Guest Artist Residencies

The Department of Theatre regularly supplements its curriculum with residencies by guest artists from all areas of theatre practice and scholarship. We welcome these opportunities for collaboration with some of the top professionals in the field because they are essential to the training and career development of our students. One of our more popular programs, the Thurber Playwright-in-Residence, enables a selected playwright to spend one quarter with the department to teach a course in playwriting as well as develop a new work of their own. Previous Thurber Playwrights include Catherine Filloux, Marina Shron, Caridad Svich, Gloria Baxter, Brian Silberman, Sam Kelley, Lucy Wang, and Carlyle Brown. The Department of Theatre has also established a strong relationship with the Wexner Center for the Arts which has allowed us to participate in residencies with many leading performing artists, including Anne Bogart and the SITI Company, the Gate Theatre of Dublin, and the Wooster Group.

Additional guest artists from recent years have included: Jeff Sharp, Broadway and film producer; Leandro Soto, Cuban theatre artist; Bina Sharif, Pakistani playwright and actor; Benjamin Zephaniah, Britain's celebrated performer of Jamaican-styled politicized "dub poetry;" Jaroslav Malina, one of the premier Czech theatre designers and former Rector of the Academy of Performing Arts, Prague; Spiderwoman Theater, Native American theatre company that is also the oldest continually performing women's theatre company in North America; Martha Mountain, professional lighting designer; Jon Farris, Equity actor and Chair of the Theatre Department at Denison University; Ted Lange, actor, director, and playwright; ACTER, a troupe of five professional actors from the London stage; and the renowned mime Marcel Marceau, who has run several master classes and contributed personal documents to the Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute.

Current Guest Artists