Dolly has been singing, acting and dancing for as long as she can remember. In her junior year of high school, Dolly was exposed for the first time to musical theatre, landing the title role in Hello, Dolly! (The rest, as they say, is history)
Although she began her college education at Shenandoah Conservatory of Music as a music education major, Dolly soon switched to the newly established Musical Theatre program, which required extensive study of both music and musical theatre. She trained classically in voice, yet was in all musical theatre productions shy one, during her four years there. As the first graduate of this new program, she performed a widely publicized one-woman show, Dolly x Five, an event attended by 700 people from both the community and the college.
The early years following college found Dolly performing in theatres and clubs in New York, Maryland, Tennessee, North and South Carolinas and Virginia. In addition to professional acting work, Dolly sang for weddings, funerals, business and sporting events, and did radio voice-overs. She sang with church choirs, large metropolitan choruses, a small chamber ensemble, an all-girl barbershop quartet and an a capella jazz and swing group.
Dolly married her college sweetheart and, in 1983, moved to Purcellville to raise a family. She continued performing, appearing regularly in shows throughout the DC/NY area. In 1994 Dolly co-founded The Growing Stage, Loudoun County’s premiere youth theatre company, and was the Artistic Director for 12 years. In that capacity she directed over 25 main stage plays and musicals, taught classes in Acting, Improv, Audition Technique, and ran a very popular summer theatre camp for children and youth. In 2004, Dolly accepted the position of Director of Theatre at Notre Dame Academy, a small private high-school in Middleburg, Va., where she stayed for two years. She opened the studio in the fall of 2006, and the summer theatre arm, SPOTLIGHT PRODUCTIONS, in 2010, with the inaugural show, Thoroughly Modern Millie.
As an actress, Dolly has appeared in many leading roles throughout the DC/NY area: "Mama Rose" in Gypsy, "Dolly" in Hello Dolly, "Wicked Witch" in The Wizard of Oz (for the premiere opening of the Ohrstom-Bryant Theatre) and will appear as "Carmen" in Curtains at Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre in summer 2011.
As an actress, Dolly has appeared in many leading roles throughout the DC/NY area: "Mama Rose" in Gypsy, "Dolly" in Hello Dolly, "Wicked Witch" in The Wizard of Oz (for the premiere opening of the Ohrstom-Bryant Theatre) and will appear as "Carmen" in Curtains at Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre in summer 2011.
Dolly has been a singer with Winchester Musica Viva, a 20-voice chamber ensemble, for over ten years. She has twice toured internationally with this group, and has recorded three CDs with them. Today, her career continues as a professional in theatre and music, and she remains grateful for her training as an actress as well as her classical training in voice, which allows her to sing in a wide variety of musical settings. From sacred to secular, classical to jazz, from folk to blues to country, and gospel to rock ‘n roll to Broadway, Dolly is comfortable in just about any vocal style. In the summer of 2009, she attended the CCM (Contemporary Commercial Music) Vocal Pedagogy Institute at SU and became Level III certified in Somatic Voicework (tm) -The LoVetri Method. Dolly is also a member of NATS (Nat'l Assoc. of Teachers of Singing).
Throughout the years, Dolly has privately coached elementary through adult students in acting, voice and audition preparation. The creation of this studio brings together the techniques of acting, vocal performance, and audition preparation to help students maximize their abilities, reach their potential and develop a heightened appreciation for the art form known as musical theatre.
The Spotlight Studio • P.O. Box 92 • Purcellville, VA 20134 • 540.338.2690
© 2006-2007 The Spotlight Studio. All rights reserved.
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