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BIO:
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio. Graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in English Literature and a Ph.D in Theatre, Drama, and Film from the University of Michigan. While at Michigan, taught playwriting in the English Department while directing and teaching dramatic literature and theatre in an experimental program headed by drama critic J. L. Styan. During this time, directed, while they were students, such notable talents as Gilda Radner and Christine Lahti, and worked with members of the acclaimed APA Repertory Theatre.
Starting in 1975, began a thirty-three year career teaching and directing drama and theatre at Middlebury College in Vermont. For twenty of those years, was Chairman of the Department of Theatre, Dance, and Film/Video; and Director of Theatre. Directed and taught as students Amanda Plummer, Dana Morosini Reeve, Jake Weber, Kristen Connolly, Cassidy Freeman, and Jess St. Clair among other Middlebury grads who are still working in theatre, film, and TV. Some current shows: HOUSE OF CARDS, LONGMIRE, and PLAYING HOUSE.
Published articles, gave talks, and conducted workshops dealing with various aspects of actor training, Chekhov's dramaturgy, Shakespearean staging, and film. Directed professionally in Los Angeles, New York City, and, in New Jersey, as co-artistic director of an Equity stock company at the Gristmill Playhouse. Directed several productions for the Potomac Theatre Project in Washington, DC, including a staged reading of my student Dan O'Brien's play that won the National Student Playwriting Award, a play subsequently produced at the Kennedy Center.
Since 1997, directed fourteen plays for the Heritage Repertory Theatre, a professional Equity company in Charlottesville, Virginia. During a sabbatical as Visiting Scholar in Residence in the Department of Drama at the University of Virginia, directed a production of UNCLE VANYA by Anton Chekhov. In the fall of 2000, directed a production of HAMLET (using both current and former Middlebury students) as part of the celebration of the bicentennial of Middlebury College. Staged eighty.-five plays over the last forty-five years in both professional and academic settings. In 2005, was honored with an endowed chair, becoming the first faculty member to be appointed as The Isabel Mettler Professor of Theatre.
Retired from Middlebury College in 2008.