Collaborative Academy for Theatrical Training

FREDDY RAMIREZ is the Director of Dance Programming at the Collaborative School of the Arts, an associate artist at Capital Repertory Theatre, and assistant artistic director at the Northeast Ballet Company. A former Broadway performer and In Forward Motion Dance Company member, Freddy now calls Upstate NY home. Freddy has been the choreographer for the Broadway Camp program at Proctors since its inception — “All Shook Up,” “Aida,” “Pippin,” “The Prom,” “Les Miserables,” “RENT,” “Into The Woods,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” and “Urinetown.”

He most recently choreographed “Once,” “Beautiful,” “Jersey Boys,” “Million Dollar Quartet Christmas”, “The Irish and How They Got That Way,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “Full Monty,” “She Loves Me,” “Mamma Mia,” “Camelot,” “A Christmas Story,” “Ring of Fire,” “Gypsy,” and “The Secret Garden” at theREP.

Other directing and choreography credits include “Guys and Dolls,” “Hello Dolly,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Damn Yankees,” “Carousel,” “Bye Bye Birdie,” “Little Shop of Horrors,” and “Nunsense” for numerous regional and repertory theaters.

In addition to the musical theatre world, Freddy has created choreography for plays including “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Shakespeare in Love,” “Miss Bennet Christmas at Pemberley,” “A Sherlock Carol,” “It’s A Wonderful Life,” the world premieres of “The Naked Influence” and “Some People Hear Thunder,” and for national and international dance companies.

His dance works have been performed all throughout Europe and here in the US.

Lisa Passonno Franklin received her Bachelor of Music Degree in Vocal Performance from the Crane School of Music, her Master’s Certificate in Voice/Opera from the Opera School at the Hochschule fuer Musik in Wuerzburg, Germany, and her Master’s Degree in Voice/Opera from SUNY Binghamton in conjunction with the Tri-Cities Opera, where she performed several operatic roles. Lisa toured in Germany with many orchestras in both concert and opera settings. Lisa has been on the faculty of the NY State Theatre Institute, where she taught voice classes. Lisa now teaches voice at The Academy of the Holy Names in Albany, NY.

Oliver Wadsworth has worked extensively in the U.S. as an actor and writer. He was in the first National tour of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” Off-Broadway performances include “Sideways” (Peccadillo Theatre); “Endpapers” (Variety Arts); “Well” (The Public Theater); “Bread and Roses” (New York Theatre Workshop). Regional credits include “A Nantucket Christmas Carol,” “Santaland Diaries,” and “Velocity of Autumn” (White Heron Theatre); “Fall River” (Penguin Rep); “Peter and the Starcatcher” (Pioneer Theatre); “Mystery of Irma Vep” (Arizona Theatre Company); “Misalliance” (Old Globe and Seattle Repertory); “An Enemy of the People” (Long Wharf Theatre); “Santaland Diaries,” “Dracula,” and “Christmas Carol” (Actors Theatre of Louisville); “Peter Pan” (Denver Center Theatre); “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (Syracuse Stage); “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” and “Mystery of Irma Vep” (Fulton Theater); “Shipwrecked” (AriZoni Award, Actors Theatre of Phoenix); “Sherlock Holmes and the Jersey Lily,” “Noises Off,” and “Murder on the Nile” (Dorset Theatre Festival); “Fully Committed” (Metroland Best Performance), “The Taming of the Shrew,” “Take Me Out and Art (Capital Repertory Theatre); “Stones In His Pockets” (Metroland Best Performance, Adirondack Theatre Festival); and “Emilie” (WAM Theatre).

Television and film performances include: “Blacklist”, “Deliver Us from Evil”, “Ed’s Next Move”, “Dotty Gets Spanked”, and “Law and Order SVU”. In addition, Wadsworth performed his solo performance “The Tarnation of Russell Colvin” at Dorset Theatre Festival and Hubbard Hall. As a writer, he has been awarded residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Millay Colony, and Yaddo, and grants from the Vermont Community Foundation, Diverse Forms Artists’ Projects Regional Initiative Award for New York State, Franklin Furnace, and NYSCA. He has an MFA from NYU’s Graduate Acting Program.

Wadsworth was a visiting faculty member at Bennington for Spring 2019 and returns for Spring 2023.