Schwartz Center season features talents of five professional actors

The Cornell Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts offers professional-quality theater to its audiences each season with its blend of talented students and professional actors. During its 2002-03 theater season, the center will have five professional actors as part of its Resident Professional Teaching Associates (RPTA) program. After an extensive interview and audition process in New York City, these working actors come to Cornell for a yearlong residency, during which they act on stage and teach undergraduate classes.

The Schwartz Center's five professional actors will display their many talents at the annual RPTA Showcase Sunday, Sept. 8, 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.

Last season Schwartz Center audiences had the chance to see the dynamic work of RPTA John Payne as Vladimir in Waiting for Godot, Antigonus in The Winter's Tale and Malachi Stack in The Matchmaker. Payne will be returning for a second year with Cornell and already has been cast as Harpagon in the season opener, The Miser. Payne is a graduate of the American Repertory Theatre program at Harvard University.

Also returning to the Cornell stage after a several-year hiatus is Daryll Heysham. Heysham has appeared at the Schwartz Center in Equus, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet and. in his favorite role, Biff, in Death of a Salesman opposite Harold Gould. Heysham recently played Leonato in an Off-Broadway production of Much Ado About Nothing. He toured nationally as Philip in The Lion in Winter starring George Peppard. For the past three years, Heysham has taught voice and speech at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York.

Local theatergoers will recognize new Schwartz Center RPTA Sarah Chalmers from her extensive acting work at Ithaca's Kitchen and Hangar theaters. Chalmers received her B.F.A. from Ithaca College and also has appeared at the Trap Door Theatre and Greenstage.

New RPTA Jan Rogge received her M.F.A. degree from the University of Missouri and has enjoyed playing challenging roles at the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, the Missouri Repertory Theatre and the Utah Shakespeare Theatre. Rogge has done film work as well, appearing in "Mr. and Mrs. Bridge" and "San Francisco Days."

Laurence Drozd comes to Cornell from New York, where he has acted at the Storm Theatre, the Acting Company and the Actors Studio, among others. Regional theater work includes roles at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Arena Stage and the Wilma Theatre. Drozd has had bit parts on the television shows "Friends" and "Suddenly Susan." He received his M.F.A. from Southern Methodist University.