About
About Itinerant Theatre
People want to tell their story, interpret their times, write and act with truth and beauty…before their peers & for the stage. Itinerant Theatre, Inc. (IT) wants to make that possible. IT’s mission is to provide an affordable, professional forum for the performing arts in order to generate broader audiences for theatre, professional opportunities for performing artists & productions for artistically underserved communities. IT will build on Board Members’ collective experience of presenting, producing, directing, acting & writing professionally for the theatre & other performing arts, all on a shoestring budget.
Joy Pace, Artistic Director & Executive Director of Itinerant Theatre, and Co-Founder is newly appointed by Governor John Bel Edwards to the Louisiana Arts Council, is past Chair of Region 6 for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF), and owns and operates Joy Pace Creative LLC. Joy has taught theatre in higher education for over 20 years and has worked professionally as an actor, director, vocal coach, instructor, and stage manager. Joy’s most recent directing credits includeIt’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, Caroline, or Change, VaginaMonologues, The Diary of Anne FrankAn Evening with Nellie Lutcher, Race, Man of a Thousand Songs by Carolyn Woosley,Louisiana Women: Bound, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, All My Sons, Pygmalion, Othello, Waiting for Godot, & Working: a musical. Her favorite recent acting credits include “Mag” in Beauty Queen of Leenane, “Lorraine” in This Wide Night, ”Martha” in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, “Josie” in A Moon for the Misbegotten, and “Sister Aloysius” in Doubt. Joy is greatly looking forward to a life filled with theatre and social justice — her great passions — her family and her dogs. “ The theatre was created to tell people the truth about life and the social situation.” – Stella Adler
Board of Directors
Carolyn Woosley, Playwright-Producer, is Co-Founder and President of Itinerant Theatre, (IT). A Lake Charles native and retired Certified Financial Planner®, coastal and cultural activist. She graduated from LCHS, Tulane and UCLA. She credits the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, UCLA Writers’ Extension Program, Idyllwild Arts Academy, the late Norman Corwin, Sharon Mann, Leslie Berman, Sara Willen, and family for encouragement as director, writer and producer. She studied theatre and directing at McNeese State U. under Joy Pace .
The LCLT (1999 and 2001) premiered seven of Woosley’s 13-monologue cycle Louisiana Women in co-production with Carol Anne Gayle Productions — Adley Cormier, Director & Ms. Gayle, actor. An eighth, Nellie, directed by Brenda Bachrack, was co-produced by Leslie Berman and Imperial Calcasieu Museum as part of a citywide commemoration of Ms. Lutcher. In 2012 IT premiered Joy Pace in the role of Maggie and Ann Savoy as Cleoma. In 2014 IT premiered Eliza performed by Sierra Jones and Rachel performed by Jo Ann Hanks. The Readers’ Theatre workshopped full-length plays, Maiden Lane and Miller’s Café, Ms. Berman, Producer. In 2015 IT premiered Woosley’s full-length play, Man of a Thousand Songs, as a staged reading, Joy Pace Director.
Woosley directed Joy Pace in the Louisiana Women roles of Maggie and Rosa. She guest-directed Tuesdays with Morrie in 2013 for ACTS Theatre, and for Orange Community Players and IT in 2014. She directed the IT production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf May 2014 at Imperial Calcasieu Museum. In 2015 she directed Joy Pace and Jordan Ashworth in This Wide Night by Chloe Moss.
Woosley anticipates writing full-length historically-based plays or just scribbles on napkins in dank bars and musty libraries! Her daughter Brooke, a Los Angeles-based designer, is engaged to Daniel Sheerin. Their 2015 wedding is highly anticipated by Itinerant Theatre’s two producers!
Leslie Berman, Co-Founder & Secretary of Itinerant Theatre, is an attorney focusing her practice on arts and entertainment transactions and issues of elder-care. Berman has produced, directed, programmed, emceed and publicized concerts, coffeehouses, music festivals, touring multi-arts works, and theatre projects for more than 40 years. A former music critic for such publications as Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, and New York Newsday, Berman writes the biweekly music column, “Eclectic Company,” for Lake Charles’ The Jambalaya News. She is newly married to Frank Anschen.
Lisa Domingue , board member, A Southwest Louisiana native and McNeese University alumni became interested in Itinerant Theatre after seeing “Jesus Christ Superstar”. Lisa has worked Front of House for “This Wide Night” and “Race”. She also has worked projection and assisted the Stage Manager for “Race”. She really looks forward to a great season with Itinerant. Lisa’s love for theatre was awakened when her daughter began her education in theatre at McNeese. Lisa has worked in the accounting field for over twenty years.The last five years were spent in the classroom teaching. Her interests include anything outdoors, working crossword puzzles,spending time with family,watching great movies and of course, theatre.
Bianca Augustine is a native of Leonville, Louisiana. She first fell in love with the stage as a member of Beau Chene High School’s Drama Club. She received her Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology with a minor in Sociology from McNeese State University, where she is currently pursuing a Master’s of Arts in Psychology with a concentration in Counseling. In addition to full-time graduate student, Bianca also works in the mental health and academia fields, holding positions at McNeese State University as a counselor intern in the Kay Dore’ Counseling Clinic and as a graduate teaching assistant in the Psychology Department, where she aides students with their senior research thesis. Bianca’s theatrical experience includes acting in the McNeese Bayou Player’s productions of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Almost, Maine, Psychosis 4.48, as well as assistant stage manager, prop master, and lighting operator for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Bianca has also performed in Itinerant Theatre’s productions of Jesus Christ SuperstarThe Vagina MonologuesIt’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play and a Coffee House Theatre and in KC Productions of SWLA’s production of Jesus Christ Superstar. She has also assistant directed Caroline or Change for Artists Civic Theatre (ACTs). When she isn’t in the theatre, Bianca enjoys spoiling her fur-baby, Kingsley, traveling, learning about various cultures, spending time with family and friends, yoga, crafting, and shopping.
Jo Ann Hanks graduated from William Carey University in 1988 with a BFA (Hattiesburg, MS). She has numerous theatre experiences from 1984 to present. She’s been seen on the ACTS Theatre, Lake Charles Little Theatre, McNeese University Theatre and A Block off Broadway (ABOB) stages.
Some of her roles include: A Streetcar Named Desire, Red Velvet Cake Wars, Same Time Next Year, Fuddy Meers, Crimes of the Heart, Our Town, Joined at the Head, The Cemetery Club, Beauty Queen of Leenane, Over at Ms. Emma’s No. 3, Twentieth Century, Steel Magnolias, Diary of Anne Frank, Hot L Baltimore, Blythe Spirit, Moon Over the Brewery. Jo Ann has directed A Christmas Pudding,and A Tuna Christmas. She and husband Tony have been married for over 23 years and are the parents to many feline babies. Jo Ann is a Deputy Clerk at the 14th Judicial District Clerk of Court’s office.