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Visiting Artists

Kenneth Tosti.

Teacher and choreographer, Mr. Tosti was a principal dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company from 1980-89 creating many roles and twice given the opportunity to choreograph for its New York City Center season. He later appeared with Mikhail Baryshnikov and the White Oak Dance Project, performing in works by Martha Graham, Mark Morris, Lar Lubovitch and others. From 1999 to 2001 Mr. Tosti served as rehearsal director for Taylor 2, a chamber ensemble performing Mr. Taylor's works, and continues to stage Mr. Taylor's dances throughout this country and Europe, most recently Mr. Taylor’s Le Sacre du Printemps at The Paris Opera Ballet.

In 1991 he directed and choreographed Grand Hotel at the Theater des Westens in Berlin, starring Leslie Caron, having assisted Tommy Tune on the workshop and Broadway productions. For The New York Shakespeare Festival he choreographed the dances for Michael Greif's productions of Machinal and Pericles and was the choreographer for Yoko Ono's musical New York Rock at the WPA Theater. 

Born in San Francisco, Mr. Tosti began his dance training at U.C. Berkeley and graduated with a B.F.A. from NYU School of the Arts. Mr. Tosti is on the faculty of The Paul Taylor School and the Juilliard School Summer Program. He has taught throughout the country including the Alvin Ailey/Fordham BFA program, The American Dance Festival, SUNY Purchase, New York University/Tisch School of the Arts, The Juilliard School, Ohio University, Meredith College, and co-directed New Jersey's Summer Arts Institute at Rutger's University.

Judi Ann Mason

Judi Ann Mason (playwright/screenwriter/television producer) began her professional writing career while a student of Drama at Grambling University when she won the Norman Lear Award for comedy writing from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for her play, Livin' Fat. The following year she became the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival first ever winner of the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award for her play, A Star Ain't Nothin' But A Hole in Heaven.

She was one of the youngest playwrights ever, to be produced Off-Broadway, and has since written close to 50 plays. Her plays are known for the strong interpersonal relationships between the characters she creates. Her television writing career began when Norman Lear brought her to Hollywood to write for the hit show, Good Times. She has written television scripts for episodes of Sanford and Son, A Different World, and Beverly Hills 90210. She has been producer and writer for series including; I'll Fly Away and American Gothic, and for major soap operas Generations and The Guiding Light. The Cornbread Man is her second play to premiere at the University of Florida, following the 1996 production of The Time Traveler's Ball. Mason is perhaps better know for her script adapted by Walt Disney Productions for Sister Act 2, Back in the Habit. Other film scripts include here Emmy and Ace Award nominated screenplay for Sophie and the Moonhanger, and work on major Disney animated features.

Ms. Mason is the proud mother of a daughter, Mason Synclaire Williams, and a son, Austin Barrett Williams. She would like to thank Dr. Theodore Mann for his able assistance and support during the development of this new work for the theatre.

 


Chita Rivera is a new friend of the School of Theatre and Dance faculty, a model of achievement for School of Theatre and Dance students, and the recipient of the Linda Wilson Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Theater, awarded in fall of 2004.

Ms. Rivera has won two Tony Awards (for "Kiss of the Spider Woman" and "The Rink") and has received six additional Tony nominations. She recently starred on Broadway in the revival of the musical "Nine" with Antonio Banderas. She is perhaps best known for her electric performance as Anita in the Broadway premiere of "West Side Story." She also was the first Hispanic artist chosen to receive the coveted Kennedy Center Honor in Washington, DC.

While Ms. Rivera is internationally renowned as an actress, singer and dancer, her wisdom as mentor and teacher may be less well know to many, but it is unforgettable for the UF students who worked with her in master class and post-performance critiques.





Ntozake Shange. One of the most influential contemporary African American poets, Shange is the author of the Obie Award-winning "for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf." As a School of Theatre and Dance Artist-in-Residence from 2002 to 2003, she created "Lavender Lizards and Lilac Landmines: Layla's Dream." The piece used Ms. Shange's identifying theatrical form: the choreopoem, which integrates poetry, movement, music and dance into an aesthetic whole. In vivid and powerful language and movement, the work reveals a woman's struggle between soul and spirit.

After "Lavender Lizards" premiered in April 2003 at UF's Constans Theatre, Jomandi Production, a prestigious black theatre company in Atlanta, Georgia, engaged the production. After the Atlanta performances, UF SoTD students toured the production to the 2003 National Black Theater Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.