A fifth generation Californian, Dr. Haehl is a proud graduate of the San Francisco Public Unified School District. He studied for five years at American Conservatory Theatre's Young Conservatory. As an undergraduate at U.C. Berkeley, he participated in numerous productions as a designer and performer. During his junior year, he studied theatre at the Centre for Medieval & Renaissance Studies at Oxford, England.

As a graduate student at UCD, Dr. Haehl received numerous awards, including the Professors for the Future Honors fellowship and the prestiegeous Academic Senates Outstanding Teaching Award. As a free lance artist he recently received both an Elly and an Arty and an Elly award for his designs for Solano College Theatre.

BAs in English & Theatre, U.C. Berkeley, 1983.

Ph.D Theatre, U.C. Davis, 2000

For more information please contact John Lawton Haehl at 408.848.4860 or email him at jlawtonhaehl@gavilan.edu

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C. WILLIAM KLIPSTINE

C. William (Bill) Klipstine is currently an adjunct faculty member in the Theatre Department teaching Stage Production and working with the Rustics and choreographing the stage combat in Midsummer Night’s Dream. He is retired from teaching high school after 32 years. His dramatic accomplishments include directing over 90 plays and musicals in educational and community theatre venues. In addition he has several television and film productions that he has acted, directed or produced.

Education wise he earned an MA from San Jose State University in television and a BS degree from Ohio State University in theatre and fine arts. He has been very active in the Educational Theatre Association and was inducted into the California State Thespian Hall of Fame.

Additional honors include best Scenic Design for Fiddler on the Roof, 1995; Best Show and best Special Design for the puppets in Little Shop of Horrors, 1988 and 1996; Best Orchestra for several musicals, 1999, 2002, 2006;  Best Lighting Design for Fiddler on the Roof , 2002 all from American Music Theatre’s “Honors” program.

His hobby is the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), a world wide medieval educational organization where he participates in as a medieval marshal artist. He has published a book loosely based on his experiences in Viet Nam entitled Gladiators Playing To The Six O’Clock News.

Letter from the Theatre Arts Program Director

I am delighted to join the Fine Arts Faculty at Gavilan College at such a dynamic and important period of growth and re-construction. This first year brings many changes in the organization of the Theatre Arts facilities, including the relocation of our scenic and costume shops to the buildings adjacent to the Main Theatre (Th127 & Th130) during the summer and early fall.

Building on the tremendous success of the STAR program and our Children’s Repertory Class, I plan on focusing future development of the program in the fields of Educational Theatre and Arts Education. This will enhance the Theatre Arts Program’s ability to become a major force in educational theatre, as well as enhance our current programs, (STAR, ABC) which provide a vital exposure to the arts as well as an early awareness of college to thousands of K-10 students from the greater South Valley Community.

I have launched two new exciting programs at Gavilan College. The first is a visiting artist series which brings working professional artists in performance (Actors, Directors, Designers, Choreographers) to work with Gavilan Students. The second program, ABC, is a pilot program near and dear to my heart. I invite you to read the short article about this year’s program.

This Fall we begin work on Just So Stories, a new adaptation that I will develop with the Children’s Repertory Class (Thea 2a/b). Following the format of our successful production of Treasure Island, the students and I will create our own script through improvisation and writing exercises. We then perform the play for local South Valley school children (K-6) here at Gavilan College. Last Fall, over 4000 children attended performances at our Theatre, in 2007 we plan to increase that number to 5000!

Kathryn Waggoner joins us in Fall 2007 with a re-vitalized Dance and Movement for Actors as well as other exciting projects in Fine Arts and PE. Corey Strauss will return as set designer and plans are afoot to bring a visiting artist, formerly of the Ashland Shakespeare Festival, to help mount our Spring 2008 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Would you like to become involved? Our Theatre Arts Program needs many community Angels to help us grow! You could assist in a variety of ways from ushering and box office, to helping us fund our ABC & Visiting Artist programs, to housing a visiting artist, and so much more. Please contact my office if you would like to help. Email is best, as I’m generally onstage during school hours.

Thank you for visiting our website. We hope to see you at Gavilan again next fall!

Sincerely,

John Lawton Haehl

Director, Theatre Arts Program

jlawtonhaehl@gavilan.edu