JONESBOROUGH REPERTORY THEATRE

Jonesborough Repertory Theatre

Class Instructors

Matt Brewer

Matt Brewer is a recent graduate of ETSU with a degree in English and Theatre.  He is currently working on his Master of Arts in Teaching at ETSU for secondary education, English and Theatre.  Matt is starting his 5th year as a teaching assistant in a Pre-K classroom in Johnson City.  In his spare time he enjoys traveling and going to shows and concerts.  Some of Matt’s favorite performance roles were in The Cherry Orchard, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, and Damn Yankees!

  Janna Browning

Janna Browning received her B.F.A. in Acting from Emerson College in Boston, MA and her Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology with a concentration in Drama Therapy from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco, CA. She has performed in and directed theatre and film all over the United States. Janna is also a co-founder of ACTUALeyes Productions, a company which uses Transformational Theatre to create stage and screen pieces based on participants' life experiences and, through the creation process promotes emotional growth, self-awareness, and self-expression.

 Kathleen Brannon Buttolph

(Director of Theatre Education) has been directing productions and teaching theatre for over 13 years.  Kathleen served as Artistic Director of Jonesborough Repertory Theatre from 2003 to 2009. She founded JRTs educational programming in 2004 with 11 children. The program quickly grew when she collaborated with fellow teacher and director, Janette Gaines. Kathleen will return to Jonesborough in 2012 as the Town’s Director of Theatre Education. Currently, Kathleen is earning a masters degree from ETSU.  She is, also, the proud co-founder of POP Arts (Power of Performing Arts), an inclusive performing arts program for children and adults with and without exceptionalities. Kathleen considers herself a lifetime theatre student, never knowing what the work will introduce next, thankful for the journey.

Janette Gaines

(Coordinator of Theatre Education) Janette Gaines directed her debut show, The Wizard of the Mall, at JRT in the spring of 2004. Now in her 5th year of teaching theatre at JRT, she has enjoyed students ranging from elementary to high school. She has taught everything from basic theatre skills to playwriting. Over the years, Janette has both directed and co-directed several productions including Shoestring Theatre, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, James and the Giant Peach, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Charlotte’s Web, and, most recently, The Firebird. Janette was inspired by her love for both theatre and American Sign Language (ASL) to found a new group at JRT in 2008 called Stage Hands. This group uses both spoken English and the visual language of ASL to communicate dialogue while acting out each play. The group takes both classic stories and the art of theatre into area schools. At the same time, Stage Hands introduces hearing teachers and students to the beauty of American Sign Language and Deaf culture.

Deborah DeGeorge Harbin

Deborah discovered her love for playwriting nearly a decade ago, when her first play, Constellations, won the Marc A. Klein Student Playwriting Award.  She received her Master of Fine Arts degree in dramatic writing from the Catholic University of America in 2007.  Since then, she has written in several genres, from theatre for young audiences to sci-fi.  Her recent reimagining of a Karl Capek classic, RUR: Reboot, was performed in February by Run of the Mill Theatre in Baltimore, MD, and her current script, as yet untitled, will be performed at Milligan College in Spring 2012.

 Everett Tarleton

Everett Tarleton is a freelance actor, singer, dancer, and choreographer originally from Chuckey, Tennessee. Professional, non-equity playbills include portraying Holcomb B. Habersham in Peachtree Battle, the longest running show in Atlanta’s theatre history, numerous performances at Unto These Hills in Cherokee, North Carolina, productions of Dracula: ReVamped! and Once More With Feeling, as well as playing Romeo in Romeo and Juliet for the Shakespeare and Friends Renaissance Faire. Everett studied theatre at East Tennessee State University where he has performed in over a dozen productions including: Little Shop of Horrors, Macbeth, and Glass Menagerie, as well the annual Dance Concert, where he has served as both a performer and choreographer. Everett is a former President of Alpha Psi Omega, the nationally recognized theatre honors fraternity, and has served on the Board of Directors for Patchwork Players, ETSU’s student run theatre organization. His choreography has been seen in such productions as Forever Plaid, Saving the Greeks, and Dracula, and Everett has served as a private instructor of several dance mediums to many artists. He also received the Bud Frank Award for Excellence in Theatre in 2007 from ETSU’s Department of Communication.