NPT STAFF

MELODY BROOKS (Artistic Director)

CATHARINE GUIHER (General Manager) is a life-long New Yorker and a graduate of the Nightingale-Bamford School and Vassar College.  She spent 17 years at the Roundabout Theatre Company with her final project there as the Project Coordinator for the renovation of the new Laura Pels Theatre/Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, Roundabout’s Off-Broadway venue for new plays.  Prior to the Roundabout, Catharine worked for four years at RKO Pictures and RKO Videogroup, primarily in Business Affairs.  Catharine was the Company Manager for “Broadway on Broadway 2004”, spent a year sailing around the world on a tall ship, and plays competitive volleyball.  In addition to serving as General Manager with NPT, Catharine is also working with Second Stage Theatre and the Museum of Television and Radio.  She is currently on the Board of Confluence Theatre Company and is a past Board member of the Gallery Players.  She has been a member of the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers since 2000. 

C. AMANDA MAUD (Associate Artistic Director) has more than 25 years experience performing, teaching and developing workshops for all ages in both the United States and England, dividing her time between New York City and England. She has been a core NPT Companie member and teaching artist since 1995 and has served as associate artistic director since 2002.

For NPT, Ms. Maud has assistant-directed a number of Shakespeare productions (Othello, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet), both for general and school audiences, and provides ongoing support in text work and Elizabethan performance styles (including deportment and choreography.) She is also a regular performer in NPT’s Shakespeare Made Simple and World Voices programs for public school students, and assists with the creation of supplemental educational materials and conducting workshops of all kinds.

Her professional performing credits are numerous, including appearances as Friar Laurence (Romeo & Juliet), Lady Macbeth (Macbeth), Titania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and Emelia (Othello) for NPT as well as roles in Blood Wedding (George Washington University Artist-in-Residence) and The Persians (Wells College Artist-in-Residence). Roles in the England include the UK premiere of The Evidence at New Perspectives Theatre Company/UK; The Belle of Bonavista Bay (lead) for Forest Forge, the UK premiere of Taking a Liberty at The Contact Theatre in Manchester, Macbeth at the Chester Gateway, Midas at Shakespeare’s Globe Education Centre, The Natural Theatre Company at the Millenium Dome and new works at the Soho Theatre studio, the Chelsea Centre and the Albany Theatre.

In England she as performed with a number of educational theatre companies including the Apothecary Theatre Company, Mu-Lan Arts (a British-Chinese theatre--Ms. Maud is of Chinese descent) and most recently toured with the Twisting Yarn Theatre in Entrenched, a devised physical theatre piece for High School and College students and Trail of Tears the premiere of an original play for 3-6 year-olds.  Both productions included drama and history workshops along with the performances.  Ms. Maud works regularly with the Saint John on Bethnal Green Arts and Music Festival in London, developing programming and producing events each summer.  In 2004 she directed The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green for the festival.

KERRY WATTERSON (Artistic Associate/Asst. Director, Apprentice Program) holds an M.F.A. in Acting and Directing from the University of Arizona and has an extensive and diverse career in the theatre.  Mr. Watterson began his professional acting career 20 years ago with Casa Mañana in Fort Worth, Texas in their summer season of shows including OLIVER!  He has continued to work professionally with Casa Mañana, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arizona Theatre Company, Theatre at Monmouth, Arizona Repertory Theatre, The Barn Theatre and many other regional houses as an actor and director.  With New Perspectives, Mr. Watterson performed the role of Capulet in 2005’s Romeo & Juliet and has appeared in Shakespeare Made Simple as a variety of Fools, Villains and other characters, all under the direction of Artistic Director Melody Brooks.

Mr. Watterson attended Texas Wesleyan University, earning his B.A. in Theatre and English and receiving the theatre school’s first scholarship for Administrative Excellence.  Continuing his administrative work beyond college, Mr. Watterson was appointed Associate Director of Development with the University of Texas at Arlington, and served as a Fundraising Consultant to the Creative Arts Theatre and School in Arlington, TX.

While earning his M.F.A. at the University of Arizona, Mr. Watterson was the Acting Division’s Outstanding Teaching Assistant in the School of Theatre, honoring his commitment to education and the mentoring of young artists.  Mr. Watterson’s strengths as an educator have carried over into his teaching work with the Creative Arts Theatre and School, Casa Mañana Playhouse Theatre and School – and in New York City with Lynette Sheldon Actors Studio, Hunter College Continuing Education and at New Perspectives. In June 2001, he co-developed and team-taught Acquiring English Skills Through Drama at various villages throughout Ghana, Africa with the help of Peace Corps Ghana volunteers.

Mr. Watterson recently served as the Director of Education and Volunteer Services with the acclaimed BODIES…The Exhibition in New York City, developing curriculum for all ages and working with the NYC Department of Education to ensure that academic standards are being met by visiting school groups.  Last fall he began working with TVI Studios.

SHYKIA FIELDS (Production Manager and Assistant to the Artistic Director) has a long history with NPT, having been a student of Melody Brooks at LIU, and completing her undergraduate internship here in 2003-04.  Shykia returned this summer to complete a graduate production internship and will be joining our apprentice company this fall.  In addition to performing in a number of projects, she is also serving as Assistant to the Artistic Director--a de facto position she has held for the last several months.  An MFA Candidate at the Savannah College of Art and Design, Shykia has finished her course requirements and will be completing her thesis by the spring.

JENNY GREEMAN (Manager, Youth & Community Programs) is an actor, director, and teaching artist who recently joined NPT after participating in our Shakespeare Bootcamp for Directors and Educators this past fall. Ms. Greeman developed the Drama Electives Program at the Bronx Lab School where she is in her second year as Drama Instructor. She worked for three years as the Administrative Director of the WorkShop Theater Company, fascilitating its growth from an "actor's gym" to a New York Times reviewed, two-theatre complex. As an actor, Ms. Greeman has worked extensively in New York City, toured the country in two musicals for children and spent three seasons at the Theater at Ellis Island. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Connecticut College and was chosen to participate in the Institute for Urban Education at Barnard College. Jenny is currently conducting NPT's playwriting residency for 2nd and 3rd graders at the Muscota New School in Inwood, and working to expand NPT's in-school programming for the coming school year.

BETH STARKIN (Marketing Coordinator) is both an actor and PR professional.  A graduate of the 2006 – 2007 NPT Apprentice Program, Beth is thrilled to be working with the company as

marketing coordinator, bringing together her professional marketing skills and love for the

theatre for the first time.  Beth graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic arts

and also holds a BA in English from The College of New Jersey.  Currently, Beth is an account supervisor at Peppercom Strategic Communications, where she has worked for the past four years.  Throughout her tenure at Peppercom, she has been blessed with a supportive culture that has allowed her to act in numerous productions, including The Adventures of Rubbish in the Hood for NPT's Youth & Community Programs, …and a Nightingale Sang and Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, among others.

COLLEEN JASINSKI  (Administrative Coordinator, Apprentice Program) is thrilled to join the staff at New Perspectives in the role of Administrative Coordinator of the Apprentice Program. A member of the 2006-2007 NPT Apprentice Company, she also holds an MFA in Stage Management from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a BA in Theater from SUNY New Paltz. After completing her MFA, she left show business for a number of years to pursue a career in Event Management and Meeting Planning, which provided many travel opportunities to exciting cities around the country and the globe, including San Francisco, Paris, France, and Berlin, Germany. But, alas, the theater came calling again and Colleen returned to the stage three years ago with a renewed passion to pursue her dream. As an actor, she was recently seen as The Stripper in the critically acclaimed American premiere of Hanoch Levin's Job's Passion, presented by Theatre for the New City last fall. Some other favorite roles include Julie in Le Wilhelm’s Bubbling, Suzanne Gold-Stein in Twilight of the Golds, and Mariette in Neil Simon’s The Dinner Party.