Troy Dwyer
Education
- M.F.A with distinction, acting, University of Wisconsin, Madison
- B.A., psychology, Oglethorpe University
Teaching Interests
I am an acting-styles trainer whose areas of expertise include classical lyric performance (such as Shakespeare), the Absurd (such as Beckett) and contemporary realism (such as the methodologies of Sanford Meisner). I am also a teacher of voice and speech for actors, specializing in the techniques of Kristin Linklater and Arthur Lessac. My critical teaching focuses on queer theories and histories of performance as well as on specifically queer performance practices, such as drag performance.
Research and Scholarship
My original artistic work amalgamates theatre, dance, music and visual art to create performance-fusions that challenge assumptions about identity and power. For instance, my dance-theatre work with Afro-Modern choreographer (and longtime collaborator) Charles O. Anderson investigate queer mythologies of race, representation and social control. Other collaborations, like those with companies Parade Ground Unit and Allentown Public Theatre, have explored gender, violence, history and valor. Since 2011, my ongoing directorial project Bone of Majesty has created radical remixes of Shakespeare plays to engage with contemporary crises of social inequality. These productions, which have included The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale and Romeo and Juliet, have been lauded nationally by the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, and internationally by Index on Censorship and Fountain Ink. From 2008 to 2019, I served as the faculty director of the Sedehi Diversity Project at Muhlenberg, a program in which students annually create and produce an original documentary play exploring questions of diversity and inclusion on campus. I’m a member of Actors’ Equity Association and the Voice and Speech Trainers Association, and an associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.
- CUE: Theatre: Cymbeline
- Intermediate Acting: Shakespeare & His Contemporaries
- Performance & Society
- Special Topic: Dialects & Accents for Actors
- Theatre Independent Study/Research - Shakespeare in Practice
- Theatre Independent Study/Research: Choreo Collab Theories
- Performance & Society Lab
- Histories of Queer Performance
- Intermediate Acting: Shakespeare
- Advanced Acting: Postrealism
- Advanced Shakespeare Workshop
- Paul C. Empie Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching
- Students for Queer Advocacy Faculty Award
- Director, Ride the Cyclone by David Richmond and Brooke Maxwell, Muhlenberg College Department of Theatre and Dance (2025)
- Co-director (with Leticia Robles-Moreno), The Labyrinth of Desire by Caridad Svich, Muhlenberg College Department of Theatre and Dance (2023)
- Director, O War by Holly Cate (world premiere), Muhlenberg College Department of Theatre & Dance (2019)
- On Jeffrey Schwarz’s “I Am Divine,” Reel Queer Film Series, Bradbury Sullivan LGBTQ Center (2019)
- Director, Wig Out! by Tarell Alvin McCraney, Muhlenberg College Department of Theatre and Dance (2017)
- Director, Co-Creator, Then Athena (world premiere, with Samantha Beedle, Holly Cate, Louise Howard and Anna Russell), Allentown Public Theatre
(2016)
- Student-Created DocuTheatre: Developing Student Change Agents & Deepening Campus Diversity Dialogue (with James Peck, James McMaster
’12 and Robin-Riley Casey), Association for American Colleges & Universities (2016)
Theatre
Theatre & Dance
Women's and Gender Studies
Contact: troydwyer@muhlenberg.edu