Department of THEATRE and DANCE

CATHY SUSAN PYLES

 

CATHY received a BFA in acting from West Virginia University and an MFA in scenic art and design from the University of Minnesota. She also studied for a year at Alvescott College in Oxford, England.

 

In addition to being on the theater faculty at Rockford College in Illinois, and Cal State University at Northridge, she has spent the better part of her adult life schlepping suitcases throughout the USA while performing in the National Tours of The Woman of the Year (with Lauren Bacall), CATS, 42nd Street, and Crazy for You. She played Anytime Annie in the Broadway company of 42nd Street.

 

Her hysterical performance in the long running San Francisco production of COLE! won numerous awards including the prestigious Bay Area Critics’ Award and a Dramalogue Award for best actor. Local theater audiences may have seen her in a variety of roles from South Coast Repertory to the Los Angeles Theater Center. Television audiences might not remember her various appearances on Murder She Wrote, Hunter, The Young and the Restless, Family Matters, Weird Science, and numerous commercials.

 

For LAVC Cathy has directed Dames at Sea, Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors, Annie, Lucky Stiff, Spelling Bee, Cabaret, Rabbit Hole, Anything Goes, Spring Awakening, Living Out, Avenue Q, In the Heights, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Cripple of Inishmaan, Wonder of the World, and Hay Fever.

 

Born and raised in wild, wonderful West Virginia, Cathy now lives in Los Angeles with her two beautiful daughters Alexi and Maddie.