Acting Program

Lee Eskey

Professor & Chair of Acting

Lee has been a professional actor, director and teacher for 20 years. Theatres include The Folger Theatre, The Denver Center Theatre Company, the Kentucky and Virginia Shakespeare Festivals and The National Players, as well as The Actor's Playground, a Los Angeles theatre company which he co-founded with Rick Wasserman. In LA he has also served on the faculty of Holy Wood Acting Studio and the Elizabeth Mestnik Acting Studio.

Much of Lee's time in Hollywood has been spent as an acting coach, working with diverse talent, from comedians and magicians to series regulars on network television and in feature films. Lee incorporates Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body (TOB) into his work with artists and he is currently completing requirements for certification from the Theology of the Body Institute. Lee has a particular interest in forming skilled actors who are ready and able to bring their craft to the service of the New Evangelization through professional careers in the performing arts.

Lee holds an MFA in Acting from the National Theatre Conservatory and a BA in Drama from The Catholic University of America.

Katelyn Slater

Creative Director of the Acting Program

Katelyn is an alumna of JPCatholic and graduated within the acting emphasis. Since graduating, she has worked closely with Prof. Eskey in developing and teaching the courses at JPCatholic, while pursuing her own passion for acting. She has worked with several local theaters, including North Coast Repertory Theatre, Onstage Playhouse, Trinity Theatre Company, and Community Actor’s Theatre. Regionally, she acted in a fall touring production of Romeo and Juliet with Nebraska Shakespeare, in addition to being a teaching artist for the company. She has also been a teaching artist for Trinity Theatre and has taught acting at The Nativity School in Rancho Santa Fe. She loves collaborative story-telling that delves into the richness and humor of humanity. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Theatre degree at Regent University.

Monique Gaffney

Adjunct Professor of Acting

Monique is one of San Diego’s most admired actors and playwrights. She has an MFA in Acting from Columbia University; New York, and a BA in Theatre from the University of California, San Diego. She has performed in shows such as Disgraced and Clybourne Park at the San Diego Repertory Theatre, and She is a resident artist of Cygnet Theatre where she performed The Piano Lesson and The Wind and the Breeze. She has worked as a teaching artist at Carlsbad's New Village Arts Theatre and works as a teaching artist at the Old Globe Theatre, where she has previously appeared in the theater’s touring "Shakespeare for All" program. In March 2019, the Theatre Communications Group announced that Gaffney was among six winners nationwide of the Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowships, a prestigious honor that affords funding, time and resources for each recipient to work on a specific project with a local host theater. Gaffney, whose host is the Old Globe Theatre, will develop a multimedia theater piece inspired by the book Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust — Immaculèe Ilibagiza’s true story of a woman who survived the 1994 Rwandan genocide for 91 days in a tiny bathroom alongside seven other women.

Rebecca Huber

Adjunct Faculty for Vocal Performance

Rebecca is a licensed speech-language pathologist and vocal music director with rich clinical experience, energy, and passion for her work. She holds a Master’s degree in Speech Pathology and Audiology from California State University, Los Angeles, a Bachelor's degree in Speech Pathology and Audiology from San Jose State University, and a current license. She has a special interest in Voice and Voice Science and has a rich background in music and vocal singing. She is a professional vocalist with her accomplishments including the mastery of various styles of music such as musical theater, big band, barbershop, Renaissance, classical, choral, pop, and original compositions. Her experience includes singing with Norwegian Cruise Lines, Temecula Valley Master Chorale, Don Morris Singers, La Jolla Renaissance Singers, San Diego Chorus of the Sweet Adelines, Coronado Playhouse, and numerous Los Angeles studio bands. She is the lead vocalist, reader, and member of the School of Cantors at Holy Angels Byzantine Catholic Church in San Diego. Professor Huber has produced several musical CDs including Take Me Far Away, a CD of original compositions. She is currently the owner of Kluster Kidz, a speech/phonology therapy material company for which she composes songs and creates materials with targeted speech element clusters for young children. She is an accomplished pianist and cellist and has played as soloist, in duets, small ensembles, and in the pit orchestra for numerous professional musical theater productions throughout San Diego, including West Side Story at the Spreckles Theater. Professor Huber's true vocation is to help people find their own, unique voice, both on and off the stage.

Dr. Robert Giracello, PhD

Adjunct Professor of Music

Robert is an award winning composer, performer, and educator. He received his PhD from the University of California, Riverside where he specialized in the theatrical works of Stephen Sondheim, the compositions and writings of Arthur Farwell, and electronic music composition using ChucK music programming. As a performer and composer, Robert has appeared throughout the United States and Europe, most notably in a special audience for Pope John Paul II, at the United Nations UNESCO concert in Paris, and at a special anniversary celebration in Cologne, Germany. He has recorded six studio albums and written two novels, most notably Three Landscapes, for which he received a MACRO award. He currently serves as Director of Music and Liturgy for Church of the Resurrection in Escondido. He is the father of two adorable kids.

Steve Kramp

Professor of Theology and Humanities

Steve is a theologian and prize-winning poet. Prior to coming to JPCatholic he taught courses in writing, literature, and cultural history at a number of universities and colleges, including the University of California, Merced, and the Franciscan University of Steubenville. He holds a BA in English from the University of Oregon, an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and an MA in Theology and Christian Ministry from the Franciscan University of Steubenville. He also worked for three years in youth ministry at a Seattle-area parish.

In his classroom teaching Steve often returns to his primary intellectual interest, which is the intersection of faith practice and artistic practice. In addition to his teaching and administrative service as Humanities Chair at JPCatholic, Steve is currently working on Holy Saturday, a series of long poems. Prof. Steve has received a Mandatum from the Bishop of San Diego as an ecclesial recognition of his posture and commitment to teach Theology always in communion with the Church, and in conformance with the requirements of Ex Corde Ecclesiae.

Kathryn Smith-McGlynn

Adjunct Professor of Acting

Kathryn is an actress, writer, and producer. Her body of work includes notable performances across multiple mediums including theatre, television, film, video, print, and radio. She has appeared on the television series such as Deputy (FOX), Better Call Saul (AMC), Grey’s Anatomy (ABC), Friday Night Lights (NBC), Hysteria (Amazon Prime) and others. She also has appeared as a co-star on Mazerunner: The Scorch Trials.

She raised millions of dollars in NYC as a former fundraising consultant and executive. She also served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at El Paso where she developed and taught groundbreaking courses. She studied at the famed Moscow Art Theatre and hold MFA in Acting from Carnegie Mellon University.

Courtney Moorehead Balaker

Adjunct Professor of Film and Acting

Prof. Balaker is an award-winning filmmaker, theatre director, and co-founder of Korchula Productions. Courtney wrote, directed, and produced Little Pink House, an award-winning feature film about Susette Kelo’s historic fight to save her home and neighborhood. The film stars two-time Academy Award nominee Catherine Keener (Get Out) and Emmy nominee Jeanne Tripplehorn (Grey Gardens). It has won a variety of awards including the HBO Audience Award at the Provincetown International Film Festival and the Vail Film Festival Audience Award. Additional film and television credits include Can We Take A Joke?, The Coddling of the American Mind, and America in Primetime, an award-winning PBS documentary series including interviews with Ron Howard, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Alec Baldwin.

She began her film career at Neo Art & Logic, a feature film production company with an overall deal with Dimension Films where she developed new screenplays and went on to serve as Vice President of Development. She spent five years in New York City directing Off-Broadway plays, working with actors such as George Morfogen (HBO's Oz) and Joseph Gorden-Levitt (Inception). Her theater credits include works at SoHo Playhouse, Ensemble Studio Theater, and Theater for the New City.

Courtney holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Colorado at Denver and a master’s degree in theatre directing from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and King’s College London where she received classical acting and theater directing training under the leadership of Fiona Shaw and Lord Richard Attenborough.

Tonnie Sammartano

Adjunct Professor of Dance

Tonnie is a dance artist with decades of experience as a performer and instructor. She has been a major contributor to San Diego's dance community, teaching for over 30 years in the Department of Theatre and Dance at UCSD. She also serves as Associate Artistic Director at transcenDANCE Youth Arts Project, guiding youth in underserved San Diego communities to create positive change through dance and performance. Her collaborative projects include "Three Choreographers, One Dancer", "5x1", "Under the Tongue", and "Uprooted". In 2012 she worked with filmmaker Mark Sissone and music composer Kristopher Apple to create a film and dance event titled "/hom/". She received the 1998 and 1999 San Diego Area Dance Alliance Tommy Award for excellence in individual performance and the 1999 SDADA Tommy Award for recognition for the “5x1” Project. Tonnie holds a Masters in Interdisciplinary Studies in Theatre and Dance.

Elena Chirkova

Adjunct Professor of Fashion

Elena Chirkova has over 25 years of experience in the fashion, modeling and TV industries. Her love for fashion started when she began sewing at age 8 and designing her own clothes at age 11. She became a professional model at age 14, and worked for years as a runway, print, TV and commercial model. At age 20 she began work as an instructor for models in Eastern Europe and California. Throughout her career Elena has worked with professional well-known European designers, learning how to work with clients and make the dress fit with the client’s personality.

Elena’s Master’s degree in Education and Bachelor’s degree in Fashion, combined with her successful career as a model, led to the foundation of Dance in Style in 1998, a design company specializing in ballroom dancewear. In 2007, Dance in Style successfully relocated from Russia to the U.S. and expanded to skate wear and rhythmic gymnastics competition costumes. Elena's creations appeared in Season 5 of "Dancing with the Stars" and a San Diego "Dancing with the Stars" event.

Elena loves to share her industry experience with the San Diego community, serving as Theatre Production Designer for many shows in the area, intern advisor at STAR Repertory Theatre in Escondido, and instructor at Carlsbad High School. She has taught costume and fashion design at Palomar College since 2015, and at JPCatholic since 2024.