Joy Lamberton Arcolano

I collaborate with learners ages 3 to 83 to create self-agency through the discovery of voice, using theater as a lab for experiments in the story of the human condition.

Joy Lamberton Arcolano joined the Conservatory in 2015 and is an assistant professor of theater, specializing in voice and speech.

In 2014, Arcolano was profiled in American Theatre Magazine for her work as chief creative arts officer and founder of Playhouse Education, a teaching and consulting company. Since 2004, Playhouse Education has served over 15,000 Massachusetts students through more than 60 collaborations with public, private, and independent schools, as well as nonprofit organizations and theaters. Arcolano serves on the Longwood Players board of directors, is the founding emeritus chair of Continuing the Conversation at Harvard's Arts in Education program, and has served as lead teaching artist for the Emerson Summer Acting Studio.

Arcolano is also an award-winning actor and voice actor. She played Chloe in the Publick Theatre’s (Boston) award-winning Arcadia and is a founding company member of Saratoga Shakespeare Company (New York). Her favorite Shakespearean roles she has played include Ariel (The Tempest, director Greg Banks), Viola (Twelfth Night), Luciana (The Comedy of Errors), Lady Macbeth (Macbeth), and six iterations of Helena (A Midsummer Night’s Dream). As a voice actor, she has recorded over 100 children’s books for Scholastic, many regional and national commercials for radio and television, industrials and documentaries, and new media animation.

Arcolano holds a Master of Education in arts in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she worked with Augusto Boal, Howard Gardner, Jessica Hoffmann Davis, and Steve Seidel. Additionally, she trained and worked at Shakespeare & Company (Massachusetts) and studied Shakespeare at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. She graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in theater and history from Russell Sage College.

She lives in Watertown, Massachusetts, records from her studio, and also travels all around Greater Boston teaching for theater arts residencies.

Recent Engagements

• Baghdad Zoo, produced by Playhouse Education and the Fayerweather Street School (Boston)—Director/Teaching Artist (2016)
• Rock 'n' Roll, produced by the Longwood Players (Massachusetts)—Roles of Elinor and Esme; DASH Best Lead Actress in a Play nominee (2013)
• Massachusetts Cultural Council—Teaching Fellow (2008)