The policy committee meets monthly throughout each academic year and is responsible for academic requirements and regulations, academic policies, regulations for program development, and for working with the Director on all aspects of the program, including scheduling, staffing, and advising. The MLitt/MFA policy committee also makes admissions decisions for the program. Members of the committee are:
Melissa Aaron, English Department, California Polytechnic
State University, Pomona. PhD in English, University of Wisconsin
at Madison; specialist in teaching through long-distance technology
Tom Berger, Emeritus Professor of English, St. Lawrence
University; analytical bibliographer, textual critic, and editorial theorist,
Scholar-in-Residence, MBC MLitt/MFA program
Giles Block, formerly Master of the
Word, the New Globe Theatre, London
Mary Katherine Burke, Associate Professor, Head of Voice
Program for MFA in Acting, University of Virginia; BA, Notre Dame; MFA,
Ohio University
Antonio Fava, third generation Actor, Director, Teacher,
Librettist and world expert on Commedia dell’Arte; Director of
the International School of the Comic Actor in Reggio Emilia, Italy
Drew Fracher, Artist-in-Residence, Fight Master, Master
Teacher; BFA, Virginia Commonwealth University; MFA, Western Illinois
University; Past President, Society of American Fight Directors; British
Academy of Stage and Screen Combat; British Academy of Dramatic Combat;
Nordic Stage Fight Society
John Frick, Professor of Drama, University of Virginia; BA,
Colgate University; MA, University of Montana; PhD, New York University;
Author; Theatre Historian
Andrew Gurr, Professor of English, Reading University,
England; Academic Advisor to Shakespeare’s Globe, London
Roger Hall, Professor of Theatre, James Madison University;
AB, Princeton University; MA, PhD, Ohio State University; Playwright
Franklin Hildy, Professor of Theatre and Director of
Graduate Studies, University of Maryland
Sandra McClain, Adjunct Associate Professor of Music,
Mary Baldwin College; BA, Meredith College; MM, Manhattan School of Music;
EdD, Teachers College, Columbia University
Russ McDonald, Historian, Critic, Lecturer, University
of London; BA, Duke University; MA, PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Thadd McQuade, Actor-Combatant, Society of American Fight
Directors. Trained in voice, mime, and stage movement in
Europe and the US
Joseph Martinez, Associate Professor and Chair, Theatre
Department, Washington and Lee University; BA, Illinois Western
University; Graduate Diploma, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London;
Fight Master Emeritus, Examiner, and Past President, Society of American
Fight Directors
Fred Nelson, Artistic Director and resident Voice Coach
with ASC; Member, Actors Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild,
American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and Voice and Speech
Trainers Association
Kate Norris, Actor: ASC, Folger, Woolly Mammoth, etc.;
Whole Actor Research Project: Approaching dramatic texts through organic
movement and impulse; International School for the Comic Actor, Reggio
Emilia, Italy; BA in theatre arts, Virginia Tech
Tina Packer, founder and artistic director of Shakespeare
and Company; former Associate Actress, Royal Shakespeare Company, and
companies in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leicester, and Coventry
Barbara D. Palmer, President, Board of Directors, REED-USA,
Inc (Records of Early English Drama); Professor of English (retired),
University of Mary Washington; Scholar-in-Residence, MBC MLitt/MFA
Scott J. Parker, Director, Institute of Outdoor Drama;
BA, Guildford College, England; MA, University of North Carolina; MFA,
University of Virginia
Jan Powell, Founding Artistic Director of the Tygre’s
Heart Shakespeare Company, Portland, Oregon; Past President, Shakespeare
Association of America
Todd Ristau, Director of the MFA in playwriting, Hollins
University; BA and MFA, University of Iowa
John Paul Scheidler, Actor/Fight Director for ASC. Member,
Association of Theatre Movement Educators. Member, Actors Equity Association; Certified
Teacher, Society of American Fight Directors; BA, Western Michigan University;
MFA, University of Virginia
Tiffany Stern, Lecturer and Shakespearean scholar, University
College, Oxford
Patrick Spottiswood, Director of Education, the New Globe,
London
Jenny Tiramani, formerly Director of Theatre Design at
the New Globe, London; vast costuming career for theatre and opera; extensive
research on Early Modern clothing construction/design
Patrick Tucker, Theatre Historian, Co-founder, the Original
Shakespeare Company (now disbanded); Director for stage and screen; Teacher
and Author
James Volz, Arts Consultant and Professor, California
State University at Fullerton; PhD, University of Colorado at
Boulder.
William Proctor Williams, Senior Lecturer in English,
University of Akron; Professor Emeritus, University of Northern Illinois; MA
and PhD, Kansas State University