Program Faculty and Staff 2011–12

The MLitt/MFA Educational Policy Committee

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:

Visiting Scholars & Artists

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