Curriculum Vitæ

of Christian Heppinstall

Community Service

Curret Board Work

2006 Planned Parenthood Choice Award in Education (for Inner Circle tour)

2004-2005 Anchorage Municipal Assembly Award, AR No.2005-8

  • Resolution in honor of my work in theatre benefitting Anchorage-area youth
  • Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association Certificate of Appreciation for volunteer work

Artistic Administration

2007-10 Artistic and Executive Director for Alaska Theatre of Youth, Anchorage, Alaska

  • Plan main stage seasons, arrange script/music purchase/rental and rights/royalties contracts with publishers, direct shows, hold auditions, cast actors, hire staff and guest contractors, teach, attend to PR image of theatre, oversee/approve PR materials, write press releases, arrange for press interviews, manage touring shows (Young Shakespeare Company: Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Hamlet), liaise with social service groups, liaise with municipal and state officials regarding grants and building/space leases, contribute to the General Operating Budget of the company in terms of cost center design and delivery of budgetary actual numbers and forecasts, contribute to grant-writing, and pay bills/vendors with check-signing authority. In co-production with the Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association I assisted with developing and implementing the PR designs/materials that successfully promoted The Inner Circle: Changing Times, an HIV/AIDS awareness play for teens that toured the State of Alaska. (http://www.alaskatheatreofyouth.org) Organize the Summer Conservatory five-week summer theatre arts camp and the weekend drama centers (hiring staff, scheduling, budgeting, student registration, PR, parent outreach, venue rental, etc.) Coordinate school shows and arrange busing with the theatre school liaison. Train and oversee the technical interns (lighting, sound, set-build, costuming, stage management). Coordinate volunteers.

2003-04 Artistic Director Alaska Theatre of Youth, Anchorage, Alaska

  • Plan main stage seasons, direct shows, hold auditions, cast actors, hire staff and guest contractors, teach, attend to PR image of theatre, oversee/approve PR materials, write press releases, arrange for press interviews, manage touring shows, liaise with social service groups, liaise with municipal and state officials regarding grants and building/space leases in the Mountain View district, contribute to the General Operating Budget of the company in terms of cost center design and delivery of budgetary actual numbers and forecasts, contribute to grant-writing, and pay bills with check-signing authority. In co-production with the Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association I assisted with developing and implementing the PR designs/materials that successfully promoted The Inner Circle: Changing Times, an HIV/AIDS awareness play for teens that is currently touring the State of Alaska.

Stage Direction: Professional

2009-2010 Stage Direction

2008-2009 Stage Direction

2007-2008 Stage Direction

2006-2007 Stage Direction

2005-2006 Stage Direction

2003-2004 Stage Direction

1989-2001 Stage Direction

  • Iolanthe (or, The Peer and the Peri) by W.S. Gilbert & A. Sullivan, Lyric Opera, San José, California
  • Fernando Krapp Wrote Me This Letter (NYC) adapted by Heppinstall from Tankred Dorst's drama of the same name,for the New York International Fringe Festival, in English
  • The following productions occurred in Budapest, Hungary in this time period:
    • Ring Round the Moon adapted by Christopher Fry from Jean Anouilh's L'Invitation au Chateau, the English Theatre Company of Budapest, in English
    • Delilah by Ferenc Molnár, Karinthy Theatre, Budapest, Hungary; in Hungarian
    • On Tidy Endings by Harvey Fierstein, the Goethe Institute, Budapest, Hungary; in Hungarian, a staged-reading by professional actors for the cultural program of World AIDS Day: the Positive Cultural Festival
    • Extremities (Az Erôszak Határai) by William Mastrosimone, Karinthy Theatre, in Hungarian
    • The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, the English Theatre Company of Budapest; in English
    • Blood Relations (Vérrokónók) by István Örkény, Pécsi Kísszínház (Pécs Little Theatre), Pécs, Hungary; in Hungarian
    • Pisti in the Bloodbath (Písti a Vérzivatarban) by István Örkény, The Annex Theatre, Seattle, Washington
    • Woyzeck by Georg Büchner, Basic Little Theatre, Seattle, Washington.

Special Projects in Theater

2007-2010 The Young Shakespeare Company (YSC)

  • Established by Christian Heppinstall in fall of 2007 with touring production of Macbeth.
  • Toured 08-09 school year with Twelfth Night and Pyramus & Thisbe.
  • Alaska’s only regularly-scheduled touring troupe of actors. 2009-2010 tour is Hamlet.
  • ominated for 2008 Mayor’s Arts Award for Best Youth Arts Organization.
  • Hamlet toured Talkeetna in April, 2010.

2004 & 2007-2009 Summer Conservatory

  • Administered as the executive that includes programming the 22-year-old Festival of Plays, hiring staff, conducting student sign-ups, scheduling, budgets, fundraising, etc. Includes about 20 staffers for approx. 150 kids aged 5 to 18. Schedule is five weeks total. Typical weekly schedule is half-day of classes and half-day of rehearsals that culminate in the rotating repertory play festival. Uses the Discovery Theater within the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts.

2004-2005 The Inner Circle: Changing Times

  • Educational theater touring project about HIV/AIDS for middle and high school students. Received Red Cross Real Heroes’ Award and Planned Parenthood Educator of the Year Award. Toured Alaskan schools from Fairbanks to Seward and Homer.

1989-2001 Scenic Designs

  • Hamlet, Seussical the Musical, Into the Woods, Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, Frankenstein, Evita, Bunnicula, The Magic Flute, Julius Caesar, Guys and Dolls, Rocky Horror Show (all 3), Hair, Little Shop of Horrors, Cabaret, Charles Busch comedies, A Christmas Carol, As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, The Inner Circle

Drama Center

  • Administered as the executive three seasons of Saturday Drama Centers. This includes programming the courses, hiring staff, conducting student sign-ups, scheduling, budgets, fundraising, etc. Includes the Spring Break Theater Boot Camp and the Saturday Camp at Girdwood.

The New Directors Program

  • Created this program in 2008 and has mentored seven young directors under the age of 24 in main stage and summer conservatory shows playing in either the 350 or 700 seat proscenium theaters at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts. A unique program for Alaska.

Stage Management

  • Certified by the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts where he has stage managed many productions for both ATY and TAU.

Acting

  • 2005 As You Like It "Duke Frederick" by Wm. Shakespeare, ATY, Anchorage
  • 2002 The Bombay Trunk “Jonathan Cavendish” by Felice Picano, the New Conservatory Theater, San Francisco
  • 2002 Private Eyes “Adrian Poynter” by Steven Dietz, the Bus Barn Stage Co., Los Altos, CA
  • 2002 Synchronicities “Einstein” by Trevor Allen, the Cutting Ball Theater, San Francisco
  • 2001 A Midsummer Night’s Dream “Tailor/Moonshine” by W. Shakespeare, Stinson Beach Shakespeare Festival, CA

Teaching

Summer Conservatory 2004

  • Alaska Theatre of Youth
    Post: teacher - ATY’s Summer Conservatory and Drama Center: Basic Acting and Shakespeare
    Topics: auditions, Shakespeare
    Level: kids aged 11-18

Academic Year 1991-1992

  • Janus Pannonius University, Pécs, Hungary
    Post: lectured in American Studies Program within Department of English: drama
    Topics: American Drama, American Civilization
    Level: 5th Year undergraduates, graduates

Academic Year 1986 -1987

  • BYU Directing Theory and Practicum Program
    Post: teaching assistant; graduate assistantships in directing
    Duties: lecture, student evaluation, research, curriculum and reading list development, production scheduling and stage management
    Level: undergraduate juniors & seniors, graduates

Stage Direction: Brigham Young University

1987 Playwrighting, Directing and Acting Program:

  • Charades by Thomas F. Rogers; directed by myself
  • Come Again, Bohemian Waxwing; penned by myself

1986-1987 BYU Theatre Department, Graduate Student Directing Projects:

  • Woyzeck by Georg Büchner, fully-staged
  • Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw; scenes only

1985-1987 BYU Opera (fully-staged; each one a graduate assistantship):

  • The Old Maid and the Thief by Giancarlo Menotti
  • Sechs Monologuen für Jedermann by Frank Martin
  • The Stoned Guest, P.D.Q. Bach & Peter Schickele
  • Die Entführung aus dem Serail by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  • Ruddigore by Willam S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan

1984-1987 BYU Opera Workshop (scene work):

  • The Ballad of Baby Doe by Douglas Moore
  • Vanessa by Samuel Barber
  • Cavalleria Rusticana by Pietro Mascagni
  • Tosca by Giacomo Puccini

Education

1997 Richard Frankel Productions, Broadway, New York City

  • Theatre Producing Internship
    Interned for the "STOMP!" company: daily box office receipts, Excel spreadsheet, employee insurance injury claims, miscellaneous admin tasks for large, busy office

1990 Master of Arts, Brigham Young University

  • Provo, Utah, USA
    Major: theatre criticism, history, theory
    Minor: stage direction

1982 Bachelor of Arts, Seattle Pacific University

  • Seattle, Washington, USA
    Major: history of Tsarist Russia & Soviet Union
    Minor: music & theatre

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