Theatre Fairfield Team
Theatre Faculty
Lynne Porter, MFA
Lynne is Chair of the Theatre Program and the Resident Designer for Theatre Fairfield.
At Fairfield, some of Lynne's favorite scene designs include Fortinbras, The Spitfire Grill, The Taming of the Shrew, Pack of Lies, Avenue Q, Rhinoceros, and The Rocky Horror Show.
Lynne has designed extensively with Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, where she is an Affiliated Artist of the Ensemble. She has also designed for CT Lyric Opera, Harrisburg Shakespeare Festival, Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre, Arden Theatre, Horizon Theatre, Penobscot Theatre, and the Maine Shakespeare Festival.
Lynne has done extensive research into creativity and the design process, culminating in her book, Unmasking Theatre Design, which is now a popular textbook.
LynnePorter.com
Sean Edgecomb, PhD
Dr. Edgecomb is joining the Theatre Program faculty as an Associate Professor in fall 2023.
He is a hybrid scholar/artist who teaches broadly across theatre and performance studies as well as queer/intersectionality studies. His research focuses on LGBTQ+ theatre and performance history in a global context, queer theory and performance ethnography.
Sean also creates contemporary queer folk paintings under the pseudonym Peter Kunt as an extension of his scholarly/performance work.
Julie Leavitt Learson, MFA
As Costumier for the Fairfield University Theatre Program, Julie designs and builds costumes for TF productions, manages the costume shop, and mentors student theatre artists and technicians. Her TF costume design credits include Silent Sky, The Taming of the Shrew, Dead Man’s Cellphone, The Arabian Nights, and The Rocky Horror Show, among many others. She also collaborated with Shakesperience Productions in Waterbury, CT, costuming Shakespeare from Comedy of Errors to King Lear, as well as The Sword in the Stone and Alice in Wonderland. Before coming to Fairfield, Julie was an Assistant Professor of English at Westfield State College, the Assistant Costume Designer at Chicago’s The Goodman Theatre, and a freelance costume designer at Organic Theatre Company (Mere Mortals), Pyewackett Theatre (The Belle of Amherst), and Emerald City Children’s Theatre (The Wizard of Oz). She holds an MFA in Costume Design from Northwestern University, and a BA in Theatre and English Literature from the University of New Hampshire.
Anne Kendall, MFA
Anne is the Technical Director and Production Manager for Theatre Fairfield. She also teaches courses in Entertainment Technology, Prop Construction, and Lighting Design.
Tom Schwans, MFA
Tom has been an adjunct professor and guest director for Theatre Fairfield since 2010. He is a professional actor, director, and teacher based in New York City. He has performed all over the country. He is the Co-Founder & Executive Director of the critically acclaimed Guerrilla Shakespeare Project, nominated for four New York Innovative Theatre Awards. Tom served as Artistic Director of The Deertrees Theatre Festival and Associate Artistic Director of The Old Creamery Theatre. Tom created and continues to teach the Patients and Performance: Health Care Method Acting Workshop for the Egan School of Nursing here at Fairfield.
Jan Mason, MFA
Jan Mason is proud to be an instructor and director in the Fairfield University Theatre Program. While in New York she developed new plays with groups including Ensemble Studio Theatre (Theatre Lab Member); The Women’s Project (Director’s Forum Member); Rattlestick (Artistic Associate); New Georges (Affiliated Artist and Roaring Girl); and her work was featured at the inaugural NYC International Fringe Festival. Jan is currently Associate Artistic Director at Connecticut Lyric Opera and is a core faculty member of the Greve Opera Academy and Music Festival, a summer program in Italy. She is also an Affiliated Artist in the Capital Classics Theatre Company’s Contemporary Classics Conversations program. Jan is a proud alumna of Punahou School in Honolulu, Emerson College in Boston, and holds her MFA in Directing from the University of Virginia. www.janmason.net
Jackob Hofmann, MFA
Jackob Hofmann has been an adjunct professor and guest director for Theatre Fairfield since 2011. He is also a proud member of the teaching faculty at The Lee Strasberg Institute of Theatre & Film in NYC. He has developed/directed numerous off-Broadway productions for Abingdon Theatre including the NY premieres of Engaging Shaw and Blame it on Beckett. In 2016, Jackob's play, A Persistent Memory, was produced at the Beckett Theatre on Theatre Row, by MBL Productions. Theatre Fairfield productions include:
The Thanksgiving Play, Rhinoceros, Avenue Q, Silent Sky, Authenticity, as well as directorial/dramaturgical work on original plays featured in TF’s ongoing Theatre In The Raw / The Lucille Lortel Festival of New Plays. JackobHofmann.com
Lynne Chase, MFA
Lynne Chase (lighting designer) has lit over 200 productions nationwide. Highlights include Doubt (Portland Stage Company), As You Like It and Enchanted April (Pioneer Theatre), Light Up the Sky and La Bête (Two River Theatre) and Speed-the-Plow and Over the Tavern (Merrimack Repertory Theatre.) She has spent 17 summers working in rotating repertory and counts among her favorite shows Pericles, King Lear, Hamlet and The Glass Menagerie (Theater at Monmouth.) She has worked extensively at Horse Cave Theatre and Penobscot Theatre Company (Art, Betrayal, The Crucible, and Skylight among others.) Memorable shows at Fairfield include Arabian Nights, Cabaret, Three Sisters, Romeo & Juliet, Dancing at Lughnasa, Avenue Q and The Spitfire Grill. Lynne is a graduate of Cornell, Harvard and the Yale School of Drama and is a member of United Scenic Artists Local USA 829. www.lynnechaselights.com
Michael Ciavaglia, DMA, Musical Director
Michael is a vocal performance specialist on the music faculty at Fairfield University. He teaches music history in the classroom as well as voice in the studio. He is a frequent guest conductor of the Fairfield University Glee Club and Chamber Singers.
He is Artistic Director of the Connecticut Chamber Choir, and chorus master of On Site Opera in New York City, where he recently led a chorus of individuals who had experienced homelessness in Amahl and the Night Visitors. In addition, he has served on the music staffs of the Cincinnati Opera and the New York Choral Society. He has regularly prepared choruses for the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala and for the New York performances of superstar tenor Andrea Bocelli, and is in frequent demand as a choral preparer in New York City. He has conducted and served as chorus master and head of music of the Asheville Lyric Opera in North Carolina.
He holds a DMA from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
Jamie Monahan, Intimacy Director
Jamie Monahan is an award-winning filmmaker, director, intimacy coordinator, and actress. Jamie completed Levels 1, 2, and 3 of IDC’s Intimacy Coordinator training, fostering intimate safe spaces for performers. She is currently listed on the SAG-AFTRA Intimacy Coordinator Pre-Registry. Jamie intimacy coordinated the short films: ONLY THE DEAD, IN THE NIGHT, HEALING TREE, BETTY BITES BACK, THE BIG 3-OH, and CRIMSON WAVE to name a few. She also worked as the intimacy coordinator on the feature films ESCAPING OHIO and I'LL FIND YOU. Jamie intimacy directed POWERHOUSE Off-Broadway in October 2022 and is in her second year as an adjunct professor at Fairfield University working with Theatre Fairfield as the intimacy director for their 2023-2024 season.
Production Interns 2024-25
Nora Jacobi, Marketing Intern
Nora Jacobi is a senior double major in Theatre and Marketing. She is serving as Theatre Fairfield's Marketing Production Intern for this season. Later into the year she will be Assistant Director for The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)[revised][again] and Assistant Director, Co-Scenic Designer, and Lightning Designer for our student independent project, Next to Normal. Previous TF acting credits include: Clarisse and Katie in The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical (2024), Christine in DollHouse (2023), Loud Stone in Eurydice (2023), Sugar in Tiny Beautiful Things (2022), Lydia Bennet and Lady Catherine in Pride and Prejudice (2022), and TurkTok actor in The Thanksgiving Play (2021). Past TF production credits include: Director and Lighting Designer for The 39 Steps: Even More Abridged (2024), Stage Manager for Mask Play (2023), Director for Lillian Goes to the Mirror (2022), Wardrobe Crew for Project X (2021), and Wardrobe and Sound Crew for The Thanksgiving Play (2021).
Kylee Faulkner, Technical Intern
Kylee is a junior Theatre and English double-major. She worked as a carpenter on The Lightning Thief and Dollhouse, and as Technical Director on 39 Steps. She also performed in Mask Play and Director's Cut '22.
Student Relations Intern
Katharine is a junior Theatre and Women/Gender/Sexuality (WGSS) Studies double-major, with a minor in Communication Studies.
Katharine has appeared onstage as Annabeth in The Lightning Thief, Nora in DollHouse, a Letter Writer in Tiny Beautiful Things, and Lillian in Lillian Goes to the Mirror in Director’s Cut '22. She has also worked as Front of House Manager for several TF shows.
Previous Faculty/Guest Artists
John Morogiello, Playwright
John Morogiello is Artistic Director of Best Medicine Rep Theater Company and a Playwright in Residence with the Maryland State Arts Council. His plays include Engaging Shaw (American Players Theatre, Old Globe, Abingdon Theatre Company off-Broadway), Blame It On Beckett (Abingdon, Colony Theatre), Men and Parts (Actors Theatre of Louisville), and The Consul, The Tramp, and America's Sweetheart (Oldcastle Theatre Company, Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills). His plays Mask Play and Authenticity were commissioned and developed at Theatre Fairfield with director Jackob G. Hofmann.
Godfrey L. Simmons, Director
Simmons is the Artistic Director of HartBeat Emsemble. He is an award-winning actor, producer, director, and playwright who has spent thirty years amplifying the voices of marginalized people and communities. In 2012, he co-founded Civic Ensemble, a regional theatre in Ithaca, NY. He was a Producing Artist for Off-Broadway’s Epic Theatre Ensemble for four years, appearing in a dozen productions. He also co-wrote and starred with Brandt Adams in a documentary play about the election of President Barack Obama, Dispatches From (A)mended America after interviewing 100 Southerners about the election. He won the 1999 Audelco Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance opposite Leslie Uggams in The Old Settler at Primary Stages. In addition to teaching acting at Cornell, he is a lifetime member of Ensemble Studio Theatre and sits on the board of the Network of Ensemble Theaters.
Judy Tate is a four-time Emmy award winning writer, a 20+ year member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, the co-founder and Producing Artistic Director of The American Slavery Project, and co-Artistic Director of Stargate Theatre Company, a project of the Manhattan Theatre Club which employs court-involved youth to write and perform original plays.
Professor Emeritus
Dr. LoMonaco retired as Professor Emeritus of Theatre in 2023.
She founded the academic Theatre Program in 1989 and served as Theatre Fairfield Resident Director for 34 years. She directed 26 full productions, and mentored dozens of student-directed pieces.
She is the author of two books--Summer Stock! and Every Week, a Broadway Revue--and continues to serve as editor for “New England Theatre in Review” for New England Theatre Journal. She curated Bravo! a theatre history exhibition for the Fairfield Museum and History Center, and has curated three performance series for the Quick Center for the Arts.
At Fairfield she taught Directing, World Theatre History courses, American Drama, American Women Playwrights, Acting, and graduate American Studies courses.
She holds a doctorate in Performance Studies from New York University.
