- James A. Bell, Assistant Professor
James A. Bell is a theatre scholar, playwright, and dramaturg. He holds a B.A. in theatre arts from Brigham Young University and a Ph.D. (ABD) in theatre history, theory, and criticism from Florida State University. Before coming to Grand Valley in 2004, he taught and provided production dramaturgy for numerous productions at Jacksonville University, Florida Community College at Jacksonville, and at Florida State University where he was also involved in university theatre administration. He was the 1994 Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival Student Playwriting Award winner for his play Prisoner, which was subsequently performed at the Kennedy Center and has been published by Samuel French. His other plays have been featured at the Mount Sequoyah New Play Retreat and at the Utah Shakespearean Festival in the Plays in Progress Series, as well as the Egyptian Theatre in Park City, Utah. His play, Autumn in the Valley, which was developed at the Utah Shakespearean Festival will have its world premiere production at Grand Valley State University in fall 2006. bellja@gvsu.edu
- Roger Ellis, Professor
Roger Ellis has worked in professional, amateur, and university theatres in the United States and abroad for the past 40 years. He trained in the United States as an actor and director under commedia master Carlo Mazzone-Clementi of the Dell’Arte Players, directors Robert Goldsby and William Oliver of the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and ritual performance artist James Roose-Evans of Great Britain. He has also earned advanced degrees in theatre from the University of Santa Clara (M.A.) and Cal Berkeley (Ph.D.). Roger has worked with numerous professional companies such as Dell’Arte International, Opera Grand Rapids, the California Shakespeare Festival, Thunder Bay Theatre and others. He has also directed classical and modern plays for community theatres, and staged more than eighty productions for universities in Michigan and California. He is frequently called upon to adjudicate plays for competition and awards in the United States and abroad, serving such organizations as the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, the International Thespian Society, Michigan Community Theatre Association, and others. A frequent participant in international festivals, Roger Ellis also serves as the editor of IDEACTION, the newsletter of the North American region of the International Amateur Theatre Association (AITA/IATA). Since 1998, Dr. Ellis has been an AITA/IATA delegate from the United States at International Conferences in Asia, Africa, North America, the Caribbean and Europe. He also serves the worldwide organization as Chair of its Artistic Development Committee, helping to coordinate the artistic activities of AITA/IATA at its worldwide festivals and congresses. And as a University Professor, Roger Ellis has taken his management students to international festivals in Venezuela and Nova Scotia where they’ve performed production internships. At his own university in Michigan, Dr. Ellis founded the Cultural Diversity program in theatre in 1993, now in its fourteenth season. This unique program brings playwrights and directors to campus each season to work as artists-in-residence with students on contemporary plays of cultural conflict. Since its inception, the program has featured recent work from Venezuela, the Caribbean, and Mexico in addition to the U.S. He was also the founding director of the Grand Valley Shakespeare Festival, now in its fourteenth season as the oldest and largest Michigan Shakespeare Fest. Since 1993 Roger Ellis has also served as President of the Michigan Theatre Alliance where he helps coordinate the efforts of theatre amateurs and professionals across the state. Since 1985 he has edited and authored fifteen books on the contemporary theatre for North American publishers, showcasing the work of regional, national and international playwrights. His acting texts have been endorsed by a number of organizations like the University Resident Theatre Association. Dr. Ellis is frequently called upon to present workshops in acting, voice and movement in the United States, Canada, Europe and South America. He is currently a Professor of Theatre at Grand Valley State University in Michigan.
ellisr@gvsu.edu
- Karen Libman, Professor
Karen Libman, Associate Professor of Theatre, holds a B.F.A. from Virginia
Commonwealth University and an M.F.A. from Arizona State University. She taught for several years at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, SUNY-Cortland, and Illinois State University before joining the faculty of Grand Valley State University in 1999. National directing credits include Crackerbarrel! (Nebraska Theatre Caravan tour production); The Princess and the Pea, Aladdin (Nebraska Repertory Theatre); A Christmas Carol (Ithaca, New York); The Snow Queen (Mesa, Arizona); and the world premiere of the award-winning play, Rachel's Night (Bloomington, Illinois). Her work has been seen locally at Heritage Theatre, Grand Rapids Civic Theatre, and Grand Rapids Jewish Theatre. GVSU stage productions include the 1999, 2000, 2002, 2006, and 2008 GVSU Shakespeare Festival mainstage shows, the internationally touring 2005 and 2007 Bard to Go, as well as Big Love , Mother Courage and Children and the award-winning Angels in America, Part 1. A professional storyteller, Professor Libman performs at festival, museums, and schools such as the Grand Rapids (MI) Art Museum, the Michigan Storytelling Festival, the Kansas City Storytelling Festival, and The Nebraska Storytelling Festival. She has been active in many national and international organizations including the American Alliance for Theatre and Education, the International Drama Education Association, and the National Storytelling Association. Her published work can be seen in such journals as Arts Education Policy Review, Teaching Theatre, Youth Theatre Journal, and Research in Drama Education; and she was the Editor of the quarterly journal STAGE of the Art (published by the American Alliance for Theatre and Education) from 1999-2001. During her 2002 sabbatical, she was a Guest Instructor at the Kaplan Center for Educational Drama at New York University. She also premiered the one-woman show, Virginia Woolf: the Last Day, which was written for her by Florida Playwright Richard Janaro. The Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Association honored Libman for her Meritorious Achievement in Directing in 1999, and she was named the Woman Artist of the Year by the Lincoln-Lancaster Women's Commission in 1998. In 2006, she was honored by the university with the Women and Gender Studies Program Barbara Jordan Award, and in 2008 she received the AATE 2008 Lin Wright Special Recognition Award, giving her national recognition for her work with the Grand Valley Bard to Go Program. Her interest in excellence in teaching dates to her work with standards in arts education (she was a member of the Goals 2000 team that co-wrote the assessment portion of the Nebraska State Arts Frameworks, and she helped to review the Nationals Standards in Arts Education), and her numerous workshop presentations on drama, teacher education, arts advocacy, outreach theatre, literacy, storytelling, and social justice. Professor Libman enjoys administrative work as well, and has served as the Interim Assistant Director of the Pew Faculty Teaching and Learning Center in 2004; as Interim Chair of the Department of Classics during the 2005-06 academic year,; as Interim Director of the GVSU Honors College in 2007; and as Interim Chair of the Department of Art and Design during Winter and Spring 2008.
libmank@gvsu.edu
- Alfred M Sheffield, Associate Professor
Alfred Sheffield is a theatre designer supervising GVSU students'' work in design and theatre technology. A graduate of Northwestern University''s M.F.A. program, Alfred has worked on technical assignments at Chicago''s Marriot Theatre, CBS News Chicago, and the Northwestern University Dance Festival. He has worked for fourteen years in professional summer stock and regional arts festivals, serving as scenographer and technical director at the Tibbets Summer Theatre in Coldwater, Mchigan and the Carolina Civic Center in Lumberton, North Carolina. He taught and designed for such institutions as the University of Michigan''s Flint campus, The University of North Carolina, and Kansas State University before joining GVSU''s theatre faculty in 1997. He continues to explore the latest advances in computer-assisted stage & lighting design technology, and to coach GVSU students interested in pursuing careers in the field. sheffiea@gvsu.edu
- Ben Cole, Visiting Assistant Professor
Ben Cole has worked in 9 different states as a professional actor, director, and educator. A native to West Michigan, Ben’s first theatrical experience was as an audience member at the Grand Valley Shakespeare Festival. Ben found the production to be so moving that it inspired him to pursue a life in the arts. Locally, Ben was one of the founding members of the Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Acting and Directing from Central Michigan University, and his Master of Fine Arts degree in Acting from Western Illinois University. He is currently assisting Artistic Director, Jim Helsinger, of the Orlando Shakespeare Theatre in writing his book on Shakespeare acting techniques. Most recently, Ben worked with the Oklahoma Shakespearean Festival acting, teaching, and studying with the most decorated Fight Master in the Society of American Fight Directors, Mark Guinn. Other Stage Combat credits for Ben include work at the Orlando Shakespeare Theatre on The Comedy of Errors, As You Like It, and Macbeth, and choreographing the fights for Beauty and the Beast at Park Maitland School in Florida. At Grand Valley State University he is the Visiting Professor of Theatre, and is eager to inspire a new generation of students into a lifelong passion of the arts.
colebe@gvsu.edu.
Theatre Staff
- Jill Hamilton
Jill Hamilton is a theatre designer and technical director, who also serves as the University''s theatre facilities manager and coordinator for drama and music activities. She earned her M.A. degree in design from the University of Cincinatti, and worked for a number of years with the Minnesota Dance Theatre designing costumes for regional and national touring companies. In the Great Lakes region she has worked for the Guthrie and Cricket Theatres in Minneapolis, and for Cincinatti''s Playhouse in the Park. In west Michigan she continues to design for such groups as Hope College, Grand Rapids'' Circle Theatre, and for corporate/industrial promotional shows. Some of her recent production designs at GVSU have included costumes/lights/settings for Romeo and Juliet, The Hobbit, and Broken Eggs.
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