Department of Theatre Faculty
Full Time Faculty
Steve J. Earle
Theatre Department Chair
Steve J. Earle has been an actor and director for over twenty-five
years. Acting credits include the Virginia Stage Company, Theatre
IV, Swift Creek Mill Playhouse,
Richmond Triangle Players, and numerous other theatres. Television credits
include F.B.I. Files, Interpol, and commercial work. Directing
credits include The Who’s
Tommy, Galileo, Boys in the Band, Marriage of Bette ‘n Boo, Deranged Durang,
Tempest, Playboy of the Western World, Dracula, Heathen Valley, 1984, The Investigation,
and several others. He holds an M.F.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University
and a B.F.A. from the University of North Carolina Charlotte. He has also studied
at the Gaiety School for Acting in Dublin, Ireland and has taken private acting
classes (Meisner Technique) with Jon Ruskin of the Neighborhood Playhouse in
New York and with Janet Wilson of the Firehouse Theatre in Richmond, VA. Before
coming to G.S.A., Mr. Earle taught at Longwood College, The Governor’s
School for Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Richmond, Virginia
Commonwealth University and the School for the Performing Arts in the Richmond
Community as well as other places. At G.S.A. he teaches Acting, The Meisner
Technique, Lessac Vocal Technique, Theatre History, Dramatic Literature
and Criticism, Directing,
Phonetics and Stage Dialects. Steve is an Associate Member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.
Shawn S. Crawford
Resident Designer/Technical Director
Shawn S. Crawford has designed over eighty-five productions in
professional, educational and community theatre in Pennsylvania,
Maine, Mississippi,
Tennessee, and Virginia. Locally she has designed for Little Theatre
of Norfolk, Generic
Theater and Virginia Musical Theatre as well as the Governor’s School
for the Arts. Awards include best scenery for The Tempest at GSA and Three
Tall Women
at Playhouse on the Square in Memphis, TN. Ms. Crawford holds Master of Fine
Arts in Theatre Management from Carnegie Mellon University, a Master of Fine
Arts in Theatre Design from the University of Memphis and a Bachelor of Fine
Arts in Design from the University of Mississippi. Before coming to GSA, Ms.
Crawford taught at Mississippi University for Women. At GSA she teaches Scenic
Design, Lighting Design, Stagecraft, Theatre History, Scene Painting, Production,
Drawing, Rendering and Model Making.
Visiting Artists and Part Time Faculty 2007/2008
Timmothy Cunningham is co-founder, director and stage manager of
the theatre collective Hotel Obligado (a troupe whose original
works spring
from traditions
of Clown, Improvisation, Commedia Dell’Arte, and Melodrama.) He is a member
of Clown Without Borders and travels all over the world with them to spread joy
to children in third-world nations. Mr. Cunningham appeared in Mum Puppettheatre’s
production of Equus in Philadelphia. The production won five Barrymore Awards
in that city—including outstanding ensemble cast. Mr. Cunningham is a recognized
actor combatant by the Society of American Fight Directors. He is an accomplished
juggler, stilt-walker and plate spinner. Tim recently traveled to the Middle
East where he will used non-verbal, physical theatre to build bridges between
Israeli and Palestinian youth. He graduated from William and Mary and then trained
at the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre in California.
At GSA he teaches Movement for the Actor, Clown Techniques and Stage Combat.
Mary Faber made her Broadway debut playing the roles of Kate and Lucy in the Tony-award winning musical Avenue Q. Off-Broadway, she originated the role of Clea in Floyd and Clea Under the Western Sky (Playwrights Horizons). Other credits include Feeling Electric (Village Theater), Princesses (Goodspeed/Fifth Avenue Theater), and the Actor's Fund Concerts of Hair and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. She has performed sketch and improv comedy at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, Ars Nova, The Red Room, and The Second City, including her co-written solo shows I'm Not Fancy and Getting Hotter by the Day. Upcoming: Mary returns to Playwrights Horizons to play the role of Hilary Faye in the musical adaptation of the movie Saved. (Mary graduated from the Theatre Department at G.S.A. in 1997).
Ricardo Meléndez has worked as an actor all over the nation. Some of his
credits include Hamlet at Theater 22 in New York City, Rodolfo in A View from
the Bridge, Becket in Jean Anhlouil's Becket or The Honor of God, Orsino in Twelfth
Night, and Puck in the Virginia Arts Festival production of A Midsummer Night's
Dream. He is founder of the Workshop Theatre Group and currently tours a one-man
show about dancer Vaslav Nijinsky under their banner. As a dancer, Mr. Meléndez
is the Former Artistic Director for Ballets de San Juan, Puerto Rico. He has
performed with the Alvin Ailey Dance Ensemble, Ballet Hispanico, and others.
He was principal dancer and rehearsal director for Dance Kaleidoscope in Indiana.
He served as Resident Choreographer for the American Cabaret Theater, and currently
teaches at Todd Rosenlieb Dance Center and Tidewater Community College as well
as for the GSA Dance and Theatre Departments. He is a dancer for Todd Rosenlieb
Dance and the Virginia Opera. Mr. Melendez holds a Bachelor of Arts in Dance
Pedagogy from Butler University and a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Performance
from Brooklyn College. At GSA he teaches Acting, Scene Study, Theatre History,
Dramatic Literature, Pilates and Vocal Production.
Randy Strawderman teaches for the departments of Theatre and Musical
Theatre. For GSA, Randy created (in collaboration with 23 students)
the world premiere
of N Ur Face: a Hip-Hop Generation, African American
Theatre Slam. He is currently lead artist on Walking With Walker,
a new theatre piece being developed by GSA
Theatre Students. Randy has also directed GSA productions
of The Wrestling Season and Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. For Norfolk’s Black
Box Theatre, he directed Sam Shepard’s Cowboys # 2. In 1989 Randy founded
and directed Young Writers for the Theater, Virginia’s first state-wide
competition and New Play Festival for middle and high school students. This program
(now New Voices) has helped launch the careers of a number of young writers,
including Jerome Hairston and Clay Chapman. Jerome has been touted as the heir
to August Wilson. His play A.M. Sunday was published in American Theatre Magazine
and his works have been produced at The Humana New Play Festival and Baltimore’s
Centre Theatre, among others. Clay Chapman is the creator of the famous Pumpkin
Pie Shows, produced in New York. He is author of Rest Area (Hyperion) and Miss
Corpus. Young Writers (now New Voices) is in its 15th season in Richmond, Virginia.
For Barksdale Theatre in Richmond, Virginia, Randy directed the world premiere
of Red, Hot & Cole, which he co-wrote with James Bianchi and Muriel McAuley.
He co-directed (with Word Baker) an Equity workshop of Cole at the former Michael
Bennett Studio in New York, featuring Rita Gardner, Leigh Beery and George Lee
Andrews. He also directed Cole at the Variety Arts Theatre in LA with Kay Ballard,
Jonelle Allen and Andrews. Red, Hot & Cole is now produced world-wide and
can be licensed through Music Theatre International. Randy wrote and directed
world premieres of Red Badge, a musical adaptation of Stephen Crane’s Red
Badge of Courage; and Ella & Her Fella, Frank: a Concert Made in Heaven,
which featured world renowned jazz singer Rene Marie as Ella. As Artistic Director
of Barksdale Theatre, Randy produced the American premiere of Alex Finlaysonís
Misfits. He also produced the late Ernie McClintock’s production of The
Old Settler at the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
He has directed national tours of Joseph and A Child’s Christmas in Wales.
Randy has a BFA in Theatre from Virginia Commonwealth University and he is a
Visiting Lecturer at The Darden School at the University of Virginia. He is a
recipient of the Theresa Pollak Award for Excellence in the Arts. At GSA Theatre
Department he teaches Acting, Advanced Acting, Playwriting, Directing Theory
and Directing.
Keri Wormald holds a BS degree in theatre and broadcasting from James Madison University. She did a year of postgraduate theatre studies in England at Lancaster University before receiving her MFA in theatre/directing and theatre literature from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Keri is a two-time Richmond Times-Dispatch winner as "best director" of "best play productions" How I Learned to Drive and Heathen Valley among other accolades for her work as producer, director, and actress. Keri has worked with nerly every theatre company in Richmond over the past twenty years, including Theatre Virginia, Richmond Triangle Players, The Firehouse Theatre Project, and Theatre IV. She also founded and ran two theatre companies of her own. Her Shadowcast Theatre Works produced the highly-acclaimed sketch comedy revue, Richmond: Out Of Stock continuously for three years. More recently she directed productions of The Syringa Tree and Brooklyn Boy at the Barksdale Theatre in Richmond where she is currently directing Doubt (which opens February 15, 2008). She has also directed at the Heritage Repertory Theatre in Charlottesville and the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia.
In 1999 Keri was named a Disney American Teacher Award honoree. Subsequently, the Virginia General Assembly passed a resolution to salute her recognition as one of the country's top arts educators. Keri received a 2006 SURDNA Fellowship to study at the Centre for Performance Research in Aberystwyth, Wales with internationally renowned director and performance artist Ping Chong among others. Keri has worked as theatre department chair at the Shenandoah Valley Governor's School, Theatre Coordinator at the Newport News Summer Institute for the Arts, at the University of Richmond's Summer Governor's School for the Performing Arts and Humanities, and at L. C. Bird High School in Chesterfield, Virginia. She now splits her time between the U.S. and Edinburgh, Scotland where she works as a producer/promoter liaison for Universal Arts at the Edinbrugh Festival Fringe. She is a member of Actors' Equity.
