Guest Artist Residencies

The Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts 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. The Thurber Playwright-in-Residence, enabled 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 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.

Additional guest artists from recent years have included: Caroll Spinney, author of the book The Wisdom of Big Bird along with his close friend Oscar the Grouch; Anthony Rapp, from the original cast of RENT; Lynn Redgrave, James Waterston, Charlotte Perry and Miriam Margolyes, from the tour of Peter Hall's production of The Importance of Being Earnest; Jeff Sharp, Broadway and film producer; Leandro Soto, Cuban theatre artist; Bina Sharif, Pakistani playwright and actor; Benjamin Zephaniah, Britain's celebrated performer of Jamaican-styled politicized "dub poetry"; Jaroslav Malina, one of the premier Czech theatre designers and former Rector of the Academy of Performing Arts, Prague; Spiderwoman Theater, a Native American theatre company that is also the oldest continually performing women's theatre company in North America; Martha Mountain, professional lighting designer; Jon Farris, Equity actor and chair of the Department of Theatre at Denison University; Ted Lange, actor, director, and playwright; ACTER, a troupe of five professional actors from the London stage; and the renowned mime Marcel Marceau, who ran several master classes and contributed personal documents to the Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute before his death in 2007.

Other recent guest artists and the activities surrounding their visit include:

Leda Hoffman (2023)
Guest-directed Blood Wedding by Gabriel García Lorca, translated by Lillian Groag.
Olwen Fouéré spoke with department classes, coached graduate actors on their solo projects, and participated in a panel on women in theatre and film.

Royal Shakespeare Company (2011-2014)
Ohio State Theatre has an ongoing collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) that includes a practice-based development program for artists and teachers that is rooted in the RSC’s visionary Stand Up for Shakespeare.  This relationship features guest artist residences such as Alison Bomber, RSC Senior Text and Voice Coach, who directed her version of Othello for our 2011 season and teaching master classes in the speaking and performance of Shakespeare's text. Hosted by the Lincoln Center Festival and the Park Avenue Armory and in association with The Ohio State University, the RSC presented a six-week residency in New York City in summer 2011.

The Builders Association (Fall 2010-Fall 2011)
Research, writing, and developmental staging of Road Trip, a multimedia performance work inspired by Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Student designers shadow and collaborate with members of the company.

Jan Štěpánek (Fall 2010)
Czech scenographer Jan Štěpánek taught a week-long master class in stage design during his residency at the department of theatre in the fall of 2010 that culminated in numerous student-produced art installations. Štěpánek is a central figure in contemporary Czech stage design and teaches at the academy of performing arts in Brno.

Jeffrey Weissman and Ohio State alumni Denis Freeh ('63) and Richard D. Farshler ('63) (Spring 2008)
Performed Just for Laughs, a comedy review in the Roy Bowen Theatre and 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 MFA acting students.

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 MFA acting students.

Sally Oswald (Fall 2007)
Thurber Playwright in Residence, taught a playwrighting course. The department also held a special performance of her play Vendetta Chrome.

Lenelle Moïse (Fall 2007)
Performance of her solo show Womb-Words Thirsting, workshop with the MFA acting students 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, wrote 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 Theatre Research Institute Lecture entitled “Every Night in the Dark: A Critic Debunks the Pervasive Myths Surrounding Contemporary American Theatre”.

Lori Robishaw (Winter 2007)
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 MFA 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 MFA 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 Ohio State 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 Ohio State theatre students in an informal talk.

T.J. Gerckens, Kris Jones, Madeleine Sobota and Paul Vincent (2006-2007)
Taught MFA lighting design classes.