Dr. Aaron Anderson, Voice and Movement
M.F.A., Ph.D., Associate Professor
email - adanderson@vcu.edu

Aaron D. Anderson is currently tenured Associate Professor of Theatre at Virginia Commonwealth University. He holds an Interdisciplinary PhD in Culture from Northwestern University and an MFA in Theatre from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

He is internationally certified as a fight director and teacher of stage combat with the Society of American Fight Directors, the British Academy of Stage and Screen Combat (of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London), and Dueling Arts International. He has worked professionally on stage and screen as an actor, stuntman and military advisor.

Dr. Anderson has taught at Universities and Theatres throughout America and Europe including the Mason Leadership Institute, the Grace Harris Leadership Institute, the Banff Center for the Performing Arts, London’s City Literary Institute, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, the Italia Conti School of Performing Arts (London), Northwestern University, the University of Illinois and the University of Hawaii.

In addition to his work in theatre and drama, he specializes in qualitative and mixed-method research design, pedagogy and curriculum design, theories of the body and methods of movement analysis. He is a recognized expert on media violence and on the use of theatre training and performance studies in applied social science, and has designed the curricula for several national and international teacher certification programs.

Along with Theatre Chairman David Leong, Department of Internal Medicine Chairman Dr. Richard Wenzel and Head of VCU Hospitalist program Dr. Alan Dow, Aaron founded the Medical Communication Group to improve doctor-patient communication. The MCG oversees the design and implementation of research and communication curriculum for resident physicians in the Departments of Internal Medicine, Nursing and Surgery has been featured in over 75 national and international publications including the Washington Post, the Washington Times, the Chicago Tribune, Newsday, National Public Radio, the Voice of America, Surgery News, Forbes.com and many others.

His articles on the intersections of violence, race and gender appear in Jump Cut, Theatre Symposium, The Asian Journal of Communications, and the upcoming Chinese Connections: Critical Perspectives on Film, Identity, and D.htmlora. He is also co-author of the study “Using Professors of Theatre to Teach Empathy to Housestaff” published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine and three other theatre-medical studies awaiting publication

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Michelle Anderson, Fiscal Technician
email - manderson6@vcu.edu

Michelle Anderson has been Theatre VCU's Fiscal Technician since Summer of 2004.

Dr. Noreen C. Barnes, Director of Graduate Studies
email - nbarnesm@vcu.edu

Dr. Noreen C. Barnes is Director of Graduate Studies at Theatre VCU. A theatre historian who received her doctorate from Tufts University, her specialties are nineteenth-century American and British theatre, contemporary political theatre, and the history of gender in performance. She also teaches in VCU's Preparing Future Faculty for the Professions Program and is an adjunct for the doctoral program of the Union Institute. She is the former editor of Theatre Symposium, a publication of the Southeastern Theatre Conference, and has published essays and reviews in numerous journals and anthologies. She is also a director and dramaturg and has worked with such artists as director Joseph Chaikin and writer/performer Kate Bornstein.

Amy Baumgartner, Stage Management
email - baumgartneac@vcu.edu

Amy Baumgartner comes to Richmond, most recently, from Sight & Sound Theatres in Lancaster, PA. She has stage managed across the country, as well as served in a variety of other capacities. Her work includes: Off-Broadway: Tea at Five, Comedians, Trumbo, From My Hometown, Regional: Ruth, Psalms of David, Miracle of Christmas, Behold the Lamb, Noah (Sight & Sound Theatres), Baby, The Foreigner, Crazy for You, Star-Spangled Girl, West Side Story (Weathervane Playhouse), Tecumseh!, Twelfth Night (Scioto Society), Somebody’s Children (Lyric Opera of Kansas City).

Barry Bell, Acting & Directing
email - blbell@vcu.edu

A professional actor since the age of seventeen, Mr. Bell has had a varied thirty-five years in the entertainment business. Ten years on the road in regional theatre, off and off-off Broadway, dinner theatre, outdoor drama and children's theatre, took him from New York to Florida and as far west as Oklahoma and Idaho in plays ranging from The Odd Couple to The Misanthrope, from American Buffalo to Best little Whorehouse in Texas from The Tempest to Educating Rita. Mr. Bell followed the touring with eleven years as the artistic director of the Barn Theatre in Greensboro, NC, Directing over 117 shows. His directing credits include Brian Friels' Lovers, Greater Tuna, You Can't Take It With You, The Rainmaker, Wait Until Dark, On Golden Pond, The Mousetrap, How The Other Half Loves and over a dozen Musicals ranging from Chicago to Pump Boys and Dinettes to the campy Della's Diner as guest director for Northern Kentucky University. Mr. Bell also won critical acclaim for his production of Brecht on Brecht at the Theatre of Notre Dame in NYC. The last fourteen years, he has spent working in made for TV movies, TV series and feature films. His resume' includes; guest-starring roles on Matlock, Walker Texas Ranger, Dawson's Creek, Legacy, American Gothic, HBO's From the Earth to the Moon and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. On film he has appeared in Maximum Overdrive, Morning, Bruno, Reuben Reuben, Doomsday Man, and three dozen other TV and Feature Films. He has worked with; Shirley Maclaine, Gary Sinise, Kelly McGillis, Tom Conti, Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Kevin Costner, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Mary Tyler Moore and Louis Gossett Jr. Mr Bell directed a very successful production of HAIR for VCU in the spring of 2003, Picasso at the Lapin Agile in the fall of 2004 and Wait Until Dark in the fall of 2005. He holds a BFA from The University of North Carolina, Greensboro and a MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. He is a member of Actors Equity and the Screen Actors Guild.

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Ms. Glynn Brannan, Director of Public Relations and Graphic Design
email - gmbrannan@vcu.edu

Glynn Brannan joined the Theatre Department in November 2003. Glynn has worked for the last 7 years as graphic designer and illustrator in Richmond Virginia, and previously in Boston Massachusetts. Her illustration work is currently syndicated in 30 different parenting publications throughout the country. As the former art director of Richmond Parents Monthly and FiftyPlus magazines she won national recognition for her editorial layout and cover designs and illustrations. Glynn also teaches Beginning Drawing and Color Theory.

Patti D'Beck, Movement and Choreography
email - pdbeck@vcu.edu

Patti D’Beck is a long-time veteran of Broadway musical theatre. Her credits as Associate Choreographer, Supervisor, Dance Captain, and Actor include the original productions of Applause with Lauren Bacall, A Chorus Line, Seesaw, Pippen with Ben Vereen, Evita, The Will Rogers Follies, My One and Only with Twiggy and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas as well as Annie Get Your Gun, Bells Are Ringing and Grease! She also choreographed the opening number for the 1997 Tony Awards for Rosie OíDonnell.

Patti has worked with many Broadway directors and choreographers including Tommy Tune, Bob Fosse, Michael Bennett, Graciela Daniele, Hal Prince, and Ron Field, She has directed and choreographed many stars including Brooke Shields, Lucy Arnez, Reba McEntire, Keith Carradine, Sandy Duncan, Marla Maples, Mickey Rooney, Lucy Lawless AKA Zena Princess Warrior, Bernadette Peters and Liza Minelli.

As a director and choreographer in regional theatre and off-Broadway her productions include Chicago, Five Guys Named Moe, Sophisticated Ladies, Guys and Dolls, Smokey Joeís CafÈ, Ainít Misbehavin, Kiss Me Kate, South Pacific, Promises Promises, Woman of the Year, Cabaret and West Side Story. Most recently she choreographed a revival of Paint Your Wagon, and is currently working on three projects - The Producers, Cabaret for Theatre VCU, and Guys and Dolls for Barksdale Theatre. She has taught at New York and Pace Universities and holds a BA in Mathematics and Performing Arts from NYU and a Masters from NYU.

She is currently on the Theatre Faculty @ VCU, & teaching Movement for the Actor & Musical Theatre. This fall she will choreograph Paint Your Wagon at the Pioneer Theatre Co. in SLC, UT.

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Karl Green, Costume Shop Supervisor
email - kdgreen@vcu.edu

Karl Green currently is the costume shop supervisor and cutter/draper for Theatre VCU. Mr. Green worked for eleven years as a stain glass artist and printer. He experienced the New York Fashion and Fabric design businesses where he worked with Scassi, Andra Gabrielle, and Anna Sui. His paper dolls have been published and reviewed in several national doll magazines. He has taught fashion design, illustration, patternmaking, and draping. He designs and produces one of a kind wedding gowns as well as evening and day dresses. Over the past sixteen years, he has designed and constructed dance costumes for nationally known choreographers such as Chris Burnside, David Dorfman, Joe Goode, and Tere O'conor as well as for regional universities and Ballet companies.

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Gary C. Hopper, Assistant Chairman
email - ghopper@vcu.edu

Gary C. Hopper is Assistant Chair and Director of Undergraduate Studies of the Theatre Department at Virginia Commonwealth University. Gary is a senior faculty member where for the past twenty-seven years he has been teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in acting. As an administrator, Gary is responsible for the day-by-day running of the department and assisting the Chair in the development of Theatre VCU's BFA/MFA curriculum.

As an acting teacher.  Gary specializes in the fundamentals of the Stanislavski system integrated with his own special techniques he has developed over his many years of teaching. Gary is also an accomplished director and has staged over 50 classical and contemporary plays for the Department of Theatre. Gary's creative work of late has been focused on developing works for the stage. Gary was awarded a National Endowment Grant for the Arts, four Sweet Briar fellowships and three VCU Grants-In-Aid to assist his various dramatic projects.

Gary received his BS in Speech Education and his MA in Theatre from the University of Wisconsin/Madison. He then went on to receive his MFA in Acting from Boston University. Gary is a member of Actor's Equity, National Association of Schools of Theatre, and Southeastern Theatre Conference.

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Toni-Leslie James, Director of Costume
email - tljames@vcu.edu

Toni-Leslie James is a New York based costume designer and thrilled to be on the faculty of VCU. Since her off-Broadway debut in 1990, Ms. James has been nominated for a total of nineteen costume design awards for her contributions to various theatrical productions, garnering a Tony Award nomination, three Drama Desk nominations, The American Theatre Wing Hewes Award and two additional Hewes Award nominations (most recently a 2006 Hewes award nomination for the Lincoln Center Theater production of Bernarda Alba), four Audelco nominations, a N.A.A.C.P Image Award nomination, the LA Drama-Logue Award, the FANY Award, the Connecticut Critics Circle Award and a 2007 Helen Hayes Award nomination for Arena Stage's production of 3 Mo' Divas. Ms. James is a recipient of the prestigious Irene Sharaff Young Masters Award for Costume Design Excellence.

A complete design professional, her work has been displayed nationally in feature films, television, opera, dance, industrials and in thirteen Broadway productions. Internationally she has designed for The Royal Court Theater and The Chichester Theater Festival in England, The 2003 Athens Greek Festival, Canada's Citadel Theatre and Radio Dansmark TV in Denmark. Her work has been displayed in seven major museum and college exhibitions, most recently featured in February 2006 at the American Museum of Natural History program, "Designing Woman: Inside The Life And Career Of Costume Designer Toni-Leslie James".

On Broadway, Ms James has designed Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, One Mo’ Time, King Hedley II, The Wild Party, Marie Christine, Footloose, The Tempest, Twilight: Los Angeles 1992, Angels in America, Chronicle of a Death Foretold and Jelly’s Last Jam. Selected off-Broadway credits include Bernarda Alba, Dessa Rose, Elegies, A New Brain, God’s Heart and Hello Again, all world premieres for Lincoln Center Theater; Macbeth, Henry VIII, Dancing On Her Knees, Insurrection, Measure For Measure, East Texas Hot Links, Dog Opera, The Caucasian Chalk Circle and Spunk for The NYSF's Public Theatre; Face the Music, Of Thee I Sing, Can-Can, House of Flowers, The Boys from Syracuse, Babes in Arms, Bloomer Girl and A Connecticut Yankee for City Center Encores! Her designs have also been featured in productions at Arena Stage, Second Stage, Circle Rep, Hartford Stage, The Long Wharf, The Huntington Theatre Company, The Mark Taper Forum, The Shakespeare Theatre, Berkley Rep, Seattle Rep, Playwrights Horizons, The Houston Grand Opera, Center Stage, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Lyric Opera Of Chicago, Bay Street Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Ballet Hispanico. Television: three specials for the WNET/13 Great Performances series; three years as the head designer for the soap opera, As The World Turns on CBS and the network TV series, Whoopi, on NBC. Film: The Huey P. Newton Story, A Tale of Two Pizzas and Tightrope. Ms James is a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829.

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Ron Keller, Head of`Design
email - rkeller@vcu.edu

Ron Keller (Set Designer) is Head of Design for Theatre VCU. Ron has been resident scenic designer at Theatre VCU for almost 25 years. During that time his design students have continuously won regional design wards in both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Their work can be seen at VCU as well as at the Barksdale Theatre and other stages in Richmond. He is very active in both the Southeastern Theatre Conference and the American College Theater Festival, and has served as regional design chair for both organizations. He is a member of United Scenic Artists, the union representing professional designers and artists. He maintains a constant professional practice and his credits include Theatre Virginia, Virginia Opera, Chicago’s Famous Door Theatre, Porthouse Theatre, Clarence Brown Theatre, LSU’s Swine Palace, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Theatre IV, Barksdale Theatre, Cumberland County Playhouse, Playhouse Knoxville, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Virginia Shakespeare Festival, Heritage Repertory Theatre, and the New Millennium Studios. His designs have also been seen in Shanghai Beijing and Kishinev, Moldova.

Todd Lawrence, Technical Director
email - twlawrence@vcu.edu

Todd Lawrence (Technical Director) Theatre VCU is pleased to welcome Todd as our TD. Todd holds an MFA from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he taught and served as the Technical Director and Production Manager for the undergraduate spaces. He also holds a BA from Catawba College. Todd has worked for theatres around the country including four seasons at The Hangar Theatre, three seasons at Playmaker’s Repertory, two seasons at Stages St Louis, and one season at Flat Rock Playhouse. Todd also brings experience from working in community theatres and working with high school students while teaching at The Bullis School and at The Collegiate School.

Kathleen Legault, Administratiive Director
email - klegault@vcu.edu

Kathleen Legault holds a degree in History and Education from the State University of New York at Potsdam. Her Dance and Movement training includes Klein Technique, Elements of Body Alignment and Graduate studies at SUNY Purchase in Dance and Choreography where she trained under Kazuko Hirabiashi, Megan Williams, Ted Kivitt, Kevin Winn and Neil Greenberg among others; taught Modern Dance, and received The President's Award for Excellence.

Ms. Legault has presented her work internationally and has performed with Richmond Performing Arts Collective, Art Bridgeman and Myrna Packer, Starr Foster Dance Project, Lane Gifford, Sidra Bell, Victoria Skinner, JoAnna Mendl Shaw, Pam England, Dim Sum Dance, Nouvelle Burlesque and with Ground Zero Dance Company.

Ms. Legault teaches dance and has worked as the Manager for the School of Richmond Ballet and is currently working as the Administrative Director for VCU Department of Theatre.

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Mr. David Leong, Chair
email - dsleong@vcu.edu

David S. Leong is Chairman, Professor and Producer of the Department of Theatre at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA. In his ten years as Producer of Theatre VCU, he has supervised over 60 full-length productions and hired over 50 nationally and internationally recognized guest artists. David is also a member of the National Association of Schools of Theatre’s accreditation team. He received the 2006 Distinguished Award of Excellence from the VCU Office of the Dean and was recently cited by Richmond’s Style Magazine as one of the most influential artists of the past 25 years.

Along with Drs. Anderson and Dow, David founded the Clinical Communication Group to improve doctor-patient communication. The CCG oversees the design and implementation of research and communication curriculum for resident physicians in the Departments of Internal Medicine, Nursing and Surgery. David holds an MFA degree from the University of North Carolina Greensboro and a BA from the University of New Hampshire.

Prior to his appointment at VCU, David served on the faculty of the Drama Division at the Juilliard School and was the resident movement coach and fight director for Lincoln Center Theatres and The Public Theatre/New York Shakespeare Festival. David’s thirty years of university teaching also includes full-time teaching positions at the University of Maryland and Northern Kentucky University in addition to conducting master classes for over 250 colleges across the United States.

As a professional theatre artist David's movement coaching and fights scenes have been seen in many Broadway productions including Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Carousel, The Rainmaker, Frank Wildhorn’s musical The Civil War, King Hedley, Company, Picnic, Hamlet, Macbeth, Solitary Confinement, Sex and Longing, A Delicate Balance, The Homecoming, and In The Summer House. Feature films include Titus, and Alien Resurrection. London productions include the West End musical Napoleon, and the Olivier award-winning Jitney at the National Theatre of Great Britain. David has coached or choreographed numerous stars of TV, film and theatre including Val Kilmer, Christopher Plummer, Woody Harrelson, Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Marisa Tomei, Kevin Spacey, Mary McDonnell, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Joan Cusack, Frances McDormand, Raul Julia, Christopher Walken, Tom Hulce, Don Cheadle, Charles Dutton, and Harry Hamlin among others. David currently holds the title of Certified Fight Master, a distinction held by only twelve other people in the United States.

Regional theatre credits include The Shakespeare Theatre, Arena Stage, American Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Denver Theatre Center, Alley Theatre, Goodman Theatre, McCarter Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, The Long Wharf Theatre, Hartford Stage, Huntington Theatre, The Mark Taper Forum, the Guthrie Theatre, The Williamstown Theatre Festival and many more.

Stories on David's work have been featured in The New York Times, The Village Voice, The Washingtonian, The Fight Master, Dramatics Magazine, PM Magazine, White's Guide to the Movies, and the NBC Today Show. His fights have been pictured on the cover of the magazines American Theatre, Theatre Profiles, Dramatics, and The Fight Master. He is the co-author of a three-part video series on Unarmed Stage Combat.

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Lorri Lindberg, Acting
email - bellind@comcast.net

Lorri Lindberg teaches the senior and graduate acting, and the acting for the camera performance classes. She has been a professional actress in film, television and theatre for the past 23 years. A member of Screen Actor's Guild, Lorri has has co-starred with Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Tess Harper, Tyne Daly, Sam Elliot, Jill Eikenberry, Bonnie Bedelia, Judith Light, Dudley Moore and Paul Riesner .

Onstage, Lorri has played the leads in Lettuce and Lovage, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias, The Rainmaker, She Stoops To Conquer and many others.

A Stanislavski and Meisner trained actress, Lorri received her BFA from the North Carolina School of the Arts and her MFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She was runner-up at the national American College Theatre Festival at the Kennedy Center. Lorri also has a great interest in the development of original playscripts. She is currently a member of the Healing Springs Playwright Retreat and has also worked with the Playwright's Retreat in Staunton, Virginia.

Lorri is also very well known as a master acting teacher. She has guided and motivated hundreds of young actors for the past 19 years at the University of N.C. at Greensboro and the Savannah College of Art and Design.

In the fall of 2003, Lorri directed Theatre VCU’s Our Town. Lorri is also the Acting Coach for the Irene Ryan nominees for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (VCU Performance majors were National Winners in 2003) and the Director for the VCU Senior Showcases held in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Illinois and New York City.

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Kevin McGranahan, Scene Shop Foreman and Facilities Manager
email - kmcgranahan@vcu.edu

Kevin McGranahan is the new Scene Shop Foreman and Facilities Manager. Kevin has spent the last thirty years working professionally in the entertainment industry, movies, television, radio, concerts, and theatre. He is excited to be working with such a talented and diverse faculty and staff.

Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates, Acting and Directing
email - tpettifordwa@vcu.edu

Tawnya Pettiford-Wates after studying at Central School of Drama, Speech and Film in London, England she received her BFA from Carnegie-Mellon University and her Graduate degrees from the Union Institute. Before joining the faculty of VCU she was Head of the Drama Department at Seattle Central Community College for 17 years. She has been on the faculty of Cornish College for the Arts, the University of Washington and has enjoyed being a Scholar in Residence at numerous colleges and universities around the United States as well as in Sub- Saharan Africa and West Africa. She has received numerous honors and awards as an educator and innovator including the Dan Evans Award for Outstanding Faculty for her pioneering work “uncle tom: deconstructed.” This groundbreaking work inspired the creation of The Conciliation Project, a non-profit organization whose mission is “to promote through active and challenging dramatic work open and honest dialogue about racism in America in order to repair its damaging legacy.”

Dr. T is a playwright, director, actor, poet, writer and teacher. She has appeared on Broadway and in both National and International Touring Companies, Her television, film, industrial, voice over and commercial credits are extensive. Her work with actors takes a Stanislavski base combined with emotional mapping techniques and creates a method of helping the actor access their emotional content through personalization and ritual journey. Tawnya has been acting and directing for over the last 30 years and enjoys creating “new works” however her repertoire includes everything from the Greeks to the Contemporary Spoken Word.

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Janet B. Rodgers, Head of Performance, Voice and Speech
email - jrodgers@vcu.edu

Ms. Rodgers has been on VCU's Theatre faculty since 1987 during which time she has dialect/vocal coached over 100 shows, directed, acted and spent considerable time teaching and studying in Eastern Europe. Her book, THE COMPLETE VOICE AND SPEECH WORKOUT, was published by Applause Books in 2001. She has been instrumental in creating and directing the Voice and Speech component of the MFA pedagogy program and since 2005 has been Head of Performance.

Theatre VCU's 2004 production of MAD FOREST, directed by Ms. Rodgers, was selected as an entry in the 2004 Sibiu International Theatre Festival in Sibiu, Romania. In May of 2004, 22 Theatre VCU students traveled to Romania and performed in this production alongside Romanian students in the medieval fortress of Cisnidoara on a mountain-top in Transylvania.

In the fall of 2004 through January of 2005, Ms. Rodgers was a Senior Fulbright Scholar at Lucian Blaga University in Sibiu, Romania and at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Her current research has most recently taken her to Serbia where she has worked with the DAH Theatre, employing theatre techniques of Grotowski and Eugenia Barba. She has most recently received a grant to co-write a book with Frankie Armstrong on the subject of archetypes and performance and will be spending the spring semester of 2008 in Greece while working on the project. Currently Artistic Director of The Fluxus Performance Group, their most recent project, INANNA AND THE HEALING TEMPLE, was presented in May of 2007 at Art 6 Gallery in Richmond.

Past President of the International Voice and Speech Training Association (VASTA), Ms Rodgers has also served on its board and been director of three conferences. Her article, "Spheres of Voice and Speech Training" appears in the 2007 VASTA monograph/journal.

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Lou Szari, Lighting Design
email - ljszari@vcu.edu

Lou Szari holds an MFA in Scene/Lighting Design and a MA in Acting/Directing. As a lighting graduate student, Lou was selected by USITT to represent at the United States at The Prague Quadrennial. His early international travel prepare him for work as a "Roadie" with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre Company 20th Anniversary International Tour. Later, he owned and operated a Theatrical Production Support Services company located in Boston that served the North Eastern United States and Canada. Lou Szari is one of the few college professors to have ever achieved simultaneous professional membership in the Acting, Stagehand, and Design Theatrical unions: Actors Equity (AEA), International Alliance of Theatrical Employees, (IATSE), and The United Scenic Artists (USAA, 829, NY). Lou very happily joined the Faculty of Theatre VCU in 1979.

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