Staff

The Founder

Steve Hays, Founder — Steve was Producing Director of Stage West from its inception in 1967 until 1984. He has directed Doors, Ozma of Oz, Wiley and the Hairy Man, Mother Hicks, The Secret Garden, Ordinary People, Ramona Quimby, The Birds, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Anne of Green Gables, The Italian Straw Hat, The Tempest, Very Good Eddie, and The Boy Friend for the Drama Studio. He is also a playwright and musician, with three of his plays, The Snow Queen, The Little Match Girl,and Me and Ruth , having premiered at the Drama Studio.

The Directors

Kyle Kate Dudley, Managing Director — Kyle Kate graduated from New York University in 2008 with a BFA in Theatre and Anthropology. She has worked with Flying Kites, a non-profit community support organization for a small town in Kenya, Western Mass Legal Services, and three non-profit theatre collectives. She has also run theatre workshops in the New York City public school system and at Johannesburg Women's Correctional Facility in Johannesburg, South Africa. She attended the DS as a student for nine years, and for the past five years has served as a camp counselor for DS summer programs. Kyle Kate returned from a CELTA Certificate program in Barcelona to take a place as Assistant to the Executive Director in December of 2009. She assumed the role of Managing Director on July 1st, 2011.

Amelia Hays-Rivest, Director of Conservatory/Faculty — Amelia has been an intergral part of the Drama Studio since 1991. She has taught acting and movement for the Loon and Heron Theatre in Boston, Providence Hospital, the University of Hartford’s Summer Place, and the New England Dance Conservatory. She graduated from Smith College with a BA in education. She has directed In the Beginning and Beyond the Ridge and serves as Director of Curriculum at the Studio. At Trinity United Methodist Church she choreographs for the Dance Choir and the annual Boar’s Head Festival.

Dan Morbyrne, Director of Production/Faculty— Dan has been teaching at The Drama Studio since 2005. He directs many of the productions, runs the touring program, provides most of the sound design and all of the fight choreography. Dan has taught theatre at numerous high schools and colleges throughout New England, and has directed with many Massachusetts-based companies as well as Off Broadway. As an actor Dan has performed in the Pioneer Valley as well as in Boston, New York, London, and Edinburgh. His directing credits at The Studio include Present Company Excluded, Tortilla Rita, The Shel Game, Blanca Flor, Anansi and the Sky God, Ascension Day, The Devil You Know, and Antigone.

Administrative Staff

Janet Richards, Registrar

Jane Schneeloch, Office Manager -- Jane came to the Drama Studio (along with Riley) after she retired from teaching English at East Hartford High School for 35 years. She received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in English at Westfield State College. She has led writing groups for senior citizens, incarcerated women, and adolescents. Her poetry has been published in several journals, and her chapbook Climbing to the Moon, a collection of poetry inspired by the art of Georgia O’Keeffe, was published in 2009 by Finishing Line Press. She has been a part of Doug Foresta’s playwriting classes, and her play In Hiding was produced as part of the Drama Studio’s 2008 Winter Shorts Festival. Jane is Lay Leader at Trinity United Methodist Church, and she also serves as secretary to St. Barnabas All Saints Episcopal Church.

Michael Pray, Part-time Registrar/Outreach Faculty -- Mike is an alum of HCC and is pursuing his Bachelor's in Theater at Quinnipiac University. He is currently a Teaching Artist with the Northampton-based physical theater ensemble Serious Play! and teaches part-time at PVPA. He has also worked with elementary school students in Nicaragua as part of an initiative to incorporate arts into the national curriculum. He is very much at home at the Drama Studio, despite starting here only recently, and looks forward to the many days to come.

Conservatory Staff

Doug Foresta, Instructor — Doug has taught playwriting at the Drama Studio since 2002, assisting in the development of over 30 plays by adolescents and adults. He studied writing and theatre at Gotham Writers Workshop, privately with J. Dakota Powell, and at Pulse Ensemble Theatre and Hunter College. Doug's plays have been read and produced at the Harold Clurman Theatre (NYC), Pulse Ensemble Theatre (NYC), Micheal Howard Studios (NYC) and The Drama Studio (MA). He is the 2008 recipient of an artists grant from Springfield Cultural Council and a 2009 finalist for a Massachusetts Cultural Council fellowship for new theatre works. He is currently completing a full length play about the plight of Jews in a small town in Roth Germany in the 1930's. He is the producer and host of a self-help show for creative people on Blog Talk Radio and is the proud father of Samuel Foresta.

Ellen Morbyrne, Instructor — Ellen has a B.A. from Smith College in Theatre and Spanish. She is also an Associate Artist with the Serious Play! Theatre Ensemble (www.seriousplay.org), a local company with whom she has performed regionally and internationally, also serving as a director, editor, teacher, and dramaturge. From 2003 through 2008, Ellen ran the theatre program at North Star: Self-Directed Learning for Teens(www.northstarteens.org) where she taught a variety of classes, directed the mainstage productions (including several she wrote) and oversaw the annual student-run Festival of One-Acts. Her directing credits include Softcops, The Good Person of Szechwan, Through the Looking Glass, and Big Love. She lives in Hadley, MA with her husband Dan, their new son Finn, and their dogs Clementine and Juliet.

Mat Bussler, Instructor --- Mat studied at BADA in London and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with a BA in Acting and Theatre Production. He has worked as an actor, playwright, director, stage manager, and sound designer in New York City and Massachusetts. Locally he has collaborated with New Century Theatre, Northstar, the Chester Theatre Company, Hampshire Shakespeare, Serious Play! Theatre Ensemble, Smith College and Arena Civic Theatre. At The Drama Studio, he appeared in Tortilla Rita as Games during the Winter Shorts,Antigone as King Kreon, and Twelfth Night as Malvolio. He also ran the fly system for Peter Pan and co-directed The Rumor in this year’s COWFest.

Production Staff

Greta Breglio-Redman, Costume Designer -- Greta teaches painting and drawing studio art classes at GWVS Museum during its summer program. She received her MFA in Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design in NYC.

Craig Milne, Technical Director -- Craig's education includes a composite BFA: Costume and Makeup for the Theatre/Technical Theatre, and a BS in Theatre Arts from Idaho State University. Craig spent his time at Idaho as Student Technical Director, Shop Foreman, and Lighting Designer. He also spent two years in grad school at Utah State University, and has worked with The Old Lyric Theatre, Utah Festival Opera Company, The Glenn Miller Show, Westside Players, Idaho State Opera Club, Pauline Productions, New Century Theatre, Pioneer Valley Summer Co., STCC, and Springfield College.