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Currently Jef performs mime, variety arts and mask theater as The InterACTive Theater of Jef. He's appeared at such places as: Merlefest in Wilkesboro, NC; Piccolo Spoleto in Charleston, SC; The Very Special Arts Festival in Pembroke, NC; The Ocrafolk Festival on Ocracoke Island; and the Hampton Children's Festival in Hampton, VA. He teaches mime, mask, commedia dell'arte, ensemble techniques and composition through educational residencies. He is also a North Carolina A+ Fellow, sharing techniques for using arts integration in the classroom with teachers throughout the state.
Jef apprenticed with with C.W. Metcalf and Tony Montanaro, with brief instruction from Jacques Lecoq. His other studies include: acting with William Hickey at the H.B. Studio, period dance and style with William Burdick, ballet with Beverly Shalomith, modern dance with Carol Richards, commedia dell'arte at the Del'Arte School with Joan Schirle and Donald Forest, neutral mask with Dody Disanto, and clowning with Ezekiel Peterhof. Other skills gained along the way include juggling, unicycling, stiltwalking, maskmaking, and gourd crafting.
From 1976 to 1993 Jef was a member TOUCH, North Carolina's touring mime theater ensemble. The members of TOUCH performed in hospitals and prisons, day care centers and college fine arts centers, in concert halls, and on television. They appeared at Lincoln Center's Out-of-Doors Festival in New York and the Alternate ROOTS Festival in Atlanta. The North Carolina Symphony and the Charlotte Symphony both commissioned TOUCH to create and perform original works in concert with them. In 1990, TOUCH received the North Carolina Theater Conference Award for Excellence in Theater for Youth.
From 1993 to 1997 Jef created and performed as the mascot, Wool E. Bull, for the Durham Bulls Baseball Club.
Jef has appeared in two UNC-TV special productions with the North Carolina Symphony: TOUCH Brings Music to Life, and Carnival of the Animals. Regional credits include: The Plant, Audrey II, in Atlanta and Raleigh productions of Little Shop of Horrors; The Mute in Flat Rock Playhouse and Temple Theater productions of The Fantasticks; Street Performer/Juggler in the Durham Street Opera production of Pagliacci; and as a dog, an alien, and a mime in productions of the Jelly Educational Theater. From 1995 through 1999, Jef was the Managing Director for the Jelly Educational Theater. From 1993 through 1997, Jef created the character and performed as Wool E. Bull- the mascot for the Durham Bulls Baseball Team.
In 2018, Jef was selected as a delegate from the United States to the International Teaching Artist Conference at Carnegie Hall in New York, NY.