malamud.
John’s theatre credits include Mauritius, Candide, David Mamet’s Bobby Gould in Hell, The Seagull, The
Birthday Party, Great Expectations, 12th Night and Bitter Bierce, a one man show he produced about the
life and times of Ambrose Bierce. In l990, John founded a Seattle based theatre company called Book-It
Repertory Theatre, which was devoted to adapting fiction for the stage and which still flourishes in the
Pacific Northwest. John was involved in some Seattle-based film and TV in the ‘80’s and moved to move
Los Angeles in 1995 to pursue those mediums. Credits include Nip/Tuck, Cold Case, The Closer,
The Ghost Whisperer, CSI, The West Wing, Six Feet Under, The X-Files, Judging Amy, and NYPD Blue.
In l999, Stephen Spielberg cast him as Prof. Miles Ballard in The Others. In 2000, Billingsley was cast
as Dr. Phlox in Star Trek: Enterprise. His most recent TV credits include NCIS, The Mentalist, Outlaw,
Scrubs, Leverage, Eli Stone, and Alan Ball’s True Blood, and 24. Films along the way include Out of Time
opposite Denzell Washington, American Summer, High Crimes, The Glass House, White Oleander, Born
to be Wild, I Love You To Death, A Cinderella Story, 12 Dogs of Christmas, The Least of These, Sironia,
Losing Control, and 2012. Billingsley has just completed filming a lead role in the film Trade of Innocents
opposite Dermot Mulroney and Mira Sorvino, and he has just started shooting an independent film,
RedLine.
p.16
Mark Jenkins is a professor and the head of the University of Washington’s Professional Actor’s Training
Program. He has been an actor for nearly thirty years, working in New York, Hollywood, and Seattle. He
has appeared on and Off-Broadway, in dozens of television series including his own and several feature films,
among them Apocalypse Now. He has played major roles at Seattle Repertory Theatre, Intiman, Empty
Space, and ACT. A lifetime member of the famed Actor’s Studio, he is a professor and the head of the
University of Washington in the Professional Actor’s Training Program. He has collaborated with Russian
Stanislavski master, Leonid Anisimov in Russia, Japan and the U.S. and with the Illkhom Theatre in Tashkent
Uzbekistan. He was instrumental in bringing the Ilkhom Theatre Company to Seattle’s ACT Theatre and to
the UW in the spring of 2008 and returned to Ilkhom to work and teach in the summer of 2009. His
McCarthy era play All Powers Necessary and Convenient has been produced by the School of Drama
and was published by the University of Washington Press.
George Lewis has been working in the field of movement-based theatre for almost 40 years as an actor/
performer, director, creator of original work, teacher, and producer. He has performed and toured with
Omnibus in Montreal, Theatre-Mime Mirage in Boston, and the Sykes Group and threeCompany in Seattle.
As a director, he has created movement driven productions of, amongst others, Shakespeare, Moliere,
Thornton Wilder, Irene Fornes, and James Thurber. His favorite acting roles include Trigorin in Chekhov’s
The Seagull, Joseph in Romulus Linney’s When the Lord Came to Sand Mountain, and the talentless dancer/
would-be comedian in Saroyan’s The Time of your Life. He has been teaching acting and physical theatre
skills, at acting studios, colleges, and universities across the U.S. and Canada. His own background includes
three years of study in Corporeal Mime in Paris with Etienne Decroux, circus skills and physical comedy at
the French National Circus School, and Meyerhold’s Biomechanics with Russian Master Teacher Gennadi
Bogdanov, and Clown with Sue Morrison in Toronto. He divides his time between Seattle and Buenos Aires,
where he teaches and has created/directed three original full-length clown performances.
Tony Pasqualini has been work-shopped at Freehold in Seattle, a veteran of thirty-five years in the theatre,
Tony has performed in over a hundred plays on many stages around the country, including: The Arena Stage,
Williamstown Theatre Festival, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Intiman Theatre, The Vinyard Theatre and
Playwright’s Horizons. A member of the Pacific Resident Theatre in Los Angeles, where he’s played Tobias
in A Delicate Balance, and Snyder in Saint Joan of the Slaughterhouses (an LA Weekly Award nominee),
and Andrew in Loyalties. Tony has guest starred on dozens of televisions programs, including Cold Case,
The Office, Without a Trace, Navy NCIS, West Wing, Frasier, CSI: NY, JAG, Boston Legal, and Law and
Order, LA. As a playwright, his first two plays were produced at the Book-It Repertory Theatre in Seattle.
Trains is an adaptation of John Cheever’s The Five-Forty-Eight and Raymond Carver’s The Train; and
Winesburg, Ohio is an adaptation of Sherwood Anderson’s piece of the same name. His play, Estelle’s Son
received a grant from the Seattle Arts Commission and has been work-shopped at Freehold in Seattle, and
American Theatre of Actors in NYC. His most recent play, Loyalties, received readings for Ensemble Studio
Theatre’s Winterfest and First Look Series; won the 2008 Ashland New Play Festival; and was subsequently
at the Pacific Resident Theatre in Los Angeles. Tony’s play Birdbrain received a workshop production in
March of 2011 at the Pacific Resident Theatre; and was a semifinalist for both the Writer’s Digest Playwriting
Contest, and the O’Neill 2011 Theatre Conference.
Ben Rankin worked as an independent theater director and producer for 15 years. Ben was Freehold’s
Managing Director for its first three years. His first production company staged the Collected Works of Billy
the Kid, the chamber opera La Serva Padrona and Mamet’s American Buffalo. He founded Ardeo Theatre
Project, an artist community in a 12th century castle in Poitiers, France. As Artistic Director of Pilgrim Center
for the Arts, he initiated and hosted the first U.S. visit by Vladivostok’s Chamber Drama Theatre. As a real
estate developer, independently and through his former company Live Historic, he has preserved and
substantially renovated dozens of vintage buildings and homes in Seattle and elsewhere. He has served on
various advisory boards and boards of trustees including ARCADE and New Century Theatre Company.
p.17
Besides giving me the opportunity to develop my abilities to explore and teach
the deeper aspects of acting, Freehold provided me with a laboratory to develop
my play, “All Powers Necessary and Convenient”. I was given space, time, and
access to really good actors, as well as thoughtful feedback from peers and
students. The close to 8 hour version of my play was seen by people who went on
to produce it professionally at the UW. I’m forever grateful to Freehold and all
it stands for.
Mark Jenkins
Founding Partner, Freehold
p.18
ADVISORY COUNCIL
Kurt Beattie
John Billingsley
Esther Bokkers
Marilee Chick
Jerry Diercks
Steven Eich
Zelda Fichandler
Richard Hesik
Daniel Ichinaga
Mark Jenkins
Bev Kelly
Margo Kenly
Beatrice Kiyohara
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Michael Miller
Tony Pasqualini
Arthur Pellman
Laura Penn
Nashira Priester
Deb Prince
Paula Rimmer
Kirsten Roth
Bartlett Sher
Chuck Sitkin
Peggy Weiss
Richard E.T. White
Liza Comtois, President
Mark Chandler, Vice President
Trina Harris, Treasurer
Dan Cox, Secretary
Kristin Alexander
Matthew Bursell
Krista Erickson
David Friedt
Adrien Gamache
Jonathan Locke
Scott Maddock
STAFF
Artistic Director and
Founding Partner.............................. Robin Lynn Smith
Managing Director............................ Zoe Fitzgerald
Associate Partner ............................ George Lewis
Associate Partner............................. Liza Comtois
Associate Partner............................. Gin Hammond
Associate Partner............................. Annette Toutonghi
PR Manager..................................... Kate Gavigan
Registrar / Office Assistant............... Lucinda Stroud
FACULTY
Geof Alm
Hans Altwies
Reginald Andre Jackson
Daemond Arrindell
Joel Benjamin
Lynne Compton
CT Doescher
Stefan Enriquez
Kate Godman
Gin Hammond
Sarah Harlett
Elizabeth Heffron
John Jacobsen
Mark Jenkins
Alyssa Keene
Darragh Kennan
Cyrus Khambatta
George Lewis
John Longenbaugh
Robin Lynn Smith
Cathy Madden
Keira McDonald
Jacqueline Moscou
Paul Mullin
Dickey Nesenger
Shanga Parker
Timothy Piggee
Carol Roscoe
Marya Sea Kaminski
Matt Smith
Rhonda J. Soikowski
David Taft
Amy Thone
Dan Tierney
Annette Toutonghi
Kimberly White
Billie Wildrick
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FREEHOLD’S ASSOCIATE PARTNERS AND FACULTY
LIZA COMTOIS, ASSOCIATE PARTNER
Liza Comtois is a Seattle based producer and dramaturg. Her producing credits include
The West Side Story Project for the 5th Avenue Theatre, Invisible Ink and Project X: When
the Comet Comes for House of Dames Productions and as the Forums Producer for the
Seattle International Film Festival. Other experience includes work with ShadowCatcher
Entertainment on Sherman Alexie’s Smoke Signals, the National Performance Network
tour of O, Say a Sunset written and composed by Robin Holcomb and as Intiman Theatre’s
Artistic Associate under Bartlett Sher. Liza’s dramaturgy credits include nine world premiere
adaptations with Seattle’s Book-It Repertory Theatre, Milwaukee’s First Stage and AJ
Epstein Presents as well as production dramaturgy for Intiman, ACT, Book-It Repertory
Theatre, Strawberry Theatre Workshop and upstart crow. She is currently Associate
Producer at The Ethereal Mutt - Limited.
GIN HAMMOND, ASSOCIATE PARTNER AND FACULTY
Gin Hammond has performed nationally at theatres such The Guthrie, Arena Stage,
The Longwharf Theatre, Seattle’s ACT, The Pasadena Playhouse, the ART, The Berkshire
Theatre Festival and The Studio Theatre in Washington D.C., where she won a Helen
Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actress for her performance of The Syringa Tree.
Internationally, she has performed in Russia, Germany, Ireland, Scotland and England.
Ms. Hammond also received a Kathleen Cornell award, and WA state grants from Allied
Arts, The Mayor’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, Artist Trust, 4Culture, as well as from
the NEA. Her voice(s) can be heard on Jim French’s Imagination Theatre, World of Warcraft,
Halo 3 ODST, Super Granny, Cake Mania, Westward, Nancy Drew video games, a wide
range of industrials, and audiobooks produced by Redwood and Cedar House Audio.
ANNETTE TOUTONGHI, ASSOCIATE PARTNER AND FACULTY
Annette Toutonghi has worked with many local theatres including A Contemporary Theatre,
On the Boards, Portland International Center for the Arts, Seattle Children’s Theatre, The
Empty Space Theatre, the 14/48 Theatre Festival, The Seattle Group Theatre, Intiman
Theatre, and Book-It Repertory Theatre. She toured with Freehold’s Engaged Theatre’s
production of Othello and performed at the Seattle Repertory Theatre as Essie in You Can’t
Take It With You and in the Seattle Repertory Theatre’s production of The Women. Annette
was also in The Rich Grandeur of Boxing with Megan Murphy and Company at the National
Center for Dance in Paris. She is a voice-over artist as well, credits include the Freddi Fish
series, Pajama Sam and Sly Cooper: Honor Among Thieves.
ZOE FITZGERALD, MANAGING DIRECTOR
Zoe Fitzgerald has worked in Seattle as both a theater artist and administrator for over
10 years. She is a graduate of Emerson College, BFA Acting Program and received a
Masters in Public Administration from Seattle University in 2009. As a company member
of Live Girls! Theater she served in many different capacities including Literary Manager
and Managing Director. During her tenure she created two on-going programs; The
Bakery, a new works development series and Notorious Women, an educational program
for young women. Prior to stepping into a full time role as an arts administrator she worked
for Getty Images as a project manager and data analyst, and Real Networks’ events and
public relations team. Her short plays have been featured in Live Girls! Quickies, and 14/48
Festival. In 2007, her first full-length script GIRLS was commissioned and produced by Live
Girls! She participated in ACT’s Young Playwright’s Program in 2006 as a teaching artist.
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GEOF ALM
Geof Alm is a certified fight director and teacher for the Society of American Fight Directors.
He has worked at Seattle Repertory Theatre, Intiman Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, A
Contemporary Theatre, Seattle Opera, Seattle Shakespeare Company, The Group Theatre,
Arizona Theatre Company, The Huntington Theatre Company, and Missoula Children’s
Theatre. Geof teaches all over the Northwest, in Boston, Montana, and Louisiana, and in
the University of Washington’s Professional Actor Training Program.
DAEMOND ARRINDELL
Daemond Arrindell is the Slam Master of Seattle and producer of the longest running weekly
show in Seattle - the Seattle Poetry Slam. Daemond is a 5-time coach of the Seattle
National Poetry Slam Team, currently ranked 6th in the nation. He is a workshop facilitator,
community organizer, advocate and poet - and holds strong to the belief that poetry is a
grand tree with a vast array of branches that all contribute to the complexity of the art form.
And it is the challenge of the artist to continue to push him/herself to grow within it.
Daemond’s love for the craft of poetry and the art of spoken word and their ability to alter
the emotional state of a listener knows no bounds.
STEFAN ENRIQUEZ
Stefan Enriquez has been an actor and teacher in Seattle for the last 13 years. He studied
at Western Washington University and the Pasqualini-Smith Studio. He has performed on
numerous stages including the Seattle Repertory Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre, the
Seattle Children’s Theatre, and the Empty Space Theatre where he appeared in the West
Coast Premiere of Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me. He has taught acting as an artist-inresidence for the Seattle Repertory Theatre and the Seattle Children’s Theatre. He can be
seen in several feature films, local and national commercials, corporate videos, print, and
television--most recently on the series The Fugitive, and Citizen Baines.
SARAH HARLETT
Sarah Harlett has been an active member of the Seattle Theater community for many
years. Locally, Sarah has been seen at Seattle Children’s Theater, Intiman, New City
Theater, Seattle Shakespeare Company, The Empty Space and On the Boards. Local
credits include: All’s Well That Ends Well, Night of the Living Dead, 100 Dresses, Bunnicula,
The Winter’s Tale, Far Away and Valley of the Dolls, Othello, and Julius Caesar (as part of
Freehold’s Engaged Theatre production). Internationally, she performed at the Centre
de Danse in Paris, France with the Megan Murphy Company, staying to create a new
performance piece with European artists. Sarah is a founding member of the Compound
Collective, an acclaimed performance group in Seattle that focused on original works.
ELIZABETH HEFFON
Elizabeth Heffron’s plays include Mitzi’s Abortion, which won the 2005 ACT Theatre New
Play Award and was produced by ACT in July, 2006, and New Patagonia, produced by
the Seattle Repertory Theatre and selected for the ‘Alternative Reading Series’ at the Cherry
Lane Theatre in New York. Her work has also been seen locally at Annex Theatre, 14/48
Festival, New City Theatre, and Freehold Theatre. Her other plays and solo performance
pieces include An Altered Life, The Main Room, Babies, Broads, and Bread, Moses Lake
and Morphometrics, and have been staged in Seattle, Vancouver BC, San Francisco,
St. Louis, and New York. She teaches playwriting in the schools through ACT’s Young
Playwrights Program and teaches at Cornish College of the Arts.
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JOHN JACOBSEN
John Jacobsen is the producer and host of the television show The Artist Toolbox on public
television and principal partner of the film company MogaJacobsen (www.mogajacobsen.
com). He has written, directed, and produced feature films in Los Angeles, worked on and
off Broadway in New York, directed commercials all over the world, but lives here in Seattle.
He founded TheFilmSchool (www.thefilmschool.com) with the actor Tom Skerritt, and has
taught at UCLA and many fine institutions across the country.
MARYA SEA KAMINSKI
Marya Sea Kaminski is a performer, director, and writer based in Seattle. Marya has
received numerous best stage actor awards including “Best Local Stage Actor” in 2008
by the readers of the Seattle Weekly, and The Stranger Genius Award for Theatre in 2010.
Her acting credits include Electra at Seattle Shakespeare, Hedda Gabler in WET’s
blahblahblahBANG! at On the Boards; My Name is Rachel Corrie, The Road to Mecca with
Leigh Silverman, and Tina Landau’s The Time of Your Life at the Seattle Repertory Theatre;
and Moonlight and Magnolias at the Intiman Theatre. She has created over twenty solo
shows and has performed her original work throughout the country. Her writing has been
published in Rivet Magazine, KNOCK and The New York Theatre Review.
TIMOTHY PIGGEE
Timothy Piggee has been teaching and performing in the Seattle area for many years.
As an actor he has worked on most local stages, including Intiman Theatre, The Group
Theatre, Seattle Children’s Theatre, The Empty Space Theatre, Tacoma Actor’s Guild, A
Contemporary Theatre, and Seattle Repertory Theatre. Timothy is currently performing
in Catch Me If You Can on Broadway. Timothy has also taught acting for Seattle Children’s
Theatre, Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center, and Cornish College of the Arts.
MATT SMITH
Matt Smith has taught thousands of people to improvise. He has taught at Freehold since
1991. He was a member of None of the Above, Seattle Improv, Seattle Theatre Sports,
and Stark Raving Theatre, where he and Edward Sampson used improvisation to develop
scripted performances. Matt’s solo endeavors include My Boat to Bainbridge, My Last
Year with the Nuns, Helium, Beyond Kindness: Essays in Childrearing, and All My Children.
Screen credits include Outsourced, The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle, Sleepless
in Seattle, Spiderman, and Almost Live. He designs communication training programs for
businesses and organizations using the concepts of improv as a foundation. Matt is also
one of the premier fundraising auctioneers on the West Coast.
AMY THONE
Amy Thone has been grappling professionally with Shakespeare’s plays for twenty-two
years, as an actor, director, dramaturge and teacher. She is an Artistic Associate of Seattle
Shakespeare Company, and a faculty member of Cornish College of the Arts. Amy has
performed throughout Seattle at numerous venues including INTIMAN Theatre, Strawberry
Theatre Workshop, Seattle Shakespeare Company and many others. Amy is also one of
the founding members of the New Century Theatre Company.
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