John Anderson

Sound Design, Adjunct Faculty

jranderson@vcu.edu

John Anderson is a twenty two-year veteran of the Richmond theatre community, having worked in a number of capacities including acting, writing, and production design. His early career included film and commercial acting, which occasionally led him behind the scenes between performance gigs. Working frequently as a Lighting Designer with local theatres and production companies, John was often volunteered for Sound Design chores as well, and with many years experience went on to become an expert audio engineer, specializing in theatrical musicals with large orchestras and channel-dense wireless systems.

Recent Richmond theatrical sound design and engineering credits include Theatre IV's Beauty and the Beast, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, and Sing Down the Moon at the historic Empire Theatre, and The Full Monty, Anything Goes, and Annie Get Your Gun with Barksdale Theatre. John is now sharing his hard-earned expertise as Sound Design faculty at his alma-mater, Theatre VCU, educating aspiring designers in music's unequaled narrative power and mentoring novice engineers in the finer points of sound reinforcement for stage. For more information, visit http://www.people.vcu.edu/~jranderson/

Michelle Anderson

Fiscal Technician

manderson6@vcu.edu

Michelle joined the Theatre VCU staff in August 2004 and is responsible for Accounts Payable and Receivable.

Brian Barker

Vector Works, Adjunct Professor

bcbecker@vcu.edu

Brian Barker works as a Set Designer, teaches Drafting with VectorWorks, Photography for Theatre, and Photoshop for Theatre at VCU. He currently works for the New York based Gipson Design Group and does freelance design work. He has worked on Nickelodeon's Slime Across America, numerous MTV Productions, and recently on the Verizon Studios at the Met's CitiField. Local designs include Moonlight & Magnolias and Member of the Wedding for Barksdale Theatre and Sideways Stories... for Theatre IV. Other favorite designs include Born Yesterday, Big River, Into The Woods, Recent Tragic Events, King Lear, & The Misanthrope. His work was exhibited at the 2007 Prague Quadrennial, the theatre community's most prestigious conference and design exhibition. He holds a BFA from Theatre VCU and an MFA from the University of Tennessee. While in school he was the recipient of two Sculptural Arts Design awards for his work on Big River and Sweeney Todd.

Dr. Noreen C. Barnes PhD

Director of Graduate Studies, Associate Professor

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. Noreen is also a director and dramaturg and has worked with such artists as director Joseph Chaikin and writer/performer Kate Bornstein.

Barry Bell

Acting & Directing, Assistant Professor

blbell@vcu.edu

A professional actor since the age of seventeen, Barry 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. Barry 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.

Since 1995, 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.

Barry directed a very successful production of HAIR for VCU in the spring of 2003, Picasso at the Lapin Agile in the fall of 2004, Wait Until Dark in the fall of 2005, Dracula in the fall of 2006, and will be directing the Spring 2010 production of Tommy. For the last three summers Barry has produced and directed Student Voices which is seen by all incoming VCU first-year students and their parents during registration. 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.

Glynn Brannan

Director of Public Relations and Graphic Design

gmbrannan@vcu.edu

Glynn Brannan joined the Theatre Department in November 2003. She has worked since 1998 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 Ms. Brannan won national recognition for her editorial layout and cover designs and illustrations. She also teaches Beginning Drawing and Color Theory to Theatre VCU Design Tech and Stage Management Students.

Maura Cravey

Makeup Design, Adjunct Professor

mlcravey@yahoo.com

Maura Lynch Cravey is a graduate of VCU Theatre Department with an MFA in Costume Design and Technology. Her teaching experience in design and makeup includes Virginia Commonwealth University, Murray State University, University of Virginia, and Fashion Design at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College. In addition to designing for all of Swift Creek Mill Theatre productions, her designs have been seen at Dogwood Dell, Firehouse Theatre Project, Ft Lee Playhouse, Yellow House Productions (film), Sibiu Theatre Festival in Romania, Theatre IV, Barksdale Theatre, Virginia Union University, SPARC, Richmond Shakespeare Festival, Blue Ridge Theatre Festival, and the Richmond Community Theater Guild. She has received a Phoebe Award for Best Costume Design from the Richmond Times Dispatch Newspapers, Best Costume Design in a Musical for the U.S. Army World Theatre Festival, and been nominated for Best Costume Design by Richmond Theatre Critics Circle. Maura is an active member of SETC and USITT.

Patti D'Beck

Movement for the Actor and Musical Theatre, Assistant Professor

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 O'Donnell. 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 Joe's Cafe, Ain't Misbehavin', Kiss Me Kate, South Pacific, Promises, Promises, Woman of the Year, Cabaret and West Side Story. Recently she choreographed a revival of Paint Your Wagon at the Pioneer Theatre Co. in SLC, UT. She was the choreographer for Theatre VCU's The Civil War, A Musical, Cabaret and Director and Choreographer for Chicago and directed and choreographed Guys and Dolls, and Thoroughly Modern Millie for Barksdale Theatre. She will be the director and Choreographer of Theatre VCU's Fall production of Ain't Misbehavin'. 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.

Adam Dorland

Scene Painting, Adjunct Professor

adamdorland@gmail.com

Karl Green

Costume Shop Supervisor, Assistant Professor

kdgreen@vcu.edu

Karl Green, Assistant Professor, currently serves as the costume shop supervisor and cutter/ draper for Theatre VCU. He has worked in the costume shop at Chautauqua Theatre Company in western New York as cutter/draper. Mr. Green received a 2007 Teresa Pollak award, the first given in applied design. He worked for eleven years as a stain glass artist and printer, experienced the New York Fashion and fabric design businesses. His paper dolls have been published and reviewed in several national doll magazines. He has served as an adjunct instructor for the Department of fashion since 1998. Over the past twenty years, he has designed and constructed costumes for dance for nationally know choreographers such as Robert Battle, Chris Burnside, Tere O'conor, David Dorfman, and Joe Goode, among others, as well as for regional universities and Ballet companies. He was a featured artist in the Time for Design show at The Visual Arts Center of Richmond in 2007. Karl has been designing and producing one of kind couture wedding gowns over the last eleven years.

Gary C. Hopper

Assistant Chairman & Director of Undergraduate Studies, Associate Professor

ghopper@vcu.edu

Gary Hopper is a senior faculty member who since 1980 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 most recently including: Big Love, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and When You Comin' Back Red Ryder? He was also the co-author and co-director of the Theatre VCU's Fall 2008 production of ShadowPlay. 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. He is a member of Actor's Equity, National Association of Schools of Theatre, and Southeastern Theatre Conference.

Amy Baumgartner Hutton

Stage Management, Assistant Professor

baumgartneac@vcu.edu

Amy (Baumgartner) Hutton is the head of the Stage Management and undergraduate Theatre History programs. Her professional credits include, Off-Broadway: Tea at Five, Comedians, Trumbo, From My Hometown, Regional: The Clean House, Guys and Dolls (Barksdale Theatre), Ruth, Psalms of David, Miracle of Christmas, Abraham and Sarah, Behold the Lamb, Noah, The Christmas Water Show (Sight and Sound Theatres), Baby, The Foreigner, Crazy for You, Star-Spangled Girl, West Side Story (Weathervane Playhouse), Tecumseh!, Twelfth Night (Scioto Society), and Somebody's Children (Lyric Opera of Kansas City). Amy is a proud member of the Actors Equity Association. As a scholar, Amy specializes in musical theatre, especially in its unique relationship with the Americanization of jazz music in the 1920's. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Pedagogy from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Bachelor of Musical Arts in piano, voice, and organ from DePauw University.

Toni-Leslie James

Director, Costume Design, Assistant Professor

tljames@vcu@edu

Toni-Leslie James is the winner of the 2009 OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence of Costume Design (with special reference to Wig Out, Vineyard Theatre) her other awards include: Connecticut Critics Circle Award, The FANY Award, the LA DramaLogue Award, the American Theatre Wing Hewes Design Award, and the Irene Sharaff Young Masters Award for Costume Design Excellence.

She was the Costume Designer for City Center Encores! production of Finian's Rainbow which is opening on Broadway Fall, 2009.

Toni-Leslie James' Broadway costume design experience includes Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, One Mo' Time, King Hedley II, The Wild Party (Fany Award), Marie Christine, Footloose, The Tempest (Drama Desk nomination), Twilight: Los Angeles 1992, Angels in America, Chronicle of a Death Foretold and Jelly's Last Jam (Tony and Drama Desk Nominations, Hewes Design Award and LA Drama-Logue Award). Her Off-Broadway work includes: Bernarda Alba (Hewes Design Nomination), Dessa Rose, Elegies, A New Brain, God's Heart and Hello Again 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 (Drama Desk and American Theatre Wing Nominations) and Spunk for the New York Pubic 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 also include productions for 3 Mo' Divas at Area Stage, (2006-07 Helen Hayes Award nomination) and productions at Second Stage, Circle Rep, Hartford Stage, The Long Wharf, The Huntington Theatre Company, The Mark Taper Forum, The Shakespeare Theatre, Berkley Rep, The Houston Grand Opera, Center Stage, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Lyric Opera of Chicago, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Ballet Hispanico. Ms. James television work includes three specials for WNET/13 Great Performances series, the soap opera As the World Turns and Whoopi on NBC.

Her film work includes: The Huey P. Newton Story, and A Tale of Two Pizzas. Ms. James is also the recipient of the Connecticut Critics Circle Award and the Irene Sharaff Young Masters Award for Costume Design Excellence. This year Ms. James designed costumes for Encores! concert performance of the 1947 musical Finian's Rainbow which will transfer as a full production to the St. James Theater on Broadway. This April Toni was honored by the The Village Voice OBIE Awards with an award for sustained excellence of costume design (with special reference to Wig Out, Vineyard Theatre). Toni is a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829.

Ron Keller

Head of Design, Associate Professor

rkeller@vcu.edu

Ron Keller has been resident scenic designer at Theatre VCU since 1984. During that time his design students have continuously won regional design awards. 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 in the past, and again currently serves as the Design and Technologies Chair for Region IV of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. He is a member of United Scenic Artists, the union representing professional designers and artists. He maintains a constant professional practice and this season his work will be seen at the Nevada Conservatory Theatre in Las Vegas, the Clarence Brown Co., in Tennessee, and at both the Willow Lawn and the Empire Theatre for Barksdale Theatre in Richmond, VA.

Ron's additional 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, as well as in Kishinev, Moldova.

Kathleen Legault

Administratiive Director

klegault@vcu.edu

Kathleen Legault is the Administrative Director at Theatre VCU and has worked as the Manager for the School of Richmond Ballet. Her choreography has been produced in New York; Virginia; Burgos, Spain; and at Performática in Puebla and Cholula, Mexico. Kathleen holds a degree in History and Education from the State University of New York at Potsdam and her training includes Graduate studies at SUNY Purchase in dance and choreography where she received the President's Award for Excellence. As a movement educator she is interested in the exploration of somatic expression, connection and integration through Contact Improvisation and Modern Dance, conversant with body work and movement forms including Body Mind Centering®, Klein Technique™, Thai Bodywork and yoga. Among the companies she has performed with are Ground Zero Dance, Starr Foster Dance Co., Dim Sum Dance, Nouvelle Burlesque. She was most recently seen in Barksdale Theatre's production of Guys and Dolls. Currently a choreographer and on the board for Ground Zero Dance, Kathleen is a member of BMCA and SETC.

David Leong

Chair, Professor

dsleong@vcu.edu

David S. Leong is Chairman, Professor and Producer of the Department of Theatre at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA. Since 1998, as Producer of Theatre VCU, he has supervised over 64 full-length productions and hired over 55 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-one 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 Billy Elliot, 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.

Lorri Lindberg

Acting, Assistant Professor

jllindberg@vcu.edu

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 since 1986. 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. She has appeared in the April 2007 production of Cabaret and the February 2009 production of The Glass Menagerie. 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.

Kevin McGranahan

Scene Shop Foreman and Facilities Manager

kmcgranahan@vcu.edu

Kevin McGranahan is the Scene Shop Foreman and Facilities Manager. Since 2006, Kevin has been working professionally in the entertainment industry, movies, television, radio, concerts, and theatre. Kevin has appeared locally as Patrick Henry at the historic St. John's reenactment of the famous "Give me liberty" speech, and stars as Patrick Henry in the 2007 production of the PBS /WCVE film Liberty or Death.

Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates

Acting and Directing, Associate Professor

tpettifordwa@vcu.edu

Tawnya Pettiford-Wates, after studying at Central School of Drama, Speech and Film in London, England, 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.

While at Theatre VCU Dr. T has directed For Colored Girls who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, has appeared in A Raisin in the Sun as "Mama" Young, and will direct The Grapes of Wrath in February 2010.

Janet B. Rodgers

Head of Performance, Voice and Speech

jrodgers@vcu.edu

Janet 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 since 2007.

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. She also directed The Glass Menagerie in February of 2009.

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.

Lou Szari

Lighting Design

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.

Lou has been the Lighting Director and Designer for Operafestival Di Roma, Rome, Italy for Summer 2007-2009.