07/02/2026
Our next ✨CAW SPOTLIGHT✨ LISA CESNIK FERGUSON! We love this gem of a woman and her beautiful loving soul! 🐦⬛🎶. Lisa is one of our directors.
Lisa is a theatre professional and SDC Member with 35 years of experience producing, directing, acting, and teaching regionally. In Georgia, she has directed a dozen productions at the Springer Opera House and twice that many at Gordon State College, where she is the Theatre Director and tenured Professor.
She earned her baccalaureate degree in Theatre from Ball State University, her MFA in Theatre from the University of Georgia, and is currently working toward her certification in Fundraising Management from the Eli Lilly School of Philanthropy at Indiana University. In Georgia, she is also working toward her certification at the Georgia Film Academy.
Lisa became a working actor at the age of 17, when she received her first paycheck from Puppets and Players, the Children's Theatre touring arm of Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI). She has explored every genre of theatre, developing new works, musical theatre, museum theatre, touring for young audiences, and producing Shakespeare Festivals. She founded and ran Rose of Athens Theatre, Inc. as Producing Artistic Director from 2006 to 2015.
Her artistic mission is to utilize the power of the performing arts to lift up every voice.
Lisa counts herself fortunate to have studied with Martha Jacobs (author of A Meisner Legacy, 2012) from 1994 to 1996, and her acting training is firmly rooted in the Neighborhood Playhouse Technique. She is well-versed in the somewhat Spolinesque techniques of Augusto Boal, having studied with him in 2000, and then again at the Brecht Forum in NYC in 2002. Most recently she did a weekend workshop in 2019 with Julian Boal, Augusto's son.
In 2019, she presented at the Teaching Matters Conference at Gordon State College on Learning Differences and the "Neurodiverse." In 2022, she presented at the Civic Learning & Democratic Engagement Conference in Minneapolis, sharing discoveries unearthed during the oral history project she co-created, EMERGENCE, which highlighted student reflections of their experiences at Gordon State College during integration in the 60s and 70s.
As an actor, director, and educator, her highest calling is to foster an environment where everyone has an opportunity to invest themselves in the transformative power of the performing arts.
