ABOUT LEE KARVONEN:
Lee Karvonen is a man of many talents. He has spent close to thirty years as a public school teacher specializing in English, Drama, and Conflict Management. During that time he has taught courses as varied as Creative Writing, Speaking, Personal Communication (a combination of speech, drama, and conflict management), Writing and Directing, Journalism, English 12 AP, French 8, Mathematics 10, Producing a Musical, and 2 Teaching Co-ops (writing and teaching programs).
An actor and MC from elementary school days, Lee went on to perform in 10 university/community productions, including many featured roles. While completing his Bachelor of Arts in English and Philosophy and his Professional Certificate at Notre Dame University, he wrote a regular satirical column for the student newspaper, won a bronze medal for hockey in the B.C. Winter Games, was named Actor of the Year, and was his class valedictorian. After graduation, he took 2 post-graduate courses in Theatre – History and Directing.
With colleagues and friends from university days, he became a regular on several national Canadian children’s television shows. On TAKE PART, he played Mister Twister, a character of multiple identities who told jokes and riddles and specialized in tongue twisters. On TELL-A-TALE TOWN, he played Lee the Librarian, one of the show’s co-hosts who introduced a variety of story tellers to the on-set and home audience. On SURF’S UP; LET’S COOK, he played the Goofy Gourmet, who produced side-splitting recipes not even a mother could love!
Lee, along with his talented choregrapher and singer wife, has produced, directed, and created 5 full length Broadway-style musical revues. Later the two were commissioned to write, choreograph, produce, and direct 2 original summer season musicals for the McLean Mill National Historic Site near Port Alberni, B.C., Canada. In addition, Lee has also written numerous readers theatre scripts, including 5 shortened versions of some of Shakepeare’s best known plays, and has been published by an Australian company specializing in readers theatre for young people.
Recently, while working for the Surrey School District, Lee was one of the first to take training in Conflict Management and Mediation from the Justice Institute of B.C. He created one of the first courses in Conflict Management in the province and created the “Conflict Management Teaching Package” featured on this web site.
Basically, Lee loves to create, to teach, and to perform across a wide range of interests.
ABOUT CHRISTINE HARVEY:
Christine Harvey is an energetic lady, with a Bachelor of Arts Honours in Drama and a Bachelor of Education. She is the founder of the Not So Amateur Amateurs, a non-profit theatre company in Kingston, Ontario. She writes and co-directs for the company. In fact, she has written twenty-two theatre pieces, including two full-length and one one-act musical.
Three of her plays have been published by an international publishing company in the UK, 10 have been accepted by a publishing company in BC and some of them are featured in her book, Stage It: Three Plays and a Monologue.
Christine has extensive experience in theatre, as over the years she has directed over sixty-five children’s plays, organized numerous drama clubs, taught drama at five different schools, and instructed drama workshops. Other roles have included head of drama for Dreams In Motion (a performing arts school in Gananoque), drama consultant, actor, and performing coach for Children’s Aid Society training videos, and director, coordinator and resident playwright for Young Artists of Kingston (YAK) since 1997.
She has acted in commercials and videos, has participated as a performer in Kingston’s Standardized Patient program, and is a collective owner and actor in the Spotlight Surfers, a traveling acting troupe that has performed at several birthday parties, schools City of Kingston events, and the Kingston Buskers Festival.
She has recently started up a democratic private school which integrates theatre and the arts into all aspects of learning. She is a co-owner of Drama Queens Publishing Company (www.dramaqueenspublishing.com) and has recently won a grant from Curriculum Services Canada and used it to create a teaching package instructing teachers how to teach playwriting in the classroom.
She also runs the Drama portion of the KYAC program in Kingston. Occasionally, she stops to sleep and spend time with her friends, her foster daughter, Cassondra, and her dog, Asia.
If you purchase one of Christine’s scripts, she is happy to answer questions, help with staging, and/or share her experiences directing and producing the script. Christine’s email: mydramaqueen@hotmail.com
ABOUT LINDA BATEN JOHNSON:
Linda Baten Johnson is a woman on the move as she and her husband George have lived in thirteen different places in the United States, in addition to a three-year stint in England. These moves, related to George’s career, provided an opportunity to explore the world while shepherding their three daughters, all with witty senses of humor, to adulthood.
Between packing and unpacking, Linda earned her Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees in English and History and had four different careers—parent, educator, writer, and real estate agent. She also racked up hours of volunteering. She taught middle school students in the U.S. and in the American Community School in Cobham, England and her students inspired her to write skits which incorporated learning and performing. She aligned with Take Part Productions for four series of Readers Theater Scripts, a technique which encourages children to perform in front of an audience and gives them important presentations skills. Most of Linda’s other writing and editing work has been done for educational or religious publications.
On the volunteer side, Linda has worked with adults learning basic reading skills, with her church community on many projects, within the political arena to insure fair registration and proper voting procedures, and she served as a Girl Scout leader for 13 years, even though she’d prefer pushing a button to building a fire to get the morning coffee started. As a result of her service to public schools, Linda received a Life Membership in the Parent Teacher Organization of Texas.
Linda enjoys music and performed with an award-winning barbershop chorus for ten years. The highlight of that association was performing on the stage of Royal Albert Hall in London, England. She also appeared on three national television game shows, The Price is Right, Scrabble, and, with her family, on Family Feud.
Currently, Linda is working on a historical novel for young people which is set in 1947, but she manages to find time to golf, travel, read, and be amazed by two beautiful grandchildren.
ABOUT RITA HESTAND
Rita Hestand is a graduate of The Institute of Children’s Literature 1997. As a day care provider for nearly 20 years, Rita has an automatic “in” with children. Not only that, but she has seven grandchildren of her own and one great grand baby.
Rita has been writing for some time, and is multi published in romance, western, poetry and children’s writing. She has been tackling the giant screenplays recently so don’t be surprised if you see her name about!
Born in Texas, as a only child of a piplining father and a beautician mother, Rita was left to her own imagination much of the time. So it’s not surprising that she found the pen in hand. As a child Rita was well traveled since her father went from one pipeline to another all over the United States and Canada.
You can contact Rita at ritahestand@gmail.com or visit her site at http://ritahestand.com.
Rita says she enjoys hearing from her readers, so don’t be shy.