Pinnacle Acting Company - Live Theatre, Workshops, Community Outreach

Company Calendar

Mission Statement
Pinnacle Acting Company is a non-profit performing arts organization dedicated to ensemble collaboration and artistic freedom. As an ensemble, PAC provides a safe and intimate environment for its members to improve as performers through both production and training. PAC strives to expand the landscape of acting by creating opportunities for company members, guest artists, partner institutions, and the community, to explore and educate through theatre.

Jared Larkin Artistic Director	Jared currently teaches for SLCC and is the Acting teacher for the Salt Lake School for the Performing Arts. Jared moved last fall from Los Angeles where, in addition to film and television work, he acted for Actor’s Co-op of Hollywood, Shakespeare Orange County, Gangbusters Theatre Co., and Theatre Neo. Jared has acted for some of the most celebrated companies in Regional Theatre, including five seasons with the Tony Award winning Utah Shakespearean Festival and Pioneer Theatre Company, and two National tours. Jared received his B.S. from Southern Utah University and his Master’s degree in Acting from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where he studied with Robin McFarquhar (Fight Choreographer for Steppenwolf, The Goodman, and Broadway), Henson Keys (Alabama Shakespeare Festival Endowed Chair), and Daniel Sullivan (Winner of the 2001 Tony Award for Best Director). Jared has instructed numerous classes in acting around the country, including the University of Illinois, BCT in Alabama, BYU, USF, and UTA. Some of Jared’s favorite roles include: Malcolm in Macbeth for Shakespeare Orange County, Iago in Othello, Mr. Peachum in Threepenny Opera, Valentine in Two Gentlemen of Verona, all at the Colwell Playhouse, Peter in Stop Kiss at the Studio Theatre, Henry in Henry V at The Actor’s Co-op of Hollywood, Dr. Craven in The Secret Garden at The Grand, and over a dozen shows for the Utah Shakespearean Festival. As a director, Jared has directed over twenty productions and is currently in rehearsals for his production of Henry V for the Salt Lake School for the Performing Arts. Jared has been the script supervisor for two films A Moment So Close and Triad, and is currently a consultant for the independent film Toxin. Jared is a member of AFTRA and is both SAG and Equity eligible. Jared is a recognized Actor/Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors.
Melanie Nelson Managing Director	Melanie Nelson is originally from southern Utah. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Southern Utah University and performed as a member of the Utah Shakespearean Festival acting company. She went on to receive her Master of Fine Arts degree from Southern Methodist University where she performed at the Dallas Theater Center and Fort Worth Shakespeare in the Park, among other venues. In addition to her degrees, she has trained with voice coach Patsy Rodenburg (Head of Voice at The National Theatre, author: The Right to Speak) and is a recognized actor/combatant by the SAFD. Some of her favorite roles include Portia in ‘The Merchant of Venice’ (Greer Garson Theater), Annelle in ‘Steel Magnolias’ (Provo Theatre Company), and Ophelia in ‘Hamlet’ (Fort Worth Shakespeare in the Park). Other roles include: Amy Lee, ‘Laundry & Bourbon’, The Egyptian Theatre; Gloria, ‘You Never Can Tell’, The Water Tower Theatre; Senior Actor, ‘Six Characters in Search of an Actor’, Greer Garson Theater; Hermia, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, Southwest Acting Company; Mariah, ‘Loose Ends’, Margo Jones Theater; Martha Cratchet, ‘A Christmas Carol’, The Dallas Theater Center; Maisy, ‘SLAM – It Must Have Been Cold’, Plan B Theatre Company; Rose, ‘Dancing At Lughnasa’, Randall L. Jones Theater; Jane, ‘The Women’, Theatre Neo. Her television and film credits include: ‘Just Shoot Me’, ‘Charmed’, ‘Everwood’, ‘The Return’ and ‘Peculiarities’. She has also done various television and radio commercials for Meadow Gold, Comcast, Tim Dahle Nisson, FranklinCovey and Sizzler. Melanie is a member of SAG and AFTRA. She is also a member of the Actors Equity Candidacy Program.
Aly Dowe Company Member	Aly Dowe is a member of Pinnacle Acting Company, acting as stage-manager for The Seagull and Rabbit Hole. Aly is a sophomore at Salt Lake School for the Performing Arts and a student body officer for her class. There, she has been seen in Gypsy and Who Will Carry the Word, and appeared as Mistress Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Aly is Vice President of the SPAtland Club which will be performing in the 2009 Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. She also works as a lighting designer for the Off Broadway Theater in Salt Lake City.
Alexandra Harbold Company Member	Alexandra Harbold holds her Masters in Performance Studies from the University of London, Goldsmiths College, her Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from Middlebury College and is an alum of SITI Company's Skidmore Summer Intensive. She has directed Romeo & Juliet and The Rabbit Hole for Pinnacle Acting Company and is scheduled to direct the upcoming Three Days of Rain. Other recent directing credits include Poetry of Interiors, a collaborative dance theatre project in process presented at DTC's 2008 Proving Ground Concert and in the Sugar Space Sample Tracks and Award Show concerts; Keeping Clean Amid the Messy Night and A Faint Whistle in the Crater/2007 and 2006 Proving Ground. Andra’s acting credits include The Seagull at Pinnacle Acting Company, Living Out and Fat Pig at Pygmalion Theatre, Six Years and Ice Glen at Salt Lake Acting Company, Fantasio at Helle Theatre/NYC and Mrs. Klein with NXT/London. Andra is a member of Actors Equity.
Beth Bruner Company Member	Beth Bruner started life in California, moved eastward in her childhood, and has been slowly heading back west ever since—although Utah has been the longest stop. She has an Honors BA in Drama from Kenyon College in Ohio, with an emphasis in theater history, playwriting, and directing. She is usually found off-stage; directing, producing or stage managing. Since coming to Utah she has directed over three dozen plays with ten different companies, including Around the Globe, Bountiful Performing Arts, Draper Historic Theater, Highland High School, Holladay Arts Council, SCERA, SLCC, StageRight, Wasatch Theatre Company and Westville Christian. She loves to produce the odd staged reading and is known as a quick fill-in when needed. At Pinnacle Acting Company, she directed Medea, and stage managed Proof. As an actress, her favorite roles include Hope in Sleeping Beauty; Audrey in As You Like It and Julia in Sabrina Fair.
Charisse Baxter Company Member	Charisse Baxter is currently practicing and studying to become a Dramaturg and has worked frequently on research and presentation for Brighton High School, Hale Centre Theatre, and as Company Dramaturg for Pinnacle Acting Company. Recent coaching and acting credits include: Assistant Director for Rabbit Hole (PAC); Shakespeare Coach for the award-winning BHS Shakespeare Competition team (2006-8); Maria in Lend Me a Tenor, Miss Flannery in Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Mrs. Child in Crazy for You (all HCT); Violet in Memory of Water (PAC); Trixie Belafonte in Jukebox Saturday Night (MJC). Her dramaturgical projects have included: The Rainmaker, Little Women: the Musical, A Christmas Carol (2006, 2008) with Hale Centre Theatre; Anything Goes and bang bang you’re dead for Brighton High School; Henry V and Who Will Carry the Word? for the Salt Lake School for the Performing Arts; and Proof and Romeo and Juliet with PAC. Other experience includes teaching Theatre History for the Salt Lake School for the Performing Arts (grades 9-12), and acting as Associate Drama Teacher for Brighton High School. After serving as Team Captain for the first Comedy Sportz team in Southern Utah, Charisse received her BA in Theatre at Southern Utah University. She is now looking forward to further dramaturgical, directing, and performance projects.
Derick Rodgers Company Member	Derick Rodgers is a senior at Salt Lake School for the Performing Arts and a member of the Student Government. He was recently seen in Pinnacle Acting Company’s production of Romeo and Juliet as Benvolio. Additional credits include Master Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Herbie in Gypsy, and Sebastian in Twelfth Night. He has competed in the Utah Shakespearean Festival and Utah State/Region Drama Competition for the last two years.
Justin Bruse Company Member	Justin Bruse is originally from Riverton, and has lived and performed in Utah most of his life. He has worked in various theaters around the valley, and spent the summers of 2005, 2006 and 2008 in Nauvoo, Illinois, playing John Taylor in the Nauvoo Pageant for the LDS Church. His roles at Pinnacle Acting Company include Charles Condomine in Blithe Spirit and the Prince in Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. His favorite roles include: Dave/Bob in Beau Jest (Hale Centre Theatre), Lord Fancourt Babberly in Charley's Aunt (Hale Center Theater), Ellard Simms in The Foreigner (Hale Centre Theatre), Rick Steadman in The Nerd (Lehi Arts Council), Norman MacDonald in Cash On Delivery (Hale Centre Theatre, Utah Premiere), and Link Hansen in The Man With The Pointed Toes (Hale Center Theater).
W. Lewis Black Company Member	Lewis received his B.A. in History and Theater from Linfield College, where he studied acting with Tom Gressler and technical theater with Ted Desel. Along the way he also picked up M.A. degrees in History from Northeastern University and International Relations from the University of Southern California. He currently teaches history at Salt Lake Community College, works as a law clerk at the firm of Dunn & Dunn, and serves on the Board of Trustees of StageRight TheaterCompany. His acting credits include: Capulet, Romeo and Juliet, Aegeus/Creon, Medea, Richard Noakes, Arcadia (Pinnacle Acting Company), Ken De La Maize, The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940, Benedick, Much Ado About Nothing, Edgar Hollister/Constable Howard, The Murder Room, Linus Larrabee, Jr., Sabrina Fair, The Common Man, A Man For All Seasons, Theseus, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Leslie Bromhead, No Sex Please, We’re British, Carter, Witness For The Prosecution (StageRight TheaterCompany), Photographer, Bands of Iron, Rings of Gold (Salt Lake Community College/Taylorsville Arts Council), Policeman, Angel Street, various roles, Golliwhoppers, Nicia, Mandragola, Guard, Antigone (Linfield College). His technical credits include: Assistant Director for Bands of Iron, Rings of Gold (Salt Lake Community College/Taylorsville Arts Council); Technical Director for A Servant of Two Masters, A Grand Night For Singing, Bus Stop, No Sex Please, We’re British (StageRight TheaterCompany) and The Dirty Old Man (Linfield College); Lighting Designer for Play It Again, Sam, Witness For The Prosecution, A Century In Song (StageRight TheaterCompany), Pippin (Wasatch Theater Company), and Rachel’s Daughter (Linfield College); Set Designer for The Seagull (Pinnacle Acting Company); Stage Manager for Seascape (Linfield College); Master Carpenter for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (StageRight TheaterCompany); and numerous stage construction credits at Pinnacle Acting Company, Promised Valley Playhouse, StageRight TheaterCompany, and Linfield College.
Lindsay Lohner Company Member	Lindsay is a Graduate from the Salt Lake School for the Performing Arts and is currently attending Weber State University in the Musical Theatre Program. Her most recent credits include: Claire in Who Will Carry the Word, Tessie/June in Gypsy, Viola in Twelfth Night, Catherine, Cambridge, York, and Henry in Henry V, and Kate in Pirates of Penzance. She has had several years of vocal and dance training as well.
Melanie Rees Company Member	Melanie Rees holds degrees from Utah State University in Theatre, Special Education, and Elementary Education, and works as a reading specialist at Stansbury Elementary in West Valley City. She has also worked as an instructor and coordinator at Children’s Theatre of Salt Lake. Roles she has played at Pinnacle Acting Company include Gina in Who Will Carry the Word?, Masha in The Seagull, Ruth in Blithe Spirit and Sampson/Mercutio’s Page/Chief Watchman in Romeo & Juliet. Some of Melanie’s favorite roles include Penelope in See How They Run, Sally Bowles in Cabaret, Maria in Man of La Mancha, and Winnie in One for the Pot. She has performed locally for Hale Centre Theatre, The Grand, and The Utah Festival Opera. She also has credits from Cardinal Stage Company in Indiana.
Ron Jewett Company Member	Ron has acted and directed across the Salt Lake Valley for over twenty years. Acting credits include: Michael, the Englishman, in Someone Who'll Watch Over Me for Pinnacle Acting Company, The Duke/Dr Carrasco in Man of La Mancha, Axel in The Nerd, The Sergeant in See How They Run, The Duke and The King in separate productions of Big River, The Common Man in A Man for All Seasons, Dr Einstein in Arsenic & Old Lace, Levi in Joesph...Dreamcoat, The Professor in Bus Stop, Adrian in Private Eyes, Weller Martin in The Gin Game, Stage Manager in Our Town, Big Harp in The Robber Bridegroom, Stefano in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Duke of Cornwall in King Lear and most recently, The Mysterious Man in Into the Woods.
Sahara Hayes Company Member	Sahara Hayes is a sophomore at the Salt Lake School for the Performing Arts. Through the school’s program she has performed in Oklahoma! as a featured dancer and chorus member, in Henry V as Bedford, Alice, and Henry, in Gypsy as a showgirl and ensemble member, and in The Merry Wives of Windsor as Pistol. Through PAC, she has appeared as Thomasina in their production of Arcadia, Denise in Who Will Carry The Word?, and as Sonya in The Seagull. She has danced for seven years with Children’s Dance Theatre, most memorably with Pete Seeger during the 2002 Olympics, and most recently in Scientia.

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Pinnacle Acting Company
Midvale Performing Arts Center
695 W. Center Street. (7720 S.) Midvale, UT