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:
2024
- Raymond O. Caldwell (MFA, '09) gave a talk about community-building and consensus in creating new work.
- Esther Kim Lee (PhD, '00) lectured on "Yellowface in Theatre History".
2023
- Leda Hoffman 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.
2022
- Arts and Humanities Distinguished Professor Emeritus Lesley Ferris, Columbia College Chicago Assistant Professor Khalid Long, Mount Holyoke College Faculty Diversity Fellow Kristen Wright, and Department Chair EJ Westlake discussed Adrienne Kennedy's work and her impact on American theatre.
2021
- Artistic Director Jack Reuler of Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis.
2020
- Chris Jones (MA, '86; PhD, '89), chief theater critic at The Chicago Tribune spoke with students over zoom about theatre at Ohio State, throughout the Midwest, and on Broadway.
- Coyote Peterson ('04) spoke with students over Zoom about his career and creating Brave Wilderness on YouTube.
- Ted Lange spoke with students over Zoom about the challenges of connecting creatively from a distance.
- Emmy-award winning producer Tom Shelly ('84) spoke with students over Zoom about his career producing television and film.
- Jesse Eisenberg and Lorin Eric Salm participated in a webinar on Resistance, a film about Marcel Marceau.
- Ted Lange guest-directed Red Velvet.
2019
- Natalie Alvarez, Canadian theatre and performance scholar, delivered a lecture about Afghans playing the roles of villagers in military training camps in Canada and Britain, based on the research for her book Immersions in Cultural Difference: Tourism, War, Performance as part of On the Front Lines: Performing Afghanistan.
- Dutch photographer Joël van Houdt’s discussed his gripping exhibit, "Kuja Meri?" documenting the journeys of Afghan refugees around the world following the despair resulting from the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan as part of On the Front Lines: Performing Afghanistan.
- Nushin Arbabzadah presented the lecture "Shakespeare Among the Suicide Bombers: The Turmoil of Theater in Modern Afghanistan" as part of On the Front Lines: Performing Afghanistan.
- BlackTrax demonstrated tracking technology for moving lights and dynamic projection mapping.
2018
- Carlyle Brown performed Acting Black as part of the city-wide celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance--"I, Too, Sing America: The Harlem Renaissance at 100".
- Ted Lange delivered the annual TRI Lecture, "The Changing Landscape of Working in Show Business".
- French filmmaker Claude Humbert screened Goodbye Cleveland, Hello France, a 55-minute documentary exploring the experiences of the 37th Division soldiers in World War I.
2017
- Susan Grayzel, professor of history at the University of Mississippi, author of Women and the First World War and At Home and Under Fire: Air Raids and Culture in Britain from the Great War to the Blitz, delivered a lecture commemorating the centenary of the US entry into the war.
2015
- Royal Shakespeare Company Artistic Director Greg Doran delivered two talks, "Shakespeare from Stage to Screen" and "The Journey Toward Becoming Artistic Director of United Kingdom's Royal Shakespeare Company"
- Melissa Maxwell guest directed Trouble in Mind
- Folger Shakespeare Library Director of Education Peggy O'Brien spoke at Shakespeare and Autism Day, part of the Shakespeare and Education Festival
- Royal Shakespeare Copmany Director of Education Jacqui O'Hanlon led "Active Approaches to Shakespeare Workshops" as part of the Shakespeare and Education Festival
- SITI Company residency on Viewpoints and Suzuki. Graduate acting students rehearsed and performed in theatre is a blank page as part of SITI Company's residency at the Wexner Center for the Arts
2014
- Compagnia Sud Costa Occidentale, an Italian company led by Emma Dante made its USA debut with Operetta Burlesque.
- Playwright C. Denby Swanson led writing workshops and participated in a panel discussion on her play The Norwegians
- Kelly Hunter conducted Shakespeare and Autism workshops and participated in a panel discussion for the department's production of In Here Out There. Hunter also participated in the Shakespeare and Education Festival.
2013
- Pereformance artist Tim Miller
- Michael Milligan
- Kelly Hunter
- Stephen Wangh
2012
- Spencer Stander
- Robert Post
- Petr Matasek
- Richard J. Smethurst
- Mark Mann
- Simona Rybakova
- Jonathan Pryce
- Alan Cox
- Alex Hassel
- Peter Cuts
- Royal Shakespeare Company
- Betty Shamieh
- Alison Brogan
- Xela Batchelder
- Struan Leslie
- Viltoriya Myronyuk
- The Builder's Association
- Monique Mojica
- Yanci Bukovec
2011 - 2014
- Ohio State Theatre had 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.
2011
- Alison Bomber
- Heather Raffo
- Amir El Saffar
- Abbey Theatre
- Yanci Bukovec
2010 - 2011
- The Builders Association researched, wrote, and developed 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.
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. - Olga Taxidou
- James Levin
- Alexandra Marine
- Woodie King, Jr.
- Katherine Whitlock
- Raymond Luczak
- Andy Bragen
2008
- Annie Cleveland designed costumes for the spring 2008 production of Working: A Musical.
- Meridee Stein delivered a public talk-back and a workshop with the MFA acting students.
- Gregg Goldston taught mime class.
- Kim Turney taught stage-combat class and conducted a talk-back with students.
2007
- Daniel Beaty performed his solo show Emergence-See! and held a talk-back with MFA acting students.
- Sally Oswald, the Thurber Playwright in Residence, taught a playwrighting course. The department also held a special performance of her play Vendetta Chrome.
- Lenelle Moïse performed her solo show Womb-Words Thirsting, workshop with the MFA acting students discussing process, writing, and ensemble performance exercises.
- David Wood discussed his life writing plays for children.
- Jason Buyer presented “Marketing for the Actor”.
- Sofiya Ryabchuck, 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 presented a talk-back in the Roy Bowen Theatre for theatre students.
- Nancy Gall-Clayton, 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 was the annual Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theater Research Institute lecturer.
- Carmen Mitzi Sinnott presented her one woman show Snapshot.
- Chris Jones 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 taught a course on theater management.
- Ruth Tompsett presented her lecture “From the Periphery to the Center: Carnival in the Global City”
- Janine Lewis 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 shared her experiences with the Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project.
- Glenn Peters was a guest Equity Actor performing the role of the Stage Manager in Ohio State production of Our Town.
- Sally Oswald, Thurber House playwright-in-residence, presented her newest work Pony, and taught a course on playwriting.
- Margo Jefferson gave a lecture of her new book On Michael Jackson.
- SITI Company Members Barney O’Hanlon and Akiko Aizawa led Suzuki and Viewpoints Master Classes.
- Cast members of the national tour of All Shook Up Wally Dunn and Beth Glover spoke with students about the demands of touring and strategies for working in the industry.
2006
- Jose Torres Tama performed his solo piece, The Cone of Uncertainty: New Orleans after Katrina, conducted a workshop with the MFA acting students.
- Carroll Spinney, 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 attended Introduction to Theatre: Making History class students read her comedy, Celestial Motions.
- Geralyn Horton 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 guest-directed Ohio State Theatre and Columbus Association for the Performing Arts production of Hair.
- Dennis Kennedy presented “Memory, Performance and the Idea of Museum”.
- Freddie Rokem presented “Performance and Philosophy in Dialogue.
- Emily Mann 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.