Rhonda Morton
Rhonda Morton is a poet, performance artist, dancer and singer with a particular interest in improvisation in all those roles. Equally at home working as a soloist, as an ensemble member, or as a producer/performer, Rhonda uses the transformational power of creativity-in-the-moment, often integrating the audience and/or the site into performances.
In 2006, Rhonda formed Alligator Mouth Improv, a four-person ensemble that draws on theatre, movement, vocals, music and storytelling, all created in the moment, often from audience input and interaction. They perform in traditional theatres, but are just as likely to be found in business settings, community-building events, or non-arts venues like post offices, grocery stores, and the sidewalk during a busy lunch hour. They teach in schools and colleges, offer extra-curricular workshops, and/or co-perform with students in productions.
Rhonda is also a skilled teaching artist on her own and has worked with groups of every type—from pre-schoolers to trust bankers—to open up the potential and harness the creativity in individuals and groups. These sessions use improvisation and the expressive arts coupled with examples from participants’ lives to increase trust, improve communications and promote authenticity. She is also certified as a leader of InterPlay, an improvisation-based approach to personal and organizational effectiveness practiced around the world. In 1997, she founded GirlSmarts®, and until 2009, she led these workshops and retreats to help teenage girls understand who they are and what they want out of their lives.
In 2010, Rhonda founded Savannah Consulting, to bring more attention and focus to a part of her work that’s steadily grown over the last 15 years—teaching, facilitating, and coaching individuals and teams. She works with business people committed to lasting, systemic transformation of their workplaces; social entrepreneurs who are making the world a better place, starting with themselves and their organizations; and artists whose ideas simply must be born, and who need an experienced midwife to guide them.
Rhonda is also the author of two books of poetry—Woman Seeking Water (FootHills Publishing, 1997) and Breathing In, Breathing Out (FootHills Publishing, 2001)—as well as a book of short-short stories, She Opens the Suitcase (FootHills Publishing, 2009). For 17 years she was a poet of the stage as well as the page, and was the featured reader at venues throughout the Northeast beginning with her first performance on the Centerway Bridge in Corning, NY, in 1992.
In 2005, Rhonda was awarded the Arts Partnership Award from The ARTS of the Southern Finger Lakes for "tirelessly supporting others in their artistic endeavors, for encouraging young poets and musicians, and mentoring young women with her passion for and commitment to the arts."
Rhonda graduated summa cum laude from Muskingum College in 1980 where she earned a double major in English and philosophy. She has studied extensively in the fields of poetry, performing arts, and improvisation for the past 15 years. This has included private lessons, group workshops, self-study, and regular practices with other performers.