MA in Screenwriting and Film Studies, Hollins University, Roanoke, VA, (expected graduation 2007).
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Director, Graduate Program in Playwriting:Hollins University, Roanoke, VA, 2007 to present.
Adjunct Assistant Professor in Theatre:Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, VA, 1998 to 2007.
Plays in Performance (THEA 101)
Course examining the realization of text in performance by seeing 10 plays in as wide a variety of styles and in as many different types of theatres as possible.
Introduction to Drama (THEA 114)
Dramatic literature course covering styles and plays from Sophocles to Suzan-Lori Parks.
Acting I (THEA 121)
Introductory acting course emphasizing movement training, Viewpoints training, character study, scene work, and auditioning skills.
Problems in Production (THEA 210)
Stage Craft course based in experiential learning as students assume all the technical responsibilities of mounting a production with working conditions approximating those of a professional theatre.
Great Plays (THEA 217)
Upper level dramatic literature course covering plays from Euripides to Brecht.
Playwriting I (THEA 250)
Introductory course in the basics of writing for the stage, culminating in a body of student work including monologues, scene work, short performance pieces, and a properly formatted 10-minute play suitable for submission to the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville Short Play Contest as the final project.
Writer as Performer (THEA 265)
Designed as a combination of playwriting and acting instruction for the creation and presentation of original work for the stage.
Inquiry in the Arts (MAT 609K)
Graduate course in arts appreciation using theatre as the unifying discipline designed to assist primary and secondary educators in finding ways to incorporate the arts into their curriculum regardless of discipline. (Required for certification in the Master of Arts in Teaching program.)
Graduate Playwriting (REN 682)
Intensive instruction in writing for the stage, with a special emphasis on considerations appropriate to the student of Shakespeare including use of themes, character, and recognizing the presence of the audience. Students complete a large body of work and gain experience in writing from both the organic and formulaic schools. Final project is a completed one act play suitable for submission to professional theatres and contests.
Instructor:ArtConnection Arts Outreach Program, Iowa City, IA, 1989-90.
Providing theatre training in writing for the stage, acting, improvisation, and mask use for students in primary and secondary schools throughout the state of Iowa.
No Shame Theatre: Founded ongoing experiential learning forum for emerging artists with chapters in the following locations:
Company Member:Geese Theatre, Ltd., Iowa City, IA, 1981-82.
Grotowski-based improvisational mask-work company performing exclusively in prisons. Company members also taught workshops on theatre history, performance skills, and group script creation. Work with Geese included establishing on-going inmate theatre companies.
PLAYWRITING EXPERIENCE
The Third Wish (Revision of The Luck Eater)
The quirky denizens of a third rate Las Vegas casino place bets against their future and cross their fingers in the hope their final wish pays out. Mill Mountain Theatre's Norfolk Southern Festival of New Works, Roanoke, VA, 2007.
The First Chapter: Coming to Jamestown (with John Shirley)
Commissioned by Young Audiences of Virginia as part of the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown Colony. Produced and toured to more than 70 school districts throughout Virginia from 2007 to present.
The Luck Eater
A romantic comedy in which a compulsive gambler takes a chance on the love of a cocktail waitress. Mary Baldwin College Theatre, Staunton, VA, 2005.
The Verbena Rowan Museum
An expressionistic exploration of the end of life struggle to leave something of significance behind. Mary Baldwin College Theatre, Staunton, VA, 2004.
Don't Look Back
Comic adaptation of Orfeo and Euridice, commissioned by Hancher Auditorium.
Regional tour of Iowa, culminating in performance on the opening night of the opera at Hancher, Iowa City, IA, 1996.
With Others of Their Own Kind.
Commissioned by the Iowa Affiliated Program to dramatize oral histories of people who grew up in institutions for people with mental retardation, written in collaboration with Rebecca Gilman.
Premier at Riverside Theatre, Iowa City, IA, followed by regional tour, 1993.
Blood Dance
A love story involving murder, mental illness, and vampires. Gorilla Theatre, Kansas City, KS, 1994; Riverside Theatre, Iowa City, IA, 1992.
Nightmare on Puberty Street.
Commissioned by Kaiser Permanente as the centerpiece for their Middle School Project, with continuous performances in California and Washington DC area middle schools since 1990.
The Long Trail.
Explores the tragedy and horror of Manifest Destiny by following the Donner Party to its tragic end.
Iowa Playwrights Festival, University of Iowa, 1991.
Playwriting Intern: HOME for Contemporary Theatre and Art, New York, NY 1989-90.
Thunder Without Rain.
A modern folk using Native American mythic figures to turn an old man's heart into the Oklahoma landscape--vast, empty, and dry. It is there that the phantoms of his past come back to punch him blind. Iowa Playwright's Festival, 1990; Armory Players, New York, NY, 1989 (with Blackeyed Susan).
Where Are All the Sharp Corners?
An expressionistic drama in which a leper confronts the dreams of his youth personified as the boy who lives downstairs.
Iowa Playwright’s Festival, 1988; University of Iowa 1985.
If It Heals.
A play examining child abduction and the American Dream.
University of Iowa, 1985.
As You Believe, So Shall You Do.
Vampires, loud neighbors and a Pakistani landlord conspire to keep a boy from getting his girl.
University of Iowa, 1985.
Short Works.
Hundreds of original short pieces written for No Shame and performed at theatres across the US since 1986, including the 2004 Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC. Several of these short works selected for publication in 2005 by Smith & Kraus for upcoming anthologies of monologues and audition pieces.
With Others of Their Own Kind, Illinois-Iowa Center for Independent Living, Quad Cities, IA 1996; Northwoods Living, Fort Dodge, IA, 1996; Iowa Association of Rehabilitation and Residential Facilities, Des Moines, IA, 1995; Independence Senior High School, Independence, IA, 1995; American Association for Mental Retardation Annual Conference, Des Moines, IA, 1995; WSUI Radio Broadcast, "Live From Prairie Lights", 1994
