2018-2019 GSP Partnership Report: New Brunswick Public Schools

Meet the Education Department

Jim Jack,

Director of Education and Outreach

Jim Jack joined GSP as Director of Education and Outreach in 2010. As Director, Jim leads GSP's Academy, School-based Residency Programs, Educational Touring Theatre, and Mainstage Audience Engagement Initiatives. As recognition for his leadership in the field of arts education, Jim received the 2017 New Jersey Governor’s Award for Distinguished Service in Theatre Arts Education.

As a professional director, recent credits include "The Immigrant", "Trying", "My Name is Asher Lev" (*The Star Ledger’s Best Production of 2016) and "Terra Incognita" for George Street Playhouse. Jim produced, devised and directed "Our Town Now," a play based on fifty oral interviews with people who live and work in New Brunswick. For GSP's Educational Touring Theatre, Jim has commissioned, produced and directed "Gabi Goes Green!" and "Austin the Unstoppable." Jim wrote the book for "Anytown", a new musical about New Jersey’s opioid crisis that started touring schools and communities throughout the state beginning in the October 2018.

Prior to George Street Playhouse, Jim worked for Roundabout Theatre Company. He co-founded Bronx Theatre High School and served as Roundabout Theatre Company’s Project Coordinator and Master Teaching Artist at the school for eight years. As a teaching artist, Jim has worked with the 92nd Street Y, ArtsConnection, Metropolitan Opera Guild, and Northern Stage. He served as an adjunct professor of Shakespeare for the M.F.A. Acting program at Brooklyn College for seven years.

Christa Cillaroto,

Assistant Director of Education

Christa Cillaroto celebrated her eleventh season with George Street Playhouse in 2017. Christa has directed "Peacemaker" and "New Kid" for George Street Playhouse’s Educational Touring Theatre and has served as a GSP teaching artist for 10 seasons. She has also taught for the Children’s Acting Academy in New York City. Christa is a founding member of coLAB Arts, a non-profit New Brunswick-based arts collaborative dedicated to connecting arts engagement with community issues and organizations. She also served on the Leadership Board for New Jersey Emerging Arts Leaders, a development and cultivation network for young professionals in the arts and arts advocacy created by ArtPride New Jersey. She also proudly served as the Chair of the New Brunswick Community Arts Council. Christa is a graduate of Douglass College, Rutgers University with a BA in Theatre Arts.

Diana Gundacker,

Manager of Tour and Academy Programs

Annie Rutherford Lutz,

Resident Teaching Artist / Project Coordinator

Diana Gundacker joined George Street Playhouse’s Education Department in February 2012. She holds a BA in Theatre Education from Kean University and an MA in Theatre Education from Emerson College. She loves bringing theatre to children in New Jersey through George Street Playhouse’s academy classes and repertoire of issue-oriented touring theatre. In addition to her love of theatre education, Diana is also a costume designer, working with GSP's education department and beyond.

Annie Rutherford Lutz is a teaching artist, director, and performer with degrees in Theatre Arts and English from Douglass College at Rutgers University. Throughout the school year, she works with students ages 3-18 across the state of New Jersey as GSP's Resident Teaching Artist, leading programs in musical theatre technique, improv, the creation of original plays and musicals, and in-school curricular-based residencies. Most recently, she has also become the Project Coordinator for George Street Playhouse, where she has the privilege of managing in-school theatrical residencies and fostering new teaching artists.

Angela Peletier,

Education Administrative Assistant / STA Internship Coordinator / Academy Programs Associate

Lucas Pinner,

Tour and Residency Programs Associate

Angela Peletier is a former Summer Academy Student and Intern and is thrilled to be working as part of the GSP Education Administrative Staff. She is a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, NJ where she received her B.A. degree in Musical Theatre and Communication Studies. In addition to her administrative work, Angela is an actor, dancer and choreographer working with students at GSP and in other areas of New Jersey.

Lucas Pinner holds a BFA in Theatre Performance from Kean University and has been a teaching artist with George Street Playhouse since 2014. As of this year, he has been working with the Education Department in a new capacity as a Touring Programs Associate, bringing issue-based educational theatre to schools, and as a Residency Associate, helping to manage in-school residencies. He has also served as the Summer Theatre Academy Production Designer and STEAM Teaching Artist, working with students to bring their work to life through sets, sound, props and costumes. In addition to his work at GSP, Lucas is an actor and fight choreographer.

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