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Theatre Faculty
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JCCC Theatre faculty members hold professional degrees from major university theatre programs. In addition, members of Kansas City's professional theatre community are guest directors and actors for some productions.

James Lane JAMES T. LANE, JR., Designer/Technical Director, is practically a fixture in the department, having begun his tenure here in 1990. He has an MFA in Scene Design/Technology from UMKC. Taking nothing for granted in life, he considers himself to be extremely fortunate to have this job. He appreciates the great people and facilities, all the cool toys to play with, the flexible hours, and the mystifying fact that the College still keeps sending him a paycheck every two weeks! While at JCCC, Jim has designed sets and lights for more than 80 productions, including A Midsummer Night's Dream, Medea, Othello, Uncle Vanya, and Nighthawks/The Night Café . Professional credits include free-lance work at the Great Lakes Theatre Festival, the Old Globe in San Diego, the Folger Theatre in Washington, D.C., Missouri Rep, Starlight, and the American Heartland theatres locally. He is currently the Resident Technical Director for the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, which he's done since 1998, and a former Region 5, Design Chair for KCACTF.
jlane@jccc.edu

Sheilah Philip SHEILAH PHILIP is the Academic Coordinator for the Theatre Department. She has an MS in Communication/Theatre from Ft. Hays State and earned an MFA in stage directing from UM-KC in 1983. (She is also admits to being a mocha-holic, but points out that there are worse vices!) Sheilah taught at Colby Community College for five years before returning to the Kansas City area in 1989 to teach and direct at JCCC. Past credits include stints at the Oklahoma Theatre Center, Missouri Repertory Theatre, and Topeka Civic Theatre; directing assignments at JC3 include Medea, Boys' Life, A Streetcar Named Desire, Stop Kiss, Windswept Blossoms, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Neil Simon's Proposals. She teaches acting and introductory theatre classes and has an avid interest in international education and international theatre. She spent 5 1/2 weeks in Izhevsk, Russia in spring 2002, teaching and directing English language students. She is a fellow of the National Institute for Leadership Development, participated in the Univ. of Pennsylvania's Japan Studies Seminar in 2003, and attended a 2006 overseas field seminar titled “Cultural Representation and Performing Arts in China.”
sphilip@jccc.edu

Beate Pettigrew BEATE PETTIGREW,is the Artistic Coordinator for the department and in charge of recruitment. For the past 18 years, she has loved being overworked as an adjunct faculty member at several area colleges and is now proud to be full-time at her favorite institution, JCCC, where she has twice been the recipient of the Lieberman Teaching Excellence Award for Adjunct Faculty. Beate has an MA in theatre from the University of Kansas and was a Hallmark Fellow while attending the University of Missouri-Kansas City where she graduated magna cum laude with an MFA in Theatre Direction. She has directed over 50 academic and semi-professional plays. Favorites include Uncle Vanya, Baltimore Waltz, Measure for Measure, Fuddy Meers, Top Girls, Buried Child, Private Eyes, and Violet. Beate is the National Irene Ryan Acting Audition Scholarship Coordinator for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (whew!) and was honored to be a part of the National Selection Team in 2007. She is also the immediate past chair for KCACTF Region V and is the current Dramaturgy Coordinator for the regional festival. She was the 2007 associate director for the University Playwrights’ Workshop, an arm of the National New Play Network and plans to continue her work developing new plays. When she’s not busy teaching acting classes, Beate spends her free time as the Artistic Director of the Barn Players, a 50-year old community theatre in Kansas City which produces over ten plays each year.
bpettigr@jccc.edu

Marybeth Sorrell

MARYBETH SORRELL is our Costumer and an adjunct faculty member. She is, perhaps, the supreme nightowl among the theatre faculty. She somehow convinces students that staying until 3:00 in the morning to work on costumes is fun. Even her children, all of whom were on campus within days of their births, believe that the Costume Shop is their second home! "Mb" acquired her design training at UM-KC and at the Croydon College of Art and Design in London. In addition to working at several local professional theatres and at the Kansas City Ballet, she has credits with Robert Altman's film Kansas City, the Croydon Warehouse & Regents Park Open Air Theatre in London, and at Dallas Repertory Theatre. She dresses with more flair than her colleagues, and her accessories typically include a tape measure strung 'round her neck. Favored design assignments include Othello, Hay Fever, Medea, The Learned Ladies, and a production of Measure for Measure set in the 1920s.

msorrell@jccc.edu

Scott Stackhouse

SCOTT STACKHOUSE is fondly called just "Stack" around the department. He was a student here (too many years ago to count!) and was so thoroughly brain-washed by the theatre faculty that he "decided" to return to work as an adjunct faculty member. He has an MFA in Acting from UCLA, is interested in writing and teaching, and currently has several scripts in consideration for film production. Scott specializes in acting, improv, and voice and movement for actors, and he is regularly enlisted to help with productions for his expertise in stage combat and voice coaching. Production work includes A Streetcar Named Desire, Private Eyes, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing (all at JCCC) and an adaptation of The Tempest called Methinks a Storm is Brewin' at UCLA. Directorial credits include Lysistrata, Beyond Therapy, The Madness of Isabella, The Atomic View Motel by Scott Seiffert, Coyote on a Fence, and Scapino!

sstackho@jccc.edu

Gene Flaharty GENE FLAHARTY, a long-time member of our adjunct faculty, is our resident "old man" (but we used his senior picture here!). He has been doing professional makeup for almost 20 years. When he's not having fun making the students at JCCC look older than he does, he's out doing makeup on other celebrities including Dee Wallace Stone, Davy Jones, David Ogden Stiers, B. D. Wong, Art Garfunkel, Gary Sandy and Phyllis Diller. He has assisted students in their character designs for A Streetcar Named Desire, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Ming Lee and the Magic Tree, Working, The Learned Ladies, and many more. Gene enjoys makeup education and design as he does lecture/demonstrations across the country in his full time position as Sales Manager/Makeup Artist for Mehron, Inc. He also is responsible for initiating the Mehron Award for Makeup Design for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival and has been on the board of directors of the National Costumers Association for 2 years.
flaharty1@yahoo.com

Tim Noble TIMOTHY N. NOBLE joined our department in the fall of 2003, but he’s a veteran of the theatre arts. After completing his Bachelor of Arts degree in Acting at Oklahoma State University in 1988, Tim went on to complete his Master of Fine Arts in Acting at the University of Arizona. Included in his professional credits are 2 years with Pittsburg Repertory summer series, 3 years as a resident actor at the Pollard Theatre Company and 4 years as a resident company member with Arizona Repertory Theatre. While pursuing his career, Tim assisted or directed more than a dozen productions and has performed in over 80. Along with directing production at JCCC, Tim’s interest and specialties include acting, period style and musical theatre but mostly working one on one with actors. From playing his favorite roles as Cole Porter in an original musical and the chairman in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, to directing Down the Road, and Life Underwater at JCCC, Tim is happy to return to the college experience.
tnoble1@jccc.edu