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Meet The Faculty

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Program Director & Acting Coach

Morgan Hicks

Morgan serves as an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas where she teaches Theatre History and Directing and recently directed shows such as Heathers, She Kills Monsters, Lysistrata, Eurydice, As You Like It, The Exonerated and Vinegar Tom. She is a co-founder of TheatreSquared where she serves as the Director of Education and Program Development and has directed numerous shows including A Christmas Carol, Noises Off, Boeing Boeing, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), Fully Committed, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Murder For Two and The Dingdong. Previously she served as general manager of Writer’s Theatre in Chicago and company manager of BareStage in Missouri. She holds a BFA in Acting from Arkansas State University, an MA in Performance Studies from Missouri State University, and an MFA in Directing from the University of Arkansas and studied Political Theatre at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. Each summer, Morgan directs the TheatreSquared Shakespeare Academy, where she has directed teens in productions of Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest, Hamlet, and Macbeth.

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Program Manager & Hall Director

Emily Tomlinson

A University of Arkansas graduate, Emily has extensive experience both as a teaching artist and an actor. She has spent summers teaching at TheatreSquared’s Summer Shakespeare Academy, working with youth at Arts Live Theatre, and has toured Arkansas with Trike Theatre – Northwest Arkansas’ Professional Theatre for Youth. As an actor, Emily has appeared in numerous shows including Uncle, What God Hath Wrought, and Swimming with Van Gogh, Staging the Daffy Dame (TheatreSquared), Cinderella Confidential (Trike Theatre), As You Like It (Classical Edge Theatre Company),The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Macbeth. Emily holds a BA in Drama from the University of Arkansas and an MFA in Performing Arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design.

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Resident Assistant & Movement Coach

Joe Binzer

Joseph is an actor and playwright from Savannah, GA. He has appeared in various productions including Cabaret, Legally Blonde, and God of Carnage. He has written and produced The People We’re Not, a one-man show. He has also appeared in Amazon’s Z: The Beginning of Everything. Joseph holds a BA in Film, Television, and Theatre from the University of Notre Dame and an MFA in Performing Arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design.

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Music Coach

Ashtyn Barbaree

Ashtyn Barbaree is an internationally touring indie americana singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA. She was just nominated and selected to be the 2021 Arkansas Ambassador for Music. In December 2018, Ashtyn was the first NWA artist exported to Europe through a grant from the Walton Family Foundation. Ashtyn has performed across the United States, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, The Netherlands and Germany. 2019 was a busy year including performances at Folk Alliance International (Montreal, Canada), an official showcase at CD Baby's DIY Festival (Austin, Texas), an artist residency in NYC (Bethany Arts) and a month of touring Europe. In addition to playing around 300 shows a year, she has been writing and recording her first full length album at The Studio Nashville (Nashville, TN), to be released 2022. 

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Poetry Coach

NaTosha De'Von

Na’Tosha De’Von, a native of Chicago IL, was raised in Mississippi. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in Theatre and Speech Communications from Thee Jackson State University, and a Masters of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of Arkansas. Na’Tosha began her career in acting and poetry by way of God’s Design, believing that the purpose of her art is to expose and heal. Through her poetry she has worked with prominent people fighting for social injustices and human rights including: Danny Glover, Ilyasah Shabazz, Myrlie Evers, and Common. Her acting career has led her to appear in several Walmart commercials, the series ‘Chase the Lion’ on the TBN television network, and other film and television projects. Na’Tosha has worked extensively with several theatre companies both Regional and Non-Regional across the nation, focusing on both classical and non-classical text. While working on her poerty, Na’Tosha is a casting assistant for Actors Casting Agency (ACA) in Arkansas. She has been a published poet for years, with her works in many notable literary sites including Literary Sanctuary. With her art, Na’Tosha desires to inspire and mentor younger artists who hold similar backgrounds to her. She wants to instill in young artists that with hard work and creativity, anything is possible.

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Devising Coach

Trey Smith

Trey is an actor, a Fayetteville native, and a very recent graduate of the University of Arkansas where he received his Bachelor of Arts in Theatre. He has appeared in productions at the Arts Center of the Ozarks, TheatreSquared's Arkansas New Play Fest, and at the University of Arkansas in The Mountaintop, Avenue Q, American Idiot, Angels in America, Twelfth Night, Rise, Topdog/Underdog and She Kills Monsters. He recently directing an undergraduate production of Dream of the Burning Boy.  in 2019, Trey was a member of the cast of The Poe Show for the TheatreSquared Schools Tour, which will visit over 70 schools across Arkansas.  He has recently produced and performed in productions of "I and You" and "This Bitter Earth" in Fayetteville.  

Our Mission
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