| 4 Shady Ln |
| Kirksville, MO 63501 |
| Tel: (660) 665-8981 |
| Email:
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| Degrees: |
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| Current Affiliation: |
| Professor of Theatre, Truman State University |
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| Training: |
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| Areas of Specialization: |
| Voice & body, text analysis, Acting Shakespeare |
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| Personal Statement |
| I believe that every play is a musical with its own unique amalgamation of rhythm, dynamics, and key signatures. The actor must learn to trust the words and identify the musicality in both the play and the role. The actor will discover his own lyricism through careful script analysis, multiple styles of exploration, and commitment to developing a fresh creative process with each role. |
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| The cultivation of a finely tuned instrument, the actor’s voice-body-mind obviously requires daily (and life-long) rigor in physical and vocal training. I believe that an acting program should resist creating dilettantes, but I also believe there are multiple paths to characterization in voice and body work. As a teacher, I prefer Lessac explorations combined with Viewpoints, Suzuki, NLP, and Alexander, primarily because all five address each element in the ‘instrumental’ triad: voice, body, and mind. Despite seeming contradictions in theory, the work of all four, taken in context, resonate on various levels with students. Inspired by all five, I design tasks that address vocal production and expressive plasticity, while encouraging students to find a view of self that extends beyond the self-concept or the social mask. I also expose students to other kinds of training that they might pursue on their own, particularly yoga and Tai Chi. |
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| I believe in high expectations. I believe that a person’s life moves in the direction of his most dominant thoughts; teachers can help students to think like artists. Sometimes students need a gentle push if they are to resist putting limits on themselves. Being a working actor requires an unswerving kind of discipline and focus, the kind that begins with high expectations and a rational plan of action. |
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| I believe that theatre is about relationships and changes in relationships. A good actor therefore needs to be a good listener and observer with a keen sense of dramatic action. I exercise those ‘muscles’ in the student through a mix of scene work, monologues, and non-textual explorations. Monologues are ‘about the partner,’ and that means the student is forced to uncover both hidden and inherent obstacles in the text. The imagined relationship between character and partner follows a through-line of change from beginning to end. These subtle changes, when recognized and employed by the actor, work to enhance her instinct for dramatic action. Physical and vocal explorations, whether done first or after text work, are the key to discovering the real life of the character; movement unlocks emotions and reveals to the actor new levels of urgency. Movement makes it possible to communicate all subtleties. |
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| I believe that every college student should be required to take Acting I. The course can inspire in the student a greater capacity for empathy, a resource that would perhaps shape the future of the world if it were to exist in abundance. The connection between acting and empathy is a current research interest. |
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| I believe that theatre is about everything; it is the ultimate liberal art. Theatre asks the big questions and probes the choices human beings make that determine fates and cultures. I believe that the study of acting can contribute significantly to a student’s resources, both inter-and-intrapersonal. I am interested in pursuing theatre-across-the-curriculum as an efficacious tool of education (for both actors and class/audience). |
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| I believe that a good actor is committed to life-long learning. There is no subject beyond the scope of theatre, and each new piece of knowledge or new insight deepens the actor’s ability to enter into the life of a character. Neuro-scientists have demonstrated that human beings are happier when they consistently expand their minds beyond familiar subjects and tasks. I believe in providing students with opportunities to discover this on their own. |
