Edmond Williams (Founding Chair and Director of MFA Directing and MFA Stage Management programs) is Professor of Theatre and Chairman of the UA Department of Theatre and dance since its formation in 1979. His production of Edward Bond's Lear was honored with its selection to the national level of the American College Theatre Festival and was performed at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Dr. Williams has been recognized with Druid Arts Awards for "Best Production of a Play" and "Theatre Educator". In 1996 he was honored by the National Alumni Association of the University of Alabama with their Outstanding Committment to Teaching award. Dr. Williams is a past president of the Alabama Theatre League and the Southeastern Theatre Conference. Presently he serves as Chairman of the Commission on Accreditation for the National Association of Schools of Theatre, and he was recently elected the the National Theatre Conference, an honorary organization of movers and shakers of the American Theatre.
Andy Fitch (Scenic Design) is associate professor of scenic design at the University of Alabama. His recent designs for the University include Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Hamlet, Grapes of Wrath, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Piano Lesson, The Rocky Horror Show, Sweeney Todd, and Angels In America. His recent regional designs include: Beauty And The Beast, Cinderella, and Forever Plaid at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival; One Flea Spare directed by Adrian Hall for Kitchen Dog Theatre in Dallas, Texas; Dinner With Friends, Art, and Anton In Show Business for the Hippodrome Theatre in Florida; and Henry IV for Theatre SMU. Mr. Fitch is a Founding Member and former Resident Designer for the critically acclaimed Kitchen Dog Theatre in Dallas where he received the 1994 Dallas Critic's Award for Outstanding Set Design for David Mamet's American Buffalo. Noted by The Dallas Morning News as "one of Dallas' top five stage designers," he also won the Dallas Theatre League's first ever Leon Rabin Award for Outstanding Set Design for Kitchen Dog's Fool for Love. Other design credits include the world premier of Bashful in Love adapted and directed by Charles Marowitz at Texas Stage in Ft. Worth, along with many other designs in Texas including the Majestic Theatre; Actor's Theatre of Dallas; Extra Virgin Performance Cooperative; Southern Methodist University Theatre, Dance and Music Departments; East Texas State University; and the University of Dallas. Andy also serves as Chair of the Design and Technology Committee for the South Eastern Theater Conference. Fitch received his M.F.A at Souther Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
William Teague (Lighting Design & Technical Production), Professor of Theatre, teaches design and technical theatre. In addition to this theatrical work, he is represented in other media as well. He has designed scenery for Alabama Public Television and was Production Designer for the feature motion picture, Rebel Love. Mr. Teague wrote and supplied graphics for the Computer Assisted Design section of Scene Design and Stage Lighting, the most widely used text in technical theatre. He has also served as a theatre consultant on restorations and new facilities around the southeast. He is the Vice-President for Conferences for the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, the 1995 winner of the USITT Southeast Region "Outstanding Educator of the Year" award, former President of the Alabama Conference of Theatre and Speech, and a member of SETC, as well as USITT.
Geoffrey Sherman (Producing Artistic Director) Mr. Sherman has been responsible for the world and national premieres of scores of plays-from David Hare's Knuckle to Alice Childress's Moms, as Artistic Director of Off-Broadway's Hudson Guild Theatre, Oregon's Portland Repertory Theatre and Michigan's Meadow Brook Theatre. In New York City, his work as producer and director garnered two Obies, as well as Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Audelco nominations. He has received Best Production and Best Director Awards from every major newspaper in Michigan, for plays ranging from Angels In America and Arcadia to The Old Settler and The Rocky Horror Show. His work as a guest director has been seen at over forty theatres on both sides of the Atlantic including: New York's Roundabout Theatre Company and American Jewish Theatre; England's Redgrave and Crucible Theatres; and U.S. regionals including: Seattle Repertory Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St.Louis, Center Stage Baltimore, Utah's Pioneer Theatre and Studio Arena, Buffalo. His work for television includes Another World for NBC and Woman's Day USA for the USA cable network. He is currently producing artistic director of Michigan's BoarsHead Theatre.
Sara Lee Howell (Director of Stage Management Program) is proud to count this as her nineteenth season at ASF. As the Production Stage Manager, Sara works on main stage shows, The Southern Writers' Project, teaches for the Stage Management MFA program through the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa and occasionally moonlights as a billboard model. In addition to ASF, she has worked at Theatre Virginia, Guthrie Theater, Arizona Theatre Company, Oregon Shakespearean Festival, Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre and The Lost Colony. Sara would like to thank Kent Thompson for his direction of many of her ASF favorites - On the Verge, Tartuffe, The Cherry Orchard, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, King Lear, Peter Pan, The Little Foxes, Big River, The Tempest, Lizard, The Winter's Tale, The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Richard III, Toad of Toad Hall, A Lesson Before Dying, An Ideal Husband and Aaronville Dawning. MFA Faculty.
Ray Chambers (Director of Professional Actor Training Program) has worked with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival for thirteen years as actor, director, writer, and instructor. This last year Mr. Chambers directed and adapted A Christmas Carol for the stage and also directed Hamlet for ASF's 2002 repertory season. He has taught Acting and Classical Text in the MFA Professional Actor Training Program for ten years as well as classes and workshops on Shakespeare's text throughout the country. As an educational outreach Ray wrote A Midsummer Night's Scream, an original play for ASF that introduced the works of Shakespeare to teenagers and subsequently toured throughout Alabama. As an Actor Ray has appeared at ASF in title roles including, King John, Henry V, Hamlet, as well as major roles in Julius Caesar, The Winter's Tale, The Rivals, Henry IV (Parts 1 and 2), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and dozens of others. Other regional credits include, Bent, Antony and Cleopatra, The School for Scandal, Coriolanus, Love's Labors Lost, Hamlet, Macbeth and others at the Globe Theatres in San Diego; and numerous productions for Arizona Theatre Company, Syracuse Stage and Studio Arena Theatre, among others.
Andy Fitch (Scenic Design) is associate professor of scenic design at the University of Alabama. His recent designs for the University include Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Hamlet, Grapes of Wrath, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Piano Lesson, The Rocky Horror Show, Sweeney Todd, and Angels In America. His recent regional designs include: Beauty And The Beast, Cinderella, and Forever Plaid at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival; One Flea Spare directed by Adrian Hall for Kitchen Dog Theatre in Dallas, Texas; Dinner With Friends, Art, and Anton In Show Business for the Hippodrome Theatre in Florida; and Henry IV for Theatre SMU. Mr. Fitch is a Founding Member and former Resident Designer for the critically acclaimed Kitchen Dog Theatre in Dallas where he received the 1994 Dallas Critic's Award for Outstanding Set Design for David Mamet's American Buffalo. Noted by The Dallas Morning News as "one of Dallas' top five stage designers," he also won the Dallas Theatre League's first ever Leon Rabin Award for Outstanding Set Design for Kitchen Dog's Fool for Love. Other design credits include the world premier of Bashful in Love adapted and directed by Charles Marowitz at Texas Stage in Ft. Worth, along with many other designs in Texas including the Majestic Theatre; Actor's Theatre of Dallas; Extra Virgin Performance Cooperative; Southern Methodist University Theatre, Dance and Music Departments; East Texas State University; and the University of Dallas. Andy also serves as Chair of the Design and Technology Committee for the South Eastern Theater Conference. Fitch received his M.F.A at Souther Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
William Teague (Lighting Design & Technical Production), Professor of Theatre, teaches design and technical theatre. In addition to this theatrical work, he is represented in other media as well. He has designed scenery for Alabama Public Television and was Production Designer for the feature motion picture, Rebel Love. Mr. Teague wrote and supplied graphics for the Computer Assisted Design section of Scene Design and Stage Lighting, the most widely used text in technical theatre. He has also served as a theatre consultant on restorations and new facilities around the southeast. He is the Vice-President for Conferences for the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, the 1995 winner of the USITT Southeast Region "Outstanding Educator of the Year" award, former President of the Alabama Conference of Theatre and Speech, and a member of SETC, as well as USITT.
Adjunct Faculty- Alabama Shakespeare Festival
Geoffrey Sherman (Producing Artistic Director) Mr. Sherman has been responsible for the world and national premieres of scores of plays-from David Hare's Knuckle to Alice Childress's Moms, as Artistic Director of Off-Broadway's Hudson Guild Theatre, Oregon's Portland Repertory Theatre and Michigan's Meadow Brook Theatre. In New York City, his work as producer and director garnered two Obies, as well as Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Audelco nominations. He has received Best Production and Best Director Awards from every major newspaper in Michigan, for plays ranging from Angels In America and Arcadia to The Old Settler and The Rocky Horror Show. His work as a guest director has been seen at over forty theatres on both sides of the Atlantic including: New York's Roundabout Theatre Company and American Jewish Theatre; England's Redgrave and Crucible Theatres; and U.S. regionals including: Seattle Repertory Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St.Louis, Center Stage Baltimore, Utah's Pioneer Theatre and Studio Arena, Buffalo. His work for television includes Another World for NBC and Woman's Day USA for the USA cable network. He is currently producing artistic director of Michigan's BoarsHead Theatre.
Sara Lee Howell (Director of Stage Management Program) is proud to count this as her nineteenth season at ASF. As the Production Stage Manager, Sara works on main stage shows, The Southern Writers' Project, teaches for the Stage Management MFA program through the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa and occasionally moonlights as a billboard model. In addition to ASF, she has worked at Theatre Virginia, Guthrie Theater, Arizona Theatre Company, Oregon Shakespearean Festival, Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre and The Lost Colony. Sara would like to thank Kent Thompson for his direction of many of her ASF favorites - On the Verge, Tartuffe, The Cherry Orchard, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, King Lear, Peter Pan, The Little Foxes, Big River, The Tempest, Lizard, The Winter's Tale, The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Richard III, Toad of Toad Hall, A Lesson Before Dying, An Ideal Husband and Aaronville Dawning. MFA Faculty.
Ray Chambers (Director of Professional Actor Training Program) has worked with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival for thirteen years as actor, director, writer, and instructor. This last year Mr. Chambers directed and adapted A Christmas Carol for the stage and also directed Hamlet for ASF's 2002 repertory season. He has taught Acting and Classical Text in the MFA Professional Actor Training Program for ten years as well as classes and workshops on Shakespeare's text throughout the country. As an educational outreach Ray wrote A Midsummer Night's Scream, an original play for ASF that introduced the works of Shakespeare to teenagers and subsequently toured throughout Alabama. As an Actor Ray has appeared at ASF in title roles including, King John, Henry V, Hamlet, as well as major roles in Julius Caesar, The Winter's Tale, The Rivals, Henry IV (Parts 1 and 2), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and dozens of others. Other regional credits include, Bent, Antony and Cleopatra, The School for Scandal, Coriolanus, Love's Labors Lost, Hamlet, Macbeth and others at the Globe Theatres in San Diego; and numerous productions for Arizona Theatre Company, Syracuse Stage and Studio Arena Theatre, among others.
Timothy H. O'Connell (Production Manager) Timothy comes to ASF via the New York area. He has had the pleasure to work with several notable companies and productions throughout his career. One of the most notable is Crossroads Theatre Company, the premiere African-American theatre company and 1999 Tony Award Winner for Outstanding Regional Theatre. He also worked off-Broadway and on Broadway as Production Manager. His works include It Ain't Nothing but the Blues at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, Havana is Waiting at The Cherry Lane Theatre, Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged at The Century Center, and Cobb at The Lucille Lortel. He has also worked outside the theatre world on such projects as 2002 GQ Man of the Year, Mercedes E-Motion Tour, The Spitkicker Tour featuring Biz Markie, Dela Soul and Common, Entertainment Weekly 20th Anniversary Party and the MTV College Evasion Tour (Dela Soul).
