Artistic Staff Bios
Artistic Staff for Emma:
MATTHEW ARBOUR (Director) Matthew’s work has been seen at the Mint Theater Company, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Chautauqua Theater Company, Two River Theater Company, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, New Jersey Repertory, 78th Street Theatre Lab, Ohio Theatre, Washington Ensemble Theatre, Portland Stage Company, Hangar Theatre, Theatre at Monmouth, and the Penobscot Theatre Company among others. Matthew served as resident dramaturg and literary manager of Portland Stage Company from 1992 to 1998. He is an Associate Artist of the Washington Ensemble Theatre, a Usual Suspect of New York Theatre Workshop, and Drama League Directing Fellow. MFA: University of Washington, Seattle.
JAYNE LUKE (Choreographer) has choreographed many PTC productions, including Sunset Boulevard, The Light in the Piazza, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Evita, Phantom, Big Riverand Pride and Prejudice. Some of her acting roles at PTC were in The Producers, Present Laughter, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Grapes of Wrath and Death of a Salesman. Favorite roles include Amanda in The Glass Menagerie at SLCC’s Grand Theatre, the title role inKimberly Akimbo at SLAC, Mrs. Tottendale in The Drowsy Chaperone at Hale Center Theater in Orem, Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret at Egyptian Theatre Company, and Ruth in Facing East for Plan-B Theatre Company that played in Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and off-Broadway in New York City. Jayne is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.
JON JORY (Playwright) Jon Jory has been Artistic Director of both Actors Theatre of Louisville and the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven. He has been inducted into the New York Theatre Hall of Fame. His Jane Austen adaptations have been produced in twelve countries and his newest, Persuasion, will be published in July.
BILL CLARKE (Set Designer) is pleased to return to PTC after designing the sets for Twelve Angry Men, Romeo & Juliet, Pride and Prejudice and Steel Magnolias. He designed A Walk in the Woods and Abby’s Song on Broadway, and his off-Broadway work includes the recentLemon Sky, Misalliance (Pearl) and So Help Me God! (Mint) as well as Eccentricities of a Nightingale (TACT) and The Daughter-in-Law (Mint Theater – both on the NY Times Ten Best List), Secret Order (59E59), June Moon (Drama Dep’t), Queens Blvd., Ann Magnuson’s You Could Be Home Now (NYSF), Keith Reddin’s The Innocents’ Crusade (MTC), Alan Havis’Morocco (WPA) and The Cherry Orchard (Juilliard). Regional credits include Seattle Repertory, The Old Globe Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory, Denver Center Theatre, A.R.T., Huntington Theatre Company, McCarter Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse, Indiana Repertory and Cleveland Playhouse. He is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and a recipient of the Hollywood Drama-Logue Award and San Diego Theater Critics Circle Award.
BRENDA VAN DER WIEL (Costume Designer) is happy to be designing again for PTC. As costume shop manager for the University of Utah’s Theatre Department, Brenda has designed several dozen shows for the Babcock Theatre and the Classical Greek Theater Festival. Some favorites include designs for The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice and Libation Bearers. Other designs for PTC include The Foreigner, You Can’t Take It With You, Dancing at Lughnasa,Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Art, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Copenhagen and The Real Thing. Brenda also frequently designs for Salt Lake Acting Company and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Before moving to Salt Lake City, Brenda worked with Seattle Opera, Santa Fe Opera and the Utah Shakespeare Festival.
KENDALL SMITH (Lighting Designer) returns after designing PTC productions of Dracula and A Christmas Story. Theatre credits include Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Indiana Repertory Theatre, GEVA Theatre, Syracuse Stage, University of Michigan, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, North Shore Music Theatre, Studio Theatre in D.C. and Connecticut Repertory Theatre. As the Resident Designer for Michigan Opera Theatre for the last twenty-one years, he has designed over 60 productions. Regional Opera companies include Florida Grand Opera, San Diego Opera, Opera Pacific, Boston Lyric Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Virginia Opera, Dayton Opera, and Eugene Opera. Upcoming productions include Pearl Fishersfor Michigan Opera, Tosca for Ft. Worth Opera and Giselle for the Royal New Zealand Ballet.
MATTHEW TIBBS (Sound Designer) is Pioneer Theatre Company’s Resident Sound Designer. He has previously worked as a sound designer or engineer at Portland Center Stage, Artists Repertory Theatre, Salem Repertory Theatre and Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati. Some of his favorite past sound designs include Fat Pig, Proof, and The Full Monty. He received his M.F.A. in Sound Design from University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) and his B.A. from George Fox University. Matthew has also been the sound designer on several award-winning films and video projects. Matthew is visiting faculty at University of Utah teaching Sound Design and lives with his wife Beth and son Lucas in Salt Lake City.
AMANDA FRENCH(Hair and Makeup Designer) has been a Makeup and Hair Designer for over 20 years. She has worked for The Utah Shakespeare Festival, The Utah Opera, Egyptian Theatre Company and the University of Texas at Austin. She is a contributing writer in the tenth edition of Stage Makeup by Corson, Glavan and Norcross, and her work can also be seen in The Costume Technician’s Handbook by Ingham and Covey, and Wig Making and Styling: A Complete Guide for Theatre and Film by Ruskai and Lowery. She attended the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati where she studied with Hair and Makeup Designer Lenna Kaleva. She is a member of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) and a current University of Utah instructor of wigs and makeup.
ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON (Dramaturg) is Pioneer Theatre Company’s Associate Artistic Director and Literary Manager. Dramaturgy here at PTC includes The Tempest, Rent, Hamlet, Our Town, and the world premieres of Wendy MacLeod’s Find and Sign, Bess Wohl’s Touch(ed)and Bess Wohl’s In as part of the New Plays Initiative. She has developed new work with Brooke Berman, Sheila Callaghan, Kyle Jarrow, Wendy MacLeod, Brighde Mullins, Dan O’Brien, Dominique Serrand and Steve Epp, Bess Wohl, Lauren Yee and Mary Zimmerman. New York directing: the U.S. premiere of Michel Azama’s The Life and Death of Pier Paolo Pasolini for the Act French Festival (also co-translated; a Village Voice Choice); Peter Morris’ The Second Amendment Club (AMS, then West End Theatre); Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis (Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab); The Floating World (also adapted from Chikamatsu; LCT’s Directors Cabaret at HERE); and Genet’s The Maids (FringeNYC). Regionally, she’s also worked at About Face Theatre, the American Conservatory Theater, Alter Theater, Aurora Theatre, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Berkeley Rep’s School of Theatre, Cal Shakes, Court Theatre, the La Jolla Playhouse, Lorin Maazel’s Castleton Festival, Magic Theatre, PlayGround, Steppenwolf, Theatre de la Jeune Lune and the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Education: BA, Bennington College; Master’s, Oxford University; trained at the École Jacques Lecoq and with Complicite. She received a 2007 NEA Fellowship in Literary Translation and is a member the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab and a regional VP for the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas.