Miss Carole's Bio

CAROLE HANNA McCANN
Director, Choreographer, Teacher, Writer, Administrator
Professional and Educational Musical Theatre

The Standard Bio

Carole Hanna McCann combines a strong theatrical background with a diversified liberal arts education giving a very special flavor to her gift of teaching in the performing arts. Her 40+ years in the business have netted extensive credits, including over 500 musicals, children's shows, operas, revues, showcases, nightclub acts, TV shows, films, student productions, and choral presentations.  Miss McCann was on the faculty of the University of Houston's Department of Drama for seven years, and Director of the Jewish Community Center's Kaplan Theatre for five years, endeavors highlighted in a cover story in the Houston Chronicle's TEXAS magazine.

Her community involvement in the arts included numerous appearances of her student performing troupe, TUTS ON TOUR, at civic and cultural events, as well as the crowd-favorite annual appearance at Miller Outdoor Theatre in the MOT Children’s Performing Arts Series. She gave additionally to the arts community by serving on grants panels for the Cultural Arts Council of Houston and Harris County (CACHH). Miss Carole, as she is known, also created the HSMT outreach programs, bringing the “TUTS Touch” to several thousand students a year through MUSICALS ON THE MOVE for the able-bodied, and MUSICALS FOR ME TOO for children, teens, and adults with physical and mental challenges.

She choreographed many of the TUTS professional main stage musicals, worked with community theatres, and directed and choreographed the Junior League Charity Ball Show for 25 years. An ardent environmentalist, she and her HSMT staff wrote and produced CELEBRATE THE EARTH! to commemorate the annual Earth Day celebrations nationwide, winning a Mayor's Proud Partners Award for the musical's powerful presentation.

Miss McCann also writes, directs, and choreographs for children and youth choirs, collaborating with composer Allen Pote on the musicals A REASON TO REJOICE, OH JONAH!, CELEBRATE THE VISION, A TECHNICOLOR PROMISE, MUSIC IS MAGIC, and SCROOGE ROCKS!, as well as many single songs and anthems. The musical theatre in her psyche joins her spirituality to make anything from her pen reverberate with both bouncy fun and profound meaning.

From 2005-2008, she continued her full-time TUTS and HSMT career, managing the Studio Programs in the restructured education department. In 2008, new initiatives overseas required her to leave the TUTS family and strike out on her own. She free-lances as a director, choreographer, workshop teacher, birthday party leader, specialty writer, senior adult instructor, and crochet artist at home in the US, and as a traveling musical theatre educator on the other side of the world.

“Since 2005, I’ve been on the adventure of a lifetime, serving as the Theatre Specialist for the non-profit American Voices organization, bringing the magic of musical theatre to children, teens, and adults in the Mid-East and the Far East. August of 05 and 06 took me to Taiwan for the Taiwan International Summer Broadway Academy. July of 07 brought new meaning to the word ‘outreach’ with the first Unity Academy and Concert in Erbil, Northern Iraq. It was a smash hit, and I returned in 08 for a whole month of teaching and choreographing. Plus teaching again in Taiwan,  and adding a Summer Camp Week in Tokyo... these were truly life-changing times!

I still teach part-time at TUTS, and free-lance anywhere anybody wants to explore the wonderful world of musical theatre. I am truly blessed by being able to use my gifts to build cultural and diplomatic bridges through the performing arts. I now bring musical theatre to the world – what could be better than that!”

Miss Carole’s artistic and creative work has touched the lives of thousands of students of all ages and backgrounds, and her alumni shine on Broadway, at regional theatres, in commercials and feature films, as well as in the educational, corporate and professional world. Her “Turn On Your Sparkle Button” catch-phrase is being heard now by the children and grandchildren of former students and performers, as well as by her international family of students on the other side of the globe.

On a personal note, Carole reads from her personal library of over 3000 books, gardens at her Bellaire, Texas home, and crochets for her Miss Carole Collection. She keeps a Christmas tree up all year, corresponds with former students, and takes care of the nuns who raised her from high school on. She loves to go out to eat with her brother Father Jack Hanna CSB, and the two share many stories and memories of their careers as teachers to legions of students. For their lives of dedication and commitment to mentoring and serving their community, the dynamic duo were honored as the University of St. Thomas Alumni of the Year in 2009. And finally, as a life-long animal lover, Miss Carole serves as the human for three cats, Lady, Archie, and Lucy. Her favorite motto: “Live life to your fullest – this is NOT a dress rehearsal.”

The Comic Bio

General Summary Comic:
60+ years of life, 40+ years of show business education. 40 years living in Bellaire TX, 25 years creating the Junior League Charity Ball, 26 years directing Theatre Under The Stars School, and still high on life! Filled with countless stories of children, teens, and adults who make up thousands of wonderful memories. University of St. Thomas grad, now working on an MLA; 6 published children's musicals; writer and lyricist with composer Allen Pote. Reads, gardens, and serves as the human for three cats. Still believes that everyone should have the magic moment that happens when you step on-stage... perform... and someone applauds.   Still claps furiously when Peter Pan asks audiences if they believe in Tinkerbell. Still believes her prince will come.

TUTS Stats:
Miss Carole enjoyed 26 years at the TUTS Humphreys School... 75,000 hours filled with memories of 25,000 kids, teens, and adult students, 500 teachers, staffers, and volunteer leaders, 1200 weeks of classes, 3500 end-of-term performances on the TUTS StudioStage, 1000 hours of local civic and cultural event entertainment, 41 TUTS Main Stage shows featuring over 575 HSMT students, 8 national tours coast-to-coast with The Apprentice Performers, 10 Spring Showcases at the Houston Music Hall with 300+ students on stage each year, 4 Student Matinee productions delighting 21,800 students and teachers at the Houston Arena Theatre, 8 Miller Outdoor Theatre performances, an original musical celebrating Earth Day, 400 outreach training and/or performing sessions, 15 TV and film projects, and enough sequins, feathers, and glitter to connect Houston to New York!

Bits o' Sequential Info:

• Born in San Antonio in 1946, the family moved to Houston when my dad returned from Korea in 1952.

• Mother and Daddy deceased long ago.

• One older brother, Father Jack Hanna, CSB, Catholic priest, teacher at St. Thomas High School and University of St. Thomas.

• Studied dance with Patsy Swayze, first solo was tap-dancing as The Wicked Witch in Oz.

• Hanna is my family name, McCann is my professional name, inherited from a long-ago marriage and somehow never changed back.

• Started directing and choreographing in 1964, freshman in college.

• Spent 5 years in business admin/accounting/general office at Southwestern Bell, 1967-1972.

• Bought my first home in Bellaire, TX in 1972.

• Started in full time performing arts admin/teaching/directing for Chris Wilson's Studio 7 Children's Theatre and Performing Arts School, 1972-1974.

• Went back to school to finish BA in Liberal Arts and worked as payroll clerk for the University of St. Thomas, 1974-1976. MFA now in progress at UST.

• Took up the reins as Director of Performing Arts at the JCC, 1976-1981.

• Collaborated as lyricist on six published musicals and several single songs with composer Allen Pote, and choreographed for his and wife Susan’s choirs, most notably their Pensacola Children’s Chorus.

• Frank Young and Ange Finn convinced me to join the TUTS team to direct the educational wing in January 1982, and at the Humphreys School of Musical Theatre I stayed full-time till 2008. Now teach there part-time, and work on special projects for my beloved HSMT.

• Bought my second and current home in Bellaire in 1982, pink with green shutters and white trim, and a jungle garden of oaks, shrubs, plants, flowers, and fruit trees, with squirrels and birds galore. Serve as the human for three cats.

• Diagnosed with diabetes II in 2007, strict low carb and low calorie diet with lots of walking. Otherwise, just the usual creaks and groans of a baby boomer body.

• Adventure with John Ferguson’s non-profit American Voices teaching overseas began in 2005, and by 2008, students in Iraq, Taiwan, and Tokyo had heard of the Miss Carole Sparkle Button.

• American Voices projects on the other side of the world called me more and more strongly, and required more time, so I had to leave my TUTS family (very traumatic!) and strike out on my own.

• The first thing I learn when I’m in a different country is their word for fabulous, as it is truly the defining expression of my view of life.

• Currently, I am freelancing, working at a little bit of everything, from show biz to home organizing, crocheting the Miss Carole Collection to landscaping, specialty writing to garage sale-ing, taking the nuns out on Sundays to emailing all my wonderful alums, friends, and family all over the world.

• Favorite Motto: Live life to its fullest... remember, this is NOT a dress rehearsal!