The BRIT Program brings the expertise of the British classical theatre to students at the University of South Florida with leading actors, directors and designers working in London theatre, television and film spending an extended period of time at USF working with students in a masterclass environment. The BRIT Program was established in 1991 and in 2006 continues to thrive and grow by developing future projects for Theatre students. Visit The BRIT Program page for past productions and the 2006 BRIT Program production.    This CVPA program invites eminent artists to work with faculty and students. Theses visiting artists conduct master classes, lectures, demonstrations or exhibitions on campus and sometimes in the community. The endowment was created between retail department store Burdines-Macy’s of Florida and the College of Visual & Performing Arts and has been providing funding for the disciplines of Theatre, Dance, Music and Art since 1990. The following artists have brought their dramatic expertise to the TheatreUSF students and faculty members. 2006 - Henry Muttoo - Widely recognized as one of the Caribbean’s leading theatre practitioners, and arguably the region’s finest theatre designer, Henry Muttoo is a rare talent with a multiplicity of artistic skills: he is an award-winning actor, theatre director and designer, carnival designer, painter, writer, editor and amateur calypso historian. Henry will direct Errol John's Moon on a Rainbow Shawlin November 2006. Visit The Theatre Website for performance details. For Henry Muttoo's complete biography, visit: http://theatre.arts.usf.edu/GuestArtistsBurdines_HenryMuttoo.htm 2001 – Mike Finn – Irish playwright directed the workshop production of his play Ellis Island. Mike Finn is an actor and playwright and an Honorary Fellow of the University of Iowa. He is a founder member of Island Theatre Co. (in Ireland) for whom he has appeared in over twenty productions. Ellis Island tells of American History. It is the story of the personal and common experiences shared by European immigrants as they search for freedom, opportunity and new beginnings in America.  1998 – Badja Djola – Guest lecture in voice coaching and acting presented Acting in Theatre and Film. Mr. Djola spoke on his experiences as an actor in both film and theatre. He has starred and co-starred in such films as: Rosewood, Mississippi Burning & Night Shift; and theatre in: Dancing on the Moonlight, Southern Rapture, & How High the Mountain.  1998 – Russel Craig (set and costume designer) – Guest instructor/lecturer from London that presented his lecture: The influence of British Opera Design on British Theatre Design. Also, Russell Craig hosted a workshop in mask making and mold making techniques.   1996 – Francis Matthews – Consultant for the stage adaptation of the novel, Huckleberry Finn The Huckleberry Finn Project was a 2 to 3 week intensive summer workshop with a group of students adapting Twain’s Huckleberry Finn into a stage play. The students did a reading of the work that they had completed at the conclusion of the workshop. Francis completed the work over the remainder of the summer and fall and produced the work as the Christmas Holiday show at the Greenwich Theatre opening early Dec. 1996. Two students from USF went on internship for approx. 8 weeks with the development of the production at Greenwich serving as Assistants to Francis. TheatreUSF designer and instructor Barton Lee joined the Greenwich production for approximately 2.5 weeks leading up to opening and assisted where possible in the final preparation of the production (working primarily with technical production aspects of the show and as a general assistance in support of the production).  1994 – Co-directors, Paul Massie and LeRoy Mitchell Jr. (actor/director) – Guest artists for the TheatreUSF production: My Children! My Africa. Mr. Mitchell Jr. was a Tampa actor that appeared in numerous musicals as well as straight plays. He played the character Mr. M (in My Children! My Africa) in Tampa, Atlanta and took the production on tour to Wales and Dublin.  1993 – Robert Wierzel – Lighting Designer for lit TheatreUSF’s production of TinTypes. This TheatreUSF alumni is faculty member at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He has worked with artists from diverse disciplines and backgrounds, in theatre, dance, new music and opera, on stages throughout the country and abroad.  1992 – Arley Berryhill – Designer of mask making, conducted classroom lectures. The John Holloway Endowed Chair in Theatre and Dance provides these programs with funds on an annual basis. JOHN W. HOLLOWAY, a TheatreUSF graduate, has systematically donated enhancement funds to build the Theatre and Dance programs to exceptional artistic status. The Holloway endowed Chair in Theatre and Dance has allowed both Theatre and dance majors to work with renowned international artists in the creation of new work and in the preparation of interdisciplinary stage productions on important contemporary subjects. The following are contributions to the Theatre program. 2005 – Cuban Bread – Written and directed by USF Theatre professor Denis Calandra.  2003 – Bat Boy: The Musical - Holloway guest artists Wayne Gallops, Musical Director and Daryl Gray, Choreographer lent their talents and skills to a USF student cast in this romantic yet creepy musical romp.  Wayne Gallops serves on the music faculty at the University of Tampa (Tampa, FL) and is a candidate for the PH.D. in Music Education at the University of South Florida. He has played piano with both local and national performers including Eddie Arnold, Chuck Mangione, and Anne Reinking’s Broadway Theatre Project. Daryl Gray was trained in a full theatre and dance curriculum in New York City and appeared in Broadway shows and as a soloist and guest artist with dance companies in the United States and abroad, touring worldwide. His musical stagings and directing credits include: California Musical Theater, Playhouse 91 in Manhattan, Chicago Civic Theater, Coconut Grove Playhouse, Santa Fe Festival Theater, NY Gilbert & Sullivan Players, Lincoln Center and others. For the concert stage, he has choreographed over fifty works on five continents for such companies as: Joffrey, ABT, Les Ballet Jazz de Montreal, Batsheva Dance Company of Israel, Royal Ballet of Belgium and others. 2003 – The Tale of Tsusu – an original Japanese story by Michiko Kondo was adapted to a play by guest artist Allison Williams. Allison Williams, along with guest artist Todd Espeland, directed this colorful play that features cultural lessons about truth and love. Williams and Espeland, of Commedia Zuppa Theatre Company, create original works using physical theatre, mask, circus and commedia dell’ arte techniques.  2000 – The Making of GONE WITH THE WIND, A Buffoon’s Tale, written and directed by guest artists Martha Enson and Esther Edelman of the Seattle based theatre company, UMO. The Making of GONE WITH THE WIND, A Buffoon’s Tale was an original theatre piece done in the style of European “Buffoon” Theatre. UMO is a theatre troupe who has devoted themselves to a brand of theatre that is a heady mix of clowning and classical Greek tragedy, mime and puppetry and mask work, ritual and horseplay.  1999 – Cabaret guest artists Thommie Walsh (Original Chorus Line member) and Priscilla Lopez presented Lectures and master classes. “Acting a Song” with Priscilla Lopez, Tony-award winning “A Chorus Line” original cast member, presented this two hour master class on the techniques of performing a musical theatre song. “Broadway Babies Grown Up”- a round-table discussion with Priscilla Lopez and Thommie Walsh of “A Chorus Line” on their experiences in musical theatre. “Dancing with Thommie Walsh”- a two hour master class with two-time Tony-award winning choreographer Thommie Walsh, also an original cast member of “A Chorus Line”. Mr. Walsh taught theatre and dance students a musical theatre dance routine from his various Broadway and West End productions.  1997 – Men Dancing - guest director, Jack Parrish and playwright, David Crespy’s residency to lecture and collaborate on the show. Men Dancing, by playwright David Crespy, focuses on a young Jewish-American artist and his family as they cope with an aging father’s contradictory past life. At the same time the son’s personal search for his own artistic voice takes him to this father’s long denied talent and passion. The more he discovers about his father, the more he learns about himself. The play deals with the timeless problems of aging and death but interweaves a 90’s emphasis on AIDS and sexual awareness.   Other guest artists include LeRoy Mitchell, Ron Sommer and guest faculty Mary Ann Bentley. Lecture/symposium with noted scholar Tess Jones, AIDS and the Arts, playwright David Crespy, and Julie Larkin, MD 1995 – Ghetto, by renowned Israeli playwright, Joshua Sobol, is about a theatrical troupe in a Jewish Ghetto under Nazi control in Vilna Lithuania during World War II. TheatreUSF in partnership with USF Institute on Aging contracted Ron Pinkovitz, one of the best young directors in Isreal to direct the play.  The purpose is to engage students, the university community, and the community at large in contemplation of and discussion about the horrific and heroic events of fifty years ago in Europe. The art of theatre can provide a public, social forum; it can move people to think, feelingly. The play: Set in the Jewish Ghetto of Vilna, Lithuania, in 1942/43, Ghetto tells of the unlikely flourishing of a theatre at the very time the Nazis began their policy of mass extermination. It is based on diaries written by Herman Kruk, director of the Grosser Library in Warsaw. He escaped in the second week of the Germans attack on Warsaw and reached Vilna after several weeks. His diary chronicles the darkest days of the holocaust. 1993 – Tintypes, directed and choreographed by Joe Deer – TheatreUSF alumni, is a collage of music, politics, dance and vaudeville comedy from the turn of the century. The song and dance production tells the story of America’s turn-of-the-century immigrants and their assimilation into the melting pot of American culture. 1993 – Race - Book by Studs Terkel; adapted for the Stage by Jose Yglesias; directed by L. Kenneth Richardson. Race tells the stories of blacks and whites in America and how they feel about each other. The world premiere of the stage version of Race opened at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center (tbpac.org) to a sold out house.   
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