Theatre Program Faculty

Full-Time Faculty

Robert St. Laurence

Robert St. Laurence

Assistant Professor
Expertise: acting, improvisation, fight choreography


Education:
  Harvard University, A.R.T./M.X.A.T. Institute, Master of Fine Arts, Acting
  Brandeis University, Bachelor of Arts, Theatre Arts and Psychology

Courses taught:
  THR 107 – Acting I
  THR 108 – Acting II
  THR 111 – Improvisation

Robert St. Laurence has been an active professional stage actor in New England for more than 15 years. A perennial company member with the Barnstormers Theatre in New Hampshire, his local credits include Huntington Theatre, American Repertory Theater, New Repertory Theatre, Lyric Stage, Greater Boston Stage, Company One, Reagle Music Theatre, Wheelock Family Theatre, North Shore Music Theatre, Commonwealth Shakespeare, Gloucester Stage, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, and Oldcastle Theatre. Robert joined Bunker Hill Community College after a period of working in Eastern Europe, with stops at the AST National Academy of Theatre Arts in Poland and the Moscow Art Theatre in Russia. In addition to scripted stagecraft, Robert is a seasoned improvisational performer, working with The Second City in Chicago.  Robert maintains active membership in the Actor’s Equity Association.

An experienced fight director, Robert has choreographed fights for numerous shows in the Boston area, including Three Musketeers, True West, As You Like It, and Troilus and Cressida. Robert has trained in rapier & dagger, quarterstaff, broadsword, knife, and unarmed stage combat, and obtained the rank of Actor-Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors.

His current projects in development include Her Notebook: a historical exploration of the J.S. Bach household, in collaboration with the American Guild of Organists. In addition to acting course instruction, Robert is the faculty advisor for the BHCC Theatre Club. Robert received his M.F.A. in Acting from Harvard University’s A.R.T./MXAT Institute, and B.A. from Brandeis University.

Adjunct Faculty

Jen Shambaugh Lewis

Jen Shambaugh Lewis

Adjunct Professor
Expertise: acting, directing, theatre education


Education:
  Emerson College, Master of Fine Arts, Theatre Education and Applied Theatre
  Emerson College, Master of Arts, Theatre Education (2018)
  New York University, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Acting, with Honors (1997)

Courses taught:
  THR 107 – Acting I

Jen works to connect and challenge our world with honest, playful theatre. A freelance actor, director, teacher, coach, playwright, and mom, she currently teaches Acting at Bunker Hill Community College and acts and directs in Greater Boston on stage, screen and microphone. She serves on StageSource's Gender Parity and Line Drawn Initiatives, combating gender discrimination and sexual harassment in the theatre community.  

Recently, she has performed historic plays about social justice issues as a company member of Theatre Espresso; directed at Merrimack College's On Stagers, Beaver Country Day Upper School, the Winsor School, and both Newton North and South High Schools; and taught theatre at Wheelock Family Theatre and in several public schools. Favorite theatre roles include Rosalind in As You Like It which she produced as Merely Players; Hermia in Midsummer Night's Dream, Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing (It's a Fiasco); Legally Dead (Boston Playwrights' Theatre); Kate in Taming of the Shrew; Living Out (Lyric Stage); and The Friends of Eddie Coyle (Stickball). She has attended Shakespeare and Company's Month-long Intensive twice, as both a participant and teacher-trainee.

Her voice-over work includes thirteen years of online corporate trainings for SAI Global (formerly Integrity Interactive) as well as many other commercial and corporate clients. A member of SAG-AFTRA, she has been active in on-camera and voice-over work in Boston for over a decade with many principal roles in commercials and countless corporate video jobs.

Personally, Jen lives in Medford, MA with her husband and two children. She is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association, SAG-AFTRA, and StageSource.

www.JenAlisonLewis.weebly.com

Donna Sorbello

Donna Sorbello

Adjunct Professor
Expertise: acting, playwriting


Education:
   Boston University, Master of Arts, Playwriting
   Emerson College, Bachelor of Science, Theatre and English, Speech

Courses taught:
   THR 107 – Acting I
   THR 108 – Acting II
   THR 115 - Playwriting

Donna Sorbello is a professional Actress, Director and Playwright/writer whose film and television credits include roles working with Ricky Gervais, Richard Gere, Jennifer Garner, the Disney Chanel, et al. Her long list of theatre credits include NYC pre, off, and off-off broadway work, as well as regional, stock, and touring companies, playing such roles as Evie in the musical Stop the World I want to Get Off, and Emma in Betrayal. A long stint in Shear Madness marked a return to Boston, and work with many New England professional companies including Huntington Theatre, Commonwealth Shakespeare, Lyric Stage, Merrimack Repertory, New Rep, the Charles Playhouse, Northeast Shakespeare, Ocean State Theatre, Reagle Theatre and others. Her range of roles cover the extremes of the sophisticated Amanda in Private Lives, to the struggling Amanda in Glass Menagerie; from Shakespeare’s Goneril in the classic King Lear to Golda in the musical Fiddler On the Roof. Original and contemporary work is represented by Ana inClean House or Jane in Indian Blood, with a range that also includes a lady of the night in Three Penny Opera, to the rigid nun in Doubt. She won the IRNE Best Actress award for her performance of Lady in Orpheus Descending. Ms Sorbello’s own plays have been presented at Lincoln Center Library Theatre, Priscilla Beach Theatre, selected several years for the Boston Theatre Marathon, various Festivals including the Women’s Peace and Justice Project and the Tampa Bay Fest et al. She has had poetry and her historical novel, Daughter of Liberty published. She is the recipient of the Robert J Pickering playwriting award and has been a finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Center. Her many articles have appeared in New England Film and AEA Newsletter. She studied both Acting and Directing with Nikos Psacharopoulos,(who she became assistant to), as well as becoming an Assistant to Director Arthur Storch, long time Broadway and Off Broadway director. Along with her university studies, these hands-on experiences led to directing several new works in the Boston area at groups such as Playwright’s Platform and the Provincetown Playhouse. As board member and then Director of the grantfunded Emerging Playwrights Program at Wheelock Theatre, she worked with budding inner-city High School playwrights. She has been a mentor to several high school Playwriting classes in New England schools and coaches acting privately. Her teaching stints, in English Literature, Theatre History, Acting and Writing, have brought her from Boston University, to Quincy College, and finally to BHCC, for the appeal of its diverse student population and concentration on Theatre courses. She is a proud member of Dramatists Guild, Actor’s Equity Association, and Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.