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Jaffe, David B.


Frank B. Weeks Visiting Professor of Theater
Theater Department
860.685.3027
Theater and Dance Studios 113


BA Connecticut College
MFA Yale University
EMAIL:
dbjaffe@wesleyan.edu
Professional Acting & Directing Credits:
 Work in NYC and in regional theater at the Long Wharf Theater, American Shakespeare Theater, Yale Repertory Theater, and at the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. He worked with Morris Carnovsky, Jon Jory, Earle Gister, Estelle Parsons, Zoe Caldwell, and Jerome Robbins at the New York City Ballet. While an Associate Professor at Connecticut College, he adapted and directed the premiere of Elie Wiesel's first novel Dawn for the Jew Hatred: Paradigm for Racism symposium.
WESLEYAN PO BOX:
 Theater Department
COURSES TAUGHT THIS SEMESTER:
THEA245 - 01
THEA431 - 01
THEA170 - 01
AREAS OF EXPERTISE:
David B. Jaffe comes to Wesleyan University from the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center where for eight years he served as Director of the National Theater Institute, guiding the 14-week intensive theater immersion program. Jaffe taught advanced acting classes, audition technique, improvisation, ensemble process, and mentored the directing lab. Every semester, he directed the NTI Final Project, a collectively created performance of non-theatrical source material, most recently an adaptation of Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel, Persepolis. He has built professional associations with the Moscow Art Theater, the St. Petersburg Theater Arts Academy, The Wooster Group, and Anne Bogart's SITI Company.
ACADEMIC ASSOCIATIONS:
Jaffe is a professional observer at the Actors Studio in New York City, where he coordinated a colloquium between the actors of the Moscow Art Theatre and the members of the Actors Studio during the American tour of MXAT's production of The Three Sisters. He received his MFA in Acting from the Yale School of Drama during the tenure of Lloyd Richards.
OFFICE HOURS:
Wednesdays from 3:00 - 4:30pm and Thursdays from 3:00 - 4:00pm or by appointment.
SPECIAL ROLE IN DEPARTMENT:
At Wesleyan Jaffe teaches at every level of the arc of acting classes, including Acting I, Acting II, Improvisation, Acting Heightened Text and Shakespeare: Text and Voice.

He specializes in Collective Creation and group adaptation, and used these methods in the Spring 2008 Theater Department production of Charles Mee's "Big Love."