A director,
actor, teacher since 1975, Tom has served as Artistic Director for three
professional theatre companies in Northeast Ohio.
In 1975, he founded and headed Center Repertory Theatre,
a L.O.R.T. "C" company located in Playhouse Square in downtown
Cleveland. There, his work included such critically acclaimed productions
as Vanities, by Jack Heifner, which became the 2nd longest-running play
in Cleveland history with a production run of just over a year; Streamers,
by David Rabe; and the world premiere of Michael Paller's moving adaptation
of A Christmas Carol.
In 1980, Fulton became Artistic Director for the Phoenix Theatre Ensemble,
a company of actors, directors and playwrights, who worked and trained
together to develop a production style that arose from the collective
creative minds and talents. It was at Phoenix, that Fulton began a professional
actor training program focusing on the Stanislavski system of actor development,
which he still teaches today. A number of acclaimed productions were mounted
at Phoenix Theatre, including: The Three Sisters, winner of the Cleveland
Critics' Circle Award for Best Professional Production, Getting Out, Whose
Life is it Anyway, Cyrano De Bergerac, Our Town, Bus Stop, Ashes and Cat
on a Hot Tin Roof.
After a 5 year stint as an actor with the Cleveland Play
House, Fulton created, along with Director/Actor Andrew May and Managing
Director, William Meckler, The Cleveland Theatre Company. CTC was operated
under a Small Professional Theatre Contract and was dedicated to the production
of classic plays performed by the regional artists of Northeast Ohio.
Utlimately the company formed an alliance with The Factory Theatre at
Cleveland State University, in associate directorship with actor/director/professor
Wayne S. Turney. Here, Fulton did some of his most ambitious work, directing Hamlet, 'night Mother, The Cherry Orchard, Uncle Vanya and others; Acting
in King Lear, Man and Superman, Uncle Vanya and Two Rooms.
Tom began his theatrical career as an actor with the Heights
Youth Theatre and the WKYC TV East Ohio Fairy Tale Theatre, directed by
Jerry Leonard. His senior year in High School, he attended Interlochen
Arts Academy in Traverse City, Michigan and went on to earn a Bachelor
of Fine Arts in Professional Acting from Southern Methodist University.
Among the theatre artists with whom Tom has studied are Ray Bolger, Morris
Carnovski, Arthur Lessac, Kristin Linklater, Vivian Vance, Adrian Hall,
Morton DaCosta, Joe Chaikin, Zelda Fichandler, Joe Anthony, Tina Packard,
and Joan Potter.
As a professional actor in Cleveland, he has performed
or directed at Playhouse Square Foundation, The Cleveland Orchestra, Blossom
Music Festival, The Cleveland Play House, The Cleveland Actor's Theatre
Company, Center Repertory Theatre, The Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, Cleveland
Theatre Company, The Actor's Summit, The Halle Theatre, Cain Park Summer
Theatre, Chagrin Valley Little Theatre, and Dobama Theatre
Just recently, Fulton directed the professional Equity
premier of The Interview at the Halle theatre. And, in April 2002, at
The Actors' Summit Theatre, he played George in Who's Afraid of Virginia
Woolf?
Recently, Tom has acted Don Quixote in Man of LaMancha at the Halle
Theatre in October of 2002, Tartuffe in Tartuffe at the Actor's Summit
Theatre in Hudson. Tevye in Fidder on the
Roof at Cain Park Summer Theatre. In January of 2004, Tom directed an acclaimed production of Chekhov's THE SEAGULL at the Beck Center. This coming fall (October 2005), Tom will be playing Emile de Becque in South Pacific for the JCC's Arts and Culture Program at the Performing Arts Center at Tri-C Eastern Campus. In October of 2007, Tom directed and co-authored the world premier of "Reflections" at the Beck Center for the Arts.
Tom serves part time as the Executive Director of the Fairmount Center for the Arts and, starting in September, 2008, full time as Director of the Chagrin Falls Performing Arts Academy.
