Amy Rene Byrne is a Tennessee native and a proud Pennsylvania transplant. She earned her MFA in Acting from West Virginia University in 2012 and joined BTE as Education Director in 2015. In 2016 she also became an Affiliate Artist and in 2019 she began her candidacy for the Ensemble and became an official member in 2020 (some good things did come out of 2020). Amy has acted in Tennessee, West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. She has taught theatre at Lycoming College, Zane State College, and West Virginia University and has appeared in various television commercials and voice-over roles.
Sometime during her Senior year at Northwestern University, Elizabeth (then known as Betsy) had a conversation with acting teacher David Downs about whether she should apply to grad school or see if acclaimed, retired, NU Acting Professor, Alvina Krause would accept her for study in Master Classes she was conducting in her home in Bloomsburg, PA. He suggested that while grad school would offer a more stable income and career track, study with A.K. would teach her more about theatre and life.
Before finding his artistic home with Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, Daniel attended Adelphi University '81-'85 where he studied theatre arts with a concentration in live performance. In the early '90s Daniel co-founded Theatre Junction, a community based acting company in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. He worked as a guest artist and intern with BTE from 1996 until becoming a resident ensemble artist in 2000.
Aaron White has been a working theatermaker for the past two decades and has a cobbled together a multi-faceted career as an actor, director, educator, choreographer, fight choreographer, songwriter, set/puppet designer and sometime portrait artist. A native son of lower Northumberland County, Aaron spent his twenties attempting to escape Central Pennsylvania to earn artistic laurels in the wider world. He passed through Baltimore, Houston, New York, Pittsburgh and points in between. In 2011, his ramblings brought him back to the Susquehanna Valley where, while serving Laurie McCants and Elizabeth Dowd pancakes at a fundraiser, they exclaimed, "Hey, we have a theatre!" The result: a decade of fruitful collaboration, a newly forged understanding of success, a wife, a child, and an artistic family here at BTE.
Founded in 1978, BTE is a professional theatre company devoted to producing high-quality live theatre and theatre education programs. Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble is, and is proud to be, different from most theatre companies in the United States in two important respects.
First, instead of working under the supervision of a single artistic director, the resident acting company works together to chart the artistic course of the company. They select plays for each season, and each production’s director is generally appointed from the acting company. The company members also perform a number of managerial functions in close coordination with the organization’s administrative staff and board of directors. BTE is a leader in the national ensemble theatre movement and is a founding member of the Network of Ensemble Theatres.
The second way BTE differs from most theatre companies is that members of the resident acting company are permanent, full-time residents of the place where they perform. This fact has allowed BTE to develop deep connections with the people of Bloomsburg and the other Central Pennsylvania communities it serves, a commitment to place inspired by the legendary acting teacher Alvina Krause. Krause, herself a Bloomsburg resident and BTE’s founding artistic director, spoke of theatre companies that would be as important to their communities as schools and churches.
This commitment to place has been manifest in BTE's creation of original plays from local stories, and its Theatre in the Classroom and Project Discovery programs.
Our productions draw an audience of close to 20,000 each year. Hundreds of thousands of area elementary and secondary students have participated in BTE's educational programs over the last 40 years.
BTE's work is continually enlivened by collaboration with guest artists - actors, acting interns, designers, and playwrights - who visit and often live in Bloomsburg to assist with productions. These relationships have built up a family of artists that expands BTE's capacities beyond the Ensemble and connects it with the national theatrical community.
BTE is dedicated to collective artistic empowerment, dynamic collaborations, and a symbiotic engagement with a wide range of audiences, using entertainment and education to challenge, inspire, and excite.
Learn more about BTE’s history.
An Emeritus Member is an artist who has served at least 20 years with the Ensemble at the time of his or her departure from the company.
James Goode
Laurie McCants
Gerard Stropnicky
Cassandra Pisieczko
Peter Brown, Tom Byrn, Richie Cannaday, Jerry Matheny, Whit MacLaughlin, David Moreland, Seth Reichgott, Martin Shell, Leigh Strimbeck, and Rand Whipple, Eric Wunsch.
These artists are exceptional guest artists who maintain ongoing, long-term relationships with BTE. We thank them for their commitment.
Karen Anselm, Kristen Bailey, Bruce Candlish, Anastasia Davidson, Paula Davis, William Decker*, Mac Dowd-Whipple, Cecilia Durbin, Rebecca Ermisch, Renee Fawess, Sarah Forsythe, Michael Fritz, Joshua Gallagher, Steve Gilliland, John Golomb, Lydia Hannibal, Heath Hansum, Connor Henry, A.C. Hickox, Monica Johnson, Jenny Kenyon, A’nie Kirchner, Zak Knoll, Ethan Krupp, Richard Latta, Jeffrey Leighton, Ellen Lenbergs, Earl Martz, Melissa Matthews, Mary McNaugher, Michael Mengine, David Miller, Samantha Norton, Julie Petry, Lynne Porter, Kali Quinn, Emaley Rose, Bob Rush, Geddeth Smith, Nick Troisi, Gordon Wenzel, Amber Williams, F. Elaine Williams, Elizabeth Wislar, and Michael Yerges.
* Indicates members of our theatre family who are now deceased. Their names remain to recognize their contributions to BTE.