The following artists are planned for 2026. Others will be added as they are confirmed.

Frank Collison and his wife Laura Gardner have attended VTC since 2006 and are excited to once again teach the Monologue Workshop. They are eternally grateful to Dawson Moore and his merry band who have worked so hard to make VTC such a rich experience. They were honored to receive the Jerry Harper Service Award in 2022. Frank was born into the theatre, appearing at age four months in the role of a baby at a tent theatre in Granville, Ohio. He earned his BA at San Francisco State University where he performed anti-war street theatre and helped establish Pinecrest Theatre in the Sierra Nevada. He trained at the American Conservatory Theatre and then went on to earn an MFA in acting at UC San Diego. Appearing in over 170 stage productions, Frank has worked Off-Broadway, with the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, Denver Center Theatre Company and Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts. He once toured 39,000 miles in nine months with Chamber Repertory Theatre of Boston.In Los Angeles, Frank has acted in productions at the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Los Angeles Theatre Company, Rogue Machine, Ojai Playwrights Conference and Pacific Resident Theatre where he is a founding member. Frank is a member of The Road Theatre where he co-produced their Summer Playwrights Festival. Frank funds his theatre habit by working in film, television, and voice-over. He is sometimes approached by people who ask, “What have I seen you in?” It’s usually O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Twin Peaks, Silicon Valley or Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. He also enjoys volunteering with Teachers for Ukraine and reading to students at a local elementary school. Frank is finally writing a play and hopes it will one day be read at VTC. He is a father to three amazing humans. Please ask him about his children.

Ben Corbett returns for his eleventh year at Conference. His documentary, The Arkansas Accent Project, won a Mid-America Emmy in 2024, as well as several awards in the regional film festival circuit. His one-man show, Fat Men in Yoga Pants, which was developed both in the Valdez Theatre Fringe (2023) and the Play Lab (2024), will have its debut at Ronin Theatre Company in Phoenix, Arizona, in July 2025. He is an Assistant Professor of Voice and Acting at the University of Arkansas. He is also a Designated Linklater Voice Teacher and a Certified Colaianni Speech Instructor. His professional vocal coaching credits include Ronin Theatre Company, TheatreSquared, City Rep, the William Inge Theatre Festival, the Hollywood Fringe Festival, Nashville Shakespeare Festival, Barter Theatre, Burning Coal Theatre Company, Bare Theatre, Shakespeare Dallas, and Shakespeare Santa Cruz. He is a Senior Editor for the International Dialects of English Archive.

Laura Gardner appeared on Broadway in Smile, Off Broadway in The Cocktail Hour, Other People’s Money, and Welded, directed by Jose’ Quintero. She toured nationally in Showboat, Doonesbury, Oliver, and My Fair Lady. Her extensive regional credits include the Arena Stage (DC), Huntington Theatre (Boston), Cleveland Playhouse, McCarter Theatre, and the NC Shakespeare Festival in roles that ranged from Lady Macbeth to Miss Hannigan. She just closed in Audrey Cefaly’s, Pulitzer-nominated play, Alabaster, at The Fountain Theatre. Other Los Angeles credits include six plays for the Pasadena Playhouse, Will Geer Botanicum, Westwood Playhouse, Tiffany Theatre, Fountain Theatre, Deaf West, and the Celtic Arts Centre. She is a member of the Road Theatre and Rogue Machine. Some of her TV and film credits include Guest Star appearances on Chicago Med, Law and Order: SVU, Seal Team, Animal Kingdom, Outcast, The Romanoffs, Criminal Minds, Big Sur, and Miriam. She was a lead in Marriage Material, a short film Oscar finalist in 2019. Laura kept busy during the pandemic doing three Zoom benefits for the Actors Fund: Two performances of Marilyn, Mom, and Me by Luke Yankee, playing his mother, Oscar- and Tony-winner Eileen Heckart, which she recently performed at the International City Theatre in Long Beach, Lia Romeo’s Sitting and Talking, with Frank Collison and directed by Dawson Moore, and a radio version of Janice Goldberg’s Rose Colored Glass. Laura was on the faculty of the Howard Fine Acting Studio in Hollywood for over 19 years and then at the satellite school in Australia. She has taught actors with disability in Los Angeles and Berkeley. Ms. Gardner has taught in NYC at HB Studio, Stella Adler Institute, and the American Academy of Art. She teaches workshops all over the country as well as in Great Britain. www.lauragardner.org

Arthur M. Jolly (he/him) is thrilled to be back in Valdez for a twelfth time – and his sixth time as a respondent. As a playwright, Jolly has penned over 75 produced plays, drawing from his typical playwright background of starting in the NY film industry as a stunt performer, snake wrangler, and special effects artist, then becoming a helicopter pilot, training pilots for the US Army in Alabama, and later flying tourists from Las Vegas into the Grand Canyon. Given such a predictable trajectory, his decision to quit flying and move to Los Angeles to write is all too familiar. As a screenwriter, Jolly was recognized by the Academy with a Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. Produced screenplays include Where We Disappear on Amazon Prime, based on his play A Gulag Mouse; and the short films Still Waters, Childish Things, and Eight Ball. Valdez productions include A Very Modern Marriage (2017) and A Gulag Mouse (2013); previous Play Lab readings include The Lady Demands Satisfaction (2018), Straw, Sticks, Bricks (2015), Mission: Colusa (2014), A Very Modern Marriage (2013), and Trash (2012). Jolly is a proud member of The Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights and the Dramatists Guild. Repped by Brant Rose Agency. More at www.arthurjolly.com

Rob Lecrone began acting and improvising in the 90’s in Anchorage, Alaska, where he won a Best Thespian award from the Anchorage Press. This is Rob’s sixteenth year at the Conference, and his tenth year as a coach in the Monologue Workshop and as a host and co-producer of the nightly Valdez Theatre Fringe. He holds a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Alaska Anchorage and an MFA in Acting in Television, Film, and Theatre from Cal State LA. In LA, Rob studied acting at the Howard Fine Acting Studio and graduated from the Upright Citizens Brigade improv program. He studied in HB Studio’s Hagen Teacher’s Lab in New York. In Albuquerque, he continued his improv education at The Box Performance Space. Rob teaches a weekly acting class via Zoom, exploring monologues, scenes, and Hagen exercises. He is an instructor at Rise Comedy in downtown Denver, where he teaches multiple levels of improv and is looking forward to teaching an acting class soon. Besides being a student of Uta Hagen’s techniques, Rob has trained in stage combat, classical acting, Viewpoints, Fitzmaurice Voicework, Lecoq Technique, Alexander Technique, Barrantes’ Voice System, devised theatre, and more. Among other credits, he co-produced and acted in the world premiere of Conference playwright Nicholas Walker Herbert’s Bloodless (2020) and the Conference mainstage performance of Julia Lederer’s With Love and a Major Organ (2017). Rob was once shot in the ankle during a carjacking attempt in New Jersey. Most importantly, he ate the bear that almost ate him and worked on the cleanup of the Valdez oil spill. www.roblecrone.com

Dawson Moore just completed his twenty-second year as Coordinator of the Valdez Theatre Conference. He began theatre at East Anchorage High School in the 80s, graduated from UAA Theatre and Dance (RIP) in 1997, and is planning to return to that community in 2025. He is a playwright, director, actor, heretic, and politician, having served on the Valdez City Council 2020-2022.

Gregory Pulver is the Theater Program Director and Professor of costume design, make up and choreography for the University of Portland (UP) Performing and Fine Arts Department and a Resident Artists at Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland, Oregon. At UP Gregory has developed the New Works/New Voices annual staged reading series featuring new plays dedicated to women and BIPOC playwrights. He is the creator of UP’s British Theater Experience where he and 10 students curate a production of 10-minute plays for annual performances and theater workshops in towns around Oxfordshire, England. Gregory is also a faculty member of the Dramatist Guild Institute of Dramatic Writing and teaches Storytelling Through Design each fall. Mr. Pulver holds an MFA in costume design and choreography from Humboldt State University, CA. He is the 1993 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival National Costume Design Winner for his work on Threepenny Opera. Among designing both sets and costumes for Bag and Baggage Theatre, and costumes for Broadway Rose Theatre and Corrib Irish Theatre, and designs for Artists Repertory Theatre which include The Hombres, Small Mouth Sounds, The Humans, Tribes, Broomstick, Cuba Libre, and Foxfinder. Gregory has also designed for several short films and TV spots in Washington including a dance for the camera film titled Egg Skin. Gregory is an accomplished director, singer, actor, and dog owner.

Kalli Randall is an Alaskan actor and director whose journey in theatre began as a casual engagement with her college community, ultimately blossoming into a lifelong passion, particularly after discovering her love for directing during her senior year at UAA. Following her graduation, Kalli relocated to Chicago, where she spent six years honing her craft. It was during this time that she founded Midnight Summit Ensemble, a theatre collective dedicated to both reviving classical works and showcasing new pieces from emerging playwrights. Kalli’s directing credits are a series of plays by Ashley Rose Wellman, including Shrines and You Are The Blood; Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit, Don Zolidis’ The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon; Joanna Castle Miller’s Around and Around and Around The Static Sun, Karen Zacarías’s Book Club, Gary Steven’s Uncle Ted, and Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Jesus Christ Superstar. This is Kalli’s 13th Conference and she could’t be more excited to be here with all you fine folks…and Potato Head!!

Schatzie Schaefers first came to the VTC in its second year in 1994 as a UAA Theatre student and slept on the floor in the gym. Playwright, director, actor, and producer. Vocalist for Alaska’s Agents of Karma and Karmic Reduction. Development Director for Anchorage Concert Association. Proud member of Blue Roses Theatre Company. Schatzie will direct Eric Coble’s dark comedy Bright Ideas for Anchorage Community Theatre in 2025. Schatzie is a single mother to Lionel Richie, Chandler Bing, and Knox. You will see Schatzie every night of the conference at Magpie’s on the Fly where she co-hosts the Valdez Fringe.

Carrie Yanagawa has been painting old plywood to look like rich mahogany to the delight of audiences around the world since the late 1900s. Described as a “theatrical Swiss Army knife,” Carrie is a director, set designer, and scenic artist whose work has been hailed as “marvelous” by Anchorage Daily News and “no less than perfect” by F Magazine. Whether working in a black box or on a grand opera, Carrie is passionate about honoring text and is uniquely skilled at creating high-quality, imaginative productions in a vibrant and practical fashion. Favorite directing credits for the VTC main stage include serving as the Ten-Minute Play Slam’s longest tenured director (2014-2019) and Kevin Armento’s Good Men Wanted (TossPot Productions). Notable scenic painting residencies include Anchorage Opera, Bermuda’s Earl Cameron Theatre, and London’s National Theatre. In search of new adventures, Carrie and her wife, Stacy, have recently relocated to Portland, Oregon. They belong to the trees now.