I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.
- Oscar Wilde
Getting to Know Ms. M-R
[email protected]
Jessica Magers-Rankin is an award-winning actor (Northern California’s Shellie Award: Best Supporting Actress in a Musical) originally from the San Francisco Bay Area with over 25 years of theater training and experience. Having worked and studied in NYC (American Musical and Dramatic Academy) as well as the San Francisco Bay Area, Ms. Magers-Rankin is very happy to now call Knoxville home. In addition to teaching theatre at Knoxville Catholic High School, she is a Teaching Artist with the Creative Expression Ministry of Erin Presbyterian Church, where she works with middle school and high school students. She has also served as camp director and middle school instructor for the Oak Ridge Playhouse Jr. Playhouse Summer Training Academy and directed for Jr. Playhouse.
In California, she worked with students at Diablo Valley College, ran private workshops at St. Catherine of Sienna School, Diablo Light Opera Company, and with Fantasy Forum Actors Ensemble. She was also a Teaching Artist and Production Manager at the award-winning (Diablo Magazine Best of the Bay, Bay Area Parents Magazine Best Theatre Program for Kids) Town Hall Kids, the arts education program for Town Hall Theatre Company where she worked with young actors, ages 3-19 and served as a mentor to THK’s Teen Assistant Apprenticeship Program. East Tennessee audiences may have seen her as Izzy in Rabbit Hole (Theatre Knoxville Downtown), as Joy in Rogers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Miss Hannigan in Annie and Tracy Turnblad in Hairspray! (Oak Ridge Playhouse), as Cathy in The Last Five Years (Caritas Players), as Sister Amnesia in Nunset Boulevard (Tennessee Valley Players). She has also participated in Church Street United Methodist Church Master Arts Series by directing Arthur Miller’s All My Sons in 2014 and as an actor in Godspell in 2015. She is currently serving as a board member for Theatre Knoxville Downtown.
[email protected]
Jessica Magers-Rankin is an award-winning actor (Northern California’s Shellie Award: Best Supporting Actress in a Musical) originally from the San Francisco Bay Area with over 25 years of theater training and experience. Having worked and studied in NYC (American Musical and Dramatic Academy) as well as the San Francisco Bay Area, Ms. Magers-Rankin is very happy to now call Knoxville home. In addition to teaching theatre at Knoxville Catholic High School, she is a Teaching Artist with the Creative Expression Ministry of Erin Presbyterian Church, where she works with middle school and high school students. She has also served as camp director and middle school instructor for the Oak Ridge Playhouse Jr. Playhouse Summer Training Academy and directed for Jr. Playhouse.
In California, she worked with students at Diablo Valley College, ran private workshops at St. Catherine of Sienna School, Diablo Light Opera Company, and with Fantasy Forum Actors Ensemble. She was also a Teaching Artist and Production Manager at the award-winning (Diablo Magazine Best of the Bay, Bay Area Parents Magazine Best Theatre Program for Kids) Town Hall Kids, the arts education program for Town Hall Theatre Company where she worked with young actors, ages 3-19 and served as a mentor to THK’s Teen Assistant Apprenticeship Program. East Tennessee audiences may have seen her as Izzy in Rabbit Hole (Theatre Knoxville Downtown), as Joy in Rogers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Miss Hannigan in Annie and Tracy Turnblad in Hairspray! (Oak Ridge Playhouse), as Cathy in The Last Five Years (Caritas Players), as Sister Amnesia in Nunset Boulevard (Tennessee Valley Players). She has also participated in Church Street United Methodist Church Master Arts Series by directing Arthur Miller’s All My Sons in 2014 and as an actor in Godspell in 2015. She is currently serving as a board member for Theatre Knoxville Downtown.