faculty SPOTLIGHT

Seth Decker is a Lovett alumnus and a graduate of Boston University’s Theatre Conservatory with a BFA in classical stage acting. He has been acting professionally since age 8, and has performed all over the country, from Charlotte to San Francisco to Boston. He has appeared in various television shows, commercials, and industrial films in Atlanta. In 2003, he founded Red Door Playhouse, where he teaches acting, playwriting, and improvisation to kids, teens, and adults year round. He hosts the weekly Red Door Improv Show and offers in-school improv programs and corporate teambuilding workshops across the state. He’s excited to bring the spontaneous fun of improv to all the theater students at Lovett this year.

Rhoda Griffis has been a professional working actress for over 40 years in film, television, commercials, voice-overs, and print. Holding a BFA from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (where she now serves as a meber of the Board of Trustees), she was a member of the Acting Company for seven seasons at the NC Shakespeare Festival and toured the east coast teaching Shakespeare in schools. Other theatrical credits include Charlotte Rep, St. Louis Rep, The Alliance Theatre, Theatre- by-the-Sea in Portsmouth, NH, and Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Ms. Griffis has over 85 feature films under her belt-including: Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Parental Guidance, The Blind side, Walk The Line, and recent feature film Black Spartans . Rhoda will be starring with Dolly Parton this Holiday Season in “Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas!” With over 70 television credits, watch for her in Netflix’s Ozark Season 4 and HBO’s The Righteous Gemstone . Rhoda enjoyed recurring roles on Army Wives, Drop Dead Diva, and Satisfaction. She uses her experience in the business to guide students how to work as a professional Actor in the Southeast Market. Teaching acting for the camera, audition techniques, and teaching Theatre classes as part of the Theatre faculty (including Honors Theatre—The Acting Company), assistant directing shows, dialogue coaching students on accents, voice-over study, and ear-prompter instruction. Students get training on how actors work, train and audition professionally.

Jay Freer, a 1978 Lovett graduate and Director of Fine Arts, teaches the Honors Theater Arts course. He has taught and directed more than 95 plays and musicals at Lovett over the last 35 years. Jay has directed at The Alliance Theatre, Aurora Theatre, Theatrical Outfit, and Theatre in the Square, and was also the founder and Producing Artistic Director of Actors Theatre of Atlanta (ATA). Among the shows he directed for ATA are The Good Doctor, Collected Stories (Abie Award nominated in 2001), Underneath the Lintel (Southeastern premiere and chosen as the number one play of 2003 by the AJC & Creative Loafing), Talley’s Folly, and Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol. Jay has also taught acting at The North Carolina School of the Arts and The South Carolina Governors School for the Arts, as well as numerous professional classes. He studied in New York with Uta Hagen, considered “one of the greatest actresses and acting teachers of the 20th century” and continues to study acting with her protégé Ted Brunetti. In 2008, The Charles Loridans Foundation recognized Jay for excellence and leadership in theater education.

Middle School Theater Arts

Middle School Theater Arts classes are offered for seventh and eighth grade students, and as part of the Lovett Life Lessons rotation for sixth grade students as public speaking. In seventh grade, students are taught the fundamentals of nonverbal storytelling through sensory exploration and improvisation. They then move on to voice/diction work, as well as introductory scene study. Eighth graders are taught audition technique, stage combat, theater history, scene work from classic plays, and ultimately production rehearsal and performance through the Middle School spring play. Students are encouraged to be creative and disciplined at the same time and are given an opportunity to grow in poise and self confidence. Two Middle School theater productions are presented annually in the Hendrix-Chenault Theater.

Chris Ekholm, Lovett’s Middle School theater arts teacher, has been a professional actor for over 30 years, performing in theater, film, television, TV commercials, radio voice-overs, training films, and live industrials. He has directed productions for adults and children and has adjudicated auditions for the Georgia Theatre Conference. He is a winner of two Suzi Bass Awards, in 2005 for Most Outstanding Actor and 2007 for Most Outstanding Ensemble in a Play, which recognize excellence in Atlanta theater. Chris has appeared on many of Atlanta’s stages, including Alliance Theatre, Theatrical Outfit, Georgia Ensemble Theatre, Horizon Theatre, True Colors Theatre Company, and Theatre in the Square, where he won four Jennie Awards. Over the course of his career, Chris has worked with such people as Steve Martin, John Lithgow, Tyler Perry, Jonathan Demme, and Ruth Buzzi, among others. Mr. Ekholm is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association, Screen Actor’s Guild, and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. Finally, Ekholm is a very proud recipient of the 2013 Woodward Award for Teaching Excellence and the 2015 Beth and Ray Chenault Fine Arts Teaching Award at The Lovett School.

Eighth Grade Theater Arts

Seventh Grade Theater Arts