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FACULTY | |
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WILLIAM TEAGUE Professor of Theatre, William Teague teaches design and technical theatre. In addition to this theatrical work, he is represented in other media as well. He has designed scenery for Alabama Public Television and was Production Designer for the feature motion picture, Rebel Love. Mr. Teague wrote and supplied graphics for the Computer Assisted Design section of Scene Design and Stage Lighting, the most widely used text in technical theatre. He has also served as a theatre consultant on restorations and new facilities around the southeast. He is the Vice-President for Special Operations for the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, the 1995 winner of the USITT Southeast Region "Outstanding Educator of the Year" award, former President of the Alabama Conference of Theatre and Speech, and a member of SETC, as well as USITT. In 2004 he received the "Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award" from the UA National Alumni Association. |
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Thomas Adkins A graduate of the Theatre Management/Arts Administration program here at UA, Professor Adkins served as a producer on the off-off-Broadway production Dammit, Shakespeare! (written by fellow UA professor Seth Panitch) at Urban Stages in New York City. His professional career has also included serving as Company Manager for the Clarence Brown Theatre, the LORT D professional theatre-in-residence at the
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Sarah M. Barry Sarah M. Barry teaches dance history, choreography, teaching methods and technique. Besides her work at the University of Alabama, Sarah recently taught modern and kinesiology classes as well as set a new piece for the American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensive along with presenting her work in San Francisco. She hails most recently from Salt Lake City where she earned her MFA in modern dance at the University of Utah as well as a certification in Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis through the Integrated Movement Studies program. Prior to her time in Utah, Sarah spent several years in New York teaching, choreographing, and moving with a variety of dance artists. Her writing has been published in the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters journal, with a forthcoming publication for the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science. She also holds a BFA in dance from Sam Houston State University as well as a teaching certification in Labanotation from the Ohio State University. Sarah has taught a wide array of classes over the past eight years including modern, ballet, and jazz techniques, dance kinesiology, Pilates/conditioning, movement analysis, and somatic practices. |
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Steve Burch Dr. Burch joins the Department of Theatre and Dance as its theatre historian after two years at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania. A published scholar in such journals as Theatre Journal and The Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism. A prize-winning playwright including a Playwriting Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Burch received his B.A. in English from CUNY-Hunter College in New York, his M.A. in Theatre from Northern Illinois University and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His areas of specialization include Irish, labor, and holocaust theatres, and his essays are included in the Reference Guide to Literature of the Holocaust (2002). |
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Cornelius Carter Professor Carter was awarded the National Outstanding Doctoral and Research Universities Professor of the Year award by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in Washington, D.C. on November 13, 2001. Carter was also awarded the 2001-2002 Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award by the Alabama Alumni Association. A former member of the Cleo Robinson Parker Dance Ensemble, Carter has been a faculty member at the American Ballet Theatre, American Dance Festival, Moscow 1997 and Korea 2002, Bates Dance Festival and Harvard Summer Dance Festival. He teaches and choreographs for the Alvin Ailey Summer Intensive Program (2001-present) in New York. In May, 1999, he attended the American Choreographers Showcase where he presented and performed his choreography in France, Holland, Austria, Vienna, and Lithuania. Carter continues to set new works on student companies, professional companies, and other University dance programs in the United States, Iceland and Russia. Mr. Carter received his M.F.A. in Dance from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Guest Rehearsal Director for Dance Brazil 2005 Season in Bahia, Brazil. |
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Ray Chambers Ray Chambers has worked with ASF as an actor, director, writer, and instructor. He was last seen at ASF in Man of La Mancha, and has played in numerous productions at ASF including, Coriolanus, King John, Henry V, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, The Winter’s Tale, The Rivals, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, and Cat On a Hot Tin Roof. Other regional credits include: Bent, Antony and Cleopatra, The School for Scandal, Coriolanus, Love’s Labours Lost, Hamlet, Macbeth, and others at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego; and numerous productions for Arizona Theatre Company, Syracuse Stage, and Studio Arena Theatre. |
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Raphael Crystal Professor Crystal is active professionally as a theater composer, arranger and musical director. His composing credits include musicals (he received a New York Outer Critics Circle award for Best Off-Broadway Musical for the show Kuni-Leml), ballets, incidental music, industrial shows, videos, and cabaret material. This season the Jean Cocteau Rep in New York will premiere his new musical version of Moliere's Le bourgeoisie gentilhomme. He has served as musical director for many off-Broadway shows in New York, and at leading regional and stock theatres, including the Berkshire Theatre Festival in Massachusetts, the Westbury Music Fair on Long Island, the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia and many others. He comes to UA from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Email: rcrystal@bama.ua.edu |
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Andy Fitch Professor Fitch is associate professor of scenic design at The
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Allison Hetzel Professor Hetzel is delighted to join the Theatre and Dance Department at the University of Alabama. She taught at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette for the past three years prior to joining UA. She teaches in the areas of voice and acting as well as directs, vocal coaches, and acts in productions. She directed the recent production of Our Town at UA. Other directing credits include, The Boys Next Door and Prelude to A Kiss. Recent roles include Lady Smatter in The Witlings and the one woman show Medea Redux. Vocal coaching credits include Othello and The Birds. She received her M.F.A. in Voice and Acting Pedagogy from Virginia Commonwealth University and holds a B.A. in Theatre from Viterbo College. Prior to her graduate work she performed at the following theatres in Chicago, IL: Organic Theatre, Ivanhoe, Factory, and The Theatre Building. She has studied Classic Greek Theatre with the Athens Centre of Greece where she performed in a touring production of The Trojan Women. She also performed in Darkly Beautiful at the 2002 International Theatre Festival of Sibiu Romania, where she worked with the DAH Theatre Company of Yugoslavia. She has attended voice workshops led by Arthur Lessac and Catherine Fitzmaurice and studied voice and speech with Janet Rodgers at VCU. Allison has led voice and acting workshops in Virginia, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Massachusetts, and Scotland. She is also an active member of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA). |
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Donna Meester Professor Meester is Assistant Professor of Theatre and Resident Costume Designer at the University of Alabama. Her recent designs at UA include: Ragtime, All's Well that Ends Well, You Can't Take it With You, The Grapes of Wrath and West Side Story. She designs annually for the Oklahoma Shakespearean Festival. Some of her work there includes costume designs for: Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, The Merchant of Venice, A Comedy of Errors, and Titus Andronicus. Other venues Meester's designs have been seen at are:The Alabama Shakespeare Festival, The Redlight Theatre (Washington D.C.), Arkansas State University, Memphis Black Rep, Henderson State University, University of Louisiana-Monroe, University of Northern Iowa and Louisiana State University. She is currently the Design Chair (Region IV) for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival and is an active member of the United State Institute for Theatre Technology as well as the Southeast Theatre Conference. Ms. Meester earned her MFA in Stage Design from Southern Methodist University and a BS in Apparel Technology from Purdue University. |
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Rick Miller Professor Miller joins the Department of Theatre and Dance as its Technical Director and Professor of Technical Production after recently completing an M.F.A. program in technical direction at North Carolina School of the Arts. His latest credit was associate technical director of the 50th anniversary celebration of West Side Story directed by Gerald Freedman, the assistant director of the original Broadway production and director of the 1980 Broadway revival. Over the last sixteen years, Rick has accumulated a wide range of experiences in all aspects of theater as a director, scene designer, musician and performer. He has also worked as a theatrical leasing agent at Samuel French Play Publishing in New York City and a high school drama teacher in Orlando, FL. Rick earned his B.A. in Theatre Arts at Texas A&M University and is a graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. |
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Seth Panitch Professor Panitch is an Assistant Professor of Theatre and teaches Acting and Movement at the University of Alabama, directs mainstage productions, and co- directs the Master of Fine Arts program in Acting/ Pedagogy. Seth is an accomplished actor, director, playwright and screenwriter. He has acted and directed both in New York and regionally, including productions at the American Place Theatre, Westbeth Theatre Center, Utah Shakespearean Festival, Idaho Repertory Theatre, Urban Stages Theatre and the Hillside Repertory Company in Los Angeles. His plays Dammit, Shakespeare!, Hell: Paradise Found and What's Taking Moses So Long? have received critical success in both New York and Los Angeles productions, and his screenplays Restoration and That's Life are currently in development with Affinity Films and the Joel Zwick Company, respectively. Recent UA credits include Director of last season's Fifth of July and performing the dual role of Chandebise/ Posche in A Flea in Her Ear. Seth's particular area of expertise is classical theatre, and he received his M.F.A. from the Professional Actor Training Program at the University of Washington under Jack Clay. |
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Rita Snyder Professor Snyder has danced professionally with both ballet and modern dance companies, including American Festival Ballet, Classical Ballet Theatre, Berkshire Ballet, Tandy Beal and Co., and Clay Taliaferro and Dancers. She received a B.F.A. in modern dance performance and an M.F.A. in ballet teaching and choreography from the University of Utah. She has taught various levels of ballet, modern dance technique, and flamenco at the University of Utah, Baltimore School for the Arts, Goucher College, and Towson State University. She has also served as ballet coach for Kennedy Center performances of The Next Ice Age and taught modern dance for the American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensive. Ms. Snyder also has a background in classical music having performed as a violinist with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra. |
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Ed Williams Dr. Williams is Professor of Theatre and Founding Chairman of the UA Department of Theatre and Dance since its formation in 1979. His production of Edward Bond's Lear was honored with its selection to the national level of the American College Theatre Festival and was performed at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Dr. Williams has been recognized with Druid Arts Awards for "Best Production of a Play" and "Theatre Educator". In 1996 he was honored by the National Alumni Association of the University of Alabama with their Outstanding Commitment to Teaching award. Dr. Williams is a past president of the Alabama Theatre League and the Southeastern Theatre Conference. Former Chairman of the Commission on Accreditation Dr. Williams now serves on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Schools of Theatre, and he was recently elected the National Theatre Conference, an honorary organization of movers and shakers of the American Theatre. |
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Rebecca Freeman |
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Jeanette Lackey Scene Shop Supervisor Ms. Lackey has been building scenery for the Department of Theatre and Dance for the past 12 years. Prior to that she worked as the Master Carpenter for The Virginia Stage Company, in Norfolk, VA, and was employed as a scenic carpenter at several regional theatres across the country. She holds a MA Degree in Theatre (Technical Emphasis) from Texas Woman's University. Email: jlackey@theatre.as.ua.edu Office: (205) 348-3849 |
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Pamela McCray Office Associate II Mrs. McCray joined the Department of Theatre and Dance in 1996, but has been employed with the University since 1987. Her duties include answering and routing calls, sorting mail, maintaining student files, assisting students with registration, process gifts-in-kind and send "thank you" letters to donors, maintain electronic files for all syllabi and faculty vitas, arrange travel for dance faculty and students, processing book orders, ordering supplies, handle maintenance work orders, and Business Manager for the ABT Summer Intensive. She is married and has two children, Krystina and Tyler. Email: pmccray@bama.ua.edu Office: (205) 348-5283 |
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Lyndell McDonald Technical Supervisor, Dance Mr. McDonald is a graduate from the University of Alabama where he earned his BS in Theatre. His preferred concentration is lighting where he has designed such shows as The Grapes of Wrath and The Piano Lesson but has also designed both scenery and sound for various productions here at the University. Work experience includes working for Alabama Shakespeare Festival, American Ballet theatre and Summertide. His duties include technical direction, lighting design and sound for the four dance concerts and also helping with the production of the plays. Email: mcdon021@bama.ua.edu Office: (205) 348-9233 |
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Sharron Skipper Administrative Secretary Mrs. Skipper is an alumnus of The University of Alabama and has worked in Department of Theatre & Dance for 27 years. Her duties include financial accounting for departmental and production expenses, travel reimbursements, payroll input and entering fall/spring/summer schedule of classes on the Banner System. Email: sskipper@theatre.as.ua.edu Office: (205) 348-5283 |