THEATRE DEPARTMENT VALUES:
Intellectual Curiosity
We foster creative and intellectual discovery and imagination. We commit ourselves to creating lifelong artist/scholars (learners) who appreciate and actively support the performing arts as integral to society.
Inclusion
We believe in a level playing field and work toward equity, diversity, and inclusion within our program. We work toward highlighting voices historically underrepresented and under-resourced in educational theatre.
Creativity
We provide opportunities and an environment to explore and create meaningful, innovative ideas that engage the interdependence of process and product.
Professionalism
We pursue a creative and compassionate environment committed to integrity and respect.
Collaboration
We strive for a shared vision while celebrating the individual voice. We acknowledge all contributions to the theatrical process through the teaching of acting, directing, playwriting, and dramaturgy and seek to provide opportunities for student collaboration within the department and with outside disciplines.
Intellectual Curiosity
We foster creative and intellectual discovery and imagination. We commit ourselves to creating lifelong artist/scholars (learners) who appreciate and actively support the performing arts as integral to society.
Inclusion
We believe in a level playing field and work toward equity, diversity, and inclusion within our program. We work toward highlighting voices historically underrepresented and under-resourced in educational theatre.
Creativity
We provide opportunities and an environment to explore and create meaningful, innovative ideas that engage the interdependence of process and product.
Professionalism
We pursue a creative and compassionate environment committed to integrity and respect.
Collaboration
We strive for a shared vision while celebrating the individual voice. We acknowledge all contributions to the theatrical process through the teaching of acting, directing, playwriting, and dramaturgy and seek to provide opportunities for student collaboration within the department and with outside disciplines.
CURRICULUM
Stanislavski/Meisner Techniques Characterization
Creative Dramatics Improvisation
Movement Techniques Mask Work
Voice and Diction Classical Text
Monologue and Scene Study Audition Technique
Play Analysis Theatre History
Directing Playwriting
Dramaturgy Career Preparation
YPAS Theatre graduates have received scholarships to continue theatre study at the Julliard School, dePaul University, Fordham University, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Boston University, Emerson College, Boston Conservatory, Southern Methodist University, Carnegie Mellon University, Wright State University, Ball State University, Evansville University, Savannah College of Art and Design, Otterbein University and Stephens College, among many others.
Some graduates are now performing in Broadway shows, professional repertory companies, soap operas, films, broadcasts, children’s theatre, and commercials; some are even teaching at theatre institutes.
FACULTY
Katie Blackerby Weible begins her thirteenth year on the YPAS faculty and serves as Chair of the Theater Department. Previously, she held the position of Director of Education at Actors theatre of Louisville. As an instructor, she has taught the University of Louisville, JCTC and the Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts. As an actor, she has performed extensively across the country. Off Broadway credits include Gilly in The Great Gilly Hopkins, Becky in Tom Sawyer and Bo Peep in Toyland. Favorite regional roles include: Susanna in Homefires (Jack Hefner World Premiere at Arkansas Rep), Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, (New York Renaissance Festival), Toinette in The Imaginary Invalid (Idaho Rep), and Minnie Fay in Hello Dolly! (Galveston Island Musicals). She has appeared at Actors Theatre of Louisville as Della in The Gift of the Magi, and various productions of A Christmas Carol and A Christmas Story. She also spent five seasons with Stage One: Louisville’s Family Theatre in such roles as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Anne in The Diary of Ann Frank and Lucy in You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown. Katie received her BFA in Performing Arts from WKU and her MFA in Acting from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a member of AEA (Actors Equity Association), AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) and VASTA (Voice and Speech Trainers Association). She has a husband (Joel), three children (Sam, Annie and Gabe), three cats and one dog. Katherine.Weible@jefferson.kyschools.us
Brian Hinds is a ninth year teacher at YPAS where he teaches freshmen theater majors and playwriting. Originally from Maine, Brian spent ten years with The Children’s Theatre of Maine where he served as an actor, instructor, and director. He also directed the drama program at Morse High School. Since moving to Louisville, Brian has worked as an outreach artist with Kentucky Shakespeare and Walden Theater, and instructed and advised both juvenile and adult offenders with Shakespeare Behind Bars. As an actor Brian has performed with Kentucky Shakespeare (Twelfth Night, Richard III, Julius Caesar), StageOne Family Theatre (The Odyssey, Tuck Everlasting), and Savage Rose Classical Theatre (The Tempest, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream). He is a member of Louisville Improvisors. Directing credits at YPAS: The Comedy of Errors, The Crucible, Tom Jones, Hamlet, and Our Town. Brian is a member of Louisville Improvisors. He has a BA in Theater from the University of Maine and a M. Ed from Spalding University. Brian.Hinds@jefferson.kyschools.us
Jane B. Jones is in her second year on the theatre faculty at YPAS. Previously Jones was the Director of Education at Actors Theatre of Louisville, where she worked for nine years. From Culpeper, Virginia, Jones has been a theatre educator in Virginia, Massachusetts, Kentucky, and Scotland. Jones worked for the American High School Theatre Festival at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for ten years. At Actors, Jones has taught playwriting to middle and high school students, acted as Literary Manager of the New Voices Young Playwrights Contest, and headed the theatre’s lobby enrichment initiative. Jones has developed work with the Professional Training Company, directed in the New Voices Young Playwrights Festival, and directed A. Ray Pamatmat's Electric Harvest as part of the 2018 PTC Season. In 2012, Jones’s short play, Dress Up, was produced in the Tens at Actors and she was commissioned to write TMI: a sex-ed puppet show for Squallis Puppeteers. Jones is a former board member and contract artist for Squallis Puppeteers where she has developed several original puppet shows. Jones earned an MFA in Playwriting at Spalding University; she graduated cum laude from Smith College with a BA in Theatre. Jane.Jones3@jefferson.kyschools.us