Q&A Brown Bag Session with writers Malcolm Hillgartner and Jahnna Beecham on Tuesday, October 1st from 12:00-1:00 in Dillingham Studio 2. Open to all members of the IC Community.
Jahnna Beecham and Malcolm Hillgartner met while acting at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, were married onstage in Seattle and have built a life together in the arts. They have worn many hats: actors, directors, authors, producers, composers, audiobook narrators and playwrights. Their musicals Chaps!, Dogpark, Holmes and Watson Save the Empire, and They Came from Way Out There have been produced by Cincinnati Playhouse, Milwaukee Rep, Barter Theatre and many others. They have written 130 novels for children and young adults, including the best-selling series The Jewel Kingdom, Bad News Ballet and Love Letters. They produced, scripted, and Jahnna directed, The Ruby Princess Runs Away, which won Best Picture at the 2001 Burbank Int’l Children’s Film Festival. They’ve also written weekly columns for Sesame Street Parents Magazine, PC games for Trilobyte/Virgin Games, and Parents and Teachers Choice Award-winning learning programs for Hooked on Phonics. Jahnna continues to direct professionally, while Malcolm is an Earphones and AudieAward-winning narrator of over 95 audiobooks. (Just this week he received an Earphone award for the book, Kissinger by Walter Isaacson.) They have raised two children throughout it all and have never stopped acting on the stage. Most recently they appeared as Mr. and Mrs. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice at Hope Summer Repertory Theatre in Michigan. They live in Ashland, Oregon and are currently at Smith College developing their new musical adaptation of Ann M. Martin and Laura Godwin's children's book, The Doll People.
This visit is made possible through funding from the Department of Theatre Arts Guest Artist Fund and a School of Humanities and Sciences EGI Grant.
Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Kathleen Mulligan at kmulligan@ithaca.edu or (607) 274-3927. We ask that requests for accommodations be made as soon as possible.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20130927063938578