VASSAR - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Visiting Assistant Professor of Drama
Amanda Culp is a theater scholar and dramaturg who specializes in intercultural performance and Sanskrit drama. She is the resident dramaturg at Black Box Okhla in New Delhi, an associate artist of One Year Lease Theater Company, and a founding member of the feminist theater ensemble The Living Room in New York City. Her research on Sanskrit theater in performance has been published in Theatre Journal, The Routledge Companion to Scenography, and the Wiley-Blackwell Companion to World Literature. She has presented her work at the Association for Asian Performance, the Annual Conference on South Asia in Madison, the Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists, and at the American Society of Theatre Research. She holds a Master's Degree in Religion from Yale University, a PhD in Theater from Columbia University, and is a proud alumna of the Vassar Class of 2009.
Job Titles:
- Designer
- Adjunct Instructor in Drama
Brandon Stirling Baker is an award-winning lighting designer working internationally in the areas of theatre, opera, and dance. His work can be seen on stages throughout the United States and abroad including Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Hollywood Bowl, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Guggenheim Museum, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Australian Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Opera Philadelphia, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Miami City Ballet, Boston Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Houston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Philadelphia Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Semperoper Dresden, Staatsballett Berlin, and many others.
Baker is best known for his extensive collaborations with Tony Award-winning director and choreographer Justin Peck where they have collaborated on over 27 premieres world-wide since 2010. Baker's recent collaborations include new works by Savion Glover, William Forsythe, Sufjan Stevens, Jamar Roberts, Michelle Dorrance, Pam Tanowitz, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Shepard Fairey, Daniel Buren, Eva LeWitt, Alonzo King, and Benjamin Millepied.
Mr.Baker received the prestigious Knight of Illumination Award (KOI-USA) in 2019, Lotos Foundation Prize in 2016, and Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU Residency in 2018. Mr.Baker was appointed Lighting Director of Boston Ballet in 2018.
Prior to joining the Adjunct faculty at Vassar College, Baker served as a guest lecturer for educational programs throughout the United States including Yale, Boston University, New York University, California Institute of the Arts, Fordham University, and Ramapo College.
Mr.Baker received his BFA from the California Institute of the Arts, trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, Scotland and the Yale School of Drama as a Special Research Fellow.
Job Titles:
- Adjunct Instructor in Drama
- Stage Manager, Artist
Chelsea Gillespie is a stage manager, artist, and educator. In 2013, she began working in New York after receiving her BA in Theater and Dance from The College of Wooster. Since then, she has toured as a stage manager all over the world. Her past credits include stage manager for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Ailey II, Ailey Camp, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Bucknell University, Dance Africa, The Fringe Festival, Inversion Theater, Marymount Manhattan College, New York City Center, NJPAC, Parsons Dance, Satellite Collective, Spring Studios, The Stella Adler Studio of Acting, The Ailey School, and The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. In addition to her production work, Chelsea enjoys teaching and guest lecturing. In her classes she aims to push the boundaries of creative problem solving and help students find their own artistic methodologies. When she's not working, she loves reading a good book or spending time with her family outdoors. She will be teaching DRAM-213, Introduction to Stage Management in Production this year at Vassar.
Christopher J. Smart earned his BA in Chemistry at Vassar College ('83) and then did his masters and PhD work at Yale University. Before joining the Vassar College faculty in 1993, Dr. Smart worked as a Staff Scientist at IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center. At IBM, he helped develop the technique of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) to prepare thin films of metal-containing materials from volatile inorganic and organometallic precursors.
Currently, Mr. Smart and his research students are studying the synthesis of carbon nanotubes using metal catalysts prepared by CVD methods, and the chemical functionalization of carbon nanotubes and fullerenes. His fullerene work is focused on the giant fullerenes, C70, C76 and C84. Mr. Smart is also interested in enhancing science education for K-12 students.
Job Titles:
- Director of Theatre
- Professor of Drama
Christopher Grabowski joined the faculty as Director of Theatre in 1994 where he has directed more than 25 productions in the Experimental Theater. Prior to coming to Vassar he was the Associate Artistic Director and Literary Manager at the New York Theater Workshop. In addition to his ongoing relationship with NYTW, Christopher continues to work extensively beyond the college and is a guest artist at The Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University/Shakespeare Theater of Washington, where he specializes in the direction of Jacobean Tragedy. He has directed new and classical work for The Yale Repertory Theater, Shakespeare/Santa Cruz, the Denver Center Theater Company and most frequently for the Portland Stage Company in Maine. He has also directed numerous projects for National Theater Conservatory, The Stella Adler Conservatory. NYU Graduate Acting Program, The Juilliard School, and the NYU Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program. Christopher has a BA in Theater Arts from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a MFA in Directing from the Yale School of Drama.
Job Titles:
- Visiting Assistant Professor of Drama
Conrad Schott graduated from Vassar in 2011 and won the Molly Thacher Kazan Memorial Prize for excellence in Drama. Favorite productions at Vassar include his senior project Angels in America (Joe Pitt), and Chris Grabowski's production of Metamorphoses, for which he helped build a pool in the Powerhouse as part of Paul's set crew, and during the show made a surprise entrance from the pool as Poseidon. Conrad was also a member of Woodshed Theater Ensemble, HEL Sketch Comedy, Vassar College Vassar Improv, and the Axies, and he captained the first Vassar Quidditch team. After Vassar he earned an MFA from the Shakespeare Theatre Company's Academy for Classical Acting in DC. He also trained at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Theatre Institute and BADA Midsummer in Oxford, and later as an Acting Apprentice at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Conrad has originated roles in world premieres by Charles Mee, Anne Washburn, and A. Rey Pamatmat, and has appeared Off-Broadway at Soho Rep, BAM Harvey Theater, and Ma-Yi Theater company. Regional credits include Gloria by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins at Woolly Mammoth, and Macbeth, The Glory of the World, Dracula, Our Town, and Remix 38 at Actors Theatre of Louisville. He is a proud member of Actors Equity Association, and he's thrilled to be teaching at his beloved alma mater. He lives in Brooklyn with his fiancee Nikki Turner, also Vassar class of '11.
Job Titles:
- Professor and Chair of Drama
- Professor in the Department of Drama at Vassar Co
Denise A. Walen is a Professor in the Department of Drama at Vassar College where she has taught dramatic literature and theatre history since 1996. An established Shakespearean scholar, she is the author of Female Homoeroticism in Early Modern Drama (Palgrave, 2005), curator of the exhibition Here is a Play Fitted for the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC (2013/14) and a member of the Editorial Board for Shakespeare in Performance: Prompt Books from the Folger Shakespeare Library (Adam Matthew Digital, 2016).
Denise A. Walen is a Professor in the Department of Drama at Vassar College where she has taught dramatic literature and theatre history since 1996. She earned her MA and PhD in Theatre from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis with a minor in Feminist Studies from the Center for Advanced Feminist Studies. Professor Walen is an established Shakespearean scholar and is the author of articles and reviews in Shakespeare Quarterly, Shakespeare Survey, Theatre Journal, Theatre Survey, and Theatre History Studies, as well as chapters in Women and Playwriting in Nineteenth Century Britain (Cambridge University Press, 1999) and Passing Performances: Queer Readings of Leading Players in American Theatre History (University of Michigan Press, 1998). Dr. Walen also served for several years as Performance Review editor for Theatre Journal. She is the author of Constructions of Female Homoeroticism in Early Modern Drama (Palgrave 2005). In 2013, Dr. Walen curated the exhibition titled Here is a Play Fitted for the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, an internationally renowned research center housing the world's largest Shakespeare collection along with other major collections of early modern books, manuscripts, and art. Dr. Walen was a member of the Editorial Board for Shakespeare in Performance: Prompt Books from the Folger Shakespeare Library (Adam Matthew Digital, 2016) which is a digital collection of annotated Shakespeare scripts used in performance, many by major Shakespearean actors such as David Garrick, John Philip Kemble, Sarah Siddons, Edwin Booth, Charlotte Cushman, Henry Irving, Ellen Terry, and Laurence Olivier. She is an active member of the Shakespeare Seminar, one of the Columbia University Seminars, and served as the co-chair from 2015-2017. She has held several leadership positions at Vassar and is currently the Dean of First-Year Students.
Job Titles:
- Brings Deaf Director to Vassar for Trailblazing Campus Production
Vassar drama major Becca Chin '23 broke new ground this fall in addressing the College's accessibility issues by convincing the Drama Department to engage a Disabled director for their senior project production.
Elizabeth H. Bradley, PhD, was inaugurated as Vassar's 11th president on September 24, 2017. President Bradley is a noted public health expert who created the first Masters of Health Administration on the African continent with the Clinton Health Access Initiative and pioneered a model of innovation scale-up with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She continues to be a strong advocate for education and public health, regularly publishing opinion pieces in Forbes, Bloomberg News, and other national outlets as well as peer-reviewed research, including more than 325 peer-reviewed papers. She has co-authored three books, including The American Healthcare Paradox: Why Spending More Is Getting Us Less. She also served on the New York governor's COVID-19 advisory panel, New York Forward and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and Council of Foreign Relations. Learn more about President Bradley.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Chemistry
Eric S. Eberhardt joined the Vassar College faculty in 1997 after completing his postdoctoral research at the Enzyme Research Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He earned his PhD in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research interests lie at the interface of biology and chemistry. In general, he is interested in the molecular interactions that determine the structure and function of proteins. Currently, he is exploring the role that charged surface amino acids play in conferring stability to thermophilic proteins. He has developed a series of structured inquiry proteomic laboratory experiences for biochemistry students that explore stress response.
Eric S. Eberhardt joined the Vassar College faculty in 1997 after completing his postdoctoral research at the Enzyme Research Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He earned his PhD in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Mr. Eberhardt's research interests lie at the interface of biology and chemistry. In general, he is interested in the molecular interactions that determine the structure and function of proteins. Currently, he is exploring the role that charged surface amino acids play in conferring stability to thermophilic proteins. He has developed a series of structured inquiry proteomic laboratory experiences for biochemistry students that explore stress response.
Mr. Eberhardt has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the Research Corporation and the Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation. His research has been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Tetrahedron Letters, Biochemistry, and Protein Science.
Job Titles:
- Professor Emeritus of Drama ( 1956 - 1994 )
Job Titles:
- Senior Lecturer Emerita of Drama ( 1981 - 2016 )
Job Titles:
- Director
- Technical Director
- Special Effects Designer
James Hunting is a scenic and special effects designer who has been working on, off, and off-off Broadway (as well as in the larger entertainment industry in general) for almost 20 years. His work includes set designs for various east coast and west coast theater companies, special effects for Cirque Du Soleil, and technical event production for major Silicon Valley tech companies. James worked with J&M Special Effects in Brooklyn for 11 years a pyrotechnican and effects coordinator and designer, designing and building effects for such broadway shows as "The Glass Menagerie" and "Romeo & Juliet". He has also worked on a wide variety of TV shows, films, and music videos. James has worked for years with the pyrotechnic teams for Wrestlemania and Burning Man. Most recently James was part of select production team responsible for some of the Bay Area's biggest tech events. As a Vassar alum, James looks forward to sharing his knowledge of the events and entreatment industry with a new generation of Vassar Students.
Job Titles:
- Dean of First - Year Students
Jennifer Herrera earned a BS in chemistry from MIT in 1995 and her PhD in chemistry from Rice University in Houston in 2000. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Texas at Austin. Ms. Herrera joined Vassar faculty as an adjunct lab instructor in 2010. She currently teaches Organic Chemistry (Chem 244/245).
Joan joined the Drama Department in 2007. Joan manages the box office, and executes front of house tasks for department productions. In addition, she coordinates all publicity announcements for department productions. Joan overseas three work-study students to assist with Box Office tasks and one student photographer who helps to document department productions. Joan maintains the Drama Department archive database.
Joan's background includes theater, stage management, film production assistant and is a member of the Screen Actors Guild since 1998.
She has earned a Business Associates degree from Dutchess Community College and a Bachelors degree from Marist College with concentrations in Business, Public Relations and Psychology. She is an active volunteer for local animal rescues in Dutchess County and advocates for responsible pet ownership.
Job Titles:
- Senior Lecturer Emerita in Drama ( 1999 - 2019 )
Kenisha Kelly joined the faculty of the Department of Drama at Vassar College as the Professor of Costume Design in 2010. Her areas of teaching include, costume design, costume technology and costume history. Ms. Kelly received her BFA in Fashion Design from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA in Costume Design and Technology from the University of Houston's School of Drama and Dance. Kenisha has worked for companies such as the Houston Grand Opera, the Houston Ballet Company and the Houston Shakespeare Festival. Additionally, she has designed costumes for various regional and fringe theatre companies throughout the country. Recent designs include; Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally, Stockholm and Pool No Water for the One Year Lease Theatre Company in New York, NY, as well as Tribes for The Portland Stage Theatre Company in Portland, ME. She is a member of the United States Institute of Theatre Technology as well as the Costume Society of America and is presently conducting research in the area of Caribbean Costume History, focusing on dress as a means of accommodation, resistance and individual autonomy.
Job Titles:
- Costume Designer
- Costume Shop Coordinator
Leigh Davis is a costume designer, seamstress, artist and performer based in the Hudson Valley. She is excited to be returning to the Vassar Community. Leigh began sewing at a young age by teaching herself through books. She quickly found a love for cosplay, which is a passion she continues to indulge today. She went on to obtain a degree in theater from SUNY Potsdam. Having worked in both film and theater, her work has spanned everything from vampire thrillers to sci-fi jukebox musicals. Her latest costume design work includes House of Darkness directed by Neil Labute, a suspenseful feature film. As well as surrealist music videos Butterflies and Guitars Are Better Than Synthesizers by Alex Toth. With a background in fine arts, she views costume as its own form of art that is integral to storytelling. She looks forward to diving head first back into her first love, theater, in the very place where she got her first professional costume shop experience.
Job Titles:
- Adjunct Instructor in Dance and Drama
Originally from Ottawa, Canada, Lisa Harvie is a New York City based dancer, educator and choreographer. She holds her MFA in Dance from Montclair State University and is a graduate of the University of Toronto. She is a member of Actors Equity and of the Royal Academy of Dance (A.R.A.D.).
Ms. Harvie is a long-standing faculty member at Steps on Broadway, teaching for both the open Professional Division and for the Steps Youth Program. As well as teaching at Vassar, she is on faculty at Montclair State University and is a guest artist at Iona College. She has taught at NYU's Strasberg Institute, Joffrey Ballet School, The School at Columbia, Connecticut Dance Conservatory, Cumbrae Dance Center, and has given master classes for Open Jar Institute, Verb Ballets, Destination Broadway, the British Association of Dance, and the Elan Awards in New York City. She has choreographed for the Foolish Theater Company in New York City, as well for Gateway Playhouse (Associate). She has showcased a multitude of pieces at Steps on Broadway and has worked with high school theater departments in setting full length musicals.
National and regional performance credits include West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Carousel, Singin' in the Rain, Oklahoma, Footloose, Kiss Me Kate, and Scrooge. Lisa performed at the Hudson Theater in a tribute to the late Broadway producer David Merrick, with choreography set by Karin Baker. She worked with Patricia Wilcox for the 20th Anniversary Concert Performance of Rags at the Nokia Theater, and appeared in the New York workshop production of The Great White Way. In addition to her work in musical theater, she has danced with the Ottawa Ballet at Canada's National Arts Center.
Job Titles:
- Production Manager - Lighting and Sound Technician
Patience came to Vassar College in 2019. Prior to that, she spent 3 and a half years working as the Production Manager/ Lighting & Sound Supervisor at Sarah Lawrence College. Patience has spent the past 15 years working in professional and educational theatre including; Centerstage (Baltimore, MD), Milwaukee Rep, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Adirondack Theatre Festival, Wagner College, and SUNY Purchase. She earned a BA in technical theatre from Lemoyne College. In her spare time, Patience enjoys running and in 2016 finished the NYC marathon.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Drama
Peter Gil-Sheridan (he/him/his) was recently a writer-in-residence at The New Harmony Project where he developed his new play, This Space Between Us. That same play was given readings at Bloomington Playwright's Project (BPP) and at Indiana Rep and will be developed as part of the Page 73 Residency with Page 73 Productions under the direction of Margot Bordelon in October.
Peter was a founding member of The Pool, a pop-up theatre company formed with Lynn Rosen and Susan Bernfield that produced his play The Rafa Play, under the direction of Morgan Gould, in rep with Rosen's and Bernfield's work at the Flea Theatre in NYC. He is a regular writer-in-residence with the Silverton Theatre Mine in Silverton, CO where he's generated several new plays. He also wrote a new independent film, Hungry, commissioned by Amar Srivastava that will be released in 2020.
His play Cockfight was originally written at Soho Rep's Writer/Director Lab and was further developed by PlayPenn in Philadelphia under the direction of Anna Brenner. His play Ritu Comes Home, originally commissioned by InterAct in Philadelphia as part of their 20/20 Commission program had its world premiere there in 2015. Other plays include Courtney and Caroline, a piece devised by and performed in Farmington, NM with Navajo and non-Navajo community members about religious and cultural traditions in the area, What May Fall, commissioned by the Guthrie and performed there. Topsy Turvy Mouse was produced by the Cherry Lane Mentor Project (mentor: Michael Weller) and Borderlands Theatre in Tucson and was the winner of The Smith Prize awarded by the National New Play Network for outstanding political work. Other work developed by the Lark's Playground, New York Theatre Workshop, and Queens Theatre in the Park.
Residencies include the Jerome Fellowship in Minneapolis, The Sundance Institute, The Millay Colony, The Ucross Foundation, and the Tofte Lake Residency. Peter has also been a member of I73, Page 73's weekly writing group in New York. He's performed his solo piece People Tell Me Things at several venues across the U.S. including Ars Nova's ANTFest, Identity, Inc. in Farmington, NM, at Ucross in Wyoming, and on Martha's Vineyard. He is an Affiliated Artist with the Playwright's Center in Minneapolis and with the National New Play Network (NNPN). Peter spent the last five years running the MFA Playwriting Program at Indiana University and is delighted to be joining the faculty at Vassar. MFA: University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop, BA: Fordham University.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Drama on the Mary Riepma Ross '32 Chair
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Chemistry
Stuart L. Belli is interested in the environment, both on a scientific and a humanistic level. His education in chemistry includes a BS in chemistry from the University of California at Riverside, a PhD in biophysical chemistry from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and a postdoctoral fellowship in analytical chemistry at the University of Delaware. His training focused on studying the environment at a molecular level. His primary research interest is in the behavior of heavy metals in both fresh water and sea water. Ongoing projects include investigating copper interactions with humic substances and developing methods for measuring copper in the aquatic environment.
Stuart L. Belli is interested in the environment, both on a scientific and a humanistic level. His education in chemistry includes a BS in chemistry from the University of California at Riverside, a PhD in biophysical chemistry from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and a postdoctoral fellowship in analytical chemistry at the University of Delaware. His training focused on studying the environment at a molecular level.
Mr. Belli's primary research interest is in the behavior of heavy metals in both fresh water and sea water. His ongoing projects include investigating copper interactions with humic substances and developing methods for measuring copper in the aquatic environment. He has published papers in Analytical Chemistry, Marine Chemistry, Electroanalysis, and Analytica Chimica Acta.
Mr. Belli holds that perhaps more difficult than understanding the chemical processes is understanding human relationship to the environment. His interest in our interaction with nature has led him to an involvement with the Environmental Studies Program at Vassar.
Job Titles:
- Senior Lecturer Emeritus of Drama ( 1981 - 2016 )