Schwartz Center enhances season with seven equity actors

The Sheila W. and Richard J. Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts will be home to seven professional actors during the 2001-02 theater season. These resident professional teaching associates (RPTAs) come to Cornell for a yearlong residency after being selected in an extensive interview and audition process. In addition to teaching undergraduate acting classes and workshops, RPTAs act alongside Cornell students in performances, providing individual instruction and mentoring.

The Schwartz Center's seven professional actors will display their talents at the annual RPTA Showcase to be held Sunday, Sept. 9, at 2 p.m. in the Class of '56 Flexible Theatre. The performance is free and open to the public. A reception to greet the RPTAs will follow the performance.

Two of this year's RPTAs are returning teachers. Audiences last year enjoyed Tracey Huffman as Beatrice in A View From the Bridge and Mrs. Potter in The Cocoanuts. Huffman is an experienced stage and screen actress. The Schwartz Center also is pleased to welcome back Brian Russell, who played Groucho in The Cocoanuts and Alfieri in A View From the Bridge. Russell toured with the national production of Laughter on the 23rd Floor and has appeared in many commercials and television shows.

An MFA graduate from the Yale School of Drama, Sarah Brown has acted in New York and regional theater as well as roles in television and film. Brown is a published playwright and has two plays listed with the play publishing company Samuel French.

Franz Jones comes to campus after appearances on and off Broadway in Big River, The Seagull and Cardenio. Jones received his MFA from the University of Delaware and has studied at the National Theatre of Finland and the German Democratic Republic Theatre.

Joe Hickey has worked in many regional theaters as an actor, including the Cleveland Play House, Aulis Theater Company in New York City and the North Hollywood Theater. An MFA graduate from Case Western Reserve University, Hickey also has worked in film and television.

A Harvard graduate, John Payne appeared in many plays at the American Repertory Theatre and has done recent work at the Papermill Playhouse, Edinburgh Festival and American Players Theatre. Payne played the role of Gunnar on film in The Magic Stone.

While receiving his MFA at Trinity Repertory Conservatory, Stephan Wolfert had key roles in many of the theater's productions as well as with Trinity Repertory Company. He has toured his one-man show, Steve "The Wildthing" Wolfert, across the United States and Canada.