James Daniels
james.daniels@wmich.edu
Professor of Theatre
Director, Theatre Performance
Kansas State Teachers College, B.A.; University of Missouri-Kansas City, M.A.; Florida State University / Asolo Conservatory, M.F.A. | Joined WMU: 1987

James Daniels has been a professional actor for over thirty years. He has performed at such theatres as Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, MA, the Oregon Shakespearean Festival, the Cleveland Play House, Missouri Repertory Theatre, the Houston Shakespeare Festival, Pennsylvania Centre Stage, and the Asolo Theatre of Florida, playing such roles as Vershinin in Three Sisters, Prospero in The Tempest, Hal Carter in Picnic, Iago in Othello, the Gentleman Caller in The Glass Menegerie, and the Samurai Warrior in Rashomon. In Sarasota, Florida, Jim was seen as a guest artist in the Asolo Conservatory Theatre Company productions of Our Country’s Good and Misalliance. Among other roles he has performed: Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird, Sheriff Ed Earl Dodd in The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas, W.O. Gant in Look Homeward, Angel, and H.C. Curry in The Rainmaker, all at the Wagon Wheel Theatre in Warsaw, IN.

Jim is also an experienced and versatile teacher. He has taught at the University of Missouri at Kansas City, the University of Texas at Austin, and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. He teaches all levels of acting in the Department of Theatre at Western Michigan University where he is a tenured Full Professor.

Jim is the author of four one-person shows, Edwin Booth: The Falconer’s Voice, Sam Houston: Standing In His Own Blood, Custer Rides, and Wyatt Earp: The Last Man Standing. A half-hour educational video/docu-drama Sam Houston, Man Of Honor, which Jim wrote and performed, won a silver award at the Houston Film Festival in Houston, Texas.

Among other credits Jim has directed for Hope Summer Repertory Theatre in Holland, Michigan, the Michigan Shakespeare Festival at the Celery Flats Historical District, the Durango Shakespeare Festival in Durango, Colorado, and the Wagon Wheel Theatre in Warsaw, Indiana. He has directed numerous productions for the Western Michigan University Department of Theatre.