JONESBOROUGH REPERTORY THEATRE

Kathleen Buttolph

Kathleen Buttolph re-opened Jonesborough Repertory Theatre as a full time theatre in February of 2004. She has been the Artistic Director since June of 2004. Kathleen received a B.A. in Theatre and a B.A. in History from Emory & Henry College. She has performed professionally, taught and directed theatre over the past 10 years. Kathleen started producing plays for young people at JRT in 2004 with ten students. Since 2004, we have had over 300 students involved with JRT. Kathleen hopes that JRT will continue to be a home for all ages and talents growing in the performing arts.

Janette Gaines

Janette Gaines directed her debut show, The Wizard of the Mall, at JRT in the spring of 2004. She has been teaching students theatre at JRT for the past 3 years and has both directed and co-directed several productions including Shoestring Theatre, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, James and the Giant Peach, and most recently, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Janette has studied the process of how to teach play writing at the Barter Theatre’s teachers’ workshop for the past two years, and eagerly awaits this year’s class. When not teaching or performing theatre, Janette teaches a community education class in American Sign Language (ASL). Her love for both theatre and American Sign Language has inspired her to found a new group at JRT called Stage Hands. This group uses both spoken English and the visual language of ASL to communicate dialogue while acting out each play. The group’s goals are to take both classic stories and the art of theatre into area schools. At the same time, Stage Hands hopes to introduce hearing children to the beauty of American Sign Language and Deaf culture.

Janna Browning

Janna Browning received her B.F.A. in Acting from Emerson College in Boston, MA and her Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology with a concentration in Drama Therapy from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco, CA. She has performed in and directed theatre and film all over the United States.　Janna is also a co-founder of ACTUALeyes Productions, a company which uses Transformational Theatre to create stage and screen pieces based on participants' life experiences and, through the creation process promotes emotional growth, self-awareness, and self-expression.