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Nathan Burkart holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from Webster Conservatory in St. Louis (Notable Alumni: Jerry Mitchell and Norbert Leo Butz). He was a professional actor in Los Angeles for the past eight years and is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA. He has performed in professional equity houses both large and small across the Midwest. While in Los Angeles, he started his own theatre company, won a Scenie Award for his direction of “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change”, and up-started an acting school in Hollywood whose students work consistently on TV Shows, Movies, and Commercials.
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Edie has an extensive background in theatre as an instructor, actor, storyteller, director, and producer. She holds a degree in Theatre and Education from UW-Madison and has taught creative dramatics, acting, movement, scriptwriting, and storytelling to people of all ages and abilities in the Rock County and Madison area since 1990. Edie has most recently participated in the Artists as Educators Seminar, Anatomy of a Lesson: Designing Instruction developed by The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. As a teaching artist for VSA WI, Edie has conducted residencies for Early Childhood and Head Start programs for over ten years. She has conducted various residencies and after-school enrichment programs in Janesville, Milton, Beloit, and Madison School Districts. She is currently teaching for UW-Extension Pre-College Options College for Kids and Saturday Enrichment programs. She presents annually at UW-Whitewater EC Conference, and has presented at Launching into Literacy, Head Start, WI Family Ties, and WECA conferences. Edie is the Founder and former Artistic and Education Director of SpotLight On Kids.
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Greg just completed his 16th year teaching theatre and directing plays and musicals at Beloit Memorial High School. Greg received his BA in Theatre Directing from Beloit College and a MA in Directing from Roosevelt University. He has taken students to perform at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland on three occasions. Greg lives in Beloit with his wife and three children.
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Ron Brown is very active with area community theatre as both a performer and director since 1979. He is one of the founding members of Chicken Boy Productions which specializes in Interactive Murder Mystery Theatre. Ron is a member of the JPAC Improv Group and has taught classes at the Janesville Senior Activity Center.
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Chris, who is a board member for the Stage One theatre company, has been doing theatre in the Rock County community for nearly a decade and has either acted or directed in some capacity for every major resident theatre group in Janesville. Some of these shows include JPAC’S “When I Go”, TUI’s “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”, UW Rock County’s “Big Fish”, Beloit Civic Theatre’s “Barefoot in the Park”, and Stage One’s “It’s a Wonderful Life”, which he directed. Chris was also recently a part of JPAC’s resident improv group’s “Fragmented Funnies” production and is very excited to continue working with the Steadily Improv’ing group going forward.
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Megan Burkart is thrilled to be a new acting teacher for JPAC. Megan, originally a native from the suburbs of Kansas City, has been surrounded by theatre her whole life. She has a major in Communications and minor in Musical Theatre from Webster University and a Masters in Speech Language Pathology from California State University-Los Angeles. Megan is an original founding member of the Los Angeles New Court Theatre in Los Angeles where she worked with professional actors and produced plays in the greater LA area. While living in the City of Angels Megan worked at two talent agencies, Independent Artists Agency and LA Talent. She also was an accent reduction and dialect coach. She has resided in Janesville, WI for the last six years. She has worked at Parker High School as the Assistant Director on multiple musicals and recently finished a year of teaching for the Parker Arts Academy. She is excited to be combining her passions of education, theatre, and production as she takes on this new role!
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Laura Schuler has a degree in K-12 music education from UW Whitewater and has been teaching music in the Parkview School District for 26 years. She has worked in countless shows as performer, vocal director and director and has an enormous amount of experience working with children and adults. Laura has been a member of the JPAC Steadily Improv’ing improv troupe for the past several years and is excited to share her love of improv with others. She and her co-teacher Ron Brown have been working together on projects for over 20 years.
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Ashley Hirsh began performing with a children’s music group when she was 8 years old and since then her passion for theatre has only grown. She attended the Las Vegas Academy of Performing Arts as a high school student and then went on to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre from Webster Conservatory in St. Louis. After college Ashley spent several years exploring the film and television industry in Los Angeles before moving to Mount Shasta, California where she taught yoga for children and adults, music and movement for children, and participated in and produced a variety of community theatre shows. Ashley is delighted to now call Janesville home. She has had the pleasure of performing in several productions on the JPAC stage and looks forward to many more experiences with this wonderful community. Outside of the theatre, she and her husband (who is also a actor!) raise and homeschool their two children.
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Robyn Doege-Brennan is the Vocal Instructor at the Parker Arts Academy. Robyn is a graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University, where she earned a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance and a minor in Piano performance. She continues to challenge herself in the field of vocal pedagogy by pursuing advanced certification levels through the Institute for Vocal Advancement, LLC. In addition to teaching, Robyn is a Master Level Adjudicator for WSMA Solo & Ensemble for both Voice and Piano, a National and Regional Judge for NFMC (National Federation of Music Clubs), and the Local Chair and State Co-Chair for the Wisconsin Federation of Music Club Festivals. She is also a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), and a lifetime member of the Delta Omicron Music Fraternity.
Robyn is the owner of Brennan’s Music Studio located in Janesville. Here she provides vocal training and piano lessons to musicians in south-central Wisconsin and, thanks to virtual platforms, around the country.
When Robyn isn’t teaching, she enjoys spending time with her family and friends, working in her vegetable and flower gardens, and training the two newest additions to the family – Rachy and Denver Brennan – Australian Shepherds.
The Janesville Performing Arts Center is a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Organization who serves the greater Rock County area through performances and events produced by 15 local non-profit arts groups and hosts over 200 events a year.