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Achievements in research and creative activities,
as well as involvement in regional and national theatre, is the
hallmark of the faculty of the Department of Theatre. These scholars/artists
have produced an impressive list of books and articles, and their
creative work as professional designers, directors and actors has
received national and international recognition. Many have held
offices in educational theatre organizations, including the Mid-America
Theatre Conference, The Association for Theatre in Higher Education,
the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, The American
College Theatre Festival and the National Endowment for The Arts.
Patrick Atkinson
MFA, Illinois State University
Professor of Design
Phone: (573) 882-0526
E-mail: AtkinsonP@missouri.edu
Web home: http://web.missouri.edu/~atkinsonw
Address:
129 Fine Arts, Columbia MO 65211
Pat Atkinson teaches scenic design, scene painting,
and theatre management classes and designs scenery for University
productions. His designs have been showcased in regional, national
and international exhibits and have received numerous achievement
awards from the American College Theatre Festival. He has designed
many original productions, including seven chosen to be performed
at regional American College Theatre festivals. Two of these plays,
11 Zulu and Strands, won national playwriting
recognition and eventually went on to the national festival at the
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He has published
Theatrical Design in the Twentieth Century: An Index to Photographic
Reproductions of Scenic Designs.
Ph.D., University of Maryland
Director of Graduate Studies/Associate Professor of Acting, Theatre
History/Theory/Criticism
Phone: (573) 882-0530
E-mail: BlackC@missouri.edu
Address:
129 Fine Arts, Columbia MO 65211
Cheryl Black is an actress (member of Actors Equity Association and the Screen Actors Guild), playwright, director and dramaturge. Black is the author of The Women of Provincetown, 1915-1922 (University of Alabama Press, 2002) and has published essays on women's theatre and feminist theatre in Staging a Cultural Paradigm: the Political and the Personal in American Drama (edited by Barbara Ozieblo & Miriam Lopez-Rodriguez), Feminist Revisions of Classic Texts (edited by Sharon Friedman), The Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Theatre Survey, Slavic and East European
Performance, Theatre History Studies, The Journal of American Drama and Theatre, Theatre Studies, Notable American Women (edited by Susan Ware), and Facts on Files' Companion to American Drama (edited by Jackson Bryer). She is the recipient of a University of Missouri Research Board Grant (2000), a Summer Stipend Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (2003),
a University of Missouri Faculty Development Grant (2004) and a Gold Chalk Award for Excellence in Graduate Education (2006). Black is currently secretary of the American Theatre and Drama Society, Executive Board Member of the Susan Glaspell Society,, Book Review Editor of Theatre History
Studies, and a member of the board of directors of The Utopian Theatre Asylum, based in Chicago. Recent dramatic adaptations include Dracula (with LR Hults), Much Ado About Nothing (with Patricia Downey), The School for Scandal, She Stoops to Conquer, As You Like It (with Adrianne Adderley), and Susan Glaspell's Chains of Dew.
Ph.D., University of Michigan
Professor of Directing, Script Analysis, and Theatre of the Oppressed
Phone: (573) 882-0528
E-mail: BurgoyneS@missouri.edu
Address:
129 Fine Arts, Columbia MO 65211
A recipient of Fulbright and Kellogg National
fellowships, Suzanne Burgoyne has studied and taught directing and
dramaturgy at the National Theatre Institute of Belgium. She has
been editor of Theatre Topics, vice-president for Professional Development
for the Association of Theatre in Higher Education (and currently president of the same organization), and has published
articles on directing and American drama in Theatre Journal,
American Drama, Theatre Topics, and Text and
Performance Quarterly. A translator of drama by Belgian author
Paul Willems, she edited an anthology, Four Plays of Paul Willems
(Garland, 1992), and translated another play which appears in Paul
Willems' The Drowned Land and La Vita Brevé (Peter Lang, 1994). She is the co-author of Teaching and Performing:
Ideas for Energizing Your Classes (Atwood, 2002). Burgoyne is
a 2000/2001 PEW Carnegie Scholar and was named ATHE's Outstanding
Teacher of Theatre in Higher Education in 2003. She received an
MU Kemper Fellowship for Excellence in Teaching in 2004 and in January of 2005 she was awarded the Catherine Paine Middlebush Chair in Fine and Performing Arts. She is
currently conducting research related to the scholarship of teaching
and learning in theatre. Dr. Burgoyne is associated with the MU Difficult Dialogues initiative: http://difficultdialogues.missouri.edu/
Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin
Associate Professor of Playwriting, Performance Studies Phone: (573) 882-9263
E-mail: CarverH@missouri.edu
Address:
129 Fine Arts, Columbia MO 65211
M. Heather Carver is the Co-Director of the department's Writing
for Performance Program. Carver received the 2004 Chancellor's Award
for MU Women for her work as Artistic Director and co-founder of
the Troubling Violence Performance Project, a troupe that performs
personal narratives about domestic/relationship violence. She is
also the creator and Artistic Director of MU's Life and Literature
Performance Workshop and Series. Carver's research and teaching
center on the field of Performance Studies and Performative Writing.
She is co-editor of Voices Made Flesh: Performing Women's Autobiography,
University of Wisconsin Press, 2003, co-editor of Healthy Primates
and Other Plays from the New Play Development Workshop, Vanderbilt,
2004, and her articles appear in Text and Performance Quarterly
and the Journal of American Folklore. She is the Co-coordinator
of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education's New Play Development
Workshop and Vice-Chair of the Performance and Theatre Division
of the Central States Communication Association. Carver's adaptation of Lynn Miller's novel, The Fool's Journey, premiered at MU in November, 2004 and was selected as a national finalist for the David Mark Cohen Playwriting award. She was co-director with Ph.D. student Patricia Downey of Voices Made Flesh: Performances from the Life and Literature Workshop, on the MU mainstage in Spring, 2005. Carver directed the one-man show, Being Frank, written and performed by MU student Kevin Babbitt in May, 2006 at the Anne Frank Center in New York City. In October, 2006, Carver
premiered her autobiographical play, Booby Prize: A Comedy about Breast cancer at the Ellis Fischel 11th annual oncology conference. Booby Prize was performed at MU in January, 2007.
Ph.D.,City University of New York
Associate Professor of Playwriting,
Dramatic Literature, Theatre History
and Theory
Phone: (573) 882-0535
E-mail: CrespyD@missouri.edu
Web home: http://www.missouri.edu/~theatdc/
Addresses:
129 Fine Arts, Columbia MO 65211
David Crespy founded MU's Writing for Performance
program and serves its Co-Director. He is the founding Artistic Director of MU's Missouri
Playwrights Workshop, the Mizzou New Play Series, Mizzou
on Broadway, and Summer Rep's Comedies-in-Concert Series. His areas of research and teaching include playwriting, theatre history, new play development, dreamwork for playwrights, and dramatic literature. His published and produced plays include
Queens Orphans, Tekiya, Perfect Hair, Men
Dancing, Beshert; or The Jewish Dating Cycle, and Violet Palimpsest among many others.
His play Men Dancing was a 2001 national finalist for the David Mark Cohen Award and was selected for the 21st Century Playwrights Festival in New York City. He is the author of The Off-Off Broadway Explosion
published by Back Stage Books with a foreword by Edward Albee. Published plays include Beshert in Michael Wright's Playwriting Master Class, and Perfect Hair in Gary Garrison's Perfect Ten. Crespy has
served as the Chair of the ATHE Playwriting Program, Co-Chair of
the Mid- America Theatre Conference Playwriting Symposium, and is currently Chair of the National Playwriting Program for Region V of the Kennedy
Center American College Theatre Festival. He is the resident playwright for First Run Theatre, Inc. of St. Louis and has been a featured artist at the 2006 Great Plains Theatre Conference in Omaha, Nebraska. His articles have appeared in Theatre History Studies, New England Theatre Journal, Ollantay Theatre Journal, Slavic and East European Performance and www.glbtq.com. Fellowships and Awards including an University of Missouri Summer Research Fellowship and 2005 University of Missouri Excellence in Education Award.
MFA, University of Southern Mississippi
Resident Instruction Assistant Professor of Design
Phone: (573) 884-9713
E-mail: jadee8@mizzou.edu
Address:
129 Fine Arts, Columbia MO 65211
Jon Drtina, who teaches and designs for the department, has worked
in professional theatre from Florida to Alaska. Before moving to
Columbia, he served as the executive director of the Givens Performing
Arts Center on the campus of the University of North Carolina at
Pembroke. His interests include theatre design and technology, theatre
architecture and arts administration.
MFA, University of Southern Mississippi
Professor of Acting, Directing, Costume Design,
Musical Theatre Performance and Stage Movement Phone: (573) 882-0534
E-mail: MillerJM@missouri.edu
Address:
129 Fine Arts, Columbia MO 65211
James M. Miller studied at Herbert Berghoff Studios,
Fashion Institute of Technology, Parsons School of Design and the
School for the Visual Arts in New York. He directs, choreographs
and designs for University Theatre, MU's Summer Repertory Theatre,
Tulane University's Summer Lyric Theatre and the Arrowrock Lyceum
Theatre. His costumes have been featured in the International Exhibit
of Design for the United States Institute of Theatre Technology.
MFA, University of Iowa
Adjunct Associate Professor of Costume Technology
Managing Director, Summer Repertory Theatre
Costume Director and DesignerPhone: (573) 882-0529
E-mail: PackardK@missouri.edu
Address:
129 Fine Arts, Columbia MO 65211
Kerri S. Packard supervises the costume direction
of all productions in the department's two theatres. As a costume
designer, her work has been showcased regionally and nationally.
Some of her costume design and technology projects appear in Projects
for Teaching Costume Design and Technology and The Costume
Research Journal. Packard was given the Purple Chalk Award
in 1997 for excellence in teaching.
 R. Dean PackardMFA, University of Iowa
Adjunct Associate Professor of Stagecraft, Sound Design, Lighting Design and Stage Management, Technical Director and Designer Phone: (573) 882-0531
E-mail: PackardR@missouri.edu
Address:
129 Fine Arts, Columbia MO 65211
R. Dean Packard supervises the technical direction, sound design, and lighting design of all productions in the department's two theatres. He also designs lighting, sound and scenery for the department. He has received awards from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, including a Meritorious Achievement Award in 1996, for his scenic and lighting design of La Vita Brevé. He designed lights for the world premiere of the opera Corps of Discovery. Packard has been awarded the Purple Chalk Award for excellence in teaching.
MFA, University of IowaProfessor of Acting, Vocal Performance, African-American Theatre
Department Chair
Founding Director of the World Theatre WorkshopPhone: (573) 882-0533
E-mail: RuffinC@missouri.edu
Address:
129 Fine Arts, Columbia MO 65211
Clyde Ruffin joined the faculty in 1983 as Professor of Theatre. He was appointed Chair of the Department of Theatre in 1990 and served in that capacity until 1995. He is the recipient of The Purple Chalk Award for Undergraduate Teaching, The Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence, MU Faculty Alumni Award and the Chancellor's Award for Research and Creativity. He is also a Kellogg National Fellow. In 1996 he was honored as a Distinguished Alumni of The University of Iowa during the 75th Anniversary of the Theatre Arts Department. In 1999 he was inducted as a charter member of The National Theatre Conference and in 2004 he was awarded The Martin Luther King Community Service Award.
Although he has directed more than 100 productions during his career, his most memorable experiences have been the premiere production of Strands, recipient of the Kennedy Center Medallion for Artistic Excellence, Macbeth which premiered at The Cultural Center in Castries, St. Lucia in collaboration with the acclaimed poet and playwright Derek Walcott, A Raisin In The Sun at The Karamu Performing Arts Center and a premiere production of Black No More commissioned by The Guthrie Theatre. In addition to more than twenty years of collaboration as the principal costume designer for The Metro Theatre Company, he has also worked professionally as director, designer and actor with The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, The Cincinnati Playhouse, The Lyceum Theatre, and Fort Worth Shakespeare In The Park . His most recent professional credits include directing, Levee James for the St. Louis Black Repertory Theatre and costume designs for the premiere production of Earth Songs for The Missouri Historical Museum.
___________________________________________________________________________________
 Judith Sebesta
Ph.D., University of Texas
e-mail: sebestaj@missouri.edu
Judith Sebesta's research specialty is musical theatre history; her publications have appeared, or are forthcoming, in numerous journals and anthologies, including the Cambridge Companion to the Musical, the Contemporary Theatre Review, New England Theatre Journal, Theatre Annual, Journal of Theatre and Performance, Theatre Journal, On-Stage Studies, Theatre Survey and The Sondheim Review. She serves as Secretary of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), as well as Chair of the Electronic Technology Committee, and was ATHE Vice President, Conference 2005. She is the Performance Review Editor of THEATRE JOURNAL. Sebesta serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Theatre and Performance and was guest editor of a recent special issue on music, movement, performance and spirituality. Her co-edited anthology on women in musical theatre is forthcoming from McFarland Press. Sebesta also is co-author of an innovative learning tool for Theatre Appreciation courses in development with Allyn & Bacon Publishers. She was the recipient of the College of Fine Arts Outstanding Teacher Award for 2004-05 where she previously taught at the University of Arizona.
Ph.D., University of Illinois
Professor Emeritus of Theatre History
E-mail: s.archer@mchsi.com
Stephen M. Archer has published American Actors
and Acting: A Guide to Information Sources (Gale, 1983), How
Theatre Happens (Macmillan, 1977, 1983), The Theatre: Its
Art and Craft (Collegiate, 1993, 1999, 2003), and Junius
Brutus Booth: Theatrical Prometheus (Southern Illinois, 1992).
His articles and reviews have appeared in Theatre Journal,
Dramatics Magazine, Theatre History Studies and other
journals.
Ph.D., University of Illinois
Professor Emeritus of acting,
directing, and history of the American theatre in the 20th Century
Phone:
(573) 882-2904
E-mail: ClarkL@missouri.edu
Address:
129
Fine Arts, Columbia MO 65211
Larry D. Clark began his career in higher
education at the University of Iowa in 1963. He came to MU in 1966
as an assistant professor of speech and dramatic art. He is co-author
of the popular acting text Acting is Believing. After a
distinguished career as a teacher of acting and directing, during
which he directed dozens of plays, Clark was selected as dean of
MU's College of Arts and Science in 1988. He retired from the University
in 1999 and now proudly holds the titles of both professor and dean
emeritus.
Ph.D., University of Iowa
Professor of Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theatre History
Middlebush Professor of Humanities
E-mail: DurhamW@missouri.edu
Weldon Durham serves on the editorial board of
the Journal of Dramatic Theatre and Criticism. He co-founded
the Theatre History Symposium of the Mid-America Theatre Conference
and is general editor of American Theatre Companies, three
volumes (1986-89). Durham has directed national and international
award-winning productions for University Theatre and continues to
pursue an acting career. He is a member of the College of Fellows
of the American Theatre and has been Middlebush Professor of Humanities.
Ph.D., Indiana University
Professor Emeritus of Performance,
Dramatic Literature and Modern Theatre
Phone:
(573) 445-6783
E-mail: WaalC@missouri.edu
Carla Waal Johns received Fulbright, Swedish
Institute and Norwegian Foreign Ministry grants. Her research on
Scandinavian theatre has resulted in publication of Johanne
Dybwad: Norwegian Actress, Harriet Bosse: Strindberg's
Muse and Interpreter and articles in Quarterly Journal
of Speech, Scandinavian Studies, Theatre Journal,
Teatervetenskap (Stockholm) and Theatre Companies of
the World. Her translations from Norwegian have appeared in
journals and the anthology An Everyday Story.
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Published by: Department of Theatre, University
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Last Update: October 24, 2007
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Kerri
S. Packard