Guest Artists

Playwriting for Young People Grades 7-9 Instructor: Janece Shaffer - Write your own scripts. - Explore characters and situations from your experiences. - Learn playwriting techniques from one of Atlanta's top playwrights. - Hear professional actors read your plays. Sept. 26 – Oct. 31, Saturdays, 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Professional play reading on Sunday, October 18 at 12:30 p.m. Tuition: $180 Enroll Online

Joe Gfaller: Joe Gfaller is an Atlanta-based freelance stage director. Past full productions include Copenhagen, A Number, Boston Marriage, and The Violet Hour (7 Stages), Miss Witherspoon (Theatre in the Square), The God Committee (Theatrical Outfit), Dial M for Murder, Dracula, and boom (Aurora Theatre), I Do! I Do! (Georgia Ensemble Theatre), Riffed (Actor's Express), Notes from the Bottletree (Horizon Theatre Company), Uncle Vanya (14th Street Playhouse), Beowulf (Theatre Gael), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Berry College), A Man for All Seasons, A Little Night Music, and The Secret Garden (Harvard University), A Midsummer's Night Dream (Clark Atlanta University). He has also directed multiple readings and staged readings, including developmental work on the world premieres of Riffed and Qualities of Starlight by Gabriel Dean, Storyville by award winning Atlanta novelist David Fulmer, and original stage adaptations of Beowulf and Great Expectations.

In 2005, Joe was cited by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution as “Best New Director” in Atlanta for his work on Boston Marriage and A Number and received the Hoopes Literary Fellowship for his original stage musical adaptation of Great Expectations. In 2007, Southern Voice recognized him as one of twenty people who are "the next generation of this city's leaders." In 2008, he was honored as among Atlanta's "Power Thirty Under Thirty.” He is a graduate of LEAD Atlanta, a Leadership Atlanta Initiative for Young Professionals, and has subsequently served in a volunteer role as program co-chair and co-chair of LEAD’s mentorship program.

Joe has also previously served as adjunct faculty in acting at Berry College, currently serves on the Board of Directors of 7 Stages, and is the Alliance Theatre’s Associate Director of Marketing. He has studied theatre, directing, playwrting and dramatic literature with Robert Brustein, founding artistic director of Yale Repertory Theatre and the American Repertory Theatre, Stephen Greenblatt, editor of the Norton Shakespeare Anthology and the Norton Anthology of English Literature, Marcus Stern, Associate Director at the American Repertory Theatre, and Obie Award winning playwright Adrienne Kennedy. He is a graduate of Harvard University.

Michael Haverty is a director, puppeteer, and artistic director of Haverty Marionettes, based in Atlanta, GA. Haverty Marionettes creates dynamic, bold visual theatre. With innovative adaptations and original work, Haverty Marionettes seeks to expand and explore the vocabulary of puppetry and the language of theatre. Michael has performed and directed extensively at the Center for Puppetry Arts in both the Family and New Directions (adult) series, puppeteering in over fifteen shows and touring internationally. Since 2004 he has served as the coordinator of the ‘Xperimental Puppetry Theatre’ program at the Center. Haverty Marionettes’ creations have been performed at the Woodruff Arts Center, PushPush Theater, Dad’s Garage, and at the 2009 National Puppetry Festival.

Glenn Rainey has enjoyed a twenty-five year career as an actor, singer and musician.

After college at the University of Georgia, he began his professional acting career in Atlanta at night while working in the corporate world by day in the fields of corporate communication and public relations. After a few years of performing with small professional theatre companies, he got his Equity card at Theatre Emory at Atlanta’s Emory University. Glenn is probably best remembered by Atlanta audiences for his portrayal of the junk food-eating psychopath Otto Woodnick in Horizon Theatre’s production of Nicky Silver’s black comedy The Food Chain, for which he was named Atlanta’s Best Actor in 1998 by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Glenn also worked on the television series "In The Heat of the Night" and "Savannah", as well as the films Cobb, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, The Shaggy Dog, and Disney's upcoming Enchanted..

After working in several regional theatres, and while performing in the North Shore Music Theatre production of Oliver, a move to New York in 1999 proved very successful when Glenn was cast in the first national tour of Beauty and the Beast. He subsequently made his Broadway debut at the Palace Theatre in May of 2000.

In addition to his roles as the Bookseller and Monsieur D’Arque in Beauty, he understudied and performed the roles of Cogsworth and Maurice. He closed the Broadway company of Beauty in the summer of 2007 in the role of Cogsworth. Glenn is a member and featured vocalist with Broadway Inspirational Voices, an interfaith, multicultural gospel choir under the direction of Tony-nominated Michael McElroy. The choir has recorded three CD’s, the latest of which is the Grammy-nominated Great Joy! A Gospel Christmas. The choir has worked with such artists as Stephanie Mills, Patti Labelle, Vanessa Williams, Deborah Cox, Oleta Adams, and Tony winner Phylicia Rashad, who is also a choir member.

On December 13 of 2004, Glenn made his cabaret debut at New York’s Triad Club in his one-man show, Blue-Eyed Soul. Another highlight of 2004 was recording with Clay Aiken on his Merry Christmas with Love CD, produced by the legendary Phil Ramone. Glenn is currently working on several new musical theatre projects, a new one-man show for 2009, and was a featured vocalist for the soundtracks of the Disney films The Shaggy Dog, starring Tim Allen and Robert Downey, Jr., as well as Disney's live action/animation film Enchanted, starring Susan Sarandon, Amy Adams and James Marsden.

Janece Shaffer: JANECE SHAFFER (Playwright)
A native of Atlanta, Janece Shaffer’s most recent credits include: “Managing Maxine” (a commission for the Alliance Theatre, premiered at Alliance in 2008; Asolo Repertory Theatre. 2010), “Brownie Points” (to premiere at Atlanta’s Theatrical Outfit in 2010 under the direction of Jasmine Guy), “Bluish” (commissioned by Alabama Shakespeare Festival and premiered at the Alliance Theatre in February-March 2006; Arizona Jewish Theatre Company 2007; New Jewish Theatre 2008.)

Earlier credits include: “Wishful Thinking” (Horizon Theatre, June 2003, honored with a nomination for the American Theatre Critic Association’s New Play Award), “The Genes of Beauty Queens” (Horizon Theatre, 2001), “He Looks Great in a Hat” (Alliance Theatre, 1999), and “All on the Bus” (Aurora Theatre 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004).

In 2006, Shaffer was selected to participate in a writer’s retreat sponsored by New Rivers Dramatist and was a member of the Alliance Theatre’s inaugural 2007-2008 Atlanta Writer’s Lab. She was the recipient of the Abby Award for Best New Artist in 2000. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia and a master’s degree from Georgia State University.