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Faculty
Chair
John F. Carr
Professor of TheaterShow Bio and Photo
Professor of Theater
Theater and Dance Studios 104
860-685-3029
Chair, Theater Department
Theater and Dance Studios 104
860-685-3029
BA St. Michaels College
MAA Wesleyan University
MFA Catholic University of Amerca
Personal Homepage:
http://jfcdesign.com
Office Hours:
By Appointment only
Research Interests:
John Carr has been the Lighting Designer for the Wesleyan Theater Department and the Dance Department since 1984 and is the past Theater Department Chair. He has designed Dance Lighting for Susan Foster, Douglas Dunn, Deborah Hay, Richard Bull,Dances for 2 and most Recently Patricia Beaman and Hari Krishnan/inDance. Theater projects include lighting for The Hartford Stage Company, The Folger Theatre, National Players, The Shubert Theater, and SKIN, MEAT, BONE, by Robert Wilson and Alvin Lucier. Most recently he designed the lighting for DEATH AND THE MAIDEN at The New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich, U.K., coordinated the production and designed the lighting for the Department's sold out performance of MASTER PETER at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and designed the Lighting for CRIME AND PUNISHMENT and BURY ME UNDER THE BASEBOARD, both directed by Wesleyan Theater Professor Yuriy Kondonskiy, at the Bulandra Theatre in Bucharest, Romania
Recently he went back to scene design designing the set for the Department's productions of EURYDICE and THE SKRIKER.
Academic Associations:
USITT (former Commissioner of Education)
USITTNE (former Vice-Chair)
Faculty
Ronald S. Jenkins
Professor of TheaterShow Bio and PhotoBA Haverford College
PHD Harvard University
Office Hours: Wednesday and Friday, Noon to 1:00 PM, and by appointment
Research Interests: International Traditions of Comic Performance with special interests in Balinese Theater and the work of the Italian Nobel Laureate Dario Fo. Prison Arts Projects and Theater for Social Change Directing and translating the plays of Dario Fo. Directing and translating theater connected to the traditions of Bali.
Scholarly Keywords: International Traditions of Comic Performance with special interests in Balinese Theater and the work of the Italian Nobel Laureate Dario Fo Has written on international theater for The Drama Review, American Theater, Kyoto Review, Mudra (Indonesia), Teatr (Russia), Theater Research (U.K.) and The New York Times.
Academic Associations: Association for Theater in Higher Education
Grants: Fulbright Senior Research Grant Asian Cultural Council-Rockefeller Brothers Fund Nordic Institute for Asian Studies National Endowment for the Arts Connecticut Council for the Arts Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities Henson Foundation (La Mama Theater-N.Y.) U.S. Department of the Interior
Publications:
http://www.wesleyan.edu/theater/faculty/faculty-documents/jenkins.pdf
Directed plays by Dario Fo at American Repertory Theater (Cambridge), 7Stages(Atlanta), National Theater (Lithuania), Provincetown Playhouse (New York), Zaftra (Tel Aviv). Translated plays by Fo for publication by Grove/Atlantic, TCG, and Samuel French for staging by Yale Repertory Theater, New York Theater Workshop, ART, and other theaters throughout U.S. & Abroad.
Yuri Kordonsky
Associate Professor of TheaterShow BioAssociate Professor of Theater
Theater and Dance Studios 112
860-685-3032
MA Odessa State University
MFA State Academy of Theatre Arts
MFA State Academy of Theatre Arts
Office Hours: By appointment
Research Interests: Yuri Kordonsky studied acting and directing in Russia, in St. Petersburg State Academy of Theatre Arts. He has taught, performed, and directed internationally since 1989. As a performer and director, he toured in more than 20 countries and conducted workshops in Russia, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Romania. His recent directing credits include his original play Disappearance and House of Bernarda Alba by Lorca (Maly Drama Theatre, St. Petersburg, Russia), Uncle Vanya by Chekhov, The Marriage by Gogol and Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky (Bulandra Theatre, Bucharest, Romania), A Cabal of Hypocrites by Bulgakov, Peer Gynt by Ibsen and Oedipus Rex by Sophocles (Wesleyan University, CT), A Diary of a Madman by Gogol (West End Theatre, Gloucester, MA), and Canterbury Tales by Chaucer (Riverside Theater, New York), among others. His productions won numerous international awards including Golden Light (St.-Petersburg), Best Production (Union of European Theatres, Palermo), Best Production, Best Director, Special Prize of Romanian Ministry of Culture (Bucharest, Romania). He has taught acting and directing at Columbia University, George Washington University, and Eugene O'Neill Theater Center.
Scholarly Keywords: Directing, Acting, Russian and Eastern European Theater
Claudia Tatinge Nascimento
Associate Professor of TheaterShow Bio and PhotoBA Fed Univ Rio de Janeiro
MA University Akron
PHD University of Wisconsin
Office Hours:
by appointment
Research Interests:
Intercultural and avant-garde performance; ritual and performance; performance studies; Brazilian theatre.
Scholarly Keywords:
Experimental Theatre; Foreignness and the politics of intercultural performance; Brazilian Theatre of the post-dictatorship; Dance.
Ph.D. in Theatre and Drama, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Acting Conservatory Degree, Casa das Artes de Laranjeiras (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Academic Associations:
International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR/FIRT)
American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR)
Latin American Studies Association (LASA)
Grants:
2007: Consulate of Brazil in New York, for the production "Pornographic Angel," based on short stories by Brazilian playwright Nelson Rodrigues.
Publications:
http://www.routledgeperformance.com/books/Crossing-Cultural-Borders-Through-the-Actors-Work-isbn9780415988872
Marcela Oteza
Assistant Professor of TheaterShow Bio and PhotoBFA University of Chile
MFA California Institute of Arts
Personal Homepage:
www.marcelaoteiza.com
Office Hours:
T 12:30 to 2:30
Research Interests:
Performance Art and its collision between Visual Art and Theater.
Scholarly Keywords:
Marcela Oteiza is the Scenic Designer in Residence and a Multidisciplinary Visual Artist. Her work has taken variety of forms including, design for the theater, installation performances and Mixed Media. Some of her Collaborative and Multidisciplinary Projects have been: Wandering Rocks (video performance for James Joyce One Hundred Year Anniversary Celebration, Dublin, 2004); Heart Piece by Heiner Muller (Grant awarded performance at California Institute of the Arts, 2001); Binding: women portraiture Cambridge 2008
Grants:
Fellow for the center of the humanities 2008
Rashida Z. Shaw
Assistant Professor of TheaterShow Bio and PhotoBA Wesleyan University
MA Northwestern University
PHD Northwestern University
Personal Homepage:
http://www.wesleyan.edu/theater/shaw.pdf
Office Hours: By Appointment
Research Interests: Originally from the island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Dr. Shaw's current book project is an expansion of her dissertation, THEATRICAL EVENTS AND AFRICAN AMERICAN AUDIENCES: A STUDY OF CONTEMPORARY CHITLIN CIRCUIT THEATRE, in which she examines Chitlin Circuit (a.k.a. Urban Circuit) theatrical productions and the reception practices of African American spectators through interdisciplinary methods of research that span across theatre, performance studies, sociology, film and dance studies. Her scholarship has appeared in the journals THEATRE SURVEY and THEATRE TOPICS. In addition, her interviews with playwrights and actors of Chitlin Circuit Theatre have been published by TIME OUT CHICAGO magazine.
Scholarly Keywords: African American & African Diaspora Theater and Performance, Black Musical Theater, Theatrical Spectatorship, Ethnography, Cultural Studies, Popular Culture, Critical Race Theory, and Gender and Sexuality Theory Ph.D., Theatre and Drama, Northwestern University M.A., Theatre, Northwestern University B.A., Sociology & Honors in Theater (Acting concentration), Wesleyan University Actor Training Certificate, Stanislavsky Summer School, Harvard University
Academic Associations: Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), Member American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR), Member Black Theatre Association (BTA), 2011-2012 Member-At-Large Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA), Member
Anne Kristin Swedberg
Visiting Assistant Professor of TheaterShow BioVisiting Assistant Professor of Theater
860-685-2094
BS Northwestern University
MFA University of Louisville
PHD University of Wisconsin
Kathryn Tarker
Visiting Instructor in TheaterShow BioVisiting Instructor in Theater
Leslie A. Weinberg
Artist in Residence, TheaterShow Bio and PhotoBA Case Western Reserve Univ
MFA University of Connecticut
Office Hours:
M 1-4; Wed 1-2:30; F 1-2:30
Emeriti
William H. Francisco
Professor of Theater, EmeritusShow BioProfessor of Theater, Emeritus
BA Amherst College
MAA Wesleyan University
MFA Yale University
Gay Smith
Professor of Theater, EmeritaShow BioProfessor of Theater, Emerita
BA University of Hawaii
MA University of Hawaii
MAA Wesleyan University
PHD University of California LA
Research Interests: Revolutionary Women in Theatre 1792-1798; History of Drama and Theatre in Moliere's time; Irish Plays and Politics 1600-to the Present; Shakespeare in America; Dramaturgy.
Scholarly Keywords: Theater Historian and Dramaturg, Author of Lady Macbeth in America: From the Stage to the White House (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2010). Previous publications: George Sand's Gabriel (Greenwood 1992), George Sand's Theatre Career (UMI 1985); editor and introduction for Plays by Phil Bosakowski (Broadway Play Publishing 2002), and several articles. Current projects include an anthology "Irish Plays and Politics" and scripts "Little Mrs. Moliere," "Beaumarchais' Countess Almaviva." Professional Dramaturg with the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Denver Performing Arts Center, Padua Hills Playwrights in Los Angeles, and 7-Devils Playwrights Conference in McCall, Idaho and New York City.






