Guest Artists

Fall 2007

José Cruz González

Brown Bag Lunch with José Cruz González on Tuesday, November 27, 11:00–12:30 in the Payne Lobby.

José Cruz González served as project director of South Coast Repertory's Hispanic Playwrights Project for 11 seasons. His plays include Lily Plants a Garden, The Red Forest, September Shoes, Always Running, Mariachi Quixote, Cousin Bell Bottoms, Two Donuts, Salt & Pepper, The Highest Heaven, Manzi (The Adventures of Young César Chÿvez), The Magic Rainforest (An Amazon Adventure), Marisol's Christmas, La Posada, Harvest Moon, Calabasas Street, Spirit Dancing and Odysseus Cruz. His Mariachi Quixote was part of the A.S.K's Common Ground Festival (Los Angeles). He has written for PAZ, a new series produced by Discovery Kids for the Ready Set Learn! block on The Learning Channel. González was a recipient of a 1997 NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights, and in 1985 he was a National Endowment for the Arts Director Fellow. He is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine, where he received his M.F.A. in directing. He teaches theatre at California State University at Los Angeles. González is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc., a national board member of ASSITEJ/USA and an associate artist with Cornerstone Theater Company.

Chase Masterson

A UT Austin Theatre and Dance alumna and successful actor/producer Chase Masterson holds a workshop called College and Beyond: Getting Your First Job as an Actor or Producer for current UT students on Thursday, November 1 in the Payne Lobby.

Recently named one of the “50 Sexiest Women of the Year” by Femme Fatales Magazine, Chase Masterson first became known for her break–out role on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, one of the highest–rated internationally syndicated shows of all time. Chase's huge, international fan base saw her rise from a four–line role in one episode to a five–year story arc, which prompted USA Networks to begin Chase's hosting career with a news–magazine talk show, Sci–Fi Entertainment. In the 2005–06 season, Chase was tapped by Encore's STARZ On Demand to host their Only Here Channel. Known to millions of fans worldwide, TV Guide Online Reader's Poll voted Chase the “#1 Favorite Science Fiction Actress on Television,” and Sci–Fi Universe Magazine honored Chase as one of the “Top 20 People to Watch in Hollywood.” Chase has worked opposite such Hollywood hotties as Jerry O’Connell, Ryan Seacrest, Maggie Grace, and Faith Ford, as well as Bruce Campbell, Richard Lewis, Maxwell Caulfield, Bridget Wilson, and others. She is often recognized from her role as the featured guest star in the Emmy Award–winning episode of E.R., as well as for her recurring work on General Hospital. In her off–time, Chase has been singing in USO Tours for the Navy and the Marine Corps. Visit Chase Masterson's website.

James Kerwin

James Kerwin will co–host the workshop College and Beyond: Getting Your First Job as an Actor or Producer for current UT students on Thursday, November 1 in the Payne Lobby.

For two consecutive years, James Kerwin has been listed as one of the top directors in Los Angeles by Back Stage Magazine critic Paul Birchall. His films have earned distinctions including the Panavision New Filmmakers Grant, the Telly, the Axiem, the Grand Jury Prize at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival, the Crested Butte Gold Award, the Fort Worth Independent Film Award, the Grand Jury Prize at the Deep Ellum Film Festival, the Sea to Sky Experimental Film Award, and the R.C. Norris Screenwriting Award.

Jack Zipes

In residency at UT November 1–4, 2007. Events include:
Brown Bag Lunch: November 1, 11–12:30 in the Payne Lobby
Public Lecture: November 2 at 2:00 pm in Winship 2.112
Ashes, Ashes post–performance talk: November 2 following the 8:00 pm performance in the Payne Theatre

Author, scholar, teacher, translator, activist Jack Zipes has transformed research on fairy tales from the superficial discussions of suitability and violence to the linguistic roots and socialization function of the tales. He has written twenty–five books, including “Don't Bet on the Prince” and “The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Ridinghood.” According to Zipes, fairy tales "serve a meaningful social function not just for compensation but for revelation: the the worlds projected by the best of our fairy tales reveal the gaps between truth and falsehood in our immediate society." In addition to his scholarly work on children's literature, he is an award–winning storyteller in public schools and has worked with many children's theaters on their productions and new plays.

Laura Kepley

Laura Kepley joins us this fall to direct the world premiere of M.F.A. Playwriting candidate George Brant's Elephant's Graveyard, a new work based on the only known lynching of an Elephant. Ms. Kepley is a Resident Director and the Artistic Associate at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island, where she directed Sarah Ruhl's The Clean House, Boots on the Ground (which she created with Deborah Salem Smith) and the upcoming Some Things are Private (also co–created with Smith). Other directing credits: On the Threshold: Selections from New Plays (The Public Theatre), The K of D by Laura Schellhardt (The Kennedy Center and the Orlando Shakespeare Festival), Falling Up by Trista Baldwin (Perishable Theatre), Those Who Can, Do by Brighde Mullins (Brown/Trinity Playwright's Rep) and productions in the New York, Seattle, and Philadelphia Fringe Festivals. Other work with George Brant includes: The Royal Historian of Oz, One Hand Clapping, Borglum: The Mount Rushmore Musical. Ms. Kepley received her M.F.A. in Directing Brown University/Trinity Rep Consortium, where she now teaches acting and directing.

Janet Davis

Elephant's Graveyard post–performance discussion, November 9 following the 8:00 pm performance

Janet Davis, a professor of American studies at The University of Texas at Austin, has spent the larger portion of her academic career studying the role of the circus in American culture. She concludes that the circus often has served as a big funhouse mirror, reflecting the values, fears and issues of society at large. According to Davis: "The circus has been an excellent symbol for the nation's development. Whether you're looking at the circus's business operations…or at gender and race issues, the circus was a real cultural barometer." Dr. Davis holds a Ph.D. in History, from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and is currently writing an interdisciplinary social and cultural history of the animal welfare movement from 1866–1930.

Dustin Wills

Dustin Wills joins us this fall to direct recent graduate Eve Tulbert's new play Ashes, Ashes. Dustin Wills has recently returned from directing a new play, The Moths, for the Teatro L'Arciliuto in Rome, Italy. Dustin focuses his directing on the production of new, work, collaborative performance, and Shakespeare adaptations. He is a recipient of the George H. Mitchell Award for his directing and writing of the play Ophelia produced as part of the University Coop Presents the Cohen New Works Festival 2005, which was also produced in Rome, Italy in 2006. He is also the recipient of the 2006 Austin Critic's Table Award for Best Direction for the production of Cymbeline, or what I will – an outdoor Shakespeare performance combining all of Shakespeare's plays into one. Ashes, Ashes has already proved a very rewarding experience thus far as he has worked closely with the writer on the development of this play from its initial drafts, through the workshop production, and now into the full production process. Dustin also works with the Theatre Action Project in Austin, which gives him access to children's ideas and thoughts on the production, which have helped this children's show immensely. Dustin received a B.A. in Theatre and Dance and a B.A. in English from UT in 2006.

Tony Kushner

Tony Kushner visited campus in the fall of 2007, and was interviewed by Theatre and Dance professor Steven Dietz in conjunction with the Henry Ransom Center's exhibition on Arthur Miller, curated by Theatre and Dance professor Charlotte Canning.

Mr. Kushner is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, an Emmy Award, two Tony Awards, three Obie Awards, an Arts Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the PEN/Laura Pels Award for a Mid–Career Playwright, a Spirit of Justice Award from the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, and a Cultural Achievement Award from The National Foundation for Jewish Culture, among others. Mr. Kushner is the author of Angels in America, A Bright Room Called Day, Slavs!, Homebody/Kabul, and Caroline or Change, the musical for which he wrote book and lyrics, with music by composer Jeanine Tesori. Kushner has translated and adapted Pierre Corneille's The Illusion, S.Y. Ansky's The Dybbuk, Bertolt Brecht's The Good Person of Sezuan and Mother Courage and Her Children; and the English–language libretto for the children's opera Brundibár by Hans Krasa. He wrote the screenplays for Mike Nichols' film of Angels In America, and Steven Spielberg's Munich. He is also the author of several books. Mr. Kushner lives in New York City.

Leslie Swackhamer

Director Leslie Swackhamer joins us this fall to direct Maria Irene Fornes' Fefu and Her Friends. Leslie has been a TCG Observer in new play development and has directed and developed over 100 new plays for numerous theatres across the country, as well as serving on play selection panels for the NEA, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the O'Neill Festival. Leslie has taught directing and acting at the University of Washington, Emory University, Case Western Reserve University and USC. She is a founding board member and past President of Theatre Puget Sound, the regional alliance of theatres and theatre artists.

As former associate artistic director of Seattle's ACT Theatre, she founded the Women Playwrights Festival and directed many productions of A Christmas Carol. Notable ACT productions include the world premiere of Lee Blessing's Going to St. Ives, Steven Dietz's The Nina Variations (co–directed with Mr. Dietz), Old Wicked Songs, Later Life and the acapella do–wop musical Avenue X. Other Seattle productions include Psychic Life of Savages for the Empty Space Theatre (Bravura Performance Award), and Much Ado About Nothing for Seattle Shakespeare Festival (Seattle TIMES Award for Best Shakespeare). Regional productions include the world premiere of Jeffrey Hatcher's What Corbin Knew, the Pulitzer Prize–winning Wit for the Madison Repertory Theatre, the U.S. premiere of Mrs. Klein, and many productions for the Cleveland Play House where she was artistic associate for five years.

Currently based in Houston, her recent productions include the Bayou City Concert Musicals' Fiorello and The Secret Garden, co–directed with Paul Hope, and David Hare's Amy's View for Houston's Stages Repertory Theatre.

Deborah M. Dryden

Costume designer Deborah M. Dryden will join our costume design and technology students for a series of hands–on workshops. Ms. Dryden is a recipient of the Michael Merritt Award for Design and Collaboration and the USITT Distinguished Achievement Award. She is author of Fabric Painting and Dyeing for the Theatre, Professor Emeritus of Design at UCSD, and resident designer at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where she has designed for over 27 seasons. Her work has been seen at regional theatres nationwide, and her costume designs for Macbeth were included in the Prague Quadrennial Scenography Exhibition.