We are lucky to have such inspiring teachers at ASC. We’re excited to highlight some new content that will help our students grow. Meet our coaches Sarah Tolan-Mee, Joshua Moaney and Sara Mountjoy-Pepka!
Sarah Tolan M is an actor and director from New York. She coaches actors and creative artists, including Pulitzer Prize winners, MacArthur Fellows, and PEN Award winners, in expressive ways to embody. She was a protรฉgรฉ of the great movement teacher Moni Yakim and holds a master’s degree in drama from The Juilliard School. Performances include: Martyna Majok’s Queens (LCT3), by Sarah Ruhl melancholic game (13P) and stage kiss (Goodman). also, Small role in new sedan (Under the Radar) with Wallace Shawn An idea is divided into three parts (frank). Also includes Lucy Thurber’s name (Rising Phoenix Representative), Kenneth Prestininzi Love in the Seventh Furious Kingdom (Dream Festival) and chastity (Trapdoor), Ibsen Hedda Gabler (Andre Gregory). She has developed productions with Playwright Horizons, Soho Rep, Clubbed Thumb, NYTW, P73, The Roundabout, The Vineyard, The Lark, Primary Stages, Denver Center and The Playwright’s Center.
What is your favorite part of teaching?
My favorite part of teaching is observing studentsโ distinct processes and seeing them come alive through exploring technology. The words “technology,” “craft,” or “skill” sound too mechanical, but I’ve found the opposite. Good technique can liberate an actor, open her imagination, and create an immediacy in her work. It’s breathtaking to witness actors really experimenting and being in a room full of people who are willing to invest in the creative process. I love witnessing the magic of change and the live laboratory nature of the class. I wish more rehearsal rooms would embrace the bold content of the ASC curriculum.
Why choose ASC?
I love the ASC’s warmth, rigor, and commitment to authentic, expansive performance.
Bonus: If you’re not an actor (or teacher), What would you be?
If I wasn’t an actor, I would be a physicist. The drama of space and time!
Joshua Money is a Chicago actor and teacher. In 2013, he graduated from DePaul University School of Theater with an MFA.
Meanwhile, Money was working with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. His recent acting credits include Count Ory, Macbeth, Erlanani, and Fire in my bones shut up.
Works on camera include empire (fox) and chicago medicine (NBC). Josh has also appeared in national and regional commercials for Dicks Sporting Goods, Target, Kraft, ComEd, Big Lot, Room Place, Ace Hardware and other brands.
What is your favorite part of teaching?
I learn as much from my students as they learn from me. The enthusiasm and joy they bring to the studio makes teaching easy.
Sarah Mountjoy-Pepka Came to Chicago via Los Angeles and Seattle and it’s great to be here. As an actress, Sarah loved all theater, but had a special focus on Shakespeare. Sara has enjoyed working with the Great River Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Shakespeare/Wooden O, Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, Will Geer’s Theatrical Botanicum, and many more. As a professional improviser, she is a company member of the award-winning Impro Theater in Los Angeles and Unexpected Productions in Seattle. Each repertoire places special emphasis on improvisation of full-length plays from classic genres such as Shakespeare, Chekhov and Dorothy Parker. As a member of the Magic Circle Mime Company, Sara spent 17 years performing mime with the best symphony orchestras in the world throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Sarah is also a director, having directed the hit production of Jane Austen Unscripted for Improvisational Theater/Gary Marshall Theatre, as well as the seven-sold-out production of The Improv Generation (Star Trek: TNG style).
What is your favorite part of teaching?
I love the journey of figuring out what each student needs to thrive and shine. sometimes, [a student] Their first lesson is a breakthrough, and sometimes you evaluate and experiment together for a while until suddenly, something clicks.
Why choose ASC?
It’s simple – I started here as a student and immediately felt like this was a great community for me. Even if I start teaching, I will continue to be a student… I’m refreshing the adult course page today!
Bonus: If you’re not an actor (or teacher), What would you be?
A farmer. In another life, I owned and operated a self-sustaining organic farm in the Pacific Northwest with mostly crops/orchards and a few happy hens. I can’t stress enough the gap between the knowledge I need to be successful and what I currently have, but at the same time, my urban hobby is native plant gardening.
