Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients

2007- Thomas Leabhart

Thomas Leabhart is Professor of Theatre and Resident Artist (1982-present) at Pomona College in Claremont, CA where he teaches mime, beginning acting, intermediate acting and directing.  He previously taught at Ohio State University, was Resident Artist at Grand Valley State Colleges in Allendale, MI, and was Artistic Director and teacher at the Valley Studio, Spring Green, WI (1978-1981).  He also teaches, performs, and lectures in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, England, Wales, western Europe, Singapore, and Japan.

He is the editor of Mime Journl, an internationally distributed periodical (22 volumes since 1974), author of Modern and Post-Modern Mime (1989), and author of 35 articles on related topics. He published Etienne Decroux in 2007 as part of the Routledge Performers Series.  Directing projects include works by Moliere, Sophocles, and Sam Shepard, and his solo performance is entitled,
Bonjour, Monsieur Decroux.

He is a master teacher who shares joy of life, love of people and passion for his art with all his students and colleagues.  His mind, body, and spirit express the work and thoughts of Decroux like no one else.  He has a nurturing style of teaching and great humility toward his profession.  He gives individual attention infused with love.  Emphasizing the importance of listening as a theatre practioner, Tom says, “in the listening, you’re knitting it all together.”

2006- Jewel Walker

Jewel Walker, theatre, is the recipient of the Outstanding Teacher in Higher Education Award presented by the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE). Walker's former students, including Ted Danson, Rene Auberjonois, Cherry Jones and others, wrote endearing letters of support on his behalf.

Walker is the primary movement instructor of University of Delaware's Professional Theatre Training Program and was known nationally as Mime Walker on Mister Roger's Neighborhood.

Jones, a 1995 Tony award winner for The Heiress, wrote that Walker's "extraordinary artistry, discipline and commitment has proved to be a vital navigational star in my professional career.... His voice is with me as I approach and develop each character."

Linda Balgord, who starred in the National Touring Company of Sunset Boulvard, wrote, "The work that I began as Jewel's student has never stopped. I have continued to use his teachings in all of my professional work. It is very difficult to find the words that can communicate the profound effect a master teacher can have on a student. I owe a great deal of my success as an actor to Jewel Walker."

Tom Hewitt, whose credits range from Frasier and All My Children to Broadway's School for Scandal, wrote, "I count Jewel as one of the most influential people in my work and in my life...17 years [after studying with Walker] the question I most ask myself is 'What would Jewel have me do?'"

Walker is a founding member of the American Conservatory Theatre, spent 13 years as head of stage movement at Carnegie Mellon University and helped found the Professional Theatre Training Program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, prior to its move to UD. American Theatre magazine recently featured him in an article chronicling his ground breaking work in movement.

2005- Anna Halprin

Anna Halprin, now in her late eighties, continues to perform and teach in her home base in Marin County and San Francisco as well as nationally and internationally. From her first European invitation to perform at the XXVI Festival Internazionale di Musica Contemporanea in Vienna in 1963, to her most recent 2004 performance at the Festival D’Autome in Paris, Halprin has always consider herself a theatre person.

In 1955 Anna began developing a vision of theatre which stripped away artifice and returned to the body as the source of creativity. In the mid-sixties, Halprin directly influenced the New York experimental theatre scene with her performances and psychophysically based teaching. Her focus has been to renew the connection to communal ritual experience in theatre practice.

Her creative work has been supported by fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. She has many published articles and among her published books are Movement Ritual, Citydance, and Returning to Health through Movement and Imagery.

2003- Moni Yakim

Moni Yakim has been on the faculty of the Juilliard School, Drama Division teaching movement and dance since 1968. He formerly headed the movement departments of Yale Drama School, Stella Adler Conservatory and Circle in the Square.

He studied at Le Théâtre National Populaire, Paris and performed with Le Théâtre Franco-Allemande. He was a principal performer in the mime companies of Etienne Decroux, Marcel Marceau. He founded and directed the Performance Theater Center.

Directed in Israel and Europe . Moni Yakim has directed contemporary and classical plays for Yale Rep., American Shakespeare Festival, Juilliard Drama Theater, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway and in Israel and Europe. He directed original production of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well , Village Gate, N.Y.; and has directed opera and created movement for film. He is the author of Creating a Character.

2003- Bari Rolfe

Bari Rolfe (1916-2002) began dancing as a child and performed in California and Mexico. In 1953, Rolfe joined the Actor’s Workshop in San Francisco where she helped with stage movement and choreography.

She traveled to Paris in 1963 and studied for three years at Ecole Lecoq with Marcel Marceau. Her initial goal was to become a better dancer, but by 1966, Rolfe realized that she wanted to teach Lecoq technique rather than perform. Upon her return to the United States she was hired at UCLA’s newly formed Professional Actor Training Program and introduced Lecoq technique to this county. In later years, she taught at California State Northridge, University of Washington, and at the Conservatory of Mime at Chabot College in Hayward, CA, where she also served as coordinator of the program. 

In addition to teaching, Rolfe published over one hundred articles and reviews. She authored six books, beginning with Behind the Mask in 1977 to her final work, Mask in Mime and Puppet in 2002.  She also edited three volumes, including her historical Mimes on Miming.  From 1966-2002 Rolfe choreographed, directed, and consulted on many productions both nationally and internationally, and gave numerous workshops on topics ranging from mask, story theatre, and period movement. Rolfe’s papers, books, masks and artifacts are housed at the San Francisco Performing Arts Library and Museum.

1999- Jim Hancock , Ph.D.

Throughout his teaching career, Jim Hancock specialized in Movement for Actors, Period Styles and The Alexander Technique. He received his doctorate at the University of Minnesota where he worked closely with Bob Moulton. A life-long learner he has extensive study and certification in diverse techniques including Aikido, the Form, and the Alexander Technique. He has acted and directed professionally and for academic institutions. He, along with his wife, Suzan Zeder, has conducted numerous creative workshops documented in their book, Spaces of Creation: The Creative Process of Playwriting.

He has headed and chaired acting/directing programs and departments at the University of Texas at Austin, Southern Methodist University and the University of South Florida. Many of his students teach in MFA and BFA Theatre programs throughout the United States including, among others, Rich Rand, Bruce Lecure, Marcia Douglas, and Sarah Barker.

1996- Shirley Dodge

Shirley Dodge taught movement and dance at the University of Texas-Austin

1993- Marjorie L. Barstow

Marjorie Barstow, 1899-1995, was the first graduate of F. M. Alexander's first teacher training course. A trained dance she taught dance and ballroom dance in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1931 she joined the first Alexander Technique Teacher training in London, England with F. M. and A. R. Alexander. After spending a number of years as A. R. Alexander's assistant in Boston, she took a furlough in her career as an Alexander teacher. She came to prominence as a teacher in the early 1960's and was the Master Alexander Technique teacher at the International Movement Institute in Dallas, Texas in 1970. In the early 1970's she initiated a series of courses in Lincoln, Nebraska, her home. People interested in the Technique flocked to these courses and in time some of the most influential teachers teaching today became her students, people such as Frank Ottiwell, Jim Hancock, Sarah Barker, Michael and Lena Frederick, Bruce and Martha Fertman, and Bill and Barbara Conable among many others. Marjorie was an invited master teacher in departments of Theatre, Dance and Music at many Universities throughout the United States and the world. She received an Honorary Doctorate degree in the Humanities from Doane College for her pioneering work in the Alexander Technique. Her influence on the growth of the Technique and its pedagogy is incalculable.