NPT STAFF

MELODY BROOKS (Artistic Director)

CATHARINE GUIHER (General Manager) is a life-long New Yorker and a graduate of the Nightingale-Bamford School and Vassar College.  She spent 17 years at the Roundabout Theatre Company with her final project there as the Project Coordinator for the renovation of the new Laura Pels Theatre/Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, Roundabout’s Off-Broadway venue for new plays.  Prior to the Roundabout, Catharine worked for four years at RKO Pictures and RKO Videogroup, primarily in Business Affairs.  Catharine was the Company Manager for “Broadway on Broadway 2004”, spent a year sailing around the world on a tall ship, and plays competitive volleyball.  In addition to serving as General Manager with NPT, Catharine is also working with Second Stage Theatre and the Museum of Television and Radio.  She is currently on the Board of Confluence Theatre Company and is a past Board member of the Gallery Players.  She has been a member of the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers since 2000. 

C. AMANDA MAUD (Associate Artistic Director) has more than 25 years experience performing, teaching and developing workshops for all ages in both the United States and England, dividing her time between New York City and England. She has been a core NPT Companie member and teaching artist since 1995 and has served as associate artistic director since 2002. For NPT, Ms. Maud has assistant-directed a number of Shakespeare productions (Othello, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet), both for general and school audiences, and provides ongoing support in text work and Elizabethan performance styles (including deportment and choreography.) She is also a regular performer in NPT’s Shakespeare Made Simple and World Voices programs for public school students, and assists with the creation of supplemental educational materials and conducting workshops of all kinds. Her professional performing credits are numerous, including appearances as Friar Laurence (Romeo & Juliet), Lady Macbeth (Macbeth), Titania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and Emelia (Othello) for NPT as well as roles in Blood Wedding (George Washington University Artist-in-Residence) and The Persians (Wells College Artist-in-Residence). Roles in the England include the UK premiere of The Evidence at New Perspectives Theatre Company/UK; The Belle of Bonavista Bay (lead) for Forest Forge, the UK premiere of Taking a Liberty at The Contact Theatre in Manchester, Macbeth at the Chester Gateway, Midas at Shakespeare’s Globe Education Centre, The Natural Theatre Company at the Millenium Dome and new works at the Soho Theatre studio, the Chelsea Centre and the Albany Theatre. In England she as performed with a number of educational theatre companies including the Apothecary Theatre Company, Mu-Lan Arts (a British-Chinese theatre--Ms. Maud is of Chinese descent) and most recently toured with the Twisting Yarn Theatre in Entrenched, a devised physical theatre piece for High School and College students and Trail of Tears the premiere of an original play for 3-6 year-olds.  Both productions included drama and history workshops along with the performances.  Ms. Maud works regularly with the Saint John on Bethnal Green Arts and Music Festival in London, developing programming and producing events each year, including directing The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green and this year's Panto.

ANGELA ASTLE (Associate Producer) moved from Denver, Colorado to New York City in August of 2007 in order to pursue a career in directing.  Prior to moving, she created and ran her own telecommunications consulting company in Colorado, Glass Slipper Solutions, Inc., for over 4 years.  Prior to that, she was a Sales Director with Mary Kay Cosmetics where she earned a company car.  She lead a team of over 25 women teaching them sales skills, goal setting, and business management.  In addition to her business background, her theatre background is also extensive.  She’s been involved in theatre since she was a child, but she fell in love with directing during college.  After earning her Bachelor’s Degree in Theatre Business, Angela began assistant directing with many accomplished directors in Denver such as Terry Dodd at the Arvada Center and Chip Walton of Curious Theatre Company.  She made her directorial debut with Dead Man Walking based on Tim Robbins’ movie of the same name.  This play became more than a play; it was a theatrical event focused on increasing the awareness of the death penalty.  She created partnerships with the Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project (a 501 (c) (3) organization designated to promote the show and the topic) and several universities in the Denver metro area to assist with producing the play and its surrounding events.  She hosted a fundraiser for Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons where the proceeds of all of the ticket sales were donated to the organization.  In addition, she organized two panels of experts to speak to audiences about misconceptions of the death penalty.  Since arriving in New York, she has added a number of accomplishments to her already extensive resume.  These include being a venue director for the Fringe Festival (August 2007), and a member/director for Flux Theatre Ensemble.  She has directed for Manhattan Theatre Source, Retro Productions, Tapt Productions, and is now the Associate Producer of New Perspectives Theatre Company.

JENNY GREEMAN (Manager, Youth & Community Programs) is an actor, director & teaching artist responsible for coordinating all activities for school-based programming and for developing new programs and educational materials in collaboration with the Artistic Director and other staff. Currently Ms. Greeman is the Lead Teaching Artist for NPTC’s Let’s Get Dramatic! Residency program at PS/IS140 in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and is playing Juliet in the company’s 90-minute production of Romeo & Juliet for schools. In 2007 she was NPTC’s Lead Teaching Artist at The Muscota New School, co-teaching a playwriting residency for 2nd and 3rd graders. Ms. Greeman has also directed The Wild Boy and The Bad Birthday for the World Voices Program.  She previously spent three seasons at the Theater at Ellis Island performing in educationally and historically-based plays, and developed the Drama Electives Program at the Bronx Lab School where she was the Drama Instructor for two years.  For three years Ms. Greeman was the Administrative Director of the WorkShop Theater Co. facilitating its growth from an "actor's gym" to a New York Times-reviewed, two-theatre complex. Ms. Greeman has a BA, Phi Beta Kappa, in Urban Studies from Connecticut College and was a Fellow at Barnard College’s Institute for Urban Education. She has toured the country as an actor and spent her semester abroad at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

ALEXIS CASANOVAS (Companie Manager) has recently relocated to NYC from Columbia, SC where he was teaching Creative Drama and Theater Arts at a public middle school.  He is returning to New Perspectives Theatre Company as Companie Manager.  Alexis started to perform at a very young age dancing and playing Traditional Folk music of Argentina.  He received his MFA in acting from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University with William Esper as head of the acting program and a B.A. from the College of Charleston, SC.  His recent credits include the Duke of Buckingham in The Three Musketeers with the Bard Columbia Shakespeare Company and a guest appearance on Guiding Light.  Among his NPT roles are Ex in the New York Premiere of Visit by world renowned playwright Ricardo Monti, Macbeth in Macbeth, and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet in a 2005 city parks tour.  He has also been involved in numerous youth outreach programs and performances.

KERRY WATTERSON (Artistic Associate/Asst. Director, Apprentice Program) holds an M.F.A. in Acting and Directing from the University of Arizona and has an extensive and diverse career in the theatre.  Mr. Watterson began his professional acting career 20 years ago with Casa Mañana in Fort Worth, Texas in their summer season of shows including OLIVER!  He has continued to work professionally with Casa Mañana, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arizona Theatre Company, Theatre at Monmouth, Arizona Repertory Theatre, The Barn Theatre and many other regional houses as an actor and director.  With New Perspectives, Mr. Watterson performed the role of Capulet in 2005’s Romeo & Juliet and has appeared in Shakespeare Made Simple as a variety of Fools, Villains and other characters, all under the direction of Artistic Director Melody Brooks.  While earning his M.F.A. at the University of Arizona, Mr. Watterson was the Acting Division’s Outstanding Teaching Assistant in the School of Theatre, honoring his commitment to education and the mentoring of young artists.  Mr. Watterson’s strengths as an educator have carried over into his teaching work with the Creative Arts Theatre and School, Casa Mañana Playhouse Theatre and School – and in New York City with Lynette Sheldon Actors Studio, Hunter College Continuing Education and at New Perspectives. In June 2001, he co-developed and team-taught Acquiring English Skills Through Drama at various villages throughout Ghana, Africa with the help of Peace Corps Ghana volunteers. Mr. Watterson previously served as the Director of Education and Volunteer Services with the acclaimed BODIES…The Exhibition and most recently worked with students internationally with TVI Studios.

BETH STARKIN (Marketing Coordinator) is both an actor and PR professional.  A graduate of the 2006 – 2007 NPT Apprentice Program, Beth is thrilled to be working with the company as

marketing coordinator, bringing together her professional marketing skills and love for the theatre for the first time.  Beth graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic arts and also holds a BA in English from The College of New Jersey.  Currently, Beth is an account supervisor at Peppercom Strategic Communications, where she has worked for the past four years.  Throughout her tenure at Peppercom, she has been blessed with a supportive culture that has allowed her to act in numerous productions, including The Adventures of Rubbish in the Hood for NPT's Youth & Community Programs, …and a Nightingale Sang and Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, among others.

COLLEEN JASINSKI  (Administrative Coordinator, Apprentice Program) is a graduate of the 2006-2007 NPT Apprentice Company. She holds an MFA in Stage Management from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a BA in Theater from SUNY New Paltz. After completing her MFA, she left show business for a number of years to pursue a career in Event Management and Meeting Planning, which provided many travel opportunities to exciting cities around the country and the globe, including San Francisco, Paris, France, and Berlin, Germany. But, alas, the theater came calling again and Colleen returned to the stage four years ago with a renewed passion to pursue her dream. As an actor, she was recently seen as The Stripper in the critically acclaimed American premiere of Hanoch Levin's Job's Passion, presented by Theatre for the New City and plays the Nurse in NPTC's Romeo & Juliet for school audiences.. Some other favorite roles include Julie in Le Wilhelm’s Bubbling, Suzanne Gold-Stein in Twilight of the Golds, and Mariette in Neil Simon’s The Dinner Party.