51ÉçÇø

Tantrum was founded in the fall of 2015 by 51ÉçÇø’s College of Fine Arts. The theater is a professional company and serves as a training ground providing apprenticeships for students in the School of Theater. The name Tantrum Theater comes from a group of 51ÉçÇø graduate students who discovered that one of the collective names for a group of bobcats is a Tantrum. The mascot of 51ÉçÇø is the bobcat. Tantrum’s mission is to create and propel forward a resident professional theater company and training conservatory in a partnership with the 51ÉçÇø College of Fine Arts.

Mission

We seek:

1. To connect and impact the Athens community through educational outreach and culturally diverse innovative programming that encompasses multiple theatrical disciplines
2. To develop new work and offer new points of view on classic stories that have contemporary relevance, and
3. To offer opportunities for intercultural exchange.

WE HOPE YOU’LL JOIN US.

Meet the Staff

Company Manager
Evan Bergman

Resident Stage Manager
Shay Trusty

Resident Assistant Stage Manager
Beatrice Feldbush

Resident Lighting Designer
Michael Lincoln

2024 Arts Administration Internship
Lauren Janoschka

Ellie Clark
Artistic Director

Ellie Clark (she/her) is an Atlanta-based actor and teaching artist. Her most recent credits include The Wonder Years on ABC, First Wives Club on BET, and a recurring role on Season 5 & 6 of Tyler Perry’s Sistas. She has performed on stages throughout the United States and in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Her most notable credits include Antony & Cleopatra (Cleopatra), Pride & Prejudice (Elizabeth Bennet), A Streetcar Named Desire (Stella), Marie Antoinette (Marie), Dancing at Lughnasa (Agnes), Crimes of the Heart (Meg), and A Chorus Line (Sheila). Ellie has been an educator for 20+ years and is currently the Artistic Director for Arvold Warner Studio, a training ground for Southeast artists pursuing film and TV, founded by Emmy-nominated casting director Erica Arvold and esteemed master teacher, Richard Warner. She is the Movement Specialist and Chair of the Drama program at Kentucky’s Governor’s School for the Arts and is the Co-Founder of Voices Amplified, an arts activism initiative that generates brave and equitable spaces for voices historically underrepresented in dominant culture. Ellie obtained her MFA from 51ÉçÇø’s Professional Actor Training Program. She is trained in the Meisner Approach to acting and has trained extensively with Anne Bogart and the SITI Company in Viewpoints, Suzuki, and Composition. Other notable endeavors include co-founding Actors Room Atlanta, a self-tape service for Atlanta actors and Project SEE Theatre, a fellowship of artists dedicated to engaging the community through imaginative storytelling.

 - IG: @aka_ellieclark

Roberto Di Donato
Producing Director

Roberto is a Venezuelan-Italian artist from the colonized territories that were originally home for the Tawakoni and Wichita nations known as Dallas, Texas. He is a 2024 Cohort Member for the Beth Morrison Projects Producer Academy. Roberto's highly collaborative projects have been seen in New York and Austin. His work was called "An Experimental Masterstroke" by Austin Arts Watch and The Austin Chronicle states it "carries you to the boundaries of what you think you want to watch and tips you over it". Roberto is the creator of Chicharrón: a communion with the triple As which has workshopped in Austin, Tx and performed in Cleveland, Austin, and NYC.

Roberto is currently on the Board of Directors for Salvage Vanguard Theater which has been pushing the boundary of experimental performance in Austin, TX since 1994.  

Additional recent work include: Producing a reading of a new adaptation of Coriolanus at LA MAMA in NYC. Adapting and Directing Twelfth Night, Or What You Will at Shakespeare in the Woods in Manchester, VT and Directing: A Perfect Day Away at Cincinnati Fringe Festival. 

@roberto_di_donato | 

Rebecca VerNooy
Director of Education

Rebecca is an Assistant Professor at 51ÉçÇø and specializes in movement for the actor and physical theater.  She spent twenty years in New York City as a movement theater artist—choreographing, acting, writing and teaching.

As the Artistic Director of VerNooy Dance Theater (1995 – 2006), she developed and performed original work at Ensemble Studio Theater, Dance Theater workshop, Joyce Soho, and many other NY venues.

She ran the Intern Program at Ensemble Studio Theater from 1994-2000, is the founder of the Movement Educator’s Research Group (MERGE), and a founding member of Brick Monkey Theater Ensemble in Southeastern Ohio.  She has created over a dozen original full-length works, including her most recently devised piece with undergraduates from 51ÉçÇø, Elbows Off the Table.  Her original one-woman show, Across Time, received the award for Best Movement at The United Solo Festival in NYC.

Contact Rebecca by email at vernooy@tantrumtheater.org

Evan Bergman
Company Manager

A recent transplant from Atlanta, Evan is excited to join Tantrum as Company Manager. His background in theatre encompasses acting, teaching, directing and producing. Acting credits range from new work development in New York, performing in regional theatres, spots in blockbuster and indie films, and principal roles in a variety of commercials, including Epson Printers, opposite Shaquille O’Neal. As an educator he’s taught acting on the collegiate level, most recently serving as Visiting Professor of Theatre at Wofford College in South Carolina. He is currently co-Artistic Director of Arvold Warner Studio, founded by Emmy nominated casting director, Erica Arvold. Evan is a proud graduate of the two-year Meisner conservatory at the Maggie Flanigan Studio in NYC and he holds an MFA in Acting from University of Virginia.

Jaxon Meadows
Assistant Technical Director

Jaxon is a production design technologist from Southeastern Ohio. He holds a BA in Production Design & Technology and an MA in Theater Management from 51ÉçÇø. He began his career at 51ÉçÇø as a transfer student from The Ohio State University. He initially began his work as a student from 2017-2021, then joined the Tantrum staff in 2021. His mission is to bring diversity and engagement to Southeastern Ohio Theater companies by promoting community arts in the Appalachian Region. He has collaborated with River City Players, Ohio Valley Summer Theater, and Stuart’s Opera House. His recent productions include: Men on Boats (Assistant Technical Director), Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812(Assistant Technical Director), Julius Caesar (Technical Director), Shrek the Musical (Technical Director), and The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Assistant Technical Director).

Crystal Dahm
Production Manager

Crystal Dahm is a theatre technician specializing in technical direction and production management. While she has dabbled in most areas of technical theatre, her true passion lies in helping other artists coordinate and produce a cohesive theatrical experience.

Recent professional experience includes work as a carpenter and scene shop office administrator for the Santa Fe Opera in Santa Fe, NM (including The Flying Dutchman, Tosca, Pelléas et Mélisande, Rusalka, and Orfeo) and as technical director at Millbrook Playhouse in Lock Haven, PA (including Newsies, Sexy Laundry, Fox on the Fairway, and Every Brilliant Thing). In addition, Crystal interned at Chai du Terral, a performing arts center in Montpellier, France, and lead several educational drama programs at the Lyccée Claude Gellée high school in Épinal, France.

Education

BFA in Theatre Design and Technology, with emphases in Technical Direction and Lighting Technology, from Penn State University

BA in Applied French from Penn State University

Drew Surovjak
Administrative Associate

Drew joined the Theater Division in July of 2015 as the Administrative Associate and thoroughly enjoys his supportive role in assisting administrators, faculty, staff, and students navigate through academia. He was born and raised on the shores of Lake Erie and came to the region in 2008 to attend Hocking College. Something about the hills resonated with him and while he misses seeing the lake every day, he feels very at home in the hills of Southeast Ohio.

Drew has had quite the meandering path up to this point and it looks to meander further. He has earned two associate’s degrees, one in business with a focus in banking and finance and another in ecotourism and adventure travel. He is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Specialized Studies focusing on outdoor recreation, sustainability, and anthropology and aspires to continue through grad school and eventually teach outdoor recreation at the collegiate level, sharing his passion for the environment and the responsible enjoyment of it.

Prior to joining the Theater Division, Drew walked in many different shoes and wore many different hats. He has spent time as a cook, a banker, an account representative for a large advertising firm, a custom woodworker, an adventure guide, and even a field station manager in the remote rainforest of southern Belize. In his personal life, he enjoys camping, reading, hiking, woodworking, gardening, throwing darts, working on his house, spending time with family and friends, and is happiest in a canoe with a paddle in his hands.