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| The Faculty |
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Creative Writing - Dr. Edwina Pendarvis |
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Born in eastern Kentucky, Edwina Pendarvis often writes about people and places in rural Appalachia. She co-edited Appalachian Love Stories, published by the Jesse Stuart Foundation and has written introductions to the works of Appalachian writers such as Jesse Stuart and Billy Clark. Her poems and essays appear in such journals as Antietam Review, Appalachian Heritage, Appalachian Journal, Hawaii Review, Indiana Review, Louisville Review, Now & Then, and Wind Magazine and in anthologies, including Wild, Sweet Notes: Fifty Years of West Virginia Poetry, Writing Work: Writers on Working Class Writing, and Coal: A Poetry Anthology. Her first collection of poems, Joy Ride, is featured in Human Landscapes by Bottom Dog Press. A second collection, Like the Mountains of China, was published by Blair Mountain Press. She is currently working on a children’s biography of the Nobel Prize winning author, Pearl Buck. |
Dance - Leah Copley and Donald Laney |
Leah Copley
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Leah Copley has studied and taught dance for the past 26 years. Leah studied with Dr. Mary Marcuzzi at the Huntington Dance Workshop School where she danced on scholarship and worked as an apprentice teacher with Dr. Marcuzzi. As a dance student, Leah attended various intensive programs and studied with such master teachers at Svea Eklov (National Ballet of Canada), Oleg Sabline (Paris Opera Ballet), Ralph Hewitt (North Carolina Dance Theatre), Frank Smith (American Ballet Theatre) and Rochelle Zide-Booth (Joffrey Ballet). As a member of Dr. Marcuzzi’s regional company, Leah performed in many ballet such as The Nutcracker, Cinderella, Peter and the Wolfe, Peter Pan, The Pied Piper, Alice in Wonderland and Hansel and Gretl. Leah graduated Cum Laud with her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Elementary Education at Marshall University in 1991. She continued teaching and served as an artistic director of River Cities Dance Company where she directed The Nutcracker for the past eight years at Shawnee State University. Leah’s most recent production, Cinderella, was performed at the Paramount Arts Center in October 2003.
As a dance and elementary teacher, Leah has worked as an Artist in Residence in various counties in West Virginia and Kentucky. She has also served as adjunct faculty at Marshall University, faculty for the West Virginia Governor’s School for the Arts, and the Museum in the Community. Leah’s students have been accepted or received scholarships to various arts schools such as: North Carolina School of the Arts, Ballet Met, The Hungarian National Ballet School, Point Park College, The Rock, American Ballet Theater, American Dance Festival, Cincinnati Ballet, Pittsburgh Youth Ballet, Nutmeg, Ohio University, Ohio State University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and many others. Leah received the Choreographer of the Year Award for the year 2002 and served on KAR’s national competition judge’s panel in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Biloxi, Mississippi. Leah has taught at Bethesda Christian Academy in Durham, NC and is currently a full-time faculty member at the Cary Ballet Conservatory. |
Donald Laney
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Donald Laney graduated from the University of California, Irvine, with an MFA in Dance and is currently the co-Artistic Director of the West Virginia Dance Company. Before entering the graduate program at UCI, Donald performed with the West Virginia Dance Company, Houlihan & Dancers (Miami, FL), Randy James Dance Works (NYC), X-Factor (NC), SUNY Purchase Dance Corps and many regional youth ballet companies. While attending UCI, he had the opportunity to perform for Donald McKayle, Loretta Livingston, Lisa Naugle, and Christine Chrest, as well as presenting his own choreography which was chosen to represent the university at ACDFA in 2003 and 2004. Donald’s work with Lisa Naugle and John Crawford has produced 3 dance videos that have been presented at the Lincoln Center and in dance video conferences in Yugoslavia, Japan, New Jersey, Michigan, Arizona, and at ADF in Durham, NC. Donald was the 2005-2006 WV Governor’s School instructor in Dance.
Besides performing, Mr. Laney also pursues a career as a freelance artist in teaching, choreographing, and costume design and construction. His choreography, both modern dance and musical theatre, have been presented by the WV Dance Company, Marshall University, James Madison University, Charleston Ballet, Greenbrier Valley Theatre, Lees-McRae College, Cape Fear Regional Theatre, NC Stage Ensemble, and various high schools around WV.
Donald has been a guest instructor in modern dance at James Madison University, UCI, Lees-McRae College, Oglebay Institute, WV Mini-Dance Festival, Charleston Ballet, and Jack Britt High School (NC). Costuming credits include: WV Dance Company, Charleston Ballet, Muhllenburg College, Theatre West Virginia, UCI, and Capital High School. |
Instrumental Music - Dr. Stephen Lawson |
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Dr. Stephen Lawson has been a faculty member at Marshall University since 2002, teaching horn lessons, music theory and music education courses. Additionally, he has served as the interim chair of the Department of Music and directed the MU Wind Symphony. He is a member of the Kingsbury Woodwind Quintet, and MU Faculty Brass Quintet. Lawson is a member of the Huntington Symphony Orchestra and, has performed with the Ohio Valley Symphony and the West Virginia Symphony, River Cities Symphony and Seneca Chamber Orchestra on horn, since arriving in WV.
From 1991-2002, Lawson taught at Minot State University in Minot, ND. At MSU, he taught horn, trumpet and guitar lessons, music theory and graduate research methods, and coached chamber music. From 1995-1998, Lawson was the music director and conductor of the Minot Symphony Orchestra. He has served as principal horn of the Minot Symphony and as principal trumpet of the Bismarck Symphony. He was the founder and director of the Audubon Chamber Ensemble and was the director of the Ambassador Brass Quintet. As well as performing in these ensembles, he has been an active arranger.
Lawson has served on the faculties of Western Carolina University, Albion College and Lansing Community College and performed as a horn player with the Asheville Symphony (NC), Greater Lansing Symphony, Kalamazoo Symphony and Flint Symphony (MI) and the Adirondack Symphony (NY). He has maintained an active schedule of adjudication, clinics and master classes, chamber music and solo recital performances throughout his career. A highlight was performing at the International Horn Society Workshop on a recital of historical horns at the University of Oregon, in Eugene, OR in 1996. Many of Lawson’s recital appearances have involved the performance practices on historical horns. |
Theatre - Gene Anthony |
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Gene Anthony has been teaching in the Marshall Department of Theatre for the past 14 years. He is, and has been, a member of all of the professional actor's unions for the past 30 years; Actors Equity Association, The Screen Actors Guild, and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. He has worked on Broadway, in major motion pictures, and in television for some of the most prestigious, if not legendary, directors of the past half century; George Abbot (for whom he performed in three Broadway shows and a major off-Broadway production), Woody Allen (in "Zelig" and "The Purple Rose of Cairo"), Donald Saddler, Gerry Guitierez, Michael Kahn (artistic director of The American Shakespeare Festival), Robert Falls (as Iago in "Othello") and Gregory Mosher (past artistic director of the Lincoln Center Theatre in New York). He has worked in direct collaboration with playwrights such as Bill Alfred, and in the American Premiere of "Lake Boat" with David Mamett. He has directed some 40 productions for Marshall University Theatre, most recently, the well received presentation of "The Diary of Anne Frank." He is most remembered as Stan Ulatowsin (Mr. U) on "All My Children," a role he created and played for three consecutive seasons. He will be on a sabbatical leave in the next academic semester during which he will complete his book, "Countdown: Career Success in Daytime Drama." |
Visual Art - Carol Pelletier |
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Carol Pelletier is Chairperson of the Art Department and Associate Professor of Art at West Virginia Wesleyan College and maintains a close connection with her home state of Maine where she lives and works in the summer. She teaches the painting, drawing and contemporary art history courses at West Virginia Wesleyan College. She received her M.F.A. from James Madison University and her B.F.A. from the University of Maine. She has received three grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and was awarded an Artist Residency Grant from the Vermont Studio Center.
Pelletier has exhibited her work nationally in Maine, Vermont, New York, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Louisiana, New Mexico, Iowa, California and Washington. Her work has also been published by Open Press Studios in Boston, Massachusetts, in the national publication New American Paintings magazine. She was also awarded a West Virginia Artist’s Fellowship in 1999 by the West Virginia Commission for the Arts. |
Vocal Music - Joshua Miller |
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Joshua Miller, a 1996 alumnus of GSA, lives in Boston and works as the Director of Choral Activities at Algonquin Regional High School. A native of Princeton, WV, Josh obtained his Bachelor of Music Education Degree from Marshall University and completed his Master of Music Degree in Conducting from The Ohio State University. While at OSU Josh was a Graduate Teaching Assistant conducting "The Statesmen," a sixteen voice a cappella men's ensemble auditioned from the world renowned OSU Men's Glee Club. For two years Josh has also participated in the Eastman School of Music Conducting Institute and this August he will study at the Yale University Chamber Music Festival.
Josh has conducted staged productions for Opera Columbus, The Columbus Children's Theatre, The Ohio State University, and the College Light Opera Company out of Cape Cod. He has prepared choruses and coached singers for the Boston Opera Collaborative and the Harvard University Lowell Opera. During the winter of 2008 Josh will conduct his first staged grand opera, Mozart’s Don Giovanni.
He maintains his own singing career as a tenor with Boston's Cantata Singers and he has performed in musical theatre, light opera, and opera productions throughout New England. Josh has sung professionally with the Columbus Bach Ensemble in J.S. Bach's great B Minor Mass, with the Columbus ProMusica in their fully staged production of Leonard Bernstein's Mass, and as a part of the Capital University Contemporary Music Festival with Eric Whitacre. He is currently enrolled in private voice instruction at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. |
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