Carl Wallnau - Artistic Director-CPAG

Carl Wallnau is currently Artistic Director of the Centenary Stage Company, an equity theatre located on the campus of Centenary College in Hackettstown, NJ where he is also Associate Professor of Theatre Arts and Chairman of the Fine Arts Department.

Recent acting credits include Sleuth at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Lucky Stiff at the Forum Theatre, Match for Dreamcatcher rep, Boy Gets Girl for Premiere Stages and Robin Hood (as the Sheriff of Nottingham) at Peoples Light Theatre Co.

He has worked at numerous regional theatres including Paper Mill Playhouse, Second Stage in NYC, People’s Light, The Lark Theatre, The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Hartford Stage, Bristol Riverside, Forum Theatre, Premiere Stages, Orlando Shakespeare Company, Arts Center of Coastal Carolina, Foothills Playhouse and 14 months on the road with the First National Tour of Titanic.

He has directed numerous productions including the world premieres of Poetry of Pizza, Inventing Montana and The Tillie Project and New Jersey premieres of Below The Belt, Square One and Marvin's Room. He has been cited for outstanding direction in productions of Springtime For Henry, Engaged and Pygmalion and has directed in numerous regional theatres including Hartford Theatre Works and Musical Theatre Works.

He received his MFA from Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts and is married to his favorite actress Colleen Smith Wallnau for who he wrote the play Mary Todd... A Woman Apart. The play completed successful runs at Centenary Stage Company in March 2001 and Off-Broadway at the Samuel Beckett theatre on Theatre Row in May 2003. Mary Todd... A Woman Apart is now available for touring.

Catherine Rust - Associate Artistic Director-CPAG, Director of the Women Playwrights Series (WPS)

Catherine Rust serves as Associate Producer for CPAG. She has been a regular staff member of CPAG since 1993, having produced the Women Playwrights Series (formerly Women Playwrights Project) in past seasons.

She is a former member of the acting companies of the Boston Shakespeare Company and Classic Stage Company and was a regular performer with Israel Horowitz' Gloucestor Stage Company, in addition to her work with new playwrights and in television soap opera. She was a past member of the director training staff with ABC, and Ms. Rust teaches acting and playwriting with the YPW program. She is a graduate of The University of Minnesota where she studied theatre, and lives happily with two smart, handsome men (husband and son).

Claudia Polo - Office Manager

Claudia Polo joined the CPAG Staff in June 2006. Born and raised in Colombia, she has B.A. in Economics and International Business, a B.A. in Business Administration from Icesi University (Cali, Colombia) and is currently attending Centenary College as an international graduate student where she will obtain her Master in Business Administration (MBA) in December 2006.

She has always been involved in the arts, singing as a soprano in different music groups and choirs including the University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse Women Chorus (LaCrosse, Wisconsin) and the World Bank Choir (Washington, D.C.). Recently she attended the Rome Festival Opera in Italy (summer, 2006), and is currently part of the Warren County Community Singers Choir

Michael Blevins - Director of YPW

Michael Blevins (Young Performers Workshop Director) attended the University of North Carolina, majoring in theatre and dance. He continued his studies in the performing arts at New York University.

He has appeared in several Broadway productions including Bring Back Birdie, Neil Simon's Little Me, and The Tap Dance Kid in which he created the role of Winslow Alexander. He has appeared in the Tony Awards Show, as well as many other television shows, feature films and TV commercials, is widely known for his portrayal of Mark in Sir Richard Attenborough's film A Chorus Line, and is also featured in Chaplin. He is also the director of the new Musical Theatre Works Academy.

He has worked with many noted directors and choreographers, among them Danny Daniels, Bob Fosse, Woody Allen, Vivian Matalon, Joe Layton, Lynn Taylor-Corbett and Peter Gennaro. He has choreographed music videos for Amy Grant, five national commercials as well as the off- Broadway production of The Mad Forrest, and his own show, the Musical Count to Ten at New York's Musical Theatre Works.

Edward R. Matthews - Light Design

Edward R. Matthews has been the resident lighting designer for several regional theatre companies including Centenary Stage Company since before 1986. Some of his favorite CSC productions include: Dracula, Marvin's Room, Voice of the Prairie, The Innocents and Scotland Road.

Ed has worked with the Theatre Series at William Paterson University (WPUNJ) in Wayne, N. J. as well as a served as a freelance director and designer in the NY Metropolitan area. In the summer of 2001 he directed a production of Little Shop of Horrors in the 950 seat Shea Center . Other WPUNJ directing credits include: Lysistrata, Fires in the Mirror, Company and The Crucible in Shea and in the more intimate Hunziker Black Box Theatre he has directed Boys' Life, Death Defying Acts, All in the Timing and Sylvia.

He has designed the lighting for most productions at WPUNJ since 1986 and the scenery for many too, including: Frankenstein, The Grapes Of Wrath, Pippin and The Heidi Chronicles. Mr. Matthews serves as the faculty advisor to both the Pioneer Players, the student sponsored theatre club, and to the University's chapter of Alpha Psi Omega. He also serves the National Theatre Honor Society as a director, as an actor and as a lighting designer.

In 2001 he performed in a NYC showcase of sketch comedy called Broad Humor and directed an original script entitled, Like Bees To Honey by NJ playwright Andrea Green and designed the lighting for Meet Me in St. Louis at Hofstra University on Long Island. He has a long standing relationship with Hofstra where he recently directed Crossing Delancey and where he has designed the lighting for many shows including: Into The Woods, Maury Yeston's Phantom and Guys And Dolls.

Ed also has ongoing relationships as lighting designer with several other New Jersey companies including: the Forum Theatre of Metuchen and the Bickford Theatre of Morristown. Mr. Matthews holds several degrees in theatre including an MFA in Acting and Directing from Sarah Lawrence College

Lea Antolini - Assistant Program Director

Lea Antolini is a graduate of Brandeis University where she received her MFA in acting. She has performed professionally in NYC and New Jersey as well as regionally on the east coast. Some of her credits include Floyd Collins and States of Independence at American Musical Theatre Works, The Importance of being Ernest at the New Repertory Theatre in Mass, and many recent productions at The Growing Stage Theatre Co, where she also choreographs and teaches.

Lea is an educator in the arts and has taught from ages pre-school to adult. She has taught at Brandeis University, James Madison University, and numerous Montesorri schools in the area. She has worked with various schools in the area developing movement and music programs for young children. Currently she teaches at Centenary College in the theatre department as well as with the YPW program.

Julia Sharp - Costume Designer

Julia Sharp (Costume Designer) is please to be joining the CSC for the second time. She has a B.Ed. in Biology and Theatre from Leeds University in England. After teaching high school and a long sabbatical to raise two daughters, she has returned to theatre in New Jersey, designing and building costumes for Premiere Theatre Dance, Suncathchers Theatre and now the Centenary Stage Company.

Maria Brodeur - Education Director

The Tyro Theatre Program will be led by Maria Brodeur, an actress with experience in children's theatre. Brodeur holds a BA in Theatre & Education from Rutgers University, and studied Meisner Acting Technique in NYC. She taught Drama in the Edison Public School System, "Creating Plays" with Joan Ludwig at Playwrights Theatre, and Master Classes in Audition Technique in the Syracuse, NY area to high school students.

Brodeur has an extensive performance career, including 5 years with the Shoestring Players, as well as performances at Papermill Playhouse, The Bickford Theatre, Chatham Players and The Barn Theatre. While living in the Syracuse area Brodeur was on the Board of Directors for the Fayetteville Playhouse, an Equity summer stock theatre.

Carolyn Coulson-Grigsby, Ph.D. - Instructor/Associate Choreographer -YPW

Carolyn Coulson-Grigsby is Assistant Professor of Theatre and Humanities. She received her B.A. in Theatre Arts from Santa Clara University in California, studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, and earned her M.A. in Medieval Studies from the University of Connecticut, where she also earned her Ph.D. specializing in medieval drama.

Favorite roles in regional theatre include Amy in Company, Rosaline in Love's Labour's Lost, Frankie/Frances The Voice of the Prairie, and Nancy in Oliver! For Centenary Stage Company, she played Dorine in Tartuffe and Brenda/Maryanne in Alice in Ireland. She has also served as movement and dance consultant for numerous CSC productions. Her directing credits include productions of Steel Magnolias, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Reckless, A...My Name is Alice, Stepping Out, Pippin, and the medieval plays Mankind and Herod the Great.

Carolyn has taught at the University of Connecticut, Northside Theatre Company in San Jose, CA and the Institute of Theatre Arts in Saratoga, CA. In 2000, she joined the teaching staff of both Centenary College and the Young Performers Workshop, where her teaching areas include movement, dance, acting, theatre history, and Shakespeare. She loves directing theatre students and introducing them to the challenges of performing medieval drama!