Patricia Boyette (Professor of Acting/Voice)

Stage credits include acting with the California Repertory Theatre, International City Theatre, California Actor's Theatre, the Eureka Theatre, the Magic Theatre, the Showcase and the Alcazar Theatre in California; Michigan Ensemble Theatre, the Power Series, Michigan Orbit Theatre in Michigan; and the Alabama and Colorado Shakespeare Festivals regionally. She has also worked commercially for radio and television. She has taught acting, voice and movement at California State University-Long Beach, the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, and San Jose State University. Her degrees are from the University of Colorado-Boulder (M.A. in Acting) and Brigham Young University (B.A. in Theatre and English). Professionally she trained at the American Conservatory Theatre, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and the Stratford Festival, Ontario.

Norma Saldivar (Associate Professor of Directing)

Director of Graduate Directing Program. Professional Credits include: Blind Parrot Productions, Absolute Theatre Company, Center Theatre-Chicago; Illinois Repertory Theatre, Urbana, Illinois; Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Next Act Theatre Company, Renaissance Theatreworks, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Madison Repertory Theatre-Madison, Wisconsin; San Jose Repertory Theatre-San Jose, California; A Contemporary Theatre, Seattle, Washington, to name a few. She has served as Artistic Administrator & Resident Director for Milwaukee Repertory Theatre during which time she served as casting director and internship coordinator. College/University credits include: University of California, Los Angeles; University of Southern California; University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Illinois Wesleyan University; and Beloit College. She has served as adjunct faculty or taught seminars at the following institutions: UCLA, USC, Universitiy of South Carolina, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Professor Saldivar has a BFA in Acting from Illinois Wesleyan University and a MFA from the University of Illinois-Champaign. She is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.

Tony Simotes (Director of Theatre/Associate Professor of Movement/Stage Combat)

Tony is a Founding Member of Shakespeare and Company, Master Teacher of Fight & Movement and one of the Company’s Associate Artistic Directors. His recent directing work for the Company includes, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged, A Midsummer Nights Dream and Two Gentlemen of Verona. His roles for the Company have ranged from “Puck” in A Midsummer Night’s Dream to “Nym” in Henry V while as the Company’s Fight Director he has staged hundreds of fights over the last twenty-five plus years. For the Orlando Shakespeare Festival, Tony has directed Merry Wives of Windsor and fight direction for Cyrano de Bergerac, I Hate Hamlet and Hamlet. His work as a director and fight choreographer has been featured from coast to coast from the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles to the New York Shakespeare Festival's Public Theater, as well as abroad, including Romeo and Juliet for The Stage X Festival in Brisbane Australia, Sheharezad at The Canadian Stage Company in Toronto and in Vancouver at Theater 48 New Play Festival, just to name a few. Here in Madison for UW he directed Lucky Stiff for the 2004 Summer Theater Program and Zastrozzi for 2005 theater season. He was pleased to work for Madison Repertory choreographing the fight and movement for Tina Howe’s Rembrandt’s Gift, The Credeaux Canvas and The Piano Lesson, as well as for Othello at American Players Theater. On stage he’s appeared Off-Broadway in Lisa Loomer’s The Waiting Room , Moliere’s In Spite of Himself for The Colonnades Theatre, Henry V and Measure for Measure for the New York Shakespeare festival. The Mark Taper Forum: Green Card and The Waiting Room; Pasadena Playhouse: Room Service and Born Yesterday, Mac Welman’s Albanian Soft Shoe for San Diego Rep., and Two Gentlemen of Verona for The Old Globe. Films and TV include: Pacific Heights, Terminator II, Hot Shots, The Waterdance, Father of the Bride II, Alien Nation, Maid to Order, Whose Life is it Anyway? A Class Act, and a starring role in the Academy Award nominated short film Bronx Cheers. For television: “Buddy Rich” for The Sinatra Mini-series on CBS, Oliver Stone’s Indictment for HBO films, plus many other weekly series. Mr. Simotes is an Associate Professor and Head of the Undergraduate Acting Specialist Program here at UW-Madison. He is also a proud member of Actor’s Equity Association, Screen Actor's Guild, an American Federation of Television and Radio Artistists.

Susan Sweeney (Professor of Voice)

Susan has been a trainer of MFA actors for nearly 30 years.  Her areas of expertise include stage speech, verse speaking, dialects, vocal production, and singing.  She has served as voice, text and dialects coach for the Sedona, Illinois, Colorado, Utah, and Oregon Shakespeare festivals, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Guthrie Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, Virginia Stage Company, Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia Drama Guild, Skylight Opera, Delaware Theatre Company, David Mamet/Atlantic Theatre Company’s “Practical Aesthetics” summer training workshop, London’s Raymond Gubbay Productions at Royal Albert Hall, and Broadway’s Dodger Productions/Jujamcyn Theatres, among others.  She is currently resident voice and text coach for American Players Theatre.  Before coming to UW, she taught voice and speech for the Professional Theatre Training Program at the University of Delaware, previously in residence at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.  She is a member of Actors Equity Association and the Voice and Speech Trainers Association.  She has acted and sung professionally in the U.S. and abroad.

Ann Archbold (Assistant Professor of Lighting Design)

Ann joined the faculty of the Department of Theatre and Drama in 2005. Before coming to Madison, she was Director of the MFA Lighting Design Program at Florida State University for 6 years. Professionally, she has designed lighting for over 400 events for theatre, industrials, opera, dance, live concerts and television throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Her lighting design work has been featured in the World Stage Design Gallery (Toronto, 2005), and in the current edition of Scene Design and Stage Lighting by Parker, Wolf and Block.
Ann is a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829 (IATSE), the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA), USITT and USITT-Midwest. She has been a member of the Lighting Commission for USITT since 1992 and has served as a Vice Commissioner for Design (1993-99, 2006), Technology (1996), Programming (1998) and Education (2004-2005). Currently, she is a member of the Board of Directors for both National Institute and the Midwest Section.
Ann holds a B.G.S. (Bachelor of General Studies) from the University of Michigan and her M.F.A. in Design and Technical Production from San Diego State University.

Dennis Dorn (Professor of Theatre Technology)

Co-author of a nationally-recognized textbook Drafting for the Theatre and a graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Dorn joined the UW faculty in 1976. Since then he has has been technical director and/or designed over 160 productions, acted as a consultant for numerous theatre construction projects, and served as Director of University Theatre for over 10 years. He is an active member of both USITT-Midwest and USITT, having served two terms on the USITT Board of Directors and is the current Vice-President for Commissions. Dorn is a Fellow of the Institute, past chair and co-chair of the Theatre Technology Exhibit (Tech Expo) and currently USITT's representative on ESTA's ETCP Certification Council (Entertainment Technology Certification

Jim Greco (Costume Studio Supervisor)

Jim has managed costumes shops for Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Indianapolis Repertory Theatre, GeVa Theatre, and The Berkshire Theatre Festival. He has draped costumes for The Utah Shakespearean Festival, The Alliance Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Hartford Stage, Yale Repertory Theatre and Shakespeare Theatre in Washington DC. He has worked with Tony award winning designers Martin Pakledinaz and Ann Hould-Ward. He has designed at the Florida Shakespeare Festival, Alabama Shakespeare Festival and GeVa. He taught costuming and draping for 3 years and designed 3 shows at University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa before coming to Madison.
 

Chuck Mitchell (Scene Studio Supervisor)

In addition to supervising Scene Studio activities, Chuck teaches stage craft (T&D 170) and scenery automation (T&D 571). He as been with the Theatre and Drama Department since 1981. Previously he toured nationally with musicals, dance and opera companies. Chuck is a member of the Stagehands Local 251 in Madison, the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, and holds both BA and MFA degrees from the University of Wisconsin. When out of the theatre he enjoys biking, kayaking, hiking, woodworking and being an audience member at performance events. He lives in Madison with his wife, daughter and beagle.

David S. Stewart (Production Manager/Stage Management)

David joined the UW staff during the summer of 2003.  In addition to running the production arm of University Theatre he also heads up the stage and production management programs.  Previous endeavors include: Production Stage Manager for Buffalo, NY Studio Arena Theatre, St. Louis, MO MUNY theatre, Kansas City, MO Starlight Outdoor Musicals, Sullivan, IL The Little Theatre on the Square & Vienna Austrias English Theatre. David also holds a PMP (Project Management Professional) certification in the business world as well as holding a 4th degree black belt in the Korean martial art of Tae Kwon Do. David is joined in Madison by his wife Jennifer, daughter Katana and son Slayte.
 

Joseph Varga (Professor of Scene Design)

Has designed sets for regional professional theatre companies across the country, including Actors Theatre of Louisville, Cincinnati Playhouse, Philadelphia's Walnut Street Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Theatre Virginia, Studio Arena Buffalo, GeVa Rochester, Dartmouth Summer Rep, and American Players Theatre, to name a few. New York credits include designs for Playwrights Horizons, SoHo Rep, Manhattan Punchline, and several Off-Off Broadway productions. Among his recent designs are ROMEO & JULIET and TROILUS & CRESSIDA for Colorado Shakespeare Festival, and THE TURN OF THE SCREW for Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. He is a member of Community Performance, Inc. headed by director Richard Geer. He is designer for SWAMP GRAVY, the official folk play of Georgia, and PIECED TOGETHER, a celebration of the Mennonite community of Newport News, VA. Both of these projects represent site specific collaborations involving specific communities engaged in the creation of community performance. Varga is also a longtime member of United Scenic Artists Local 829, the union of professional American stage designers, and is on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Portfolio web site: www.joevarga.com.

Barbara teaches courses in theatre history and dramatic literature, primarily at the undergraduate level. Her research interests include eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British theatre history and drama, with a secondary interest in European theatre and drama of the same period. Also a director, her recent productions for University Theatre include Pride and Prejudice, Arcadia, The Glass Menagerie, and Down the Road.  She serves as Director of Undergraduate Studies.  Current projects include developing a program in dramaturgy to supplement the work of University Theatre and the graduate and undergraduate curricula.

Kristin Hunt (Theatre Research)

Kristin lectures in the Department of Theatre and Drama as well as Integrated Liberal Studies. Her research interests include ancient Greek drama, the history and theory of theatrical design, queer performance, and the performance of the American South. Her interest in theatrical space and place manifests itself in her work as a scenic and lighting designer - credits include Sophocles's Electra, Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre, and the premiere of Scott Gendel's opera Iphigenia at Aulis. 
 

Michael Peterson (Assistant Professor of Theatre Research)

Michael is Assistant Professor of Theatre and Drama. His research and creative interests center on the politics of performance, particularly in the interplay between experimental theatre/performance art and popular performance. He is the author of the book Straight White Male Performance Art Monologues, a study of identity privilege in performance, and is currently writing about new performance in the "New Las Vegas." He completed his PhD at Wisconsin in 1993 and taught for five years at Millikin University in Illinois. A life-long practitioner, he earned a BFA in acting from Ohio University and has directed plays by Aphra Behn, Caryl Churchill, Christopher Durang, William Shakespeare and Naomi Wallace, as well as numerous collaborative original performance events.
 

Mary Trotter (Assistant Professor of Theatre Research)

Mary Trotter (Ph.D Northwestern University, 1996) joined the department of theatre and drama in 2005. She teaches a range of theatre history courses in the department, and is also active in the university's Celtic Studies program. Her own research focuses on the history of Irish theatre, feminism and theatre history, and the relationship between identity and performance. She is the author of Ireland's National Theaters: Political Performance and the Origins of the Irish Dramatic Movement, as well as articles in such publications as Theatre Survey, Modern Drama, The Cambridge Companion to British Women Playwrights, and A Century of Irish Drama: Widening the Stage. Along with a study on changing representations of the nation-state in Irish theatre design and iconography, Trotter's current works-in-progress include a history of modern Irish theatre for the Cultural Studies Series at Polity Press. She is also the North American Book Review Editor for Theatre Research International.

Michael Vanden Heuvel (Department Chair/Professor of Theatre Research)

Michael is Professor and Chair of the Department. He teaches courses in dramatic literature, criticism, and theory ranging from Shakespeare to the European avant-garde. He is author of Performing Drama/Dramatizing Performance: Alternative Theater and the Dramatic Text (U Michigan) and Elmer Rice: A Research and Production Sourcebook (Greenwood), as well as essays on theatre pedagogy, dramatic literature, and dramatic theory that have appeared in Theatre Journal, The Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, and New Theatre Quarterly, among others. Research intererests focus on interdisciplinary studies of theatre and science, on which he has published extensively. Current projects include investigating interdisciplinary pedagogies related to Samuel Beckett, and a manuscript on theatre and science tentatively entitled "'Congregations Rich with Entropy': Performance and the Emergence of Complexity."