Besides carrying a BFA Degree in Theatre Arts from Carnegie Mellon University, Gilmer was one of the original cast members of the Broadway show “Godspell” (the role of “Gilmer” for which she won the Drama Critic’s Award) and went on to do the film version as well.  She has had over thirty years professional experience in theatre, television and film, including The Adams Chronicles , which brought her an Emmy nomination,  Starting Over, directed by Alan Pakula, Slaughterhouse Five, directed by George Roy Hill, and Fearless, directed by Peter Weir.

 

 From 1981- 2003 she was full time Artistic Director of the Advent Theatre in North Hollywood, which she also helped co-found.  In that capacity, she has produced, directed, and acted in scores of plays including Ancestral Voices with Robert Foxworth, Love Letters and I Do, I Do with Susan and Bill Hayes of “Days of Our Lives”, and Arsenic and Old Lace with Donald Petrie, director of such films as Mystic Pizza and Grumpy Old Men.

 

In 1981, she produced the Tenth Anniversary Reunion of Godspell, reuniting nine members of the original cast of ten.

 

In 1997, she directed “Godspell” at the Ferndale Repertory Theatre in Ferndale California, which was the highest grossing show in that theatre’s history. Also in 1997, she was Director of the Roland Contemporary Keyboards Dealer Show at the “NAMM Festival” (National Association of Music Merchandisers) in San Diego.

 

Her teaching credentials also include three years as an assistant teacher at the First Christian Nursery School in North Hollywood.