Junior Artist's Center Faculty

David Bauman: (SAG, AFTRA, EQUIYTY) is an actor, teacher and children’s book author living in Los Angeles. As an actor, he has worked with the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, The Evidence Room Theater, Sacred Fools Theater, and The Blank Theater, in classic and contemporary productions. He received his Master of Fine Arts at UCLA, where he taught undergraduate acting. Recently, he taught for StageCoach Schools, a childrens performance program at Cross Roads school in Santa Monica. Bauman has free lanced several interactive childrens books for Golden Books in Wisconsin, and Meredith Publishing in Iowa.

Laura Carson (SAG, AFTRA, AEA) has been working as a professional actress for the past 20 years. She earned a B.A. in Theatre & Speech from the College of William and Mary. After graduation, she was one of 18 out of thousands to be selected for the Acting Apprentice Program at Actors Theatre of Louisville under the direction of Jon Jory and Bob Krakower. She lived in NYC for 10 years where she completed the 2 year Meisner program at Gately/Poole Acting Studio. She performed in Off-Off Broadway and regional theatre productions and had two of her original plays produced there. She now calls Los Angeles her home where she currently pursues a film and television career, the highlights of which include working on “Bruce Almighty”, “Grey’s Anatomy” and most recently, Marshall Herskovitz’ internet series “Quarterlife.” She also volunteers recording textbooks at Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic in Hollywood. Over the years she has taught improv and sketch comedy and digital film-making for kids. She has recently begun teaching a business of acting seminar called “The Working Actor” for college students which helps young actors focus their post-college goals in the acting business.

Brendan Constantine's work has appeared in numerous journals, most notably Ploughshares, The Cortland Review, ArtLife, and Odyssey. He has performed his work to packed audiences throughout the United States and Europe and competed nationally with the Venice Beach slam team. Brendan loves working with young writers and was Poet in Residence for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Family Days project for three years. He currently teaches poetry at The Windward School in West Los Angeles.

Mallory Cremin: MFA in Photography, ASU, Tempe, AZ; BA in Art History, Kenyon College, Gambler, OH. A freelance photographer for 20 years, and an art educator for the past 15 years, she has also self-produced a book, Printing Photographs on Fabric. Her art work has been exhibited across the country and is in the collections of the Center for Creative Photography and City of Mesa. She has taught at Cal State San Bernardino, Chaffey College, University of Redlands and other local colleges as well as the Idyllwild Arts Academy. Her work specializes in printing and alternative process emulsions on fabric and subjects of environmental concern.

Thomas Griep has a degree in Music Performance from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, OR and a graduate certificate in Composition from USC. He co-directed the USC filmscoring program for several years. His credits range from cartoons like Woody Woodpecker to magazine format shows like Hard Copy and Third Rock from the Sun. He has played and conducted numerous shows, including the national tour of Annie Get Your Gun, Mama Mia at the Schubert Theatre and Evita, West Side Story, Honk, and Assassins.

Linda Fuller Otis Arts Institute; BA, Art, Antioch University, Los Angeles; Early Childhood Degree, Center for Early Education, Los Angeles. Linda was a visual arts teacher for many summers at Idyllwild Arts, then known as ISOMATA, and then, for a few years, became the Co-Director of the Children’s Center. Linda has taught for several schools in the Los Angeles area, including the Midtown, Westland, and Los Encino schools, The Center for Early Education, and Crossroads Elementary School. As the Arts Specialist for Crossroads for fifteen years, Linda integrated art into the social studies curriculum and worked with both the theater and music programs, creating scene designs, masks, and murals. Linda also served as Arts Specialist and Consultant for the Melrose Avenue School and as Curriculum and Art Consultant for The Community School. Other teaching includes working as the Arts Specialist for the I. E. (Innovative Education) Program, associated with Hollywood High School, where she led field trips to Watts Towers and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and then guided the students to create sculptures and drawings based upon their experience. She also gives workshops for CAIS (California Association for Independent Schools) and CAEA (California Art Education Association). Currently, Linda is working with museums in New York to enhance and develop their children’s art programs. Linda continues to exhibit her artwork in Los Angeles and New York.

Eric Kao is in his tenure at University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth for a MFA in Ceramics. He received a BFA from California State University, Fullerton and has studied at California State University, Long Beach and Tainan National University for the Arts in Taiwan. He has traveled extensively in Europe, Asia, and Oceania visiting ceramic artists and studying cultures and how clay is used traditionally and as expression. His current body of work is ceramic sculpture. They rely on tacit qualities of surface and scale to reveal societal norms and conditions of our modern world. Eric is well informed on hand building, throwing and various firing techniques and this will be his 11th year at Idyllwild Arts.

Aaron Kisner is a graduate of the UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television’s directing program. Favorite projects span Los Angeles, New York and Exeter, England. They include: The Cherry Orchard, Spring Awakening, Jack Came Tumbling After, and Fool For Love. His short film Ding! received the Best Writing and Best Acting awards in the Best of LA Film Festival, and his commercial for H&M garnered a nomination for the Young Director’s Award in Cannes, France as part of the Cannes Lions Festival. In addition to directing projects, Aaron is also a freelance editor and visual effects producer.

Tim Labor: Ph.D. in music composition, UCSD. Currently a faculty member in the UC Riverside Dept. of Music, and a member of the Circle X Theatre Company. He is a composer and sound designer whose recent projects include Laura Comstock’s Bag Punching Dog for Circle X Theatre Company, and The Laramie Project for Mira Costa High School. In 2002, Tim received an LA Weekly award nomination for best original score for Paul Mullin’s world premier play American Book of the Dead, The Game Show.

Fred Marinello: BFA, Rochester Institute of Technology. Painter, graphic artist, printmaker, watercolorist and studio arts instructor. Web Gallery at www.fredmarinello.com. He has received awards from the Committee of Excellence in Higher Education, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD); The White House Commission On Presidential Scholars, “Distinguished Teacher”; National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, and Arts Recognition and Talent Search. Fred has been an Idyllwild Arts Summer Program instructor for seventeen years.

Johanna McKay (AEA, SAG, AFTRA) has directed and written adaptations of Shakespearean plays for young teens and has taught acting to children for over ten years. She teaches drama during the year at P.S. Arts in Los Angeles. Johanna has earned her BFA in acting from The Theatre School, DePaul University (Sarah Siddons Award), and her MFA from UCLA (Jack Nicholson Award). Johanna’s acting credits include work at the Steppenwolf, The Goodman, Dallas Theatre Center, San Jose Repertory Theatre and the Hollywood Bowl. She recently won the Santa Barbara Independent Theatre Award for her performance as Gwendolyn in The Importance of Being Earnest (Rubicon Theatre) and a Dramaloque Award for Mary Barnes (The Odyssey). Film/TV credits include Grey’s Anatomy, Malcolm in the Middle, Mr. 3000, The Babe, and The Bernie Mac Show.

Carrie Meeker:  Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics, University of California Berkeley.

Jim Morford: Bachelor of Science, Western Washington University; post-Baccalaureate degrees in Digital Animation and Online Teaching, Cerro Coso Media Arts Academy. Jim is a multimedia instructor at Cerro Coso Media Arts Academy and College of the Sequoias, using Flash, Maya, 3ds max, Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Photoshop. Jim began his graphics career creating the AniMax computer graphics system and designing graphics and facilities for the environmental field and is a Certified Flash Designer. Jim operates and owns Vista Interactive Studios, providing online interactive content in animation and game design and development.

Felice Moskowitz brings over 30 years of teaching experience to Idlyllwild.Her extensive experience in choreography includes her work in The Wiz, Music Man, Once on this Island, Guys and Dolls, and Footloose. She is past board member of the International Network for Performing and Visual Arts Schools, and Dance chair for the Oregon Board of Physical Education.Currently Felice teaches at the Arts and Communication Magnet Academy, and is assistant director of Dance West, a pre-professional training company.

Cat Orlando earned an Arts degree with an emphasis in three dimensional design, with Highest Honors. She has been part of the family at Idyllwild Arts since 2000 teaching Bearmaking during Family Camp. She has taught children various forms of art over the last twenty years including art classes for the Palm Springs Unified School District G.A.T.E. program. She has been teaching all forms of dance since 1998 for students age two years old to adult. Her dancers have won numerous awards and the Desert Theater League awarded her Best Costume and Make-Up Design. She also runs an arts camp for children called F.A.M.E., Fine Arts & Music Education which opened in July 2002.

Robert Petitmermet: BFA, Sculpture, Illinois Wesleyan University, MFA, Sculpture, Southern Illinois University; artist/educator; currently Art Department Chair and fine arts instructor, AP Portfolio Classes, Sculpture and Seminar-In-Art, Torrey Pines High School; involved in curriculum development and technology applications in arts classes. Idyllwild Arts Summer Program instructor for seventeen years.

Jessica Schiffman has illustrated fifteen children’s books for publishers (among them, Harcourt, Ottenheimer, and Zaner-Bloser) including Much, Much Better, which received an Eric Hoffer Children’s Book Award in 2007. Her comic strips and cartoons have appeared in publications nationwide. Jessica is also a painter, represented by the Jake Dent Gallery and Studio 84 West, and is co-owner of the Schiffman+Anson Gallery and Sculpture Garden near Idyllwild. She studied at the San Francisco Art Institute, UCLA, and the Art Academy of Los Angeles. Jessica has taught Graphic Storytelling at the Idyllwild Arts Academy for six years.