Judith Levitt

Retired Instructor, Adjunct, Theatre Arts
Specialty: Acting

Judy has been teaching Acting at Ithaca College since 1988.  She holds an M.A. in Theatre from the University of Kansas, where she was invited into the Professional Actor Training Program as an undergraduate.  As a graduate student she traveled to Eastern Europe with a troupe of actors under the auspices of the State Department.  The troupe performed a series of scenes and songs, “The Kaleidoscope of the American Dream”, in Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania, culminating in a performance in Bucharest at the Directing Festival of the International Theatre Institute. 

Subsequent acting training was with Michael Howard of the Michael Howard Studios in New York City, where Judy became a member of all three professional actors’ unions – Equity, AFTRA and SAG.  She has performed in over 60 plays and musicals spanning New York City showcases and Off-Broadway, as well as regional repertory, summer stock and dinner theatre in New York and the Midwest.  Favorite roles include, “Vivie” in Mrs. Warren’s Profession (Michigan Repertory), “Lola” in Damn Yankees (Camelot Dinner Theatre, Michigan),“Olivia” in Twelfth Night (Equity Library Theatre, NYC),“Jean Brodie” in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (University of Kansas),“Anna” in Toys in the Attic (Hangar Theatre, Ithaca), “Gillian” in Marriage Play (Firehouse Theatre, Ithaca), “Sister Mary” in Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You (Firehouse) and “Teresa” in The Memory of Water (Kitchen Theatre, Ithaca). As a member of the cast of Marriage Play, she participated in the presentation of the play for the Gerontology Institute at Ithaca College, followed by a panel discussion on aging and marriage.

Judy was a founding member of the Cornell Interactive Theatre Ensemble (C.I.T.E.), which performs for a number of different organizations, including colleges and universities, corporations, service and government agencies, exploring work place issues such as diversity and productivity.   In addition to performing in scenarios devised to illustrate controversial situations, she performed in a number of training videos – for social agencies and corporations.  Under the auspices of C.I.T.E. she also worked extensively with the Child Protective Services Training Institute, both as an actor-trainer and as a director, training social workers to go into the field and investigate allegations of child maltreatment.  Judy presented and demonstrated the technique of interactive theatre at the National Conference on Child Abuse in Salt Lake City.