Jim

Jim Montgomery began his formal studies in music as a horn player, and completed a Bachelor of Music degree with majors in performance and composition. He has been involved with electroacoustic music since 1970. He is a founding member and continues to be active with the Canadian Electronic Ensemble, the world’s longest lived electroacoustic group.

In his career as an Arts Administrator, Jim Montgomery served as Administrative Director of New Music Concerts from 1984 to 1987 and from 1988 to 2005 as Artistic Director of the Music Gallery in Toronto.

Jim Montgomery is a student and instructor at the Standing Wave School of Martial and Healing Arts (Toronto) where he teaches Uechi-ryu Karate. He holds the rank of Godan (black belt, fifth degree).

Jim has acted as comptroller of the Stratford Seminar Society since 2018 and can be reached at sss.comptroller@gmail.com.

Liz

Elizabeth Pentland specializes in Renaissance literature including Shakespeare. Her research focuses on transnational literary exchanges between England and France during the period of the French civil wars.

Liz regularly teaches courses in Shakespeare, contemporary adaptations of Shakespeare (and/or global Shakespeare), Early Modern political theory, and the literature of travel, and she has been nominated for both the LA&PS Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and the President’s University-Wide Teaching Award.

Liz has been with the Stratford Seminar Society since 2013.

Peter

Peter Parolin, professor of English and dean of the Honors College at the University of Wyoming, has coordinated the seminar leadership team since 2019. Peter is an expert on Shakespeare, performance, and the history of the Stratford Festival. He joined the seminars as a professor in 1995 and has returned every year since then, consistently inspired by brilliant theatrical artistry and the wonderful camaraderie of the seminar society.

Peter’s passions include teaching – his classes have included seminars on Shakespeare, world theatre, performance cultures, political theatre, women’s performance, and an annual three-week study-abroad class, Shakespeare in England and Italy. He has published Women Players in England, 1500-1660, which he co-edited with Pamela Allen Brown, as well as essays for leading journals in Renaissance literary studies and essays on the history and changing nature of the Stratford Festival. Peter grew up in British Columbia; he received his BA from the University of British Columbia and his MA and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania.

Beyond his professional endeavors, Peter has acted in many productions for the University of Wyoming’s Theatre and Dance department (The Crucible, Marat/Sade, Dead Man Walking, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Much Ado About Nothing) and for companies in Laramie, including the innovative Realtive Theatrics (plays include Red, A Walk in the Woods, I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard, and The Nether).

Peter can be reached at parolin@uwyo.edu.