Holly Thuma

Biography

Prior to joining the faculty at Syracuse University’s Department of Drama, Holly Thuma taught voice, speech and dialects in the School of Theatre at Penn State and for Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. She holds a B.F.A. in acting from New York University and an M.F.A. in performance pedagogy from the University of Pittsburgh, where she was the 2001 recipient of the M.F.A. Teaching Award.

As an actor, director and vocal coach, Thuma’s credits include productions at the Dallas Theater Center, Pittsburgh Public Theater, City Theatre, Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival, Perry-Mansfield New Works Festival, Quantum Theatre, Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre, the Playhouse Rep, Penn State Centre Stage and Syracuse University. She has made featured appearances with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the International Poetry Forum and Pittsburgh Ballet Theater (“Juliet and Her Romeo,” world premiere at the Hollywood Bowl).

In 2011, Thuma was invited to travel to Egypt with the Firefly Tunnel Project, an international collective of mixed-media artists. “Sites of Passage,” a performance art and gallery project celebrating the Arab Spring, was exhibited/performed in both Cairo, Egypt, and at the Mattress Factory Gallery in the U.S.

A lifelong advocate of arts education, Thuma has developed and directed performance programs for underserved children through the Pittsburgh Public Theater and for the Hope Academy of Music and the Arts. She is a member of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association and a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association and Screen Actors Guild.

Education

• M.F.A., University of Pittsburgh
• B.F.A., New York University

Areas of Expertise

Voice, speech