Faculty
View Full Time Faculty | Teaching Staff | Part Time Faculty
- Chair and Associate Professor
Professor Melia Bensussen is the recipient of an OBIE Award for Outstanding Direction, and has directed extensively around the country and in New York. Theatres where she has directed include Baltimore Centerstage, Hartford Stage Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, the New York Shakespeare Festival (where she was an Artist in Residence for many years), Manhattan Class Company, Primary Stages, the Long Wharf, Actors Theatre of Louisville (Humana Festival), People's Light and Theatre Company (Barrymore nomination for Best Direction), San Jose Rep, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, and many others.
Read More - Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director, Director of Teacher Education
Dr. Colby teaches in the areas of theatre education and theatre for young audiences, and directing. His productions for young audiences have toured extensively throughout the New England area and have been showcased at regional and national conferences.
Read More - Stage and Production Manager-in-Residence
Debra Acquavella has been a Production Stage Manager on Broadway, off-Broadway and regionally for many years. On Broadway, she was Production Stage Manager for the year-long run of the Tony Award-winning Metamorphoses, stage manager of Master Harold… and the boys. starring Danny Glover, and Jane Eyre, The Musical directed by John Caird.
Read More - Assistant Professor
Ms. Adams teaches in the design/ technology area with a specialty in makeup, crafts and puppetry. She received her training in make up for theatre from Jack Stein, and for film, television and special effects with Vincent Kehoe at the Research Council of Makeup Artists.
Read More - Distinguished Producing Director-In-Residence
Benny Sato Ambush is a professional SDC stage director, former producer/Artistic Director of professional theaters, educator, consultant and published commentator.
Read More - Artist-in-Residence
Ms. Broome is a vocal and dialect coach and has over twenty years experience performing leading roles in opera, operetta, musical theatre, and plays throughout New England, Georgia, Florida, and Canada.
Read More - Artist-in-Residence
Mr. Cheeseman studied at the International Film Workshops, with feature film directors Mark Rydell, Alex Singer, Peter Werner and Kevin Reynolds and studied improvisation with Keith Johnstone. He received the grant, "Partners in Production" to produce television programs with Boston's Deaf Community.
Read More - Associate Professor
Ms. Donohue is a member of Actor's Equity and has worked professionally in both television and theatre. She has taught acting workshops for the International Association for the Study of Dreams in Delphi, Greece, and produced and performed in Living In Exile - A Retelling of the Iliad in Edinburgh, Scotland after having toured the show at institutions including the Remis Theatre of The Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Read More - Musical Director
Jonathan Goldberg is a Boston-based professional musical director, vocal coach, and accompanist who has been teaching in the Emerson BFA Musical Theatre program since 2004. He works often at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston and Wheelock Family Theatre, and also worked for more than a decade at Boston Children's Theatre.
Read More - Associate Professor
Dr. Harkins is head of the Theatre Design/Technology program and her field is costumes. Before coming to Emerson, she held faculty and professional staff positions at Moorhead State University, Tufts University, and Cornell University, where she designed and taught classes in fashion history, design, and pattern construction
Read More - Artist-in-Residence
Ted Hewlett is a trained expert in theatrical combat, including hand combat, broadsword, sword and shield, rapier and dagger, small sword, quarterstaff and pole arms. bull whip, and basic equestrian skills. He has served as Fight Director for plays, operas, and television productions in New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, and Cleveland.
Read More - Associate Professor
Sarah Hickler is an actor, choreographer, director, and movement specialist. Her physical theatre work has been produced in theatres throughout New England, at Lincoln Center Festival in New York City, and abroad at the Mercury Theatre in England. A former member of the Mobius Artists Group, Hickler has collaborated with experimental theatre, dance, media, and performance artists from the U.S. and abroad. She has directed critically acclaimed productions for Sun Valley Shakespeare, Sedona Shakespeare, and the Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company. Additionally, Hickler has been choreographer/movement director on productions in New York City, Boston, and Los Angeles.
Read More - Associate Professor
Mr. Jozwick's design work has been produced for stage, television, and film. In addition to his responsibilities with Emerson Stage, he serves as a Resident Designer for Chamber Repertory Theatre. His work has also been featured at Michigan Opera, The Indianapolis Opera, The Repertory Theatre of Saint Louis, The Goodspeed Opera, The Memphis Opera, The Opera Theatre of Syracuse, and The Dayton Opera.
Read More - Music Historian-In-Residence
Fredericka King is a classical concert pianist and has performed concerts in the United States, Europe, and South America. Venues include Carnegie Recital Hall, National Gallery of Art, and the Millenium Theatre at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In Boston, she has appeared in recitals at historic Jordan Hall, the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, and the Gardner Museum.
Read More - Associate Professor
David Krasner is the author/editor of eight books, ranging from acting, performance, dramatic literature, African American theater history, to dramatic theory and criticism. He is a nationally recognized teacher of the Method and Stanislavsky acting techniques.
Read More - Associate Professor
Scott has acted on Broadway, off-Broadway, in London, regionally, on television (including two years on daytime's Search For Tomorrow), in feature and industrial films, voice-overs (including an Emmy Award-winning segment for PBS) and commercials.
Read More - Assistant Professor
Christina Marín served as an assistant professor of educational theater at New York University from 2005 to 2010, where she taught courses in Applied Theatre and Theatre of the Oppressed. Her primary research interests examine the intersection of theater as pedagogy and human rights education, as well as the use of Theatre of the Oppressed techniques as arts-based qualitative research methodologies.
Read More - Assistant Professor
Craig studied under Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse and is a graduate of The Yale School of Drama. He has also trained at Shakespeare and Company in their month-long intensive and text workshops.
Read More - Professor
Robbie McCauley is an OBIE Award playwright and a nationally recognized performance artist and director. An AUDELCO Award recipient for acting, her directing credits include the premier of Daniel Alexander Jones' Bel Canto co-produced with The Theater Offensive and Wheelock Family Theater.
Read More - Theatre Educator-in-Residence
Ms. Nelson teaches in the area of theatre education, and supervises the field work of students pursuing Massachusetts licensure as teachers of Performing Arts.
Read More 
Leonidas Nickole
Professor Emeritus of Performing Arts- Associate Professor
Scott Pinkney has created the lighting for more than 400 productions in a career spanning more than 35 years. Prior to joining the Emerson faculty full time in 2004, he had served as a Visiting Professor and Guest Artist at Emerson College since 1992.
Read More - Assistant Professor
Dr. Joshua Polster teaches courses in theatre history, dramatic theory and dramaturgy. He is the recipient of the Mann Stearns Distinguished Faculty Award (2010-11). Dr. Polster is the President of the Arthur Miller Society, and a reviewer for Choice and Twentieth-Century Literature. Dr. Polster is the author of Reinterpreting the Plays of Arthur Miller (2010), Methuen Drama's critical edition of Arthur Miller's A Memory of Two Mondays (2011) and Theatre of Engagement: U.S. Theatre and Performance from 1900-1950 (forthcoming). His articles have appeared in To Have or Have Not: Essays on Commerce and Capital in Modernist Theatre, Critical Insights, Bloom's Literary Themes, The Arthur Miller Journal, Theatre Journal, The Journal of Religion and Theatre, Texas Theatre Journal, The Ancient Theatre Archive, and Focus: Teaching English Language Arts. Dr. Polster's other publications include entries on theatre and drama for The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives and The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest.
Read More - Assistant Professor
Dr. Romanska is a is a research associate at Harvard University's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, and a leading scholar of Polish Theatre. She is an author of numerous articles, book chapters and translations. In 2010, she won the Gerald Kahan Scholar's Prize from the American Society for Theatre Research for the «best essay written and published in English in a refereed scholarly journal.» Her forthcoming books include Theatre and Meaning: The Strange Case of Grotowski and Kantor (Anthem Press, London, 2012) and the anthology Comedy: Theory and Criticism (Palgrave McMillan, 2012). At Emerson, she teaches courses in Theatre History, Dramatic Theory, and Dramaturgy.
Read More - Professor
Maureen Shea teaches in the areas of directing and dramatic literature. Her directing credits include Circle Repertory Company and Music-Theatre Group in New York, Philadelphia Drama Guild, Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company and, in Boston, the Huntington Theater Company, Coyote Theatre Company, Nora Theatre Company, and The Theatre Offensive. Shea also has directed a number of workshop productions and staged readings for Next Stage Inc., New Voices, and Word of Mouth in Cambridge, Somerville, and Boston, MA.
Read More - Head of Musical Theatre and Artist-in-Residence
Mr. Terrell is a director and choreographer with an extensive background in musical theatre, opera, and contemporary and classical theatre. His work has been seen at Off-Broadway's Minetta Lane Theatre, Goodspeed Opera House (Connecticut Critics' Circle Award, Best Choreographer), and the Texas Shakespeare Festival, where he is a founding member and resident director.
Read More - Associate Professor
Scott Wheeler is a composer, conductor, and pianist. His music has been commissioned and performed by the orchestras of Minnesota, Houston, Toledo, and Indianapolis, as well as New York City Opera, soprano Renée Fleming, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Wheeler's opera Democracy: An American Comedy, on a libretto of Romulus Linney, was commissioned and premiered by the Washington National Opera. His most recent commission is for an opera for the Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theatre. The Construction of Boston, Wheeler's first opera, is available on the Naxos American Classics recording. In July 2010, Naxos releases Wasting the Night: Songs of Scott Wheeler.
Read More - Dancer-In-Residence
Marlena Yannetti is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association and has appeared in the Broadway and national touring companies of The Unsinkable Molly Brown and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and at New York's Shubert Theatre in Talent '61. Yannetti was an original tribe member and dance captain of Hair at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston. She also appeared in the first touring company of West Side Story and in several seasons of summer stock. In addition, Yannetti was a member of the Matt Mattox Concert Dance Company.
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