Summer 2024
Student Intensive
In this revamped summer intensive, students will create a short play with music, working on playwrighting, audition technique, collaboration, and more! This program runs from July 8 - July 26 from 9am-12pm on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
Meet the Team
President and Artistic Director
Lynne Bolton
Lynne is a professional actor and director. She is the founder and president of the White Heron Theater Company and the Nantucket Theatre Institute; created to produce transformative productions of classical and emerging new plays with an emphasis on creating new work for the American stage.
Ms. Bolton is a member of the Yale Drama School Advisory Board and the Board of the Yale Repertory Theatre. She has served on the Board of the Women’s Project, the nation’s oldest and largest company dedicated to producing and promoting theater created by women. She has also served on the Advisory Board of the New York City Ballet and an advisory panel for the National Endowment for the Arts. She is a member of the Board of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture.
Ms. Bolton’s acting and directing credits include many regional and off-Broadway theatres. Her acting career began at Actor’s Theatre of Louisville in 1976 where she began performing as part of a resident company during the bicentennial.
Producing Director and Co-Artistic Director
Michael Kopko
Michael Kopko is the Producing Director of the White Heron Theatre Company. Michael is a former Nantucket Selectman and Chairman of the Board of Selectman for 2 years. During that time he oversaw a $100 million municipal budget and numerous other large operating and capital budgets. Michael owned a restaurant and a lodging establishment and is a life-long musician. He was accepted to the Julliard School for acting and has worked as an actor and director in the theatre for over 30 years.
Director of Theatre Education Intensive
Alyse Michelle Bierly
Alyse Michelle is a professional actor, singer, and playwright. She holds degrees in Musical Theater and Special Education from American University. Alyse has performed on Nantucket every summer since 2010 and this is her 7th year acting and working at White Heron Theatre. She is delighted to be working with the White Heron Student Company this summer having grown up acting in as well as having previously been a teaching artist in the program. Recent Nantucket credits include Carrie the Musical (White Heron Theatre), We Will Rock You (Theatre Workshop of Nantucket), and Turn of the Screw (On the Isle Theater Company). Other selected Theater, TV/Film, and Opera credits include Bat Boy (American University), Annie (KOTA Productions), The Early Night Show (Broadway Podcast Network), and the New England Tour of Gustav Mahler’s Third Symphony (dir. Andy Icochea Icochea). Directing and assistant directing credits include Overture (American University), I Wasn’t Strong; I Just Kept Walking (American University), and The Wizard of Oz Jr. (Nantucket Dreamland).
