Theatre Faculty Biographies
 Chair of the Theatre Department, Lois Hunter has been an arts educator and arts education advocate for 30 plus years in California secondary schools. She has directed over a hundred high school and community plays and musicals, including her highly acclaimed Joe Turner’s Come and Gone by August Wilson. For her work, she received the coveted California Senate Arts Commendation and the Mayor Bradley Community Service Award. In 1992 she won the prestigious Los Angeles Music Center Bravo Award for outstanding secondary arts teacher. Ms. Hunter was selected by UCLA to be the director for the UCLA California Arts Project, providing professional development in arts education to classroom teachers and professional artists. She has written articles on arts education for the UCLA Center X Educational Quarterly and has been a speaker and presenter at numerous arts events, including the unveiling of the California Visual and Performing Arts Framework, of which she was one of the writers. Ms. Hunter was a member of the California State Superintendent of Public Instruction’s Arts Education Task Force that produced the report, ARTSWORK, which addresses the need for arts education in California’s public schools. She is one of the original members of the California Arts Standards and Assessment Committee and served on the boards of the Los Angeles Blue Ribbon Commission on the Arts and the Educational Outreach Program for the Geffen Playhouse. Ms. Hunter is a member of the Los Angeles Music Center Education Council, on the steering committee for the Los Angeles County Arts Commission’s Arts for All, a judge for the Music Center’s Bravo Award, and was invited by the mayor of Los Angeles to be on the selection panel to hire the director of the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department. Her professional stage credits include Pal Joey, starring Lena Horne, at the Ahmanson Theatre and San Francisco’s Curran Theatre; Glasshouse at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre; West Side Story, Finian’s Rainbow and No Strings at the Westminster Music Theatre; the television movie, Forever, directed by John Korty; the television series, The Streets of San Francisco; Rodney Dangerfield’s music video, No Respect ; and numerous print ads and voice-over work for Red Zinger teas. Under the direction of Ms. Hunter, the LACHSA Theatre Department was selected by the American High School Theatre Festival to performed at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Ms. Hunter co-directed the critically acclaimed musical, Runaways. Ms. Hunter received her B.A. in Drama from California State University San Francisco and an M.A. in Theatre Arts and Dance from California State University Los Angeles. Ms. Hunter is a member of the Drama Teachers Association of Southern California and the California Educational Theatre Association. In November 2009, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors presented Ms. Hunter with a Special Commendation, recognizing her excellence in theatre arts education. |
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