Karen Marie Pisani to Direct Theater Arts Week at Marblehead School of Ballet

Acclaimed Broadway and North Shore performer, choreographer, and dancer Karen Marie Pisani returns to the Marblehead School of Ballet (MSB) this summer presenting the new Theater Arts Week series. Dancers, 12 to 17 years of age, are invited to enroll. The series runs August 5 through August 9 from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the school, located at 115 Pleasant Street in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

"Theater Arts Week is a natural fit for the Marblehead School of Ballet. We are not only interested in ballet, a foundation for all movement, but in all the arts. Any students interested in pursuing further training are well served to experience disciplines beyond their specializations. To pursue musical theater, one needs to be a 'triple threat' -- sing, dance and act!" explained Paula K. Shiff, Director, Marblehead School of Ballet.

The students come with varying degrees of ability and a passion for theater. "Some students perform professionally or at school, and others have never set foot on a stage. They come to the class with different strengths in all of the performing art disciplines -- ballet, tap, jazz, voice, and acting. I treat each student as an individual with different needs in the theatrical arts," said Pisani, Musical Theater Artistic Director of Theater Arts Week.

Her luminous career includes Dance Captain and performer in the National Touring Company of A Chorus Line and dancing in Gypsy, Dames at Sea, Fiddler on the Roof, and Stop the World! I Want to Get Off. Pisani's lengthy list of credits spans 32 years as choreographer for the Hasty Pudding Theatricals and the special event at Harvard's 350th celebration. Pisani's lengthy list of credits spans 32 years as choreographer for the Hasty Pudding Theatricals and the special event at Harvard's 350th celebration.

In Washington, D.C., she choreographed the Jack Lemmon segment of the Kennedy Center Honors. As Artistic Director of the National Dance Institute/New England with Jacques d'Amboise of the New York City Ballet, she worked with 500 Boston area school children choreographing their Event of the Year and their television spot on Channel 4's Kidsfair. Her television credits include choreographing commercials for MediaOne and serving as dance captain on the special Baryshnikov on Broadway starring Liza Minnelli and Mikail Baryshnikov. She also performed with the North Shore Civic Ballet.

During Theater Arts Week, Lisa Helene Bucchiere joins as Musical Director. As music director/accompanist of over 90 theater shows, Bucchiere has performed with Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Theatricals Kashmir: If You Can, NECC's A Christmas Carol, and Newburyport's Firehouse Theater Avenue Q and Jesus Christ Superstar. She teaches at Northern Essex Community College, as both the Choral Director and adjunct professor of music history and voice, and at Indian Hill Music Center in Littleton, Massachusetts.

Space is limited. The deadline to reserve a spot in Theater Arts Week is April 30. Tuition for the theatrical experience is $550. To register for the weeklong series, contact 781-631-6262 or send an e-mail to msb@havetodance.com.