Michael Hickey
Michael Hickey – Company Coordinator , Mask Carver, Theatrical Designer, Percussionist, Performer, Visual Artist, Gateway: Resident Mask Maker, Theatrical Designer Company Administrator – A Company Co-Founder
Michael has been company administrator for 42 years. During this time he has managed the day to day business of the company as well as booking and scheduling all outreach and touring activities.
He is a principal performer with Gateway performing locally, regionally, nationally and internationally for 46 years. During this time he has performed in 36 states in the United States and 13 foreign countries. International festival performances include Oaxaca, Mexico; Victoria and Montreal, Canada; Bled and Lublijana, Slovenia; Budapest, Hungary, Aeroe Island, Denmark and Amsterdam, Netherlands,
Hickey works extensively in educational theater as both a performer and teacher. He’s been an artist-in-residence at Lake Erie College, Antioch College, Emory University and the Universidad Autonoma de Metropolitana de Iztapalapa in Mexico City. Hickey has performed and taught at International and Department of Defense schools in Belgium, Spain, Germany, Italy and Canada. Since 1977, Michael has performed and taught for Gateway under the auspices of Young Audiences of Cleveland, Atlanta, New Orleans and New York.
Since 1980, Michael has been the company’s resident mask maker. His mask creations have twice won First Place and Best of Show at the National Maskibition in Eureka, California and have been on exhibit at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Iowa State Art Museum, the Art Museum of Arizona State University in Phoenix as well as in galleries in Palm Beach, FL and Santa Fe, NM, His puppet heads are part of a permanent collection at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. He has also designed for the Center For Puppetry Arts, Emory University Theater, Theatrical Outfit, Atlanta Shakespeare Company (all located in Atlanta, Georgia), the Cleveland Orchestra, the Akron Symphony, Daystar Native American Dance Theater and the Galeria de Guadalupana in Chimayo, New Mexico.
His television performing and design credits include Gateway video projects that have won a regional EMMY for “Best Entertainment Program of the Year”, two national CINDY AWARDS for excellence in educational programming and nomination for the Robert Bennett Award at the American Film Institute’s Video Festival in Los Angeles.
His background and training in the performing arts include study in theatre, mime, dance and music with pre-professional and formative training at Ohio University, Equity Apprenticeship with the Kenley Players and four years of training with world-famous French mime artist Marcel Marceau in his Advanced Mime Seminars, mime with Juki Arkin, clown with Jango Edwards, dance training with Jerry Burr of the Netherlands Dance Theatre, and Valentina Litvinoff – the last living dancer from Isadora Duncan’s Russian school.