JANET LYNN O'HARE

Executive Director /Playwright

Janet O'Hare is an Actor, Director, Playwright and Teacher and in 2007 earned her Master's Degree in Theatre Education at Emerson College in Boston. She graduated from St. Michael's College in Vermont in 2002, where she received her B.A. in Theatre-Fine Arts with a concentration in Musical Theatre and Directing. She then spent four years professionally touring as an Actor/Director with the Missoula Children's Theatre giving her the opportunity to perform and work with children all over the United States and parts of Canada.  Some of her performance credits include roles in, Seussical, Working, Once on this Island, The Siren Song of Stephen Jay Gould, Godspell, CAUTION! Our Children at Work, also And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank, in which she received an Irene Ryan Nomination for Best Actor/Performance for her role as Mutti. She has directed over 45 productions to date including, Working, The Wiz and Once on this Island, Raisin in the Sun and most recently West Side Story and Crimes of the Heart and Beauty and the Beast. Her play I Am Not My Breasts has been produced several times in the New England area and most recently at the Mill River Theater in RI. It will be produced in Western Australia this year and was invited to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute this past September. Recently, you may have seen Janet on the Mill River Theater stage, playing the lead role of Anne Weston, in the musical, The Rented Christmas in which she received a nomination for Best Leading Female by Motif Magazine or perhaps as Sonia in Godspell. Most recently she performed a leading role in the musical revue "Are We There Yet?" in Rhode Island. Janet teaches Musical Theatre with the Arlington Children's Theatre and worked as a teaching artist with the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston. She has headed various youth theatre programs in New England, and has taught and directed with the Boston Arts Academy, Boston College High School and Codman Academy.  She was recently named the Director of Education at the Harborside Playhouse in Bristol, RI. This past summer Janet served as the head of the SMARTS Collaborative Senior Drama program in Attleboro, MA where she has been welcomed back for the summer of 2009. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild. Janet is working on her next original play, collecting stories from September 11^th. You can visit Janet's website at www.onestrongvoice.com for more information on her original play and production company, One Strong Voice Productions

SUSAN JAFFE

Company Producer

Susan first got involved with One Strong Voice Productions after her eldest daughter harassed her into painting sets for West Side Story. Although, that is not where her experience in theater began. While walks in front of the curtain have been far and few, Susan spent nearly five years on the board for The Cohasset Dramatic Club, including one year as President. Susan recieved a degree in Communications from the University of Michigan. Susan sends love to her husband, Charles, and her daughters, Thomson and Whitney.

THOMSON JAFFE

Personal Assistant to Janet O'Hare

Thomson is seventeen years old, and lucky to have a job doing something she really enjoys, instead of something that involves flipping burgers or bagging groceries. OSV productions include: Consuela in West Side Story, Silly Girl #1/Dance Captain in Beauty and the Beast and Little Becky Two Shoes in Urinetown. Other theatrical credis include: Sandy in Grease (Neverland Theatre), Dance Ensemble in Beauty and the Beast (Bay Colony Productions), Joy in Cinderella (The Cohasset Dramatic Club) and Martha Cox in High School Musical (The Cohasset Dramatic Club). Thomson has also raised $1,500 for juvenile diabetes and pediatric AIDS research, and is featured on the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation website.