 | Artistic Staff
It is with pride that we present the following staff for the 2009 season. Please take a moment to read the brief biographies of this talented and dedicated group of instructors that will be working with your children this summer.
In addition to the below staff members, there are 18 Counselors-in-Training, ages 16-18, who will be assisting the staff.
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Ruthann Ardizonni has been the Director of the Gymnastics Program at the Cohasset Community Center for 30 years and has coached Cohasset High School varsity gymnastics since 1985, the Cohasset Middle School since 2001, and the Hanover Varsity team since 2002. She volunteers at the Bay State Games, and she is a member of the American Athletic Union and the Gymnastics Judges Association. Ruthann holds certifications as Meet Director and Skill Evaluator, and in First Aid, CPR, and Safety. Ruthann has been associated with Summer Arts since its creation in 1989.
Scot Chandler teaches geography, science and athletics at Derby Academy during the academic year. He will be the campus photographer and will teach Sports and Chess this summer. Scot holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Richmond.
David Charam is excited about his twenty-first year at Summer Arts and is proud to be part of the 2009 Technical staff. He is finishing his senior year in Music at Bridgewater State College. David has also earned a professional degree in the art of magic.
Judy Coady Benzaquin is a gymnastics and sports instructor for the South Shore Community Center in Cohasset and the Norwell and Marshfield Recreation Departments. Judy is also a middle school special needs aide in Norwell. She is a yoga enthusiast and attended a yoga seminar in Sedona, Arizona after Summer Arts last August. Judy received her BA in Art Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She has been teaching at Summer Arts since 2003.
Cornell Coley was born in Kingston, Jamaica of Cuban and Jamaican parents. Mr. Coley has been a lead dancer and guest artist in community-based dance companies since 1979. He was one of a handful of American performers selected to join the international cast of the Bodytjak, dance/theatre project that toured the United States and Indonesia in 1992. He taught in numerous colleges and universities, arts programs and summer camps. His choreography was presented at several of them. He has worked extensively in the Boston Public Schools and in early childhood settings. In 1994, he wrote the first draft of the arts curriculum framework for the Massachusetts Department of Education. Musically, he adapted his drum kit training to hand drums and percussion instruments. His most recent ventures are the Women in Latin Jazz Festival which ran for four years, and his current band is the “Sugarfoot” Latin jazz band. He created and performs,”A Fascinating Rhythm,” a one-man, interactive arts and education program that tours a wide variety of settings, including libraries, museums and schools.
Craig Davis is joining us for his third year in the Music and Sports Dept. He graduated from Stonehill College with at BA in History and recently received his Masters Degree in Education from Eastern Nazarene College. He is a teacher of social studies at South Shore Vocational Technical High School, and he coaches football at Hull High School.
Chip Dean’s passion is in all aspects of visual arts with video production being at the top of his list. Chip has been active in video production since the mid-nineties, serving as part of a large video team at his church in St. Louis. He produces video resumes, personal tribute videos for weddings and funerals and promotional videos. Chip is also a photographer, a graphic artist, and runs a digital building modeling business. He lives in Marshfield with his wife Anna and daughter Kellie. He returns to Summer Arts for his fifth year.
Nancy Donovan, Head of Visual Arts, is a visual artist and educator. During the academic year, she is the Lower School art teacher at Derby Academy and teaches glass fusing, pottery, and sculpture in the Upper School. In the spring of 2009 she taught glass fusing classes at the Menino Art Center in Hyde Park. At Summer Arts she has taught clay, painting, drawing, and quilting. She was the costumer for the musicals Working, Fiddler on the Roof, Honk!, Les Miserables, Music Man, Once on this Island, and Guys and Dolls. Nancy designed a quilt to commemorate Boston’s 375th birthday, which hung in City Hall in 2005. Her picture quilts hung at Logan Airport in 2006. Nancy has participated in Summer Arts for eighteen years. Her undergraduate studies in Applied Art were completed at Northeastern University, and she earned an M.Ed from Lesley University.
Juliana Duff is a senior and resident staff assistant at Stonehill College in Easton, MA. She is a member of the college chorus and has worked on hair and makeup at the American College Theater Festival regional competition for the Stonehill Theater Company. She is happy to be back at Summer Arts for her eighth year. Juliana will be the Assistant Head of our CIT Program.
Mary Bess Engel worked for Simon and Schuster Publishing Company for ten years as an art director and graphic designer of book covers. Her designs are seen on cookbooks, coffee table books, business books and fiction and non-fiction texts. Mary Bess is a graduate of the University of Delaware, and the mother of two Summer Arts campers, Devon and Reese. She will be teaching visual arts for the third summer to the Juniors and will teach Batik and Prints, and two Journals classes.
Maureen Fish (“Mo”) Fish is thrilled to be back for a third summer at Derby Summer Arts and will be directing our Musical Production of Into the Woods . Mo holds a Master of Arts degree in Theatre Education from Emerson College, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Arts and Theatre from Eastern Nazarene College. An actor and vocalist, her favorite previous roles include Kate in Kiss Met Kate, Florence Unger in The Odd Couple (Female) and Yente the Matchmaker in Fiddler on the Roof. Maureen has taught in schools and theatres on the South Shore and Boston, and is currently the Drama Teacher at Hingham Middle School. She resides in Abington with her husband, Dan, and their wonderful daughter, Violet.
Gingy Grimes is excited to be back at Summer Arts for her third year as the Musical Director of Into the Woods and The AristoCats. She is Music Director at First Parish in Norwell, accompanies the Quincy Choral Society, and teaches and is an accompanist at Milton Academy. She has been Music Director for The King and I and Seussical at Pierce Middle School in Brookline and pianist for Into the Woods at Weston Middle School. She is a graduate of Duke University and lives in Milton with husband Frank, son Brandon, dog Martin and cat Quid.
Verna Hampton is a performer, artist/educator and an entrepreneur. She is a native of Boston and lives in Brooklyn, New York. Verna received a New Yorkers for Better Neighborhoods Grant award from Citizens Committee for New York City, to conduct The Intergenerational Crown Heights Photography Project II during the spring of 2009. In the month of March she portrayed Sgt. Terris DeWalt-Johnson in The Lonely Soldier Monologues, Women at War in Iraq at the Theatre for the New City in NYC. Verna continues to conduct theatre and writing workshops for youth in the NYC area. This is her seventh year with Summer Arts where she has taught theatre, music and writing. “The fun has just begun.”
John Higgins has recently retired from the Hingham Public Schools, where he taught Drama for 35 years. He was the advisor/director of the Hingham High School Drama Club, where he directed many musical productions such as Les Miserables, Guys and Dolls, Anything Goes, Fiddler on the Roof, Crazy for You, and West Side Story. His non-musical directing credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Our Town, and The Laramie Project. He is currently working for Lesson One, Inc., a non-profit corporation which provides educational consulting services for schools all across the country. He is a past president of the Massachusetts High School Drama Guild and a past recipient of the Massachusetts Alliance for Arts Education’s “Outstanding Arts Educator Award.” He has taught in summer arts programs for high school students at Bridgewater State College, at American Idol Camp, at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., and for many years at Derby Summer Arts. John is a graduate of Boston College where he earned a degree in Drama and English and holds a masters degree from Catholic University in Speech and Drama.
Meg Higgins is thrilled to be returning to Derby this year. Meg graduated from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington in 2005 with a B.A. in Sociology. She currently lives in Seattle and works as a para-educator in special education classes. She will be the Summer Arts Writing Head and will be publishing “The Weathervane”, the camp’s daily newspaper.
Liz Hilt is a graduate of Northeastern University, where she majored in Photography and minored in East Asian Studies. She manages a Davis Square café. She has taught visual arts classes at Camp Pittaway in Virginia and at the Mattakesett Resort in Martha’s Vineyard. Liz will be teaching in our Photography Department for her sixth summer.
Peter Kates has been directing, designing and performing in plays with area school and community groups for well over a third of a century. This past year he directed a Bay Players production, performed in Our Town and Twelve Angry Men at the Curtain Call Theatre, built the scenery for Curtain Call’s Urinetown, directed at the Woodward School in Quincy and was a judge at the Massachusetts High School Drama Guild competition. This will be his ninth year at Summer Arts.
Robin Kelley is a gifted seamstress and musician. She began teaching sewing and designing costumes for Summer Arts in 1994 while she was an academic year music teacher at Derby Academy. Currently she teaches elementary music, chorus and instrumental lessons in the Rockland Public Schools and plays the piano for elementary musicals. Robin sings in the Pilgrim Church choir and is professional development coordinator for the New England Orff Schulwerk Association. Her children, Michelle and Brian, are ninth year campers. Robin earned a BA in Music Education from the Crane School of Music at the State University of NY, Potsdam and an MS in Music Education from Central Connecticut State University. She will teach sewing this summer.
Kathi Lesko is a potter and educator who lives in Hingham. She has her own line of porcelain jewelry and pottery and recently has been involved with soft sculpture wall hangings. At Summer Arts she has taught Advanced Clay, Puppetmaking, Soapstone Carving, and Quilting to students of all ages. During the academic year, she works with special education students at Norwell Junior High School. This will be Kathi’s sixthteenth year at Derby Summer Arts.
Nancy Loedy has a degree in Jazz Saxophone Performance from the University of Denver (1999). She taught music and wood shop at Derby Academy for five years, and currently performs all over the New England area on saxophone, flute, guitar and piano. Ms. Loedy has been nominated for three Boston Music Awards. She will travel to Costa Rica this summer to obtain her Yoga Teacher’s Certification. Ms. Loedy loves to play music with children of all ages!
Maye Magner has thirty years experience as a pediatric nurse. She has been the Derby Academy academic year nurse for three years and began working as the Summer Arts nurse in 2008. Previously she worked in the Brookline Public Schools for nine years as a school nurse. She lives in Duxbury with her husband and three children.
Stephenie Marchetta-Wood is a sociology major at the University of Delaware. She sings in the University Choir and plays the cello for the symphony orchestra. She is also an officer at the Delaware Chapter of Amnesty International. Stephanie is looking forward to her tenth summer at Derby and her second year as a staff member in the Dance, Sports and Visual Art Departments.
John McClain is a Boston artist residing in the Fort Point Channel neighborhood, the largest art community in Massachusetts. He was featured in the October 16, 2005, Boston Globe Magazine article, “Working Where You Live.” Members of the Boston Celtics and the New England Patriots are among those collecting John’s work in pastels and acrylics. During the weekends in 2008, John taught drawing and pastels to children at Project Rise. During the 2008-2009 academic year he coached basketball for Boston youth. John is proud of the students that he coached during the summer as he sees their contribution on their winter teams. This is his fourth summer at Derby where he will be teaching Visual Arts and Sports classes and coaching Basketball.
Thalia McMillion, the Director of Summer Programs at Derby Academy, joined the faculty of Derby Academy in 1988 after a ten-year career of performing, directing, and teaching at Boston University, Pine Manor College and as the Education Director of Boston’s Next Move Theatre. She is the Director of Summer Arts, Summer Fun, Young Explorers, and Derby Discoveries. She holds a M.A. in Theatre Direction from Bowling Green State University in Ohio and a B.S. in Theatre and a B.S. in Social Welfare from Middle Tennessee State University. She loves helping children to discover their creative gifts.
Markie Mello – is returning for her eleventh summer. This year Markie will be teaching Miniatures, Fantasy Furniture, Journals, and Jewelry. She has just completed her sophomore year at Syracuse as an interior design major.
Sally Mello, a visual artist, is returning for her eleventh summer at Summer Arts. In December of 2008 she was chosen to paint an ornament for the White House Christmas Tree. She has been the Education Coordinator at the Art Complex in Duxbury since 2002. She paints in her backyard studio and loves making all kinds of art! She is a graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and Tufts University. Sally will be teaching Mosaics and Landscape Painting. She is also the Head of our CIT Program.
Susie O’Brien returns for her eleventh summer. She will be teaching Hathi Yoga and leading the Summer Arts Juniors. Susie teaches pre-school and beginner gymnastics at the Massachusetts Gymnastic Center in Hingham. She works part-time as a home health aid and volunteers at the Cohasset Council on Aging. She enjoys most sports and looks forward to the games played with the campers this summer. Her BS degree is in Environmental Science from North Adams College.
Mardie Orshak has been teaching Cooking classes at Summer Arts since 1995. As the assistant librarian at Derby during the school year, she is well experienced with the needs of children of all ages.
Dan Perrault is an actor/comedian and co-winner of America’s Funniest College Student of 2008. This fall Dan will star in CBS’ House Rules as Eric McCadams and in 2010 will appear in The Company Man opposite Ben Affleck. Dan is a graduate of Emerson College.
Susan Ploss holds a B.A. in History and Music History from Rider University, Princeton, NJ, as well as certifications in history, social studies, and music, from UMass Boston. She had taught in Boston and on the South Shore prior to joining Derby Academy twenty-one years ago as Summer Arts Assistant Director. She is also the coordinator of Summer Fun and the Young Explorers, programs which take place throughout the summer. Susan and her husband immensely enjoy hosting international students, particularly from China, by giving them a sense of home life in the U.S.
Kara Protulis has worked with Ruthann Ardizzoni at the Cohasset Community Center for many years and will be teaching gymnastics this summer.
David Ruggiano is returning to the Music Department for his ninth year. He has spent twenty years playing and teaching guitar music and is a third grade teacher at the Martinson Elementary School in Marshfield, MA. David has a Masters Degree in Elementary Education at Bridgewater State College. David will be teaching Jazz Ensemble and Rock Band this year. He and his wife and their two daughters, Sophia and Caroline, live in Hingham. Both children attend Summer Arts.
Caitlin Sanchez is a graduate of UMass Dartmouth. She has loved and participated in gymnastics since the age of three. At age five she was asked to become a member of Gymnasts in Motion Level Four Team. She continued as a team member and AAU participant until high school when she changed to cheerleading and became Varsity Co-Captain for three years. Once again, she will be teaching Gymnastics and Cheerleading at Summer Arts.
Peter Schlesinger is a sophomore at Carleton College in Minnesota, where he is studying International Relations, German, and Spanish. He was a camper for many years, a CIT for three years, and will be teaching in the Visual Arts Dept. and assisting in Performing Arts classes.
Brooke Stanton is a costume designer who has worked in film, stage, dance, opera and television. Between tours, she enjoys teaching childrens art classes to pass on her enthusiasm for discovery and creativity. She studied Costume Design at NYU and has a degree in Textiles from the California College of Arts and Crafts. Her son, Skye, is a Summer Arts camper. Brooke will be teaching Fashion Design and creating costumes for the Summer Arts theatre productions.
Shawn Verrier recently graduated from Emerson College with a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre. His favorite roles while attending school include Bat Boy (Edgar), a student written production called The Rubiks Cube (Dennis), and Honk! (Cat). He also taught adult tap, created and directed a twenty-minute performance of Hairspray, and directed a gala performance for Equity Fights AIDS Week in Boston. He is enthusiastic about coming back to Derby this summer and can’t wait to create pieces that challenge our sense of dance, musicality and play.
Sarah Williamson has taught Photography at Summer Arts since 2002. She received her BFA from Northeastern University in 2003 with a double major in English Literature and Fine Arts. She is also a graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, where she received her Masters of Fine Arts degree in Video and Photography.
Peter Yuskauskus – is a student at New School University, studying Jazz and Contemporary Music. He plays the upright bass and the electric bass in a band in New York City called the Big Bang Big Band. Peter is also studying composition, arranging, and music theory and will be teaching Music Video, D.S.A Film Studio, and Animation at Summer Arts.
In addition to the above staff members, there are 18 Counselors-in-Training, ages
16-18, who will be assisting the staff.
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| | Derby Academy Summer Programs
56 Burditt Avenue
Hingham, Massachusetts 02043
Voice (781) 740-4766
Fax (781) 740-2542
Email summer@derbyacademy.org |
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