Jackie Apodaca
Professor: Performance – Acting
MFA, Acting, National Theatre Conservatory; BFA, Theatre, UC Santa Barbara
Jackie is an accomplished actor, director, and producer and has worked with companies such as the Roundabout, Denver Center Theatre Company, National Geographic, Modern Media (Head of Production), Venice Theatre Works (Associate Artistic Director), and Shakespeare Santa Barbara (Producing Director). She is the author of Answers from the Working Actor, published by Routledge, and spent more than a decade at Backstage Newspaper, where she was a Contributing Editor. Jackie is the Artistic Director of Ashland New Plays Festival and a proud member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA.
Office: THTR 217
Phone: 541.552.7020
E-Mail: apodacaj@sou.edu
Ginger Eckert
Assistant Professor: Performance – Voice & Speech
MFA, Acting, Brown University/Trinity Rep; BA, Literature, American University
Ginger is a professional actor and vocal coach for stage and film. She has taught at SUNY/Purchase BFA, Brown University/Trinity Rep MFA, NYU/Tisch at Atlantic & Playwrights Horizons, and HB Studio. She has performed with The Public Theater, The Kennedy Center, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Marin Theater Company, LaMama, Clubbed Thumb, and more. Dialect coaching includes series for Showtime, New York Theater Workshop, Ripe Time, and Making Books Sing. She is a certified Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework®. Member, VASTA.
Office: THTR 126.1
Phone: 541.552.8255
E-Mail: eckertv@sou.edu
David R. Humphrey
Director of the Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University
BME and Certificate, Flute, Florida State University; MME and Master’s, Educational Administration, Florida State University; PhD, Opera Production/Music Education, Florida State University
Dr. Humphrey has served in leadership and consulting roles at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Metropolitan Opera, National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Opera, Corcoran Museum of Art, Museum of Performance & Design, California Center for the Arts in Escondido, and Washington Bach Consort.
Office: Music Building 142
Phone: 541.552.6522
E-Mail: humphred2@sou.edu
Laurie Kurutz
Professor – Costume Technology
MFA, Production Design & Technology, School of Theatre, Ohio University (Athens); BFA, Theatre Arts, Southern Oregon College
Laurie is an accomplished costume maker and tailor, specializing in period costumes and menswear at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Opera, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and many other Tony Award-winning theatres. In addition to publishing in national educational journals, she regularly presents at national theatre and educational conferences. Her scholarship includes costume technology, burlesque costume and practice.
Office: THTR 163
Phone: 541.552.6366
E-Mail: kurutzl@sou.edu
Eric Levin
Professor of Theatre Education
BA, Theatre Arts, UC Berkley; MAT, Language Arts, Western Oregon University; PhD, Theatre, University of Oregon
Eric has taught as a public school teacher at the middle school and high school levels for 15 years. He is a 2018 recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, which he used to fund spending a term in Galway, Ireland as a visiting professor.
Office: THTR 123
Phone: 541.552.6364
E-Mail: levine@sou.edu
David McCandless
Professor – Shakespeare Studies
PhD, Scholar/Director Program, Stanford University
David joined the faculty in Fall 2010. He earned his doctorate in the scholar-director program at Stanford University. David is the author of Gender and Performance in Shakespeare’s Problem Comedies, as well as several articles on Shakespeare and performance, and a play, Invisible Threads. He is currently working on a book for Arden Press entitled “Shakespeare and Performance Theory.” He previously taught and directed plays at Carleton College and the University of California, Berkeley.
Office: THTR 218
Phone: 541.552.8041
E-Mail: mccandled@sou.edu
Brendan McMahon
Assistant Professor: Performance – Movement
BFA, University of Michigan (Ann Arbor); MFA, École Lassad (Brussels, Belgium)
Brendan is a professional performer and director in theater and film. He has performed nationally and internationally; in New York City at The Lincoln Center, The Public Theater, and Brooklyn Academy of Music; The Shakespeare Theatre, and Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and many others. He has taught at SUNY Purchase College, Long Island University, The Neighborhood Playhouse, and New York Film Academy.
Office: THTR 219
Phone: 541.552.6346
E-Mail: mcmahonb@sou.edu
Sean O’Skea
Professor – Scenic Design
MFA, Scenic Design, University of Portland; Masters, Historic Preservation, Ball State University; BA, Theatre, University of Portland
Sean is the author of “Painting for Performance” Focal Press; he is a frequent contributor to Dramatics and Teaching Theatre magazine. He is also a Freelance Designer with 3rd Rail Rep and Broadway Rose Musical Theatre Company.
Office: THTR 215
Phone: 541.552.6688
E-Mail: oskeas@sou.edu
Jesse Purkerson
Instructor – Technical Direction
BS, Theatre, Southern Oregon University
Jesse is sixth generation Oregonian and SOU alumni. He worked for almost a decade in event production as a Scene Shop and Project Manager with companies like Nike and Safeway. He returned to teach at SOU in 2013 and is a Producer for the Oregon Fringe Festival company.
Office: THTR 157
Phone: 541.552.6689
E-Mail: purkersoj@sou.edu
Deborah Rosenberg
Theatre Chair, Professor – Costume Design, MoTS Program Coordinator; Graduate Program Costume Design
BA, Anthropology, Trent University; MFA, Costume Design, North Carolina School of the Arts
Deborah Rosenberg came to SOU from New York where she worked as faculty costume designer and costume shop supervisor at Ithaca College and SUNY: Brockport, as well as guest draper at Cornell University and resident designer at Niagara University. Professional design credits include Alley Theatre, Player’s Theatre Columbus, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Shakespeare and Co., and theatres internationally. At SOU, Deborah teaches costume design, construction, and stage makeup. She holds a B.A. in anthropology from Trent University in Ontario and an M.F.A. in costume design from North Carolina School of the Arts.
Office: THTR 158
Phone: 541.552.6690
E-Mail: rosenbergd@sou.edu
Michael Stanfill
Associate Professor – Lighting Design
MFA, Northwestern University; BFA, Southern Oregon University
Michael is an award-winning, union-affiliated Lighting, Projections and Media Designer with over 15 years of experience in the industry. As an educator, he has taught at Northwestern University, Columbia College Chicago, DePaul University, and The Governor’s School of North Carolina.
Office: THTR 126.1
Phone: 541.552.6687
E-Mail: stanfillm@sou.edu
Contact the Theatre Program
SOU Theatre Program
1250 Siskiyou Blvd.
Ashland, OR 97520
541.552.6346
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