BIOGRAPHY - LEO BERTELSEN
October 20, 2005
Leo Bertelsen joined the Missouri Valley High School staff in August, 2004. He currently teaches 9th and 10th grade English, is the director of the Drama and Speech programs and sponsor of the International Thespian Society Troupe #359.
Bertelsen is a native of Missouri Valley. He was born on March 2, 1960 to Virgil and LaVetah Bertelsen and graduated from Missouri Valley High School in 1978. He attended the University of Northern Iowa and received his Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts with an emphasis in Acting. In 1988 he was accepted into the prestigious professional actor training program at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree in Acting from Rutgers in May of 1991.
Shortly after receiving his MFA he moved to New York City where he lived and worked for the next 15 years. He appeared in a number of productions in New York City, performing in many of the classics including works by Ibsen, Shaw and Shakespeare, as well as contemporary and original plays.
In 2001 Bertelsen was recruited by the New York City Public School System as part of a special accelerated certificiation program. He took graduate level courses in education while teaching full time in an inner city school in Brooklyn for two years.
During the summer of 2004 Leo was home visiting family when he learned of Ms. Cathy Phillips' impending retirement. Ms. Phillips' was Bertelsen's drama coach in high school. After giving it a great deal of thought, he decided the opportunity to come back to the midwest to teach in his hometown high school was too good an opportunity to miss.
