TANYS Spring Symposium

Welcome to the TANYS Spring Symposium!

Join TANYS at Finger Lakes Community College in Canandaigua, NY for a day filled with theatre workshops and networking opportunities. Whether you're a seasoned veteran or just starting out, this event will be an enriching experience for anyone passionate about theatre.

Don't miss out on this chance to connect with fellow theatre enthusiasts and learn from industry pros. See you there!

Workshop Presenter: Valerie Kingston

Valerie Kingston has been a professional actress for 40 years. She has acted in off- and off-off Broadway productions in New York City at the John Houseman Theater, Playwrights Horizons and the Ensemble Studio Theater, as well as in Baltimore at Center Stage. On television, she has appeared on Law and Order, The Blacklist, Law and Order SVU, Divorce and FBI Most Wanted. She has also appeared in the films Aspen Extreme and Sugar! and in more than 150 commercials.

Val wrote the book to a musical that she adapted from the children’s book, The Gathering Room, by Colby Rodowsky. She has just finished another full length play that she’s preparing to workshop in NYC. Val has been an acting teacher for the past 30 years at theater schools and film and television schools. She has also taught acting workshops for groups, and has been a private acting coach for the past 24 years helping actors prepare for auditions for theater, TV and film roles.

Val studied at the Stella Adler Acting Studios in the two-year program under Miss Adler, and was in Uta Hagen’s Master Class at HB Studios in NYC.

Workshop Presenter: Annette Procunier

Annette has worked in community, educational and professional theatre for over 50 years. She is a director, designer, stage manager, play polisher, adjudicator and workshop leader.

Since 1979 as a director and dramaturg she has worked for 18 different theatre companies in Canada and the United States, and her productions have won awards and critical acclaim. She was one of the founders of two professional theatre companies in Canada, has served on the boards of opera and theatre companies and has represented Canada internationally and on the board of Theatre Canada.

As an adjudicator, Annette has participated in festivals in Europe, Canada, Japan, Ireland and the United States, and has judged nearly 200 festivals in 40 years. She is the author of the only book on adjudication, Do You See What I See? and is a fellow of AACT. She is also the proud recipient of the Mort Clark International Achievement Award.

In recent years Annette has worked extensively with playwrights in Canada and the United States on script development, and has been a judge in several playwriting competitions including the AACT New Play Fest, The Texas Not for Profit playwriting competition and Playwrights of Spring for Theatre Starts.

Keynote Speaker: Karin Bowersock

Karin Bowersock is a freelance director/theater maker. For 19 years she served as Executive and Artistic Director of Bristol Valley Theater, a professional summer theater in Naples, New York, retiring from that position in 2022. In addition to guiding the artistic vision of that theater, she directed nearly 30 productions there of both musicals and straight plays, specializing in re-imagining popular Broadway works such as Evita, Les Miserables, Cabaret and To K*ll a Mockingbird for the theater’s more intimate setting.

Prior to moving to the Finger Lakes, Karin lived in New York City for 20 years working as an actor, producer, playwright, and director.

“I’ve been fortunate to create an artistic home and surround myself with brilliant collaborators. It’s this collaboration that most excites me, and I see my job as listening to and harnessing the imaginations and contributions of all the artists involved toward a unified vision to share with an audience. Together, our task is to invite the audience in to take a few breaths in this world we’ve created, to tell them our story, and to connect, through a shared experience, a disparate group of strangers sitting in the dark.”

Host or Publisher Theatre Association of New York State (TANYS)