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Kathryn Bentley, Assistant Professor
Performance Faculty - Multi-Cultural Theater - Director
Kathryn Bentley is a professional actor and director. Before returning to SIUE, her undergrad alma mater, she lived in New York where she performed in both theatre and television. She is a member of AEA, AFTRA and SAG. She is also a member of Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) and Black Theatre Network (BTN). Kathryn received her MFA in Directing from Lindenwood University. She has worked with companies such as the St. Louis Black Repertory Company, HotCity Theatre, Blackberry Productions in New York, Portland Stage, and Cleveland Playhouse. She was instrumental in developing the CHIPS In Motion program in St. Louis that utilizes the arts to teach the community about health and wellness. Her teaching specialties include Introduction to Acting and Multi-Cultural Theatre.
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Kim Bozark - Instructor
Marketing Director
Kim Bozark received his M.A. in Media Communications from Webster University. He has served as Director of Touring & Education for over 17 years at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, and before that, as General Manager for Metro Theater Company. He has also worked for the Missouri Arts Council and various colleges and universities as an adjunct instructor. Kim has had several plays for children professionally produced, most notably with The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis’ Imaginary Theatre Company. The Lyceum Airwaves, a branch of The Lyceum Theatre outside Kansas City produced his radio play, Mars USA. Kim is also a member of The Society of American Fight Directors and has choreographed stage combat for many of the professional and academic theaters in the St. Louis metro area.
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Debbie Brown-Thompson
Department Secretary
Debbie Brown-Thompson, Department Secretary, joined the Theater and Dance department in June of 2004. She has been with the SIU system since 1988 when she arrived in Illinois from Texas. Her hobbies include showing and racing her Basenjis as well as traveling throughout the United States with them. She also writes a monthly column for The Basenji Magazine.
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Dr. Peter Bukalski, Professor
History/Literature/Criticism Faculty
Prior to coming to SIUE, Peter J. Bukalski was director of educational programs at the American Film Institute. He has taught film and theater at SIUE, Ohio State University, Wright State University, SIU Carbondale, AFI’s Center for Advanced Film Studies, and Franklin College of Indiana. He received his MFA in directing from UCLA and his Ph.D. in film from The Ohio State University.
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Peter Cocuzza, Associate Professor
Department Chair
Peter Cocuzza received his MFA in performance from the Professional Actor Training Program, Ohio University. As an actor Peter has performed on stage in repertory, summer stock, children's theater, Christian theater, Shakespeare, dinner theater, musical comedies and created/toured his own one-man show called Town Hall Tonight. He has been at SIUE since 1995 and teaches acting, careers, performing for the camera, period styles, comedy styles, voice, and movement.
Telephone: 618 650-5614
Email: pcocuzz@siue.edu
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Valerie Goldston, Instructor
Design/Technical Theater Faculty - Theater Manager & Lighting Designer
Valerie Goldston has been the theater manager and a part of the design faculty for the SIUE department of Theater and Dance since 1985. Of the many plays she has designed over the years, some of her favorites include: A Chorus Line, Godspell, The Foreigner and Big River. She also enjoys designing lights for dance concerts. She received a MFA in lighting design from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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Lana Hagan, Instructor
Director of Theater Education
Lana Hagan has been on the faculty at SIUE since 1997. Prior to that she taught secondary theatre for thirteen years. During that time her school’s theatre program was awarded the 1995 Outstanding School Award by the Educational Theatre Association. She was named the Theatre Educator of the Year in Missouri and recently was inducted inot the Theatre Edducation Hall of Fame in New York City. Her drama program and curriculum served as a model for other schools and Lana has been invited to present workshops at state and national conferences. Lana holds a BA in Literature & Language from Webster University, St. Louis, and an MA in Theatre/Directing from Roosevelt University, Chicago.
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Dr. Laura Hanson, Assistant Professor
Design/Technical Theater Faculty - Costume Designer
Laura Hanson earned her Ph.D. in Educational Theatre from New York University. She has taught courses in costume design and construction, musical theatre, and theatre history and literature at NYU, Marymount Manhattan College, and St. Louis University. Previously, she was the Associate Costume Shop Manager in the Graduate Department of Design for Stage and Film at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She also worked for some of the major New York costume companies, crafting costumes for Broadway, Off-Broadway, national tours, NYC Opera, NYC Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre. Locally, Laura has created costumes for the St. Louis Rep, Hot City Theatre, Webster Dance Theatre, and Opera Theatre of St. Louis as Assistant Costume Designer. Her publications have been seen in Theatre Journal, The Sondheim Review, and A Casebook: Stephen Sondheim.
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Chuck Harper, Assistant Professor
Director of Theater Performance - Director
Chuck is a professional actor, director, and theater educator. At SIUE he teaches acting, directing, and experimental performance. His directing credits include productions in Prague, Berlin, St. Julien l’Ars, France, Chicago, Seattle, and St. Louis. He is a founding member of the Los Angeles-based commedia collective CLOWN CORN MESSIAH and currently and Associate Director with St. Louis’ HotCity Theatre. He received his MFA in Directing from the University of Washington’s School of Drama. He is a member of AEA, AFTRA, SSDC, and ATHE.
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J. Calvin Jarrell, Professor
Director of Dance - Choreographer
Calvin Jarrell received an MFA in Dance from the University of Oklahoma, and a CMA (Certified Movement Analyst) from the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies in NYC. Calvin is a certified Movement Pattern Analysis practitioner. He presented workshops in MPA in Chichester, England and Pretoria, South Africa where he met musician/composer Corneille Hutten-Burger who re-wrote his composition "Madiba Swing" specifically for Calvin to choreograph. Calvin has performed, choreographed, directed, and taught in various parts of the United States and has performed locally with Dansirs, Mid-America Dance Company, and Burning Feet Contemporary Dance Company.
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Johanna Schmitz. Assistant Professor
Director of History/Literature/Criticism
Johanna Schmitz earned her Ph.D. in Performance Studies at the University of California, Davis in 2001 with a dissertation on Elizabethan architectural reconstruction and cultural monumentalism. She was a member of the summer faculty of the International Shakespeare’s Globe Centre’s Teaching Shakespeare through Performance course at Shakespeare’s Globe in London for six years (1997-2002). In 2006 she joined the faculty of the new two-week Shakespeare education conference at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, where she will again present her research regarding contemporary Shakespeare performance in July of 2007. Also in 2006, she started working for the Rose Theatre in London, and has accepted a research fellowship to continue her study of the preservation and presentation of the Rose archeological site in 2007. Her most recent article is “Location as a Monumentalizing Factor at Original and Reconstructed Shakespearean Theatres,” appeared in Theatre Symposium, 2004.
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Kerry Shaul, Associate Professor
Dance Faculty - Choreographer
Kerry Shaul has been at SIUE since 1976. She received her BA in Dance from the University of Illinois and her MFA from Southern Methodist University. Kerry teaches technique classes in ballet, modern, and jazz. She also teaches Dance History, Dance Composition, Dance Teaching Methods, and Dance Appreciation. Each year Kerry choreographs for the departments annual Dance In Concert.
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Diane Sol , Assistant Professor
History/Literature/Criticism Faculty
Diane Sol received her Ph.D. in Performance Studies from the University of California at Davis as a Regents Fellow and a Master of Arts in Performance from Indiana University where she was an Artist-in-Residence. She has taught at Texas Tech University, the University of California at Davis, and California State University at Sacramento and San Jose. A global explorer, she has taught and performed throughout the world including Europe, the Middle East, South America, and most recently India. Her research encompasses the ethnohistory of the theatre through archeology, anthropology, and literature, as well as the cultural theory of performance.
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Roger Speidel, Instructor
Design/Technical Theater Faculty - Technical Director
Roger Speidel recieved his MFA in Scene Design Technology from the University of South Dakota. He has designed scenery for various groups including Dakota State University in Madison, South Dakota, the Des Moines Playhouse, and the Kate Goldman Children's Theatre in Des Moines, Iowa. He also taught 6 years scene design and technical direction at Dakota State University.
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C. Otis Sweezey
Design/Technical Theater Faculty - Scene Designer & Costume Designer
Otis Sweezey has taught at SIUE since 1974. He received a BS in Theatre from SUNY New Paltz and a MFA in Theatre Design from Brandeis University, where he studied under Howard Bay. Otis has designed scenery and costumes for several Off-Broadway productions and was technical director at the North Shore Music Theatre, Beverly, Mass. Otis has designed costumes for the Modern America Dance Company, St. Louis. He has designed over 100 productions for SIUE. Otis has also specialized in computer graphics, web design, and multi-media productions. His Costume History web page has had over two million visitors. Otis present research is in the area of Cuban costume designs. He has visited Cuba four times and has photographed many of their performers in the Santiago de Cuba carnival parades.
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Michael Thomas, Instructor
Dance Faculty - Choreographer
Choreographer, dancer, visual artist Michael Thomas has an M.F.A. in choreography from The Ohio State University. Prior to joining SIUE he worked in New York City for Sean Curran and as a guest for various other artists. Thomas has been on the staff or faculties of Ottervein College, Ballet Met Columbus, Marymount College, Perry Mansfield School of Performing Arts, and Savannah College of Art and Design. Distinguishing awards include citation at the Toronto Fringe Festival and inclusion in the National College Choreography Initiative, both for new works. He serves on the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission funding panel, and makes creative contributions to local arts organizations such as aTrek Dance Collective, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Modern America Dance Company, HotCity Theatre, and Theatre Belle Bete. |
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James Wulfsong, Associate Professor
Director of Design/Technical Theater - Scene Designer & Lighting Designer
Jim Wulfsong received his MFA from the University of Minnesota. Prior to SIUE he worked on productions at The Guthrie, Ordway, Circle-in-the-Round, and Mixed Blood Theaters in Minnesota. He served as the technical director for the Hartman Center for the Performing Arts at Bradley University and has been a guest artist at Northwestern University, Chicago. Jim has worked on the premiere production of Disney's Lion King, and Sesame Street Live productions. |
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Emeritus Faculty: |
Paula Beals, William Grivna, W. Craven Mackie, William W. Vilhauer. |
