Faculty
Raymond Sage and Susan Russell, assistant professors in Penn State’s Schools of Music and Theatre, are the directors of the Penn State Summer Theatre Project.
Raymond Sage earned a bachelor’s degree in vocal
performance at Baylor University and a master’s degree in vocal performance at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). He pursued doctoral and postgraduate
work as well at CCM.
Before joining the musical theatre voice faculty at Penn State, Sage was on the voice and musical theatre faculties of Trinity College (Hartford, Connecticut), the American Musical
and Dramatic Academy (New York City), and the New York University Tisch School of the Arts’ musical theatre program, CAP 21.
Sage is currently assistant professor of voice for musical theatre at Penn State and the artistic director of the Penn State New Musical Theatre Festival. His students have been seen
in many Broadway productions, including Follies, Titanic, Beauty and the Beast, Steel Pier, High Society, Cats, and The Scarlet Pimpernel.
As a performer, Sage has appeared in the Broadway productions and national tours of Camelot, Beauty and the Beast, and Titanic, and in regional theatres across the
country, including The Paper Mill Playhouse, Sacramento Theatre Company, and Dallas Summer Musicals. He has appeared on television on the Late Show with David Letterman, The Howie
Mandel Show, and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Sage is also a founding member of Monday Off, a quartet specializing in vocal jazz with a Broadway flair. Monday Off
appears frequently at Carnegie Hall with Skitch Henderson and the New York Pops and at many other concert halls and jazz clubs across the country.
Susan Russell has had a twenty-five-year career
as a professional actor on and off Broadway, as well as in regional theatre and opera companies across the country. During her five years in Phantom of the Opera she was an
artist-teacher for New York Offstage, where she created, developed, and implemented workshops in musical theatre performance and acting for high school and university students. She
was also an artist-teacher and curriculum creator for the New York City Opera, where she created and developed arts-based education programs. While maintaining a performance career
Russell was the creator and administrator of the Seaside Music Theater School of the Arts in Daytona Beach, Florida, and she was head of the Voice and Musical Theatre Department at
the Jupiter Theatre Institute and the Burt Reynolds Institute of Theatre Training. She has taught musical theatre performance methodology in workshop settings all across the country
and has recently begun lecturing on and teaching musical theatre performance in the United Kingdom.
Russell is also a playwright. Her works Olympia (1998) and Present Perfect (1999) were produced by the Emerging Artists Theatre Company in New York City. In 2000 the Lincoln Center selected Present Perfect for its Millennium Living Room Festival at the HERE Theatre in Soho. Her play Severe Clear was a semifinalist in the 2006 O’Neill Theatre Center playwriting competition, and her most recent play, Ecoute: Pieces of Reynaldo Hahn, written for tenor Norman Spivey, will be touring nationally and internationally in 2009 and 2010.
At Penn State, in 2006, Russell created the new-play festival Cultural Conversations, the only university play festival in the country devoted to issues of local and global diversity.
Russell graduated magna cum laude with a doctorate in theatre studies from Florida State University’s School of Theatre, and magna cum laude with a master of arts degree, also from Florida State University. She received a bachelor’s degree in theatre from St. Andrews Presbyterian College (Laurinburg, North Carolina).
Matthew Kaylor Toronto is an
assistant professor of theatre at Penn State where he teaches directing, acting, and musical theatre performance. He is also the associate artistic director of the Penn State New
Musical Theatre Festival. He earned an M.F.A. in directing from Penn State and a B.F.A. in musical theatre performance from the University of Michigan.
Matt began his professional acting career performing in national tours, Off-Broadway, and in regional theatres across the country. This included five seasons in the Radio City
Christmas Spectacular dancing alongside the Rockettes. He has worked as assistant director and dramaturg for Richard Maltby Jr. and was the associate director/choreographer
for Spirit: The Seventh Fire, a multi-media touring production that played in conjunction with the opening of the Native American wing of the Smithsonian.
Recently he directed the world premiere of the musical Ordinary Days at Pennsylvania Centre Stage and a production of Twelfth Night at Bucknell University. In
New York City he has directed at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Abingdon Theatre, American Theatre of Actors, The Gallery Players, the Rosetta Festival, and The Theatre at Monmouth in
Maine. He also directed and choreographed a national youth jubilee performance presented at Radio City Music Hall. Also a playwright, his play Propaganda has received staged
readings at Ensemble Studio Theatre and Penn State. His play Mysterious Ways received readings at Manhattan Theatre Source and The Chashama Theatre. He also wrote and
performed Before Your Eyes, a one-person play produced at the TSI/Playtime Series in New York City.
He is a member of Actors' Equity Association (AEA), Screen Actors Guild (SAG), and American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA) and the Society of Stage Directors and Chorographers
(SSDC).
program of the College of
Arts and Architecture
This site is a product of Penn State Outreach Marketing and Communications.
Program questions? E-mail ConferenceInfo1@outreach.psu.edu or call 800-PSU-TODAY (778-8632).
Web site questions? E-mail WebInfo@outreach.psu.edu.
Privacy and Legal Statements | Copyright © 2009 The Pennsylvania State University
Search: People | Departments | Penn State