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 SageRaymond 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 Musicals 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 RussellSusan Russell experienced a twenty-five year career as a professional actor on and off Broadway as well as a career 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 an arts-based education program for the City of New York. While maintaining a performance career, Russell was the creator and administrator of Seaside Music Theatre 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 Theatrical Training. She has taught her musical theatre performance methodology in workshops all across the country and has recently begun lecturing and teaching on musical theatre performance in the United Kingdom.

As 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 semi-finalist 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, she created the new play festival Cultural Conversations in 2006, which is 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 in 2008, and graduated magna cum laude with a master of arts degree from Florida State University in December of 2003. She received her bachelor’s degree in theatre from St. Andrews Presbyterian College (Laurinburg, NC) in 1979.

 

Steve Broadnax earned his master of fine arts in acting from Penn State and his bachelor of fine arts in musical theatre from Webster University in St. Louis. Steve was previously the head of the John McLinn Ross Theatre program at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff but now resides as an assistant professor of theatre at Penn State.

The Hip Hop Project, an award-winning, full-length original play conceived, choreographed, and directed by Steve, has toured nationally and was showcased at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in Washington, D.C. His other writings include American Taboo, another award-winning full-length play written and directed by Steve; Smash/Hit; Hard to Say I Love You (a one-act play); and Sex Love, and Everything in Between (a new musical). His directing credits include various shows and theatres nationally, including The Black Theatre Troupe in Phoenix, Arizona; Arkansas Repertory Theatre; Moore Theatre in Seattle; and The Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland.

As a member of Actors’ Equity Association, Steve toured nationally and internationally in more than twenty shows over a five-year period. Steve was cast in Dreamgirls at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre in Little Rock; paid homage to blues legend Robert Johnson in his self-authored one-man show, R.L. at the Crossroads; and has worked in theatres such as Pennsylvania Centre Stage, St. Louis Black Rep, St. Louis Repertory Theatre, St. Louis Muny, Lincoln Amphitheatre, Westport Playhouse, and Ozark Actors Theatre. 

 

Matthew TorontoMatthew Kaylor Toronto is an assistant professor at Penn State teaching acting, directing, and musical theatre performance. He earned a master of fine arts in directing from Penn State and a bachelor of fine arts in musical theatre performance from The University of Michigan. Matt has directed at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Abingdon Theatre, American Theatre of Actors, The Gallery Players, The Rosetta Festival, and The Theatre at Monmouth. He also directed and choreographed a National Youth Jubilee performance presented at Radio City Music Hall.

Matt began his professional career as an actor, 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 multimedia touring production that played in conjunction with the opening of the Native American wing of the Smithsonian. Also a playwright, his play Propaganda has received staged readings at Ensemble Studio Theatre and at 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 AEA, SAG, and AGVA.

 


Michele Dunleavy is a performer, choreographer, and teacher living in State College, Pennsylvania. Michele began her career working in concert dance where she performed and choreographed extensively throughout the mid-Atlantic region. Her work has been presented by numerous arts organizations in Pittsburgh, Maryland, New York City, and West Virginia. These include The Three Rivers Arts Festival, Physical Theatre Project, Women’s Work Performing Arts Festival, Labco Dance, H20 Contemporary Dance, The Pittsburgh Dance Connection, Goose Route Dance Festival, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, and HATCH. In addition to performing her own choreography, Michele has danced with the Pittsburgh Opera, Junction Dance Theatre, Physical Theatre Project, DANA Movement Ensemble, ETCHdance, and New York City–based B3W.

In 2004 Michele joined the musical theatre faculty at Penn State as an assistant professor of dance where she teaches tap, jazz, improvisation, and dance appreciation. Since then she has choreographed numerous musicals including A New Brain, Bat Boy: The Musical, Parade, Big River, Babes in Arms, Cabaret, and The Wiz. Michele continues to remain active in the field of concert dance, presenting improvisational solo and group works. She earned her master of fine arts at George Mason University and has served on the faculties at Point Park University, George Mason University, and the Catholic University of America. Michele is serving a second term as a board member of the American College Dance Festival Association and recently became an associate member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. *Photo courtesy of Patricia Collins.