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Kathi
Gollwitzer: Artistic Director, Founder
Email: firebellyproductions@gmail.com
Kathi Gollwitzer has been a working actor, director and acting coach, both on a professional, community and HS level for many years. She is currently the Artistic Director of Firebelly Productions, whose mission is to train and give professional experience to emerging young adult actors and technicians. She spent six years as the Drama Director for Bishop O'Connell HS until 2002. She currently holds a staff position at Trinity School of Meadowview as the Acting Instructor, and is an educator for the Helen Hayes Awards, Washington Theater Legacy Project, which is a program that brings theater to the students in the DC Public School System. For the past eight years she has been involved with the Diocesan Shakespeare Festival. Kathi has coached students into the Governors School Summer Acting Program and into audition based college and conservatory programs such as NYU Tisch, The Syracuse University Musical Theater Program, The DePaul Theatre School, SUNY Purchase College Conservatory of Theater Arts and Film and The Juilliard School of Acting. She also coaches professional actors in the area and teaches the acting classes for Firebelly.
While basing her actor training in
Stanislavski. In a single scene, she will draw on the work of Stella Adler,
theory of Uta Hagen and urgency of Meisner. She encourages her students to "play
it for honesty", the ultimate form of realism, and basis of non-realistic
acting. Her greatest strength lies in her ability to communicate with young
actors, as emerging artists, instilling in them a work ethic. In addition to
Stanislavski, Adler and Hagen, Kathi admires the work of actors like Alan
Rickman, Emma Thompson and Brian Stokes Mitchell, who exemplify her values in
their performances. On Rickman, "Rickman looks beyond the obvious choices in his
characters, and in his recent performance on Broadway in Private Lives,
his hands were as eloquent as his voice. He blends honesty, technique training,
and physicality into a complete performance." As for Brian Stokes-Mitchell, "He
gives not only one hundred percent on stage, but off-stage as well. His
recognition of the importance of training high school age students was evident
in his 2000 Tony Award speech for Kiss Me Kate, when he thanked the
teachers who inspire and train young performers. He serves as a wonderful role
model for young adults by his willingness to participate in programs like Art
Speak at Poe Middle School, and in his patience and graciousness at the stage
door."
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Barbara
Walthall: Producer, Co-Founder
Email: bgwalthall@hotmail.com
Barbara Walthall became involved in box office
operations and theatre management while in college working with the Saratoga
Performing Arts Center and John Houseman Theatre in upstate New York. Recently
she produced Singin' in the Rain, West Side Story, and One Flew
Over the Cuckoo's Nest for Bishop Denis J. O'Connell High School in
Arlington, Virginia. She also handles marketing and publicity for the Irish
traditional music group The Flying Cows of Ventry. A writer and editor, she has
served as editor of a book review journal and written numerous articles for
local papers and national magazines on a variety of topics ranging from art
programs to science education. Much of her current work focuses on issues in
child welfare. She hopes to author a children's book series about siblings'
relationships. She lives in Arlington with her husband, two daughters,
and two boxers.
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David
Cahill: Multimedia Director
Email: Cahill00@yahoo.com
A recent graduate of the American University (B.A. Communications:
Visual Media / Theatre Minor), David is thrilled to join the production team
at Firebelly. He has the privilege of being able to
utilize both his major and minor (will this ever happen in his life
again?!?) as an actor on the Firebelly stage and as a techno-media
nerd behind the Firebelly scenes. David is responsible for
the design of this website, promotional videos and publicity
materials post Lend
Me A Tenor. He appeared in Firebelly's Butterflies
Are Free (Don Baker), Of Mice and Men (George Milton)
and Lend Me a Tenor
(Tito Merelli).
Other professional productions include Oscar and Adonis (Oscar Wilde) and Dead Poets (Christopher
Marlowe) at the DCAC. Previous productions at AU include The Glass
Menagerie (Tom Wingfield), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Demetrius) and
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (RP McMurphy), for which he was nominated
for an Irene Ryan Award. Film experience includes A Young Connecticut Yankee
in King Arthur's Court as Clarence, opposite Michael York.
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