The Department of Theatre continually recruits acclaimed professionals to share their expertise with students. Our guest artists have designed productions and mentored students, taught master classes and workshops, and appeared in our annual cabaret preparing the Music Theatre Performance majors for their New York showcase. They have been actors, scenic designers, makeup artists, voiceover professionals, artistic directors, and graduate school professors. The Department of Theatre is dedicated to fostering and strengthening relationships with first-class artists and organizations in order to provide diverse educational opportunities for our students, while creating well-rounded theatre artists prepared to enter a competitive work field.

OUR GUESTS ARTISTS

Our guest artists have included world-class directors, such as Mary Zimmerman, the Tony Award-winning director, writer, and creator of Metamorphoses. Zimmerman is a prominent member of the Chicago theatre scene as a member of the Lookingglass Theatre Company and Artistic Associate of the Goodman Theatre. She is widely known for adapting literary texts for performance; when she visited WMU, she led a workshop in story theatre for our students. Leon Ingulsrud helped found the illustrious and exploratory SITI Company with Anne Bogart. Additionally, Ingulsrud was a member of the Suzuki Company of Toga in Japan for seven years. He works consistently as a director, an actor, and an educator. He has visited WMU numerous times as a guest director (credits include our productions of Our Town and Doctor Faustus) and acting teacher, coaching our students in Suzuki and Viewpoints workshops.

The Tectonic Theater Project, the groundbreaking company that created The Laramie Project, I Am My Own Wife, and Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, is currently collaborating with WMU Theatre students on a brand new play, Good Death, exploring the controversy over euthanasia through the compelling local story of Dr. Kevorkian. In the fall, company members are also leading a class in Moment Work, their unique approach to playwriting and creating new work.

Our design students have benefited from the expertise of Paul Kelly, a world-class production designer, responsible for the adaptation of Phantom of the Opera’s scenic and production design for Las Vegas. He works in theatre, television, and has been the Art Director for more than fifteen films, including The Thomas Crowne Affair, The First Wives Club, Ladder 49, and The Forgotten. An alum of our program, Paul Kelly returned to WMU in 2006 to design our production of A Little Night Music. Robert D. Maverick, a Department of Theatre alum and sought-after special effects makeup artist whose credits include Pirates of the Caribbean and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, designed special effects and makeup for our productions of Frankenstein and Dracula.

Broadway stars are frequent guests at WMU as well. In just the last few years, we have hosted John Treacy Egan, a Broadway veteran of The Producers and the original cast of Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Leah Hocking (the 1993 revival of Guys and Dolls, Hairspray, Jekyll and Hyde, Mamma Mia!),  and Nancy Anderson of A Class Act, A Wonderful Life, the revival of Wonderful Town and Kiss Me, Kate on the West End. All three taught master classes in musical theatre audition technique and performed alongside our students in our annual Late Night Broadway production, preparing the graduating class of Music Theatre Performance majors for their New York showcase.

For students aspiring to continue their studies in graduate school, our connections with highly ranked programs have been instrumental in furthering their educations. Frequent guests include Eli Simon (Chair of the UC Irvine Drama Department), Greg Leaming (director of the Florida State University/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training), Dale AJ Rose (Associate Head for Performance Programs at the University of Connecticut), and Brant Pope (head of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Department of Theatre). These professionals and educators have taught workshops on auditioning and interviewing at WMU, and many of our students have been accepted to these prestigious programs.

Audition technique, cold readings, insight into interviewing, and on-camera workshops have been provided by casting directors like Jane Alderman (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Bad Boys, Rudy, The West Wing, ER) and Matthew Miller (The Amityville Horror, Stranger Than Fiction, Public Enemies). Patrick Boll (whose acting credits include Broadway, Off-Broadway, film, television, and commercials) has led workshops on cold readings and on-camera work.

We also pursue the eclectic and specialized in our guest artists, hosting Commedia Zuppa, a Commedia Dell’Arte duo, who taught workshops for our students in movement improvisation and Commedia Dell’Arte. Physical training has also included stage combat workshops by Nate Mitchell, a professional fight choreographer.

This is only a sampling of the quality and diversity we strive to bring to campus through our guest artist program.