Faculty

Meet the Theatre Faculty

Neil Blackadder, Chair
Professor of Theatre
Ph.D., Princeton University, 1994
"Most recently I've been translating contemporary German-language drama. My translation of Swiss playwright Lukas Bärfuss' The Sexual Neuroses of our Parents has been produced in London and New York; other play translations have been published in journals, and I directed Rebekka Kricheldorf's Rosa and Blanca with students at Knox."

Elizabeth Carlin-Metz
Smith V. Brand Endowed Chair in Theatre Arts
M.F.A., Temple University, 1983
"I seek to integrate physical theatre techniques with more traditional Western theatre practices so as to discover new levels of expressiveness and meaning in theatre of all styles and genres and, thus, in the world."

Craig Choma
Associate Professor of Theatre
M.F.A., Carnegie- Mellon University, 1996
"Along with staying on top of all the design and technical elements of the Knox Department of Theatre, I also continue to pursue design opportunities in professional theatres in Chicago. "

Jeff Grace
Assistant Professor of Theatre
Ph.D., Theatre History, Theory, and Literature, Indiana University, 2008
"My research examines how playwrights at the Caffe Cino, a small New York coffeehouse that pioneered the 1960s Off-Off-Broadway movement, presented homosexual characters in their plays. "

Ian Zywica
Assistant Professor of Theatre and Artist-in-Residence
M.F.A., Scenic Design, Florida State University, 2006

Writer-in-Residence

Sherwood Kiraly
B.A., Knox College, 2007
"Good writing, on page, stage or screen, has provoked, consoled, delighted, moved and inspired me all my life, so creating it -- or helping someone else do so -- is the best way I can think of to justify myself."

Lecturers

Margo Shively
B.F.A., Art Institute of Chicago, 1969
"I interned for the designer Oleg Cassini, as well as designed for the Chicago City Ballet, Black Hills Playhouse in South Dakota, Bonesteel Films, Prairie Players, and Kurt Killam Production Company."

Emeritus Faculty
Ivan H. Davidson
Professor Emeritus of Theatre

Robert C. Whitlatch
Robert M. & Katherine Arnold Seeley Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Theatre