Walking the dog Theater

"Transformation-that is what the actor's nature, consciously or unconsciously, longs for." - Michael Chekhov

Walking the dog Theater creates theater events that inspire, entertain, and
build community.

Vital aspects of this purpose include: engaging children, youth, and adults
in their own creative potential, stimulating artistic life in underserved
areas, supporting the work and growth of professional artists, and staging
plays, with a special passion for the works of William Shakespeare.

Deena Pewtherer - Chair
Richard Cross-Vice Chair
Nigel Harrison-Treasurer
Melania Levitsky-Secretary
Jennie Clifford
Ella Brice
Seth Lachterman

Peter Armour
Hans Bartges
Mark Fingar
Linda Gatter
Michael O'Hara
Rose Ross
David Sassoon
Mark Young

David Anderson - Executive Artistic Director
Benedicta Bertau - Producing Artistic Director

Melania Levitksy - Associate Artistic Director
Carolyn Polikarpus - Administrative Assistant

Photo by Nitin Vadukul

David Anderson, actor, director, playwright and poet, was born in Beloit, Wisconsin, USA. In 1991 he received a Bachelor's degree in writing from Lakeland College. He taught English in Weimar, Germany, for three years before completing a post-graduate degree in Waldorf Education at Emerson College, Forest Row, England. H

e studied Speech and Drama at Threshold Theater in Christchurch, New Zealand, and has performed throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. An adaptation for the stage of his 45-part poem "Walking the dog" led to the founding of Walking the dog Theater in 1997.

In 2001 David Anderson and John McManus inaugurated Shakespeare Alive!, a yearlong course for youth in the art of acting. The college-accredited
course completed its third year of training in 2004.

David recently played Felix in The Owl and the Pussycat, several roles in Walking the dog Theater's (WTD) Suite of One-Acts Daemons, and Hamlet in the collaborative production of Hamlet (a performance The Independent gave Best Male Actor for 2007). He played Pale in Burn This, Sceparnio in the U.S. Premiere of The Storm, Roxane in Cyrano, Leonce in Leonce and Lena, annually performs a one-man A Christmas Carol, and is a member of the OFF LEASH! Improv Ensemble (all for WTD). He has performed with Shakespeare Alive!, The Actors' Ensemble, and Circle X Arts (London).

For film: lead roles in Coda, Understudy, Various States of Repose, and Within A Forest.

For TV: a lead role in: So You Want to Live in the Country (ongoing). He has directed over 20 productions-eight Shakespeare plays and, most recently, WTD's Under Milk Wood , The House of the Seven Gables, and The Yellow Jacket.

David has published poetry and written two plays: The Lost Son and Walking the dog. He currently serves as Executive Artistic Director of Walking the dog
Theater.

Photo by Dan Region

Benedicta Bertau, director, actor, clown and Producing Artistic Director/Outreach Director for Walking the dog Theater, Benedicta Bertau was born in Germany into a French/German family.

She received her Waldorf teacher Training Certificate from Emerson College, England, in 1996 and her B.A. in Dance/Eurythmy from Helicon College in The Hague, Netherlands, in 2000. Benedicta Bertau trained in Physical Theater in Chile, the Chekhov Acting Method in Berlin, Germany, and Clowning in the Netherlands. She speaks five languages fluently.

An experienced teaching artist and accomplished dancer of many styles, Ms. Bertau has led movement and theater workshops for people of all ages and abilities. She teaches a series of workshops for adults, TIME TO ACT, workshops for children and adults, (e.g. for the Mental Health Association of Columbia & Greene Counties). She co-teaches the Clown Workshops for Walking the dog Theater, in collaboration with Laura Geilen. She has directed Magellan; Leonce and Lena; Twelfth Night; two productions of Much Ado About Nothing (2005 and 2006), and Moliere's The Imaginary Invalid and The Miser.

Recent directing credits include The Gospel of John (assistant to the director), The Beggar or the Dead Dog, and Red Carnations x2, a double bill including play and opera, all with WTD. Stage credits include Miracle Tomato, Daemons-A Suite of One-Acts, playing five men, including Christian de euvilette and Baron de Guiche in Cyrano, and Grumio in WTD's critically acclaimed all-female production of The Taming of the Shrew.

She was most recently seen in Under Milk Wood, WTD's hit production at PS/21 Chatham in the summer of 2008. Benedicta is a member of WTD's Improvisation Ensemble OFF LEASH!. In WTD's 2009 Season, she will be seen in Virtue, Desire, Death and Foolishness - An Evening of Tales from Anton Chekhov and Twelfth Night, and direct I Take Your Hand In Mine.

Melania Levitsky is the Associate Artistic Director of Walking the dog Theater Company, Inc., and on the Board of The Actors' Ensemble. Recent roles include: Rosalind in As You Like It, Cyrano de Bergerac, Anna in Burn This, Amira in the Drama Desk nominated production of Pentecost, Lady Macbeth, Sarafina in The Rose Tattoo, Touchstone in As You Like It, Gertrude, Ophelia, Claudius, Ghost, and Guildenstern in a three-person production of Hamlet.

She has served on the faculties of Shakespeare Alive!, The Michael Chekhov Acting Studio in NYC, and as guest teacher at the Geert Grote and Constantine Huygens schools in Holland, and the Baobab College in South Africa.

Her seven-character, one-woman play, Blue Arches, premiered with WTD, and was remounted five times in NYC and in Columbia County. Recent directing credits include The Taming of the Shrew, The Gold in the Ground, The Tempest, and assistant director of Macbeth and As You Like It. Melania was the drama director for Side by Side for five years, a youth leadership training program and summer camp for underserved children in Harlem and Rockland County.

She has sung concerts of the music of Silvio Rodriguez, Kurt Weill, Jacques Brel, and many Elizabethan composers. She lives in New York City with her husband Richard and her daughter Nikita Lev. Melania is a member of Actors' Equity Association.

Founded in Australia in 1997 by two Americans and two Australians, the
company thrived for several years as a professional touring ensemble, performing and giving workshops over three continents, before landing in Columbia County and deciding to make a home here.

Walking the dog Theater (WTD) established itself by creating avant-garde theater performances which incorporated movement and live, original music, and through successful children's productions employing the same style. The touring ensemble gave performances and workshops in venues as varied as festival theaters, universities, schools, and prisons. In 1999, under John McManus' leadership, the company inaugurated Shakespeare Alive!, an intensive summer theater workshop experience for youth, which evolved into its own organization, eventually offering a yearlong college-accredited actor's training as well as its annual summer productions.

In 2004 WTD developed its Shakespeare in Schools program. Since its inception this program has created over 30 productions and a Midwest Shakespeare Festival with young people. In addition to its ongoing workshops for youth and adults, its in-school, after school, and summer intensive programs, the professional company produces original, new, and classical plays, with a special passion for Shakespeare.

WTD creates theater events that seek to inspire as well as entertain. Highlights of the past few years include Lanford Wilson's Burn This, the U.S. premiere of The Storm (a new comedy adapted from Plautus), Blue Arches, an original one-woman play by Melania Levitsky (Associate Artistic Director of WTD), as well as, Cyrano, Daemons, and an all-female hit-production of aming of the Shrew. The collaborative production of Hamlet was awarded best overall theatrical production 2007", and "best male actor 2007" for David Anderson' Hamlet by The Independent.

In 2007, WTD began its collaboration with Adrian Locher from The Gloucester Theatre Company (UK). Adrian directed The Gospel of John, evolving the concept of the piece from his company's original production of it. WTD's production has become a mainstay in the company's season, as its own ntity: Gospel Performance, and tours the U.S. every spring. Adrian returns this year to direct Twelfth Night.

In 2008, our productions included: Miracle Tomato, written and performed by Jessica Cerullo, as part of the Small Revolution Expo, I Might Be Edgar Allen Poe, in collaboration with The Actors' Ensemble, Red Carnations x2, a double bill in collaboration with Diamond Opera Theater, combining Red Carnations, the one-act play by Glenn Hughes, and the short opera with the same name by local composer Robert Baksa, The Owl and the Pussycat, Under Milk Wood, in collaboration with PS/21, and the seasonal A Christmas Carol. A new addition to our gamut of offerings is the series of improvisational theater evenings, OFF LEASH!, an audience favorite. In 2008, the company also created six productions with youth and offered two adult workshops, one for the general public and one with the Mental Health Association.

As the company deepens its roots in Columbia County, it continues to welcome collaborations with local artists and the opportunity to discover new possibilities and directions for meaningful theater. WTD's professional productions and educational programs focus on freeing the creativity of the artist, developing Ensemble Theater, and invoking the spirit of a play so that audiences can become enlivened by the theater event.