THEATRE OFF-KILTER - Key Persons
Allison has been a part of theatre in nearly every aspect from front to back and top to bottom her whole life, starting with learning lights at her father's knee for her own dance recitals. She is also no stranger to small independent companies, having been a founding member of three (so far). She functioned as the Operations Manager for both Solstice Theatre Company in Columbus, OH, and The Athens Area Council for the Arts in Athens, TN, and she was the Producing Artistic Director for The Children's Theatre of Athens in Athens, TN. This experience combined with a background in accounting will help her in her new role of Managing Director for Off Kilter Theatre Company.
Chris is a professional writer and theatre maker. Previously, Chris was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre at Lycoming College. Before coming to Lycoming, Chris was an Assistant Professor of Theatre History at Youngstown State University, and was previously the Director of the Theatre Program at Tennessee Wesleyan University. Chris holds a PhD in Theatre History, Dramatic Literature, and Criticism from The Ohio State University, specializing in Irish theatre.
Chris is a cultural studies historian, specializing in Irish drama. He recently published a chapter in Autumnal Faces: Old Age in British and Irish Dramatic Narratives. (Ed. Katarzyna Bronk), a review in Theatre Journal, a chapter in The Supernatural Revamped (Barbara Brodman and James Doan, eds.), an article in Irish Studies South, and has presented at conferences across the US, in London, and in Ireland. His first book, entitled Cultural History of Film in the United States, was published by Kendall Hunt Publishing in 2018.
Chris is also an active theatre artist and has directed professionally and at the university level throughout the USA. Recently, Chris directed The Importance of Being Earnest, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Urinetown: The Musical, Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice, Our Town by Thornton Wilder, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, and the World Premiere of A Night of Blacker Darkness by Allison Hill and Dan Wells, based on the book by Dan Wells (At Tennessee Wesleyan University). In Columbus, he directed the Ohio premiere of Frank McCourt's musical The Irish…And How They Got That Way (for Solstice Theatre Company) the world premiere of Elysium Interrupted by Jill Summerville (for OSU), the Ohio premier of The Illusion by Tony Kushner (for Evolution Theatre Company), and the world premiere of King Arthur and the Sword of Britain by Philip J. Hickman (for Actor's Theatre of Columbus). In Youngstown, Chris directed Youngstown State University Department of Theater and Dance's production of Ernst Toller's No More Peace, followed by Hairspray at the Youngstown Playhouse in May 2017. In Fall 2017, Chris directed Spring Awakening at YSU, in 2018, Caroline, or Change by Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori at the Youngstown Playhouse. At Lycoming College, Chris directed last year's musical Songs For a New World in the fall and The Drowning Girls in the spring.