Visiting Artists

The department 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, Carlyle Brown, Sally Oswald and Stephen Culp. 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.

 

Recent visiting artists and the activities surrounding their visit include:

 

Jeffrey Weissman and OSU alumni Denis Freeh & Richard D. Farshler (Spring 2008)
Performed Just for Laughs, a comedy review in the Roy Bowen Theatre, conducted a workshop with students

 

Annie Cleveland (Spring 2008)
Designed costumes for the spring 2008 production of Working: A Musical

 

Meridee Stein (Spring 2008)
Public talk-back and a workshop with the M.F.A. Actors

 

Gregg Goldston (Spring 2008)
Taught mime class

 

Kim Turney (Spring 2008)
Taught stage-combat class and conducted a talk-back with students

 

Daniel Beaty (Fall 2007)
Performed his solo show Emergence-See! and held a talk-back with M.F.A. Acting Students

 

Sally Oswald (Fall 2007)
Thurber Playwright in Residence, Playwrighting course, and special performance of her play Vendetta Chrome

 

Lenelle Moïse (Fall 2007)
Performance of her solo show Womb-Words Thirsting, workshop with the M.F.A. Actors discussing process, writing, and ensemble performance exercises

 

David Wood (Fall 2007)
Discussed his life writing plays for children

 

Jason Buyer (Fall 2007)
Presented “Marketing for the Actor”

 

Sofiya Ryabchuck (Fall 2007)
CEC ArtsLink Fellow, exchanged ideas for arts marketing and management strategies, shared experiences about the challenges of managing an organization with a dual educational and professional mission, and taught faculty, staff and students the differences in production management and academic structure at the Theatre Center of Kyiv Mohyla Academy National University

 

Sydney Poitier (Fall 2007)
Presented a talk-back in the Roy Bowen Theatre for theatre students

 

Nancy Gall-Clayton (Fall 2007)
Playwright for English Therapy, one of the shorts in the Evening of One Act Plays, visited classrooms and rehearsals to discuss her work

 

Beverly Emmons (Fall 2007)
Annual Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theater Research Institute lecturer

 

Carmen Mitzi Sinnott (Spring 2007)
Presented her one woman show Snapshot

 

Chris Jones (Spring 2007)
Gave the Annual Lawrence and Lee TRI Lecture entitled “Every Night in the Dark: A Critic Debunks the Pervasive Myths Surrounding Contemporary American Theatre”

 

Lori Robishaw (Winter 2007)
Lori Robishaw taught a course on theater management

 

Ruth Tompsett (Winter 2007)
Presented her lecture “From the Periphery to the Center: Carnival in the Global City”

 

Janine Lewis (Winter 2007)
Shared a two-week residency as part of the department’s continued exchange program with Tshwane University to hold master classes with the M.F.A. Acting students

 

Sister Maureen Fenlon (Winter 2007)
Shared her experiences with the Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project

 

Glenn Peters (Winter 2007)
Guest Equity Actor performed the role of the Stage Manager in Ohio State production of Our Town

 

Sally Oswald (Winter 2007)
Thurber House playwright in residence, presented her newest work Pony, and taught a course on playwriting

 

Margo Jefferson (Winter 2007)
Gave a lecture of her new book On Michael Jackson

 

Anne Bogart’s SITI Company Members Barney O’Hanlon and Akiko Aizawa (Winter 2007)
Led Suzuki and Viewpoints Master Classes

 

Cast members of the national tour of All Shook Up Wally Dunn and Beth Glover (Winter 2007)
Spoke with students about the demands of touring and strategies for working in the industry

 

Jose Torres Tama (Fall 2006)
Performed his solo piece, The Cone of Uncertainty: New Orleans after Katrina, conducted a workshop with the M.F.A. Acting Students.

 

Carroll Spinney (Fall 2006)
Better known as Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird on PBS’s Sesame Street, participated in a Q&A session with faculty and students

 

Mrinalini Kamath (Fall 2006)
Attended Introduction to Theatre: Making History class students read her comedy, Celestial Motions

 

Geralyn Horton (Fall 2006)
Visited Introduction to Theatre: Making History class for a reading of her play, Boston’s Brothers in Liberty--a piece that explores the Boston Massacre of 1770

 

Steven C. Anderson (Fall 2006)
Guest Directed Ohio State Theatre and Columbus Association for the Performing Arts production of Hair

 

Dennis Kennedy (Fall 2006)
Presented “Memory, Performance and the Idea of Museum”

 

Freddie Rokem (Fall 2006)
Presented “Performance and Philosophy in Dialogue

 

Emily Mann (Fall 2006)
Visited OSU as part of “Beyond the Borscht Belt: A Jewish Theatre Celebration,” In addition to presenting a reading of her play Meshugah, Emily took time to discuss her experiences with OSU Theatre students in an informal talk

 

T.J. Gerckens, Kris Jones, Madeleine Sobota and Paul Vincent (2006-2007)
Taught M.F.A. Lighting Design Classes