» Ms. Tamiko S. Washington

Associate Professor

College of Performing Arts

Department of Theatre

Acting, Voice and Movement

Office:

Moulton Hall 135

Phone:

714-628-7219

Email:

washingt@chapman.edu

Education

Alliant International University, Bachelor of Fine Arts
University of California, Irvine, Master of Fine Arts in Theatre

Biography

Professor Tamiko Washington holds an M.F.A. in Acting from the University of California, Irvine.  Her seventeen-year history as an accomplished actor, voice, and movement teacher lead her to originate American Noh Theatre based on the traditional movements of Japanese Noh Theatre and Suzuki Master Tadashi Suzuki.  Her proven effective vocal methodology can be accredited to her extensive study with Linklater and Fitzmaurice specialists such as Dudley Knight, Catherine Fitzmaurice, Isabel Kirk, Dennis Krausnick, Tina Packer, Christine Adaire, Keely Eastley, Margaret Jansen, Lisa Wolpe, Adrienne Johns, and Louis Colaianni.  She continues to perform her (twelve-year) highly acclaimed one-woman show (Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register, OC Weekly, Logan Daily News, Kansas City News) Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Ann Jacobs (adapted for the stage by Deanna Sidoli and Kent Kirkpatrick) with help from the Irvine Foundation and Pacific Bell Telesis Foundation.  Her performance of the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet with Shakespeare Orange County in 2007 won critical acclaim in the Los Angeles Times.  She also has appeared in notable Actors’ Equity Association performances at South Coast Repertory, the Old Globe Theatre, the Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare Orange County, Stages Theatre, the Vanguard Theatre, and Pacific Theatre Ensemble, among others.  Her television credits include co-starring and guest artist roles in the television shows Pensacola, Silk Stalkings, High Tide, Extreme Blue, and Vanishing Son, and two Lifetime Movie Network films, Two Small Voices and Kidnapped.  She also can be seen in her supporting role as Anna Mae in the independent film A Few Breaths of Freedom. 

Professor Washington is a private vocal consultant in Los Angeles, California.  She is a professional respondent for the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival, Region VII, Circuits I and III.  In 2009, as a member of the Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company she was honored, with the company, in receiving the Margaret Hartford Award for sustained excellence in theatre.  In 2005, she was awarded the Kennedy Center American/College Theatre Excellence in Education for her work at Chapman University.  In 2004, she was the recipient of the Achievement of Excellence in Teaching from Chapman University, and in 2001, the recipient  of the Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching, Creative Work, and Service especially for innovative teaching techniques and promoting successful award-winning performances at Chapman University.   She holds memberships in the Actors‘ Equity Association, the Screen Actors Guild, and VASTA (Voice and Speech Trainers Association, Inc.).

Professor Washington’s philosophy of teaching includes three core principles for students in their quest for knowledge: 1) students must strive for excellence 2) students must remain teachable, and 3) students must “perform for something greater than themselves.”  These core principles govern her consistent approach to seeking, discovering, and implementing new and innovative techniques to ensure quality training in her teaching methodologies.

Directing Credits include: 
A new play titled Kvetcher in the Wry, Forum Theatre-Festival Arts (fall 2008), a new play titled Ode to Provence by Andrea Sloan Pink, Stages Theatre (spring 2009), Conversations Among the Ruins (KC/ACTF), Antigone, the Nixon Theatre (UCI), and UCI Undergraduate Scene Workshop (UCI)

Directing Credits at Chapman University include: 
Trojan Women, The School for Scandal (Oxford University Press approved adaptation for stage/publication by Tamiko Washington), A Night of Noh Theatre (Kantan, Hagoromo), He Who Gets Slapped, Ragged Dick (Neal Bell), Marisol, BFA Actor Showcase, Elizabeth Almost by Chance a Woman, Waiting for Godot (XXXV KC/ACTF finalist production), A Streetcar Named Desire, Atsumori & Ikuta (XXXII KC/ACTF finalist production)

Recent Creative, Scholarly Work and Publications

In January of 2012, I completed the second stage of courses in Fitzmaurice Voicework, a highly recognized and advanced form of vocal training for actors. I am now a Certified Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework.

In the summer of 2012, I directed and remounted the production of The Indian Wants the Bronx by Israel Horovitz to participate in the Hollywood Fringe Festival at the Stella Adler Academy of Acting & Theatre in Los Angles, California. I currently serve as the Artistic Director and Producer of Actors Circle Ensemble.

In the summer of 2012, the second season of OC Centric Orange County's New Play festival was launched. The festival was created in fall of 2010 to support, promote, and produce new works by Orange County playwrights. The festival produced four new one-acts and one new full-length play. The festival is recognized as the original Orange County's New Play Festival, which is the only festival of this kind in Orange County. I currently serve as the Artistic Director and Producer of OC Centric.

In the spring of 2011, I creatd and formed a nonprofit 501 (c) (3) theatre company entitled Actors Circle Ensemble of which I am the Producer and Artistic Director.

In the winter of 2011, I completed the first series of classes toward receiving Certification as an Associate Teacher of Catherine Fitzmaurice Voice Work®.

In the fall and spring, I continued my five-year professional private practice of vocal coaching in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas.

In the fall of 2011 and spring of 2012, I worked as a private vocal coach for three Los Angeles, California clients and one Laguna Beach, California client. The four clients are upcoming actors within the television, film and theatre industries.

In the fall of 2011, I was invited as a Visiting Instructor of Theatre at Pomona College in Claremont, California for the purpose of teaching voice to theatre majors in the Department of Theatre and Dance.

In the fall of 2011, Dr. Lisa Gibbs, Associate Director of the Program in Geriatrics, hired me to direct two interactive patient skits for the Student-Senior Program for the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. I also asked to participate on an Actors Studio Panel with medical doctors from UC Irvine School of Medicine and the actors performing in the interactive skits.

In the spring of 2012, I directed the production Summertime by Charles L. Mee, which was performed in the Waltmar Theatre at Chapman University. Charles L. Mee is a nationally recognized and award winning American playwright.

In the spring of 2011, I directed a Staged Reading of a new play entitled Les Hollywood Hills by Andrea Sloan Pink.

In the spring of 2011, I directed and produced two one-acts entitled The Indian Wants the Bronx by Israel Horovitz and Tom & Jerry by Jim Geoghan in a debut production of one-acts for Actors Circle Ensemble entitled an Evening of Two Critically Acclaimed One-Acts at the Ivy Substation in Culver City, CA.

In the summer of 2011, I was the Producer and Artistic Director of four new plays, which were presented in the first-year production of OC Centric Orange County's New Play Festival at the Moulton Center Studio Theatre at Chapman University. In this production, I also directed one of the new plays entitled The Myth of the Cubicle by Ken La Salle.

In the fall of 2010, I presented a Master Workshop on Voice Production and Techniques at Whittier College for Department of Theatre and Commmunication Arts Students.

In the fall of 2010, I created and formed a new play festival with Eric Eberwein of Orange County's Playwrights Alliance entitled OC Centric Orange County's New Play Festival.

in the fall of 2010, I directed a new one-act play entitled Rizzoli Returns from the Mall by John Richardson.