2009 Excellence in Theatre Education Award

Robert Cohen – University of California, Irvine

Born in 1938, Cohen was the founding chair of the University of California, Irvine Drama Department at its founding in 1965; he now serves that institution as Claire Trevor Professor of Drama. A director by training (DFA, Yale Drama School), Cohen has staged eighty university productions at UC Irvine, plus twelve professional productions at the Utah and Colorado Shakespeare Festivals (most recently School for Wives at Utah in 2008), and some twenty other professional productions throughout the United States and on European tours to four countries. His books include Acting Power, Acting One, Acting One, Acting Two, Acting in Shakespeare, Acting Professionally, More Power to You, Theatre, Creative Play Direction, Giraudoux: Three Faces of Destiny, and Working Together: Collaboration and Leadership in Theatre (currently in press), along with a play (The Prince), two play translations (The Misanthrope, The Bourgeois Gentleman) and two edited play anthologies; many of his books appear in regularly–revised editions and/or in translation (Chinese, Korean, Romanian, Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian). His essays on acting, dramatic literature and theatre history have appeared in Theatre Journal, Theatre Topics, Theatre Forum, Theatre Survey, Modern Drama, Theater der Zeit, Essays in Theatre, On–Stage Studies, The Drama Review, Contemporary Literature, Slavic and East European Performance, Experiment and Innovation, and Dramatic Theory and Criticism. He is also the author of over 500 play reviews for the London–published Plays International, where he continues as the magazine’s long–time southern California and European Theatre Festival drama critic, as well as the Los Angeles Times and the annual Contemporary Literary Criticism, in addition to book reviews for Educational Theatre Journal, Shakespeare Yearbook and the New Haven Register. He has lectured and taught acting workshops at many campuses, institutes and theatre gatherings throughout the United States, and at theatre companies, theatre unions, theatre conservatories and university campuses in over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and Central America. In 1993 he received his campus’ highest honor, the UCI Medal; in 1999 he received the Career Achievement Award from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE); and in 2009 he was awarded the title of Professor Honoris Causis by Babes–Bolyai University in Romania and the Medal of Honor from the Polish Ministry of Culture. 

Douglas Hill – University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Douglas has an active history in new play development and production. As a playwright his work has been performed across the U.S. in such notable theatres as the Cleveland Public Theatre, the Bailiwick Repertory Theatre in Chicago, S.T.A.G.E.S. in Dallas, Mill Mountain Theatre in Virginia, and the Washington Shakespeare Company in Washington, D.C. His short plays, Heart in the Ground and Heresy at a Crossroads, have found their way onto the college circuit and have been produced by universities and high schools across America. Heart in the Ground has also received international productions in England, Australia, Canada and Denmark. His semi–autobiographical script, Roulette has been produced throughout the U.S. and has received productions in New Zealand, India, and Canada. His controversial ten–minute play, Heresy at a Crossroads, has been produced at universities in America and South Africa and has been anthologized in Ten 10–Minute Plays by Black Box Press. No Such Thing was recently included in Ten 10–Minute Plays: Volume 2. Emmie’s monologue from Groom and Doom was selected for inclusion in the Smith and Kraus anthology, Audition Arsenal, and The Meat Offensive was included in Heinimann’s anthology, Monologues for Men by Men. His script, Seen was published by Dramatic Publishing in the anthology, Short Stuff. In 2006, he was commissioned by the Laine Family Foundation to write and direct the intergenerational script, Lemonade & Pluto, which was subsequently invited to perform at the International Senior Adult Theatre Festival and Conference in St. Louis, Missouri. Hill spent two years with the Arizona Theatre Company as their Literary Assistant where he also dramaturged their production of The Last Night of Ballyhoo. He has served as the resident dramaturg for Playworks at the University of Texas–El Paso and the Mildred and Albert Panowski Playwriting Competition at Northern Michigan University. He worked as Artistic Associate and Script Evaluator for The Asylum Theatre in Las Vegas, a theatre committed solely to developing and producing emerging plays by up and coming playwrights. In the spring of 2002, he co–edited a new play anthology for senior adult actors entitled Consider the Possibilities. A subsequent anthology co–edited by Hill entitled Summer Dreams, Winter Wishes was published in 2005. As an actor, Hill has originated many roles for award–winning playwrights such as Toni Press–Coffman, William Missouri Downs, R.W. Berky, Joseph Megel and Elizabeth Corley–Megel, and Chris Mann. Currently, he holds the position of Associate Director of the Senior Adult Theatre Program at the University of Nevada–Las Vegas, where he teaches older adult acting classes, playwriting and structure, and theatre history. He served as the founding co–chair of the Senior Adult Theatre League of America and their board liaison to the Educational Theatre Association. In addition, he worked as the Region VIII Chair of the National Playwriting Program for the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival responding to new plays produced by universities and college theatre departments throughout the southwest. He holds an MFA in Playwriting from UNLV and a B.A. in Theatre from Missouri Southern State University.

Ellyn Gersh Lerner – California State University, Northridge

Ellyn has taught at California State University, Northridge for the past nine years. In addition to teaching and directing theatre, Ellyn teaches courses and is a faculty mentor and curriculum consultant in Liberal Studies, Humanities, and Academic First Year Experiences. Last year Ellyn was a guest artist at Linfield College in McMinnville Oregon where she directed Lanford Wilson’s Book of Days. Other directing credits include Nickel and Dimed, Blue Window, Androcles and the Lion, Lu Ann Hampton Laverty Oberlander, Electra, The Dining Room, Bus Stop, A Gown for His Mistress, The Fantasticks, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, the off–Broadway premiere of The Pretender, and numerous readings of new work. Conference papers and festival presentations include: “Standing on the Shoulders of Simon and Wasserstein: Jewish Identity in Daniel Goldfarb’s play Sarah, Sarah,” “Performance Consistency: Can It Be Maintained During Short or Interrupted Runs?” and “Is There Really No Business Like Show Business? A Conversation on Alternative Careers for Theatre Majors.” As an undergraduate, Ellyn performed at the regional festival in Brendan Behan’s The Hostage and, ever since, has been an avid supporter and active respondent for KCACTF. Ellyn trained with Viola Spolin as a theatre game specialist, is a proud graduate of Occidental College, earned her M.A. at Ball State University and her Ph.D. at UCLA.

Lee Lyons – California Baptist University

Lee has worked extensively in the professional motion picture and television field, serving as Art Director, Set Decorator, or Scenic Artist on many television series and national commercials including Dirty Dancing, the Dom DeLoise Show, Munsters Today, and McDonalds. For Performance Riverside he has contributed designs for such shows as A Chorus Line, Man of La Mancha, The Who’s Tommy, and The Secret Garden (winner of the 1996“Robby” award for best lighting design) . He has also designed scenery for Theatrical Arts International’s Zorro Live, and The Christmas Box at the California Theatre in San Bernardino, and created the lighting design for the tour of On Golden Pond, starring Jack Klugman. He earned his M.F.A. in theatrical design from San Diego State University and taught courses in Scenic, Lighting, Audio design and Acting for the Camera at California State University San Bernardino, where he had been a professor for 20 years. During that time he created over 160 designs and received over 30 Inland Theatre League Awards for his work at CSUSB. Professor Lyons resides in San Bernardino with his wife, Lisa and two children, Nick and Gracie.

James McDonnell – College of the Sequoias

As part of the Theatre faculty at the College of the Sequoias James teaches classes in acting, musical theatre, costumes, make–up, and cinema. Recently he directed The Producers, Moon Over Buffalo, Sweeney Todd, Lend Me a Tenor, Dangerous Liaisons, Macbeth: the Opera, Evita, Noises Off, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Quilters at COS. In addition to directing, James is the resident costume designer at COS designing such shows as Dracula, Beauty and the Beast, Crazy for You, Richard III, Guys and Dolls, and Big River. Around town you may have seen his work at the Enchanted Playhouse (The Princess and the Pea, Sleeping Beauty, Alice in Wonderland, James and the Giant Peach, Cinderella, director) and the 4th Wall Theatre (as Sam Byck, in Assassins, Ivan, in Art, and Pesudolus, in A Funny Thing Happened…) James’s professional credits included costume designer for the Kern Shakespeare Festival (Twelfth Night and Macbeth); assistant costume designer with the Missouri Repertoire Theater (Comedy of Errors, and The Seagull); wig stylist for the national tour of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and the national tour of Miss Saigon; key costumer for the Ang Lee film Ride with the Devil. In addition, James has worked extensively at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Mac–Haydn Theatre, and the UMKC Opera Conservatory. James holds a B.A. degree in Acting/Directing from DeSales University and an M.F.A. in Design/Technology from the University of Missouri–Kansas City.

Randy Messersmith – Scottsdale Community College

Randy is in his 4th year as the Theatre Arts Director at Scottsdale Community College. He holds a B.S. in Theatre from Southern Illinois University, and an M.F.A. in Acting and Directing from the University of Missouri, Kansas City. This is his 20th year in higher education, 16of those years as Adjunct Faculty for the Maricopa Community Colleges teaching acting, stage combat, voice and diction, and directing over 25productions. He also was the Theatre Arts Director at Desert Mountain High School from 1996–2006, where his production of A Winters Tale had the honor of being selected to perform at the National Thespian Festival in Lincoln, Nebraska. Randy is the Producing Director of the Scottsdale Conservatory Theatre Summer Training Program, an intensive pre–professional actor training program now in its 23rd year. A professional actor, director and producer, Randy has worked extensively in the theatre in New York on Off–Broadway, in regional theatres throughout the U.S. and Europe including the International Theatre of Vienna, and in film and television, including leading roles on The Young Riders and The Guiding Light, as well as roles in Hidden Palms for the CW network and recently Maneater for LifetimeTV. He is co–founder and former Artistic Director of the Southwest Shakespeare Company, now in its 16th season in Mesa, AZ. Randy served on the KCACTF Board as the Invitational Scenes Coordinator for Region VIII, as well as a Region VIII Production Respondent for many years. He is a 1st degree black belt. He would like to thank his mentors, Pam Ross, Peter Sander, Albert Pertalion, Bill Grivna, Tracy Williams, Pamela Fields, Kimb Williamson among others and his students past and present for their daily inspiration.

Michael A. Mufson – Palomar College

Michael has a long history in the professional theatre, beginning at the age of sixteen, when he was an apprentice at the Provincetown Playhouse in Massachusetts . Michael, however, traces his theatrical roots back to his family’s close association with E. Y. Harburg, the lyricist of The Wizard of Oz, Finian’s Rainbow and Brother Can You Spare a Dime, who has been one of Michael’s constant role models. Michael has worked his way through all levels of the theatre labyrinth positions at some of the Nations most acclaimed regional and summer stock theatres including Arena Stage, StageWest and the Berkshire Theatre Festival. Michael received his Master of Fine Arts degree form the University of California at Irvine where his was considered one of the most exciting and accomplished directors to graduate from the program. While at Irvine , he directed Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of Setzuan, a cross gender adaptation of Moliere classic “The Misanthrope” which he entitled Ms.Anthrope, Jean–Paul Sartre’s No Exit, The Trial adapted from Kafka’s novel, and True West by Sam Shepard. Among his other favorite productions are Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Moliere’s The Imaginary Invalid. Michael is most proud of his on–going affair with original, collaborative performance works that incorporate theatre, music, movement, sculpture, technology and insanity. Michael has conceived, directed and performed over twenty original performance works which have been presented across the country from the Center for Contemporary Arts in Cleveland to the Japan American Museum in Los Angeles . He is a founder of the experimental art/performance groups 2AM Productions and Fisheye Mongrel. Michael has trained with some of the most influential acting teachers and directors of the contemporary theatre. He was a participant in Jerzy Grotowski’s intensive training program where he practiced Grotowski’s adaptation of Stanislavki’s method of physical actions as well as other approaches to physical and vocal training, the creation of original performance work and the roots of theatre in ritual. He has trained with Anne Bogart and the SITI company in Viewpoints and Composition. Michael has also trained in the Japaneese approach of Tadashi Suzuki at StageWest. Michael’s acting classes involve a rigorous and comprehensive approach to integrating the actor’s body, voice and imagination as an instrument to realize the different demands of all theatre styles. Michael sums up his philosophy of theatre, “Theatre is a vital part of community. Nowhere else do you have a group of people coming together to share and experience a form of expression which is uniquely human, where the material is forged directly from the heart and soul of our humanity.”

Rodger Sorenson – Brigham Young University

Professor Rodger Sorensen embarked upon his theatrical career at age 6. He was a bunny in the BYU Freedom Festival performed on the 4th of July in Provo, Utah, in 1956. For several years the Freedom Festival became his venue. He sang and acted his way through grade school and junior high. In high school he began performing in university student directed productions. Acting was his love for many years, until as a senior at BYU he took a directing class. He was hooked. Rodger began his teaching career in 1974, at the College of Eastern Utah, where he taught a wide range of courses, including forensics, public speaking, freshman English, English literature, acting, and children’s literature. He also directed and designed plays and served as the Assistant Dean of Students with direct responsibilities over student government and student activities. The next step in his career was at BYU Idaho where he directed two or three shows a year, designed lights for one or two shows a year, and taught acting, directing, voice diction and interpretation, readers theatre, introduction to theatre, introduction to film, and served for ten years as chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance. Fourteen years ago Rodger moved to Brigham Young University where he is responsible for the directing and public speaking programs. He served as associate department chair for four years and has been the chair of Theatre and Media Arts since 2004. Rodger earned his PhD in Performance and Aesthetics Studies, an interdisciplinary program located at the University of Texas at Dallas, studying with Robert W. Corrigan and Frederick Turner. His research interests include Shakespeare, directing, new play development, alchemy, and chaos theory. Rodger has worked with KCACTF for several decades, becoming fully engaged over the past 14years. His involvement in the New Play Program includes acting and directing many projects. He is also deeply committed to the Respondents Workshop where KCACTF respondents are trained and then become principal players in the KCACTF Region VIII process. Rodger also serves as the Focus Group Representative: Playwrights and Creative Teams for the Association of Theatre in Higher Education. Rodger has directed many productions in community theatres, colleges, universities, and professional venues, include Sound of Music, Singin’ in the Rain and The Unsinkable Molly Brown at Tuacahn Center for the Performing Arts, Secret Garden at Provo Theatre Company, King Lear, The Winter’s Tale, Magic Flute, and Man of LaMancha. Rodger is currently producing and directing Blood Wedding on the BYU stage. It opens on March 3. Rodger served as technical director, associate director and artistic director of the Hill Cumorah Pageant for 27 years. The Hill Cumorah Pageant, America’s largest and longest running outdoor religious pageant began in 1938. With a cast of 650 and a staff of nearly 200, it performs on a hillside in upstate New York. With audiences between 3 and 10 thousand a night, over 1.5million people have seen his work on this pageant. Recent acting credits include Karl G. Maeser (Come Full Circle and Journey to Temple Hill), Stage Manager in Our Town, and Arnolphe in School for Wives. He has also performed in many student and faculty directed films, and cameos in a few professional films as well. Rodger married Claudia Lunceford in 1969, and they are the parents of three children and eight grandchildren.