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Associate Professor, Directing, Performance Studies, and Theatre History Dr. Peck has directed at theatres throughout the United States, including the New York Shakespeare Festival, Syracuse Stage, and the Hangar Theatre. He is a founding member of the performance laboratory Parade Ground Unit. He has published numerous scholarly articles in academic journals and has chapters in books from major university presses. He serves as Editor of Theatre Topics. His intellectual interests include the theory and practice of directing, performance studies, Restoration and eighteenth-century British theatre history, and contemporary African theatre. Dr. Peck has taught at the Yale School of Drama, the New York University Tisch School of the Arts, and the Playwrights Horizons Theater School. |
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Charles Richter, Director of Theatre
Professor, Directing, Theatre History, and Theory Mr. Richter was the founding chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance. He has taught at Muhlenberg for the past 32 years. His professional directing experience includes productions for the New York City Opera’s education department, Cincinnati’s Playhouse in the Park, New York’s Ensemble Studio Theatre, and Theatre Three in Dallas, Texas. Mr. Richter served as the artistic director of the Pennsylvania Stage Company (LORT) for four seasons. He has been the artistic director of the Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre Festival for the past 30 years. Mr. Richter has directed more than 60 productions for the Muhlenberg College Theatre, the most recent being the world premiere of the musical An American Tragedy, with music by Charles Strouse and a libretto by Mark St. Germain. He is a recipient of the NBC/Kennedy Center Gold Medallion for service to the American College Theatre Festival and the City of Allentown’s Arts Ovation Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts. |
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Curtis Dretsch, Director of Design & Technical Theatre
Professor, Scenic, Costume, and Lighting Design In addition to his more than 100 designs for Muhlenberg College Theatre and Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre over the past 31 years, Mr. Dretsch’s designs have been seen in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Dallas, Edinburgh, and London. He has designed for the Dallas Shakespeare Festival, Terry Beck Dance Troupe, and Pennsylvania Stage Company, where he did scenery and/or lights 41 times over 12 years. During the 1990s he served Muhlenberg as Dean of the College for Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs. |
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Professor, Scenography Mr. Averill has been involved with Glimmerglass Opera, Yale Repertory Theatre, Powerhouse Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Syracuse Opera, Arena Theatre of Buffalo, Andy’s Summer Playhouse, Theatre of the First Amendment, and Mac-Haydn Theatre. He has been a faculty member at Colgate University, Syracuse University, and the University of Virginia. Mr. Averill has designed sets for many shows at Muhlenberg College including The Tempest, Polaroid Stories, the world premiere of An American Tragedy, Twelfth Night, Tartuffe, Into the Woods, Juliet and her Romeo, Pentecost, Dido and Aeneas, and Orpheus Descending. |
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Lecturer, Costume Design and Stage Makeup Ms. Case has designed costumes and makeup for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the National Archives, the Washington Opera, the Woolly Mammoth Theatre, the Harmonie Park Playhouse, East Stroudsburg University, the Hilberry Theatre, the Michigan Opera, and Wolf Trap. Some of the costume designs she has created at Muhlenberg include Cabaret, Pippin, Pentecost, The Beggar’s Opera, The Seagull, Godspell, Urinetown, and the Master Choreographers concert. www.constancecase.com |
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Assistant Professor, Acting Ms. Cate is an award-winning actor who has appeared on Broadway in An Ideal Husband, directed by Sir Peter Hall, and regionally in Blithe Spirit (Portland Stage), An Ideal Husband (Pioneer), All My Sons (American Stage), and Arms and the Man (Asolo), in addition to numerous New York theatre credits. She also played the deliciously evil Janice Maxwell on As The World Turns. This past season, she developed the touring ensemble performance The HENRY Project, a theatrical exploration of violence based on Shakespeare’s Henry VI tetralogy. Ms. Cate is a Stanislavski-based acting technique teacher with an emphasis on the role of the body in the actor’s process. She is a founding member of the theatre company Parade Ground Unit. |
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Part-Time Lecturer, Acting and Stage Combat Mr. Chin is a professional actor who is part of the AEA, AFTRA, and SAG as well as a sanctioned master instructor and choreographer with the Society of American Fighting Directors. He serves as fight director in residence for both The White Horse and Pan Asian Rep in New York City. He has taught, choreographed, and consulted on Broadway as well as for The Mint, Murder To Go, Theatreworks USA, La MaMa ETC, The National Asian American Theatre Company, The Public, The Vineyard Theatre, Juilliard, New York University, Henry Street Settlement, The Drama League, The Classical Theatre of Harlem, and the New York Renaissance Faire. |
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Part-TIme Lecturer, Speech Ms. Connell teaches Basic Speech, Performing Literary Texts, and Foundations of the Creative Arts. A graduate of Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts (Bachelor of Science, Master of Arts) and Marywood University's School of Social Work (Master of Social Work), she attended New York University's Tisch School in Performance Studies and holds a Certificate in Creative Drama from Brian Way. Ms. Connell is part of the Lehigh Valley Creative Arts Therapists Network and presents for the National Association of Social Workers. She is also head of youth and culture programming and some-time producing director for Allentown Public Theatre. |
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Associate Professor, Acting and Voice & Speech Mr. Dwyer is a writer/actor who has devised and performed in new experimental theatre at venues throughout the United States, including Theater Artaud (San Francisco), Velocity Dance Center (Seattle), The Painted Bride (Philadelphia), The Riant Theatre (NYC), Horizon Theatre Company (Atlanta), and many others. His original works for the stage include dance theatre epics such as World Headquarters and Caw (both with Charles O. Anderson), new musicals such as Lures and Snares (with Beth Schachter), and performance art such as Journey/Cave (with Tim Miller). Along with Holly Cate and Jim Peck, Mr. Dwyer is a founding member of the theatre company Parade Ground Unit. His scholarly writings on queerness, voice, and acting have appeared in leading academic journals such as Theatre Journal and The Voice & Speech Review. |
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Part-Time Lecturer, Acting Mr. McKenna is a graduate of the Lecoq International School of Theatre in Paris, majored in theatre at the University of New Hampshire, and trained in theatres in New York and Philadelphia. He was an ensemble member at Bethlehem's Touchstone Theatre from 1986 to 2008, and also served as artistic and producing director there, developing and acting in more than 40 original Touchstone productions and collaborations. In 1990 he was the recipient of a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Individual Artistic Development Grant to study the process of the actor-creator in Europe. |
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Associate Professor, Acting Ms. Roussel, following studies at The Sorbonne, was among the founders of the Actors Studio in Paris. She has written and performed her own shows, and continues her acting career in France and America: Saturday Night Live, Sex and the City, Sydney Pollack’s film The Interpreter, and, most recently, as Hermia in a European tour of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Before Muhlenberg, Ms. Roussel taught acting and directed at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and the Stella Adler Conservatory. She was movement director for Nicholas Hytner’s film, The Crucible, and mask coach on The Green Bird, directed by Julie Taymor, at The Victory Theatre. She also directed The Square, by Marguerite Duras, at UBU Repertory Theatre. |
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Associate Professor, Acting, Directing, and History & Theory Dr. Schachter has directed at New York Theatre Workshop, Second Stage, The Public Theatre, McCarter Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Adirondack Theatre Festival, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and The Vineyard Theatre, among others. She has directed world premieres of plays by Suzan-Lori Parks, Doug Wright, Theresa Rebeck, and Mac Wellman. She also cowrote and directed the musical Lures and Snares with Troy Dwyer. Dr. Schachter is the director of Muhlenberg’s Women’s Studies Program. Her areas of expertise include contemporary American avant-garde theatre, feminist theatre and theory, African-American drama, and Jewish ethnicity studies. Before coming to Muhlenberg, Dr. Schachter taught at Princeton University, Brooklyn College, City College, and UCSD. |
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Visiting Assistant Professor, Directing and Acting Mr. Singer established The Larry Singer Studios in 2006, where he teaches professional actors. He received a B.F.A. from Boston University in 1977 and made his Broadway debut in the comedy Gemini in 1980. He then worked Off-Broadway, landing the lead in Andora, by Max Frisch, as well as roles at Ensemble Studio Theatre and Circle Rep Lab. Mr. Singer’s acting career has included work in regional theatres, commercials, television, and film. In 1988 he began his work as a teacher and director. He has taught at New York University (founding board member of CAP 21), AADA, AMDA, and the prestigious Michael Howard Studios. In 2002 he joined the faculty of the Columbia University M.F.A. theatre program. |