Musical Theatre Faculty

Patricia Rusk
Department Chair
Patricia Rusk is well known in Chicago as a performer, musical director and pianist for theatre and cabaret. A veteran of over forty professional shows, she has appeared at the Briar Street Theatre as keyboardist for Together Again, starring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca; as Lorraine in 70 Girls 70 at the Marriot Lincolnshire Theatre; and as the pianist-musical director of the long-running Forbidden Broadway. Prior to that she was seen on stage in Don Tucker's Merry Go Round, and the national tour of Side By Side BY Sondheim with Hermione Gingold. She has been heard (but not seen) in the national tours of A Chorus Line, Annie, They're Playing Our Song, Dancin', and Sugar Babies with Ann Miller and Mickey Rooney. She recently appeared in the Page to Stage New Play Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. as a pianist and musical director of the new musical Becoming George. Most recently she was heard in the pit of Grand Hotel, at Drury Lane Water Tower Theatre.

A graduate of the Eastmam School of Music she holds a masters degree from Northwestern University. She is a member of the Music Teachers National Association. She is a founding member of Chicago Cabaret Professionals and a member of Chicago Musical Theatre Works.

Kelli Harrington
Voice Teacher, Soprano
Kelli Harrington received both her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Voice form Northwestern University, and also holds a Professional Studies Certificate from the Manhattan School of Music. She has performed extensively in both opera and musical theatre in the Chicagoland area, performing lead roles with Chicago Opera Theatre, Light Opera Works, and Milwaukee's Florentine Opera. She has performed with the Niles Symphony Orchestra, the Racine Symphony, and has been the recipient of numerous prestigious vocal awards and scholarships. Ms. Harrington has taught voice at the Chicago Academy for the Arts since 2000.

Andy Robinson
Faculty
Andy Robinson joins the musical theatre faculty after ten years at the Village Community School in New York City where he taught Humanities and served as Director of the Theatre Program. He holds a masters degree in Educational Theatre from New York University where the focus of his study was teaching and directing Shakespeare. He has performed regionally with Porchlight Music Theatre, Stage West Theatre, Red Tape Theatre, and Wagon Wheel Theatre, in productions that range from Assassins to Oklahoma, Kiss Me, Kate, to Tick, Tick…Boom, The Pirates of Penzance, to Seussical. As a director and designer, he has staged productions of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Tongue of a Bird, Into the Woods, Raised in Captivity, The Matchmaker, Once Upon a Mattress, and Richard II, among many others. He directs the Summer Youth Programs at Wagon Wheel Theatre, worked with the NYU Shakespeare Youth Ensemble, and was a founding member of Shakespeare-to-Go, which performed Shakespeare’s plays in dozens of New York City schools.